Disclosed herein is a unique adjustable spice/pepper-mill. The spice/pepper-mill is equipped with a shifter mechanism which can be placed in three different positions. The shifter is located at the bottom of the spice/pepper-mill. The three positions of the shifter translate into the production of fine, medium and coarse ground spices/pepper. The different settings for grind size are found by rotating a tapered step ring which applies upward pressure on a male grinding mill forcing it upwardly into a female grinding mill. The higher the male grinding mill is located, the smaller the ground spice/pepper size produced.

Spice and pepper grinding mills for the consumer have been in existence for many years. Freshly ground spices, and in particular pepper, have much better flavour than previously ground spices. Generally, spice/pepper-mills have been comprised of a body and top or cap portion which rotates in a clockwise direction to rotate the male grinding mill within the stationary female grinding mill, to produce the ground spice product.
In the prior art mills, generally a top cap which is threaded onto a shaft, is used to either loosen or tighten the abutting relationship of the male and female grinder mills. Unfortunately, this type of adjustment with the cap is not accurate. Furthermore, the cap, vis a vis the top portion of the grinder, changes position because of rotation. Uneven sizing of the ground product is the result. Furthermore, the threaded cap must be constantly moved back into the desired position as it tends to either tighten or loosen, depending upon the movement given to the spice mill.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide an adjustable spice/pepper-mill which will produce ground spice of three particulate sizes, constantly and accurately, whenever desired.
Therefore, this invention seeks to provide an adjustable spice grinding device for domestic use; said device being adapted to dispense ground spice of varying particulate size; said device including a shift means, an outer grinding mill and an inner grinding mill; said inner grinding mill being disposed on a vertical shaft and rotatable therewith; said shift means being adapted in operation to move said inner grinding mill vertically on said shaft such that a distance between an inner grinding surface of said outer grinding mill and an outer grinding surface of said inner grinding mill varies, thereby producing, in operation, ground spice of different particulate size.
The invention further seeks to provide a spice grinding device wherein a shift means comprises a rotatable shifter, a bridge and a movable middle spacer means of unequal thickness; said spacer means being in constant contact with a lower surface of an inner grinding mill and an upper surface of said bridge whereby, in operation, said rotatable shifter is adapted to move said spacer means from a lesser thickness to a greater thickness, and vice versa, thereby moving said inner grinding mill vertically on said shaft.
The spice/pepper-mill of the present invention has a body portion and a head portion. The body portion and head portion contain a cylindrical empty middle portion which is used to store the spice to be ground. A shaft extends from the top of the head portion to the floor of a bridge. A cap secures the cylindrical shaft at the top. The shaft goes through a spring and an outer female grinding mill to an inner male grinding mill, through a step ring, to rest at the bottom of a bridge. A shifter at the bottom of the spice mill communicates with the tapered step ring such that when the shifter is moved the tapered step ring moves, and such movement causes the inner male grinding mill to move vertically upon the shaft, upwards or downwards, thus forcing it into closer or farther contact with the outer female grinding mill. Thus, the shifter will adjust the size of the product which will be ground by the spice/pepper-mill.
A spring abuts a clamp at its top end which is fixed on the shaft and it abuts the inner male grinding mill at its bottom end, thus forcing it in constant contact with the step ring. The bridge is generally secured to the outer female grinding mill and the body portion of the spice mill by screws. Thus, the bridge, the outer female grinding mill and the body portion are stationary whereas the head, the shaft and the inner male grinding mill are rotatable.
The step ring, by means of rods, is attached to the shifter such that a rotation of the shifter causes a rotation of the step ring. The bottom of the step ring in its various positions abuts projections protruding from the bottom of the bridge in such a manner that the step ring raises and lowers about the vertical shaft, thus raising or lowering the inner male grinding mill. A spacer is located between the head portion and the body portion. A plastic ring, which serves only a decorative function, is located between the head and the body. In operation, the shifter is moved to one of three positions by the user, and the head is turned in a clock-wise direction to produce ground spice.
By moving the shifter from the first position to the second position, and from the second position to the third position, the size of the ground spice will vary from fine, to medium, to coarse.
To refill the spice/pepper-mill the top threaded cap is simply removed, the head removed, and spice is poured into the cylindrical body cavity.


A binding-up band for use in fastening articles having remarkable shrink properties such as cotton or the like has at its ends locking structures which are adapted to fit one in the other in a complementary manner. In this locking structure, a plurality of raised engaging portions each having a wide portion and narrow portion are provided in a row in the longitudinal direction, and these raised engaging portions are formed by providing a sufficient number of pairs of symmetrical bent cuts in the band and pressing out these cut-provided portions to be of a trapezoid-like shape in longitudinal cross-section. Among the plurality of raised engaging portions, the raised engaging portions at the extreme ends of the engaging areas of the band are made longer than the intermediate raised engaging portions on the same areas, and the respective longer raised engaging portions are mutually fitted one in the other in a complementary manner and the intermediate raised engaging portions are also mutually fitted one in the other in a complementary manner. This construction enables yielding high displaceability relative to the deformation of the ends of the band due to the tensile force applied thereto, and a joint strength is obtainable which is substantially the same as that of the base metal, thus making it possible to prevent the raised engaging portions from being broken.

1. Field of the Invention:
This invention relates to a binding-up band (a metal band) for use in fastening articles having remarkable shrink properties, such as cotton or the like, and more particularly to a binding-up band with locking structures in which the ends of the band are interconnected to each other by mutually fitting in projections formed on the ends thereof by providing cuts in the ends of the band and pressing out the cut-provided portions.
2. Statement of the Prior Art:
Broadly speaking, there are two ways of fastening articles utilizing a metal binding-up band manufactured of band steel: one is a way of fastening with seals (1); and the other a way of fastening without seals, that is, a seal-less fastening (2). A sealer is required when fastening is performed by means of the way of fastening with seals (1), while, in the way of seal-less fastening (2), fastening of the band is achieved by engaging means provided on the band itself, and no sealer is required in fastening the band. Thus, it is an advantage of the latter way that it enables a simple and quick bundling operation. Recently, this seal-less fastening way has been widely adopted.
It is common practice in the seal-less fastening method to fasten a band by mutually engaging locking portions provided on the ends thereof, and a locking structure disclosed in an Official Gazette of Japanese Patent Publication No. 39-13748 has been widely employed.
This widely employed locking structure adopts a method in which the ends of a band are overlapped and are detachably interconnected by means of irregular fitting of the ends thereof. FIGS. 13 and 14 show a concrete example of this method, in which pairs of symmetrical bent cuts are provided in the ends 11, 21 of the distal portions 1, 2 of a band, and the cut-provided portions are pressed out to form raised locking portions 101, 201 of the same length and each having a wide portion Wa and a narrow portion Wb for irregular fitting. When tensile force is applied to the band in a longitudinal direction (shown by the arrow A) in such a fitted condition, the wide portion Wa on the male end of the band and the narrow portion Wb on the female end thereof are caused to vertically overlap each other, whereby the ends of the band are interlocked.
This locking structure eases fastening and provides sufficient resistance to stretching. Therefore, the structure is well suited to bundling up articles having remarkable shrink properties such as cotton or the like.
However, this locking structure according to the prior art has a risk in that the locking portions at the extreme ends of the engaging area on the female end are subject to breakage since tensile force is applied thereto to a maximum extent when a tensile force is applied to the band in a longitudinal direction. When the band is broken, the locking state of the band is then released, the goods bundled thereby being caused to fly apart. It is very dangerous if this happens during a loading operation.
To cope with this, Sumitomo Metal Industries, Ltd. filed with the Japanese Patent Office on July 24, 1987 an application of the invention entitled, "Locking Structure for Binding-up Band" (Japanese patent application Nos. 62-185786 and 62-185787) in which loosening or breakage of the fastened portion of the band is protected.


There is provided a tin-plated product which has a small deterioration of contact resistance with age, an excellent wear resistance and a low coefficient of friction. A coating of a composite material, which contains 0.1 to 1.0 wt % of carbon particles dispersed in a tin layer and which has a thickness of 0.5 to 10.0 μm, preferably 1.0 to 5.0 μm, is formed as the outermost layer of a substrate. Thus, the coefficient of dynamic friction between the tin-plated products of the same kind is 0.20 or less, and the coefficient of dynamic friction between the tin-plated product and a reflow tin-plated product is 0.20 or less, while the contact resistance is 1 mΩ or less.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a tin-plated product. More specifically, the invention relates to a tin-plated product used as the material of an insertable connecting terminal or the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As conventional materials of insertable connecting terminals, there are used tin-plated products wherein a tin coating layer is formed as the outermost layer of a conductive material, such as copper or a copper alloy. In particular, tin-plated products have a small deterioration of contact resistance with age, and are used as the materials of connecting terminals for automotive vehicles and so forth which are used in a great environmental load.
However, there is a problem in that tin-plated products can not be used as insertable connecting terminals for a long time since they are soft and easy to wear. In order to eliminate this problem, it is proposed that a coating of a composite material, which contains wear resistant or lubricating solid particles in a metal matrix containing tin as a principal component, is formed on a conductive substrate by electroplating to improve the mechanical wear resistance of a tin-plated product (see, e.g., Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 54-45634, 53-11131 and 63-145819), and there is proposed a connecting terminal to which such a composite coating is applied (see, e.g., Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 2001-526734 (National Publication of Translated Version of PCT/US96/19768). It is also proposed that a coating containing tin or tin/lead and graphite dispersed therein is formed on a conductive substrate to form a conductive coating having an excellent wear resistance (see, e.g., Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 61-227196).
However, there is a problem in that the conventional tin-plated products produced by the above described methods have a relatively high coefficient of friction although they have an excellent wear resistance. Therefore, if such a tin-plated product is used as the material of an insertable connecting terminal, there is a problem in that the inserting force applied thereto increases

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


The invention relates to a sensor and assembly comprised in a housing for a hand-held and hand-operated printing device controlled by a processor, and a method therefor. It provides that the assembly comprises an arrangement and a method for preventing skew and cutting of printed images.

