An image forming apparatus that is capable of printing a disc and includes a disc-printing unit. The image forming apparatus includes a carrier having a print head, wherein the carrier is reciprocatingly set in a body of the image forming apparatus, a driving motor to provide a rotational driving force to at least one roller set in the body of the image forming apparatus to transfer a print paper, and a disc-printing unit, in which a disc is rotatably seated within a moving area of the carrier; wherein the disc-printing unit rotates the disc by a driving force of the driving motor during a printing operation.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus capable of printing a disc and a disc-printing unit for such an image forming apparatus, and more particularly, to an image forming apparatus having a printing function for printing a title, a design, or the like on a surface of the disc and a disc-printing unit that is applied to such an image forming apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, various types of storage media have appeared in the market, among which discs are largely used in general because they are inexpensive and conveniently portable. Descriptions, such as words, letters, characters, symbols, communications, etc., directly describing a title, an outline, or the like, are often written or formed on the surfaces of discs, so that the contents stored in the discs can be easily determined or known. However, these descriptions, usually made by hand using a pen or the like, are problem-some in that the descriptions may easily be erased, and in particular, the quality of external appearance of the discs may be compromised by the description.
Recently there has been proposed a disc-printing unit as shown in FIG. 1 (see Japanese Patent Publication No. JP 9-265760), which can print contents or patterns designed by consumers on surfaces of discs. As can be seen from FIG. 1, the conventional disc-printing unit 100 comprises a turntable 110, on which a disc 1 is seated, a rotary motor 115 for rotating the turntable 110, and a printing head 120 located above the turntable 110. The printing head 120 is moved and guided in the radial direction of the turntable 110 by a guide rod 121 that is driven by a moving motor 125. The disc-printing unit 100 further comprises an optical head 130 for illuminating a laser beam to the disc 1 in order to reproduce information stored in the disc 1, an optical head driving motor 135, and an optical head guide rod 131.
With this conventional construction, if a signal corresponding to a print image is applied from the outside, a control section converts the print image into a dot image of a polar coordinate format about a rotational axis of the turntable 110. Then, the moving motor 125 is controlled by the control section on the basis of the converted dot image, such that the printing head prints the contents or designs on the surface of the disc 1 while being moved in the radial direction of the disc 1. Concurrently, the applied print image can be printed while the driving of the rotary motor 115 and the ink-jet through the print head 120 are intermitted relative to each other.
However, the conventional disc-printing unit 100 is complicated to construct. In particular, the optical head 130 for reading and writing information of a disc 1 and its driving means 131, 135, and a printing head 120 for performing printing on the disc 1 and its driving means 121, 125 need to be installed together within a given space. In addition, a position-detecting sensor must be provided for detecting the position of the printing head 120 on the polar coordinate within a moving area of the printing head 120, and a rotary motor 115 must also be provided. Furthermore, the moving motor 125, the rotary motor 115, and the driving motor 135 must be separately provided. Due to such a complicated construction, the manufacturing costs increase.
Although the conventional disc-printing unit 100 can both read and write information, it would be desirable if the conventional disc-printing unit could be applied to an inexpensive printer, one that prints on a print paper, while simplifying the construction thereof. It is possible to provide an inexpensive printer with a function for printing a disc being added beyond an original printer function, i.e. a function for printing a print paper.

Image forming apparatus capable of printing disc and disc-printing unit for the image forming apparatus


