A touch panel pattern TPP includes detection electrodes 38, driving electrodes 39, floating electrodes 45, and reference width floating electrode 48, a smallest width floating electrode 49, and an intermediate width floating electrode 50 that are included in the floating electrodes 45. The smallest width floating electrode 49 is disposed at an end-side one of the floating electrodes 45 with respect to a second direction and has a smallest width. The intermediate width floating electrode 50 is disposed closer to the end-side one than the reference width floating electrode 48 is and closer to a middle than the smallest width floating electrode 49 is and has a width FW2 smaller than that of the reference width floating electrode 48 and larger than that of the smallest width floating electrode 49.

In recent years, a touch panel has been installed in electronic devices such as tablet-type laptop computers and portable information terminals for improving operability and usability. Position information within a plane display surface of a display panel is input via the touch panel with being touched by a finger or a touch pen. Accordingly, a user can directly operate the panel as if a user directly touches images displayed on the liquid crystal panel. An example of such a touch panel as described in following Patent Document 1 has been known.
Patent Document 1 describes a touch panel controller including a driving section for driving drive lines DL1 through DL4 on the basis of a code sequence so as to drive electrostatic capacitors C31 through C34 provided between the respective drive lines DL1 through DL4 and a sense line SL3 and electrostatic capacitors C41 through C44 provided between the respective drive lines DL1 through DL4 and a sense line SL4 so that a first linear sum of the respective electrostatic capacitors C31 through C34 is outputted and a second linear sum of the respective electrostatic capacitors C41 through C44 is outputted, a differential amplifier for amplifying a difference between the first linear sum and the second linear sum, and a saturation prevention control section for correcting a line dependency between the capacitance values of the electrostatic capacitors C31 through C34 and the second capacitance values of the electrostatic capacitors C41 through C44.

Position input device and display device having position input function


A drilling rig, in particular for the offshore industry, in the form of a jack-up platform on which a cantilever is mounted so as to be movable at least substantially horizontally and in a first direction, with the cantilever projecting more or less outside the jack-up platform. On the cantilever a drilling platform is present, which drilling platform is movable relative to the jack-up platform in a second direction, different herefrom. This drilling platform is fixedly mounted on the cantilever while the latter is movable relative to the jack-up platform in both abovesaid directions.

In the conventional drilling rigs, the cantilever is movable only in its longitudinal direction relative to the jack-up platform, and the drilling platform is movable relative to the cantilever in a direction transverse thereto. Due to the resulting movement of the drilling platform relative to the jack-up platform, the drilling point of the drilling rig can reach any point located in a rectangle of which the lengths of the sides are determined by the travel of the cantilever relative to the jack-up platform and the travel of the drilling platform relative to the cantilever. However, in the transverse direction, the size of this rectangle is limited by the distance between the cantilever beams extending in the longitudinal direction, which beams determine the width of the cantilever. Located under the drilling platform is a grid of drilling points. The drilling platform with the blow-out valve and a part of the equipment, tools and materials for drilling that are further required moves from one drilling well to the other. The transverse movement of the drilling platform is limited by the cantilever beams. As a consequence, the drilling pattern is limited to drillings within said rectangle. To obtain a drilling pattern which is nevertheless acceptable, the cantilever should be of a relatively wide design. If the drilling platform has moved over the maximal distance in the transverse direction, the cantilever beam on the side to which this movement took place is subjected to a considerably heavier load than the other cantilever beam. Because of such asymmetric load on the cantilever beams occurring in practice, these beams should be of a relatively heavy construction. A further drawback of the conventional rigs is that between jack-up platform and cantilever, as well as between cantilever and drilling platform, flexible connections should be provided for pipes, cable work, etc.


According to this invention, there is provided a motor control apparatus comprising a field weakening device for converting a velocity feedback signal obtained from the rotational speed of a motor into a secondary magnetic flux reference signal by using a field pattern, a field pattern selector for comparing a predetermined signal with a q-axis torque current reference signal obtained on the basis of the secondary magnetic flux reference signal converted by the field weakening device, the velocity feedback signal, a velocity reference signal, and a torque reference signal, and outputting, on the basis of the comparison result, a control signal for switching the field pattern, and a field pattern storage section for switching, on the basis of the control signal output from said field pattern selector, the field pattern to be used in the field weakening device. Since the selector can switch the field pattern, an accurate torque output can be realized.

The present invention relates to a control apparatus for driving a motor and, more particularly, to a control apparatus for a motor which requires an accurate torque output.
This patent application is based on Japanese Patent Application No. 10-280112, filed Oct. 1, 1998, the entire content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
FIG. 1 shows the general arrangement of an IGBT inverter apparatus.
FIG. 1 shows a power driving apparatus based on vector control with velocity feedback and current feedback control.
As shown in FIG. 1, an input velocity reference signal .omega.r* and a velocity feedback signal .omega.' calculated by a velocity detector 1, primary magnetic flux angle calculator 2, and differentiator 3 are feedback-calculated. The calculation result is converted into a torque reference signal Tr by a velocity controller 4. A new torque reference signal is calculated by adding the torque reference signal Tr to a torque reference signal Tr* input from a main host apparatus. The calculated torque reference signal is divided by a secondary magnetic flux reference .PHI..sub.2 * to obtain a q-axis torque reference signal Iq*.
On the other hand, a field weakening controller 5 and magnetic flux saturation pattern generator 6 are used to calculate a d-axis current reference signal Id* from the velocity feedback signal .omega.'. The calculated q-axis torque reference signal Iq* and d-axis current reference signal Id* and d- and q-axis current feedback signals Id' and Iq' are feedback-calculated to generate final current reference signals Id* and Iq*, respectively.
The current reference signals Id* and Iq* are output from current controllers 7 and 8 as voltage references Vd* and Vq*, respectively.
A coordinate conversion/PWM conversion device 9 outputs element gate ignition pulse instructions Gu, Gv, and Gw on the basis of the voltage references Vd* and Vq* output from the current controllers 7 and 8.
On the basis of the element gate trigger pulse instructions Gu, Gv, and Gw output from the coordinate conversion/PWM conversion device 9, a power converter 10 converts a DC voltage Vdc supplied from a DC current source into a desired AC voltage Vac and outputs the voltage. The power converter 10 supplies a desired current to a motor 11 to drive it.
In the above arrangement, for a d-axis field current Id as a motor field component in vector control, the secondary magnetic flux reference .PHI..sub.2 * is calculated in accordance with the velocity feedback signal .omega.' using a certain field pattern in the field weakening controller 5.
The field pattern in the field weakening controller 5 is determined by the motor connected to the motor control apparatus and set as a fixed value. When a velocity feedback signal .omega. having a certain magnitude is input, the field current component Id in the d-axis of the motor is calculated in accordance with the field pattern.
On the basis of a primary magnetic flux angle .theta.r calculated by the primary magnetic flux angle calculator 2 and a slip angle .theta.s calculated by vector control, a secondary magnetic flux angle .theta.o necessary for vector control such as 2-to 3-axis conversion or 3- to 2-axis conversion is obtained. For this reason, calculation of the secondary magnetic flux angle .theta.o produces a delay.
In the above-described conventional motor control apparatus, in a region where the motor load as the load of the motor control apparatus is low, a motor current vector I.sub.1 in vector control stays close to the d-axis as an excitation current component, as shown in FIG. 2, and we have EQU I.sub.1 =I.sub.d (1)
When the motor current I.sub.1 stays near the d-axis as the field current component, the ratio of an error component caused by the conversion/calculation delay in the current feedback coordinate converter 13 and coordinate conversion/PWM conversion device 9 in the current feedback loop to the q-axis torque current component signal Iq as the torque component in vector control is high in the low-load mode, resulting in degradation in torque accuracy.


The present invention is a Multiple Target Doppler Tracker which tracks a plurality of components, including debris and submunitions of a munition burst apart above the ground. A plurality of transmitters transmits constant frequency (CW) signals towards the burst event of the munition and a plurality of receivers receive the signals reflected from the components. The signals received by the receivers are processed into frequency spectra. The spectra are analyzed to determine the path of a selected number of components. Using the path information the selected components are tracked with tracking devices.

The present invention relates to a system of tracking a multiple of components and more specifically to the tracking of debris and submunitions of a munition which bursts apart above the ground.
In testing munitions, particularly air burst munitions, it is desirable to track each major component of the munition from the time it enters the target area, through the burst event, and its descent to the ground. It is particularly desirable to track each component in real time so that information can be used to control the tracking of an optical telescope fitted with a recording device, such as a television or a film camera to track and capture the deployment of the munition components in the first few seconds.
Prior art tracking systems have been developed using doppler radar with the assistance of a trained analyst. It is desirable, on the other hand, to provide a system that requires no human intervention during the event.


A firearm lock shroud for a firearm lock comprises first and second side members. The first side member is positioned adjacent the firearm lock. The second side member is positioned adjacent the firearm lock and spaced apart from the first side member. The first and second side members define a firearm receiving space therebetween for receiving a firearm. The first and second side members extend over an area to cover at least a trigger area of a firearm received in the firearm receiving space and locked by the firearm lock to prevent unauthorized access to the trigger area. The side members can optionally extend to cover a magazine area and/or a take-down pin area of the firearm.