Hand-held and hand-operated printing devices with an ink-jet print-head are known through various documents.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,927,872 to Yamada discloses a system and a method of printing an image represented by a frame of image data utilizing a hand-held printer having optical sensor means for tracking positions of the hand-held printer relative to the surface of a print medium during a printing process. It is monitored in real time using navigation information generated by the optical sensor.
Each optical sensor comprises an array of opto-electronic elements to capture images of the surface of a print medium at fixed time intervals. Preferably, the optical sensor means can detect slight pattern variations on the print medium, such as paper fibers or illumination pattern formed by highly reflective surface features and shadowed areas between raised surface features. These features can then be used as references for determining the position and the relative movement of the hand-held printer. During the printing process, the printed portions of the image can also be used as reference positions by the hand-held printer.
In the preferred embodiment, the hand-held printer contains a navigation processor and a printer driver. Using the printer driver, the navigation processor drives the hand-held printer to print segments of the image onto a print medium as the hand-held printer travels across the print medium during a printing process. Each segment of the image is printed onto a particular location on the print medium to form a composite of the image.
In the U.S. Pat. No. 6,233,368 B1 to Badyal et al it is taught a CMOS digital integrated circuit (IC) chip on which an image is captured, digitized, and then processed on-chip in substantially the digital domain.
A preferred embodiment comprises imaging circuitry including a photo cell array for capturing an image and generating a representative analog signal, conversion circuitry including an n-bit successive approximation register (SAR) analog-to-digital convertor for converting the analog signal to a corresponding digital signal, filter circuitry including a spatial filter for edge and contrast enhancement of the corresponding image, compression circuitry for reducing the digital signal storage needs, correlation circuitry for processing the digital signal to generate a result surface on which a minima resides representing a best fit image displacement between the captured image and previous images, interpolation circuitry for mapping the result surface into x- and y-coordinates, and an interface with a device using the chip, such as a hand-held scanner.
The filter circuitry, the compression circuitry, the correlation circuitry and the interpolation circuitry are all embodied in an on-chip digital signal processor (DSP). The DSP embodiment allows precise algorithmic processing of the digitized signal with almost infinite hold time, depending on storage capability. The corresponding mathematical computations are thus no longer subject to the vagaries of CMOS chip structure processing analog signals. Parameters may also be programmed into the DSP's software making the chip tunable, as well as flexible and adaptable for different applications.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,644,139 to Allen et al discloses a scanning device and a method for forming a scanned electronic image including the use of navigation information that is acquired along with image data, and then rectifying the image data based upon the navigation and image information. The navigation information is obtained in frames. The differences between consecutive frames are detected and accumulated, and this accumulated displacement value is representative of a position of the scanning device relative to a reference. The image data is then positioned-tagged using the position data obtained from the accumulated displacement value. To avoid the accumulation of errors, the accumulated displacement value obtained from consecutive frames is updated by comparing a current frame with a much earlier frame stored in memory and using the resulting difference as the displacement from the earlier frame. These larger displacement steps are then accumulated to determine the relative position of the scanning device.
The above documents teach how to determine the position in a conceptual generation of navigation information. In this context the U.S. Pat. No. 5,927,872 to Yamada uses the navigation information for a hand-held scanner disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,644,139 to Allen et al. The invention according to Allen et al teaches navigation through comparison of pixels on a frame basis.
When printing lines/rows of text or images with, for example, a hand held printer of a type described through the Swedish patent application 0102542-3 by Walling, not yet published but described below, there are problems related to skew between successive lines/rows, when the print-head is moved back and forth from the right to the left downwards on a print medium such as a piece of paper. The printing operation builds up an image of horizontal bands in lines where a lower band is an extension of an upper band. Hereby, sensor means for positioning sensing of the print-head are providing the printer with information so that positions and an angle of rotation can be determined on the print medium used. This must be accomplished very accurate in order to avoid skewing and/or clipping of, for example, printed characters.
Hence, if the absolute position and/or angle of rotation do not correspond with the values input to the printer, due to, i.a., the system resolution, the bands of text would not fit to each other. Obvious consequences of band skew are clipping/cutting of characters to be printed, depicted as a part of, for example, a character being printed in an upper band and the remaining part in a lower band in sweeps with the printer, and the character or word printed becomes hard to interpret, i.e., readability is distorted.
Regarding the resolution of a positioning sensor, currently used sensors have been shown to transfer mal positioning within 0.5–1.0%. In order to avoid distortion, current sensor resolution has to be improved with a factor 10.

Hand held printing of text and images for preventing skew and cutting of printed images


Methods and apparatus are provided for making an ophthalmic lens. Apparatus are provided for filling contact lens shaped cavities of contact lens molding assemblies. Methods of coupling and fusing contact lens mold sections are also provided and generally include providing first and second mold sections which, when coupled together, are effective to form a lens-shaped cavity and contact regions between the mold sections. One or both of the mold sections may include one or more recessed regions or projections which provide areas of non-fusion and areas of fusion, respectively, when the mold sections have been filled with a contact lens precursor material and are fused together, for example, by focused ultrasound energy.

One method of manufacturing ophthalmic lenses, such as intraocular lenses and contact lenses, is by cast molding.
Cast molding of contact lenses is well known. See, for example, Appleton, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,466,147, Morris, U.S. Pat. No. 6,405,993, and Dean, U.S. Pat. No. 6,732,993.
Typically, a single mold assembly for molding a single contact lens product includes a female mold section having a concave optical surface defining an anterior surface of a lens to be made, and a male mold section having a convex optical surface defining a posterior surface of the lens to be made. Thus when the male and female mold sections are assembled together, a contact lens shaped cavity is formed between the concave surface of the female section and the convex surface of the male section.
The female and male mold sections are commonly produced by injection molding techniques. A common method of forming a lens mold section is to utilize metal tooling insert, which has typically been machine lathed to define a desired contact lens surface, to form the molding surface of the mold section.
A process for cast molding a lens is as follows. A polymerizable lens material, for example, a monomeric material or other lens precursor material is placed on a concave surface of a contact lens mold section. This is usually done by manually withdrawing the lens precursor material from a large volume container containing the precursor material with an Eppendorf tube and dispensing a volume of the precursor material onto a mold or mold section. Typically, a person would fill the Eppendorf tube with the material and dispense between about 30 μL and about 50 μL onto the concave surface of the mold section. This method is labor intensive, presents substantial risks to people handling the precursor material, and can result in increased waste of the precursor material since large volumes of the material remain in the jar for extended periods of time, which can degrade or deteriorate over time.
Once filled, a second mold section is placed on top of the first mold section to form a lens shaped cavity containing the lens precursor material. The contact lens precursor material is cured for example, by applying heat and/or light or other suitable polymerizing means to the filled mold assembly, thereby producing a contact lens product or contact lens between the mold sections. The contact lens product is then removed from the mold sections. The mold sections are often destroyed during this removal step. The contact lens product is often an unfinished contact lens which is subjected to one or more finishing steps, for example, conventional finishing steps such as hydration, to produce the final contact lens.
One obstacle associated with cast molding processes is the appropriate placement and fixation of the mold sections, particularly after the lens precursor material has been placed between the mold sections and prior to polymerization thereof. For example, it may be difficult to secure two mold sections together to form a mold assembly without opacification, pitting, or bubble formation in the lens cup (e.g., the region of the mold section containing the lens precursor material). Further, it may also be difficult to form a mold assembly in which the lens precursor material has a substantially uniform thickness, or in other words the lens does not have an undesired prism due to thickening of the lens precursor material at one region of the lens cup relative to another different region.
In addition, because of the potentially fragile nature of the polymerized contact lens product, the mold sections should be separable without causing breakage of or damage to the lens product.
A variety of traditional methods are used in a non-automated production laboratory setting for placing one mold section upon another and then securing the two sections in a relatively fixed position such as by weighting or clamping. While this may be a somewhat acceptable practice on a small scale production basis, it may not satisfy all of the requirements of large scale and/or automated high speed manufacturing production of contact lenses.
Directed energy techniques, such as ultrasonic welding are known in the art for permanently joining materials such as polymers without consideration for later separation.
Galas, U.S. Pat. No. 5,759,318, describes an apparatus and method that includes the use of ultrasonic energy for releasably fixing assembled sections of a lens molding assembly using a ultrasonically produced annulus of fusion completely circumscribing the contact lens forming material contained between the assembled sections.
More effective, more reliable methods and systems for manufacturing lenses, for example filling and coupling mold sections during manufacturing of contact lenses, are needed.