A proximity switch system includes a switch portion, configured to connect and disconnect at least one electrical path, and a magnetically active actuator. The switch portion has a casing formed of a magnetically noninteracting material, at least one electrical contact disposed in the casing, a magnetically active armature member moveable along the casing between a first position and a second position, wherein the armature member contacts the electrical contact when in the first position to connect the at least one electrical path and the armature member being electrically isolated from the electric contact when in the second position to disconnect the at least one electrical path, and a magnetically active biasing member disposed in the casing, wherein the biasing member magnetically interacts with the armature member to bias the armature member in one of the first and second positions. The magnetically active actuator is movable with respect to the switch portion between proximal and distal positions. The actuator magnetically interacts with the armature member when in the proximal position to move the armature to the other one of the first and second positions, and at least one of the armature member and the biasing member include a magnet.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a switch, and more particularly to a magnetically operated proximity switch usable in, for example, a security system.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
While magnetic proximity switches are often confused with magnetic sensors, magnetic proximity switches represent a category of technology exclusive of magnetic sensors. Conventional magnetic proximity switches comprise some combination of magnetic material, electrical contacts, and a mechanism to effect switching. At least one of the electrical contacts is attached to a coiled spring or leaf spring. A reed switch is one example of a conventional magnetic proximity switch.
There are three basic types of reed switches: the dry reed, the mercury wetted reed, and the mercury wetted contact switching capsule. The magnetic behavior of all three reed switch types are similar, but the switches of the mercury type are restricted to certain mechanical orientations because they rely on gravity for successful operation. Mercury based switches also represent an environmental disposal hazard and are more expensive than the dry reed type.
FIG. 13 shows a perspective view of a conventional reed switch 100. The reed switch includes an electrically connecting lead wire 102 to which a flexible magnetically active electric contact member 104 is fixed, an electrically conducting lead wire 106 to which a nonmagnetically active rigid electrical contact member 108 is fixed, an optional lead wire 110 to which a magnetically active rigid electrical contact member 112 may be fixed. The system is enclosed in a hermetic glass envelope 114. In the absence of a magnetic field, the electrical contact 104 is in electrical contact with the non-magnetic electrical contact 108 as a result of a mechanical spring action created by the contact member 104. The lead and the electrical contacts 102, 104, 110, and 112 are composed of high permeability magnetic electrically conducting alloys such as Mu-Metal or the like for optimum performance. For proper operation of the switch, at least the electrical contact 108 must be non-magnetic so that no magnetic forces are developed therewith.
In the presence of a magnetic field, magnetic poles of opposite polarity are induced on the opposing sides of magnetically active electrical contact members 104 and 112. The resulting magnetic attraction overcomes the opposing mechanical spring force so that the electrical contact 104 bends to make electrical contact with electrical contact 112, as shown in FIG. 13. When the magnetic field is removed, the electrical contact returns to its original position electrical contact with electrical contact 108.
In selecting the materials, one desires materials with good electrical conductivity and magnetic properties which allow the activation of the switch. However, these two requirements conflict with each other. Magnetically active materials are not good conductors and good conductors are not magnetically active. Reed switch manufacturers generally optimize these requirements by electroplating the electrical contact area with Rhodium or Ruthenium. However, this combination is particularly sensitive to electrical arcing. As a result, a hermetically sealed glass envelope filled with an inert glass is required to prevent corrosion of the electrical contacts. Even in a hermetic environment, maintaining consistent electrical contact pressure is difficult.
The necessity of the hermetic seal of the glass envelope results in numerous disadvantages. For example, reed switches are highly susceptible to damage. Also, any manipulation or jarring of the lead wires will destroy the seal joint. Further, if the reed switch is dropped, the glass envelope will likely be broken. Moreover, a hermetically sealed environment prevents manufacturing of a magnetic proximity switch having adjustable sensitivity or electrical contact pressure.
Additionally, reed switches suffer from problems in that their size cannot be easily miniaturized. If one attempts to reduce the size of the switch, either the actuation gap range would diminish or the false alarm rate would increase. Furthermore, reed switches suffer from wear and deterioration of the spring mechanisms, and mechanical complexity.
Due to constraints imposed by the inherent structure of reed switches, incorporation of electrical contacts is compromised. Consequently, the life expectancy is extremely sensitive to operating conditions. Also, reed switches are sensitive to magnetic fields, thereby making them susceptible to extraneous fields generated by outside magnetic fields. This characteristic is further exasperated by the introduction of permanent biasing magnets used to polarize the reed switches for increased sensitivity. These problems cause unreliable performance, false alarms, or catastrophic failures, thereby resulting in increased costs and lack of trust in the corresponding security systems.
Because the read switch suffers from the above-noted limitations and disadvantages, an alternative design is needed.


