A packaging device for use in retaining a plurality of containers comprises a longitudinal central section and a plurality of means for gripping containers. Preferably the gripping means comprise pairs of resilient flexible prongs, with these pairs of prongs arranged along opposite sides of the longitudinal central section. A packaging assembly for retaining and distributing containers, which packaging assembly includes the packaging device, is also disclosed.

The liquid nutritional industry, as well as the packaging industry in general, has long sought to provide improved packaging assemblies for retaining and distributing liquid products as well as a packaging device which as a component of a packaging assembly facilitates the stabilization of containers during shipment, the unitizing of containers for distribution, as well as an efficient device to assist in the distribution of such containers. This invention solves those long-felt needs. The packaging device may also be used for collecting empty containers or may be re-used with other similarly dimensioned containers.
Hospitals have encountered problems relating to the distribution of liquid products in plastic or glass containers to patients by medical personnel. These problems are particularly acute in the maternity area. For example, at one time, the feeding of newborn infants was the responsibility of the nursing staff. Now, however, it is a common practice to have the mothers feed their infants. This feeding of a liquid nutritional product is often accomplished by having hospital personnel distribute containers of liquid nutritional product to the mothers. This distribution may include the providing of multiple containers of food products to certain mothers. Additionally, specific dietary formulations, which may include medication, may be utilized. Still further, various feeding cycles may be involved in a maternity section of a hospital. Thus, for a variety of reasons it is desirable to be able to provide a number of bottles to the mothers of newborns for their use, as well as having a way to systematically identify those containers which have been customized as to their nutritional formulation.
Liquid nutritional products, such as infant formula or juice often are provided in containers of an individual serving size. These individual serving containers have typically been packaged in either a closed paperboard carton or in conjunction with a paperboard tray, which then along with the nutritional product containers is covered with a plastic film.
Unfortunately, once the plastic film has been removed or the closed, paperboard carton has been opened, significant problems arise concerning the retention and distribution of the containers. For example, once the plastic film is removed from a paperboard tray, the tray often does not have sufficient rigidity to hold the containers securely. The weight of the containers often causes the tray to bend, which may eventually result in the containers eventually falling from the tray. This is especially true during distribution of the containers, since it involves the carrying a plurality of containers in the tray at one time.
It is thus apparent that the need exists for an improved device for use in a packaging assembly for retaining and distributing containers of liquid product which permits an extremely effective packaging device to be formed while being sensitive to fabrication and raw material costs. It is also apparent that the need exists for a packaging device which functions as a means to stabilize containers during shipment, display containers while in inventory, distribute containers, and when desired permit the restorage of empty containers, with this packaging device also being able to permit organization with respect to the containers. It is also apparent that the above mentioned needs exist with respect to a variety of products such as nutritional products, soft drinks and even motor oil.
Similarly, with respect to the closed paperboard cartons, once a carton is opened for purposes of distribution of the containers, it often becomes difficult to ascertain how many containers are left to be distributed. Furthermore, after distribution of the product in the containers, if it is desired to collect the empty containers, an opened paperboard carton often precludes convenient re-storage of the empty containers.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,769,749 teaches a mounting device for supporting a string of decorative lights, such as Christmas tree lights. The device comprises a platen-like strip with cutouts extending along and opening to the edges. However, the light bulbs and sockets are inserted into the cutouts endwise, with the openings at the side edges of the strip being slightly greater than the conducting cord of the string of lights.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,946,877 teaches a clip-type holder for toothbrushes or the like. The means for gripping the toothbrushes are pairs of prongs, but the device is intended for mounting on a wall or similar surface so there is no suggestion that there should be a second row of gripping means extending from the opposite side of the base strip. The use of a row of clip devices attached to a single side of a base strip is also taught in U.S. Pat. No. 2,466,195 for a "SHIRT AND TROUSER RACK" and U.S. Pat. No. 2,591,041 for a "DERBY AND MUTE RACK HOLDER".
U.S. Pat. No. 4,807,421 teaches a container holder having special utility during the process of bottling products. The central portion of the holding member is divided into several tongues and a central hole surrounded by these tongues is formed. However, there is no teaching in this patent that a number of containers may be retained by a single device.
One attempt to address the problems relating to the retention and distribution of containers, such as bottles, is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 4,523,677 issued to Schurmann. That patent discloses a molded plastic bottle holder wherein individual rib sections are provided for receiving respective necks of bottles. Each of the individual rib sections carry a number of segmental flexible lip members extending upwardly and inwardly to receive the neck of a bottle, with wedge shaped members carried by marginal portions of the flexible lip members so as to define an opening and add rigidity at the opening to facilitate removal of a bottle from the bottle holder while ensuring adequate gripping action during handling. That type of bottle holder has limitations with respect to the ease of distribution and subsequent optional re-storage. Additionally, the bottle holder as taught by Schurmann requires a relatively complex mold and a relatively large amount of plastic in order to suitably retain a plurality of containers.


A geothermal energy system in which a bore hole is drilled into the earth to a depth where a predetermined temperature gradient exists between the earth's surface and the bottom of said bore hole. A liquid refrigerant line passes down the bore hole and connects to an evaporator where the geothermal energy is used to vaporize the refrigerant and from there it passes back up through a high pressure gaseous refrigerant return line to a gas operated turbine located at the earth's surface. The spent refrigerant exiting from the turbine is cooled in a condensing unit and recirculated to the subterranean evaporator unit. The turbine may be used to drive a suitable electrical generator for power production purposes.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a non-fossil fuel power generating system and more specifically to a passive, geothermal system which utilize the heat energy at predetermined subterranean locations for producing a working fluid suitable for driving a turbine-type prime mover.
II. Discussion of the Prior Art
During the past few years, attention has been focused on alternative sources of energy because of the real or contrived shortages of crude oil and the attendant substantial price increases for that commodity. While scientists and engineers have looked to atomic energy facilities as well as coal consuming systems, a high degree of concern has been expressed by environmentalists over the use of these latter energy systems. Attempts are being made to devise non-polluting energy sources which can be rendered affordable.
It has been known for many years that vast energy resources are stored with the earth's crust in the form of geothermal beds deep within the earth. Again, scientists have determined that the heat energy present within the earth, if properly harnessed, would be sufficient to meet the total energy needs of the world population for many, many centuries. This energy source is potentially non-polluting and modern technology has advanced to the point where it becomes practical to harness this energy in an attempt to solve the world's increasing energy demands.
For example, modern drilling techniques developed for recovery of oil and gas deposits makes it possible to form a bore hole into the earth for substantial distances. It is now possible to drill several miles into the earth and it is found that at such depths there is a significant temperature gradient relative to the ambient temperature at the earth's surface. In attempts to recover this heat, several prior art processes have been tried. For example, systems wherein water is injected into the bore hole and later pumped out either as hot water or steam have been tried. The equipment needed to accomplish this task tends to be quite costly and, further, contaminants picked up by the water tend to create damage to the equipment requiring frequent periodic maintenance, flushing, etc. Also, the fact that energy must be expended in moving the fluid detracts from the overall efficiency of the generating system.


The image capturing part 201 captures a ball in flight with a camera continuously. The image corresponding part 203 generates a first registered ball image obtained by making a size of a first ball image in a first capturing image captured first correspond to a size of a second ball image in a second capturing image captured second. The 3D model constructing part 204constructs a 3D model of the first registered ball image obtained by converting a camera coordinate system of the generated first registered ball image into a world coordinate system. The virtual rotating part 205 rotates virtually the constructed 3D model of the first registered ball image by using a rotation parameter estimated in advance and rotation matrix information. The registered image generating part 206 generates a second registered ball image in the camera coordinate system obtained by converting the world coordinate system of a visible surface to see from the camera in the 3D model of the first registered ball image after the rotation into the camera coordinate system. The difference calculating part 207 extracts a second compared ball image corresponding to the second registered ball image in the second ball image, and calculates a difference between the second registered ball image and the second compared ball image. The rotation parameter determining part 208 repeats the virtual rotation of the 3D model, the generation of the second registered ball image and the calculation of the difference, and determines a rotation parameter to minimize the difference as a real rotation parameter.