This application relates to firearm storage, and in particular to a shroud that provides additional security to a locked firearm.
Providing secure storage for a firearm in a manner that allows it to be accessed quickly by an authorized user, yet prevents access by others, continues to pose a challenge. This is especially true for law enforcement officers. Officers often prefer to have their firearms, and especially rifles and shotguns, locked and stored in the passenger compartments of their vehicles. In this way, rifles and shotguns are readily available to the officers upon arriving at a scene, which provides advantages over needing to retrieve them from a rear trunk or cargo area. But the passenger compartments of law enforcement vehicles are also used to transport prisoners. Prisoners may need to be left unattended in a law enforcement vehicle, in close proximity to one or more locked firearms, while officers respond to a situation. Vehicle-mounted firearm racks with locks for securing firearms are known. But some firearms are susceptible to damage, tampering or other unauthorized activity, even while locked in a rack.


A BIOS switching system applicable to a computer system is provided. The BIOS switching system includes an input module and a memory module, and the memory module further includes a plurality of BIOS's, an option recording block, and a boot-up management block. The input module produces a switching signal according to a user input. The boot-up management block determines whether replacing an execution option block's data in the option recording block is necessary or not based on the switching signal. The data of the execution option block is identification data of one of the BIOS's. The boot-up management block executes the BIOS indicated by the data of the execution option block while the computer system boots up.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a BIOS switching system and a method thereof; in particular, to a BIOS switching system with a memory unit that stores a plurality of BIOS's and a method thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
A basic input output system (BIOS) is very important for the majority of computer systems, and therefore the setting and update of a BIOS requires careful testing, so as to ensure the correct completion of the boot-up procedure. This careful testing is especially important for various computer products (such as notebook computers), and prior to leaving a factory, there will be multiple factory tests for the BIOS, so that the products will function normally once arriving at the hands of the consumers.
However during the process of testing or setting of the BIOS, errors may occur upon BIOS update, so that the BIOS can not function normally, and such a problem subsequently leads to the malfunctioning of the entire computer system. Furthermore, there may be a need to load various BIOS's with different settings during the process of BIOS testing so that these BIOS's need to be interchanged for testing. Thus, there is need for selecting and switching between multiple BIOS's.
In the prior art backup BIOS usage is described, which stores BIOS's in different storage locations within a computer system, wherein the BIOS in one storage location acts as primary BIOS, and the BIOS on the other storage location acts as backup BIOS, so that when the primary BIOS fails to function or is not operational, then the backup BIOS is read from the other storage location.
However, storing BIOS's on different storage locations increases the hardware cost of the computer system; furthermore, for the computer system of a given product that is being tested at the production line prior to leaving factory, there is need to switch between BIOS's for testing purposes, so that it is not always practical to wait for a failure before switching BIOS. The technical solutions of the prior lack flexibility in terms of practical applications.


A method and apparatus for providing extended battery saving operation in a conventional selective call signaling protocol, such as the POCSAG signaling protocol includes the transmission of an ordered batch identifier code word in the first frame following a preamble transmission. Upon detection of the ordered batch identifier code word, those selective call receivers capable of extended battery saving operation would supply power to the receiver only during those batches assigned to the receiver group to which the selective call receiver belongs, such as for every second or fourth batch transmission. The method for providing extended battery saving capability is transparent to conventional selective call receivers operating within the system.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a selective call communication system providing receiver battery saving capability, and more particularly to a selective call receiver having extended battery saving capability in a communication system utilizing a synchronous signaling protocol.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are numerous communication systems in use today which utilize a variety of signaling protocols to provide battery saving functions for battery operated communication receivers. One such prior art signaling protocol is the POCSAG signaling protocol which provides the receiver battery saving capability by transmitting address and message information in batches which are subdivided into a sequence of frames to which selective call receivers are assigned. By assigning the selective call receivers, or pagers, to respond to information transmitted only within a specific frame within a batch transmission, a battery saving function was implemented. In the case of the POCSAG signaling protocol, a one to eight battery saving performance was achieved within the batch transmission time interval.
While such a battery saving function has proven to be advantageous, there are situations where it is desirable to extend the battery saving performance of at least some of the pagers operating within the communication system without altering the basic transmission format of the signaling protocol in use.

Selective call receiver having extended battery saving capability


Utilizing the technology and methods disclosed, the characteristics of flexibility and rigidity for intralumenal devices, including coaxial two piece devices such as stylet and needle sets, can be adapted by a physician or device manufacturer according to the type of procedure, the patient size and unique anatomical challenges of a given procedure. Rigidity and flexibility are actively controlled by the operator at predefined portions of a device through rotating the stylet within the cannula to bring about alignments of customized notches to impart target flexibility or rigidity profiles at specific spots on the device. The device operator is able to alter the relationship and orientation of specific notched and non-notched segments of either or both the stylet and cannula that are strategically located at said critical points along the length of the device.

Numerous devices have been developed to address the recurring issue of maximizing the mechanical properties of a catheter or other medical access device to be advanced through a lumen. One such key property is generally referred to in the art as "pushability," a term used to describe the rigidity of a device and its ability to advance through a lumen. See as an example U.S. Pat. No. 7,022,106. Another such property is the flexibility of a device. It is desirable for a device to be flexible enough to allow the device to traverse contorted and curved scopes and passages in the body. At the same time, the tip rigidity allows the device to better penetrate tissue, and the "pushability" allows proximal force transmission to the distal tip. Most composite materials provide for the flexibility needs, but do not meet the tip rigidity and pushability needs. Stainless steel provides very good rigidity and pushability, but is very limited in terms of flexibility.
Accordingly, companies have utilized various machining techniques in an attempt to impact these key properties. Current patents and technology have employed relief notches in both stylets and cannula tubing in an effort to increase flexibility. One example of such "static" flexibility is described in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2004/133124 to Bates, et al. Bates discloses a cannula and a stylet with notches designed to increase flexibility, but only in one plane of operation. However such notching does not allow for custom or adjustable flexibility and rigidity that is required in many medical procedures. As a result, such a device is flexible only in a fixed, constant or a "static" manner, and is thus of limited usefulness.
As one example of desired dynamic flexibility, it is necessary in certain procedures that the distal tip section initially be more flexible in order to accommodate tip deflection of a scope or introducer. As the device tip protrudes from the scope/introducer, it becomes more rigid, while at the same time the subsequent distal section is made more flexible to accommodate passage through the deflected scope/introducer. Under current art and designs, there is no method or device that will allow for this real-time modification and/or adaptation of flexibility. Such "tunable flexibility" features that are variable, adjustable and dynamic have broad application for endoscopic, bronchoscopic and laparoscopic procedures. Such technology could also be applied to intravascular, neurosurgery, optical procedures and a broad range of minimally invasive surgical procedures.
For instance, certain procedures require the device to navigate acute 135° angles during certain intralumenal operations. ERCP (endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography) procedures require such convoluted paths and are becoming much more popular due to the improved patient outcomes derived through this technique. The procedure requires considerable flexibility, and considerable device length. However, with standard flexible materials, the longer the device is, the less "pushability" it will have at the tip of the device. Specifically, current technology makes use of conventional devices very difficult or impossible for ERCP. Current technologies are either too rigid to approach the desired target areas, or too flexible to effect any force transmission to the distal tip if they do achieve the target site. There are no known technologies that allow a material to be "tunable" with both good flexibility and good pushability within the desired portions of the same device, or flexible in the desired place of flexibility.
Current patented technologies describe only very simplistic relief notches that are in no way customized or engineered to allow variability in material performance, and provide only static flexibility. For instance, the medical device described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,419,641 may be too flaccid upon exiting the curved introducer to penetrate and obtain an adequate tissue core specimen in a "hardened" sclerotic liver. Conversely, the distal tip of said device may be too rigid to traverse a tighter than normal curve in the introducer as is required from time to time. In addition, the '641 patent is completely "static" in its operation, in that the flexibility designed into the device occurs only at one location, and in one plane. Thus, it actually teaches away from the dynamic flexibility enabled by the present teachings. Similarly, the device disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2004/133124 to Bates, et al. teaches away from the concept of "tunable" flexibility. The device described in Bates defines notches in the cannula and stylet that "face in the same direction" to allow flexibility in only one plane, namely "the plane perpendicular to the plane of the notch." Thus, again, flexibility is not turnable, it is found only at a given device location and is solely in one place. The Roth device design manufactured by Cook exhibits some flexibility, but does not transfer cutting energy to the distal tip effectively enough to obtain adequate biopsy samples. Conventional fine needle aspiration devices also suffer from a similar lack of effectiveness in transferring force for penetrating the surface of the target area. Forceps designed for tissue removal and retrieval are also unable to penetrate beneath the surface of the target site in many instances.
Accordingly, there is a need among physicians for devices that can traverse contorted and curved introducers and endoscopes while maintaining the option of a maximum amount of tip rigidity and pushability in the distal and other segments of the device, as needed, and that is adaptable to numerous procedures, such as biopsies of the pancreas, bile duct, or of "hardened" or sclerotic liver. There is a further need for a technology that allows for such a device to exhibit custom tunability of flexibility at specific points along the length of the device.
One mechanism for manufacturing a stylet according to the teachings herein requires custom machining of certain notch sets into the length of the stylet at predetermined places. Although machined notches (including ground, laser, etc.) in stylets can achieve dynamic performance profiles, the machined notches can currently pose cost challenges for mass produced bi-lumenal devices. Accordingly, there is a need for suitable manufacturing methods to create inexpensive stylets that flex in separate fields as described herein.

