An in situ stabilizing tool provides a stress relieved, ceramic green sheet for green sheet screened stability. A green sheet stablilization system uses air bearings as a means of conveying a continuous ceramic green sheet web in a frictionless and stress free state. Solvent vapor stabilization of green sheets in a continuous mode adjusts solvent concentration in the air bearing using a solvent bubbler. Solvent vapor is generated from a group of solvents (e.g. hydrocarbons, water, etc.) that can be vaporized and used to solvent plasticize the ceramic green sheets to achieve stress relaxation. Take up loops and sensors adjust for longitudinal shrinkage during the green sheet relaxation process.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the fabrication of multilayer ceramic (MLC) substrates adapted for mounting semiconductor devices, and wherein ceramic green sheets are punched with via holes and screened with metallurgical pastes for surface wiring and connections therethrough, in an environment wherein screened sheets are stacked and laminated forming a densely wired structure that is sintered to form the finished substrate. More particularly this invention relates to a system and a method for treating the ceramic green sheet to minimize the residual stresses that develop during sheet casting and drying.
2. Description of related art
High density packaging of semiconductor devices makes possible the mounting of over 100 chips on a single substrate as described in "Ceramic Green Sheet Technology for Glass/Ceramic Multilevel Substrate (ES 9000 System)" by R. W. Nufer, 42nd Electronics Components and Technology Conference, May 18-22, 1992. The Thermal Conduction Module (TCM) comprises 67 individual layers, each punched with over 78,000 via connections, and over 2 million internal wiring interconnections in the finished substrate. The fabrication of these high density requires a very stable green sheet as the basic building block for the MLC substrate in order to achieve precise alignment of all the millions of wiring interconnection.
The green sheet for the TCM is cast from a slurry prepared from a thermoplastic binder and an organic solvent as described in U.S. Pat No. 4,104,345 to R. W. Nufer et al, to create a microporous green sheet that has sufficient porosity to compress during lamination and allow the metallurgical line to penetrate into the green sheet structure providing the sheet with greater than eight percent compressibility. A compressible green sheet, for suitable line enclosure, is achieved with a binary solvent system; methanol and Methylethyl Ketone (MIBK) which governs the slurry rheology during the final stages of sheet drying. After the slurry is cast onto a Polyethylene terephthlate carrier (PET), the methanol which is 3.2 times more volatile then the MIBK, causes a composition shift towards higher percentages of MIBK. This causes greater than 100X increase in viscosity as shown in FIG. 1. The polymer matrix sets in place while a substantial amount of solvent still remains, such that subsequent solvent volatilization causes minimal shrinkage while producing well controlled sheet porosity. Inherent in forming the sheet in this fashion are high residual stresses since the polymer molecular remains in an extended position and can not achieve its normal conformation. High internal stresses is undesirable since subsequent sheet processing where metallurgical pastes are screened onto the surfaces and into the via holes, plasticizes the green sheet, reducing the glass transition temperature(Tg) and permitting the movement and rearrangement of the previously "frozen" structure. This is unacceptable as higher density wiring requires tight dimensional tolerances, placing demands on green sheet stability.
In semiconductor packaging, some packages but primarily multilayer ceramic (MLC) structures are manufactured from ceramic green sheets. During a process of manufacturing of green sheets, the green ceramic material consisting of a sinterable type of ceramic and a labile binder system are solvated with an appropriate solvent to form a well dispersed slurry that is cast and dried, forming the ceramic green sheet. This green sheet serves as the basic building block for the MLC structure as described by A. J. Blodgett et al, IBM Research Development Journal No. 1, (Jan. 1982.). During the formation of the green sheet, a drying process occurs during which the volatile solvents evaporate transforming the slurry into a green sheet having significantly less volume. This drying process introduces drying stresses that remain until subsequent processing when metallurgical patterns and through via holes are screened with metallurgical paste that contains organic components that absorb into the ceramic green sheet. The paste solvents plasticize the green sheet reducing the glass transition temperature, thereby permitting the movement and rearrangement of the previously "frozen" molecular structure. This is unacceptable as higher density wiring requires tighter dimensional tolerance of the green sheet. Accordingly, the requirements of higher density wiring requires more stability of the dimensions of the green sheets.
In one process, ceramic green sheets produced for glass ceramic substrates have been formed using a continuous casting process where a slurry is cast with a doctor blade onto a polyethylene terephthalate (PET), known as (Mylar .RTM. Registered TradeMark) carrier. Then the slurry is dried at an accelerated rate within the continuous caster. The drying of the slurry on the PET carrier causes the formation of drying stresses in the final sheet. These stresses have been minimized in some products by careful control of sheet drying in relation to the separation from the PET carrier. Stress relaxation has in this case been facilitated to some degree by stripping the green sheet from the carrier prior to the removal of all of the solvents. The green sheet is therefore in a partially plasticized state that allows for some stress relaxation. However, total relaxation and stress relief is impractical at this stage since the desirable level of plasticization would prevent separation from the PET carrier and cause physically induced stresses in the longitudinal direction.
Drying stresses are undesirable since they produce dimensional changes in the green sheets during metallurgical screening. The screening instabilities which can be in excess of several mils can be disastrous in maintaining the alignment of the millions of vias in a high density Thermal Conduction Module (TCM) substrate. The stresses in the green sheet cause this movement because the paste and solvent plasticize the green sheets, reducing the glass transition temperature of the green sheets and permitting a movement and rearrangement of the molecular structures of the material in the sheet. Therefore the elimination of these internal drying stresses is desirable, especially as electronic products become more complex with higher density wiring where dimensional tolerances place greater demands on sheet stability.
Stress can be eliminated in a green sheet by solvent stabilization as taught in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 3,953,562 "Process for the Elimination of Dimensional Change in Ceramic Green Sheets" of G. F. Hait and R. W. Nufer et al solvent stabilization is used to eliminate the instability in screened green sheets by temporarily superplasticizing (plasticize and soften but not dissolve) a thermoplastic binder. During the vapor stabilization process the green sheet is exposed to a solvent that will diffuse instantaneously into the sheet. A higher vapor pressure solvent is desired. This superplasticizes the binder transforming the green sheet into a sheet having the appearance of a wet noodle. The superplasticization process reduces the glass transition temperature of the binder substantially below ambient temperatures and allows for immediate stress relaxation. Following relaxation the plasticizing solvent diffuses equally fast from the sheet returning its normal mechanical properties.
The relative evaporation rate of a solvent is a function of its ambient temperature which produces increased vapor pressure as temperature rises. The rate of evaporation and solvent vapor pressure at a temperature of 20.degree. C. is given in Solvents Guide, C. Mardsden, Cleaver-Hume Press Ltd. The higher vapor pressure solvent such as methylene chloride (dichloro-methane, methylene dichloride) with a 349 mm Hg vapor pressure and relative evaporation rate of about 1600 as based on n-butyl acetate being equal to 100 is desirable because of its greater volatility. An example of other less volatile solvents are as follows:
______________________________________ Relative Evaporation Rate Solvent n-butyl acetate = 100 ______________________________________ xylene 70 methyl isobutyl ketone (MIBK) 165 ethanol 230 methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) 572 methanol 610 acetone 1160 ______________________________________
"High-Stability Green Sheet Binder", R. W. Nufer, IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, Vol. 21, No. 11 pp. 4489-4490 (Apr. 1979) states, "A polymeric formulation that utilizes polyvinyl butyral resin and a plasticizer, dipropylene glycol dibenzoate, provides the ceramic green sheet with a greatly improved stability, especially after the green sheets have been vapor stabilized with methylene chloride, as shown by the results in the figure.
The general green sheet formulation is as follows:
______________________________________ Amounts ______________________________________ Alumina 92% Polyvinyl butyral resin 6.4% Dipropylene glycol dibenzoate plasticizer 1.6% ______________________________________
The system has improved tensile strength, bond strength and the distinct advantage of having increased compressibility when drying is accelerated on the continuous caster."
U.K. Patent Application GB 2192848 "Conveying Heating Apparatus and Method" of Drew describes an extrudate convoyed and heat-treated on a cushion of heated gas. The method provides heating to a temperature sufficient to set or otherwise dry and extrudate. The temperature mentioned is above 100.degree. C. and preferably above 200.degree. C. The cushion of hot air is created by a number of spaced nozzles angled in the direction of travel. Other stations may be added to treat the extrudate before it is removed from the chamber.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,690,591 of Nagashima et al for "Method and Apparatus for Transporting an Article in Vacuum" describes "apparatus for automatically transporting an article, such as a wafer for producing a semiconductor device, in a vacuum chamber for vacuum treatment of the article." Gas is ejected from inclined nozzles. The system is used to perform operations such as ion etching, using argon gas for dry etching. In the case of CVD treatment, then hydrogen gas or silane gas is substituted for argon gas. In the case of plasma etching, CF.sub.4 is used (transported by argon gas.)
European EP--43457-A: 82.01.13, EP--43457-B: 86.04.23, DE3174452-G: 86.05.28; PR--80.07.03 8OUS-165579 of J. K. Hassan and J. A. Paivanas, commonly assigned, for an air bearing transport system for semiconductor wafers--uses longitudinally spaced holes to achieve effective coupling of axial-radial and coanda flow characteristics. The transporter incorporates at least two pairs of rows of air supply holes as required in the transporting track. The holes in each pair of rows are spaced longitudinally along the track, preferably with a spacing distance which is constant for pairs of holes in the same row at from 12.7 to 22.9 mm. The holes in each row on each side of the track centerline are spaced longitudinally from the holes in each adjacent row by a spacing distance, ranging from one to three quarters of the spacing distance and preferably are equal to half the spacing distance.
The air supplied to support a wafer is fed to the holes by way of air manifolds disposed longitudinally of the track. A long thin passage connects each hole to a respective manifold. The passages are angularly inclined both towards the track centerline and in the direction of transport of the wafer along the track, achieving both propulsion and motional stability of the wafer. The inclination of these passages towards the track centerline is greater the farther the distance of the row of passages from the centerline of the track.

