Disclosed is a novel non-aqueous battery comprising a spirally wound electrode assembly comprising a cathode, an anode and a separator which are spirally wound so that the cathode and anode active material layers are arranged opposite to each other through the separator, wherein the battery has a cathode-equipotential metallic segment provided in association with the cathode, wherein the segment has on at least one side thereof a portion free of a cathode active material layer to provide a cathode-equipotential, exposed metallic portion (.alpha.) longitudinally extending over a length of one wind or more of the spirally wound structure, the portion (.alpha.) being positioned opposite to an anode-equipotential, exposed metallic portion (.beta.) which is provided, in association with the anode, over a length of one wind or more of the spirally wound structure. Also disclosed is a non-aqueous battery comprising a stacked or zigzag-folded laminate electrode assembly accommodated in a casing, each having substantially the same structure as that of the spirally wound electrode assembly. By virtue of the unique construction, an accident in which the battery is crushed by an external pressure, overcharged by a malfunctioning of a charging circuit, pentrated with an iron nail etc., or heated by external high temperature heat source, a low resistance short-circuiting safely occurs between metallic segments without suffering a large temperature elevation.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a novel non-aqueous battery. More particularly, the present invention is concerned with a non-aqueous battery comprising (1) a casing, (2) a non-aqueous electrolyte contained in a space defined by an inner wall of the casing, and (3) a spirally wound electrode assembly accommodated in the above-mentioned space, operatively with the non-aqueous electrolyte, wherein the spirally wound electrode assembly comprises a cathode (comprising a cathode active material layer), an anode (comprising an anode active material layer) and a separator which are spirally wound together into a spirally wound structure so that the cathode active material layer and the anode active material layer are arranged opposite to each other through the separator, and wherein the battery has a cathode-equipotential metallic segment provided in association with the cathode, in which the cathode-equipotential metallic segment has on at least one side thereof a portion free of a cathode active material layer to provide a cathode-equipotential, exposed metallic portion (.alpha.) longitudinally extending over a length of one wind or more of the spirally wound structure, wherein the cathode-equipotential, exposed metallic portion (.alpha.) Is positioned opposite to an anode-equipotential, exposed metallic portion (.beta.) which is provided, in association with the anode, over a length of one wind or more of the spirally wound structure. The present invention is also concerned with a non-aqueous battery having substantially the same construction as in the above-mentioned battery, except that, in place of the above-mentioned spirally wound electrode assembly, use is made of a stacked laminate electrode assembly or a zigzag-folded laminate electrode assembly, each having substantially the same cathode/separator/anode structure as that of the above-mentioned spirally wound electrode assembly. By virtue of the above-mentioned unique construction of the battery of the present invention, it has become possible to ensure the safety of the battery even when the battery suffers an accident. Specifically, even when the battery of the present invention suffers accidents, such as an accident In which the battery casing is crushed by an external pressure, an accident in which the battery is overcharged by a malfunctioning of a charging circuit or the like, an accident in which the battery is penetrated with a metallic nail or the like, and an accident in which the battery is exposed to heat from an external high-temperature heat source, the battery is adapted to be easily subject to short-circuiting between metallic segments having very low electric resistance, to thereby prevent the occurrence of a rapid temperature elevation in the battery, so that the safety of the battery can be ensured.
2. Prior Art
A conventional lithium ton secondary battery using a non-aqueous electrolytic liquid generally has a construction in which a spirally wound electrode assembly is used, wherein the electrode assembly comprises a cathode sheet (prepared by coating an aluminum foil with a lithium-containing composite metal oxide as a cathode active material), an anode sheet (prepared by coating a copper foil with a carbonaceous material as an anode active material) and a separator composed of a microporous polyethylene film or the like (which is disposed between the cathode sheet and the anode sheet) which are spirally wound together into a spirally wound structure, and in which the electrode assembly is accommodated In a can made of stainless steel, which functions as an outside electrode, such as an outside anode. With respect to the details of the above-mentioned lithium ion secondary battery using a non-aqueous electrolytic liquid, reference can be made, for example, to Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Specification No. 2-51875 and Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Specification No. 5-234620.
The above-mentioned lithium ion secondary battery has various advantageous characteristics, such as high capacity, high voltage and high output. However, due to the above-mentioned characteristics of the lithium ion secondary battery, it is important to ensure the safety of the battery as described below in detail. For the purpose of ensuring the safety of the lithium ion secondary battery, it has conventionally been practiced to provide a lithium ion secondary battery having various types of protective means, such as a temperature fuse, a current fuse and a PTC element, so as to prevent occurrence of the temperature elevation at an accident, such as an accident in which a short-circuiting between the cathode and the anode occurs due to a malfunctioning of the circuit or the like. Further, it has also conventionally been practiced to provide a lithium ion secondary battery having a safety valve so as to prevent occurrence of the elevation of the internal pressure of the battery.
However, it is possible that the short-circuiting of the battery occurs at various accidents other than the above-mentioned malfunctioning of a circuit or the like. For example, when the battery suffers accidents, such as an accident in which the battery casing is crushed by an external pressure and an accident in which the battery is overcharged by a malfunctioning of a charging circuit or the like, the separator disposed between the cathode and the anode Is broken or melted, causing a short-circuiting between the cathode and the anode in the battery. When the battery suffers an accident in which the battery casing (which serves as an anode) is penetrated with a conductive member, such as a metallic nail or the like, a short-circuiting occurs between the cathode and the iron nail penetrating the casing as the anode. Further, when the battery suffers an accident in which the battery is exposed to heat from an external high-temperature heat source, the separator disposed between the cathode and the anode is melted sooner than the metals used in the cathode and the anode, thereby causing a short-circuiting between the cathode and the anode. With respect to the battery which is in the non-charged state or the completely discharged state, such a battery is free from the above-mentioned disadvantages. However, with respect to the battery which is in the charged state, the above-mentioned advantageous characteristics of the battery (such as high capacity and high voltage) rather adversely affect the safety of the battery. That is, from the viewpoint of safety, the lithium ion secondary battery in the charged state is rather inferior to other types of batteries. The reason for this is considered to be as follows. In a lithium ion secondary battery, as a cathode active material, use is made of a composite metal oxide of lithium, a transition metal and optionally a non-transition metal, such as LiCoO.sub.2. The above-mentioned composite metal oxide used as a cathode active material has a relatively high resistance. Therefore, when the short-circuit current passes through the cathode active material, the temperature of the cathode active material is easily elevated. In addition, when the battery is In the charged state, the composite metal oxide (cathode active material) is in the unstable state in which a certain amount of lithium atoms are liberated from the composite metal oxide In the form of lithium ions. When the temperature of such a cathode active material is elevated, the cathode active material are likely to decompose to generate active oxygen. Therefore, there is a danger that the generated active oxygen vigorously reacts with an aluminum foil (a current collector for the cathode) coated with the cathode active material and/or with an organic solvent used in the non-aqueous electrolyte, thereby rapidly elevating the temperature of the battery.
Therefore, it has been desired to develop a non-aqueous battery exhibiting high safety, in which occurrence of the short-circuiting between the cathode active material and the anode or occurrence of the temperature elevation caused by such a short-circuiting can be suppressed even when the battery suffers accidents, such as an accident in which the battery casing is crushed by an external pressure, an accident in which the battery is overcharged by a malfunctioning of a charging circuit or the like, an accident in which the battery is penetrated with a metallic nail or the like, and an accident in which the battery is exposed to heat from an external high-temperature heat source


An idle air control valve assembly including a strain relief feature for a plurality of wire terminals that couple the control valve to a remote source. The strain relief feature prevents damage to solder joints attaching the wire leads to the valve assembly. Additional improvements in the idle air control valve assembly include a plurality of axially and radially extending protrusions on a peripheral surface of a valve body that assist in the alignment and retention of the valve body in a throttle body manifold of an internal combustion engine. The protrusions are operable in combination with a plurality of bolt flange tabs to ensure proper radial positioning of the valve body when inserted into the throttle body manifold.

Internal combusion engine applications utilize an IACV that is inserted into the intake manifold. One example used in smaller internal combustion engines is referred to as a Gen V IACV. The Gen I IACV is a current production part that is mounted externally to the intake manifold of automotive engines.
The IACV is electrically actuated by a remote source, and has a plurality of wire leads that are to remotely connected to the engine control unit (ECU). These wire leads are attached to the IACV terminals by a soldering/welding operation. During handling of the IACV, pulling on these wire leads can create stress on the solder joint, which stress, if excessive or as a result of continuous cycling, can lead to breaking of the wire or solder joint. This failure mode had been confirmed during design validation testing.
It would therefore be desirable to provide a strain relief feature for the wire leads to reduce stress on the solder leads.
It would further be desirable to provide provisions on the valve body of the IACV to enable easy indexing and retention of the IACV when inserted into the throttle body manifold of an internal combustion engine. Such proper radial positioning ensures that the wire routing path is correct for the electrical connections in the throttle body assembly.