Stylet for bilumenal flexible medical device


A MEMS sensor includes a sensing reference plane, an anchor, a proof mass, and sensing elements. The anchor is coupled to the sensing reference plane and to the proof mass that moves under an external excitation. The sensing elements detect motion normal to the sensing reference plane. A summation of a product of polarity for each sensing element, its area, and its distance to the anchor on one side of an axis line is unequal to a summation of a product of a polarity associated with each sensing element, its associated area, and its distance to the anchor on another side of the axis line. As such, external excitation creates an offset. The offset is substantially constant for curvature angles (0°-360°) of the sensing reference plane. The offset is greater than zero and is less than a maximum offset for a MEMS sensor with perfect symmetry for its sensing elements.

Microelectromechanical system (MEMS) sensors experience a variety of undesirable forces that can come from the fabrication of the MEMS/complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) die, packaging of the die, operation over temperature, shock conditions, user assembly, and many others. These forces cause non-ideal conditions such as deviations in the parallel alignment between the MEMS sensor and an embedded sensing reference plane.


Disclosed in the present invention are a composition containing lutein/lutein ester and applications thereof. Components of the composition containing lutein/lutein ester comprise lutein/lutein ester, β-carotene and a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier. The weight ratio of lutein/lutein ester to β-carotene is 1:0.1-100. In the present invention, by cooperatively using lutein/lutein ester and β-carotene and using auxiliary natural healthy ingredients, the dosage form of an orally disintegrating tablet is prepared. The orally disintegrating tablet is absorbed through the oral cavity, has fast effectiveness and small first-pass effect, reduces damage of gastric acid to lutein/lutein ester, has high bioavailability, and has the characteristics of nutritional and health-care effects, good mouthfeel and fast absorption. By eating the product, visual power can be obviously enhanced, the ocular blood flow is increased, and eye muscle fatigue is alleviated, and accordingly the morbidities of cataract, senile niacula lutea retinae lesion and adolescent myopia are reduced.

In recent years, people's learning, work and entertainment have increasingly relied on video display terminals such as computers, televisions, mobile phones, etc. Frequent overuse of the eye, not paying attention to eye care, would lead to a decreased vision, and even induce a variety of ocular diseases, bringing great pain to people's body and mind.
Lutein ester is a natural antioxidant found in plant cells that is metabolized into lutein in the human body. Lutein is considered to be "the vitamin of the eye" and has a special effect on preventing the incidence of cataracts, senile macular degeneration of retina and the occurrence of adolescent myopia. Lutein also has anti-cancer effect, may prevent the occurrence of cardiovascular diseases, and has health function for enhancing the body's immunity, etc.
At present, there are various health care supplements, effervescent tablets, compressed candy on the market for lutein/lutein ester to relieve visual fatigue. Strong acid has a great destructive effect on the stability of lutein/lutein ester. These products enter the gastrointestinal tract quickly after oral feeding, and the low pH (0.9-1.8) of the gastric juice would greatly reduce the bioavailability of the lutein/lutein ester, which is not mentioned in the prior art.

Composition containing lutein/lutein ester and applications thereof


A set of sorted columns of one table stored in a DB machine are binary-searched by a hardware in synchronism with data transfer when another table is read from a disk unit, to select a row to be joined. Where a key word sequence to be searched is stored in ascending or descending order, determination of a maximum address in an area in which key words smaller than a search key are stored and determination of a maximum address in an area in which the key words smaller than or equal to the search key are stored are parallelly executed to determine the store range in one searching.

The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for supporting high speed joining or searching in a relational data base (RDB) machine which executes an RDB operation in synchronism with the data transfer in a file system such as an RDB system.
In the data base (DB) machine which is synchronous with the data transfer, it is easy to carry out an operation relating to a single table, but in the join operation, data in one table must be stored into the DB machine, and if the join operation is performed in the DB machine, data to be transferred to a CPU increase. However, the join operation includes a large amount of processing and a need for rapid processing is high.
This is described in "Content Addressable File Store" by R. W. Michell, Proceedings of Online Conference on Database Technology, April 1976.
The CAFS (content addressable file store) supports high speed joining by utilizing a Hashed bit array or Hashing. However, when the Hash is used, a problem of synonym arises. It is therefore necessary to select the Hashing function which generates few synonyms. This is practically difficult because a selection of the function is dependent on a distribution of data.
In data base processing or file processing, searching is a basic operation. Since the searching is done very frequently and a processing load thereof is relatively high, it is important to improve the speed of the searching. If the searching is done by software, the efficiency of processing such as data comparison and data structure operation is lower than that attained by specialized hardware, and the efficiency is low in a general purpose computer.
As the LSI technology advances, an LSI chip can be manufactured with a relatively low cost and it has been proposed to develop specialized hardware for searching only so that the searching is speeded up by the hardware. See "Pipeline Searching and Sorting Modules as Components of a Dataflow Computer", Tanaka Y. et. al., IFIP Congress 80' pages 427-432, October 1980; and "Content Addressable Parallel Processors", Foster C. C., Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1976.
This is also described in the Japanese Patent Application No. 59-173310.

Method and apparatus for processing data base


An oil-coal co-hydrotreating processing includes the following steps: pulverized coal, vacuum residue and recycle oil are mixed to prepare coal slurry. After mixed with hydrogen, catalyst and additive, oil-coal slurry is preheated into a slurry bed reactor with high reacting pressure for thermal cracking and hydrogenation reaction. After reaction, all the products go into the hot high pressure separator for separation of solid from the bottom and gas from the top. The gas obtained goes into the fixed bed reactor for further hydrocracking or refining, and the distillate obtained enter the fractionating tower. The vacuum gas oil from the bottom of fractionating tower is taken as recycle oil piped to the oil-coal slurry mixing device as solvent.

China is coal-rich and oil-lean, so coal liquefaction not only has great environmental significance, but also has the strategic significance of energy security in response to today's contradiction between supply and demand and implementing the policy of energy saving and emission reduction. Further understanding of the coal resources, comprehensive utilization of coal resources and petroleum resources, and construction of integrated development model for petroleum chemical industry and coal chemical industry, are effective measures to realize the sustainable development of the petrochemical industry, to improve the efficiency of resource use and to promote resource security.
Oil-coal co-hydrotreating processing has the following characteristics: (1) High conversion: the conversion of oil-coal co-processing is more than 90%, far greater than the conversion of a single coal hydro-liquefaction or heavy oil hydrocracking. (2) Existing a synergistic effect: Due to the existence of synergistic effect between coal and heavy oil, the total amount of generated oil from oil-coal co-processing is higher than that of a single coal hydro-liquefaction or heavy oil hydrocracking, and the presence of coal not only prevents the catalyst from carbon deposition but also is conducive to removal of metallic impurities from heavy oil. Thereby, the service life of the catalyst is prolonged, and the economic benefit of the enterprise is improved. (3) The high oil yield: Compared to coal liquefaction, the oil yield of production plant is greatly improved as a result of once-through operation mode. (4) The hydrogen consumption is relatively low: Compared to coal direct liquefaction, chemical hydrogen consumption is low and hydrogen utilization rate is greatly improved for oil-coal co-processing, which is beneficial to reduce energy consumption and equipment investment. (5) The pulverized coal added not only is the feedstock, but also can adsorb the resin and asphaltene and become the coke carrier to effectively prevent the coke formation in the reaction system. (6) The quality of oil is good: Compared to coal direct liquefaction, the products with higher hydrogen content and lower aromatics content and are easily processed into qualified gasoline and diesel. (7) Strong market competitiveness: Increased conversion and productivity, lower hydrogen consumption, better oil quality and other positive factors, make oil-coal co-processing lower costs in many aspects than that of direct coal liquefaction.
On the other hand, now the main problems of crude oil processing are low light oil yield and high coke formation, which leads to poor utilization and efficiency of crude oil. Especially China's imported crude oil is mostly heavy oil with higher sulfur content, which will produce average 30% coke in the oil refining process. Many local refineries directly import heavy oil from abroad for processing, while the processing technologies of heavy oil has a large room to improve.
As a result, oil refining enterprises solve the problems of heavy oil upgrading by using oil-coal co-processing technology, and moreover, oil-coal co-processing greatly improves the light oil yield and the economic efficiency of enterprises.
Oil and coal slurry bed hydrotreating technology is a kind of coal to oil technology based on heavy oil hydrocracking process in petroleum industry. In oil-coal co-processing, coal slurry made of pulverized coal and heavy oil is hydrotreated in high temperature and high pressure to produce liquid fuel oil. Because coal has the characteristic of "aromatic rich and hydrogen deficient" while "aromatic deficient and hydrogen rich" for heavy oil and residual oil, by adjusting the co-processing conditions, it can greatly reduce the severity of direct coal liquefaction process.
At present, the domestic oil-coal co-processing mainly comprises the following steps: (1) Pulping for coal, catalyst and heavy oil; (2) Coal slurry is preheated into the reactor; (3) The reaction products are separated into gaseous substance, light oil, water and heavy mixture. Gaseous substance is purified through pressure swing adsorption by PSA for purified hydrogen that is back to reactor for recycle utilization, and the remaining gas is purified and used as fuel. Separated light oil and water are further carried on oil-water separation to get purer light oil and water; (4) A mixture of heavy oil is sent to the distillation tower to get crude oil and bottom product; (5) The mixed crude oil and light oil are upgraded to gasoline, kerosene, diesel oil, fuel oil and other liquid fuels; (6) The bottom product is processed into asphalt paving materials. The technique is combined the "aromatic rich and hydrogen deficient" coal, "aromatic deficient and hydrogen rich" residue with catalysts. By adjusting the co-processing conditions, it greatly reduces the severity of direct coal liquefaction process and produces liquid fuel and asphalt paving materials. To a certain degree, it improves the economy of direct liquefaction of coal.
There are two sections of oil-coal co-processing in abroad. Coal slurry made by heavy oil and coal with the ratio of 1:2 to 11:9 are preheated with hydrogen into a ebullated bed reactor to 435-445° C. and 15-20 MPa in the presence of Co—Mo/Al2O3 catalyst for hydrocracking reaction, and the reaction products entere the second period of ebullated bed reactor in the presence of Ni—Mo/Al2O3 catalysts for hydrogenation to removal of sulfur, nitrogen, oxygen and heavy metals (Ni, V). The gas is obtained after separating from the product, and ammonia and sulfur in the gas are recovered and then the hydrogen is recycle used. Liquid products enter atmosphere distillation and vacuum distillation to obtain target products. The process has the characteristics of simple process, reliable technology, wide range of raw material adaptation, high oil yield, high rate of metal removal of the heavy oil, etc. The technology has less hydrogen consumption and higher hydrogen utilization rate because of with no ash removal section.
But the above oil-coal co-processing will inevitably encounter such a problem: because of high viscosity of heavy oil as solvent oil, in order to ensure good stability and liquidity of coal slurry, it usually needs to reduce solid content of coal slurry. The reduction of solid content of coal slurry will affect the liquid fuel yield, and the highest solid content can reach about 35% for existing technologies.