Continuous air bearing vapor stabilization system and method

International Business Machines Corporation


A digital capture system, such as a digital still camera or digital video recorder, has an embedded real-time content-based analysis function in the capture device to extract metadata from the digital signals. In one embodiment, metadata (descriptive information about the digital content) is formatted and stored separately from the content. In another embodiment, the metadata may be formatted and combined with the digital content in a container format such as MPEG-7, QuickTime, or FlashPix.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to digital capture devices, and more particularly, to digital still cameras, digital video cameras, digital video encoders and other media capture devices.
2. Description of the Related Technology
The distinction between still devices and motion devices is becoming blurred as many of these devices can perform both functions, or combine audio capture with still image capture. The capture of digital content is expanding rapidly due to the proliferation of digital still cameras, digital video cameras, and digital television broadcasts. Users of this equipment generally also use digital production and authoring equipment. Storing, retrieving, and manipulating the digital content represent a significant problem in these environments. The use of various forms of metadata (data about the digital content) has emerged as a way to organize the digital content in databases and other storage means such that a specific piece of content may be easily found and used.
Digital media asset management systems (DMMSs) from several vendors are being used to perform the storage and management function in digital production environments. Examples include Cinebase, WebWare, EDS/MediaVault, Thomson Teams, and others. Each of these systems exploit metadata to allow constrained searches for specific digital content. The metadata is generated during a logging process when the digital content is entered into the DMMS. Metadata generally falls into two broad categories:                Collateral metadata: information such as date, time, camera properties, and user labels or annotations, and so forth;        Content-based metadata: information extracted automatically by analyzing the audiovisual signal and extracting properties from it, such as keyframes, speech-to-text, speaker ID, visual properties, face identification/recognition, optical character recognition (OCR), and so forth.
Products such as the Virage VideoLogger perform the capture and logging of both of these types of metadata. The VideoLogger interfaces with the DMMS to provide the metadata to the storage system for later use in search and retrieval operations. These types of systems can operate with digital or analog sources of audiovisual content.
The capture of digital content offers an opportunity which is not present in analog capture devices. What is desired is a capability to embed a content-based analysis function in the capture device for extracting metadata from the digital signals in real-time as the content is captured. This metadata could then be later exploited by DMMSs and other systems for indexing, searching, browsing, and editing the digital media content. A central benefit of this approach would be that it is most valuable to capture this type of metadata as far "upstream" as possible. This would allow the metadata to be exploited throughout the lifecycle of the content, thereby reducing costs and improving access to and utilization of the content. Such an approach would be in contrast to the current practice of performing a separate logging process at some point in time after the capture of the content. Therefore, it would be desirable to capture the metadata at the point of content capture, and to perform the analysis in real-time by embedding metadata engines inside of the physical capture devices such as digital still cameras, digital audio/video cameras, and other media capture devices.
Some previous efforts at capturing metadata at the point of content capture have focused on the capture of collateral metadata, such as date/time, or user annotations. Examples of these approaches can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,335,072 (sensor information attached to photographs), U.S. Pat. No. 4,574,319 (electronic memo for an electronic camera), U.S. Pat. No. 5,633,678 (camera allowing for user categorization of images), U.S. Pat. No. 5,682,458 (camera that records shot data on a magnetic recording area of the film), and U.S. Pat. No. 5,506,644 (camera that records GPS satellite position information on a magnetic recording area of the film). In addition, professional digital cameras being sold today offer certain features for annotating the digital content. An example of this is the Sony DXC-D30 (a Digital Video Cassette camera, or DVC) which has a ClipLink feature for marking video clips within the camera prior to transferring data to an editing station.
Many aspects of digital capture devices are well understood and practiced in the state of the art today. Capture sensors, digital conversion and sampling, compression algorithms, signal levels, filtering, and digital formats are common functions in these devices, and are not the object of the present invention. Much information can be found in the literature on these topics. For example, see Video Demystified by Keith Jack, published by Harris Semiconductor, for an in-depth description of digital composite video, digital component video, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Embedded metadata engines in digital capture devices


A network adaptor for receiving and processing Asynchronous Transfer Mode cells within a computer network is disclosed. The network adaptor includes a raw cell buffer, a control table, several Direct Memory Access buffers, and a Direct Memory Access controller. The raw cell buffer is utilized for receiving Asynchronous Transfer Mode cells from the computer network. The control table includes a multiple of virtual circuit identifier entries. When a corresponding virtual circuit identifier of the Asynchronous Transfer Mode cell is found in one of the multiple of virtual circuit identifier entries within the control table, one of the several Direct Memory Access buffers is set to receive the Asynchronous Transfer Mode cell. The Direct Memory Access controller is then utilized for initiating a Direct Memory Access transfer of the Asynchronous Transfer Mode cell from one of the several Direct Memory Access buffers when a pre-set threshold for Asynchronous Transfer Mode cell transfer is reached, such that Asynchronous Transfer Mode cell processing performance may be optimized to a receiving computer system in which the network adaptor is installed.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an apparatus for data processing in general and, in particular, to an apparatus for receiving data within a computer network. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to an adaptor for receiving and processing Asynchronous Transfer Mode cells within a computer network.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The transmitting and receiving of data within a computer network is well known in the art. A typical computer network consists of at least one server computer and at least one client computer. The server computer is connected to the client computer via various communications media. These communications media may include, for example, telephone lines, channels, satellites, etc. By entering a request at the client computer, a user may extract information from the server computer. Similarly, a user may enter information on the client computer and have the information transmitted to the server computer and/or to another client computer on the computer network.
Within the computer network, information is typically transmitted and received in the form of data packets. In essence, a sending message is first broken up into many data packets, and each data packet is then transmitted to a receiving computer within the computer network. Each data packet is a separate entity on the communications media. After receipt within the network, each data packet is then stored in a buffer memory residing on a network adaptor, and finally, all of the data packets within the message are forwarded to a system memory within the receiving computer. This kind of network adaptor is commonly referred to as a "packet-based" adaptor or a stored-and-forward adaptor because data packets are first stored and then forwarded to the system memory by the network adaptor.
Generally, a packet-based adaptor requires a large amount of memory in order to buffer all the incoming data packets. This is especially true when the packet-based adaptor has to support a high-speed network link. A packet-based adaptor also requires an embedded controller with microcode or, alternately, some sophisticated hardware logic for managing the on-board buffer memory. Needless to say, the design complexity for such packet-based adaptor is very high, which translates into long development time and high manufacturing cost.
In addition to high design complexity, performance, such as adaptor latency, is also a big concern for packet-based adaptors. The temporary storage of packets in the buffer memory and the subsequent forwarding of packets to the system memory take time. When utilizing an embedded controller, which is commonly found in most packet-based adaptors, the execution of microcode could introduce additional latency (typically in the range of several hundred microseconds) to the processing of data packets. Because of the microcode execution and other overhead, the response time of a packet-based adaptor may be much longer than expected.
Furthermore, a packet-based adaptor also lacks flexibility and expandability. The buffer memory on the packet-based adaptor is dedicated only to that particular adaptor, hence, even when the network link is idle, no other process in the computer can take advantage of the on-board buffer memory. Also, in order to support virtual circuits, the required memory could be beyond what is presently capable within a typical packet-based adaptor. This is especially true for Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) that is typically utilized in a high-end server environment, in which a large number of virtual circuits are required.
An alternative to the packet-based adaptor design is a cut-through (or pass-through) architecture. Under this architecture, the data packet receiving path is directly transferred from the network to the system memory via a speed-matching First-In-First-Out (FIFO) buffer to adapt to variations of the bus acquisition time and the speed mismatch between the network and the system bus. When applying the cut-through architecture, such adaptor can be called a "cell-based" adaptor because data is forwarded in one cell, and not packet, at a time. Without the requirement of storing-and-forwarding, the cell-based adaptor can eliminate the buffer memory and the necessity of an embedded controller. Thus, a cell-based adaptor has a much simpler architecture with minimal design complexity, which translates to lower manufacturing costs and less development time.
In addition, a cell-based adaptor also provides better flexibility and expandability over a packet-based counterpart. This is because the number of virtual circuits that can be supported by an adaptor is no longer restricted by the available local memory on the adaptor. In fact, the number of virtual circuits can grow as long as the system memory in the receiving computer can support such growth. Further, the performance of the cell-based adaptor, based on adaptor latency, is significantly better than that of the packet-based adaptor. This is due to the fact that the required latency for a packet-based adaptor to copy data in and out of the buffer memory is totally eliminated. The adaptor latency is further reduced by eliminating the need for managing a buffer memory. In sum, a cell-based adaptor has a superior latency performance, a lower design complexity, a lower development cost, a lower bill material cost, and still provides the flexibility and expandability for supporting many virtual circuits. In a client environment and lightly loaded low-end server environment, the low-cost, high-performance cell-based adaptor is an excellent choice.
However, a cell-based adaptor also poses some problems with respect to the overall system performance, especially for the high-end servers that need to support heavy I/O activities. A cell-based adaptor transfers data from a 48-byte Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) cell to the system memory through the I/O bus and the system bus one at a time. Bursting data at a relatively small size of 48-byte could consume excessive bus bandwidth because a fixed bus protocol overhead will be incurred every time data is transferred. Also, the system memory in a high-end computer system is usually being accessed at a 32-byte or 64-byte segment at a time. Writing data that is not 32-byte or 64-byte aligned within such computer system would require a read-modified-write operation to be performed in order to prevent any data corruption. Thus, valuable memory bandwidth could be wasted because of this requirement of a read-modified-write operation for every transmission of 48-byte ATM cells to the system memory.
Much severe system performance degradation, however, comes from the high possibility of cell-dropping whenever the I/O bus cannot be acquired on time. A cell-based adaptor could transfer an ATM cell only if it can acquire the I/O bus. In a heavily equipped computer system, the cell-based adaptor could wait a long time (in the range of tens of microseconds) before the I/O bus is available. Because only one ATM cell within the FIFO buffer can be freed up every time the I/O bus is acquired, the FIFO buffer could be completely full in a short time if the ATM cells keep arriving from the high-speed computer network while the I/O bus can be acquired only every once in a while. When the FIFO buffer becomes full, the next arriving ATM cell will be dropped. A data packet with dropped cell(s) will be retransmitted by the sending computer when the error is detected by the upper-layer protocol. Needless to say, the recovery of dropped cells could consume system resources and would impact the overall system throughput as well as response time. When the cell-dropping rate is high, which is highly probable in a busy server environment, the system performance could be degraded significantly. Consequently, it would be desirable to provide a network adaptor for receiving and processing ATM cells in a more efficient manner within a computer network.