Contact lens mold assemblies and systems and methods of producing same

CooperVision International Holding Company, LP


A multi-language closed captioning system is provided including a television having a speaker for transmitting audio signals. The television further has a screen for depicting various images upon receipt of television signals and depicting alphanumeric characters upon the receipt of a sub-carrier channel. A source of closed captioning is adapted to deploy a plurality of sub-carrier channels each for transmitting a string of alphanumeric characters corresponding to audio signals transmitted by the television. Such alphanumeric characters are representative of one of a plurality foreign languages. A selector unit is connected to the television and the source of closed captioning. An array of language buttons is situated on the selector unit and adapted to allow the transmission of one of the sub-carrier channels to the television upon the depression thereof.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to closed captioning and more particularly pertains to a new multi-language closed captioning system for providing closed captioning in various languages.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of closed captioning is known in the prior art. More specifically, closed captioning heretofore devised and utilized are known to consist basically of familiar, expected and obvious structural configurations, notwithstanding the myriad of designs encompassed by the crowded prior art which have been developed for the fulfillment of countless objectives and requirements.
Known prior art closed captioning include U.S. Pat. No. 5,294,982; U.S. Pat. No. 5,124,694; U.S. Pat. No. 4,698,677; U.S. Pat. No. 4,700,322; U.S. Pat. No. 5,343,239; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,472,830.
In these respects, the multi-language closed captioning system according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in so doing provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of providing closed captioning in various languages.


A method of folding up an air bag comprises the steps of: folding up the horizontally-spread air bag crosswise so as to decrease its width crosswise; extending left and right regions on the center side of the air bag in the outer diagonally-upward direction; folding up both left and right end sides of the air bag in the outer diagonally-downward position of the left and right regions; setting the left and right regions close to the center of the air bag so that the left and right regions are extended upward; and moving both folded end sides to the center of the air bag and outside the left and right regions.

Heretofore, there is a known method and apparatus for folding up an air bag as disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei. 4-8647. The conventional folding method comprises the steps of, as shown in FIG. 1, folding a horizontally-spread air bag crosswise into the figure of a bellows so as to decrease its width crosswise and, as shown in FIG. 2, folding the air bag folded up lengthwise by folding it down the middle into the figure of a bellows.
Under the conventional folding method, however, such an air bag is allowed to easily jut upward in the initial stage of its inflation and in order to improve this point, it was contrived to fold an air bag lengthwise in the form of FIG. 3 (Japanese Patent Application No. Hei. 6-162360).
The profile of the air bag thus folded up crosswise and lengthwise according to the improved version above shows that left and right regions 3, 4 near the center of the air bag 2 folded up crosswise come closer to each other toward the center thereof and subsequently extend upward, whereas both the left and right end sides 5, 6 of the air bag 2 folded up crosswise are arranged outside the left and right regions 3, 4 on the center side thereof, respectively.
When the air bag is folded into the aforementioned profile by means of the folding apparatus equipped with a conventional folding bar, the folding operation is to be performed from the central regions 3, 4 of the air bag to both the left and right end sides 5, 6 in sequence. However, a great deal of tension is applied when both the left and right end sides 5, 6 are folded up, which results in holding the folding bar unmovable. Consequently, the automated operation of folding air bags still remains unfeasible.

Method and apparatus for folding up air bag


A method and apparatus for interfacing a device driver in real time applications are provided. On input, the device driver is probed to determine a data sample block size supported by the device driver. The device driver delivers data samples to a buffer at each interrupt. The buffer is accessed to determine the presence of data in at least one buffer entry, or block. At each such access, a first counter is incremented to point to a next buffer entry to be accessed. One or more buffer entries are filled at each interrupt, with any data samples not sufficient to fill an entry held by the device driver until a subsequent interrupt. A second counter is incremented by the number of entries filled by the device driver. The size of each block in the buffer is incremented until the number of data samples held by the device driver between each interrupt corresponds to the size of the block, wherein each of the first and second counters increment by one, on each access to the buffer. On output, a display cursor is synchronized with an audio signal being played by storing, in a buffer, a frame number associated with each block of data samples sent to the device driver. A head pointer tracks each entry in the buffer as the frame number is stored. As each corresponding frame is played a tail pointer is incremented to point to the buffer entry containing the frame number of a next set of data samples to be played. If the position of the display cursor corresponds to a frame earlier than the position of the last frame output by the device driver, the position of the cursor is repeatedly updated until the cursor position coincides with the position of the last frame output by the device driver.

The present invention relates in general to data processing systems, and in particular, to real time input/output interfacing in a data processing system.
Modern data processing systems commonly use signal processing hardware, and associated device drivers, supplied by third-party vendors. For example, audio processing systems in personal computers typically are obtained from one of several third-party vendors, for example, Creative Technology, Ltd. (SoundBlaster(copyright)), ESS Technologies, Inc., Crystal Semiconductor, and Yamaha. In data processing systems that provide real time responses to processed audio signals, the time constraints imposed by the real time responses may be incompatible with an audio processing device used in a particular data processing system. In such instances, the data processing application may fail due to an error from the audio application programming interface (API) call, or the graphical display may not fully represent actual real time conditions as audio is being input, i.e., there may be large intervals of time when critical audio data is missing with resulting gaps of data on the display device. In addition, when audio is being output there may be artifacts, such as portions of missing audio.
For example, a speech therapy application requires a real time visual response to audio I/O. Such speech therapy applications are used to train persons with hearing impairments, and require real time visual responses driven by changes in speech attributes articulated by the user. With respect to audio output, a visual graphic, which may be generically referred to as a cursor, must be coordinated, in real time, with an audio output signal. In speech therapy applications, a flying cursor is typically associated with the visual output, and tracks the audio being played back. For example, frequency components in the audio signal being played back may be displayed as a function of time, and a flying cursor used to visually track the corresponding portion of the spectrum with the audio being played. Thus, the data processing system must ensure that the cursor is synchronized with the audio signal being played. However, the interrupt rate supported by third-party audio system vendors may not be sufficient to output audio data when it is sent. As a consequence, the synchronism between a flying cursor and the audio output signal may be lost.
Thus, there is a need in the art for methods and apparatus to synchronize audio I/O systems with real time data processing applications.
The aforementioned needs are addressed by the present invention. Accordingly, there is provided, in a first form, a method for device driver interfacing. The method includes probing a device driver to determine a first data block size supported by a device driver interrupt rate. The method also synchronizes a graphical display to a sequence of output data signals, wherein the sequence of output data signals are operable for outputting as a sequence of second, predetermined, data block sizes.
There is also provided, in a second form, a data processing system that includes circuitry operable for probing a device driver to determine a first data block size supported by a device driver interrupt rate. The system also contains circuitry operable for synchronizing a graphical display to a sequence of output data signals, wherein the sequence of output data signals are operable for outputting as a sequence of second, predetermined, data block sizes.
Additionally, there is provided, in a third form, a computer program product operable for storing in a machine readable storage medium, the program product operable for device driver interfacing. The program product includes programming for probing a device driver to determine a first data block size supported by a device driver interrupt rate. Also provided in the computer program product, there is included programming for synchronizing a graphical display to a sequence of output data signals, wherein the sequence of output data signals are operable for outputting as a sequence of second, predetermined, data block sizes.
There is also provided, in a first form, an alternative embodiment of a method for device driver interfacing. The method includes probing a device driver to determine a first data block size supported by a device driver interrupt rate. Device driver probing step accesses a buffer having a plurality of entries, each entry being operable for storing a number of data samples and wherein the number of samples corresponds to a, selectable, size of each entry. The probing step also constitutes receiving a first plurality of data samples from the device driver, wherein the first plurality of data samples completely fills one or more of the plurality of entries, incrementing a first counter by a value corresponding to a number of the one or more of the plurality of entries filled in the receiving step, and incrementing a second counter by one in response to the accessing of the buffer.
There is also provided, in a second form, an alternative embodiment of a data processing system that includes circuitry operable for probing a device driver to determine a first data block size supported by a device driver interrupt rate. The probing circuitry contains circuitry operable accessing a buffer having a plurality of entries, each entry being operable for storing a number of data samples and wherein the number of samples corresponds to a, selectable, size of each entry, and circuitry operable for receiving a first plurality of data samples from the device driver, wherein the first plurality of data samples completely fills one or more of the plurality of entries. The probing circuitry also includes circuitry operable for incrementing a first counter by a value corresponding to a number of the one or more of the plurality of entries filled in the receiving step, and circuitry operable for incrementing a second counter by one in response to the accessing of the buffer.
Additionally, there is provided, in a third form, an alternative embodiment of a computer program product operable for storing in a machine readable storage medium, the program product operable for device driver interfacing. The program product includes programming for probing a device driver to determine a first data block size supported by a device driver interrupt rate. Also provided in the computer program product, is programming for accessing a buffer having a plurality of entries, each entry being operable for storing a number of data samples and wherein the number of samples corresponds to a, selectable, size of each entry, programming for receiving a first plurality of data samples from the device driver, wherein the first plurality of data samples completely fills one or more of the plurality of entries, and programming for incrementing a first counter by a value corresponding to a number of the one or more of the plurality of entries filled in the receiving step. The programming further contains programming for incrementing a second counter by one in response to the accessing of the buffer.
Additionally, there is also provided, in a first form, another alternative embodiment of a method for device driver interfacing. The method constitutes synchronizing a graphical user interface (GUI) to output data signals, wherein the output data signals are operable for outputting as a sequence of second, predetermined, data block sizes. The synchronization step includes incrementing a first counter in response to sending a first set of output data signals to the device driver, wherein the first counter points to a first entry in a buffer, each entry containing a data value corresponding to a data signal set number, and wherein the first entry contains a data set number corresponding to the first set, and incrementing a second counter in response to the device driver outputting a device output signal corresponding to a second set of data signals, the second counter pointing to a second entry, the second entry containing a data signal set number corresponding the second set.
There is also provided, in a second form, another alternative embodiment of a data processing system. The data processing system includes circuitry operable for synchronizing a graphical user interface (GUI) to output data signals, wherein the output data signals are operable for outputting as a sequence of second, predetermined, data block sizes. the synchronizing circuitry includes circuitry operable for incrementing a first counter in response to sending a first set of output data signals to the device driver, wherein the first counter points to a first entry in a buffer, each entry containing a data value corresponding to a data signal set number, and wherein the first entry contains a data set number corresponding to the first set, and circuitry operable for incrementing a second counter in response to the device driver outputting a device output signal corresponding to a second set of data signals, the second counter pointing to a second entry, the second entry containing a data signal set number corresponding the second set.
Additionally, there is provided, in a third form, another alternative embodiment of a computer program product operable for storing in a machine readable storage medium, the program product operable for device driver interfacing, in which the program product contains programming for synchronizing a graphical user interface (GUI) to output data signals, wherein the output data signals are operable for outputting as a sequence of second, predetermined, data block sizes. The synchronization programming includes programming for incrementing a first counter in response to sending a first set of output data signals to the device driver, wherein the first counter points to a first entry in a buffer, each entry containing a data value corresponding to a data signal set number, and wherein the first entry contains a data set number corresponding to the first set. Also included is programming for incrementing a second counter in response to the device driver outputting a device output signal corresponding to a second set of data signals, the second counter pointing to a second entry, the second entry containing a data signal set number corresponding the second set.
The foregoing has outlined rather broadly the features and technical advantages of the present invention in order that the detailed description of the invention that follows may be better understood. Additional features and advantages of the invention will be described hereinafter which form the subject of the claims of the invention.