A high-speed optical tracking with compression and CMOS windowing for tracking applications that require high-speed and/or low latency when delivering pose (orientation and position) data. The high-speed optical tracking with compression and CMOS windowing generally includes an optical tracking system (10) that sense fiducial (22) and by extension markers (20). The markers can either be integrated on tools (20) handled by an operator (e.g. surgeon) (50) or fixed on the subject to track (e.g. patient) (40). The low-level processing (101, 107, 140) is realized within the tracking system to reduce the overall data to be transferred and considerably reduce the processing efforts. Pose data (127) are finally computed and transferred to a PC/monitor (30,31) or to tablet (60) to be used by an end-user application (130).

The present invention relates generally to hi-speed optical tracking and more specifically it relates to a high-speed optical tracking with compression and CMOS windowing for tracking applications that require high-speed and/or low latency when delivering pose (orientation and position) data.
Typically, such optical tracking systems are used in the field of computer assisted surgery or dentistry, robotic assisted surgery or dentistry, rehabilitation and other similar medical applications. On a more general level, they are used in the fields of industrial part checking, or other applications where the tracking is required.
Traditional optical pose tracking systems comprise two or more cameras. They use triangulation to determine the 3D position of light generating elements in space. These light generating elements may either be active: they transmit light (e.g. LEDs) or passive: they reflect light (e.g. reflective disks or spheres), or a combination of active and passive. In the passive case, the light used to be generated on rings of LEDs located around the cameras of the optical tracking system. Emitted light is further reflected on tracked objects and sensed by the cameras.
Such tracking systems are able to compute (that is determine) the 3D position of every single light generating element. If at least 3 light generating elements with known relative positions are measured, it is further possible to compute (that is determine) a 3D orientation. Such an object is called a marker and markers are fixed on target objects/subjects to be tracked by the system.
In a medical application context, a user (e.g. a surgeon) touches a region of interest on the patient's body using a distal tip of an object (e.g. a probe or a surgical instrument). A tracking system views the marker(s) affixed to the object and is able to retrieve its/their pose(s). Then, on the basis of the known relationship between the location of the marker(s) and the location of the object tip, the marker-tracking system determines the coordinates of the object's tip as well as it's orientation. Such pieces of information can be used for example by an application to register the patient with a preoperative planning and/or to steer the interventional radiologist when inserting a biopsy needle.
Moreover, medical and especially surgical applications require the markers to be sterile. Common passive markers are usually disposable, autoclavable or a mix of the two.
Examples of tracking systems and methods are given in publications WO 2017/208186 and US 2017/0086941.

High-speed optical tracking with compression and/or CMOS windowing


A pair of vehicle door panels defines a cavity. An air sensor has an air inlet protruding into the cavity and senses an air pressure within the cavity. A shield covers the air inlet, has at least one side wall extending away from the air inlet, and defines a chamber configured to collapse in response to an increase in the air pressure to excite the air sensor.

A restraint system in a vehicle can detect an impact of the vehicle from multiple directions. Based on the direction of the impact, the restraint system may use different sensors to detect the impact. Forward and rear collisions may use accelerometers to detect a sudden change in vehicle acceleration. An impact to a side of the vehicle may use an air pressure sensor located within a cavity formed by an inner door panel and an exterior door panel of the vehicle. The cavity formed by the inner and outer panels is typically not an air tight cavity, but allows for a predetermined flow of air in to and out of the cavity. This flow of air may be associated with many conditions including a change in a temperature around the vehicle, a change in an elevation of the vehicle, or a movement of a door of the vehicle such as closing the door. When the vehicle experiences an impact to a side door of the vehicle, the exterior door panel may compress thus causing a reduction in an area of the cavity between the inner and outer door panels. The reduction in the area of the cavity results in an increase in air pressure within the cavity. The increase in air pressure is in relation to the ambient air pressure around the vehicle. An air sensor may measure this increase in air pressure and output a signal indicative of the increase in air pressure. The signal may trigger a restraint control module to inflate a side air bag.