Adaptor for receiving and processing asynchronous transfer mode cells within a computer network


The invention includes systems and methods for providing a credit account for debt recovery. A recovery credit account is provided for a customer with an existing charged-off debt. Some of the customer's charged-off debt may be forgiven as part of a settlement when the customer enrolls in the recovery credit account, but the opening balance of the recovery credit account will represent the entire debt obligation of the customer going forward. The recovery credit account includes a credit limit that is lower than the opening balance. Reducing the account balance to less than the credit limit triggers open-to-buy status, issuance of a credit card, and activation of over the limit fees for future balances over the credit limit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of credit account products and, more specifically, credit account products that provide for the recovery of charged-off debt.
2. Description of Related Art
Non-paying customers are a reality that credit-issuing businesses cannot totally avoid. When a customer stops paying on a credit account with a positive balance, the creditor must decide how to handle the outstanding debt and attempt to recover at least some of the loss that the account balance represents. Initially, a variety of notices are usually used to encourage the customer to begin paying on the account again. However, after a substantial period of non-payment, most credit-issuers will classify the account as charged-off—representing that they have recognized the unlikelihood of collecting on the full debt obligation.
There are a variety of ways to deal with charged-off accounts. Some common approaches include internal or external departments that negotiate settlement or refinancing for the repayment of some or all of the debt, usually on different terms than those originally associated with the account. Another approach is the use of outside collection agencies that purchase the debt at some reduced rate or charge a commission for recovered monies. Unfortunately, many common tactics have limited success rates and frequently damage the customer relationship.
One approach to the recovery of charged-off debts that has the benefit of both increased collections and maintaining the customer relationship is the use of debt recovery credit accounts, such as reaffirmation credit cards. Essentially, debt recovery credit accounts extend a new credit account to the customer conditioned on repayment of some, or all, of the charged-off debt obligation. In the case of reaffirmation credit cards, the customer is reaffirming their debt obligation to the credit issuer in return for a new line of credit.
Prior methods of administering reaffirmation credit cards involve a two record model. The first record is the credit account itself, with an associated balance, credit limit, interest rate, and other features. The second record is a pre-existing debt record. The pre-existing debt record is a holding account that is reduced by customer payments and may or may not have an interest rate or other features. As payments to the reaffirmation credit card are received, they are split between the two accounts according to some formula (50/50, 25/75, or more complicated fixed or percentage formulas that give payment preferences for new charges or pre-existing debt). Interest rates, service charges, minimum payment formulas, and other aspects are usually different for the two records. For example, the credit account may be administered like any standard credit account, while the pre-existing debt record is an interest free account as long as regular payments continue to be made.
In one version of a reaffirmation credit card, the charged-off debt is actually split between the credit account and the pre-existing debt record. For example, if the charged-off debt was $1000, the opening balance of the credit account would be $500 and the opening balance of the pre-existing debt record would be $500. The credit limit for the credit account would be set to the starting balance ($500), making the available balance $0.
In an alternate version of the reaffirmation credit card, the entire charged-off debt is placed in the pre-exiting debt record—for example, providing an opening credit account balance of $0 and an opening pre-existing debt balance of $1000. The credit limit of the credit account is then set to a low value, such as $50, to provide an initial available credit of $50. Increases of the low starting credit limit can then be based upon establishment of a regular payment history or other criteria moving forward.
Either configuration of the reaffirmation credit card requires the administration of two account records. This increases administrative overhead, complicates formulas and transactions, and makes the account more difficult for the customer to understand and effectively administer. In addition, both configurations provide a credit card to the customer at enrollment and make credit available immediately or after the first payment, no matter how small.
Accordingly, there is a need for a debt recovery credit account that is easier to administer and use than the two record approach of prior reaffirmation credit cards. Improved incentives for payment and limits on the credit-issuer's initial exposure to non-payment or new credit liabilities would also be advantageous.

System and method for providing a credit account for debt recovery

Compucredit Intellectual Property Holdings Corp. II


According to an illustrative example of the invention a connecting pipe is provided with a cover face engaging an external cylindrical face of a cylinder. This cylinder includes a fluid chamber and is provided with a bore through the cylindrical face. The cover face is provided with a three-dimensionally formed groove surrounding the bore. A sealing ring is accomodated with the groove. The cover face is pressed against the cylindrical face via a clamping band so that the sealing ring is under prestress.

The invention relates to a fluid connecting assembly with a connecting unit on a cylindrical face of a fluidic pneumatic, hydraulic or hydropneumatic unit, in particular a pneumatic spring of a spring cylinder or of an oscillation damper, through which connecting unit gaseous or liquid medium is supplied to a chamber or discharged from a chamber of said pneumatic, hydraulic or hydropneumatic unit, said connecting unit cooperating with a bore in said cylindrical face.


The present disclosure relates to training and utilizing an image exposure transformation network to generate a long-exposure image from a single short-exposure image (e.g., still image). In various embodiments, the image exposure transformation network is trained using adversarial learning, long-exposure ground truth images, and a multi-term loss function. In some embodiments, the image exposure transformation network includes an optical flow prediction network and/or an appearance guided attention network. Trained embodiments of the image exposure transformation network generate realistic long-exposure images from single short-exposure images without additional information.

Recent years have witnessed a significant increase in digital photography, particularly with the improvements and availability of digital cameras on mobile devices. Indeed, both hardware and software advances allow for incorporation of digital cameras within a large number of mobile computing devices, such as tablets, smartphones, and wearable devices. As a result, individuals have greater ability than ever before to capture photographs at a moment's notice.
Notwithstanding these improvements, mobile devices are lacking in some areas of digital photography, particularly with respect to artistic photography. For example, mobile devices often perform poorly when capturing long-exposure photographs. In particular, mobile devices often lack the physical components (e.g., lenses, advanced sensors, and additional hardware) needed to capture clean, high-quality long-exposure photographs, such as those on professional-grade cameras (e.g., DSLR cameras). In addition, many parameters and settings for capturing long-exposure photographs, such as changing the ISO, shutter speed, or aperture, are limited or unavailable on many mobile devices.
Some mobile devices offer features to capture long-exposure photographs. However, when using these features, individuals largely find their long-exposure photographs blurry and unsatisfactory. Indeed, the slightest hand movement of the mobile device during a long-exposure capture can distort the photograph. Thus, to achieve an acceptable long-exposure photograph, an individual may have to use additional hardware, such as a tripod and a remote trigger. Unfortunately, this additional equipment is bulky, expensive, and often inaccessible to individuals when photograph opportunities arise.
To overcome these issues, some conventional systems have attempted to create long-exposure photographs on mobile devices from still photographs. These conventional systems require an individual to capture a video that includes a sequence of images (e.g., a live or animated photo). Based on the sequence of images, these systems create a long-exposure photograph. In many instances, these conventional systems still require an individual to use a tripod while capturing the video to obtain satisfactory results.
A primary drawback of these systems is that resulting long-exposure photographs are less realistic due to noticeable artifacts and relatively low resolutions. For example, these systems overlook finer-levels of image semantic information when creating a long-exposure photograph, which causes the long-exposure photograph to include unnatural pixel movements and textures. Further, due to the low resolutions, long-exposure photographs are not scalable, which greatly limit an individual's ability to use the long-exposure photographs in other applications.
As another significant drawback of conventional systems, these systems typically cannot create long-exposure photographs from previously captured photographs because they create long-exposure photographs from videos. Indeed, these conventional systems are unable to create a long-exposure photograph from an existing or stored short-exposure photograph.
These along with additional problems and issues exist with regard to generating realistic long-exposure photographs on mobile computing devices.