Real time device driver interface apparatus and method therefor

International Business Machines Corporation


According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a pattern matching method of detecting an image of a detection target from a search image, comprising: obtaining a reference image of the detection target; generating the model edge image on a basis of the reference image; generating the edge extraction domain that is specified as a portion where the model edge image can exist by overlying a plurality of the model edge images obtained with at least one of rotating the model edge image within a predetermined range around a rotation center of the model edge image and translating the model edge image within a predetermined range; and performing pattern matching between the model edge image and the search edge image.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pattern matching method and pattern matching apparatus for performing pattern matching between a search edge image generated based on a search image, and a model edge image generated based on a detection target.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the field of image processing, pattern matching methods are conventionally well known as methods of detecting the position of, e.g., a work as a detection target. Of these methods, shape pattern matching (to be referred to as pattern matching hereinafter) has widely spread because it is a method which is strong against an illumination change and the hiding and missing of an object and has a high robustness.
In the pattern matching, the similarity is calculated by using the shape features of a model (reference image) and search image, so it is necessary to extract the shape features of the images. As a method of extracting the shape feature, an edge extraction method such as a Sobel filter or Canny filter is generally known. Since edge extraction for a model can be performed before an actual search process, the processing time poses almost no problem. However, edge extraction for a search image (i.e., image to be searched) must be performed simultaneously with an actual search process. Therefore, it is important to shorten the processing time for the actual search process.
To solve this problem, a pattern matching method has been proposed by which an edge extraction domain as a target of edge extraction is narrowed down to a part of a search image, thereby making the processing speed higher than that when performing edge extraction for the entire search image (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2010-091525). This pattern matching method generates a model edge image by extracting only an edge near the corner of a detection target as a model edge image. In an actual search process, corner detection is first performed on a search image, edge extraction is then performed in only a peripheral domain of the detected corner, and pattern matching is performed using a pregenerated model edge image of the corner. Since the domain as an edge extraction target is thus narrowed down to the periphery of the corner, the processing time can be made shorter than that when performing edge extraction on the entire search image.
In the pattern matching method described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2010-091525, however, a detection target must have a corner. This makes the method inapplicable to a detection target having no corner such as a circle. Also, if a corner-like shape which is not a detection target exists in the background of the detection target, the method detects the corner other than the detection target, and hence cannot narrow down the edge extraction domain.
The present invention provides a pattern matching method and pattern matching apparatus capable of increasing the speed of a pattern matching process by specifying an edge extraction domain from a search image without using any specific shape feature such as a corner.

Pattern matching method and pattern matching apparatus


A semiconductor device includes a first and second pin, a first lead finger coupled to the first pin and a second lead finger coupled to the second pin, and a die coupled to the lead fingers. The die includes a first die pad coupled to the first lead finger and a second die pad coupled to the second lead finger. The die further includes a first output driver coupled to the first die pad and a second output driver coupled to the second die pad. The first output driver is coupled to the first die pad via an extended metal trace. The extended metal trace compensates for differences in electrical length between the first lead finger and the second lead finger.

A typical circuit board includes multiple semiconductor and other electronic devices. For most of the signals traveling between these devices, timing considerations are increasingly important as the speeds of the devices are increased. For example, with a 16-bit data bus between two or more devices, the signal on each line of the bus should arrive at a receiving device at approximately the same time to avoid timing problems with the device. At higher speeds, this becomes more difficult to control.
Semiconductor devices typically include internal timing delay mismatches due to package constraints. For example, referring now in detail to the drawings, wherein like parts are designated by like reference numerals throughout, FIG. 1 is a plan view illustrating a simplified prior art semiconductor device 50. Semiconductor device 50 includes a semiconductor die 40 embedded in a package 10. Package 10 includes a plurality of pins or balls 12-15 that couple semiconductor device 50 to a circuit board. The signals output from pins 12-15 form a single group (e.g., a data bus).
Pins 12-15 are coupled to die 40 via lead fingers 20-23, respectively. In a typical package such as package 10, the lengths of lead fingers 20-23 vary among different pins due to, for example, the position of pins 12-15 and the route each lead finger 20-23 must take from die 40 to pins 12-15 (e.g., a lead finger may have to weave around other pins or traverse several layers in package 10). The disparity in length between lead fingers can sometimes be over one inch.
Die 40 includes a plurality of output drivers 30-33 corresponding to each pin 12-15. Die 40 further includes a plurality of die pads 34-37 for each output driver 30-33. Output drivers 30-33 are coupled to die pads 34-37 via a metal trace (e.g., metal trace 42), which is referred to as a "standard metal trace" for the purpose of this patent. The length of the standard metal traces are typically the shortest distance between their corresponding die pad and output driver. Die pads 34-37 are coupled to lead fingers 20-23 via a bond wire (e.g., bond wire 44) or directly coupled using known methods.
In most advanced semiconductor devices, die 40 is designed or tuned so that the group of output signals measured at pads 34-37 are matched to within 10 picoseconds ("ps") of each other (i.e., all of the signals arrive at pads 34-37 within a 10 ps window). Adjustments to die 40 to achieve this matching level typically occur within die 40 below output drivers 30-33.
However, when die 40 is placed in package 10, the signals must travel through lead fingers 20-23 before exiting device 50 onto a circuit board. The differing lengths of lead fingers 20-23 add differing propagation delays to the signals when the signals arrive at pins 12-15. For example, if lead finger 20 is one inch longer than lead finger 22, an additional 200 ps of timing delay may be added to the signal traveling on lead finger 20 compared to the signal traveling on lead finger 22. Therefore, because of the disparity between the lengths of lead fingers 20-23, the group of signals are no longer matched within 10 ps when they arrive at pins 12-15. This timing mismatch must then be compensated for in the circuit board, which adds to the complexity of designing the circuit board.
Based on the foregoing, there is a need for a semiconductor device in which the timing of a group of the output signals is matched at the pins.