Coal and oil co-hydrotreating processing technology and equipment


An illumination apparatus includes an LED, a first lens unit provided above the LED and a cylindrical lens provided above the first lens unit. The first lens unit receives light from the LED and emits the light toward the cylindrical lens. The cylindrical lens emits the light to the outside.

The DRL has been now standardized in Europe and so on, and is becoming standardized in the United States and other countries. As for broadening of light, a light source having light broadening in a right and left direction (horizontal direction) with respect to an upper and lower direction (vertical direction) is required.
As a related-art daytime running light (DRL), there exists an illumination device in which a light emission amount and the number of light emissions in an LED array are changed so that light distribution becomes suitable for daytime running by reducing illumination of a high beam of a headlight (for example, refer to Patent Literature 1). FIG. 14 is a view showing a related-art illumination device for daytime running described in Patent literature 1.
In FIG. 14, the illumination device includes an LED array 11 in which plural LEDs are aligned and a lens 12. Light emitted from the LED array 11 is collimated by the lens 12. Light from LEDs close to an optical axis of the lens 12 becomes light in an optical axis direction, namely, a front direction, and light from LEDs apart from the optical axis of the lens 12 becomes light in a right and left direction, which are emitted from the lens 12. The light distribution becomes suitable for daytime running light by adjusting the light amount of respective LEDs of the LED array 11.
There is also a device in which a line-shaped light source is formed by using a light guide plate (for example, refer to Patent Literature 2). FIG. 15 is a view showing a related-art daytime running light described in Patent literature 2. In FIG. 15, the illumination device includes a high output LED 13 and a light guide plate 14. The light guide plate 14 has prisms 15 formed at an end face thereof.
Light emitted from the high output LED 13 is incident on the light guide plate 14 and propagates inside the light guide plate 14 while being totally reflected. When the light propagating inside the light guide plate 14 is incident on the prisms 15, optical paths of part of the light are bent by the prisms 15, therefore, the light is deviated from the total reflection condition and emitted to the outside of the light guide plate 14. A light 16 is emitted from the entire light guide plate 14.

Lighting apparatus and automobile having lighting apparatus mounted therein

Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.


A vehicle external mirror assembly (10) comprises three main parts: a vehicle-to-mirror assembly attachment bracket (15), a mirror housing (20) and a mirror (41). Housing (20) comprises a thin molded external plastic shell (50) and a foam core (21), the foam anchoring and supporting the shell. A load diffuser (45) may be positioned within foam (21) to reduce the maximum tensile and compressive stresses within the foam (21). Attachment bracket (15) is of a similar construction with a thin shell (15) internal foam (18) and load diffuser (16).

Vehicle external mirror housings have evolved from simple mounting structures for "wing mirrors" to receptacles for mirrors performing many functions and housing a number of components. For instance, mirror housings commonly house servomotors which are capable of rotating mirrors mounted to the housings about two axes so as to enable the driver to adjust his or her field of rear view. Also external mirror housings commonly are pivotable inward towards the vehicle side in the event of a collision with a solid object and, in some circumstances, automatically upon parking the vehicle to reduce the protrusions from the vehicle's side and its maximum width. Furthermore, equipment such as heaters, antennas and lights may also be supported by the modern external mirror housing. External mirror housings must also be shaped so as to minimize wind noise and so as to minimize drag, while providing an aesthetically pleasing external appearance. As a result, mirror housings have become larger, heavier, more complex and therefore more expensive to produce.
To achieve the functionality and performance required at a reasonable cost, vehicle external mirror housings are usually produced in plastic using injection molding techniques. Typically housings are made from shells of injection molded plastics having wall thickness in the range of 2 to 3 millimeters. Such a wall thickness has been found to provide adequate strength and rigidity.
Many different mirror housing constructions are known. Mirror housings may be formed by two mating structural components, by one cosmetic component and one structural component, or from a single cosmetic/structural component. However generally, mirror housings are produced from at least two mating components, which, when joined, form a hollow shell. Mating bosses, molded into the shells are usually provided to facilitate alignment and joining of components. Within the hollow shell is provided a mount to enable connection of the mirror housing to a vehicle bracket, which itself is attached to the side of a vehicle. In order to avoid high stresses within the plastic shell, these mounts must be designed so that they distribute load away from the mount itself. This becomes increasingly important as the wall thickness of the plastics shell is reduced.
Vehicle external mirror housings are generally made from shells having mounting and connection bosses which add to the complexity of the injection molding tooling. Furthermore, the injection molded shells, having a wall thickness of 2 to 3 millimeters take a significant time to cool resulting in a cycle time of about 50 seconds. A reduction in wall thickness not only reduces cycle times but also reduces the amount of plastics material used, reduces the cost and reduces the weight of the mirror housing.
An alternative external vehicle mirror construction for large mirrors such as those found on trucks and buses is disclosed by Canadian Patent Application No. 2198267. With this construction, a core is molded from polyurethane foam and subsequently a reinforcing layer "a few millimeters thick" is sprayed on. While this construction may have some advantages for large mirrors, it has the disadvantage that the surface finish is difficult to control with precision.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved vehicle external mirror that overcomes some of the problems outlined above.

Vehicle external mirror assembly and method of manufacture

Schefenacker Vision Systems Australia Pty Ltd


A trainable transceiver is provided having an integrated interface connections with various vehicle modules for use with various remote electronic devices and a method of programming and using the same. The wireless trainable transceiver is in a vehicle with an integrated interface allowing connection to a human-to-machine interface and vehicle position determination device, such a navigation system and compass and the wireless trainable transceiver has the ability to change functions associated with preset buttons on the trainable transceiver, depending upon the location of the vehicle.