Utilizing an image exposure transformation neural network to generate a long-exposure image from a single short-exposure image


An ink jet printing apparatus having excellent throughput can continue a printing operation without interruption if one or more line heads falls into an unprintable state when the apparatus is printing images of the same color using a plurality of line heads. For this purpose, image data for images of the same color is divided and the divided image data is supplied to such a line head of the plurality of line heads intended to form images of the same color that is capable of ejecting ink properly, so that the ink ejectable line head performs the printing operation according to the supplied image data.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink jet printing apparatus, a printing method, a print medium and a program. More particularly, this invention relates to an ink jet printing apparatus, a printing method, a print medium and a program for forming an image on a print medium by dividing an image of one color into a plurality of images of the same color and printing the divided images as the print medium is transported using a plurality of line heads arranged along a transport direction of the print medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
In repetitively printing fixed images, such as business forms, in large volumes, a dry electrophotographic printer has been used. In recent years, an ink jet printing apparatus has come to be spotlighted as a printer that can take the place of the dry electrophotographic printer. The ink jet printing apparatus in general can handle a large quantity of printing processing because it directly prints on rolled paper. Because of this capability and its low running cost, the ink jet printing apparatus is suited for printing various kinds of business forms, such as application forms for insurance, notification slips of utility fees and application forms for mail-order purchase.
A line type ink jet printing apparatus, which uses a line head having a large number of ink ejection nozzles arrayed in a direction perpendicular to the transport direction of a print medium, is known to be particularly suited for a high-speed printing of such materials as pasteboards, label or tag sheets, and business forms among others. A commonly used line type ink jet printing apparatus to form a color image has a plurality of line type ink jet print heads (also referred to simply as line heads) arranged in the transport direction of the print medium so that different line heads eject different color inks to form a color image. That is, one line head produces an image of one color. Therefore, in the commonly used line type printing apparatus, its maximum printing speed is determined by a maximum drive frequency of each line head.
In other words, the general ink jet printing apparatus cannot realize a printing speed in excess of the maximum drive frequency of a single line head (a maximum nominal frequency at which ink can be repetitively ejected in one second while keeping a stable image quality). Therefore, the general line type printing apparatus has a problem of being unable to meet the market demand for an improved printing speed.
Aside from the above-described general line type ink jet printing apparatus, another line type ink jet printing apparatus has been proposed which divides an image of one color into a plurality of images of the same color and prints them with a corresponding number of print heads. This printing apparatus rasterizes the image data of one color, divides the raster data generated, and allocates the divided raster data to a plurality of line heads for printing. Unlike the general line type ink jet printing apparatus, which forms an image of one color with one print head, this ink jet printing apparatus with multiple line heads can print an image at a frequency in excess of the maximum drive frequency of one line head. This allows for a printing operation at a higher speed than is possible with the conventional printing apparatus (for example, see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2005-238556, which corresponds to Japanese Patent Application No. 2004-049447).
The high-speed line type ink jet printing apparatus, however, has a problem that, should any one of a plurality of line heads ejecting the same color ink deteriorate in the ink ejection performance, a proper image printing cannot be continued. The ink ejection performance of the line head can be degraded by a variety of factors, such as heat, pressure or chemical reaction with ink during the process of ink ejection. The degree of performance degradation is not uniform among a plurality of line heads and only one of the line heads often reaches the end of its service life early. In conventional apparatus, when it is decided that only one of the print heads has reached the end of its life during the printing operation, there is no alternative but to interrupt the printing operation and replace the print head in question.
When a sub ink tank is provided for each line head, inks in the sub tanks are not necessarily consumed uniformly. Thus, if, for example, the amount of remaining ink becomes too small in only one sub tank and the print head associated with that sub tank fails to print, an operator is left with only two options: one is to continue the printing operation in a state where the print quality cannot be guaranteed, and the other is to stop the printing operation and replenish the ink.
However, it is desired that the printing operation be continued as much as possible because the line type ink jet printing apparatus normally is required to achieve a high throughput. In the event of an ink ejection failure, the continued printing operation will deteriorate the print quality. That is, continuing the printing operation and maintenance of the print quality may contradict each other.
It may be conceived to prolong the service life of the line heads and increase the capacity of the sub tanks as countermeasures against the above problem. However, there are many difficulties that need to be overcome before such countermeasures can be realized because prolonging the service life of the line heads requires a lot of time and cost for research and development and increasing the sub tank capacity will result in an increase in the overall size of the printing apparatus and a cost increase.
In printing business forms or fixed form paper, each page of the print medium such as a paper sheet is printed with a large number of lines repetitively as shown in FIG. 10. In this case, if the raster data that was generated by rasterizing the image data is divided and allocated to a plurality of line heads for printing, a problem may occur in which only a particular line head is used concentratedly and the replacement frequency of that line head increases.

Ink jet printing apparatus, ink jet printing method, information processing device and program


Provided is an apparatus for controlling transport of a heavy load by which a transport vehicle smoothly transports a heavy load such as a rotor blade of a wind power generator, which has a high weight and a large length, without collisions or interferences by controlling movement of the heavy load according to a facility around a road or a peripheral environmental condition in a process of transporting the heavy load on the road with the transport vehicle, a transport vehicle, and a method of controlling transport of a heavy load. The apparatus includes: an adjusting unit configured to control rotation or movements of the heavy load so that collision or interference of the heavy load with a facility around a road or a peripheral environmental condition is prevented in a process of transporting the heavy load after the heavy load is fixedly mounted to the adjusting unit.

1. Field
Apparatuses consistent with exemplary embodiments relate to an apparatus for controlling transport of a heavy load on a transport vehicle, and a method of controlling transport of a heavy load, and more particularly to an apparatus and a method for controlling transport of a heavy load where a transport vehicle can smoothly transport the heavy load such as a rotor blade of a wind power generator, which has a high weight and a large length, without collisions or interferences by controlling movement of the heavy load according to a facility around a road or a peripheral environmental condition in a process of transporting the heavy load on the road with the transport vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the related art, a wind power generator refers to a power generation apparatus which converts a kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy by rotating a plurality of rotor blades. The wind power generator is installed at a site where high-quality wind power resources exist. That is, there are no buildings or trees higher than wind generation equipment which will likely interfere with a high speed wind, and there are no inhabitants or businesses that can be influenced in the case when a wind power tower falls down.
Thus, the wind power generator is installed in the mountains or the ocean-side that is far from dwelling sites, and a rotor blade of the wind power generator has a length of several to several tens of meters to maximally utilize the wind power resources. The rotor blade is not directly manufactured in the installation site, but is manufactured at a separate manufacturing site which is remotely located from the installation site and is transported to the installation site by a specialized vehicle so as to be assembled in the installation site.
In order to transport the rotor blade, it is very important to identify information on a peripheral environmental condition such as a road situation, a slope of a road, a radius of rotation of the road, a facility around the road, a bridge, and a tunnel to determine whether the vehicle can pass through the road.
An example of such a technology is disclosed in Korean Patent No. 10-0561590 (hereinafter, referred to as 'prior document 1') entitled "Transport Vehicle for Rotor Blade of Wind Power Turbine". Prior document 1 provides a transport vehicle for a rotor blade of a wind power generator in which a traction truck and a trailer are connected to each other by a rotor blade during the transport of the rotor blade, and the traction truck and trailer have a holding unit and/or an accommodation unit for the rotor blade. The rotor blade can be rotated about an axis and a driving unit for rotation of the rotor blade is provided in the traction truck and/or the trailer.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2010-0168960 (hereinafter, referred to as 'prior document 2') discloses a transport vehicle that transports a turbine blade. The transport vehicle includes a blade connection apparatus including a tilting unit to connect an end of a blade to the transport vehicle. An end of the blade faces a front side of the transport vehicle.
However, according to the technology of prior document 1, since a body of the rotor blade is rotated to pass through a lower side of a bridge and the like, the rotor blade cannot be rotated in a height-wise direction and a widthwise direction thereof, that is, the rotor blade cannot be moved upward, downward, leftward, and rightward, so it is difficult to utilize the technology in a condition in which many facilities exist around a road.
Further, according to the technology of prior document 2, although a turbine blade is erected by using a tilting unit after reaching a final destination, it may collide or interfere with facilities around a road during transport of the turbine blade.

System for controlling transport of heavy load, transport vehicle, and method of controlling transport of heavy load

DOOSAN HEAVY INDUSTRIES & CONSTRUCTION CO., LTD.


Data is discrete cosine transformed and streamed to a processor where quantized and inverse quantized blocks are generated. A second streaming data connection streams the inverse quantized blocks to an inverse discrete cosine transform block to generate reconstructed prediction error macroblocks. An addition circuit adds each reconstructed prediction error macroblock and its corresponding predictor macroblock to generate a respective reconstructed macroblock. The quantized macroblocks are zig-zag scanned, run level coded and variable length coded to generate and encoded bitstream.