Protective structures for air sensors in a vehicle body structure


A system and method of generating a landing trajectory for use in landing an aircraft onto a deck of a waterborne ship includes sensing motion of the ship, and sensing wind speed and wind direction. The sensed motion of the ship is processed to generate estimates of ship attitude and vertical speed, and the sensed wind speed and wind direction are processed to generate estimates of air-wake disturbances ahead of the aircraft. The landing trajectory is generated based on the estimates of ship attitude and vertical speed and the estimates of air-wake disturbances. The system and method implement model predictive control to calculate the control maneuvers multiple steps ahead, which provides the capability to smoothly control the timing of the aircraft touchdown phase.

Landing an aircraft on the deck of a ship can be a challenging operation, even for the most experienced pilots. The unexpected and changing nature of the shipboard airwake and ship motion can impose significant hazards and limitations in these operations.
Ship operators can, of course, implement maneuvers to improve the overall safety of aircraft landing operations during adverse conditions. For example, ship motion can be reduced by changing the ship heading relative to the waves and/or by changing ship speed. However, these maneuvers result in larger ship heading changes or larger ship speed changes than necessary, and sometimes these maneuvers may not provide the desired result. Moreover, launch and recovery envelopes are prescribed for specific aircraft types on different ship classes. These launch and recovery envelopes are often initially very restrictive, and the flight testing needed to expand the envelopes is frequently difficult to schedule, relatively expensive, and potentially hazardous. Currently, the launch and recovery wind limits and air operation envelopes are primarily determined via the subjective analysis of test pilots, using a time consuming and potentially risky iterative flight test build-up approach.
Hence, there is a need for a system and method that provides precision approach and shipboard landing control that does not rely on changes in ship heading and/or speed to alleviate the impact of adverse landing conditions and/or restrictive operational envelopes. The present invention addresses at least these needs.

Aircraft precision approach and shipboard landing control system and method


A folding bridge comprising the two sections (27 and 28) hinged together about a hinge pin (43). The hinge being arranged such that when the bridge is folded together for transportation the sections (27 and 28) at least partially nest inside one another in order to reduce the overall height of the folded bridge. The invention also provides a folding bridge in combination with a vehicle for launching and recovering the bridge.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of folding multi-section bridges and is primarily concerned with the hingeing of the sections.
2. Discussion of Prior Art
It is well known to deploy transportable bridges directly from launch vehicles to enable rapid crossing of obstructions for example rivers and ditches by vehicles such as tanks.
Bridges suitable for this purpose are commonly constructed from two sections that are hinged together in end to end relation. Each section usually comprising a pair of spaced parallel trackways which constitute the upper surfaces of box section girders which are open on-their lower faces. The trackways are spaced by transverse beams welded to the sides of the box section girders which face one another. The spacing between the trackways being chosen to accommodate the track or wheel spacing of the vehicles for which the bridge is designed.
The two bridge sections are joined by hinges each of which extends across the width of a trackway, and permit the bridge to fold from a deployed configuration in which the trackways of two sections are aligned to a folded configuration in which one section lies on top of the other, and the trackways are outermost.
One major disadvantage of the bridges currently in use is that the height occupied by a folded bridge is at least the sum of the section depths. When a bridge is to be transported on a vehicle in the folded configuration, the combined height, length and width of the vehicle and the bridge are subject to limitations such as road bridge height, curvature of minor roads and carriage way width respectively.