Idle air control valve wire stress relief feature and assembly aids


An organic light-emitting device is provided that includes an emission layer containing a phosphorescent dopant and a bipolar phosphorescent host interposed between a first electrode and a second electrode. The bipolar phosphorescent host is a compound represented by formula 1:A—C—B  (1)

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an organic light-emitting device that uses a bipolar compound in the emission layer to achieve improved efficiency and a long lifetime.
2. Discussion of the Background
Emission materials for organic electroluminescent devices are divided into fluorescent materials using a singlet exciton and phosphorescent materials using a triplet exciton according to the emission mechanism.
In general, phosphorescent materials are organic metal compounds containing heavy atoms. When phosphorescent materials are used, triplet-state excitons, which are forbidden transition, may produce phosphorescent emission. Phosphorescent materials have higher emission efficiency than fluorescent materials because phosphorescent materials use 75% triplet-state excitons while fluorescent materials use 25% singlet-state excitons.
An emission layer composed of a phosphorescent material includes a host material and a dopant material. The dopant material emits light by receiving energy from the host material. Examples of dopant materials include iridium metal compounds, such as (4,6-F2 ppy)2Irpic or an Ir compound based on a ppy(fluorinated ppy) ligand structure developed by Princeton University and South California University. CBP(4,4′-N,N′-dicarbazole-biphenyl) have been widely used as host material for these iridium compounds. A triplet state of CBP has an energy band gap that is sufficient for energy transition for green and red materials. However, CBP has a smaller energy band gap than blue materials which causes an ineffective heat-absorbing transition to occur. The energy transition from the CBP host to blue dopant is not sufficient, blue emission efficiency is low, and the lifetime of the device is short.

Abstract: where A is a hole transport unit, B is an electron transport unit, and C is a bond or a linking group. The bipolar compound can transport both holes and electrons. The organic light-emitting device has high efficiency and a long lifetime.


A tool for interacting with a rendered environment is configured to render a representation of a real-world environment and receive input data indicative of a position for a zoom window to be placed within the representation. The zoom window is rendered having a size that is determined based on one or more criteria. A magnified view of a portion of the representation is rendered that is proximate to the position of the zoom window. Input data is received that is indicative of a first gesture indicative of a new position for the zoom window. The zoom window is repositioned on the UI and the size of the zoom window is maintained during the repositioning. Within the zoom window, a magnified view of a portion of the representation is rendered that is proximate to the new position of the zoom window. The zoom window is movable to any rendered portion of the representation.

Some computing systems provide collaborative environments that facilitate communication between two or more participants. A system providing a collaborative environment can allow participants to exchange live video, live audio, and other forms of data within a communication session. A collaborative environment can take on any suitable communication session format including but not limited to private chat sessions, multi-user editing sessions, group meetings, broadcasts, etc.
There are a number of drawbacks with some existing systems when it comes to the promotion of user engagement. Inefficiencies with interaction with the collaborative environment can be detrimental to user productivity and use of computing resources. When software applications do not optimize user engagement, production loss and inefficiencies with respect to computing resources can be exacerbated when a participant is unable to quickly and easily view the collaborative environment and selectively interact with the rendered content. For example, a live meeting may involve displaying an image of a participant discussing a topic, presenting materials on a display within the meeting environment, and drawing figures on a whiteboard. Existing systems lack the tools necessary to quickly and easily interact with such meeting activities. Such systems require that users perform a number of menu-driven tasks to zoom into areas of interest. For example, when a participant needs further detail on a part of the rendered meeting environment, the participant must increase the zoom of the image. However, the entire rendered image is magnified around the center of the image, and the desired zoom area may or may not be within the new magnified image. Additionally, loss of fidelity typically results. It is with respect to these considerations and others that the disclosure made herein is presented.


A burn-in socket includes a base, a number of contacts received in the base, and a protecting device. The base has a first projection and a second projection. The protecting device is assembled to the base and moves from a first position to a second position relative to the base. The protecting device includes a planar bottom plate and a pair of spring arms extending upwardly from opposite sides of the bottom plate. Each spring arm has a first stopper for engaging with the first projection at the first position, and a second stopper for engaging with the second projection at the second position.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a burn-in socket, and more particularly to a socket having a base and a protecting device moveable between a first position spaced apart from the base and a second position close to the base for protecting contacts from damaged, and the protecting device having stoppers for conveniently moving from the first position to the second position.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Electronic packages are installed in a printed circuit board to construct a complete circuit of continuous functions. To ensure the security and reliability of the electronic package during using, the electronic package must be tested before using. The test usually undergoes extended period of time at high temperature so that a defective package can be detected earlier. A so-called burn-in socket servers this purpose. The burn-in socket typically comprises a base, a plurality of contacts disposed on the base, latches and an actuator for driving the latches to open and close relative to the base. Because the contacts extend out of a bottom surface of the base after being assembled together that they will be easily damaged during transportation. In order to protect the electrical contacts of the electronic package from being damaged, a protecting device is necessary.
Chinese Pat No. 2718814 issued to Chen on Aug. 17, 2005 discloses a burn-in socket having a protecting device moveably from a first position spaced apart from the base to a second position close to the base. The protecting device provides with a plurality of holes to permit the tail of the contacts to extend therethrough individually. Opposite sides of the protecting device have two spring arms extended upwardly with lower hooks and upper hooks to engage with the base. When the socket is not installed on the printed circuit board, the protecting device is positioned at the first position and the upper hooks are engaging with the base to protect the contacts. When using the socket, the protecting device moves upwardly to the second position and the upper and lower hooks are both not engaging with the base. Thus, during assembling the socket to the printed circuit board, the protecting device is easily moving downwardly from the base, which will affect the instability of the burn-in socket.


Disclosed are a monomer represented by the following Chemical Formula 1 for a hardmask composition, a hardmask composition including the monomer, and a method of forming patterns using the hardmask composition.

Recently, the semiconductor industry has developed to an ultra-fine technique having a pattern of several to several tens nanometer size. Such ultrafine technique essentially needs effective lithographic techniques.
The typical lithographic technique includes providing a material layer on a semiconductor substrate; coating a photoresist layer thereon; exposing and developing the same to provide a photoresist pattern; and etching the material layer using the photoresist pattern as a mask.
Nowadays, according to small-sizing the pattern to be formed, it is difficult to provide a fine pattern having an excellent profile by only above-mentioned typical lithographic technique. Accordingly, a layer, called a hardmask layer, may be formed between the material layer and the photoresist layer to provide a fine pattern.
The hardmask layer plays a role of an intermediate layer for transferring the fine pattern of photoresist to the material layer through the selective etching process. Accordingly, the hardmask layer is required to have characteristics such as heat resistance and etch resistance, and the like to be tolerated during the multiple etching processes.
On the other hand, it has been recently suggested to form a hardmask layer by a spin-on coating method instead of the chemical vapor deposition. The spin-on coating method is easy to perform and may also improve gap-fill characteristics and planarization characteristics. The spin-on coating method may use the hardmask composition having solubility for a solvent.
However, the solubility and the characteristics required for the hardmask layer have the relationship against to each other, so a hardmask composition satisfying both is needed.

Monomer, hardmask composition including monomer, and method for forming pattern by using hardmask composition

Abstract: In the above Chemical Formula 1,

Abstract: A1 to A3, X1 to X3, L1, L2, n and m are the same as described in the detailed description.


A convertible barcode scanner includes a housing in which are disposed a laser, spinner, and plurality of pattern mirrors optically aligned with the spinner for reflecting a beam from the laser to produce a first pattern of scan lines out a window at a first exit angle. A conversion mount adjustably supports a diverting one of the pattern mirrors in different tilt orientations for changing reflection angle thereon and correspondingly changing at least one of the scan lines from the first exit angle to a different exit angle.