Traditionally, techniques for measuring the flight parameters (launch parameters) of the ball, such as a golf ball exist a lot. For example, Patent Literature 1 discloses a method of measuring launch parameters of an object in flight. The method comprises capturing a plurality of images of an object in flight, identifying a radius of the object and a center of the object in each of the plurality of images, and calculating a velocity, an elevation angle, and an azimuth angle based on the radius of the object, the center of the object, and pre-measured camera alignment values. Further, the method comprises cropping the plurality of images to a smallest square that bounds the object, flattening the plurality of images from spherical representations to Cartesian representations, converting the Cartesian representations to polar coordinates with a range of candidate centers of rotation, and based on a fit of the polar image pair, measuring the spin axis and spin rate.
Patent Literature 2 discloses a method for determining parameters of an object in motion. The method comprises the steps of calibrating a camera lens to establish (x, y, z) directions for every (x, y) pixel in an image plane of the camera, determining alignment correction factors, capturing a plurality of images of the object in motion, finding the object in each of the plurality of images, calculating three dimensional coordinates for each of the plurality of images, and calculating a velocity vector for the object from the three dimensional coordinates. Further, the method comprises the steps of rotating a reference image of the plurality of images by a first set of rotations of a plurality of rotation sets, scaling the rotated reference image to a target image, correlating the reference image to the target image to obtain an incremental score of a plurality of scores, repeating the steps of rotating, scaling and correlating in a stepwise refinement manner to obtain a best score of the plurality of scores and utilizing a best rotation set of the plurality of rotation sets to determine the parameters of the object in motion.

Flight parameter measuring apparatus and flight parameter measuring method


A scroll casing forms a scroll flow passage of a centrifugal compressor, and, provided that, in a cross section of the scroll flow passage, Eo is an outer end of the scroll flow passage in a radial direction of the centrifugal compressor, Ef is a front end of the scroll flow passage in an axial direction of the centrifugal compressor, and Mw is a middle point of a maximum flow-passage width Wmax of the scroll flow passage in the radial direction, a flow passage height H of the scroll flow passage in the axial direction gradually increases from a position of the outer end Eo to a position of the front end Ef with respect to the radial direction, and the scroll flow passage has a recirculation flow suppressing cross section in which the front end Ef is disposed on an inner side, in the radial direction, of the middle point Mw, in a section disposed at least partially in a region closer to a scroll start than a connection position of the scroll start and a scroll end.

The centrifugal compressor used in a compressor part or the like of a turbocharger for an automobile or a ship imparts kinetic energy to a fluid through rotation of an impeller and discharges the fluid outward in the radial direction, thereby achieving a pressure increase by utilizing the centrifugal force.
Such a centrifugal compressor is provided with various features to meet the need to improve the pressure ratio and the efficiency in a broad operational range.
In typical art, for instance, Patent Document 1 discloses a centrifugal compressor provided with a casing having a scroll flow passage formed to have a spiral shape, wherein the height of the scroll flow passage in the axial direction increases gradually from inside toward outside in the radial direction, and reaches its maximum on the radially outer side of the middle point of the flow passage width with respect to the radial direction.

Scroll casing and centrifugal compressor


A furnace body is partly or thoroughly made of a metal material. An inner peripheral face of the metal material portion is covered by a lining. Spray means for cooling the lining of a relatively thin portion via the metal material portion of the furnace body is disposed outside the furnace body. When wastes are to be melted, wastes are melted under a state where the spray means sprays coolant on the outer face of the furnace body and cools the lining, thereby preventing erosion of the lining from occurring.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a waste melting furnace which melts wastes of various kinds to reduce their volume, and also to a method of melting wastes by using the melting furnace.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A furnace body is composed of a furnace bottom for receiving melts, a furnace side for surrounding melts placed on the furnace bottom and the side peripheral of the space above the melts, and a furnace roof for closing the top of the space. In each of the furnace bottom, the furnace side, and the furnace roof, the inner face of a shell is covered by a thick lining for protecting the shell. A waste inlet and a gas outlet are formed in the furnace roof, a melt outlet is formed in the furnace side, and heating means for heating wastes is disposed in the furnace body (for example, see Japanese Patent Publication (Kokai tokkyo koho 6-82028).
In such a waste melting furnace, wastes charged through the waste inlet are heated by the heating means and melted so that the volume of the wastes is largely reduced. The lining for protecting the shell from corrosive gasses produced from melting wastes has a large thickness. Even when the lining is gradually eroded as a result of a long-term operation, therefore, the protection effect can still be maintained, thereby presenting a feature that the furnace can be operated continuously in a long term.
In the prior art waste melting furnace, the large thickness of the lining produces various problems as discussed below. In the furnace roof, for example, the weight is increased so that the support structure must have a high strength, and the roof has a large thickness so that the height of the furnace is large as compared with the capacity of the furnace. It may be contemplated that the furnace roof is provided with a water jacket so as to reduce the thickness of the roof. However, such a configuration is not employed because there is a danger that, when the water Jacket is broken, a large amount of water drops into the furnace to cause an explosion accident.
In the furnace side, since the thick lining is used as described above, the thickness is large. This produces a problem in that the diameter of the furnace is large as compared with the capacity of the furnace, resulting in a large installation area.
In the furnace bottom, the thick lining causes the furnace bottom to be thickened, thereby producing a problem in that the furnace is tall as compared with the capacity of the furnace. Wastes contain a large amount of heavy metals such as copper, lead, and zinc, and such heavy metals melt into a base metal in the furnace. Since such metals have a low melting point, molten heavy metals penetrate into joints and cracks of the lining of the furnace bottom, to reach the lower portion of the furnace bottom. The difference in coefficient of thermal expansion between the metals and the lining causes a problem in that the lining is damaged and the shell is melted away to cause an accident that the melts downward leak out through the furnace bottom. The leakage produces another problem in that the environment may be polluted.
In such a waste melting furnace, furthermore, the furnace roof is provided with many attachments such as the waste inlet, the gas outlet, a temperature measurement hole, and a sampling hole, and also with various parts associated with these attachments. These components must be inspected and operated in various manners. During the operation of the furnace, moreover, the upper face of the furnace roof is at a very high temperature of, for example, about 200.degree. C. This produces a further problem in that works of inspection or operation entail dangers and therefore are difficult to perform.

Waste melting furnace and a method of melting wastes


A steady opening and closing double-axis hinge comprises a first rotation member, a second rotation member and a connection member run through by the first rotation member and the second rotation member in a parallel manner. The first rotation member includes a first shaft and a first sector portion formed on the first shaft. The second rotation member includes a second shaft and a second sector portion formed on the second shaft. The connection member includes a movable detent plate which is located between the first and second shafts and movable between a first operation position and a second operation position. Through the movement of the movable detent plate, the first sector portion and second sector portion can be blocked alternately to control the first and second shafts to rotate in sequence, so as to simplify the shaft rotation switch mechanism and improve the durability.