1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to motion picture compression circuits for pictures such as television pictures, and more particularly to a compression circuit complying with H.261 and MPEG standards.
2. Description of Related Art
FIGS. 1A-1C schematically illustrate three methods for compressing motion pictures in accordance with H.261 and MPEG standards. According to H.261 standards, pictures may be of intra or predicted type. According to MPEG standards, the pictures can also be of bidirectional type.
Intra ("I") pictures are not coded with reference to any other pictures. Predicted ("P") pictures are coded with reference to a past intra or past predicted picture. Bidirectional ("B") pictures are coded with reference to both a past picture and a following picture.
FIG. 1A illustrates the compression of an intra picture I1. Picture I1 is stored in a memory area M1 before being processed. The pictures have to be initially stored in a memory since they arrive line by line whereas they are processed square by square, the size of each square being generally 16 by 16 pixels. Thus, before starting to process picture I1, memory area M1 must be filled with at least 16 lines.
The pixels of a 16 by 16-pixel square are arranged in a so-called "macroblock". A macroblock includes four 8 by 8-pixel luminance blocks and two or four 8 by 8-pixel chrominance blocks. The processes hereinafter described are carried out by blocks of 8 by 8 pixels.
The blocks of each macroblock of picture I1 are submitted at 10 to a discrete cosine transform (DCT) followed at 11 by a quantization (Q). A DCT transforms a matrix of pixels (a block) into a matrix whose upper left corner coefficient tends to have a relatively high value. The other coefficients rapidly decrease as the position moves downwards to the right. Quantization involves dividing the coefficients of the matrix so transformed, such that a large number of coefficients which are a distance away from the upper left corner are cancelled.
At 12, the quantified matrices are subject to zigzag scanning (ZZ) and to run/level coding (RLC). Zigzag scanning has the consequence of improving the chances of consecutive series of zero coefficients, each of which is preceded by a non-zero coefficient. The run/level coding mainly includes replacing each series from the ZZ scanning with a pair of values, one representing the number of successive zero coefficients and the other representing the first following non-zero coefficient.
At 13, the pairs of values from the RLC are subject to variable length coding (VLC) that includes replacing the more frequent pairs with short codes and replacing the less frequent pairs with long codes, with the aid of correspondence tables defined by the H.261 and MPEG standards. The quantification coefficients can be varied from one block to the next by multiplication by a quantization coefficient. That quantization coefficient is inserted during variable length coding in headers preceding the compressed data corresponding to macroblocks.
Macroblocks of an intra picture are used to compress macroblocks of a subsequent picture of predicted or bidirectional type. Thus, decoding of a predicted or bidirectional picture is likely to be achieved from a previously decoded intra picture. This previously decoded intra picture does not exactly correspond to the actual picture initially received by the compression circuit, since this initial picture is altered by the quantification at 11. Thus, the compression of a predicted or intra picture is carried out from a reconstructed intra picture I1 rather than from the real intra picture I1, so that decoding is carried out under the same conditions as encoding.
The reconstructed intra picture I1r is stored in a memory area M2 and is obtained by subjecting the macroblocks provided by the quantification 11 to a reverse processing, that is, at 15 an inverse quantification (Q−1) followed at 16 by an inverse DCT (DCT−1).
FIG. 1B illustrates the compression of a predicted picture P4. The predicted picture P4 is stored in a memory area M1. A previously processed intra picture I1r has been reconstructed in a memory area M2.
The processing of the macroblocks of the predicted picture P4 is carried out from so-called predictor macroblocks of the reconstructed picture I1r. Each macroblock of picture P4 (reference macroblock) is subject to motion estimation (ME) at 17 (generally, the motion estimation is carried out only with the four luminance blocks of the reference macroblocks).
This motion estimation includes searching in a window of picture I1r for a macroblock that is nearest, or most similar to the reference macroblock. The nearest macroblock found in the window is the predictor macroblock. Its position is determined by a motion vector V provided by the motion estimation. The predictor macroblock is subtracted at 18 from the current reference macroblock. The resulting difference macroblock is subjected to the process described with relation to FIG. 1A.
Like the intra pictures, the predicted pictures serve to compress other predicted pictures and bidirectional pictures. For this purpose, the predicted picture P4 is reconstructed (P4r) in a memory area M3 by an inverse quantification at 15, inverse DCT at 19, and addition at 19 of the predictor macroblock that was subtracted at 18.
The vector V provided by the motion estimation 17 is inserted in a header preceding the data provided by the variable length coding of the currently processed macroblock.
FIG. 1C illustrates the compression of a bidirectional picture B2. Bidirectional pictures are provided for in MPEG standards only. The processing of the bidirectional pictures differs from the processing of predicted pictures in that the motion estimation 17 consists in finding two predictor macroblocks in two pictures I1r and P4r, respectively, that were previously reconstructed in memory areas M2 and M3. Generally, pictures I1r and P4r respectively correspond to a picture preceding the bidirectional picture that is currently processed and to a picture following the bidirectional picture.
At 20, the mean value of the two obtained predictor macroblocks is calculated and is subtracted at 18 from the currently processed macroblock.
The bidirectional picture is not reconstructed because it is not used to compress another picture.
The motion estimation 17 provides two vectors V1 and V2 indicating the respective positions of the two predictor macroblocks in pictures I1r and P4r with respect to the reference macroblock of the bidirectional picture. Vectors V1 and V2 are inserted in a header preceding the data provided by the variable length coding of the currently processed macroblock.
In a predicted picture, an attempt is made to find a predictor macroblock for each reference macroblock. However, in some cases, using the predictor macroblock that is found may provide a smaller compression rate than that obtained by using an unmoved predictor macroblock (zero motion vector), or even smaller than the simple intra processing of the reference macroblock. Thus, depending upon these cases, the reference macroblock is submitted to either predicted processing with the vector that is found, predicted processing with a zero vector, or intra processing.
In a bidirectional picture, an attempt is made to find two predictor macroblocks for each reference macroblock. For each of the two predictor macroblocks, the process providing the best compression rate is determined, as indicated above with respect to a predicted picture. Thus, depending on the result, the reference macroblock is submitted to either bidirectional processing with the two vectors, predicted processing with only one of the vectors, or intra processing.
Thus, a predicted picture and a bidirectional picture may contain macroblocks of different types. The type of a macroblock is also data inserted in a header during variable length coding. According to MPEG standards, the motion vectors can be defined with an accuracy of half a pixel. To search a predictor macroblock with a non integer vector, first the predictor macroblock determined by the integer part of this vector is fetched, then this macroblock is submitted to so-called "half-pixel filtering", which includes averaging the macroblock and the same macroblock shifted down and/or to the right by one pixel, depending on the integer or non-integer values of the two components of the vector. According to H.261 standards, the predictor macroblocks may be subjected to low-pass filtering. For this purpose, information is provided with the vector, indicating whether filtering has to be carried out or not.
The succession of types (intra, predicted, bidirectional) is assigned to the pictures in a predetermined way, in a so-called group of pictures (GOP). A GOP generally begins with an intra picture. It is usual, in a GOP, to have a periodical series, starting from the second picture, including several successive bidirectional pictures, followed by a predicted picture, for example of the form IBBPBBPBB . . . where I is an intra picture, B a bidirectional picture, and P a predicted picture. The processing of each bidirectional picture B is carried out from macroblocks of the previous intra or predicted picture and from macroblocks of the next predicted picture.
The various functional blocks that are used in a typical prior art functional implementation are shown in FIG. 2. For clarity, the motion estimation engine and memory for storing macroblocks and video pictures have been omitted.
In FIG. 2, a reference macroblock is supplied to a subtraction circuit, where the predictor for that macroblock is subtracted (in the case of B and P pictures, only). The resultant error block (or the original macroblock, for I pictures) is passed on to a DCT block then to a quantization block for quantization.
The quantized macroblock is forwarded to an encoding process and an inverse quantization block. The encoding process takes the quantized macroblock and zig-zag encodes it, performs run level coding on the resultant data, then variable length packs the result, outputting the now encoded bitstream.
The bitstream is monitored and can be controlled via feedback to a rate control system. This controls quantization (and dequantization) to meet certain objectives for bitstream. A typical objective is a maximum bit-rate, although other factors can also be used.
The inverse quantization block in FIG. 2 is the start of a reconstruction chain that is used to generate a reconstructed version of each frame, so that the frames the motion prediction engine is searching for matching macroblocks are the same as will be regenerated during decoding proper. After inverse quantization, the macroblock is inverse DCT transformed in IDCT block and added to the original predictor used to generate the error macroblock. This reconstructed block is stored in memory for subsequent use in the motion estimation process.
The various blocks required to generate the encoded output stream have different computational requirements, which themselves can vary according to the particular application or user selected restrictions. Throttling of the output bitstream to meet bandwidth requirements is typically handled by manipulating the quantization step.
Pure hardware architectures, while potentially the most efficient, suffer from lack of flexibility since they can support only a restricted range of standards; moreover they have long design/verification cycles. On the other hand, pure software solutions, while being the most flexible, require high-performance processors unsuited to low-cost consumer applications.
It would be desirable to provide an architecture that allowed for relatively flexible bitstream control while reducing the amount of software-based processing power required.