The present invention relates generally to barcode scanners, and, more specifically, to different orientations thereof.
In one type of conventional barcode scanner, a laser, multi-faceted spinner, and a plurality of pattern mirrors are mounted inside a housing. A deflecting mirror is optically aligned between the laser and the spinner for directing a laser beam from the laser against the rotating spinner facets which in turn reflect the beam forwardly onto the pattern mirrors which produce a plurality of scan lines in a typically intersecting pattern for each revolution of the spinner.
The scan pattern is projected through a window toward a barcode typically found on the label of a consumer product, for example. The scan beam is reflected from the barcode with varying intensity due to the light and dark lines of the code which may then be decoded. The return beam passes through the scanner window in a reverse path along the pattern mirrors and spinner and is then reflected off a collection mirror, which typically surrounds the deflecting mirror, which focuses the return beam onto a suitable photodetector. An electrical processor is joined to the detector for decoding the return beam from the barcode in a suitable manner.
But for the spinner whose facets rotate during operation, the other mirrors of the scanner are stationary in a fixed interrelationship for producing the desired scan pattern. The scan pattern typically includes groups of parallel intersecting scan lines covering a useful area of projection over a barcode presented therein. The desired exit angle of the scan pattern through the scanner window is dependent upon the scanner application.
In one application, the scanner window is mounted horizontally and flush in the surface of a counter in a pass-through scanner configuration. This configuration is typically found in supermarkets which allows a clerk to pass individual products over the window for decoding the barcodes thereon. In this configuration, the exit angle of one of the scan lines at the midpoint of the scan pattern is about 45.degree. from the window in the upstream direction from which the products are presented. The remainder of the scan pattern spreads plus and minus a few degrees from the nominal 45.degree. exit angle. In this way, maximum accuracy in decoding presented barcodes is obtained.
However, in another typical application the scanner window is mounted vertically or normal to the top of the counter in a presentation scanner configuration. The midpoint scan pattern exit angle is preferably closer to 90.degree. which is perpendicular to the scanner window and generally parallel to the countertop. The scan pattern also has a suitable spread of several degrees plus and/or minus. In a presentation scanner, a product including a barcode is presented in front of the vertical window for decoding.
In view of the different horizontal and vertical applications of barcode scanners, different exit angles for the scan beams are required, which in turn requires a correspondingly different fixed orientation of the pattern mirrors inside the scanner. Different scanner models must therefore be manufactured which correspondingly increases associated costs of manufacture and use depending upon the required application.
In one compromise for providing a dual purpose barcode scanner, a scanner specifically configured for the horizontal, pass-through application may be simply converted to the vertical presentation application by the use of a simple change in mounting fixtures therefor. However, the exit angle of the scan pattern remains the same, for example 45.degree. to the window, even though the window is mounted vertically instead of horizontally. This decreases the efficiency of presenting barcodes in front of the window, since 90.degree. is considered optimal.
An example of such dual use barcode scanner has been commercially available for many years from the NCR Corporation of Ohio under the basic model 7880, with suitable mounting kits being provided therefor for use in the pass-through or presentation applications. The basic configuration of the NCR model 7880 barcode scanner is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,591,954. In this model, eight pattern mirrors are symmetrically mounted adjacent to a four-faceted spinner for producing a corresponding scan pattern with a mid-point scan pattern exit angle of about 45.degree. with a corresponding spread of plus or minus several degrees relative thereto.
It is desired to improve this basic barcode scanner for dual use in either pass-through or presentation type scanner applications, with an improved scan pattern exit angle in the presentation configuration.


A vehicle door handle apparatus is disclosed that generally includes a structural core and an outer layer. The structural core has an outer surface, a base portion, and a handle portion that extends from the base portion. The outer layer extends about and covers the outer surface of at least the handle portion of the structural core. The structural core is made of a first material that contains an engineering thermoplastic and glass fibers for reinforcement. The outer layer is made of a second material that contains the engineering thermoplastic and a milled material to give the outer layer a metallic surface finish. Non-limiting examples of the engineering thermoplastic are polyoxymethylene and polybutylene terephthalate. A method is also disclosed for producing an injection molded component having a metallic surface finish such as the disclosed vehicle door handle apparatus.

This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
Injection molded components are widely used in the automotive industry for various trim pieces and other parts that are installed both inside and outside a vehicle. Such injection molded components are typically made of a thermoplastic material. Typically, injection molded components are lighter and cheaper to make in comparison to metal parts, particularly when the part requires complex shapes and curves. Injection molded components also tend to be more corrosion resistant than metal parts, which are prone to rust. However, consumers typically associate injection molded components with inferior quality largely due to their weight and appearance. Accordingly, there has been a trend within the automotive industry in recent years to improve the quality of injection molded components, including making improvements to the appearance of these components. This is especially true within luxury brands and vehicles with upgraded trim packages. These advances have led to the proliferation of injection molded components that simulate (i.e. have the appearance of) metal parts.
One area where improvements in injection molded components are notable is in vehicle door handles on both the inside and outside of the vehicle. At one time, vehicle door handles were commonly made of metal. Due to cost reduction efforts, most vehicle door handles are now made of plastic using injection molding processes. While this change gives automakers more options regarding the shape of the door handle, standard injection molded components have a dull surface finish and are often perceived by consumers as having a "cheap" appearance. One way that automakers have "dressed-up" the appearance of these injection molded components is by chrome plating vehicle door handles. Examples of chrome-plated vehicle door handles are found in U.S. Pat. No. 7,544,319 entitled "Vehicle Handle Assembly With Antenna," which issued to March et al. on Jun. 9, 2009 and Canadian Patent Application No. 2,047,625 entitled "Injection Molding Process For Platable Plastic Substrates," which was published on Jan. 25, 1992 naming Robert L. Coombes, Jr. as the inventor. Both of these references teach vehicle door handles that are manufactured using a conventional two-shot injection molding process. The vehicle door handles have two plastic layers, an inner layer that is formed by the first shot and an outer layer that is formed by the second shot. Both references explicitly call for the outer layer to be made of a platable plastic material. In other words, the plastic material forming the outer layer is selected from a group of plastics that are compatible with the chrome plating process (i.e. plastics that chrome can adhere to). Chrome plating is applied to the platable plastic material to create a vehicle door handle that ultimately includes three layers—two plastic layers and one layer of chrome plate. As explained in the references, the chrome plating can be applied by immersing at least part of the vehicle door handle in one or more electroplating baths, where metal is electrolytically deposited on the surface of the outer layer. This is a fairly lengthy and expensive manufacturing process because the vehicle door handle is not a finished component when it is removed from the mold. Also, the chemicals used in the chrome plating process are hazardous to the environment and can create adverse health effects when exposed to humans. Therefore, caution must be used in the handling and disposal of these chemicals.
Although the chrome plated vehicle door handles produced by this process have a metallic appearance and are thus more aesthetically pleasing than un-plated injection molded door handles, they suffer from a number of problems in addition to the time, expense, and environmental drawbacks that are associated with the chrome plating process. First, the metal that is deposited on the outer layer of the vehicle door handle is susceptible to corrosion. As such, the chrome plating itself may rust even if the plastic material forming the inner and outer layers cannot. Second, the chrome plating can bubble, peel, and chip. This not only detracts from the appearance of the vehicle door handle, but the exposed edges of the chrome plating tend to be sharp and can cut a person's hand when they grab the vehicle door handle during ingress or egress. What is needed is an alternative solution to chrome plating that produces a plastic vehicle door handle with a metallic surface finish at a reasonable cost.

Vehicle door handle apparatus and two-shot injection molding process for producing components with a metallic surface finish


Phase-sensitive amplification (PSA), which is produced by degenerate four-wave mixing (FWM) in a randomly-birefringent fiber, has the potential to improve the performance of optical communication systems. Scalar FWM, which is driven by parallel pumps, is impaired by the generation of pump-pump and pump-signal harmonics, which limit the level, and modify the phase sensitivity, of the signal gain. In contrast, vector FWM, which is driven by perpendicular pumps, is not impaired by the generation of harmonics. Vector FWM produces PSA with the classical properties of a one-mode squeezing transformation.

Long-haul communication systems require optical amplifiers to compensate for fiber loss. Current systems use erbium-doped or Raman fiber amplifiers. These amplifiers are examples of phase-insensitive amplifiers (PIAs), which produce signal gain that is independent of the signal phase. In principle, phase-sensitive amplifiers (PSAs) could also be used. The potential advantages of PSAs include, but are not limited to, noise reduction (See, e.g., R. Loudon, "Theory of noise accumulation in linear optical-amplifier chains," IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 21, 766-773 (1985)) the reduction of noise- and collision-induced phase (See, e.g., Y. Mu and C. M. Savage, "Parametric amplifiers in phase-noise-limited optical communications," J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 9, 65-70 (1992), and frequency (See, e.g., H. P. Yuen, "Reduction of quantum fluctuation and suppression of the Gordon-Haus effect with phase-sensitive linear amplifiers," Opt. Lett. 17, 73-75 (1992)) fluctuations, and dispersion compensation (See, e.g., R. D. Li, P. Kumar, W. L. Kath and J. N. Kutz, "Combating dispersion with parametric amplifiers," IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. 5, 669-672 (1993)). Previous papers (See, e.g., C. J. McKinstrie and S. Radic, "Phase-sensitive amplification in a fiber," Opt. Express 12, 4973-4979 (2004); and C. J. McKinstrie, M. G. Raymer, S. Radic and M. V. Vasilyev, "Quantum mechanics of phase-sensitive amplification in a fiber," Opt. Commun. 257, 146-163 (2006)) showed that degenerate four-wave mixing (FWM) in a randomly birefringent fiber (RBF) produces phase-sensitive amplification (PSA), provided that the signal frequency (ω0) is the average of the pump frequencies (ω−1 and ω1). Degenerate scalar and vector FWM are illustrated in FIGS. 1(a) and 1(b), respectively. In degenerate scalar FWM (inverse modulation interaction), γ−1+γ1→2γ0, where γj represents a photon with frequency ωj. In degenerate vector FWM, (degenerate phase conjugation), γ−1+γ1→γ∥γ⊥, where the subscript 0 was omitted for simplicity. If one assumes that each interaction involves only the aforementioned pumps and signal, then each interaction produces PSA with the classical properties of a one-mode squeezing transformation.
FWM processes are driven by pump- and signal-induced nonlinearities and are limited by dispersion-induced wave number shifts. If the pump frequencies differ significantly, strong dispersion prevents other FWM processes from occurring and the preceding assumption is valid. However, it is difficult to phase lock pumps with dissimilar frequencies, which are usually produced by two separate lasers. In contrast, it is easy to phase lock pumps with similar frequencies, which can be produced by one laser and a phase modulator. However, if the pump frequencies are similar, dispersion is too weak to counter nonlinearity and other FWM processes occur.
A previous paper on scalar FWM (See, e.g., C. J. McKinstrie and M. G. Raymer, "Four-wave-mixing cascades near the zero-dispersion frequency," Opt. Express 14, 9600-9610 (2006)) showed that, if the pump frequencies are comparable to the zero-dispersion frequency (ZDF) of the fiber, a cascade of product waves (harmonics) is produced. These harmonics limit the level, and modify the phase sensitivity, of the signal gain. Accordingly, there is a need for a way to achieve phase sensitive amplification without the problems caused by frequency cascades.