Conventional systems for controlling appliances and devices, such as garage door openers, security gates, home alarms, lighting, computers, etc., use individual wireless handheld transmitters or remote controls to operate the associated appliance and/or device forming a remote electronic system. Most of these wireless remote electronic systems use proprietary remotes or proprietary handheld transmitters that only function with the single device with which they were supplied. Most devices are only supplied with two remotes and, if the user has more than two cars, it is likely the user will need to buy additional remote controls. It is also difficult to control multiple devices, much less consolidate operation of the appliances and devices into a single, controllable system. For example, garage door opener mechanisms open and close a garage door in response to a radio frequency control signal. The radio frequency control signal is typically generated and transmitted from a remote control that is sold with the garage opener. Therefore, a user wishing to control multiple appliances and/or devices such as multiple garage doors, or a garage door and a security gate, is required to have multiple remote controls. There are few universal remote controls available for electronic devices such as garage doors.
In the field of wireless control of remote electronic systems, including home electronic systems, technological advances have been developed to improve convenience, security, and functionality for the user. One example is a trainable transceiver for use with the various remote electronic systems capable of receiving a wireless control signal related to a specific function or task. A user trains the trainable transceiver by, for example, transmitting a signal from a third party wireless device, such as, a remote controller in the vicinity of the trainable transceiver. Trainable transceivers typically work by learning and storing a carrier frequency and associated data code used with the third party wireless device. For example, a remote control for a garage door typically has a specific frequency on which it operates as well as a data code, to prevent other devices from operating the garage door. The data code is wirelessly transmitted to an antenna on the garage door opener. The garage door opener may use a rolling code as the data code. A rolling code frequently changes the data code such as after each use or after a specified time interval. Therefore, a trainable transceiver must also learn the algorithm used by the remote electronic device to match the rolling code sent by the remote control. Different devices may work on different carrier frequencies and have different codes as well as different algorithms to create the rolling codes. Therefore, the trainable transceiver must work over a wide range of frequencies as well as be capable of learning a wide variety of algorithms associated with rolling codes and store all for later retransmission.
Various advantages exist with using built-in devices in a vehicle to control multiple remote electronic systems. Unlike your typical garage door remote, the trainable transceiver may be configured to not operate when the power to the ignition of the vehicle is off; the vehicle is locked; or in other selected instances to prevent unauthorized access to areas desired to be secured. In comparison, if an unauthorized person obtains a garage door remote, such as by breaking into a vehicle, that person can easily open the garage door or gain unauthorized entry to secured areas. Therefore, the use of a trainable transceiver improves safety by eliminating any unsecure remote controls. In this manner, the trainable transceiver can be conveniently mounted within a vehicle interior element (e.g., visor, instrument panel, overhead console, etc.) and can be configured to operate one or more remote electronic systems. Therefore, it is desirable to add as much functionality as possible to the trainable transceiver by configuring the trainable transceiver to operate more devices than the number of preset buttons. More specifically, it is desirable to operate numerous remote wireless devices, such as home electronic systems, without adding additional preset buttons to the interface in the vehicle.
Many vehicles already include trainable transceivers for controlling various remote electronic devices. Trainable transceivers in vehicles generally have a set number of physical buttons, which function as preset buttons that perform a single, specific task that has been previously programmed by the user. One such system is Homelink®, owned by Johnson Controls, Inc., in which a trainable transceiver is able to "learn" characteristics of received control signals, such that the trainable transceiver may subsequently generate and transmit a signal having the learned characteristics to a remotely controlled device. An example of a wireless control system having a transceiver circuit 34 and a remote electronic system (remote device) also having a transceiver circuit 33 is illustrated in FIG. 2. One such system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,903,226, hereby incorporated by reference. Typically, the trainable transceiver has at most three buttons, each button allowing the programming of a single function or task. More specifically, the trainable transceiver only stores a specific frequency and a specific code or a rolling code with each preset button. Therefore, the total number of available tasks that a trainable transceiver may perform is limited directly by the number of preset buttons, and a trainable transceiver having three preset buttons allows only for three tasks or functions to be programmed and used. For example, an exemplary trainable transceiver with three preset buttons could control a first garage door, a second garage door, and one set of exterior lights, or any other variety of three specific tasks or functions. However, if the operator of the vehicle has a second home or second location, such as a commercial business where it is desirable to control functions remote from the vehicle and without leaving the vehicle, current devices have no ability to easily add these various functions and tasks, without adding buttons to the device. Even for individuals only concerned with controlling devices at a single location, it still may be desirable to control more than the limited number of tasks individually associated with the preset buttons.
While the trainable transceiver works well for vehicle operators in controlling a limited number of electronic devices, such as home electronic devices remote from the vehicle, the operator may desire to control more devices than the trainable transceiver allows. While it is possible for the manufacturer of the trainable transceiver to add additional preset buttons to the interface of the device, such additions may reduce the aesthetic appeal, and increase the difficulty in the operator easily and efficiently selecting the correct preset button. In addition, the more buttons that are added to the trainable transceiver, the harder it may be for the operator to easily select and control a specific task or function.
Currently, users may forget what preset button is related to a specific task or function if they are not frequently used. Therefore, a user may push the first preset button to open a garage door and accidentally push the second preset button performing a task or function that is not desired. The buttons are not specifically named or related to a particular task as different individuals and users may have different desired tasks to be programmed with the buttons. In addition, in some instances, it is difficult to easily determine while the car is in motion if a pressed button has completed its task such as a button associated with opening a security gate that needs to be pressed as the vehicle approaches the drive having this security gate. Furthermore, currently all of the systems require physical interaction, and the ability to have hands-free functionality has not been accomplished. In some circumstances, certain people, for ventilation or allowing the ingress and egress of pets from secured areas, may desire for a garage door to be left partially open such as 12 to 18 inches off of the ground. As part of this, the user must manually start and stop the door in the proper position which at times is difficult due to delays in pressing the button or the system in communication with the remote device.
Further advances are needed in the field of wireless control of home electronic systems, particularly in the case of using automotive electronics to control home electronic systems. As automotive manufacturers are adding increased electronic systems to the vehicle to improve convenience, comfort, and productivity, simplifying the interface and control of these electronic systems is also becoming increasingly important.