The Secretary of State for Defence in Her Britannic Majesty's Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland


An integrated circuit comprising, a resonator, a first clock circuit for generating a first clock signal having a first frequency in response to the resonator, a second clock circuit for generating a second clock signal having a second frequency in response to the resonator, wherein the second frequency of the second clock signal is determined by the programmable frequency divider and a clock mode control circuit coupled to the first clock circuit and the second clock circuit, the clock mode control circuit for gradually switching the resonator between the first oscillator circuit and the second oscillator circuit of the integrated circuit, using a shift register based state machine and utilizing the inertia of the resonator to smoothly transition between the two oscillators, to provide a dual mode clock output signal.

Most modern systems have well defined operating states, or modes of operation and most of these systems use one or more clocks. Typical high performance applications are locked to a crystal oscillator operating between 1 MHz to 100 MHz, which helps to perform important internal operations of the chip with low jitter and least timing uncertainty. However, in many systems, particularly those that are portable, when these high performance operations are not active, the system is said to be in a low power state or low power mode, when power saving is much more critical for overall battery life. Some systems may even have more than two such operating modes or states. Since the logic power consumption is directly proportional to the clock frequency, most systems use less than 100 KHz for low power time keeping operations, when the device is operating in a low power mode. It is desirable to shut down all system functionality when the device is operating in a low power state. Power reduction benefits are higher if even the crystal oscillator generating the main system clock in MHz range can be shut down while still maintaining a low power kHz oscillator to keep time and to permit the system to resume from a sleep state. Crystal oscillators, utilizing crystal resonators, are commonly used to provide the MHz and kHz frequency clock signals when frequency stability is important. In most modern systems, a MHz oscillator commonly supports a high performance clock generator and in many systems, while many circuits can be powered down to reduce the power consumption of the circuit, long and PVT (process, voltage, temperature) dependent, widely varying startup times prohibit powering down the MHz crystal oscillator particularly, if the time spent in low power mode is relatively short. The kHz time keeping oscillator consumes low currents, but its low power (and hence limited gain) and high quality factor (Q) result in even longer startup times, which may not be acceptable in certain systems. Additionally, a 32.768 kHz frequency is typically used for the low power kHz oscillator, mainly due to the legacy reasons and thus the affordability of the crystal, however, some systems may prefer different frequencies. For example, while a 32.768 kHz frequency clock is convenient when a traditional legacy real-time system clock timer is needed, many modern systems don't need to generate this specific frequency, but still require a very accurate time-keeping circuit so that the system can wake up at a pre-calculated time, perform the required tasks and then return to a sleep state, without having to spend too much time, and hence power, synchronizing and starting up the MHz oscillator. In addition, some systems also require time keeping frequencies different from 32.768 kHz, in order to be able to better synchronize with other main logic circuits, which may not be running at an integer multiple of the 32.768 kHz clock. Some examples are 32 kHz, 50 kHz or 100 kHz.
In the prior art, when generating a high performance MHz clock and a low power time keeping kHz clock, two different crystal resonators are used, one for the high performance MHz clock and one for the low power kHz clock. The use of two separate resonators and their respective load tuning capacitors consumes a considerable amount of board space and increases the bill of material cost of the device. It is obvious that since the two different resonators at two different frequencies are used in these two different oscillators, their frequencies and phases may vary randomly over time, with respect to each other, further underscoring the synchronization difficulties in such systems between different clock domains.
Accordingly, what is needed in the art is a system and method for generating both a high performance clock signal and a low power clock signal which provides a reduction in area and in cost of the device (system), while providing increased flexibility in the circuit design utilizing the system providing the clock signals.