A test tool for testing application programs of the type that are deployed on a server computer for access by multiple users over a network is embodied in a computer program comprising a command module and a core module. The command module contains a number of different commands, each of which performs a different user function of the application program under test. Each of the commands comprises a series of programmed instructions that cause a computer running the test tool to perform a user function of the application program under test via a client connection to the application. Each command has an execution segment and a verification segment. Each command is also assigned a unique name. A test operator can then create test scripts containing any desired sequence of command module commands using the simple names assigned to each command. The command module is rewritten and/or customized for each different application program to be tested. The core module is independent of the command module and performs the core functionality of the test tool. The core module comprises instructions that enable the computer on which the test tool is running to execute concurrently, on each of a plurality of different client connections to the application program under test, a series of command module commands specified by name in a test script.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to testing of computer programs or applications, and more particularly, to a tool for testing application programs of the type that are deployed on a server computer for access by multiple users over a network, such as, for example, World Wide Web applications accessible via the Internet or an intranet.
1. Description of the Prior Art
Developers of application programs that are to be deployed on a network server for concurrent access by Multiple users, such as client/server applications and web-based Internet or intranet applications, need to be able to test the ability of these application programs to operate under significant user loads. For example, a web-based application that is accessible by multiple users, or clients, via the Internet, can become overwhelmed when a large number of clients attempt to access that application concurrently. Prior to deployment, it is desirable to test an application's ability to handle multiple users to make sure that the application will operate correctly and provide acceptable response times under expected user loads.
Subjecting an application program to access by multiple clients to ensure that the application operates properly and provides acceptable response times under such loads is generally referred to as load or stress testing. Stress testing a client/server or web-based application prior to deployment is becoming increasingly important as the number of users of the Internet, and thus the likelihood of heavy user loads, increases. In the past, load testing has been done with real people who concurrently access and test an application manually, noting any errors that are encountered under such conditions. Use of real people to perform stress testing is simply not feasible today, as most web-based applications can expect typical concurrent access by hundreds of users.
Automated testing of single-user application programs is known. U.S. Pat. No. 5,475,843, assigned to Borland International, Inc., for example, describes an automated test tool for testing the graphical user interface features of Microsoft.RTM. Windows.RTM. application programs. Test scenarios are built around Generic Element Models (GEM) that are stored in a library. Each GEM represents the behavior of a basic Microsoft.RTM. Windows.RTM. graphical user interface element, such as a push button, a check box, a list box, or the like. Thus, the Borland tool is Windows.RTM. specific. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,669,000 and 5,640,537, both assigned to Apple Computer, Inc., describe automated testing techniques for testing the graphical user interface features of single-user Macintosh.RTM. application programs. None of these programs, however, provides the ability to simulate concurrent, multi-user access to a multi-user application program such as a client/server or web-based application program deployed on the Internet or an intranet. Accordingly, these tools are not useful for testing such applications.
Recently, a few vendors have advertised tools that purport to perform stress testing of web applications by simulating multiple user loads on a web site. One such tool, called WebLoad, has been advertised by RadView Software, Ltd. The WebLoad tool can establish multiple connections to a web application and can run "user-defined" test scripts on each connection to simulate user interaction with the web application on those connections. However, the user-defined scripts must be written in a specific programming language, requiring knowledge of that language to generate test scripts. Alternatively, a test script can be generated "automatically" by recording the interaction between a real user and the web application. This offers less flexibility, because the test scripts are dictated by the sequence of recorded events.
Another recently advertised stress testing tool, called Web Hammer, advertised by Hammer Technologies, 226 Lowell Street, Wilmington, Mass. USA 01887, suffers from the same deficiencies as the WebLoad tool, in that test scripts that test the functionality of a web application are written in a complicated programming language. Writing test scripts therefore requires knowledge of the programming language, and modification of scripts requires reprogramming and is time-consuming.
Rational Software Corporation presently advertises two stress testing products, Performix and preVue. However, the only advertised means of creating test scripts in these products is by recording real user interaction with the web application under test. This limits flexibility and makes editing of scripts difficult.
As the foregoing illustrates, none of these products provides a simple, easy way to generate and/or modify a number of different test scripts in a manner that requires little programming expertise. Moreover, while each of these products purports to provide the ability to execute the user interface functions of a web application under test, there is no indication that these products can verify proper execution of these functions, other than by recording errors that might be returned by the web application itself Accordingly, there is a need for a tool for testing multi-user application programs, such as web applications, that enables easy creation and editing of test scripts and that provides enhanced verification of proper execution of the user functions of the application program under test. The present invention satisfies these needs.

Multi-user application program testing tool


There is described herein compounds comprising a mitochondrial penetrating peptide (MPP) conjugated to an antimicrobial, and their method of use.

The use of antibacterial agents has become a mainstay in healthcare in the 21st century. Since the work of Pasteur and Koch to link a role of bacterial pathogens to disease, we as a society have been driven to develop chemotherapeutics to prevent transmission and to cure microbiological related disease. In recent years, over- and mis-use of these drugs has led to the emergence of resistant pathogens.
Resistance of a bacterium to antibiotics can arise through various mechanisms including modulation of intracellular concentration of the drug through efflux pumps, hindrance of drug influx (e.g. through biofilm formation), enzymatic inactivation, or through modification of the target of the drug.1,2 Very few classes of antimicrobials have been marketed in the past 46 years (oxazolidinones3 and lipopeptides4). At this pace drug research and discovery may not be able to maintain the tenuous hold that we have on infectious disease. This is particularly evident in the emergence of multi-drug resistant pathogens "superbugs" where health care workers are left with few options for treatment.5 The Gram-positive Staphylococcal, Streptococcocal, Enterococcal, and now Clostridium pathogens have proven to be a particular challenge in this respect.6,7
In small molecule antimicrobial design, the current methods of drug discovery aim to exploit cellular differences between bacterial and human biology to prevent host toxicity from the developed drug. This methodology however limits the effective number of targets that can be exploited for drug design to a few cellular processes. These processes typically include bacterial cell wall biosynthesis, DNA synthesis and protein synthesis, which have been mined considerably for the development of antibiotics since the mid 1940s.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Mitochondrial penetrating peptides as carriers for antimicrobials

The Governing Council of the University of Toronto


The antenna module contains a transmission line, a resonant radiation area, and an antenna base. An end of the transmission line is installed in the resonant radiation area. The resonant radiation area contains a positive zone and a negative zone. A section of the positive zone and a section of the negative zone are arranged in parallel where an adjustable impedance zone is formed between. Apart of the positive zone that extends from an edge of the adjustable impedance zone to an end point of the positive zone, and a part of the negative zone configured with a conductor are for high-frequency signal. A part that extends from the end point of the positive zone to an end point of the negative zone, and a part from the end point of the negative zone to where the conductor is configured on the negative zone are for low-frequency signal.

(a) Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention is generally related to antennas for wireless communication electronic devices, and more particular to a transmission line load antenna module.
(b) Description of the Prior Art
Wireless communication devices such as portable computers, handheld electronic appliances, etc. are widely popular. For these devices, communications are usually conducted using long-distance 850 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, or 1900 MHz cellular band, or using 2100 MHz or LTE band. They can also use short-distance 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz WiFi band or 2.4 GHz Bluetooth band.
Since there is limited space in these wireless communication devices, impedance matching is required on their circuit boards so as to enhance their antenna bandwidth or radiation power. Additionally, to fulfill the need of various applications, multi-band and wide-band antennas are widely demanded. An improved antenna is therefore desired.