A conventional flip electronic device such as a notebook computer, mobile phone or the like generally has a hinge to couple a display and a body to allow the display to be opened or closed against the body, and also provide torsional force to support and anchor the display at a desired angle after being opened. In the past the hinge usually was a single-axis hinge with only one shaft as an axis. Although the single-axis hinge allows the display to be opened against the body, the display and body interfere each other after the display has been opened at a certain angle and cannot be opened continuously to greater angle, hence a range of open angles of the electronic device is limited. Nowadays touchable electronic devices equipped with a keyboard and a touch screen is very fashionable. Aside from using the keyboard to do input as usual, flipping and stacking the touch screen and keyboard-attached body inversely to input in a touch mode also is a commonly required function. As a result, the conventional single-axis hinge can no longer meet the requirement of present market.
To overcome the flaws of the conventional single-axis hinge, a double-axis hinge capable of rotating to a greater angle has been developed, such as Taiwan patent No. M433709 which discloses a double-axis hinge that comprises a shaft holder, a first shaft and a second shaft disposed in the shaft holder, friction plates penetrated by the first and second shafts to provide frictional forces and fixed friction plates connected to the first and second shafts to rub with the friction plates. The first and second shafts can respectively rotate relative to the shaft holder, and can be installed respectively on a first device body (such as a display) and a second device body (such as a device body) of an electronic device, so as to allow the first device body to rotate against the second device body, and at maximum the first device body can be flipped to the backside of the second device body. While the M433709 double-axis hinge can meet the requirement of a touchable electronic device needed to be opened to a greater angle by flipping, the first and second shafts do not have a mechanism to rotate alternately. Its two shafts could rotate simultaneously. As a result, when the display rotates against the device body, the relative positions of the shaft holder and the device body could also change to make the display tilting backward and give users unsteady feeling when in use.
To resolve to aforesaid disadvantage, producers have developed double-axis hinges capable of rotating in sequence, such as Taiwan patent Nos. M438797, M441303, M442005 and M452593 disclosed. Each of those double-axis hinges generally include a first shaft and a second shaft parallel with each other, a first latch cam and a second latch cam coupled respectively on the first shaft and the second shaft, and a first connection plate and a second connection plate disposed at two sides of the first and second latch cams and run through by the first and second shafts. The first latch cam has a first recess on the perimeter thereof, and the second latch cam has at least one second recess on the perimeter thereof. The first connection plate and second connection plate are interposed by a roller which is disposed between the first and second latched cams and can be movably wedged in the first or second recesses, thereby to switch rotation of the first shaft and the second shaft. In addition, the first and second shafts have respectively a detent portion, and the first connection plate has barriers to block the detent portions to confine rotation of the first and second shafts. On the other hand, Japan patent No. JP5112121 also discloses a dual-axis hinge which comprises a hinge case, a first shaft and a second shaft parallel with each other and run through the hinge case, a first cam and a second cam respectively pierced through by the first shaft and second shaft, a first driven member and a second driven member located between the first and second shafts and being in contact respectively with the first and second cams, and an elastic unit located between the first and second driven members to provide a thrust force. The first cam and the second cam have respectively a plurality of recesses, while the first and second driven members have respectively a boss to latch the recesses. The elastic unit pushes the first and second driven members to latch the boss on the recesses to switch rotations of the first shaft and second shaft. In addition, the first and second shafts also penetrate respectively through a first rotation retainer and a second rotation retainer that can latch respectively on a first rotation restriction portion and a second rotation restriction portion formed on the hinge case to restrict rotations of the first and second shafts. Although the aforesaid double-axis hinges can make the first and second shafts rotate sequentially to maintain stabilities during opening or closing, their structures are complex and have to collaborate with a great number of components during assembly and installation. As a result, they have disadvantages such as complicated production process, difficult assembly and higher fabrication costs.
In recent years some producers have developed a simpler double-axis hinge that can rotate in sequence, such as China patent No. CN202484069 and U.S. patent publication No. US2013/0135809. They all disclose a hinge device which includes a hinge bracket, a first axis and a second axis that are parallel with each other and rotatablely supported by the hinge bracket, and a floating locating member which is supported by the hinge bracket and able to slide between the first and second axes. The first and second axes have respectively a first recess and a second recess. The floating locating member can be coupled respectively to the first recess and second recess to make the first and second axes to rotate sequentially. Further, each of the first and second axes also forms a protrusion, and the hinge bracket has stop parts corresponding to the protrusions to stop rotation of the first and second axes at a preset angle. In addition, Taiwan patent publication Nos. 201326589 and 201326590 also disclose a lock type dual axis hinge which includes a connecting frame, a first rotation shaft and a second rotation shaft being pivoted to the connection frame side by side, and a first latch recess and a second latch recess formed respectively on the first rotation shaft and second rotation shaft. The connection frame has a holding aperture located between the first and second latch recesses to hold a floating member which is engage respectively with the first latch recess and second latch recess to allow the first rotation shaft and the second rotation shaft to rotate in sequence. The floating member can be a pin with two spherical ends or two rolling balls. The first and second rotation shafts further respectively through a first detent plate and a second detent plate, and the connection frame includes a first barrier and a second barrier to block the first and second detent plates to confine the rotation angles of the first and second rotation shafts.
The hinge devices and the lock type dual axis hinges in the aforesaid CN202484069 and US2013/0135809, and Taiwan 201326589 and 201326590 have simpler structures, but shapes of their components are complicated which generates serious tolerance problems. For instance, in the hinge devices disclosed in CN202484069 and US2013/0135809, the first and second recesses are formed in an arched shape, hence fabrication thereof is more difficult and the problem of machining tolerances easily occurs that could decrease degree of precision. In Taiwan 201326589 and 201326590, the parts of the floating member which contacts with the rotation shafts and the latch recesses are arched tangent surfaces formed axially on the floating member. Thus, fabrication of the floating member also is difficult and costly, and precision of the finished product is hard to control. Moreover, when the floating member latches on the latch recess they merely contact in a small area and form an unstable butting relationship. Hence the surface of the latch recess cannot firmly push the floating member. As a result, when the floating member escapes the latch recess wobbling or movement interruption easily occurs. In addition, the floating member also contacts with and butts the rotation shaft in a small area, therefore the uneven applied force or local wearing could happen to generate deformation of the floating member. Hence the aforesaid hinge devices and the lock type dual axis hinges not only have components formed in complicated shapes that results in higher production costs and lower precision, also have unstable contact between the floating member and axis or unsecure latch relationship between the floating ember and the recess that could cause unsmooth movement of the floating member to result a unstable operation of opening or closing and a undesirable operation feel.

Steady opening and closing double-axis hinge


A D/A converter which develops the analog output by summing binary-weighted packets of electrical charge. Charge metering techniques are used to generate and sum the charge packets. It is particularly suited to application in the data line driver circuits of thin-film transistor liquid crystal displays. Various embodiments use single or multiple charge packet generators, and the multiple version may generate the packets for the various bits simultaneously, For the highest speed, or else sequentially, for the largest voltage dynamic range.

1. Technical Field
This invention relates to digital to analog (D/A) conversion in data line driver subsystems for flat panel active matrix displays such as thin-film transistor liquid crystal displays (TFT-LCD). More specifically, it relates to the type of display which receives its pixel data in digitally encoded form and converts the digital data to analog data line signals in each data driver circuit.
2. Background Art
In the above mentioned displays the number of colors or gray levels that can be precisely displayed is limited in part by the precision and accuracy of the D/A conversion. For economic reasons, more than one hundred data driver circuits, along with associated digital circuitry, must be integrated into each monolithic silicon chip. This requirement eliminates from consideration most of the conventional means of achieving high D/A performance.
A copending application by the present inventor, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/968,699, filed on Oct. 30, 1992, and entitled "Pipeline Charge Metering Digital-To-Analog Data Line Driver", which is hereby incorporated by reference, teaches the application of charge metering techniques to the sampled-ramp or sampled-staircase type of data line driver. While this is an advance in the art, is retains the limitation that the speed required of the circuits scales with the precision (the number of gray levels or colors to be represented by the analog output).
A D/A converter using summing of binary weighted charge packets is the subject of U.S. Pat. No. 3,836,906 by Ando et al. The particular method used by Ando et al has the following disadvantages:
1. The output contains error contributions from the uncertainty of the threshold voltages of several MOS transistors. This is compounded by the fact that the output, including the output for analog zero, has a finite pedestal due to the necessary minimum charge contributions from each binary input. The pedestal contains threshold uncertainty which may be larger than the smallest analog outputs.
2. Multiple capacitors are used, one for each bit plus one, having sizes in binary-weighted sequence. Thus there is a large ratio of sizes between the largest and the smallest capacitor. If the smallest is large enough to make the ratio very precise, the capacitors occupy very large amounts of chip area.
3. The largest of the capacitors must be formed differently than the others. The others share a common electrode, such as the silicon substrate, but the largest must have two independent electrodes. This complicates the technology and makes its area larger than it would otherwise be.
4. The binary weighted charge packets to be summed are provided directly by the digital inputs, which are loaded by the binary weighted capacitors.
5. The output voltage dynamic range is about one-half of the largest voltage supply.