Wireless trainable transceiver device with integrated interface and GPS modules


An apparatus and a method for mode changing of a deck mechanism suitable for used in a compact cassette tape recorder. The apparatus includes actuating members for selectively actuating a mode switch, first restriction members for restricting rotation of the actuating members, selection members for selectively transmitting drive power in order to carry out a mode of the deck mechanism, biasing members for causing a cam assembly to initially engage with power transmission members, and second restriction members for restricting rotation of the selection members. The preferred apparatus employs a single cam gear and a single electrically operated solenoid for the mode changing operation of the cassette tape recorder and does not cause over-running of the tape out of the tape cassette in a mode changing operation.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to an improvement of deck mechanisms of cassette tape recorders, and more particularly, to a mode changing apparatus of a deck mechanism suitable for use in a compact cassette tape recorder which has a simple construction including only one cam gear and one electrically operated solenoid for permitting the mode changing operation of the cassette tape recorder to be accurately carried out and does not cause overrunning of the tape out of the tape cassette during mode changing operations of the tape recorder. The present invention also relates to a method for mode change using such an apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, cassette tape recorders ("tape recorders") are electronic devices for playing back audio and video signals recorded on the tape, preferably magnetic tape, of the tape cassette or recording outside sound and image on the magnetic tape. Conventional tape recorders are generally constructed so as to easily change between modes, such as a stop mode, a play mode, a record mode, a reverse play mode and a reverse record mode. In this respect, it is required to provide mode changing apparatus for the cassette deck, or the deck mechanism of the tape recorder. Otherwise stated, the mode changing apparatus is equipped to the tape recorders in order to selectively play back audio and video signals recorded on A or B recording surface of the tape or record outside sound and image on the A or B recording surface as demanded.
In the known mode changing apparatus, a cam gear, rotating upon reception of driving power from a drive motor, carries out a required mode changing operation in cooperation with a solenoid electrically operated upon reception of electric power from an outside power source. As is well known in the art, the known mode changing apparatus requires a pair of cam gears and a pair of solenoids in order to carry out the mode changing operation. One of the cam gears is adapted for mode changing, but the other is adapted for a switching operation. Also, each of the pair of solenoids is adapted for controlling the operation of each cam gear.
In this respect, the known mode changing apparatus of the tape recorders necessarily has a double structure as a result of a pair of power transmission members for driving, using the driving power of the drive motor, the cam gears and the solenoids and a pair of mode changing members, thereby causing the number of required parts to be increased and its construction to be complex. As a result, the manufacturing cost of the deck mechanism is increased and a recent trend for compactness and thinness of the tape recorders can not be effectively accomplished.
A representative deck mechanism having the above described mode changing apparatus is depicted in FIGS. 1a and 1b. In the mechanism of FIGS. 1a and 1b, the mode changing apparatus includes a main gear 142 and a power transmission gear 143 which are hinged to or rotatably mounted on a main plate 141 and rotate upon reception of drive power outputted from a drive motor (not shown). Here, the driving power of the drive motor is applied to the gears 142 and 143 by way of intermediate means and power transmission means, respectively. In addition, a cam gear 144 is rotatably mounted on the main plate 141 and selectively rotates when it is applied with the driving power of the drive motor through the power transmission gear 143, while a solenoid lever 146 is movably mounted on the main plate 141 in order to rotate in response to the operation of a solenoid 145 and, as a result, cause the cam gear 144 to initially engage with the power transmission gear 143. Under the cam gear 144, an upward and downward moving plate 147 is movably mounted on the main plate 141. This moving plate 147 moves upwards and downwards in accordance with the rotation of the cam gear 144. This moving plate 147 is also restricted in its upward and downward movement within a predetermined restriction range under the control of a movable restriction lever 148 which is also rotatably mounted on the main plate 141 and rotates about its hinged shaft according to the rotation of the cam gear 144. The mode changing apparatus further comprises a plate head lever 149 and a leftward and rightward moving plate 150, the former being elastically mounted on the main plate 141 in order to move along with the upward and downward movement of the moving plate 147 while the latter being mounted on the main plate 141 and moving leftwards and rightwards when the restriction lever 148 rotates. A selection lever 152 is hinged to the main plate 141 and provided at its one end with a movable gear 151 which in turn engages with the main gear 142.
The cam gear 144 is provided with a rack 153, an inner cam 154 and an outer cam 155 which are integrally formed with the gear 144. The rack 153 is formed on the circumferential periphery of the gear 144 with provision of predetermined intervals, the inner cam 154 is formed on the lower surface of the gear 144 in order to permit the upward and downward moving plate 147 to selectively move when the cam gear 144 rotates. The outer cam 155 is formed on the lower surface of the gear 144 in order to make the solenoid lever 146 return to its initial position when the cam gear 144 rotates.
Meanwhile, the upward and downward moving plate 147 is integrally provided at its upper part with a stop bolt 156. In addition, first and second stationary plates 157 and 158 are fixed to a lower part of the moving plate 147 while a longitudinal hole 159 is formed on a middle part of this plate 147. This longitudinal hole 159 movably receives the rotating shaft of the cam gear 144 and, in this respect, upwardly and downwardly guided by the rotating shaft of the gear 144.
The restriction lever 148 is provided with a depression part 160 and a locking shoulder 161. As a result, when the upward and downward moving plate 147 moves in an upward or downward direction, .the second stationary plate 158 of this plate 147 is selectively guided by the depression part 160 or engages with the locking shoulder 161 of the restriction lever 148.
The plate head lever 149 has a hole 162 at a side thereof in order to receive the stop bolt 156 of the upward and downward moving plate 147. Also, at a lower part of plate head lever 147, a spring 163 is provided so as to bias the plate head lever 147 in a given direction.
As depicted in these drawings, an end of the leftward and rightward moving plate 150 is connected to an end of the restriction lever 148 and causes the moving plate 150 to move leftwards or rightwards when the restriction lever 148 rotates and, as a result, a depression part 164 on the other end of the moving plate 150 comes into contact with one end of the selection lever 152 or is separated from the one end of the selection lever 152.
In operation of the deck mechanism having the aforementioned construction, upon selection of a play mode at the state shown in FIG. 1a showing a stop mode of the conventional deck mechanism, the drive motor is applied with outside electric power and rotates. The rotational power, or the driving power, of the drive motor is in turn transmitted to the main gear 142 and the power transmission gear 143, both being rotatably mounted on the main plate 141, by way of the power intermediate means and the power transmission means.
At the same time, the electrically operated solenoid 145 is also applied with the outside electric power, causing the solenoid 145 to push the other end of the solenoid lever 146. As a result, the solenoid lever 146 turns clockwise about its hinged shaft and causes its one end, engaging with the outer cam 155 of the cam gear 144, to slightly push the outer cam 155 so as to make this gear 155 rotate clockwise. At this time, since the rack 153 on the outer periphery of the cam gear 144 engages the power transmission gear 143, the rotation of the power transmission gear 143 causes the cam gear 144 to rotate clockwise.
The inner cam 154 on the lower surface of the cam gear 144 pushes the first stationary plate 157 fixed to the upward and downward moving plate 147 and, in this respect, the moving plate 147 moves downwardly under the condition that its longitudinal hole 159 is guided by the hinged shaft of the cam gear 144. Also, since the stop bolt 156 integrally formed with the moving plate 147 is inserted in the hole 162 of the plate head lever 149, this plate head lever 149 moves downwardly as it is biased by the spring 163 when the moving plate 147 moves downwards.
On the other hand, when the upward and downward moving lever 147 moves downwards as described above, the second stationary plate 158 fixed to the lower part of the moving lever 147 escapes from the depression part 160 of the restriction lever 148 in order to be in turn guided by the inclined surface of the restriction lever 147. Therefore, the second stationary plate 158 is caught by the locking shoulder 161. At this time, the leftward and rightward moving plate 150, connected at its end to the one end of the restriction lever 148, moves leftwards due to the downward movement of the moving lever 147.
The depression part 164 formed on the other end of the moving plate 150 then comes into contact with the one end of the selection lever 152 and, as a result, permits the selection lever 152, which is moved by the rotational power of the movable gear 151 rotating along with the rotation of the main gear 142 with which it engages, to stop its turning operation. Thus, when the play mode is selected, interference of an upper movable gear 167 with first and second driven gears 165 and 166 is prevented because of the connection of the moving plate 150 and the selection lever 152.
FIG. 1b shows the deck mechanism after the mode changing operation from the stop mode to the play mode is accomplished. As depicted in this drawing, the solenoid lever 146 returns to its initial position by the rotational power of the outer cam 155 of the cam gear 144 which continuously rotates at this time. The upward and downward moving lever 147 does not return to its initial position, or the upper position, but maintains its lower position, or the downward moved position, because of its locking state wherein it is caught by the locking shoulder 161 of the restriction lever 148.
Also, since the plate head lever 149 maintains its lower position, it drives a head (not shown). At this state, the rotational power of the main gear 142 is transmitted to a reel (not shown) of the tape cassette, loaded on the deck mechanism, by way of a power transmission member (not shown). Thus, the audio signals recorded on the tape out of the tape cassette are permitted to be played back.
On the other hand, when the stop mode is selected at the state of the aforementioned play mode, the aforementioned mode changing operation of the deck mechanism is reversely carried out. To this case, the leftward and rightward moving plate 150 which has supported the turning operation of the selection lever 152 fully returns to its initial position.
Thus, even when the stop mode is selected, the main gear 142 continues its rotation for a moment because of the intrinsic overrunning of the drive motor. This overrunning of the motor occurs since the motor can not stop just after selection of the stop mode but continues its rotation in a predetermined number of revolutions. The lower movable gear 151 engaging the main gear 142 thus rotates, causing the selection lever 152 to be biased toward the rotational direction of the lower movable gear 151.
In this respect, the upper movable gear 167 rotating together with the lower movable gear 151 causes both the first and second driven gears 165 and 166 to rotate in accordance with the mode changing operation for the play mode or the reverse play mode and, as a result, makes the reel of the tape rotate. Hence, the known mode changing apparatus of the tape recorder causes the tape out of the tape cassette to overrun as much as the predetermined number of revolutions of the reel after the stop mode is selected, thereby having a problem in that when the tape recorder starts its play mode or its reverse play mode, the audio and video signals recorded on a part of the tape which overran due to the revolutions of the reel after the stop mode is selected can not be played back.

Mode changing apparatus utilizing one cam gear and one solenoid for a cassette tape recorder


A digital still video camera having a plurality of photographing modes. The camera includes a switch for selecting one of the plurality of photographing modes, CCD for photographing an image to output a digital image signal in accordance with the selected photographing mode, a circuit for processing the digital image signal in synchronization with a clock signal and an oscillator for generating the clock signal and output the clock signal to the circuit, the oscillator adapted to change the frequency of the clock signal in accordance with the selected photographing mode so that the circuit changes its processing speed in accordance with the selected photographing mode.

The present invention relates to a digital still video camera in which a still image is stored as digital data, and particularly relates to a digital still camera which consumes low electric current.
Recently, a digital still video camera in which an image is stored in a semiconductor memory such as a memory card, has been used instead of a still video camera in which a still image is recorded in a video floppy disk.
At the outset, referring to FIG. 3, the outline of a conventional digital still video camera will be explained as follows. The numeral 1 is a SSG which impresses the clock of the frequency f.sub.clk upon each portion of the digital still video camera. The numeral 2 is a CCD which functions as a light receiving unit which receives light from a photographic object and conducts photoelectric transfer so that an image signal can be generated. The numeral 3 is an A/D converter which converts the image signal sent from CCD 2 into digital image data. The numeral 4 is a frame memory which temporarily accumulates the digital image data. The numeral 5 is a digital processing circuit which converts the digital image data into the signals of Y, I, Q. The numeral 6 is a data compression circuit which compresses the data of signals Y,I,Q so that the amount of data can be reduced. The numeral 7 is a memory which stores the digital image data sent from the data compression circuit. This memory 7 is composed of a semiconductor memory provided in the digital still video camera or composed of an IC card (a card memory) which can be attached to and detached from the camera. The numeral 10 is a CPU which controls each unit. The numeral 11 is an operation panel which is used for the operation and changeover of various operation modes such as one shot photographing and serial shot photographing. The numeral 12 is a release switch.
The motions of the digital still video camera composed in the way described above are as follows.
When the serial shot photographing mode is selected by the operation panel 11 and the release switch 12 is pressed, the output signal of the CCD sensor 2 is converted into the digital image data at the A/D converter 3 and stored once in the frame memory. After that, the output signal is converted into the signals Y,I,Q at the digital procession circuit 5. Then, this is compressed by the data compressing circuit 6 and recorded in the memory 7. While the release switch 12 is pressed, these sequential motions are continuously conducted.
On the other hand, when the one shot photographing mode is selected at the photographing mode in the operation panel 11, and the release switch 12 is pressed, the output signal of the CCD sensor 2 is converted into the digital image data in the A/D converter 3 and stored once in the frame memory. These motions are conducted for each frame.
In the case of the above-described digital still video camera, when the serial shot photographing of 10 frames/sec is conducted, it is necessary to complete the process from picture-taking to the final processing in 100 msec per one sheet. In order to read out the data from the CCD sensor and store it in the frame memory, 33.3 msec (1/60 sec) is needed out of 100 msec, so that the signal conversion (the conversion from the image signal to the signals Y,I,Q) and the data compression must be conducted in the residual 66.7 msec. When the number of pixels of CCD is 400,000 (H800.times.V500), the signals Y,I,Q becomes as follows at the digital processing unit.
Y=800.times.500=0.4M byte PA0 I=400.times.500=0.2M byte PA0 Q=400.times.500=0.2M byte
Namely, one image is converted into the data of 0.8 m byte. Accordingly, 66.7 msec/0.8M byte=83.4 nseC/byte. This shows that the data needs to be processed in 83.4 nsec per byte.
When the data is processed at a high speed, CMOSIC is used and clock drive is conducted so that the processing can be completed in the processing time described above. The clock frequency is the same in one shot photographing and serial shot photographing.
The consumptive electric power is increased in proportion to the clock frequency, so that electric power not less than 1 W is spent in the processing circuit and the data compression circuit.
When driving is conducted by a high frequency in the case of one shot photography in which high speed processing is not necessary, it is not effective in view point of consumptive electric power. Especially, when the consumptive electric current is high in the case of a battery, the battery is consumed quickly due to the internal resistance. In other words, even when the consumed electric power (voltage X current X time) is the same, the efficiency is lowered in the case in which a large amount of current is flown for a short period of time as compared with the case in which a small amount of current is flown for a long period of time.