Whether relative velocity between a transmitter and a receiver is higher than a predetermined amount is detected. This involves using a Doppler estimation technique to generate an estimate of Doppler spread, {circumflex over (f)}D(1), based on a received signal, and using an alternative velocity estimation technique to generate an estimate of velocity, {circumflex over (v)}, based on the received signal, wherein the alternative velocity estimation technique differs from the Doppler estimation technique. A plurality of estimates, including at least the estimate of Doppler spread and the estimate of velocity, are used to detect whether the relative velocity between the transmitter and the receiver is higher than the predetermined amount. The alternative velocity estimation technique may, for example, be a second Doppler estimation technique that differs from the other Doppler estimation technique.

The present invention relates to mobile telecommunication systems, and more particularly to methods and apparatuses that determine high velocity relative movement between a transmitter and a receiver in a telecommunication system.
Digital communication systems include time-division multiple access (TDMA) systems, such as cellular radio telephone systems that comply with the GSM telecommunication standard and its enhancements like GSM/EDGE, and Code-Division Multiple Access (CDMA) systems, such as cellular radio telephone systems that comply with the IS-95, cdma2000, and Wideband CDMA (WCDMA) telecommunication standards. Digital communication systems also include "blended" TDMA and CDMA systems, such as cellular radio telephone systems that comply with the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) standard, which specifies a third generation (3G) mobile system being developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) within the International Telecommunication Union's (ITU's) IMT-2000 framework. The Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) promulgates the UMTS standard. This application focuses on WCDMA systems for economy of explanation, but it will be understood that the principles described in this application can be implemented in other digital communication systems.
WCDMA is based on direct-sequence spread-spectrum techniques, with pseudo-noise scrambling codes and orthogonal channelization codes separating base stations and physical channels (user equipment or users), respectively, in the downlink (base-to-user equipment) direction. User Equipment (UE) communicates with the system through, for example, respective dedicated physical channels (DPCHs). WCDMA terminology is used here, but it will be appreciated that other systems have corresponding terminology. Scrambling and channelization codes and transmit power control are well known in the art.
FIG. 1 depicts a mobile radio cellular telecommunication system 100, which may be, for example, a CDMA or a WCDMA communication system. Radio network controllers (RNCs) 112, 114 control various radio network functions including for example radio access bearer setup, diversity handover, and the like. More generally, each RNC directs UE calls via the appropriate base station(s) (BSs). The UE and BS communicate with each other through downlink (i.e., base-to-UE or forward) and uplink (i.e., UE-to-base or reverse) channels. RNC 112 is shown coupled to BSs 116, 118, 120, and RNC 114 is shown coupled to BSs 122, 124, 126. Each BS serves a geographical area that can be divided into one or more cell(s). BS 126 is shown as having five antenna sectors S1-S5, which can be said to make up the cell of the BS 126. The BSs are coupled to their corresponding RNCs by dedicated telephone lines, optical fiber links, microwave links, and the like. Both RNCs 112, 114 are connected with external networks such as the public switched telephone network (PSTN), the Internet, and the like through one or more core network nodes like a mobile switching center (not shown) and/or a packet radio service node (not shown). In FIG. 1, UE 128 is shown communicating with BS 118. UE 130 is shown communicating with plural base stations, namely BSs 120 and 122. A control link between RNCs 112, 114 permits diversity communications to/from UE 130 via BSs 120, 122.
At the UE, the modulated carrier signal (Layer 1) is processed to produce an estimate of the original information data stream intended for the receiver. The composite received baseband spread signal is commonly provided to a RAKE processor that includes a number of "fingers", or de-spreaders, that are each assigned to respective ones of selected components, such as multipath echoes or streams from different base stations, in the received signal. Each finger combines a received component with the scrambling sequence and the appropriate channelization code so as to de-spread a component of the received composite signal. The RAKE processor typically de-spreads both sent information data and pilot or training symbols that are included in the composite signal.
In a typical wireless communication system, each device (e.g. UE, BS) has its own local oscillator which defines a time reference. It is crucial that the local oscillators of devices communicating with each other be aligned as precisely as possible, otherwise their time references will drift in relation to each other. This drift could lead to the devices no longer being capable of receiving information properly from each other, which in turn causes degraded receiver performance. Ultimately, the connection may be lost due to loss of synchronization between the UE and BS.
This applies in particular to wireless telecommunication systems such as WCDMA. In such systems, the UE applies an automatic frequency control (AFC) mechanism to adjust its local oscillator in a manner that keeps it well aligned with the local oscillators of the base station(s) it is connected to.
Typical operation of the AFC comprises analyzing a characteristic (e.g., complex channel estimates) over time, and attempting to adjust the local oscillator such that no rotation of the channel estimates are detected in the complex plane. This algorithm is based on the fact that rotation corresponds to relative frequency drift, which in turn corresponds to relative time reference drift.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the parts of a UE involved in AFC operation. Of particular relevance to this discussion is the local oscillator (VCXO) 201 which generates the frequencies necessary for operating the Front End Receiver (RX Fe) 203 and Front End Transmitter (not shown) sections. An AFC 205 generates a digital control signal (ferr) that, after conversion to an analog control voltage by a Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC) 207 adjusts the output frequency of the local oscillator 201.
The AFC 205 may be selectively operated in one of a plurality of different speed modes. The speed mode may be set by a Doppler estimator 209.
Consider an example in which there are two different speed modes. In an exemplary low speed mode, one channel estimate per finger is collected in each slot, and in an exemplary high speed mode five channel estimates per finger are collected in each slot. The value
                    y        =                              ∑            f                                                                                h                  ^                                f                                                          (                                                      h                    ^                                    f                                      (                    previous                    )                                                  )                                      *                                              (        1        )            (where "*" denotes complex conjugation) is calculated and then filtered according toyfilt=λ(y−yfilt(previous))+yfilt(previous)  (2)where λ is a filter parameter, f denotes the fingers involved in AFC operation, and ĥf and ĥf(previous) are the current and previous channel estimates, respectively, for finger f, each generated by a channel estimator 211. The filter state is appropriately reset whenever an update of the UE frequency reference (fUE) or a speedmode change occurs. The reported frequency error ferr is calculated as
                              φ          =                      arg                                      (                              y                filt                            )                                      ,                              f            err                    =                      φ                          2                                                                                π                                                                                Δ                                                                                t                                      ,                            (        3        )            where Δt is the time interval between two consecutive updates of the AFC (i.e., two consecutive collected channel estimates), for example 1/1500 seconds in low speed mode and 1/7500 seconds in high speed mode.
In the arrangement as described above, there is a high risk of AFC wrap-around in certain situations. The wrap-around occurs when
                                                    Δ                                                                          f                                    >                  1                      2                                                                          Δ                                                                          t                                              (        4        )            where Δf is the frequency error caused by the Doppler shift together with the difference between the BS transmit frequency reference and the UE receive frequency reference, and Δt is the time interval between two consecutive updates of the AFC (i.e., two consecutive collected channel estimates). The inequality expressed in Equation (4) corresponds to a situation in which the channel estimates rotate more than ±π between two consecutive channel estimates collected by the AFC, which results in the frequency error ferr reported by the AFC being erroneous by a multiple of
      1          Δ                                      t                        Hz    .  As an example, a UE can be designed in which the AFC is updated once every slot in low speed mode, whereby
      1          2                                      Δ                                      t        =      750                                Hz      .      In an exemplary high speed mode, the UE's AFC can be updated five times every slot, whereby
      1          2                                      Δ                                      t        =      3750                                Hz      .      It can be seen that the AFC is substantially more tolerant of frequency errors in high speed mode than in low speed mode. It is noted that in other embodiments that call for a different number of channel estimates per slot, different values of Δt are obtained. Further, as mentioned earlier, the number of speed modes may be higher than two.
It should be noted that, in current applications of WCDMA, the UE goes out-of-sync if the correct frequency reference is not restored within approximately 50-150 slots.
A scenario that is especially vulnerable to AFC wrap-around when the UE is moving at high relative velocities (assuming that the AFC is operating in low speed mode) is that in which the UE is passing a base station closely (less than 10 m or so).
In such a scenario, a wrap-around event can occur for relative velocities around and above 185 km/h (i.e., the UE's velocity relative to the base station) for embodiments in which Δt= 1/1500.
FIGS. 3(a)-(c) through 5(a)-(c) are graphs depicting exemplary results obtained by simulating the above-described scenario, employing a one-tap line-of-sight (LOS) channel without fading or interference.
In this simulation, the UE is assumed to pass the base station at a distance of 2 m. The UE frequency reference is shown without the carrier frequency component. The same settings apply to all simulations shown in this specification.
FIGS. 3a-c are graphs depicting the tracking ability of the AFC 205 when it remains in a low speed mode (speedmode equals zero, meaning low speed mode, for all slots as depicted in the graph of FIG. 3c) at a relative velocity of 150 km/h. FIG. 3a allows a comparison to be made between the true Doppler shift (graph 301) and the shift in the UE frequency (graph 303). FIG. 3b allows a comparison to be made between the true frequency error (graph 305) and the reported frequency error (graph 307) generated by the AFC 205. It can be seen that, at this relative velocity, the UE is able to follow the Doppler shift caused frequency change even when the AFC update rate is low.
FIGS. 4a-c are graphs depicting the tracking ability of the AFC 205 when it remains in a low speed mode (speedmode equals zero, meaning low speed mode, for all slots as depicted in the graph of FIG. 4c) but the relative velocity increases to 350 km/h. FIG. 4a allows a comparison to be made between the true Doppler shift (graph 401) and the shift in the UE frequency (graph 403). FIG. 4b allows a comparison to be made between the true frequency error (graph 405) and the reported frequency error (graph 407) generated by the AFC 205. As can be seen, at this relative velocity the AFC 205 is incapable of tracking the Doppler shift caused frequency change when it is updated at the low rate.
FIGS. 5a-c are graphs depicting the tracking ability of the AFC 205 when it operates at a high speed mode (speedmode equals one, meaning high speed mode, for all slots as depicted in the graph of FIG. 5c) and the relative velocity is 350 km/h. FIG. 5a allows a comparison to be made between the true Doppler shift (graph 501) and the shift in the UE frequency (graph 503). FIG. 5b allows a comparison to be made between the true frequency error (graph 505) and the reported frequency error (graph 507) generated by the AFC 205. As can be seen, even at this relative velocity the AFC 205 is able to track the Doppler shift caused frequency change when it is updated at the high rate.
In an exemplary UE, wrap-around occurs when Δf>3750 Hz if the AFC 205 is operating in high speed mode. Hence, wrap-around would occur around and above 935 km/h for the above-described scenario. This indicates that if the AFC were in high speed mode at the proper moments in time, the wrap-around problem would be resolved for all currently realistic velocities. However, it may be undesirable to run the AFC in high speed modes at all times because the AFC may become more sensitive to noise, which can result in unnecessary toggling in UE frequency compensations in high speed mode. This is one reason why a Doppler estimator 209 is employed in the exemplary UE shown in FIG. 2: The Doppler estimator 209 determines the state of speedmode, which in turn governs whether the AFC update rate will be high or low. (The Doppler estimator 209 also may be used for other purposes in the receiver chain, such as setting parameters for, e.g., filters for channel estimation, SIR estimation, and the like; and turning on and off algorithms, e.g., GRAKE in low speed mode and RAKE in high speed mode.) Different Doppler estimation algorithms can be considered for this purpose, such as the level crossing algorithm and the argument (or zero) crossing algorithm. As will be explained, however, both of these algorithms have problems with detecting high speed situations under line-of-sight (LOS) conditions, since the algorithms measure fading properties (which are related to the Doppler spread) and not velocity itself. A Doppler estimate is related to the fading characteristics of the channel, and is assumed to be approximately proportional to the relative velocity of the device, which is true for Rayleigh fading channels, but not at all for channels with little (e.g., Ricean) or no fading (e.g., Additive White Gaussian Noise, or "AWGN").
The level crossing algorithm counts the number of times the absolute value of, for example, the complex channel estimate or an estimated signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) value crosses a given level, and converts the number of registered level crossings into a Doppler estimate.
The level crossing algorithm is based on the assumption that the higher the relative velocity is, the faster the fading is, and hence the number of level crossings per time unit should correspond to the relative velocity. This is a quite accurate method as long as the paths involved are all Rayleigh distributed. However, in LOS conditions, the strongest path is typically very dominant and has a Ricean distribution (hence it can be fading very weakly or hardly at all). Using a level crossing Doppler estimator in such a situation would result in high relative velocity situations not being detected and the AFC remaining in low speed mode.
In one of its variants, the argument crossing algorithm counts the number of times the complex channel estimate crosses any of the imaginary or real axes, and converts the number of registered axes crossings into a Doppler estimate.
The argument crossing algorithm assumes that the phase variations become faster the higher the relative velocity is, and hence the number of crossings per time unit should correspond to the relative velocity. This is also a quite accurate method as long as the paths involved are all Rayleigh fading. In LOS conditions, however, the strongest path typically experiences a rotation due to Doppler shift, and this rotation typically dominates over the random phase variations. Then the argument crossing Doppler estimator will mainly register the rotation due to changes in the Doppler shift. This creates a severe risk of the relative velocity being underestimated, which may result in, for example, the AFC remaining in low speed mode when it should be switching to high speed mode.
Since none of the conventional Doppler estimation algorithms will detect high speed situations in a LOS environment, their use in the Doppler estimator 209 could keep the AFC 205 in low speed mode when it should be in high speed mode, thereby creating a high risk of AFC wrap-around in these situations.
In addition to the above application, Doppler estimation is also used in wireless communication devices (e.g., a UE) to define other operations (e.g., filter constants) for such things as channel estimation, SIR estimation, and the like.
Therefore, there is a need for methods and apparatuses that can detect high speed movement in LOS situations.