Charge summing digital to analog converter

International Business Machines Corporation


The invention provides a device and method for data processing. The data processing device has a local memory which has part of address locations of the main memory as its address location, which is accessed by a CPU, and which can obtain same effect as cache memory without having cache directory, a comparator which determines whether or not an address to be accessed is an address allocated in the local memory when the CPU requests memory access to the main memory, a flip-flop which indicates that the data processing device is in the initial program loading mode or the in-operation mode, and a memory control unit which controls to copy data stored in a specific part of address locations of the main memory into the local memory by reading out an instruction (loader) from the main memory when the flip-flop indicates the initial program loading mode, and which controls to write data in the main memory by reading out an instruction (if stored) from the local memory when the flip-flop indicates the in-operation mode. The method for processing data has the step of loading data from an external memory into the main memory at initial program loading, the step of copying part of data stored in the main memory to the local memory, and the step of reading out an instruction from the local memory and writing data in the main memory when the instruction to be read out in the in-operation mode is stored in the local memory, and reading out an instruction from the main memory and writing data in the main memory when the instruction is not stored in the local memory.

The present invention relates to a data processing device and a method therefor.
Data processing devices have been recently manufactured at low cost due to the development of LSIs (large scale integrated circuits) and microcomputers. Along with this development, a system is herein proposed in which a low-cost microprocessor is connected to a data processing device to perform systematic operations. Using an LSI or microprocessor for arithmetic control or input/output control, unique processing is performed in accordance with specific software.
FIG. 1 shows an example of a data processing device which adopts the above system. A central processing unit 11 (to be referred to as a CPU 11 hereinafter) controls arithmetic operations in accordance with a program stored in a main memory unit 12 (to be referred to as an MMU 12 hereinafter) and supervises I/O devices (not shown) connected to a common bus 15.
Input/output processors 13 and 14 (to be referred to as IOPs 13 and 14 hereinafter) perform data transfer between the common bus 15 and the I/O devices. The CPU 11, the MMU 12, and the IOPs 13 and 14 are connected to the common bus 15.
In the data processing device shown in FIG. 1, the I/O devices occupy the common bus 15 to transfer address data and to exchange information with each other therethrough.
General programs including an operating system (to be referred to as an OS hereinafter) are stored in the MMU 12. The CPU 11 accesses the MMU 12 via the common bus 15 every time OS control is required. At this time, the CPU 11 occupies the common bus 15 and transfers data in predetermined units. Thereafter, the common bus 15 is open to other devices.
However, in the system described above, the CPU 11 frequently occupies the common bus 15 since the OS is enlarged in scale. This further increases the OS overhead, thus degrading the system performance.
A cache memory system is used to perform high speed processing so as to improve the performance of the CPU 11. The cache memory is a high speed memory for temporarily storing data transferred between the CPU 11 and the MMU 12. Although the storage capacity of the cache memory is small, data is smoothly transferred between the CPU 11 and the MMU 12 since a high-speed memory element is used.
The MMU 12 and the cache memory are each generally subdivided into blocks having a fixed length (32-byte to 64-byte length). Data stored in the MMU 12 is transferred to the cache memory in units of blocks. If the CPU 11 requires both a calculation of the number of instructions and also the next instruction, it first checks to see whether or not such data is stored in the cache memory. If the necessary data is stored in the cache memory, it is immediately read out therefrom. This data is stored as an address table in a memory which is a so-called directory in order to perform high-speed addressing. However, if the necessary data is not stored in the cache memory, a block including this data is read out from the MMU 12 and is transferred to the cache memory. At the same time, the block described above is used for processing by the CPU 11. One block generally holds a number of data which is larger than the data processed by one instruction. Further, in operation, necessary data is more likely to be included in the same block of the MMU 12. Therefore, according to the system described above, the processing speed of the computer is increased.
When the cache memory system is adopted, the performance of the CPU 11 is improved. However, hardware (the directory and its peripheral circuits) for controlling the CPU 11 is large in size. Further, the control system of the CPU 11 becomes complex. Therefore, the above system is not an optimal one since highly integrated memory elements are available at low cost.

Data processing system having a local memory which does not use a directory device with distributed resident programs and a method therefor


A video wall control system for controlling a video wall including a plurality of screens, the video wall control system including: at least one client module controlling the layout of the video wall; a central control module acquiring camera unique identification (UID) and a video stream from a monitoring system, storing the camera UID and the video stream, and controlling the layout of the video wall; a storage module storing the modified video wall layout; a gateway module receiving a layout modification event from the client module or the central control module and load the modified video wall layout from the storage module; and a decoding module loading the camera UID and the video stream from the central control module, receiving the modified video wall layout from the gateway module, and modifying the layout of the video wall based on the received modified video wall layout.

1. Field
Apparatuses and methods consistent with exemplary embodiments of the inventive concept relate to a video wall control system, and more particularly, to a video wall control system which performs real-time monitoring and control closed circuit television (CCTV) images, split screens, and monitor merge/unmerge operations all together through a single control process by acquiring a considerable number of CCTV screens at the same time.
2. Description of the Related Art
Most buildings today are equipped with security systems and security personnel for monitoring the security systems. Video wall systems are systems that can be built in the security office in a building for allowing security personnel to properly monitor the security systems in the building and to immediately take measures in response to occurrence of certain situations. The term "video wall", as used herein, denotes an array of a plurality of monitors arranged on the same plane to operate as a large single screen.
For example, a video wall system may be built by combining multiple liquid crystal display (LCD) screens to provide a larger single screen, and may be configured to receive a variety of multimedia video signals from computers, internet protocol (IP) cameras, and CCTVs and display the received video signals on the larger single screen. Accordingly, an image can be enlarged and then displayed on an entire combined screen of the multiple LCD screens, and a user can easily identify the image from the combined screen even at a glance.
FIGS. 1A and 1B are diagrams of related-art video wall systems.
Referring to FIG. 1, a wall controller 11 transmits source input/output matrix information to an RGB matrix switch 15, and transmits monitor merge information to a video matrix 17. That is, the wall controller 11 transmits instructions to both the RGB matrix switch 15 and the video matrix 17 to perform a change of sources and merge/unmerge functions and thus to display an image on a video wall 5. For CCTV images, video sources 13 may need to be changed by using particular software, which is different from wall control software of the wall controller 11.
The video wall system of FIG. 1B, which has a similar structure to that of the video wall system of FIG. 1A, can be built more easily than the video wall system of FIG. 1A because video wall devices 18 and 19 are configured to communicate with each other through Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). However, in the video wall system of FIG. 1B, like in the video wall system of FIG. 1A, additional software, which is different from wall control software of a wall controller 11, may be needed to change video sources 13. That is, in the case of the related-art video wall systems of FIGS. 1A and 1B, control of each monitor (such as merge/unmerge), control of sources, and control of split CCTV screens are performed separately and individually. Also, the related-art video wall systems of FIGS. 1A and 1B request instructions to be entered and processed for each control process, thereby causing inconvenience to users. Also, most software for controlling a CCTV screen is designed for use in user personal computers (PCs), and thus cannot be used to monitor people from a control center. Also, as the number of monitors employed in a video wall increases, the number of images that can be displayed by each monitor decreases. Also, in the related-art video wall systems of FIGS. 1A and 1B, the wall controller 11 and the matrix switcher 15 are both needed, thereby causing an increase in manufacturing cost. For this reason, some users may request multiple screens to be merged on a monitor-by-monitor basis without using the wall controller 11. Also, since multiple video walls cannot be controlled with a single personal computer (PC), monitor extensibility and freedom may deteriorate.


An angle sensor is used for determining the relative position of a steerable wheel hub, relative to a fixed wheel mounting hub. The angle sensor has a portion mounted on the fixed hub, but received in a recess in the kingpin. The kingpin has a central bore that receives a movable shaft of the sensor which is driven by the kingpin. As the steerable wheel hub is steered, it rotates about the axis of the kingpin and rotates the kingpin. The kingpin drives the shaft of the sensor to provide for an indication of the amount of pivotal movement between the wheel hub and the wheel mounting hub.