Semiconductor device that compensates for package induced delay


The invention relates to Tetracyclic Benzamide Derivatives; compositions comprising a Tetracyclic Benzamide Derivative; and methods for treating or preventing an inflammatory disease, a reperfusion disease, an ischemic condition, renal failure, diabetes, a diabetic complication, a vascular disease, or cancer, comprising administering to a subject in need thereof an effective amount of a Tetracyclic Benzamide Derivative.

Inflammatory diseases, such as arthritis, colitis, and autoimmune diabetes, typically manifest themselves as disorders distinct from those associated with reperfusion diseases, e.g., stroke and heart attack, and can clinically manifest themselves as different entities. However, there can be common underlying mechanisms between these two types of disorders. In particular, inflammatory disease and reperfusion disease can induce proinflammatory cytokine and chemokine synthesis which can, in turn, result in production of cytotoxic free radicals such as nitric oxide and superoxide. NO and superoxide can react to form peroxynitrite (ONOO−) (Szabó et al., Shock 6:79–88, 1996).
The ONOO−-induced cell necrosis observed in inflammatory disease and in reperfusion disease involves the activation of the nuclear enzyme poly (ADP-ribose) synthetase (PARS), also known as poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP). Activation of PARP is thought to be an important step in the cell-mediated death observed in inflammation and reperfusion disease (Szabó et al., Trends Pharmacol. Sci. 19:287–98, 1998).
A number of PARP inhibitors have been described in the art. See, e.g., Banasik et al., J. Biol. Chem., 267:1569–75, 1992, and Banasik et al., Mol. Cell. Biochem., 138:185–97, 1994; WO 00/39104; WO 00/39070; WO 99/59975; WO 99/59973; WO 99/11649; WO 99/11645; WO 99/11644; WO 99/11628; WO 99/11623; WO 99/11311; WO 00/42040; Zhang et al., Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun., 278:590–98, 2000; White et al., J. Med. Chem., 43:4084–4097, 2000; Griffin et al., J. Med. Chem., 41:5247–5256, 1998; Shinkwin et al., Bioorg. Med. Chem., 7:297–308, 1999; and Soriano et al., Nature Medicine, 7:108–113, 2001. Adverse effects associated with administration of PARP inhibitors have been discussed in Milan et al., Science, 223:589–591, 1984.
S. P. Hiremath et al., Oriental Journal of Chemistry 13(2):173–176 (1997) discloses isoquinoline compounds allegedly useful as antifungal, antibacterial or anthelmintic agents.
S. P. Hiremath et al., Journal of the Indian Chemical Society 72(10):735–738 (1995) discloses isoquinolinone compounds
S. P. Hiremath et al., Indian Journal of Heterocyclic Chemistry 3(1):37–42 (1993) discloses isoquinolinethione compounds allegedly useful as antifungal, antibacterial, oxytocic or anthelmintic agents.
S. P. Hiremath et al., Indian Journal of Chemistry, Section B 24B(12):1235–1238 (1985) discloses indoloisoquinoline compounds.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,623,304 to Ishizumi et al. discloses indoloisoquinoline compounds allegedly having anti-tumor activity.
United Kingdom Patent No. GB 2025932 B2 by Sumitomo Chemical Co. discloses indoloisoquinoline compounds allegedly having bacteriacidal or fungicidal activity.
G. Winters et al., Farmaco. Ed. Sci. 34(6):507–517 (1979) discloses indoloisoquinolinones allegedly having antibacterial or fungicidal activity.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,113,731 to G. Winters et al. discloses indoloisoquinolines.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,733,918, 5,710,162, and 6,028,079 to Okazaki et al. disclose indenoquinolines allegedly useful as antitumor agents.
S. Srivastava et al., Journal of the Indian Chemical Society 66(4):276–81 (1989) discloses a synthesis of indenoisocoumarins and indenoisoquinolones.
G. Jha et al., Indian Journal of Chemistry, Section B 24B(4):440–444 (1985) discloses a synthesis of indenoisocoumarins and indenoisoquinolones.
J. N. Chatterjea et al., J. Indian Chem. Soc. 44(11):911–919 (1967) discloses a synthesis of dihydroisocoumarins.
There remains, however, a need in the art for compounds useful for treating or preventing an inflammatory disease, a reperfusion disease, an ischemic condition, renal failure, diabetes, a diabetic complication, a vascular disease, or cancer.
Citation of any reference in Section 2 of this application is not an admission that the reference is prior art.

Tetracyclic benzamide derivatives and methods of use thereof


A method for inhibiting the growth of lentiviruses and Herpetoviridae viruses, including HIV-1 and HSV-1, -2, respectively, in subjects, comprising administering to a subject in need of antiviral therapy a pharmaceutical composition comprising a therapeutically effective amount of a compound of the formula ##STR1## where: R is. (i) H, PO.sub.3.sup..dbd., alkyl of 1 to 12 carbon atoms substituted or unsubstituted, straight chain or branched, 0 to 6 double bonds, (CH.sub.2).sub.n morpholine where n=1-4, morpholinomethylphenyl, orthoaminophenyl, orthohydroxyphenyl, (CH.sub.2).sub.n COOR.sub.2 where n=1-4 PA1 (ii) COR.sub.1 wherein R.sub.1 is selected from the group consisting of H, (CH.sub.2).sub.n CH.sub.3, where n=0-6, (CH.sub.2).sub.n COOR.sub.2 where n=1-4 and R.sub.2 is previously defined, (CH.sub.2).sub.n N.sup.+ (R.sub.3).sub.4 wherein n=1-4, and (CH.sub.2).sub.n S0.sub.3.sup.- where n=1-4, PA1 and pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof.. where R.sub.2 is H, an alkalai metal salt, an alkaline earth metal salt, NH.sub.4.sup..dbd., N.sup.+ (R.sub.3).sub.4 PA2 where R.sub.3 is independently selected from the group consisting of H and alkyl of 1 to 4 carbon atoms, or

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the use of diterpene compounds, in particular hypoestoxides, derivatives and agonists thereof for antiviral therapy.
2. Background Art
The interactions between viruses and the host immune system are not only complex and fascinating but also critical in determining the outcome of infection and strategies for its prevention. The goal of antiviral chemotherapy is to inhibit replication of the viral genome without affecting the DNA of the cell.
Of the large number of agents under development for the treatment of herpes virus infections [herpes simplex virus types 1 and 2 (HSV-1 and HSV-2), varicella zoster virus (VZV), cytomegalovirus (CMV), Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)], only ten have apparently reached clinical development (Alrabiah FA and Sacks, SL; Drugs 1996:52(1):17-32). Although aciclovir is the treatment of choice in herpes simplex encephalitis (HSV-1), mortality and morbidity remain problematic (Skoldenberg B; Scand. J. Infect Dis Suppl 100:8-13, 1996). The same can be said about interferon-alpha (IFN-.alpha.) and interferon-beta (IFN-.beta.). Although both IFNs have considerable antiviral and immunomodulatory effects, their success as antiviral agents in humans has been hindered by their dose-limiting side effects (Balkwill, FR. Interferons; Lancet 1989;1:1060-1063). HSV-2 is the most common infective cause of genital ulceration in developed countries. Currently, 1 in 5 (20%) teenage adults in the United States is infected with genital herpes. A range of antiviral agents has become available since the early 1980s which can reduce disease severity, but HSV infection is life-long and, once established, there is no treatment which will eliminate it (Brugha, R. et al. Int. J. Epidemiol 1997;26:698-709). Therefore, there is a tremendous need to develop new approaches and agents to eliminate HSV infection.
The number of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1)-infected individuals is currently estimated at 1-2 million in the United States, with a worldwide incidence of approximately 20 million. By the year 2000, it is estimated that more than 3 million Americans will be infected with HIV-1.
Until recently, treatment of HIV-1 infection was limited to the use of nucleoside inhibitors of the viral enzyme reverse transcriptase (RTI). While these agents initially offered promise, they have only modest antiviral activity and the benefits of treatment are limited by the emergence of drug resistance and dose-limiting toxic effects (McDonald CK et al. Arch Intern Med 1997;157(9):951-959). Although treatment of HIV with nucleoside analog RTIs and protease inhibitors forms the backbone of anti-HIV therapy, non-nucleoside RTIs, immune modulators, and new entries in existing classes of pharmacologic agents hold promise for the future (Hartman AF, Prim Care 1997;24(3):531-560). Because combination therapy with two, three, or more agents has become the standard of care, additive toxicities have become a major problem.