Dual mode clock using a common resonator and associated method of use


A power supply unit for use in a measuring instrument at a plant. An output from a current transformer mounted on a power supply line is controlled so that the range of a primary current producing a stable output is increased. The invention includes a current transformer mounted on a cable for providing power to an electric motor, and a power supply unit. The power supply unit includes a rectifier circuit, a short circuit, a reverse current inhibit element, a condenser, a voltage watching circuit, and a constant voltage element. The voltage watching circuit outputs a command signal when the voltage of the condenser exceeds a first level and connects the short circuit 32.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a power supply unit that supplies power to a measuring instrument for measuring various data of plant equipment or a watching device at a site where various plants are located.
2. Background Art
In a large-scale plant using electrical equipment, such as electric motors or transformers, for example, various plant facilities, such as power plants or water treatment plants, and the like, it is essential to secure reliability of the plant and improve rate of operation. That is, in such a large-scale plant, data of the set-up electrical equipment is collected to serve as information concerning operation, and operating conditions are subject to watch to immediately cope with anything abnormal that has been detected.
For such purposes, it is a recent trend to introduce an equipment condition-watching device for watching the conditions of the equipment so that various data are measured from the electric-power equipment, electrical equipment and the like installed in the plant. The data are then observed, and conditions of the equipment are watched or analyzed on the basis of the contents thereof.
The equipment condition watching device for watching the conditions of the equipment is directed not only to machine/electrical equipment such as electric motors, electric generators, pumps, valves, and piping but also to calculators and printed boards built into the equipment and measuring instrument.
There have been conventionally two types of such equipment condition watching devices for watching the conditions of the equipment. One is a device that is located close to the electrical equipment to be watched. This device measures data of the equipment to be watched regularly or at arbitrary times, thereby watching the conditions of the equipment at the time of measurement in substitution for a patrol carried out by an operator in the plant (the device is hereinafter referred to as a detecting device). The other is a device that measures data of the equipment to be watched on line at all times via a plurality of the detecting devices, thereby watching the conditions at all times (the device is hereinafter referred to as a central control device). The detecting device and the central control device are both located, e.g., on the site of the same plant. However, several detecting devices are widely placed in a scattered manner in the so-called site, while the central control device is located in a centralized manner in the so-called control building or the like. Both of them are located within a relatively short distance from each other. As a result, in order to transmit the collected data, a method of transmission without construction of a power line such as radio system can be easily employed.
Now, in order to operate the detecting device, a power supply is necessary as a matter of course. However, most of the detecting devices usually belong to a category of so-called light electric appliances and are operated at an extremely low voltage and a very small current. On the other hand, there is a lot of electrical equipment to be watched which can be operated at a high voltage and a large current. Therefore, it is often the case that although the device to be watched is an electrical equipment, an appropriate power supply for the detecting device is not available at the site of installation.
As a matter of course, it may be said possible to obtain a low voltage from the electrical equipment to be watched by a well-known method such as using a voltage-reducing resistance or transformer. Actually, however, for the purpose of securing voltage endurance, cost effectiveness is exceedingly bad, and moreover it is difficult to prevent invasion of a surge voltage resulting in deficiency in practical use. Thus, to provide a power supply, it becomes necessary to lay a power supply cable additionally as a power supply for measurement, or to employ a battery; otherwise electric power must be generated at the site utilizing, e.g., a solar battery. However, in order to lay and connect the power supply cable to the detecting devices widely scattered in the plant, a large cost is required. Moreover, the battery may bring about the trouble of maintenance or replacement. As for the solar battery, battery life is restricted, and a place for installation is so restricted that the solar battery cannot be used in this field of art.
As a method to solve these problems, Japanese Patent Publication (unexamined) No. Hei. 6-58960 proposed a power supply unit.
FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of a known power supply unit which is similar to that disclosed in the above-mentioned gazette and which obtains a power via a current transformer used as a power supply for watching a transmission line. FIG. 10 is specific diagram of such a circuit. In FIG. 9, reference symbol A designates a power supply unit. Reference numeral 81 designates a power line such as a distribution line. Numeral 82 designates a current transformer taking a power supply power from the power line 81 in a non-contact manner. Numeral 83 designates an AC current control circuit. Numeral 84 designates a rectifier circuit. Numeral 85 designates a voltage detection/control circuit.