Compression circuitry for generating an encoded bitstream from a plurality of video frames


Device for winding and unwinding the lower part of fishing line (cast) is a part of equipment for fishing with hook, by which it is solved the problem of visibility in water of lower reinforced parts of lines made of materials visible in water. These parts represent one of the most loaded parts of fishing equipment, because they are subjected to large tensile and gliding stresses. The device includes a two-part housing in which there is the hollow cylinder on which the reinforced lower part of the line is wound by a blade coil spring. In the stage of attracting the fish, the reinforced lower part of the line remains invisible and in the stage of swallowing, tearing and pulling the bait with the device, reinforced lower part of the line is pulled out of the device. The pulled out, reinforced lower part of the line cannot be bitten through or torn off by the fish, that enables the reliable catch. The device is used as the bait and model or insert for natural and artificial fishing baits for fishing predatory freshwater and sea fish.

Fishing by hook of predatory fresh water and sea fish is from an economic standpoint the most profitable and from a sports standpoint, the most attractive. Predatory fish belong to a range of largest and strongest fish for which special equipment is required, in order to attract fish of prey and to hold them on a hook till drawing them out of the water. Predatory fish have in their jaws bone growths in the form of teeth for cutting and tearing their catch. Therefore these lower parts of line resp. casts, represent one of the most loaded part of fishing equipment for fishing predatory fish, because they are subjected to large tensile and gliding strains. Lines in general should be made of transparent materials, invisible in water, so that bait on lines would leave as natural an impression as possible. As there are not available materials for line with high tensile and gliding strength invisible in water, the lower, most strained parts of line are made of nontransparent, metal materials. Visible casts made of metal protruding from artificial or natural bait, decrease the attractiveness of the bait and thus the entire fishing event as an economic or sport activity. Therefore it is a technical problem of a device of manufacture that the lower reinforced nontransparent metal part of the line, be made invisible in a stage of attracting fish and effective and resistant to tensile and gliding strains in stages of swallowing, pulling off and dragging the bait.


A method is provided for controlling a Mass Storage Class Digital Imaging Device using a SCSI pass through protocol. The protocol is based on industry standard SCSI protocol with modifications and extensions to allow transparent communication over a medium and is referred to as SCSI Pass Through (SPT). This protocol defines a set of commands that are initiated in a computer. The commands also include and extend industry standard Picture Transfer Protocol and are targeted for application and execution in a Mass Storage Class Digital Imaging Device. The invention includes the definition of data buffers in the form of data structures that can be used for packaging, passing, and receiving information related to the digital imaging device. The protocol is applicable to communication mediums that can be utilized in connecting any digital storage device to a computing device.

A computer system that can communicate with a mass storage class digital imaging device such as a digital camera is a common arrangement. For example, there are several digital cameras that communicate with personal computers (PCs) however, the methods for accomplishing communication and control are proprietary to each manufacturer. This essentially poses a problem for users because of the multitude of associated interfaces and drivers that are required for the various brands and models of cameras on the market.
One attempt to resolve this problem was the introduction of a standard protocol to be utilized by manufacturers, namely the USB Mass Storage Class Device specification. The implementation of a digital camera in accordance with the afore mentioned specification provides the benefit of allowing an operating system with native driver support to provide 'Plug and Play' experience for the user. The implementation also allows such a conforming device to appear on the PC as a storage device and allows the user to copy files to or from the device. However, a digital camera potentially has several files which are not related to stored images and as such, the user will be presented with a multitude of files through which they must navigate in order to obtain the image file of interest. A further drawback of the implementation of the USB Mass Storage Class Device specification is the inability to actually control the device. For example, under existing support for cameras, it is not possible to set the clock on the camera from PC. This and other specific controls that could benefit a user are not available under the presently available implementations for uniform camera support. For example, a user may desire to perform live capture, query the camera or adjust a camera property setting. Presently, non of these functions are possible with the existing USB Mass Storage Class Device specification. Instead, a specific driver or application from the manufactures is required in order to accomplish these tasks.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a method that allows Mass Storage Class Digital Imaging Devices, particularly cameras to take advantage of interfaces and features that are a part of the user experience. An extensible control protocol is needed for controlling most common tasks in these digital content devices such as a Mass Storage Class Digital Camera, without the need for manufacturers to develop custom control software. In other words, manufacturers that implement the control protocol on their devices will be able to benefit from the ability to have the device controlled by an operating system application such as Windows Image Acquisition wizard (WIA) or by other programs through an application program interface (API) defined within an operating system.

System and method for controlling mass storage class digital imaging devices


The combination of a converter in which liquid petroleum gas is changed in phase from liquid to gas preparatory to fueling an internal combustion engine by adding heat from a fluid, a dual three-way valve, an air-fluid heat exchanger in a human-occupied compartment (the cab), and a fluid circulation system independent of the internal combustion engine cooling system. The dual three-way valve's position either directs engine coolant tapped from the engine through the converter and air-fluid heat exchanger, partially cooling the cab, or directs fluid from the independent fluid circulation system through the converter and air-fluid heat exchanger, fully cooling the cab. As an alternate embodiment for installations when engine coolant can become temporarily too hot to exit the inverter below ambient cab temperature, an independent bypass may be incorporated.

1. Field of the Invention
Means to supply cooled air to the cab of any apparatus having an engine fueled by liquid petroleum gas.
2. Description of Prior Art
The prior art consists of a separate refrigeration system for air cooling, driven by shaft horsepower extracted from the engine. This system has been virtually universal for decades. It has been quite satisfactory until recent environmental concerns have arisen about leakage of the refrigerant fluid, which is virtually always fluorinated and chlorinated hydrocarbons believed to be detrimental to creation of ozone in the upper atmosphere, and presently scheduled to be severely restricted or banned by law in the United States. Any refrigeration fluids which may be eligible for substitution in such systems are likely to be much more costly, to require considerable mechanical changes in the compressor, expansion valve, condenser, or evaporator (expansion coil), and/or to have more severe corrosive properties.


A device for gauging relative rotational movement and/or displacement between the races (10, 11) of a bearing comprises a pulse generator (13) activated by the rotating race (11) and coupled to a non-rotating sensor (12). The pulse generator consists of a coding wheel and the sensor consists of an optical encoder. The coding wheel (13) comprises a disk of reflecting material on which a plurality of non-reflecting zones or apertures is provided.

At present there are known rolling contact bearings having a gauging device which supplies a signal carrying information as to movement and/or position of one of the two races of a bearing relative to the other one. Such gauging devices are comprised of a moving pulse generator and a stationary sensor. The pulse generator member, known in the field as impulse ring, is fixed for rotation with the rotating race of the bearing. The pulse generator is usually a toothed or magnetized ring mounted to the member to be kept under control. The sensor, which is usually a Hall effect sensor, is installed onto a fixed part so as to operatively face the toothed or magnetized portion of the impulse ring, near to it or at a preset distance therefrom.
Although the above cited devices give satisfactory performances, they have a limit concerning the rate of pulses per revolution they are able to supply. This turns out to be a limit to the number and/or kind of information available by means of that particular kind of gauging device.
Another inconvenience encountered with known kinds of gauging devices is that dirt which inevitably tends to deposit on their components may jeopardize correct operation thereof over time. Furthermore, these devices are not suited to work under high temperature conditions, whereby they cannot be used for some applications.
In addition, for example where the bearing is applied to the wheel hub of a vehicle, the high magnetic fields generated by a conventional gauging device will attract metal particles from the vehicle brakes with the result that these particles will accumulate on the bearing.
A further drawback lies in that magnetic impulse rings and Hall effect sensors are rather costly.

Device for gauging relative rotational displacement and/or speed between the races of a rolling contact bearing


A dual fuel compression ignition engine operates by injecting gaseous fuel and liquid diesel fuel from a common fuel injector directly into each engine cylinder. The gaseous fuel is ignited by compression igniting a small pilot injection quantity of the liquid diesel fuel. Evaporated natural gas from a cryogenic tank and/or a fuel conditioning module is dosed into an intake manifold of the engine with an electronically controlled supply valve. The electronically controlled supply valve may open to supply evaporated gas to the intake manifold contingent upon combustion conditions in the engine cylinder demonstrating a low risk of methane slip, and the dosing quantities are limited to reduce risk of ignition of an air/gas mixture in the intake manifold.

Natural gas has increasingly become an attractive alternative to other fuels for use in internal combustion engines. For instance, in one class of engines, a relatively large charge of natural gas is ignited by a compression igniting a small pilot quantity of liquid diesel fuel. In one application, dual fuel compression ignition engines are utilized for powering mining trucks. The natural gas may be stored in liquid form at very cold temperatures (e.g., −160° C.) and near atmospheric pressure. As the liquefied natural gas in the storage tank absorbs heat, some of the gas evaporates off. If the evaporated gas is not used fast enough during normal engine operations, the tank can eventually build enough pressure that it needs to vent the excess evaporated gaseous fuel. Since natural gas is primarily methane, venting the natural gas to atmosphere is considered very undesirable, as methane is known as an extremely powerful greenhouse gas. In practice, liquefied natural gas tanks are often constructed to vent at around 200 PSI. In order to be commercially viable, an engine system that utilizes natural gas might need to have some strategy for limiting the amount of natural gas, and especially methane, that is vented to atmosphere.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,698,211 teaches a natural gas fuel storage and supply system for gas burning engines of a vehicle. This reference teaches a passive strategy that routes evaporated natural gas from the storage tank to the intake manifold of the engine while the engine is in operation. This reference also teaches inclusion of a restriction orifice that limits the flow rate of evaporated natural gas so that the air/gas mixture traveling through the intake manifold is sufficiently lean to avoid, or limit the risk of, combustion of the air/gas mixture in the intake manifold. This reference also teaches that a flow control valve may be substituted in place of the restricting orifice. Although this reference recognizes a desirability to burn rather than vent evaporated natural gas from a storage tank, it fails to contemplate other problems that could arise in such systems, especially dual fuel compression ignition engine systems.
The present disclosure is directed toward one or more of the problems set forth above.