Detection of high velocity movement in a telecommunication system


An optical sensing apparatus includes M light emitting devices, N sensing devices, a control circuit and a processing circuit. M is a positive integer, and N is an integer greater than or equal to 3. The control circuit is arranged for controlling activation and deactivation of the M light emitting devices, and controlling each sensing device to detect a reflected signal reflected from an object when a corresponding light emitting device is activated in order to generate a sensing result corresponding to the sensing device. The N sensing devices generate N sensing results in response to the M light emitting devices. The processing circuit is arranged for calculating position information of the object according to at least the N sensing results and N sensing positions of the N sensing devices, wherein the N sensing positions define at least one geometric plane.

1. Field of the Invention
The disclosed embodiments of the present invention relate to optical sensing, and more particularly, to a non-contact optical sensing apparatus, which uses a triangulation technique to obtain position information of an object, and a related non-contact optical sensing method.
2. Description of the Prior Art
With the advent of personal electronic products (e.g. a mobile phone or a personal computer (PC)), many control methods for human-device interaction have been popular. For example, an electronic mouse enables a user to trace a position on a screen and give instruction such as menu selection or editing contents on the screen. Regarding touch-screen sensor technologies (including capacitive, resistive, magnetic or surface acoustic wave types), the user can directly point to a position on the screen and move object (s) across the screen. In addition, some sensing devices (e.g. an air mouse or a three-dimensional (3D) mouse) allow the user to move them in the air to trace a position on the screen.
However, as none of the above control methods allows a bare hand or finger(s) to trace a screen position in a distance from the screen (i.e. without touching the screen), it is inconvenient for the user to trace a position on the screen in some circumstances. For example, when a user's hand is dirty from performing mechanic works, or greasy from handling the food, the user will prefer a non-contact method to track a screen position without touching the screen. In some other use case where the screen may be held in a distance away from the user, a contact touch method is not suitable for screen position tracking.
Thus, there is a need for a novel non-contact sensing mechanism to facilitate human-machine interaction.

Optical sensing apparatus and method for detecting object near optical sensing apparatus

EMINENT ELECTRONIC TECHNOLOGY CORP. LTD.