The present invention relates to an angle sensor for sensing the angular position of a steerable wheel on a vehicle, wherein the sensor is mounted to be concentric with and internally connected to the kingpin that pivotally mounts a wheel hub to a fixed hub on the axle.
A steerable wheel industrial loader and its controls are described in copending U.S. Application entitled Selectable Control Parameters on Power Machine, Ser. No. 09/733,221, filed Dec. 8, 2000, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference.
In modern steerable industrial vehicles, the wheels may be independently supported and independently steerable, and it is necessary to have coordinated steering angles between front and rear wheels, as well as between the wheels on the same axle but on opposite sides of the wheels. Computer controls are able to resolve signals indicating steer angle differences, and make adjustments to the steering system for appropriate matching angles, or if desired, providing different angles of certain wheels for various purposes.
In order to accurately control the steering angle of a steerable wheel, the angle must be sensed correctly. The sensor also has to be located so that it is not damaged by external conditions, such as rocks or shaking, bumping or the like.
Angle sensors have been known for years, and the Torrington Company makes various angle sensors that are highly reliable and compact. Many of these are solid state sensors that will sense angles between a stationary housing and a rotatable stem or drive shaft very accurately, and reliably, with low power consumption.
The present invention relates to an angle sensor for sensing the angular position of a steerable wheel and hub relative to a reference position, normally the longitudinal axis of a vehicle. The angle sensor is mounted in a bore in and made a part of the kingpin that supports the rotating wheel hub to its fixed wheel support housing on the axle of the vehicle. The sensor has fully protected rotatable parts that are rotated relative to each other about the axis of the kingpin when the wheel is steered.
The kingpin structure is a headed pin that is passed through bores in aligning parts that overlap so that the wheel hub, which has an annular support ring with top and bottom pads with bores for the kingpins, is held onto mating ears on the fixed wheel support housing on the axle. There are king pins on both the top and bottom of the wheel hub. One king pin has an axial bore with an insert shaft having a drive tang or coupling that engages a rotatable shaft of an angle sensor that is mounted in a recess in the other end of the kingpin. The sensor housing is mounted on an arm supported on the stationary wheel support housing. The kingpin will rotate with the wheel hub as the wheel is steered, and will drive the rotatable shaft of the angle sensor. The angle sensor housing remains fixed so that relative rotation can be sensed.


A peristaltic roller pump includes a rotor carrying a pumping roller on one end and an occluding roller on the other end. Occluding roller has a number of protrusions designed to occlude the tubing section that is located under that roller as it moves over it in order to prevent any back flow through that section of the tube. Occluding roller is designed to not cause any pumping of fluid through the section of the tubing under that roller. Such design is useful in a single-needle dialysis system in which during a first phase of pumping blood is moved in one direction from the patient towards the dialysis unit and during the second phase of operation blood is returned to the patient in the opposite direction.

The present invention relates to fluid pumps in general, and more specifically to peristaltic pumps. More particularly, the pump of the invention utilizes at least one occluding roller and at least one pumping roller and can be used in various applications where alternating fluid pumping is needed. Examples of such applications include fluid mixing, single-needle hemodialysis etc.
Peristaltic pumps are well-known devices, which transfer fluid through an elongate flexible tubing by compressing a portion of the tubing, and pushing the fluid through the tubing using such compression. Peristaltic pumps are commonly used for transferring fluids such as ink for printing or for transferring fluids such as blood in medical equipment. Peristaltic pumps may also be used to transfer fluids such as cleaning agents, coolants, slurries or liquid adhesives, just to name a few of the many fluids that can be transferred with such pumps. One advantageous feature of peristaltic pumps is that the fluid does not contact the pump mechanism since the fluid is always confined within and moved through the flexible tubing. Therefore, peristaltic pumps may be used to transfer corrosive or caustic solutions or other hazardous fluids without affecting the pump mechanism.
In a typical peristaltic pump, the tubing is compressed by one or more rollers that are driven by an electric or air-powered motor. Each roller compresses the tubing as it moves along the length of the tubing. Also typically, the flexible tubing is fed through the pump along a generally U-shaped path or alternatively along a substantially straight arc-shaped path (in the case of a pass-through pump) so that the U-shaped or arc-shaped portion of the tubing overlaps a portion of a path traveled by the rollers.
Typical examples of prior art roller pumps may be found in these U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,927,951; 5,630,711; 5,415,532; 4,906,168; and 4,755,168.
Modifications of the classic roller pump configuration is found in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,064,358 describing the design capable of pumping two liquids at the same time. Willock describes a single-needle dialysis system utilizing a roller pump in his U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,938,909 and 3,848,592. Of interest here is the area of application of the roller pump requiring alternating pumping of blood from the patient to the blood dialysis device and back into the patient via the same path.
Such systems are rather complicated and require various valve and control mechanisms to ensure proper redirection of fluid pumping using a standard roller pump. The need exists therefore for a roller pump providing alternating fluid pumping inherently and without changing the direction of rotation or additional external valves and control system.
The need also exists for a roller pump capable of pumping at least two flows independently with a single roller system rotating in the same direction at all times.

Single-needle dialysis sytem utilizing a peristaltic pump with pumping and occluding rollers


An arrangement for monitoring and detecting a sleeping driver incorporating a load cell connected to electronic scales for establishing a base line force value when a driver grasps the steering wheel so that when the driver relaxes the grip on the steering wheel and the force value falls below the established base line value an alarm is sounded.

The present invention relates to an apparatus co-acting with a vehicle steering wheel for detecting a sleeping or dozing driver and providing an alarm system for awaking the driver.
The prior art shows different devices, which function as sleep detectors for drivers of vehicles. In this regard U.S. Pat. No. 6,172,610 to Prus discloses a sleepy driver detection and alarm system, which includes contacts for measuring skin resistance, and is provided with a micro-controller for determining a baseline resistance. The alarm is sounded, waking the driver, when the resistance varies from the baseline. The arrangement is believed to be unreliable since the ambient temperature differences effect perspiration and will alter the skin resistance readings. U.S. Pat. No. 6,218,947 to Sutherland is directed to a sleep detector having a sensed capacity between the two plates on a steering wheel rim. When the driver""s fingertips are released from the steering wheel an alarm is sounded. U.S. Pat. No. 4,210,905 to Coons shows a plurality of switches arranged around a vehicle steering wheel. The switches remain open as long as the driver grasps the steering wheel, however if the driver loosens his grip on the steering wheel as he dozes the switch will close making a complete circuit that activates an alarm. The prior art solutions to detect a driver who is about to fall asleep are not reliably sensitive or repeatable.
This invention incorporates the use of a sensitive load cell to measure the driver""s grasp of the vehicles steering wheel, and using that value as a base line for detecting a driver""s sleepiness. The load cell utilized is a force transducer, which converts a force into an electric signal. The present load cell is used to measure compression applied by the user""s hands to a steering wheel. In effect, the steering mechanism would have the attribute of an electronic scale.
The detection and alarm system for a dozing or sleeping automobile driver of the present invention can be individualized so that each individual who grasps a steering wheel to operate a vehicle will establish a base line value of weight on the steering wheel which remains as that individual""s signature value. Consequently, any variations below that value will activate an alarm, which may be audible as well as visual. The detection means is a load cell which may take the form of a strain gage having a sensitive spring element that responds to direct stress, bending or shear caused by the driver""s firm grasp of an automobile steering wheel. In this connection, for example, the steering wheel could be zeroed when the ignition is turned on. The driver would then take hold of the steering wheel in a natural grip. The force applied to the steering wheel would then be placed in the memory of the apparatus.
It should be noted that the present detection system could be delayed in operation until the vehicle reaches higher speeds, such as 55 mph. Thus, the apparatus can be deployed at higher speeds in order to avoid serious accidents at such elevated speeds. It is also contemplated to provide an automatic reset of the detection and alarm system after ignition is started in the vehicle. The grasp of the driver can be quantitated and reported back to the driver and occupant by a visual and audible scale, setting up a positive feedback loop, in effect placing the driver in tune with the vehicle and the vehicle in tune with the driver.