Hypoestoxides, derivatives and agonists thereof for use as antiviral agents


A magnetic head includes a pole layer, first and second side shields, and an encasing layer having a pole groove that accommodates the pole layer and first and second side shield grooves that accommodate the first and second side shields. In a manufacturing method for the magnetic head, the pole groove and first and second initial side shield grooves are formed in a nonmagnetic layer using an etching mask layer having first to third openings. In the manufacturing method, a wall face of the first initial side shield groove that is closer to the pole groove and a wall face of the second initial side shield groove that is closer to the pole groove are etched by dry etching to thereby complete the first and second side shield grooves.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a magnetic head for perpendicular magnetic recording that is used for writing data on a recording medium by means of a perpendicular magnetic recording system.
2. Description of the Related Art
The recording systems of magnetic read/write apparatuses include a longitudinal magnetic recording system wherein signals are magnetized in a direction along the plane of the recording medium (the longitudinal direction) and a perpendicular magnetic recording system wherein signals are magnetized in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the recording medium. It is known that the perpendicular magnetic recording system is harder to be affected by thermal fluctuation of the recording medium and capable of providing higher linear recording density, compared with the longitudinal magnetic recording system.
Like magnetic heads for longitudinal magnetic recording, those for perpendicular magnetic recording typically have a structure in which a read head including a magnetoresistive element (hereinafter, also referred to as an MR element) for reading and a write head including an induction-type electromagnetic transducer for writing are stacked on a substrate. The write head includes a pole layer that produces a magnetic field in the direction perpendicular to the plane of the recording medium. The pole layer includes, for example, a track width defining portion having an end located in a medium facing surface that faces the recording medium, and a wide portion that is coupled to the other end of the track width defining portion and that is greater in width than the track width defining portion. The track width defining portion has a nearly uniform width. To achieve a higher recording density, a reduction in track width and an improvement in write characteristics, such as an overwrite property that is a parameter indicating an overwriting capability, are required of the write head of the perpendicular magnetic recording system.
As a magnetic head for perpendicular magnetic recording, there is known a magnetic head including a shield that has an end face located in the medium facing surface at a position forward of the end face of the pole layer along the direction of travel of the recording medium with a predetermined distance provided therebetween, as disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2005/0219747 A1, for example. A gap layer made of a nonmagnetic material is provided between the pole layer and the shield. The shield has the function of preventing a magnetic flux from reaching the recording medium, the magnetic flux being generated from the end face of the pole layer and expanding in directions except the direction perpendicular to the plane of the recording medium. A magnetic head including such a shield enables a further improvement in recording density.
A magnetic head for use in a magnetic disk drive such as a hard disk drive is typically provided in a slider. The slider has the medium facing surface mentioned above. The medium facing surface has an air-inflow-side end and an air-outflow-side end. The slider is configured to slightly fly over the surface of the recording medium by means of an airflow that comes from the air-inflow-side end into the space between the medium facing surface and the recording medium. The magnetic head is typically disposed near the air-outflow-side end of the medium facing surface of the slider. In a magnetic disk drive, the magnetic head is aligned through the use of a rotary actuator, for example. In this case, the magnetic head moves over the recording medium along a circular orbit about the center of rotation of the rotary actuator. In such a magnetic disk drive, a tilt of the magnetic head with respect to the tangent of the circular track, which is called a skew, occurs in accordance with the position of the magnetic head across the tracks.
In a magnetic disk drive of the perpendicular magnetic recording system, in particular, which exhibits a better capability of writing on a recording medium compared with the longitudinal magnetic recording system, the skew mentioned above often causes a phenomenon in which, when data is written on a certain track, data stored on a track adjacent thereto is erased (this phenomenon is hereinafter called adjacent track erasing). To achieve a higher recording density, it is required to suppress the adjacent track erasing.
As a technique for suppressing the adjacent track erasing resulting from the skew mentioned above, it is effective to form a tapered surface in the top surface of the pole layer near the medium facing surface such that the thickness of the pole layer near the medium facing surface decreases toward the medium facing surface, as disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2005/0219747 A1. This technique allows a reduction in thickness of the track width defining portion in the medium facing surface, thereby making it possible to suppress the adjacent track erasing resulting from the skew. This technique also allows guiding a magnetic flux of great magnitude to the medium facing surface through the pole layer, thereby making it possible to suppress degradation of the write characteristics (overwrite property).
As a technique for suppressing the adjacent track erasing in a write head of the perpendicular magnetic recording system, it is also effective to provide two side shields on both sides of the pole layer that are opposite to each other in the track width direction, as disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2007/0177301 A1. A magnetic head including such two side shields allows suppression of the adjacent track erasing because it is possible to take in a magnetic flux that is generated from the end face of the pole layer and extends in the track width direction.
In a magnetic head including two side shields, flux leakage from the pole layer to the two side shields can often occur since the two side shields are present near the pole layer. The relative locations of the pole layer and the two side shields and the shapes of the pole layer and the two side shields therefore influence the write characteristics. To achieve desired write characteristics, it is thus important to accurately align the pole layer and the two side shields with respect to each other and to control the respective shapes of the pole layer and the two side shields.
Typically, the pole layer and the two side shields are patterned using different masks. In this case, it is difficult to accurately align the pole layer and the two side shields with respect to each other.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2007/0211377 A1 discloses a method of forming a groove for accommodating the pole layer and two grooves for accommodating the two side shields simultaneously in a nonmagnetic layer by etching through the use of a single mask. This method allows accurate alignment of the pole layer and the two side shields with respect to each other. According to this method, however, since the groove for accommodating the pole layer and the two grooves for accommodating the two side shields are formed simultaneously, it is difficult to control the shape of the groove for accommodating the pole layer and the shapes of the two grooves for accommodating the two side shields independently of each other. Consequently, it is difficult with this method to control the respective shapes of the pole layer and the two side shields into desired shapes. It is also impossible with this method to reduce the distance between the pole layer and each of the two side shields beyond the limit that can be defined by the mask.

Method of manufacturing magnetic head for perpendicular magnetic recording including two side shields


An integrated non-consumable electrode and filler material nozzle for use with electric arc welding (or arc brazing). The electrode and filler nozzle are preferably integrated in one or more of the following ways: mechanically, thermally or electrically. The filler nozzle may be used to feed either hot or cold wire. Electric arc power and the wire resistance-heating power may be supplied by a single arc welding power supply, which is either directly or indirectly shunted between the electrode and filler nozzle. The nozzle can be designed to feed either single or multiple filler wires. The hot-wire nozzle preferably has a movable contact element which allows the electrical extension to be adjusted. Also the curvature of the outlet end of the hot-wire nozzle can be adjusted. If the nozzle is vertical, a wire deflection device at the nozzle outlet can be used to deflect the tip of the filler wire toward the weld puddle.

A method known in the industry as "hot-wire" filler material addition is utilized in various welding processes to increase the filler deposition rate over that which can be achieved with cold-wire addition. This "hot-wire" effect is achieved by applying additional power to preheat the filler (usually in the form of a continuously fed wire). The resulting benefits are to melt filler of a predetermined composition and size with a given arc current at a faster rate, or to melt filler of a larger size at a similar rate, or to increase both the feed rate and the filler size simultaneously for a maximum increase in the filler deposition rate.
"Hot-wire" filler addition is practiced in the known welding art with either alternating or direct current from an additional, electrically isolated power supply. This current is applied to the filler material by means of an electrical contact nozzle through which the filler is fed. In this design, the nozzle is not electrically connected in a parallel circuit to the power supply for the arc, and therefore the voltage of the nozzle is independent of the arc voltage. In a known configuration, the filler material is heated between the end of the conductive nozzle and the "grounded" workpiece.
In another design that is uncommon in the welding industry, the nozzle is electrically connected in a parallel circuit to the power supply for the arc, and therefore the voltage of the nozzle is dependent on the arc voltage. This variation is known as "shunted-arc" hot-wire addition. It is known to exist only with the geometry where the non-consumable electrode and the filler nozzle are both approximately perpendicular to the work surface, i.e., with "vertical" wire feed. This geometry is intended for robotic joining applications to avoid the problem where, if the nozzle were inclined to the workpiece, then an additional rotation of the torch assembly would be required to maintain the nozzle in the same orientation with respect to the travel direction for nonlinear joint path shapes.
The resistive heating in the filler occurs as the electrical power is dissipated in the length extending between the end of the contact tube and the point where it enters the molten pool. This predetermined length of filler extension is essentially an electrical resistor with a continuously replenished resistive element. The degree of heating is independently determined by the feed rate, the length of filler from the contact tube to the workpiece, and the applied voltage for a predetermined filler size and material type. The voltage drop across this heated length is dependent upon the these independently set parameters. The current through this heated length is typically a dependent parameter, controlled according to Ohm's Law.
One problem with hot-wire addition is that the degree of wire heating cannot be well controlled due to the fixed (predetermined) length of filler which is resistance heated with existing nozzle designs.
A second problem is that the actual aim position, relative to the electrode tip, of a highly preheated filler becomes variable in part depending on the degree to which it is preheated and correspondingly made "limp".
A third problem is the excessively wide groove required for joining relatively thick material, necessitated by the need for the nozzle to have sufficient cross-sectional area to conduct the desired electrical current.
A fourth problem is the energy loss in the electrode, which increases the cooling requirements of the electrode holder without adding any additional capability to thermally preheat the filler material.
A fifth problem for the single power supply (shunted-arc) hot-wire configuration is the need to easily convert to cold-wire feed and back to hot-wire feed without a high-current switch at the torch or a high-current cable leading from a remote switch to the torch.