Dual fuel engine and evaporated natural gas system


Improved methods for the extraction or dissolution of metals, metalloids or their oxides, especially lanthanides, actinides, uranium or their oxides, into supercritical solvents containing an extractant are disclosed. The disclosed embodiments specifically include enhancing the extraction or dissolution efficiency with ultrasound. The present methods allow the direct, efficient dissolution of UO2 or other uranium oxides without generating any waste stream or by-products.

Metals typically are extracted from raw materials, such as metal oxides, and thereafter separated from other materials either used for or generated by the extraction process. Solvent extraction at atmospheric pressure following dissolution of solids with an acid is a widely used technique for extracting metals and metal oxides from solid materials. However, conventional acid dissolution followed by solvent extraction processes requires large amounts of solvents and acids. Those same solvents and acids often become waste, and waste treatment and disposal presents an important environmental problem, particularly for radioactive solid wastes. Removing radioactive materials and metal contaminants from wastes generated by mines and nuclear plants would facilitate safer and cheaper disposal of the remaining waste products. Current methods for decontaminating such wastes are infeasible on an industrial scale because of the large quantity of secondary acid and solvent waste generated by such methods.
Recently, supercritical fluids comprising a chelating agent have been proposed for chelation and dissolution of metals and metal oxides without the use of either organic solvents or aqueous solutions. Various features of supercritical fluid extraction of metals and metalloids are disclosed in Dr. Chien Wai et al.'s U.S. Pat., Nos. 5,356,538, 5,606,724, 5,730,874, 5,770,085, 5,792,357, 5,965,025, 5,840,193, 6,132,491 and 6,187,911 ("Wai's patents"). Wai's patents are incorporated herein by reference. Wai's patents disclose various features for extracting metalloid and metal ions from materials by exposing the materials to a fluid solvent, particularly supercritical carbon dioxide, containing a chelating agent.
Despite these prior known processes, there are still some disadvantages associated with these and other more traditional purification processes for metals, such as uranium. These disadvantages include: (a) low yields of purified metals and low overall efficiency; (b) time consuming steps; (c) the creation of undesirable waste streams; and (d) slow extraction rates.
A need therefore exists for an environmentally safe method for separating and/or purifying metals from other metals, metalloids and/or impurities. A further need exists for a method which is both efficient and provides for a greater yield of the extracted and purified metals.

Ultrasound enhanced process for extracting metal species in supercritical fluids


In a method and an apparatus for indicating problems data from, typically automatically, entered cell relations is compared to site location information and mobile measurements, if available. An indication of a possible problem is triggered if the comparison indicates that the cell added as neighbors are not suitable as defined by one or many threshold functions. In accordance with one embodiment method of problem indication generation in a cellular radio system is provided. An apparatus receives a neighbor cell relation entries and site location information. The received information is compared and a problem indication is generated if the comparison indicates that cells entered neighbor cells are not close to each other as defined by at least one threshold values.

The third generation partnership project (3GPP) is currently working on standardization the next generation of mobile communication system denoted Long Term Evolution (LTE). The architecture of the LTE system is shown in FIG. 1. In FIG. 1 the logical interfaces (S1) between the evolved Node Bs (eNBs) and the Mobility Management Entities (MME)/Serving Gateway (S-GW) and the interfaces (X2) between the eNBs are shown.
In LTE the downlink is based on orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) while the uplink is based on a single carrier modulation method known as discrete Fourier transform spread OFDM (DFT-S-OFDM), see 3GPP TR 36.300, Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA) and Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRAN); Overall description; Stage 2, V8.2.0.
The coverage of a cell in a wireless network depends on numerous parameters. Some of them are related to the cell selection procedure, determining the most suitable cell for establishment of communications links. Such parameters can be seen as relative parameters, since the coverage of one cell may be expanded and other cells in the vicinity will be diminished accordingly.
Other parameters can be seen as absolute parameters, and are related to the link quality alone, essentially whether at least one cell can provide acceptable link quality for communications on a given location.
The primary means to change the coverage area of a cell is to change the reference signal power or the orientation (tilt, azimuth, height) of the serving antenna branch. Such action will change the area where the cell is perceived as the main alternative for communications, and will reduce its interference to users in areas where the cell is not perceived as the main alternative.
The antenna orientation is changed by adjusting one or several of the following.                Vertical tilt, either mechanical (the mounting angle is altered) or electrical (antenna elements internally in the antenna branch are altered, changing the antenna pattern).        Horizontal beam direction (azimuth)        Height
Each cell in a network is identified by a globally unique identity GID, and a locally unique physical cell identity PCID. The former is a unique bit string, typically long, signalled in the system information, while the latter is an integer such as 0-503 in LTE, and 0-511 in Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) associated to a physical reference signal sequence which the mobile can use to identify a cell on the physical layer. When a mobile station discovers a candidate cell it reports PCID of the cell to its serving cell.
In LTE, if this PCID is unknown to the serving cell it can request the mobile to decode and report the globally unique GID of the cell to uniquely identify it. This enables neighbour cell relation lists to be established automatically by the radio base station evolved Node B (eNodeB). The neighbour cell relation list changes are also sent to the domain manager and/or some other central node, which maintains an updated logical network model, including the neighbour cell relations. The eNodeB receives network addressing information about the candidate cell and is then able to setup a direct X2 connection between the two eNodeBs.
In WCDMA, the Radio Network Controller (RNC) manages a list of candidate cells, and sends such a list to the mobile station—the monitored set. If a PCID outside this list is discovered, the mobile can report such a cell as well—the detected set cell. If the detected set cell can be identified in RNC, then it can be possible to perform handover also to such a cell. If the detected set cell can not be identified in a central node, e.g. in an Operation and Maintenance O&M node, most likely handover is not possible, but the cell can be considered for inclusion in the monitored set.
In both LTE and WCDMA, the PCIDs are not globally unique, but with careful assignments, they can be locally unique which means that the mobile can report a candidate cell by its PCID, and the serving cell can determine the likely cell if the PCID is listed in the serving cells neighbour cell relation list, and initiate handover to this cell. Also in this case, a central node can maintain a logical network model including the neighbour cell relations.
To optimize the antenna orientations, and other cell size optimizations, is an information intensive task, since the coverage needs to be carefully explored. One option is to obtain information from a cell planning tool, and rely on the path loss predictions to be accurate. Another option is to obtain the information from extensive drive tests. However, this is a work intensive task, very costly and highly inefficient for determining the need for antenna re-orientation.
Hence, there exists a need for a method and apparatus that enables more efficient cell size optimization, for example antenna re-orientation procedures.

Method and apparatus for generation problem indications in a cellular radio system


A system and method for multiplexing subchannels in an OFDMA network is provided. The subchannels can be multiplexed by splitting the subchannels in the frequency domain. Alternatively, the subchannels can be code division multiplexed using N orthogonal spreading codes. The subchannel multiplexing increases system capacity for low-rate services, such as voice-based services.

Currently most broadband orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) wireless access technologies are designed to support high-speed packet data traffic. Accordingly, these technologies typically allocate high-rate data subchannels designed to support non-real time high-speed packet data traffic. Although many operators would like to exploit these technologies by offering real-time, low-rate, voice-based services, there are a number of unresolved issues related to the use of high-speed channels for low-rate voice services.
One issue is the low granularity of data channels. This results in waste of symbols for low-rate traffic and a shortage in number of traffic channels when large number of mobile stations are to be supported. Specifically, in scalable OFDMA systems where multiple Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) sizes are defined, but the subcarrier spacing remains constant, the number of definable traffic subchannels may be very small for lower FFT sizes. For example, when the channel bandwidth is 1.25 MHz there are only two subchannels per symbol. Accordingly, only a few bursts can be supported per frame.
Another issue is achieving low latency transmission for delay sensitive signaling and voice traffic. Low latency requires mobile stations to have transmission opportunities in almost every frame. However, this reduces the number of supportable active mobile stations.
Using low-rate voice and signaling channels in a make-before-break soft handoff, needed for delay sensitive traffic, causes challenges associated with synchronized scheduling of channels by two base stations involved in the soft handoff, and the interference management when frequency reuse factor is one.
One technology that uses OFDMA is the IEEE 802.16e standard. Except in broadcast or multicast scenarios, and contention-based ranging, the current OFDMA subchannlization defined in the IEEE 802.16e standard does not allow two or more users to share the same data channel on a time division basis. Accordingly, the current OFDMA subchannelization defined in IEEE 802.16e lacks the flexibility to provide a large number of low-rate traffic channels (or large number of mobile stations receiving low-rate signaling traffic channels), especially those which are close to the base station.