Monitor alarm for detecting vehicle driver""s sleepiness


A non-hazardous, non-flammable, biodegradable composition for use in removal of paraffin accumulations in oilfield equipment may contain limonene, a glycol ether an ethoxylate(alcohol surfactant, an aliphatic alcohol having 1 to 4 carbon atoms or mixtures thereof, a non-hazardous and biodegradable organic acid, and, sufficient water as a carrier and comprising such a major weight component of the composition as to virtually eliminate a measurable flashpoint therefor. Preferably the aliphatic alcohol is one or methanol, ethanol, or admixtures thereof. Preferably the organic acid is one of acetic acid, citric acid, or formic acid. The glycol either is preferably ethylene glycol monopropyl ether.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to compositions for cleaning contaminant deposits or accumulations from oilfield equipment, and methods of use thereof. For convenience in this description, the contaminant deposits or accumulations are termed "paraffin," paraffinic," and/or "paraffin-like" deposits, which terms are used interchangeably throughout the specification to refer to any material which is insoluble, sparingly soluble, or undispersible in crude oil under conditions of production.
Thus, a given "paraffinic" deposit--in accordance with the terminology herein--may contain high molecular weight aliphatic hydrocarbons (eg., generally having more than about 20 carbon atoms), petroleum resins, asphaltic and asphaltene materials, aromatic hydrocarbons, water, and inorganic matter (such as calcium and magnesium carbonates and sulfates, sand, clay and silicates, rust, iron sulfide, chlorides &c.), and the like. As will be understood by persons ordinarily skilled in the art, the composition of such deposits varies from one crude oil to another, from one field to another and from well to another well in the same field.
2. Prior Art
The accumulation of paraffin on oilfield equipment constitutes an example of precipitation and deposition. Crude oil in the formation is a solution combining the higher molecular weight, paraffinic hydrocarbons with lower molecular weight hydrocarbons which function as solvents. The higher molecular weight, paraffinic solids precipitate whenever the lower molecular weight hydrocarbons transport capacity is reduced. Generally, if the temperature of the crude oil in the formation cools (and/or its pressure decreases), then it can be expected that the higher molecular weight, paraffinic hydrocarbons solids will precipitate and form accumulative deposits.
Paraffin deposition and accumulation is gradual, leading to differential distribution of different chain lengths according to temperature and pressure changes with (i) the fractional amount of the higher-molecular weight paraffin-containing crude oil in the bore, (ii) the pumping thereof, (iii) its transport in conduits, and (iv) its storage in tanks and so on. Consequently, paraffinic deposition and accumulation can and does occur about anywhere in the oil-extraction and -refining process, and plainly is pervasive to oilfield equipment and the associated environment:--it forms and accumulates in such places as on the face of the producing formation, in the casing or the tubing of the well, in oil flowlines and pipelines, in the pump(s), in tank batteries, tank farms and the like.
Paraffin deposits operate to decrease materially the productivity of the wells in which they occur, or decrease materially the capacity of the pipes through which they flow, and so on. Sometimes the deposits accumulate to the point little or no flow can pass through such conduits under normal manner of operation.
The purpose of removing such deposits is obvious. In some areas, wells decline in productivity at a more or less rapid rate because of build-up of such paraffin deposits. In some instances, the decline is sufficient that the wells must be serviced at a frequency ranging from several days to several weeks. In other instances the deposition is slow and hence servicing at longer intervals is sufficient to maintain the well at a satisfactory level of productivity. The same is true of the various conduits through which the oil travels from the well to the refinery:--including through tank batteries, tank farms, pipes and so on. The capacity of a conduit of circular cross-section is reduced greatly by such deposits. The conduit's capacity is frequently reduced to a small fraction of its capacity clean. For example, an operator may find himself burdened with the cost of a 6 or 8 inch (15 or 20 cm) flowline, yet seeing that flowline achieve a capacity equal merely to that of a 3 or 4 inch (8 or 10 cm) Flowline because of paraffinic deposits lining the inside surface of the conduit and constricting the flow area. Ultimately such conduits may be found virtually clogged by such deposits.
Paraffinic deposits likewise occur on formation wells, where this phenomena of inward accretion constricting the flow area is also experienced. If the casing provides nominally an 8 inch (20 cm) diameter flow area when clean, then a 1 inch (2.5 cm) lining of paraffin constricts the effective diameter to 6 inches (15 cm). The effective flow area is reduced by half. If the line pressure were 1,000 psi (70 bar) for line when clean, then the line when fouled and constricted in half will have twice the line pressure, or about 2,000 psi (135 bar). Several aggravating conditions set up when this happens. A local venturi is created, and this promotes erosion of the casing, which sometimes can erode away to allow a leak spot in the casing. Well productivity vis-.alpha.-vis line constriction or leakage may fall substantially to zero, especially in low-pressure fields. As for tank capacities, tank capacities are also reduced by such deposits where a layer may cover the bottom to a depth of several feet.
Various techniques have been employed for the removal of paraffin deposits from oil-producing formations and wells penetrating such formations. These techniques include the use of mechanical and heating devices, explosives, solvents, and so on. Over 50% of the cost of producing and marketing oil from producing wells is related to cleaning procedures to break-up and remove paraffin. The two most common techniques are mechanical scraping and hot-oil flushing. Mechanical scraping, with specially designed instruments, is sometimes also referred to as "knifing." Scraping--where available--is labor-intensive, time-consuming, and generally, expensive. Also, scraping is not available when removal of the paraffin is required from pumps, valves and the like. Hot oil treatments are also expensive because of the considerable cost in the energy-consumption for heating, pumping and the like, and besides, hot oil has a relatively low solvency for paraffin and hence is generally less effective treatment for the dollar. By either foregoing technique/treatment, the removed paraffin usually remains in a solid form or quickly returns to a solid form after treatment.
Chemical methods are effective for dissolving or dispersing paraffin deposits in oil. Normally, paraffin removal is effected through the aid of solvents or surface agents. However it is also known to set up highly-exothermic acid reactions for generating and applying heat to the paraffin solids, but in these cases the paraffin is not truly dissolved and dispersed, and can again quickly return to a solid form after the heat dissipates.
Paraffinic solvents dissolve deposits, but their action is limited, however, to the deposit surface, while surface agents lower surface tension and chemically enwrap small particles, thus changing their adhesion capacity mutually among one another or their adhesion capacity to flowline (eg., pipe) surfaces. Thus broken up, such smaller paraffin particles more easily remain oil-suspended and move freely. The presence of a surface agent lowers the water surface tension breaking the link between paraffin molecules and the flowline (eg., metallic pipeline) wall, inhibiting further paraffin deposition, therefore acting secondarily as a preventative compound or "inhibitor."
Shortcomings associated with known chemical methods include that the known chemical compositions are hazardous materials. They require exceptionally special handling because of toxicity, flammability, or outright explosiveness. Workers are advised to wear gloves, goggles, coveralls, splash aprons and in exceptional instances, respirators or scuba gear to handle the known chemicals, and only within safe proximity of showers and eye rinses and the like. Many popular solvents have such low flashpoints that their handling requires diligence not only in preventing a fire hazard but also in avoiding an explosion. Spills are environmental hazards which require immediate containment and clean-up. Generally, a spill of a gallon or so of the typical known chemical requires excavation and removal of all the soil absorbed with the chemical. Also, the addition of many of the toxic forms of chemicals requires containment and treatment of the removed sludge once it is drawn off the oilfield equipment being treated.
What is needed is a substantially safe product which is substantially non-toxic and non-flammable, and substantially bio-degradable, such that it obviates the special handling attendant to use of the prior art chemicals.

Composition for paraffin removal from oilfield equipment


A filling pipe for use in high-temperature heat pipe filling operation includes an alkali metal filling unit, metallic pipe fixing unit, hermetic seal cover and stopping net. The alkali metal filling unit has a filling body, a receiving space disposed in the filling body. A feed inlet and a feeding pipe are disposed at the top and bottom of the filling body, respectively. A vacuum-generating component is disposed at the filling body laterally. The metallic pipe fixing unit has a fixing body and a taper opening disposed thereon and adapted to limit the metallic pipe. When the fixing body gets connected to the filling body, the feeding pipe is inserted into metallic pipe. The hermetic seal cover covers separably the feed inlet. The stopping net is movably disposed in the receiving space. Therefore, solid alkali metals are filled into a metallic pipe easily and safely.