Method and apparatus for welding with preheated filler material


An acoustic device is provided with first and second one or more acoustic elements to generate a first signal that includes mostly undesired audio and substantially void of desired audio, and a second signal that includes desired as well undesired audio respectively. The first one or more acoustic elements are designed and arranged to generate a Cardioid beam with a null at an originating direction of the desired audio. The second one or more acoustic elements are designed and arranged to generate a complementary beam that includes the desired audio. A system is provided with an appropriate signal processing logic to recover the desired audio using the first and second signals. The signal processing logic may practice echo cancellation like techniques or blind signal separation techniques.

Interference from background noises is one of the main barriers to advance acoustic applications or systems, whether it is audio acquiring microphone systems for communication or automatic speech recognition (ASR), hydrophone systems, sonar systems, or other acoustic systems of the like. The problem has found to be especially difficult with multiple background noise sources that are non-stationary, broadband, bursting and intermittent in a reverberant environment.
For example, in the case of ASR systems, it is increasingly desirable to introduce ASR technology to the large number of mobile communication devices, such as cell phones, car phones, and PDA, recently deployed as a result of the recent rapid advances in mobile communication and related technologies. However, most of these devices are frequently operated in a relatively noisy acoustic environment, such as on the street, in a car, bus, subway, train or airplane, or inside a noisy mall, factory or office. The background noises of these reverberant environments often exhibit the earlier mentioned non-stationary, broadband, bursting and intermittent characteristics. Resultantly, new applications utilizing speech recognition interface, whether for dictation or command-and-control, remain scarce.
To overcome these kinds of noise problems, others have resorted to close-talk handset, headset, or ear-set devices. However, these solutions introduce a number of inconveniences for the users. The wires of these additional headset/ear-set devices are often tangled with other objects. Wireless alternatives are more user friendly, however, they themselves have other limitations and inconveniences, e.g., higher cost. Multi-microphone arrays may avoid some of these limitations, however prior art multi-microphone arrays tend to be physically large, and unsuitable for most applications.
Consequently, there is a need for a more effective solution, especially one that is more compact that can allow a more natural human-machine interface that is hands-free, headset-free, and most importantly noise-free, for certain acoustic applications, such as ASR. In addition, noise reduction and/or cancellation preferably not only increase the clarity and intelligibility of the desired audio, but the reduction/cancellation may perhaps even reduce the load of digital communication networks, thereby resulting in more effective use of their capacities.
Other applications include noise robust headphone, teleconferencing system, digital voice recorder and hearing aid, etc.

Cardioid beam with a desired null based acoustic devices, systems and methods


A clamp apparatus for selectively occluding a resilient tube to prevent free flow of fluid in the tube. The device comprises a base member to which the resilient IV tube is attached or through which it passes, and a slide clamp that slides relative to the base member and relative to the tube. The aperture in the slide clamp has a relatively open hole at one end, through which the tube passes when the slide clamp is an open position, allowing fluid to flow through the tube. The aperture also has a relatively constricted slot at the other end, through which the tube passes when the slide clamp is in the occluding position, preventing fluid flow through the tube. A deflectable cantilevered locking arm on the base interlocks with a detent on the slide clamp to lock the slide clamp at the occluding position to avoid inadvertent free flow. A release tab that is used to release the locking arm from the slide clamp is located off center to avoid inadvertent activation. The deflectable arm is unstressed when the slide clamp is in either the occluding or the open positions. A stop device prevents over-stressing the release tab when it is moved. In one embodiment, the clamp apparatus may be slid along the IV tube to a desired location.

It is a common practice to deliver fluids such as medications to a patient intravenously by means of a pumping device, such as a peristaltic pump. Such pumps are useful because they can deliver the medication in a highly controlled and precise fashion, and because they do so without coming in contact with the medication. The fluid is moved through a flexible IV tube by pressing a pumping member against the tube sufficiently to move the fluid in the tube downstream towards the patient. In the case of peristaltic mechanisms having multiple pumping fingers, the fingers are moved against the tube in a sequential manner from upstream to downstream to sequentially occlude the tube thereby moving the fluid in the tube downstream towards the patient. When the IV tube is mounted correctly in the pump, the IV tube is at all times occluded by one of the pumping members, thereby preventing the "free flow" of fluid to the patient. "Free flow" of medical fluids is undesirable since the flow of the fluid is uncontrolled and the prescribed treatment is not followed.
It is common for the peristaltic pumping mechanism to be located in a housing with a hinged door. The tube through which the fluid is to be moved is placed in contact with the pumping mechanism inside the door, with the ends of the tubing typically extending out the top and bottom of the door opening. As the door is shut over the tube, a platen on the inside of the door presses against the IV tube to provide a backing surface against which the pumping members can occlude the tube. The platen is typically spring loaded, although not always, against the pumping mechanism so that one or more of the pumping fingers of the pumping mechanism occludes the tube once the door is shut over the tube. This then prevents free flow while the door is shut.
This arrangement of the IV tube relative to the pumping mechanism requires that there be some means for preventing flow in the tube when the door of the pump is open. Merely opening the pump door would relieve the tube from the occluding pumping mechanism/platen combination and free flow could possibly occur. This could result in the uncontrolled infusion of medication into the patient under the influence of the static head pressure in the tube, or blood from the patient could flow back into the IV tube. Known devices for preventing the unwanted flow in the tube include manual clamps on the tube separate from the infusion pump, and automatic occluding devices mounted on the pump. The manual devices require some manipulation skill on the part of the attending technician, and there is always the chance that the technician will forget to properly time the manual clamping process of the tube before the door of the pump is opened. Furthermore, the door may be accidentally opened, resulting in free flow in the tube.
Automatic devices mounted on the infusion pump for assisting in clamping and unclamping infusion tubes have improved. In particular, the reliability in timing the occlusion and release (unocclusion) of the tube with the disengagement and engagement, respectively, of tube with the pumping members has improved. Typically, the action of opening the door is relied upon to initiate the occlusion of the IV tube by a clamp, and the action of closing the door is relied upon to initiate the release or unocclusion of the tube by an IV tube clamp. However, there still can occur the possibility of an inadvertent free flow of fluid through the IV tube due to operator error in regard to use of such devices.
Hence, those skilled in the art have identified a continuing need to provide an improved apparatus that will automatically and positively occlude an IV tube before the occluding pumping mechanism is disengaged from the tube. A further need has been recognized for an apparatus that will automatically and positively maintain the IV tube in an occluded state until after the occluding pumping mechanism is engaged with the tube. A still further need has been recognized for an apparatus that will reliably occlude the IV tube, that is inexpensive to manufacture, and is easy to use. Yet a further need has been recognized for an apparatus that can be manually operated between occluding and nonoccluding configurations. The present invention fulfills these needs and others.

Automatic clamp apparatus for IV infusion sets used in pump devices


An asymmetric error correction device includes an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter sampling analog radio frequency (RF) signals reproduced from an optical disc with a sampling period, converting the same into the digital sampling signals, and outputting the same; a signal detector for detecting 4T sampling signals varying in polarity thereof every four times the sampling period among the digital sampling signals; an operator selecting and adding a signal among the 4T sampling signals to operate an asymmetric error value; a counter cumulatively counting the asymmetric error value operated in the operator; and a corrector correcting a signal level of the digital sampling signal outputted from the A/D converter if the counted value counted by the counter is out of a predetermined critical range. The asymmetric error is precisely corrected even in a signal part in which the asymmetric error is minutely generated.