The power taken from the current transformer 82 needs to be supplied as a stable power supply. This power control means is comprised of the AC current control circuit 83, the rectifier circuit 84 and the voltage detection/control circuit 85 in FIG. 9, and a circuitry thereof is specifically shown in FIG. 11. In the drawing, a resistance 86 in the AC current control circuit 83 and a condenser 87 form a protective circuit for protection when an abnormal voltage such as surge is generated. Numeral 88 designates a triac. Numerals 89a, 89b are phototransistors. The rectifier circuit 84 is a full-wave rectifier circuit, and an output thereof is connected to circuits such as constant voltage diode 90 and light-emitting diodes 91a, 91b for protection against over voltage in the voltage detection/control circuit 85. Thus, when a DC output from the rectifier circuit 84 exceeds an inverse voltage of the constant voltage diode 90, a current flows through the light-emitting diodes 91a, 91b to cause them to emit light. By means of these signals of light, the phototransistors 89a, 89b are operated to feed a current through a gate of the triac 88. By this current, an anode and a cathode are brought into short circuit causing an input of AC to be interrupted. However, the triac 88 will be recovered by means of zero cross point of AC and will supply power up to a next over voltage.
The conventional power supply unit is arranged as mentioned above so as to control Ac. Therefore, even if the primary current varies, any over voltage is not outputted. However, the voltage detection/control circuit 85 operates at the moment when a value of a voltage waveform reaches to a voltage V90 of the constant voltage diode 90, and the AC control circuit 83 operates so as to surpass the output voltage. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 11, as to the output waveform, duration of the waveform becomes smaller as the primary current augments. As a result, as shown in FIG. 12, an average value of the output voltage shows such a characteristic as to be lowered as the primary current augments, above a level of the operation of the triac. In FIG. 11, numeral 93 is a waveform of the output voltage of the transformer 82 when the primary current is small. Numeral 94 is a waveform of the output voltage of the transformer 82 when the primary current is large. Numeral 93a is a waveform of the output voltage after operating the triac 88 on the waveform 93 thereby interrupting the waveform. Numeral 94a is a wave form of the output voltage after operating the triac 88 on the waveform 94 thereby interrupting the waveform.
Therefore, the range of the primary current magnitude sufficient for obtaining a stable voltage output is narrow. Even when employing a circuit for stabilizing voltage as post-treatment, the voltage cannot be perfectly restrained from fluctuating. After all, performance as a power supply of an instrumentation circuit for carrying out a precise measurement is not sufficiently exhibited, and, moreover, such a conventional power supply unit cannot be used for any power line subject to a load, such as an electric motor of which current fluctuates significantly.
In the conventional power supply unit having the above-mentioned arrangement, although cable laying is not required, a problem exists in that a range of the primary current in which a stable output voltage can be obtained is exceedingly narrow, and, moreover, another problem exists in that it is difficult to obtain a stable voltage as a power supply for instrumentation.
The present invention was made to solve the above-discussed problems and has an object of providing a power supply unit that operates stably over wide range of variation in primary current and has a stability of such a level as to be capable of driving a computer at the site, as a power supply of a precise measuring instrument even in the case that the source of the primary current varies over a wide range, for example, in case of an electric motor.
A power supply unit according to the present invention comprises:
a current transformer mounted on a power supply line of an electrical equipment;
a rectifier circuit connected to an output side of the mentioned current transformer;
a condenser connected via a reverse current inhibit element to an output terminal of the mentioned rectifier circuit and charged with an output current from the mentioned current transformer;
a voltage watching circuit for outputting a command signal when a voltage at both terminals of the mentioned condenser is over a predetermined first voltage, and for stopping the mentioned command signal when the mentioned voltage at both terminals is below a predetermined second voltage; and
a switching circuit for connecting a resistor to the output terminal of the mentioned rectifier circuit in response to the mentioned command signal, and reducing a current for charging the mentioned condenser.
As a result, a voltage can be taken from the power supply line in a non-contact manner, and also a stable voltage can be taken with respect to a wide range of variation in the primary current.
The power supply unit according to the invention further comprises a constant voltage regulator for obtaining a predetermined constant voltage output from the voltage at both terminals of the mentioned condenser.
As a result, an extremely stable voltage can be outputted.
In the power supply unit according to the invention, it is preferable that a plurality of mentioned switching circuits and a plurality of mentioned voltage watching circuits are provided respectively, and the mentioned first predetermined voltage set at each of the mentioned plurality of voltage watching circuits is different from each other.
As a result, a stable voltage can be outputted in a wider range of variation in the primary current.
In the power supply unit according to the invention, it is preferable that the mentioned current transformer is a current transformer including a core surrounding the mentioned power supply line and a secondary winding wound around the mentioned core.
As a result, a power supply can be taken in a non-contact manner.
In the power supply unit according to the invention, it is preferable that the mentioned core is composed of a saturable reactor being magnetic-saturated in one cycle of a primary current of the mentioned current transformer.
As a result, a stable output voltage can be obtained in the wider range of variation in the primary current.
The power supply unit according to the invention further comprises a resistor connected in parallel with a secondary winding of the mentioned current transformer; and wherein the mentioned rectifier circuit is a voltage multiplying rectifier or Cockcroft-Walton type step up circuit.
As a result, a stable output voltage can be obtained even in the range of low primary current.
In the power supply unit according to the invention, it is preferable that the mentioned first predetermined voltage is set to be close to a maximum voltage at which the mentioned constant voltage regulator can be operated, and that the mentioned second predetermined voltage is set to be close to a minimum voltage at which the mentioned constant voltage regulator can be operated.
As a result, a stable constant voltage output can be obtained.