Low-temperature, moderate-temperature and high-temperature heat pipes vary from each other in terms of the conventional cooling materials they are filled with. For example, low-temperature heat pipes are filled with water and applied to an ambient temperature below 100° C. Moderate-temperature heat pipes are for use at an ambient temperature of 200˜500° C. High-temperature heat pipes are for use at an ambient temperature above 500° C. Therefore, the cooling materials for filling high-temperature heat pipes are preferably alkali metals, such as metallic lithium, metallic sodium, and metallic potassium.
With alkali metals being of a low density, a low melting point and a low boiling point, alkali metals usually exhibit high activity capacity under a normal condition. If alkali metals are filled into a metallic pipe to manufacture a high-temperature heat pipe, the alkali metals will be likely to undergo chemical reactions upon exposure to air or water and therefore explode, thereby injuring filling workers.
Therefore, it is important to provide a filling pipe for use in high-temperature heat pipe filling operation to enable filling workers to fill solid alkali metals into a metallic pipe easily and safely in order to manufacture a high-temperature heat pipe.

Filling pipe for use in high-temperature heat pipe filling operation


A method and device for measuring the slope of the envelope delay characteristic in a transmission channel. The slope is determined from a received measurement signal having a frequency spectrum that includes three rays at frequencies f.sub.o, f.sub.1 and f.sub.2, which are approximately located in the center and at the edges of the useful passband of the channel. At the output of the channel, the three components at frequencies f.sub.o, f.sub.1 and f.sub.2 are extracted from the received measurement signal, and the instantaneous phases .psi.0, .psi.1 and .psi.2 of these three components are measured. The value of the slope S of the envelope delay characteristic is obtained from the relation ##EQU1## where .phi..sub.o ', .phi..sub.1 ' and .phi..sub.2 ' are the phases of the three rays at frequencies f.sub.o, f.sub.1 and f.sub.2 of the measurement signal sent over the channel. When the data transmission system employs double sideband-quadrature carrier (DSB-QC) modulation, the measurement signal is generated by causing the carrier to undergo successive phase changes of +.pi./2 and -.pi./2 radians at the signaling rate. The receiver includes a set of fixed equalizers and the appropriate fixed equalizer is selected as a function of the measured slope.

Most transmission channels, such as those composed of public telephone lines, exhibit the same types of characteristics and differ from each other only in the degree of significance of the various factors involved. Transmission channels are usually characterized by amplitude and envelope delay characteristics which vary as a function of frequency. The amplitude characteristic gives the attenuation in decibels for each frequency that lies within the passband of the channel. The envelope delay for a given frequency is the propagation time of that frequency through the transmission channel. The envelope delay characteristic represents the relative propagation times in milliseconds of the frequencies that lie within the passband of the channel. For more complete definitions, reference may be made to the Bell System Data Communications Technical Reference entitled, "Transmission Parameters Affecting Voiceband Data Transmission--Description of Parameters," PUB 41008, July 1974. The amplitude and envelope delay characteristics lie within given profiles that define the quality of the transmission channel or, as it is sometimes referred to, the "quality of the line." The technique that is the most widely used for measuring the envelope delay characteristic is described in the Bell System Data Communications Technical Reference entitled, "Transmission Parameters Affecting Voiceband Data Transmission--Measuring Techniques," PUB 41009, January 1972. Briefly, this technique consists of measuring the slope of the phase-frequency characteristic of the line for each frequency lying within the passband of the line. This technique is both complex and time-consuming and requires special test equipment which the telephone companies alone may use to test their lines. Also, the user of a line is generally unaware of its exact envelope delay characteristic and merely knows the profile, as indicated by the telephone company, within which this characteristic lies. It has been found that a knowledge of both the profile of the envelope delay characteristic and the slope of that characteristic is sufficient for the purposes of many applications.
The envelope delay characteristic is an important feature of a transmission channel. Since the envelope delay varies with frequency, a signal transmitted over a channel undergoes a certain amount of distortion which combines with the amplitude distortion to create an interference between successive pulses that is known as intersymbol interference. Theoretically, if the precise envelope delay and amplitude characteristic were known, the effects of intersymbol interference could be eliminated by constructing a filter whose transfer function would be the inverse of that of the channel. In practice, however, these characteristics are not precisely known. In addition, the characteristics vary slowly with time.
The effects of intersymbol interference can be eliminated, or at least reduced, by means of a well-known automatic and adaptive device called an equalizer. An adaptive equalizer is a complex device whose cost significantly affects the overall cost of the receiver into which it is incorporated.
In data transmission systems in which the signaling rate is equal to or lower than 2400 bits per second, the effects of intersymbol interference are less detrimental to transmission and provision is normally made for a single fixed equalizer called a compromise equalizer which is much less expensive than an adaptive equalizer. A set of fixed equalizers having different transfer functions may be substituted for the single fixed equalizer. An initialization procedure permits selection of the particular equalizer to be used for a given transmission. The most widely used initialization procedure consists of sequentially connecting the various equalizers in the transmission path and then selecting the particular equalizer which gives the best results. This procedure is time-consuming and, consequently, increases the cost of the transmission.

Method and device for measuring the slope of the envelope delay characteristic of a transmission channel and their application to an automatic equalizer selection technique


A spring biased test probe for testing electrical printed circuit boards includes an elongated tubular barrel having an open end, and a compression spring within a spring seating end of the barrel, opposite from its open end. A plunger inserted in the barrel reciprocates during testing, sliding within the barrel and biased by the spring pressure. The plunger includes a forward end portion outside the barrel, a slidable tail portion that contacts the spring and slides within a barrel, and an intermediate twisted portion between the forward end and the tail portion of the plunger. The forward end of the plunger has a probe tip configured to make frictional pressure contact with the board to be tested. The intermediate portion is twisted about its axis to form a spiral with helical grooves contacted by circumferentially spaced apart crimps in the side of the barrel, adjacent the open end of the barrel. The plunger is rotated about its axis by its contact with the crimps as the plunger travels axially in the barrel. The twisted intermediate section of the plunger and the forward end of the plunger extend outside the barrel which is contained in an elongated tubular outer receptacle. The forward end of the plunger includes an elongated enlarged diameter guide bearing section between the probe tip and the twisted section of the plunger.