Still video camera having one-shot and serial shot modes


A processing unit of a voice processing apparatus first generates a target voice signal in a time domain by adjusting a fundamental frequency of a target voice signal to a fundamental frequency of an initial voice signal, so as to generate a spectrum of the target voice signal after pitch is adjusted. Second, the processing unit reallocates, along a frequency axis, the spectrum of the target voice characteristics by having the spectrum correspond to each of the fundamental frequencies of the initial voice signal. The processing unit then generates a converted spectrum by adjusting component values of the spectrum of the target voice characteristics, which spectrum has been reallocated, so as to correspond to the component values of the spectrum of the initial voice signal, and by adapting the component values of the spectrum of the initial voice signal to specific frequency bands of the spectrum of the target voice characteristics, with each specific frequency band including one of the harmonic frequencies corresponding to the fundamental frequency of the initial voice signal.

1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to technology for processing a voice signal.
2. Description of the Related Art
A technology for converting voice characteristics is proposed, for example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2014-002338 (hereinafter referred to as "JP 2014-002338"). This reference discloses a technology for converting voice characteristics of a voice signal that is a processing target (hereinafter referred to as "target signal") into distinguishing (non-modal or non-harmonic) voice characteristics such as gruffness or hoarseness. In the technology disclosed in JP 2014-002338, a spectrum of a target voice signal that has been adjusted to a fundamental frequency of an object signal is divided into segments comprising a plurality of bands (hereinafter referred to as "unit bands"), with a harmonic frequency residing at a center of each of the unit bands, and each component of each of the unit bands then being reallocated along a frequency axis. Next, amplitude and phase are adjusted for each of the unit bands such that an amplitude and phase of a harmonic frequency in each of the reallocated unit bands corresponds to an amplitude and phase of the target signal.
In the technology disclosed in JP 2014-002338 the amplitude and phase for each unit band is adjusted after a plurality of unit bands has been defined such that an intermediary point between a harmonic frequency and a next adjacent harmonic frequency on a frequency axis constitutes a boundary. A drawback of this technique is that an amplitude and phase at the boundary of each unit band (i.e., at the intermediary point between adjacent harmonic frequencies) become discontinuous. Presuming generation of a voice that has a predominance of harmonic components over non-harmonic components, with respect to the intermediary point between harmonic frequencies (i.e. at the point in which there is sufficiently low intensity) of the generated voice, any discontinuity in amplitude and phase of the non-harmonic components will hardly be perceived by a listener. However, where a particular subject voice that has a predominance of non-harmonic components, such as in the case of a gruff or hoarse voice, a discontinuity in the amplitude and phase at the intermediary point between harmonic frequencies becomes apparent, with the result that an acoustically unnatural voice may be perceived by the listener.

Voice processing method and apparatus, and recording medium therefor


There are described a diffusion transfer photographic film unit of the type wherein an image-receiving element is designed to be separated from a photosensitive element after photoexposure and processing and a photographic process which utilizes the film unit. The photographic film unit comprises a photosensitive element including a support carrying at least one silver halide emulsion, an image-receiving element comprising a support, an image-receiving layer and, optionally, an overcoat layer and/or a strip-coat layer. At least one of the image-receiving layer, overcoat layer or strip-coat layer includes a "crosslinkable material" which is crosslinked during processing. The film unit further includes means for providing an aqueous alkaline processing composition to the photosensitive element and the image-receiving element for developing an image. The aqueous alkaline processing composition includes a borate compound for crosslinking the crosslinkable material of the image-receiving element during processing.

This invention relates to diffusion transfer photographic film units and processes of the type wherein an image-receiving element is designed to be separated from a photosensitive element after photoexposure and processing. Such film units are well known and are often referred to as instant "peel apart" photographic film units. Various embodiments of "peel apart" film units are known and include those wherein images are formed in black and white (reduced silver), and color (image dyes), as described in: E. H. Land, H. G. Rogers, and V. K. Walworth, in J. M. Sturge, ed., Neblette's Handbook of Photography and Reprography, 7th ed., Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1977, pp. 258-330; and V. K. Walworth and S. H. Mervis, in J. Sturge, V. Walworth, and A. Shepp, eds., Imaging Processes and Materials: Neblette's Eighth Edition, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1989, pp. 181-225. Additional examples of peel apart film units are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,983,606; 3,345,163; 3,362,819; 3,594,164; and 3,594,165.
In general, diffusion transfer photographic products and processes involve film units having a photosensitive element including a support carrying at least one silver halide emulsion, and an image-receiving element including a support and an image-receiving layer. After photoexposure, the photosensitive element is developed, generally by uniformly distributing an aqueous alkaline processing composition over the photoexposed element, to establish an imagewise distribution of a diffusible image-providing material. The image-providing material, typically image dyes or complexed silver, is selectively transferred, at least in part, by diffusion to the image-receiving layer positioned in a superposed relationship with the developed photosensitive element. The image-receiving layer is capable of mordanting or otherwise fixing the image-providing material and retains the transferred image for viewing. The image is viewed in the image-receiving layer upon separation of the image-receiving element from the photosensitive element after a suitable imbibition period.
In order to facilitate the separation of the image-receiving element from the photosensitive element after photographic processing, and to prevent the processing solution from remaining on the image-receiving element, it is common to utilize a strip-coat positioned between the photosensitive and image-receiving elements. An example of such a strip-coat is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,346,800 to Foley et al.
After processing and upon separation of the image-receiving element from the photosensitive element, the surface of the image-receiving element often remains tacky for some time period thereafter. During this time period care must be exercised in the handling of the photograph so as not to damage it. Furthermore, in instances where it is desired to place the photograph in a holder or envelope for storage purposes, or to stack photographs on top of each other, it is necessary to wait until the surface of the photograph is sufficiently tack-free to permit handling in such a manner. The time period required to allow such handling varies depending upon various factors such as the amount of liquid taken up by the image-receiving layer during photographic processing and the ambient relative humidity and temperature. Additionally, at any time after processing and drying the photograph may encounter humid conditions which can render the surface of the photograph tacky.
Various efforts have been made to remedy the aforementioned shortcomings. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,415,969 (and CIP application Ser. No. 08/382,880 filed Feb. 2, 1995) of Kenneth C. Waterman disclose the use of an image-receiving element including a overcoat layer comprising a majority of colloidal particles, e.g. silica, and a minority of binder material for reducing the time period that the surface of the image-receiving layer remains tacky after processing and separation from the photosensitive element.
It is generally understood that various materials within the image-receiving element may be crosslinked. For example, it is known to include crosslinking agents such as aldehydes (dialdehydes, aldehyde precursors, e.g. dantoin.TM.), zwitterion.TM. from Dow Chemical, and diepoxides within the image-receiving element in order to crosslink materials, e.g. gelatin, therein. As a specific example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,629,677 to Katoh discloses a strip-coat comprising a crosslinked copolymer containing more than 40 mole % of a monomer unit derived from an ethylenically unsaturated carboxylic acid or a salt thereof.
As an additional example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,342,729 to Aono discloses an image-receiving element including in sequence; a support, an image dye receiving layer and a protective layer. The protective layer includes a water-soluble polymer having repeating units containing at least a hydroxyl group and/or a carboxyl group or salts thereof. The image-receiving element further includes a borate compound which is present in the protective layer and/or diffuses to the protective layer from an adjacent layer after coating for reducing contact dye transfer. The preferred embodiment is a thermal system wherein heat is applied during processing in order to develop an image. In such thermally processed systems, very little if any water and/or processing composition is used. As such, the image-receiving element does not typically absorb an appreciable amount of liquid and thus become tacky. Consequently, problems associated with tackiness are less prevalent in such thermal systems.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,239,338 to Rogers describes an image-receiving element having an image-receiving layer comprising polyvinylalcohol or derivatives thereof wherein borate ions are used to reduce the water-sensitivity of the image-receiving layer prior to processing.
It is noted that a drawback of providing a borate compound within the image-receiving element prior to processing is that the borate compound can crosslink materials within the element, e.g. the image-receiving layer, protective layer, etc., prior to processing, i.e. during coating and/or during storage. Once crosslinked, the materials within the layer do not swell (or at least do not swell to the same degree) when contacted with the processing composition. As a result, the image density of the resulting photograph is typically reduced as permeation of image-providing material through such crosslinked materials is significantly less than through similar non-crosslinked materials.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,239,338 to Rogers also describes the application of borate ions to a processed image-receiving element having polyvinyl alcohol copolymers or derivatives, by way of swabbing an aqueous solution including borate ions upon the post-processed image-receiving element.
With respect to other uses of borate compounds, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,168,166 to Land and 4,324,853 to Berger both describe processing compositions for use in diffusion transfer photographic film units which include a borate compound for inhibiting crystal formation, or salting out, of one or more of the processing composition constituents. Tackiness problems of the image-receiving element are not addressed however.
It is desired to design a diffusion transfer peel apart photographic film unit wherein the image-receiving element can be separated from the photosensitive element following processing with reduced tack. Furthermore, it is desired to accomplish this result without significantly reducing image density.