1. Field of the Invention
Apparatuses and methods consistent with the present invention relate to an asymmetric error correction device and method thereof, and an optical disc reproducing device using the same. More particularly, the present invention relates to an asymmetric error correction device and method thereof, in which an asymmetric error value is calculated using a 4T sampling signal among digital sampling signals, the calculated asymmetric error value is cumulatively counted to check whether of an asymmetric error, with the result that a signal level is adjusted, and an optical disc reproducing device using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the opening of the multimedia information age, there is a demand for storage and transfer of high-capacity digital data. Accordingly, an optical disc such as a digital versatile disc (DVD) is recently being studied actively. The DVD market has grown due to the computer business trying to employing DVD-ROM (read only memory), and the home electronics industry proposing DVD-Video. Further, optical discs are being expanded in their application fields through the releases of new DVDR (DVD-Writable), DVD-RW (rewritable), and DVD-RAM (random access memory) in the market.
Upon reproducing data recorded on such optical discs as noted above, there occurs a case where waveforms of the analog radio frequency (RF) signals being reproduced become asymmetric. When such asymmetry is present, interference is generated between the reproducing data symbols (inter-symbol interference). If the interference is generated, the detection and correction for a frequency error and a phase error are difficult, causing a problem in that a reproducing signal is distorted. In the conventional optical recording/reproducing system, in order to correct such asymmetric error, a digital sum value (DSV) algorithm was used.
A DSV algorithm is an algorithm that measures DSV to check for an asymmetric error. DSV is a value indicating how much a direct current component is included in a digital signal. Specifically, an optical recording/reproducing system converts an analog RF signal reproduced from an optical disc into a digital sampling signal. Then, a mean value of two digital sampling signals continuously detected is calculated. If the calculated mean value is greater than "0", the polar value is determined to be "1", and if the mean value is less than "0", the polar value is determined to be "−1". Then, the determined polar value is cumulatively counted, and if the cumulative polar value exceeds a predetermined threshold value, it is determined that an asymmetric error occurs and an input signal is corrected.
However, such a conventional asymmetric error correction method calculates a mean value every digital sampling signal, so that it had a drawback of a slow correction rate. Also, since only a polarity is checked and accumulated using the mean value of the respective sampling signals, there was a problem of reduction in resolution. As a result, for a 4T sampling signal reproduced in a part of variable frequency oscillator (VFO) among the sectors on the optical disc, there was a problem in that a correct asymmetric error cannot be detected.

Asymmetric error correction device and method thereof, and optical disc reproducing device therewith


Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer-storage media, for re-translation for simultaneous, spoken-language machine translation. In some implementations, a stream of audio data comprising speech in a first language is received. A transcription for the speech in the stream of audio data is generated using an automated speech recognizer through a series of updates. A translation of the transcription into a second language is generated using a machine translation module. The translation is generated with translation iterations that translate increasing amounts of the transcription, including re-translating previously portions of the transcription. A series of translation updates are provided to a client device based on the translation iterations.

Speech recognition has the goal to transcribe spoken words into the corresponding text representing the spoken words. Speech recognition has found increasing adoption as the quality of results and quality of network connections have improved significantly. Machine translation typically involves a computer system translating text from one language to another. The capabilities of machine translation systems continue to improve and find use in new applications.

Re-translation for simultaneous, spoken-language machine translation


The present invention concerns a process for recovering lower carbon olefins from MTO or DTO product gas. Said process primarily comprises the product gas compressing, pre-deethanizing, demethanizing and ethylene recovering apparatus, depropanizing column, ethylene rectification column, propylene rectification column and the like. In addition, the process of the present invention needs no independent ethylene cooling system, and the ethylene recovery rate may achieve 99.5%.

It is learned that the demand for lower carbon olefins is increasing, but the starting material resources, e.g. naphtha, light diesel oil and so on, for the production of ethylene is confronted with serious shortage. The methanol to olefin (hereinafter referred to as MTO) or dimethyl ether to olefin (hereinafter referred to as DTO) technique, therefore, has drawn much attention. MTO or DTO technique is a technology for producing lower carbon olefins, such as ethylene, propylene and the like, by using coal-based or natural gas-based synthesized methanol or dimethyl ether as the starting materials and by means of a fluidized bed reaction form similar to a catalytically cracking device. Said technology can be used in the production of lower carbon olefins with a high selectivity, and the propylene/ethylene ratio may be optionally adjusted within a relatively broad scope.
Generally, the product gas obtained by the catalytic reaction of methanol via a MTO reaction device contains hydrogen, methane, ethylene, ethane, propylene, propane, and higher carbon olefins, such as butylene or pentene, as well as water, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. Except that the conditions for DTO production are readily controllable, DTO technique is substantially the same as MTO technique, so that the DTO reaction product is also substantially the same as MTO reaction product. In order to obtain a polymerizable grade of ethylene product, the separation and recovering techniques for MTO or DTO product gas are very essential. Moreover, U.S. Pat. No. 5,811,621 has depicted such a technique for recovering ethylene. Generally, said technique for recovering ethylene comprises subjecting MTO product gas to the conventional gas liquid separation step to separate and remove water, carbon dioxide and heavy components of C5 and higher; introducing C4 and light components after cooling into the deethanizing column; discharging ethane and light components from the top of the deethanizing column; and then feeding them into the demethanizing column after removing ethyne via a hydrogenation device; removing methane and hydrogen from the top of the demethanizing column, to introduce the materials at the column bottom substantially containing ethylene and ethane into the C2 component separation column; and obtaining ethylene product at the top of the C2 component separation column. In said technology for recovering ethylene, many compression and pressure-increasing processes are required. Generally, the pressure of C4 and light components is required to be increased to 20-30 atm·A before being fed into the deethanizing column. In addition, another pressure-increasing step is further needed to increase the pressure to higher than 30 atm·A after removing ethyne via the hydrogenation reaction device and before feeding into the demethanizing column. In order to increase the recovery rate of ethylene, the materials at the top of the demethanizing column is further compressed and pressure-increased, and the compressed gas provides heat for the reboiler of the demethanizing column, and then is partially condensed. The uncondensed gas contains ethylene in an amount of 3-4% of the feedstock, and is discharged. It can be seen that three processing compressors and a propylene refrigeration compressor are used in said ethylene recovering technique, and thus said technique needs a high equipment investment. Meanwhile, ethylene-containing uncondensed gas is discharged from said technique. Accordingly, the total ethylene recovery rate, generally about 95-97%, is not satisfactory and does not satisfy the standard of the polymerizable grade of ethylene.
Accordingly, it still needs a process for recovering lower carbon olefins from a product gas from the methanol to olefin device and/or dimethyl ether to olefin device. Said process not only saves energy, but also can be used for recovering lower carbon olefins with a high yield, so as to obtain the polymerizable grade of ethylene and propylene products.

Process for recovering lower carbon olefins from product gas for production of olefins


A sensing device for sensing a substance includes a photonics integrated circuit having a resonator element that supports two different radiation modes, e.g. radiation modes of different polarisation, at a predetermined resonance wavelength. The resonator element is configured to convert a phase change or amplitude change experienced by the two different radiation modes upon formation of a layer of receptor molecules onto a sensing surface of the device into a resonance wavelength shift for the two different radiation modes. The sensing device also includes a detection unit arranged to detect the resonance wavelength shift for the two different radiation modes. The detection unit includes a processor that is configured to derive from the detected resonance wavelength shifts for the two different radiation modes, a layer thickness and refractive index of the layer of receptor molecules.

The use of photonic integrated circuits, e.g. ring resonator sensors in high index contrast media, for biological and chemical sensing is well established. The high sensitivity of this technique to surface phenomena makes it ideal for use in real-time and label-free biosensors where very small changes in refractive index must be detected. Driven by the vision of a laboratory on a chip and its impact in numerous applications such as detection, bio sensing, kinetic and binding studies and point-of-care diagnostics, extensive work has been done to develop these miniature photonic integrated biosensors. In the past decade, several integrated optical sensors have been demonstrated, mainly using ring resonator sensors, where the detection of biomolecular interaction happens by tracking the wavelength shift of one resonant ring resonator mode.
Biomolecular interaction between a receptor molecule, previously deposited on a waveguide surface, and its complementary analyte, produces a change in refractive index at the sensor surface that induces a variation in the optical properties of the guided light via the evanescent field. A biomolecular layer can be optically modeled as a uniform layer with a certain thickness tL and a certain refractive index nL as is shown in FIG. 2. Most biosensing techniques cannot distinguish between thickness tL and refractive index nL of the binding layer on top of the biosensor, and the output is linked to a combination of these parameters or to another calibration parameter such as the molecular concentration.
In today's biological experiments performed on integrated biosensors, usually only one parameter is measured, being the resonance wavelength shift of the TE00 or TM00 resonating mode when biomolecular interaction occurs.
In one system making use of both TE and TM mode responses, an interferometer-based sensor constructed from two optical waveguides stacked on top of each other and an array photodiode is shown in FIG. 1, left drawing. When polarized light (TM) is introduced to the end of the stack, single mode excitations in sensing and reference waveguides are formed and propagate through the structure. At the output, they form the well-known pattern of Youngs interference fringes on an array photodiode. On exposing the sensing waveguide to a biomolecule that attaches to it, the phase will change in the sensing waveguide while the effective index of the reference waveguide does not change. Monitoring the relative phase position of the fringe pattern will reveal the TM output. Subsequently, a second polarization of light (TE) is introduced into the waveguide stack. As explained, this responds differently to biomolecule adsorption or removal, and provides a second independent measurement. For each polarization there are an infinite number of refractive index/film thickness combinations that will produce the observed effect. However, when both polarizations are taken together a unique solution is resolved.
However, DPI as available today is not a high throughput technique and without miniaturization it does not lend itself to the levels of multiplexing necessary for drug discovery. This system handles only a very limited number of parallel measurements (currently 2), since the optical input and output signals are coupled via the edges of the waveguide chip and different channels need to be straight, long, and well separated as is shown in FIG. 1. Moreover, the polarizations are sequentially measured due to the buried interferometric design.