In the automatic testing of electrical circuits, test probes of various configurations are used, depending upon such factors as the type of electrical device under test, the spacing between test points, and the like. One type of prior art test probe includes a movable plunger mounted in a tubular barrel with the probe end of the plunger extending outwardly from the barrel. A spring in the barrel supports the plunger for spring biased axial travel within the barrel. The plunger is biased outwardly a selected distance by the spring and may be biased inwardly into the barrel a selected distance under force directed against the spring. The probe plunger has a probe tip designed with various configurations for making contact with selected test points on the electrical device under test.
There are many applications in which probe end of the plunger may experience difficulty in making reliable contact with a particular circuit element or test point during the testing cycle. In order to ensure good contact during testing, prior art test probes have used certain probe tip configurations designed to enhance frictional contact when spring pressure is applied to the probe during testing. However, such an approach is not consistently the answer to the problem of making reliable contact.
Examples of instances in which good frictional contact between the test probe and the test point is desirable are where the board under test has been in a dirty environment, or where no de-fluxing was conducted after soldering. When circuit components are soldered to a board, free particles such as highly corrosive fluxes, chemicals, or other contaminants can be left on the board. Solvents have been used in the past for de-fluxing circuit boards, but solvents are being used less frequently today for environmental reasons. Therefore, many currently used circuit boards are not thoroughly cleaned before testing. In addition, spots formed on the board by the soldering process project from the board and are often covered with fluxes or oxide films. Standard test probes can have difficulty penetrating these areas of the board, producing unreliable test results.
To confront these problems, circuit boards are often tested not by standard test probes, but by probes in which the plunger is twisted about its axis during testing. This is intended to ensure that the probe tip will reliably penetrate the debris or film left on the board and make good electrical contact with the test point. In these types of test probes, the probe tip functions as a drill bit, turning on its axis as it presses against the board to cut through the debris or film that may be left on the board.
In addition to its penetrating function, such twisting test probes also must overcome additional problems. The testing of boards having free particles or debris often results in the probe contacting irregular surfaces on the board. This can produce undesired side loads on the probe plunger. A standard test probe may be able to withstand such side loading, but the process of making a twisted plunger reduces some of the plunger's effective cross-sectional area, which can reduce its ability to withstand side loads without undesired bending or flexing. Increasing the diameter of the twisted plunger section can improve the plunger's ability to withstand side loads, but increasing the diameter of the plunger is a disadvantage when test probes of smaller and smaller diameters are required for more diverse testing applications involving high density test patterns.
The demand for greater probe "pointing accuracy" also is becoming more important. There is an increasing need for the probe tip to reliably make point contact with test pads of increasingly smaller diameters within very small tolerance limits. Pointing accuracy becomes more important with more densely packed test patterns. If one or more of the probes does not align precisely with its target when the board is tested, the test results may be incorrect. Incorrectly aligned or pointed probes can miss the test point altogether. Therefore, the strike point of the probe used for testing circuit boards needs to be accurate within extremely close tolerances. This can be more of a problem for twisting test probes which, if not designed properly, can have a slight amount of wobble as the plunger twists about its axis when reciprocating in the barrel of the probe assembly.
Thus, there is a need for a twisting electrical contact test probe that can reliably penetrate debris or other contaminants on a circuit board under test, while resisting normal side loading during use in such an environment, and also while providing precisely controlled pointing accuracy.
A prior art twisting electrical test probe is disclosed in Japanese patent publication no. 60(1985)-127466, published Jul. 8, 1985. Another twisting electrical test probe having similar features is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,032,787 to Johnston, et al., assigned to the assignee of this application. These references disclose test probes in which the plunger has a twisted section with helical grooves engaged by crimps formed in the barrel between the open end of the barrel and the spring seating end of the barrel. The twisted portion of the plunger extends from inside the barrel where it contacts the crimps to the outside of the barrel where the tip of the plunger makes contact with the unit under test. An axial force directed at the plunger causes the crimps on the barrel to engage the helical grooves and twist the plunger about its axis as the plunger reciprocates in the barrel. These twisting electrical test probes can have several disadvantages. One has to do with manufacturing problems. If the crimps are too tight, the plunger can stick in the barrel, and if the crimps are too loose, the probe tip can have a tendency to wobble. Exposed twisted end sections of the plunger, if reduced in diameter to small thicknesses necessary for certain high density testing, can be too long and thin, leading to structural weakness that makes these probes impractical for high density testing.
The present invention overcomes these problems by providing a twisting electrical test probe that produces smooth operation and is well constrained, avoiding the tendency to wobble and providing high pointing accuracy.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,009,613 to Langgard, et al. discloses a twisting electrical test probe in which the plunger includes a probe tip section projecting from the open end of the barrel, a spring seating end within the barrel biased by the spring, and an intermediate twisted section with helical grooves between the spring seating end of the probe tip section of the plunger. In the probe disclosed in the '613 patent, the twisted section is contained internally within the barrel and is engaged by crimps formed in a intermediate wall portion of the barrel. The portion of the barrel between the crimps and open end on the barrel is slidably engaged by a cylindrical shaft spaced inboard from the probe tip for closing off the open end of the barrel. The sliding shaft near the open end of the barrel is said to prevent contamination from debris entering the barrel and to improve pointing accuracy.
At the probe end of the plunger, pointing accuracy is affected by a tolerance build-up in the probe assembly. In the Langgard, et al. '613 probe, there are three tolerances that affect pointing accuracy: (1) the tolerance between the barrel in the receptacle, (2) the tolerance between the receptacle and the hole in which it is mounted, and (3) the tolerance between the plunger and the barrel. These combined tolerances can lead to a tolerance build-up that can adversely affect pointing accuracy at the probe end of the plunger.
The present invention provides a twisting electrical test probe that twists about its axis to penetrate debris and other contaminants while testing printed circuit boards and the like. In addition to providing improved pointing accuracy, the probe has a controlling plunger diameter that is enlarged sufficiently to significantly increase the strength of the probe to better withstand side load forces. The probe improves upon the pointing accuracy of the prior art Japanese '466 and Johnston, et al. '787 probes described above, while also providing improved probe strength to better resist side loads when compared with the Langgard, et al. 613 probe. The probe also has a better resistance to tolerance build-up that affects pointing accuracy, when compared with the Langgard, et al. '613 probe. Tolerances affecting pointing accuracy are limited the tolerance between the receptacle and the hole in which it is mounted and the tolerance between the plunger and the receptacle where the plunger is guided by the receptacle. These improvements will be better understood with reference to the detailed description to follow.

Twisting electrical test probe with controlled pointing accuracy


This invention relates to a process for separating functionalized alpha olefins from functionalized internal olefins. The process achieves by a step of contacting a feedstock containing functionalized alpha olefins and functionalized internal olefins with a linear polyaromatic compound to form a linear polyaromatic compound-functionalized alpha olefin adduct and a step of dissociating the linear polyaromatic compound-functionalized alpha olefin adduct to form linear polyaromatic compounds and a functionalized alpha olefin composition.

Many industrial processes produce olefins that are mixtures of functionalized internal olefins and functionalized alpha olefins. Olefins are frequently used in the manufacture of polymers, as drilling mud additives or as intermediates for the production of oil additives and detergents. Functionalized olefins, and in particular functionalized alpha olefins, may be used in applications such as polymers and chemical intermediates.
Depending upon the particular application, it would be desirable to manufacture a functionalized alpha olefin composition having the greatest purity possible. While pure species of functionalized alpha and internal olefins with a narrow carbon number range can be manufactured or produced in small quantities at a great cost, we have found that it would be particularly desirable to economically provide large quantities of separated and purified functionalized alpha and functionalized internal olefins from commercial raw feedstocks containing a mixture of functionalized internal olefins and functionalized alpha olefins. Examples include feeds containing the synthetic reaction products of syn-gas, such as those found in Fisher-Tropsch streams; by the oxidation of unsaturated and saturated hydrocarbons which often form unsaturated by-products; and the dehydrogenation of oxygenated hydrocarbons.
Separating and isolating functionalized alpha olefins from functionalized internal olefins is no easy task, especially when these species have similar or identical molecular weights or carbon numbers or when the only difference in the species one desires to separate is the position of the double bond. Conventional distillation methods are frequently inadequate to separate species of this type, which have such closely related boiling points. The separation problem is further aggravated in that the functionalized alpha olefin species not only needs to be separated from functionalized internal olefins, but also from those species containing differing functional groups and the saturated hydrocarbons.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,946,560 described a process for the separation of internal olefins from alpha olefins by contacting a feedstock with anthracene to form an olefin adduct, separating the adduct from the feedstock, dissociating the olefin adduct through heat to produce anthracene and an olefin composition enriched in alpha olefin, and separating out the anthracene from the alpha olefin. This reference does not suggest the desirability or the capability of anthracene to conduct a separation operation between functionalized alpha olefins and functionalized internal olefins.

Process for separating functionalized alpha olefins from functionalized internal olefins


A display device and an adjustment method thereof are provided. The display device includes a display panel, a base configured to support the display panel, a sensor fixedly arranged on a bezel of the display panel, a controller, and an execution member cooperating with the base. The controller is electrically connected to the sensor and the execution member. The sensor is configured to collect user state data in real time. The controller is configured to acquire the user state data collected by the sensor, analyze the user state data acquired within a predetermined time period, determine a current state of a user, generate a control instruction in accordance with the current state of the user, and send the control instruction to the execution member. The execution member is configured to drive the base to move in accordance with the control instruction.

Recently, along with the continuous development of office automation, such household display devices as personal computers and flat-panel computers have been widely used in our daily lives so as to learn and acquire information. These computers have become an indispensable part of our lives.
However, it is impossible for a display device of the computer available on the market to be automatically adjusted in such a manner as to enable a user to be in an optimum viewing arrange. Usually, the user needs to hold a posture for a long time period, so as to be adapted to an image displayed on the display device. Although the display devices for some desktop computers may be manually rotated forwardly and backwardly by a certain angle so as to be adapted to a user's sitting posture, it is difficult for the user to keep realizing when the sitting posture needs to be adjusted, and whether or not a distance between the display device and the user is optimum or whether or not the sitting posture is unhealthy. Hence, in the case that the distance between the display device and the user is inappropriate or the sitting posture is incorrect, the user may easily feel visual fatigue, and even the health of the user may be adversely affected.

Display device and adjustment method thereof