Peel apart diffusion transfer compound film unit with crosslinkable layer and borate


The exemplary embodiments of the present invention provide a method for generating metadata for media content that includes a digital media file and includes retrieving a media content subset from a media content source, saving the received media content subset at a computing system, and generating metadata by processing the media content using the computing system. The method further includes associating generated metadata with media content to facilitate the visualization and navigation of the media content, and adding the metadata to at least one metadata repository designed for efficient retrieval of metadata elements.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to creation of related data for media content. Specifically, this application relates to creating metadata and visualization data for media content to enable efficient retrieval, visualization, navigation and playback of media content.
2. Description of Background
Generally, media content (e.g., such as audio or video streams or files) are sequentially played back from the beginning to the end of the file or stream; or at least from the beginning of the file or stream to a point at which the listener/viewer decides to stop playback. A podcast is generally defined as digital media file (e.g., an MP3 file) that can be freely distributed (e.g. using USB memory keys or writable CDs) or over a network via the use of a known Uniform Resource Identifier, wherein the files may be identified as being available for access to the general public or restricted to a group of users. The digital media files are usually offered for direct download via a network.
Podcasts are further distinguished in that the distribution of the digital media files can comprise the ability of an end user to subscribe, syndicate, or automatically download updates of a digital media file. Conventional media playback techniques are adequate in some cases, but if a media file has different sections of interest within it, a listener might want to play only one segment of the media content.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Systems, methods and computer program products for generating metadata and visualizing media content

International Business Machines Corporation


In one embodiment, method of signal processing can include: (i) determining a high level sampling pulse amount by counting a number of pulses of a first clock signal during a high level portion of a period of a first PWM; (ii) generating a first pulse signal based on a second clock signal and the high level sampling pulse amount; (iii) determining a low level sampling pulse amount by counting a number of pulses of the first clock signal during a low level portion of the period of the first PWM signal; (iv) generating a second pulse signal based on the second clock signal and the low level sampling pulse amount; and (v) generating a second PWM signal based on the first and second pulse signals.

A pulse-width modulation signal (PWM) signal is often employed as a dimming control signal to regulate the brightness of a light-emitting diode (LED). In such a dimming process, duty cycle information of a PWM signal can be converted to a linear electronic signal to simulate the linear output of the LED. In one example, a first-order RC filter can be used as an LED dimming circuit. Also, the cutoff frequency (fc) of the filter can be ½πRC, where cutoff frequency fc may be less than the dimming frequency of the PWM signal. That is, the less cutoff frequency fc is, the higher the parameter R*C.

Signal process method, signal process circuit and LED dimming circuit thereof

Silergy Semiconductor Technology (Hangzhou) Ltd.


A method for filling and closing off a two-chamber container with different filling materials includes two sealing steps for the closing-off procedure, the first chamber being filled with the first material under sterile conditions and closed off over a first partial seal with a covering sheet, after which the second chamber is filled with the second material and closed off by means of a second partial seal with formation of a fully sealed two-chamber container.

This invention relates to a method and an apparatus for filling and closing a two-chamber container.
In the case of a known, two-chamber container of DE 37 18 225 C1, the chambers, which are to be filled with different materials, are provided with an intermediate sheet in each case covering the chamber that is filled first, the second chamber being filled without affecting the sterility of the material filled into the first chamber and, after that, the two-chamber container is closed off as a whole with a covering sheet so that the expense of manufacturing such a two-chamber container with an interim sheet can be increased and, due to additional material differences, recycling can be adversely affected.

Method and apparatus for filling and closing a two-chamber plastic container


Apparatus for laying lines in an ice rink comprises a frame for carrying a reel of paper to be dispensed onto the ice surface so that the reel runs on an axle carried upon the frame. A spray nozzle is mounted so as to spray water onto the paper after it is laid to form a first layer of ice over the paper. One embodiment provides an arrangement for laying curved lines for forming a full circle and includes a guide pole having a fulcrum pin at one end and a handle attached to the guide pole at the outer radial end for pushing the pole and thus unwinding the paper across the ice around the circle defined by the pole. An embodiment for laying straight lines includes a base frame guidable by a slot which runs across a string laid in the ice. The base frame can receive a full width reel or can be divided into separate portions to receive narrower width reels.

This invention relates to an apparatus for laying lines in an ice rink. Lines of the type generally used in hockey or similar games require a circular line to be laid on the ice surface at a particular location on the rink and also straight lines generally across the ice.
Many techniques have been available for forming the markings on an ice rink. In previous years paint has been applied in the ice, allowed to freeze and covered by further ice. More recently the lines in the ice have been formed by the application of paper or other material strips which are laid onto the ice, covered by a thin layer of further ice and flooded with thicker ice. The laying of the paper strips in straight lines for example the blue lines or red lines of a hockey rink requires the strip material to be stretched across the ice surface and while it is stretched a thin layer of water sprayed over the strip to hold it in place. This is not difficult but often requires two people and difficulties can arise in windy conditions. Also patterned lines as checkerboard or three stripe styles are often required and these can become more problematic.
The circles have been found to be very difficult to form and this takes a very long time and requires laborious action by two persons initially describe the circle on the ice and then to lay the strip by hand a short length at a time while attempting to bend it around the curvature of the circle while a second person sprays water onto the laid strip before it has a chance to move. This is an entirely hand operated procedure and extremely cumbersome and time consuming and leads therefore to a significant cost in the initial layup of the markings on the rink.


A permanent ink marker for re-identifying insulated wire. The marker has a container for ink, and a nib that is disposed on the container and in communication with the interior thereof. The nib is provided with a slit that extends from an end of the nib that is remote from the container in a direction toward the container. The end of the slit remote from the end of the nib is preferably widened, and can have a circular cross-section. The end of the nib preferably has a notch where the slit starts.

The present invention relates to a permanent ink marker for re-identifying wire, especially electrical wire.
Recently, the National Electrical Code, Article 200-7(c)(2), was changed to require the permanent re-identification of any xe2x80x9cwhite, natural gray insulation or a marking of three continuous white stripesxe2x80x9d when used as follows:
200-7 (c) (2) xe2x80x9cWhere a cable contains an insulated conductor for single pole, 3-way, or 4-way switch loops, and the conductor with white or natural gray insulation or a marking of three continuous white stripes is used for the supply to the switch, but not the return conductor from the switch to the switched outlet. In these applications, the conductor with white or natural gray insulation or with three continuous white stripes shall be permanently re-identified to indicate its use by painting or other effective means at its terminations and at each location where the conductor is visible and accessible.xe2x80x9d
When a xe2x80x9cwhite, natural gray or a marking of three continuous stripesxe2x80x9d cable (or wire) addressed in Article 200-7(c)(2) above (hereinafter referred to as a xe2x80x9cgrounded wirexe2x80x9d for clarity of discussion) is required to carry current, this new change to the code requires the grounded insulated wire be xe2x80x9cre-identifiedxe2x80x9d so everyone will know that this wire is being used as a current-carrying ungrounded insulated wire. This change in the code was established as a safety precaution to preclude anyone from mistaking the use of the grounded insulated wire when used as an ungrounded insulated wire. Such a mistake could result in a severe shock or even death.
While the code was well meaning, it did not describe in detail how to xe2x80x9cre-identifyxe2x80x9d such wires. Article 200-7(c)(2) of the code states that such re-identification should be by xe2x80x9cpainting or other effective meansxe2x80x9d. To xe2x80x9cpaintxe2x80x9d the wires requires care to make sure that no other wire is painted or re-identified by overspray or an inadvertent swipe of a brush against the wrong wires. Furthermore, painting is messy, inconvenient and is not the common practice used today. The common method for re-identifying these wires is to place several pieces of electrical tape around the grounded wire""s insulation so as to xe2x80x9cre-identifyxe2x80x9d it as an ungrounded, insulted wire. This method is dependent upon the interpretation of the authority having jurisdiction and does not really convey to everyone that this grounded wire is now being used as an ungrounded insulated wire. Furthermore, with hundreds of wires needing to be re-identified in a typical wiring installation, taping all of these grounded wires with several pieces of electrical tape can be quite time consuming and tedious, and is not necessarily permanent.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a quick, easy and permanent way to re-identify wires, especially grounded insulated wires.

Permanent ink marker for re-identifying wire