A low-pass filter of the present invention comprises a plurality of filter units and a regulation unit. The filter units are coupled in series with each other and receive an input signal to filter the input signal for generating an output signal. The regulation unit is coupled to the filter units to regulate voltage levels of the filter units. The low-pass filter of the present invention can be integrated within the integrated circuit and reduce the prime cost.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a low-pass filter, and more particularly to a low pass-filter capable of being integrated in the integrated circuit and reduce the prime cost.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Power supplies are widely applied to provide regulated voltage and current for various electronic products. To improve the stability of the power supplies, compensation capacitors are usually coupled to the control integrated circuit (controller chip) of the power supplies externally. Thus, extra pins must be added to the controller chip for coupling to the external compensation capacitors, which increases the packaging cost of the controller chip. Furthermore, since the external compensation capacitors are usually bulk capacitors, they will occupy considerable layout space if they are integrated within the controller chip. Detailed explanation is given below to describe disadvantages of the above. Referring to FIG. 1, it shows a conventional power supply disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,362,592 (Yang). The conventional power supply comprises a transformer 10 having a primary winding NP, a secondary winding NS, and an auxiliary winding NA. A terminal of the primary winding NP is coupled to an input voltage VIN. A transistor 20 is coupled to another terminal of the primary winding NP and a ground reference via a resistor 30. A controller 70 has a supply terminal VCC, a ground terminal GND, a detection terminal DET, a sense terminal CS, a pulse width modulation terminal VPWM, a voltage-compensation terminal COMV, and a current-compensation terminal COMI. The pulse width modulation terminal VPWM of the controller 70 generates a switching signal VPWM to control the transistor 20 for switching the transformer 10 and regulating the output voltage VO and/or the output current IO of the power supply.
A terminal of the secondary winding NS is coupled to a rectifier 40. Two terminals of a filter capacitor 45 are respectively coupled to the rectifier 40 and another terminal of the secondary winding NS. The transformer 10 stores energy when the transistor 20 is turned on. Once the transistor 20 is turned off, the energy stored in the transformer 10 is released to an output terminal of the power supply via the secondary winding NS, and a secondary-side switching current IS, an output current IO and an output voltage VO are generated accordingly. Meanwhile, a reflected voltage VAUX is generated at the auxiliary winding NA of the transformer 10. The reflected voltage VAUX charges a capacitor 65 via a rectifier 60. The capacitor 65 is coupled to the supply terminal VCC of the controller 70 to power the controller 70.
The detection terminal DET of the controller 70 is coupled to a joint of the resistors 50 and 51 of a voltage divider. A terminal of the resistor 50 is coupled to the auxiliary winding NA. A terminal of the resistor 51 is coupled to the ground reference and the ground terminal GND of the controller 70. The detection terminal DET is coupled to receive a detection voltage VDET. The sense terminal CS of the controller 70 is coupled to the resistor 30 which serves as a current-sense resistor for converting a primary-side switching current IP into a current signal VCS. The controller 70 generates the switching signal VPWM at the pulse width modulation terminal VPWM for switching the transformer 10 in response to the detection voltage VDET at the detection terminal DET and the current signal VCS at the sense terminal CS.
Furthermore, the voltage-compensation terminal COMV and the current-compensation terminal COMI of the controller 70 are respectively coupled to the capacitors 31 and 32 for voltage-loop frequency compensation and current-loop frequency compensation to improve the stability of the power supply. The controller 70 therefore needs two extra pins for coupling the external capacitors 31 and 32. Since the capacitors 31 and 32 are bulk capacitors, they are inappropriate to integrate within the controller 70. The main problem that the power supply manufacturers have to solve is how to integrate the external capacitors 31 and 32 within the controller 70 with a smaller layout space, which saves the pin counts of the controller 70 and therefore reduces the packaging cost thereof.
Bulk capacitors, such as capacitors 31 and 32 mentioned above, are necessary components for low-pass filters which are utilized for frequency compensation. Nowadays, although various types of low-pass filters are able to integrate within the controller chip, they still failed to meet low bandwidth requirement of power supplies. This is because most of their bandwidths are too high due to the consideration of saving layout space.
Referring to FIG. 2, it shows a circuit diagram of conventional switched-capacitor low-pass filter. The conventional switched-capacitor low-pass filter comprises a first capacitor 75, a second capacitor 76, a first switch 77, and a second switch 78. The first switch 77 is coupled in between an input terminal IN of the low-pass filter and the first capacitor 75. The second switch 78 is coupled in between the first capacitor 75 and the second capacitor 76. The second capacitor 76 is coupled to an output terminal OUT of the switched-capacitor low-pass filter. The input terminal IN of the low-pass filter receives an input signal SIN. The first capacitor 75 and the second capacitor 76 filter the input signal SIN for generating an output signal SOUT1 at the output terminal OUT of the low-pass filter.
Referring to FIG. 7, it shows the waveforms of the input signal SIN and the output signal SOUT1 shown in FIG. 2. The capacitance of the second capacitor 76 of the low-pass filter, for example, is twenty times that of the first capacitor 75. The low-pass filter shown in FIG. 2 filters the input signal SIN to generate the output signal SOUT1. As shown in FIG. 7, the difference between the waveform of the input signal SIN and the waveform of the output signal SOUT1 is small. That is, the bandwidth of the low-pass filter is not low enough, and therefore the medium-high frequency harmonic of the input signal SIN cannot be filtered efficiently. In order to improve the filtering efficiency of the low-pass filter shown in FIG. 2, when the frequency to switch the capacitor is kept constant, the ratio of the capacitance of the second capacitor 76 to the capacitance of the first capacitor 75 must be increased. The integrated layout space of the second capacitor 76 will therefore inevitably increase, which also increases the integration cost of the controller chip.
In addition to the low-pass filter described above, there are also other types of low-pass filters. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,049,883 (Makino et al.) disclosed an active low-pass filter which cannot apply a smaller capacitance of capacitor to meet the low bandwidth requirement of the controller 70 of the power supply.
The present invention provides a low-pass filter solution to the problems described above, which utilizes capacitors having smaller capacitance to achieve the same low-pass filtering performance as the external compensation capacitor having bulk capacitance does in conventional techniques. The present invention further facilitates the integration of the controller chip and reduces the prime cost enormously.


The present invention is a system, method and apparatus for converting a slide show presentation for use within a non-presentation application such as a Web conferencing or virtual classroom application. In accordance with the present invention, a slide show presentation in its native format can be processed to extract slide title information for each slide in the slide show presentation. Additionally, important text within slide further can be extracted. Each slide in the slide-show can be converted to a raster image and disposed within markup. The markup can be annotated with the important text and both the markup and the slide title can be provided to the non-presentation application for use in concert with the non-presentation application. In this way, the context of each slide can be preserved for use within the non-presentation application as can an image of each slide itself.

1. Statement of the Technical Field
The present invention relates to the field of presentation application software and more particularly to processing presentation documents independently of the operation of a presentation application.
2. Description of the Related Art
Presentation software has formed the basis of corporate communications for well over a decade. Within the confines of the modern conference room, it has become nearly impossible to engage in oral discussion of a proposal without the use of a computer generated slide show. In this regard, the computerized presentation has become the mainstay of the oral presentation. Generally speaking, in a computerized presentation, a sequence of digital renderings of slides can be presented, either directly through a computer screen, or even through a projector or plasma presentation monitor. The individual slides, themselves, can include textual, audible and visual elements, including animated elements.
The prototypical presentation application includes a document processor, much like a word processor, in which the textual, visual and audible elements can be combined within a single slide show presentation. In this regard, each individual slide generally can follow a prescribed template, which can range from a free form workspace, to a highly structured arrangement of text, imagery and audio. In most cases, each slide will include a slide title and a slide body. While the slide title generally can include text only, the slide body can include free form text, bulleted or numbered lists, a picture, graph, chart, animation, audio and other such combinations.
While many presenters "play back" a slide-show presentation through the presentation interface of the presentation application, often it can be desirable to facilitate the playback of a presentation in the absence of a presentation application. In this regard, most presentation applications provide a tool for transforming a slide show presentation to a "stand-alone" presentation. In the stand-alone presentation mode, a slide-show viewer can be incorporated with the slide show such that the slide show can appear to be self-executing. Alternatively, a freely distributable slide show viewer can be distributed in concert with the distribution of a slide show so as to obviate the requirement that a recipient of the slide show presentation purchase an expensive license for presentation software.
Notably, conventional presentation software applications provide a mechanism for converting a traditional presentation configured for display with the application, to a markup language representation of the presentation for display within a content browser. In this regard, the conventional presentation application can retrieve each contextual element of the slide through the presentation application and can format the contextual elements using markup language tags equivalent to the proprietary formatting instructions of the presentation. Nevertheless, to convert a presentation to a markup language representation requires access to the presentation application.
Recently, the increasing popularity of Web conferencing and virtual classroom software has presented new challenges to the presentation of a slide show without the benefit of presentation software. In particular, presenters who generate slide shows for incorporation in a classroom or in an on-line conference generally convert the slide show to mere raster representations of the slides for inclusion in the conferencing or classroom application. By generating a bit-mapped raster representation, however, the content of the slide show becomes an ordinary image and any internal meaning will have become lost.
It will be recognized by the skilled artisan that to accomplish full integration with a non-presentation application, a contextual understanding of each slide in a slide show presentation can be important. In particular, some applications require access to the textual elements of a slide show so as to meet accessibility requirements. As an example, screen reader technologies for the visually impaired must be able to process the text contained in a slide show. Other applications would prefer access to the textual elements of a slide show so as to properly process each slide in a manner suitable for the particular application. For instance, in a Web conferencing or virtual classroom environment, it would be helpful to be able to generate an agenda from text within a slide show. Yet, once a slide show has been converted to raster imagery, it is no longer possible to extract the text from the slide show.