System and method for dividing subchannels in a OFDMA network


Various embodiments are directed to use of RF and WiFi control in a fan device to control fan status and speed and/or fan light on/off status and intensity. A customer premises includes a WiFi router through which WiFi communications can be sent from a WiFi capable device, e.g., a cell phone, to control the fan device and its various functions. While WiFi control is via a WiFi router in the home, the control signals normally do not traverse the Internet or another external network. In addition to WiFi control, control of the fan device can be via an RF control device, e.g., a wall mounted controller. In some embodiments, the fan device reports its state and/or changes in state due to received commands to a server, and the server generates a recommended normal control schedule and an away control schedule and then uses the schedules to control fan device.

Ceiling fans are often mounted in rooms to improve air circulation and/or provide cooling. In some cases lights are mounted on the fan. While the ability to separately control a fan motor and light are desirable, such control if implemented using standard wired switches requires separate switches for the light and the fan motor.
In many cases, fans are mounted where a ceiling light was previously located and thus while power, e g., 120V, may be available at the location where the fan is being mounted connections to multiple switches may not be available. In such cases, the combined ceiling fan and light fixture may receive power via a single wall switch with the power being provided to both the light and fan motor at the same time. In order to allow separate control of the light and fan motor switches pull cords may be included in the fan assembly with one switch being used to control the light fixture and another being used to control the fan motor.
While the use of pull cord controls of a fan and light are common, they are not only unsightly but can pose potential safety issues. Dangling cords can accidently get caught on objects, people and/or even get entangled in the moving fan blades. With advancements in LED lighting it is often desirable to support variable lighting levels rather than a simple on/off light control. Similarly the ability to control the speed of a ceiling fan motor rather than simply turn the motor on and off can be desirable.
In the interest of energy efficiency it can be desirable to support fan and/or light control according to a schedule which takes into consideration calendared events, work schedules and/or other conditions so that a fan and/or light is not run needlessly when no one is around. To the extent that a schedule could be supported, it would be desirable if the schedule could be entered and implemented without the need for a wired wall controller to provide control signals via a wire to the fan and/or light unit since wires can be difficult and/or costly to run.
In view of the above it should be appreciated that there is a need for improved methods of controlling a fan and/or ceiling light. It would be desirable if at least some of the improved methods and/or apparatus could avoid the need for multiple wall switches wired separately to a fan and a light. While not necessary for all embodiments it would be desirable if fan and/or light control could support a wide range of functions such as fan speed, fan direction, and/or light intensity in addition to simple light and/or fan on/off operations.

Methods and apparatus for controlling fan devices


A method for forming a field oxide isolation regions of a memory array is described. The field isolation regions comprise a rectangular array of oxide islands. The oxide islands are formed by a two mask process wherein the first mask is a LOCOS hardmask which defines an array of parallel field oxide stripes. The field oxide stripes are thermally grown by a LOCOS oxidation process. A second mask, which has an array of parallel stripes perpendicular to the field oxide stripes is then patterned over the wafer. The stripes of the second mask expose a plurality of narrow sections of the field oxide stripes which are then etched by a directional plasma etch having a high selectivity of silicon oxide over silicon. The anisotropic etch segments each of the longer oxide stripes into a string of islands space apart by a narrow gap through which a robust common source line passes unencumbered by birdsbeak oxide. The edges of the field oxide at the gap have vertical walls and square corners which afford improved spacing of components in the vicinity of the gap. The method eliminates the need for a mask bias to accommodate corner rounding and birdsbeak oxide encroachment which occurs if the islands are defined by a single mask process.

(1) Field of the Invention
The invention relates to processes for the manufacture of semiconductor devices and more particularly to the formation of field isolation in memory arrays.
(2) Introduction and Description of Prior Art
Computer memory consist of vast arrays of storage cells which can be addressed by wordlines and bitlines. The most commonly used DRAM (dynamic random access memory) cell design comprises a transfer gate(usually an MOS field-effect-transistor(MOSFET) and a storage node consisting of a capacitor plate connected to the MOSFET drain. Memory cells for ROMs (read only memories), PROMS (programmable ROMs) and EEPROMs (electrically erasable PROMS) are similarly arranged in rectangular arrays and are addressed by wordlines and bitlines but typically have their storage nodes formed by a floating gate which lies subjacent to an addressable control gate. Memory cells require a high cell density in order to achieve high performance and cost efficiency.
The simplicity of cell design permits the interconnection of elements of the transfer MOSFET, thereby permitting simpler and more effective array design. Notably, the control gates of all the MOSFETs of a wordline may be formed of a single polysilicon band, traversing alternately over field oxide and cell gate regions. Likewise, the sources of the MOSFETs in a DRAM bitline string may be formed of a single diffusion or individual source diffusions, isolated by field oxide, may be interconnected by a superjacent addressable bitline. The interconnection of source elements by a diffusion band is found in EEPROM memory arrays. The drains of each of the MOSFETs must however remain unique and therefore electrically isolated.
The necessary field isolation for memory circuits is typically provided by a relatively thick layer of silicon oxide formed by the well known LOCOS (Local oxidation of silicon) process. For a conventional flash EPROM memory array, the field isolation regions are formed by a pattern of rectangular islands
In FIG. 1 there is shown a planar view of a region on a wafer upon which a LOCOS oxidation mask 20 for a memory cell array 10 has been patterned by a prior art process. The openings 25 expose rectangular areas of silicon 22 which are to be oxidized to form islands of field oxide (FOX). FIG. 2 shows the same region after the LOCOS oxidation has been performed and the oxidation mask has been stripped. The FOX islands provide the required isolation between the elements of the MOSFET devices which are to be formed in the active areas 28 and 30. The MOSFETs are formed by growing a gate oxide(not shown) over the active areas 28,30, patterning polysilicon gate electrode stripes 26 over the array 10 and finally forming source regions 30 and drain regions 28 by ion implantation. The source/drain elements are self-aligned to the gate electrode stripes 26. The source active areas 30 for each MOSFET are connected along the columns by a continuous source diffusion along the columns 31. The drains 28 are isolated in each cell by the FOX regions.
Forming the FOX isolation stripes in this manner leads to problems of birds beak encroachment into the active regions between the ends of the short stripes. Referring to FIG. 2, the birds beak encroachment, shown by the dotted line 32 is caused by the penetration of oxide under the LOCOS mask which reduces the effective width 34 of the source diffusion in this region. In order to compensate for this reduction, the spacing between the FOX line ends must be increased. This problem is discussed in some detail by Tang, et.al U.S. Pat. No. 5,103,274, and Tang, et.al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,120,671 in the formation of an EPROM, Flash EPROM, or EEPROM. The problem is overcome by these references by growing the FOX isolation as one long stripe and, after both floating polysilicon gates and the polysilicon control gate lines have been patterned, a mask is applied which protects the FOX isolating the drain regions and exposes the FOX between two adjacent polysilicon control gate lines. The exposed FOX is then etched out by reactive ion etching(RIE) forming short FOX stripes with vertical walled ends. The source regions which are subsequently formed, are self aligned to the polysilicon gate lines as also are the ends of the FOX islands. In order to self-align on the gate lines, an edge portion of the gate line is exposed to the FOX RIE.
Liu, U.S. Pat. No. 5,534,455 points out problems encountered by the method of Tang, '274, and Tang, '671 which include damage and undercutting of the gate or tunnel region beneath the gate stack as well as the formation of a silicon step resulting from over-etching of the FOX. The problem is overcome by Liu, by forming a sidewall along the poly gate line stack which protects the gate or tunnel region and displaces the over-etch step.
Ong, et.al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,466,624 cites a method for introducing an additional stripe of FOX isolation to establish a pair of adjacent drain diffusions. The memory arrays formed are of the floating gate type as found in EEPROMs. During processing, long FOX isolation stripes are formed which are subsequently segmented by a selective oxide etch. The segments provide isolation alongside the channel regions of the MOSFETs. Unlike Tang, '274, and Tang, '671, the floating gate polysilicon and the FOX sections are successively etched using the same mask. Thus the gate polysilicon is not partially exposed during the FOX etching but is covered by the mask and a nitride layer. Like Tang, '274, and Tang, '671, however, the ends of the FOX islands are aligned with an edge of the floating gate polysilicon.
Not all EEPROM designs permit this alignment commonality however. The floating gate pattern often does not coincide with the edge of the source diffusion outside of the channel region, in particular where the common source channel passes between FOX regions. This can be seen in the structure of a flash EEPROM cites by Liang, et.al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,714,412 where the floating gate edges are not aligned with the ends of the FOX islands. Clearly, it is not always possible to cut a FOX stripe into segments by the same etchant operation which patterns the floating gate in the manner of Ong, et.al.
Etching the FOX segments after the floating gate has been patterned in the manner of Tang, '274, and Tang, '671, requires the exposure of a portion of the floating gate to the FOX etchant. This would not be possible in cases where the polysilicon gate stack has an oxide cap layer over it as in the manufacture of a split gate flash EEPROM by the ETOX.TM. (EEPROM with Tunnel OXide) process cited by Liang, et.al., '412.
McElroy, U.S. Pat. No. 4,373,248 also addresses the formation of a floating gate memory array having diffusion interconnected strings of sources and drains which are connected to column decoders. Long stripes of FOX isolation are employed but they are not subsequently segmented into smaller units.

Two mask method for reducing field oxide encroachment in memory arrays

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.