Retrieving slide show content from presentation documents

International Business Machines Corporation


A presence aware communications system, comprising a messaging system configured to perform at least one of the following operations:

The convergence of the mobile telephone network, the static telephone network, and the IP network provides a myriad of communication options for users. If one seeks to contact another individual, he or she may do so by electronic mail or e-mail, instant messaging, wired or wireless telephone, personal computer, pager, personal digital assistant or PDA, and Unified Messaging or UM systems, to name but a few. With so many options, it is difficult, if not impossible, to determine which option at a given point in time will provide the caller with the highest likelihood of contacting the desired individual or callee. Trial and error and guesswork are the typical techniques used to contact the callee, which more often than not leads to a waste of time and frustration on the part of the caller.
Various attempts have been made to provide a presence aware network, which would temporally track an individual's usage of selected communication devices to provide a contactor with the highest likelihood of contacting the individual. Most recently, the Session Initiation Protocol or SIP (which is a simple signaling/application layer protocol for data network multimedia conferencing and telephony) has been developed to provide a degree of presence awareness in a communication network. Although other protocols are equally supportive of presence concepts, SIP provider an illustrative basis for the present invention.
In SIP, end systems and proxy servers can provide services such as call forwarding, callee and caller number delivery (where numbers can be any naming scheme such as a conventional URL format), personal mobility (the ability to reach a callee under a single, location-independent address even when the callee changes terminals), terminal-type negotiation and selection (e.g., a caller can be given a choice on how to reach the callee), mobile phone answering service, terminal capability negotiation, caller and callee authentication, blind and supervised call transfer, and invitations to multicast conferences.
To provide these varied services, SIP uses a relatively simple message system, namely an "INVITE" message (with the caller's codec preferences) and an "OK" message (with the callee's codec preferences), and various software entities, namely registrars which maintain a map of the addresses of a given user at the current time, proxies which perform call routing, session management, user authentication, redirect functions, and routing to media gateways, redirect servers which perform a subset of forwarding functions, and SIP location servers which maintain user profiles and provide subscriber registration. "Registration" is a mechanism whereby a user's communication device registers with the network each time he or she comes online and individual profiles are accessed that specify information for routing based on a number of different criteria.
Although SIP provides some degree of presence awareness, more presence awareness is desirable. A fundamental problem of existing implementations is a notification gap in human communication between live-call and messaging systems. Existing implementations integrate live-call scenarios on an extremely limited scope. They are generally characterized by static rules for terminating a call at the messaging system or by allowing the messaging system to launch a call. For example, to determine the message waiting status of a mailbox you must either log into the mailbox, or the mailbox must turn on a device-specific message-waiting lamp or other static indicator. Both of these mechanisms exemplify direct, deliberate action on the part of either the user or the system, which is typical of current systems. Current commercial messaging systems allow only primitive dynamic correlation of message notification, presence and current call context. Even the most advanced workflow engines and collaborative environments in data networks that use more dynamic presence data with mailbox status notification suffer from severe limitations in their scope of communications. They generally cannot interoperate with the public switched telephone network.

Messaging advise in presence-aware networks

Abstract: (a) provide a subscriber's communication device with information regarding an incoming contact during a messaging session between the subscriber's communication device and the messaging system;

Abstract: (b) provide the subscriber's communication device with a text message containing information regarding one or more messages when a notification is received that the subscriber's communication device is available;

Abstract: (c) provide the subscriber's communication device with a text message relating to a voice message from a different first party received by the messaging system;

Abstract: (d) in response to the subscriber's communication device requesting a connection with at least one of an inputted telephone number and address, provide the subscriber's communication device with a notification respecting at least one eligible message from a second party associated with the at least one of an inputted telephone number and address;

Abstract: (e) while a contact between the subscriber and a different third party is in progress, provide the subscriber's communication device with information respecting the at least one eligible message from the third party;

Abstract: (f) transform an audio messaging session between the messaging system and the communication device of a contacting party into a graphical user interface-based audio session; and

Abstract: (g) transform the audio messaging session into a session having a video channel or both audio and video channels.


High precision work is performed on a work target (workpiece) during conveyance, irrespective of the oscillations accompanying conveyance. A work method includes steps of: predicting a predicted oscillation pattern occurring in a workpiece (W) afterwards from the measurement results of oscillation occurring in the workpiece (W) during conveyance by way of a workpiece conveyance device (2); controlling a robot (131) so as to operate at an oscillation according to the predicted oscillation pattern thus predicted; detecting oscillation occurring in the robot (131) during the step of controlling; and comparing the oscillation occurring in the robot (131) with the predicted oscillation pattern, and in the case of differing, adjusting so that the oscillation of the robot (131) matches the predicted oscillation pattern, in which each of these steps is completed before the robot (131) performs work on the workpiece (W).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a work method and work device for performing work on a workpiece during workpiece conveyance.
2. Related Art
Industrial goods, for which vehicles may be representative, are manufactured by work robots sequentially performing various operations such as assembly and painting on a workpiece being conveyed using a conveyance device such as a conveyor. Conventionally, it has been common for the conveyance of a workpiece to be stopped in the vicinity of a work robot in order to appropriately perform various operations in such manufacturing processes; however, in recent years, attention has been given to attempts to perform work on workpieces without stopping the conveyance of the workpieces, from the viewpoint of working efficiency.
In a case of not stopping the conveyance of workpieces, it is necessary to fix the relative position relationship in the conveying direction between the work robot and the workpiece. Therefore, a synchronous conveyance device, as in Japanese Patent No. 4202953, has been known that enables work by the work robot on the workpiece to be done while maintaining the relative position relationship between the two, by causing the work robot to move synchronously with the conveyance of the workpiece.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent No. 4202953


An adjustable computer case support includes two side frames and a bottom frame located between the two side frames. Each of the side frames is a substantially triangular frame including a curved front member, a lower member, and a rear member. The bottom frame is pivotally connected at a rear end to the lower members of the two side frames, so that a front end of the bottom frame may be raised or lowered and detachably connected to the curved front members of the side frames to set the bottom frame to a desired inclination. The bottom frame includes two supporting members connected to two lateral sides of a width-adjusting member, which may be, for example, an X-type bracing having two intersected and pivotally connected braces, so that an overall width of the bottom frame may be increased or decreased depending on actual need.

A personal computer, particularly a desktop computer, typically includes a computer case in which important components of the computer, including the main board and the hard disk, are mounted. While the computer case is normally positioned on a desktop, it may also be positioned below the desktop for a user to effectively utilize the space above the desktop. There are developed different types of supports for supporting a computer case that is not positioned on the desktop. Such supports may be connected to an underside of the desktop or independently located at a selected place. In either case, a user has to bend over to operate the power on/off button or to insert or eject a disk when the computer case is positioned on the support. That is, the conventional computer case supports are not ideally designed to meet the ergonomics.
Taiwanese Patent Application No. 86220488 discloses a universal stand for computer case. The universal stand includes first and second leg frames pivotally connected to each other at middle points thereof. Pads and stop bars are provided at outer ends of the two leg frames. By best adjusting an angle contained between the two intersected leg frames, the stand may stably support a computer case thereon with the stop bars bearing against two lateral sides of the computer case. The universal stand only allows the computer case to horizontally position thereon, and a user has to bend over to operate the computer case. Although it is possible to increase the number of pads provided at the ends of the leg frames to increase the height of the stand, the stand tends to unstably swing when the considerably heavy computer case is positioned thereon.
Taiwanese Patent Application No. 88209834 discloses a universal computer case support mainly including a base having supporting members provided at four corners thereof. The supporting members may be pivotally turned and have stop members provided thereon. A receiving space defined by the four supporting members may be adjusted by turning the supporting members to desired positions, so that the universal support may be used to stably support differently sized computer cases with the stop members bearing against sidewalls of the computer case positioned thereon. The base is mounted at four corners with casters to allow a user to move the universal support easily. However, the universal computer case support also horizontally supports a computer case thereon, and a user has to bend over to operate the computer case horizontally supported on the base.
It is therefore tried by the inventor to develop an adjustable computer case support having a bottom frame that may be adjusted to an inclination for a user to operate a computer case positioned thereon in a most comfortable manner. The bottom frame may also be adjusted to different width for supporting differently sized computer cases.


An imaging apparatus capable of capturing two images which may not be obtained by the general HDR imaging by simultaneously capturing two images of different exposures by changing exposure change rates of a low exposure image and a high exposure image is provided. The imaging apparatus includes a calculation unit configured to calculate a first exposure for obtaining a first image included in the plurality of images under a first condition and calculate a second exposure for obtaining a second image included in the plurality of images under a second condition which is different from the first condition, and a setting unit configured to set an exposure for obtaining the first and second images based on the first and second exposures calculated by the calculation unit.

As an application use of combining two images of different exposure degrees, a technique of attaining more realistic feeling when movies or television programs are watched has been proposed. Examples of the technique include a high dynamic range imaging technique (hereinafter referred to as "HDR imaging") for moving images. This technique realizes more realistic sensation than general techniques by mainly expressing instantaneous luminance or partial luminance by enlarging a luminance reproducing range on a display screen. To enhance the realistic sensation in such a technique, a dynamic range of an imaging apparatus which obtains video images is required to be enlarged. PTL 1 discloses a technique of obtaining two images corresponding to different storage periods and enlarging a dynamic range by combining the images.

Imaging apparatus and imaging method using first and second images for generating high dynamic range image