Power supply unit utilizing a current transformer


A device for and method of performing a task associated with fingerprint data is disclosed. The method comprises reading fingerprint data, matching the read fingerprint data to stored fingerprint data, the stored fingerprint data having an associated task, and performing the task. The associated task is part of a chain of tasks that are automatically executed when the read fingerprint data is matched to the stored fingerprint data. Preferably, at least one task has associated user profile data that is used to perform the task. An electronic device that can be controlled in accordance with the present invention includes, but is not limited to, a telephone, a personal computer, a personal digital assistant, and a remote controlled device.

Electronic computing platforms are used in every aspect of our daily lives. Devices such as personal computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), mobile phones, portable game consoles, remote controls, and digital cameras all provide multiple functions and services on which we depend heavily. To use services available on these platforms, however, a user typically must make a series of inputs or selections. For example, a personal computer user must find the icon of an application and double click on it to launch the application; a mobile phone user must enter the destination phone number and then press the send button to make a phone call; an e-mail user must enter her user name and password to access her e-mail account.
When the same services are used or the same phone numbers are dialed every day, users often look for more convenient solutions. Shortcuts are used to reduce the number of steps and to simplify the steps required by a user to perform a task on an electronic device. For example, shortcut links are placed on the desktop of a personal computer; PDA's have a shortcut button to launch a calendar application; mobile phones support speed dial phone numbers.
To many users, even shortcuts are not convenient enough. Short cuts on the desktop of a personal computer still require the user to move a pointer to select and launch a software application. The speed dial function of mobile phones still requires users to push at least 2 or 3 buttons. Users often forget the sequence of keystrokes or mouse clicks that provide a short cut. Moreover, these keypads and mice require valuable space, a disadvantage especially on portable electronic devices.
Accordingly, what is needed is a system for and a method of executing tasks on an electronic device using a minimal footprint. What is also needed is a system for and a method of executing tasks on an electronic device using a minimal amount of entries, such as keystrokes or button presses. What is also needed is a system for and a method of authenticating a user before allowing him or her to perform tasks on an electronic device, using a minimal number of entries.

System for and method of finger initiated actions


A silicon chip is micromachined so that a plurality of tines extend radially and coplanarly from an outer peripheral surface of a circular base. First and second mounting members extend from the base for mounting the base to a support. The first mounting member is disposed generally perpendicularly to the second mounting member. A pulse generator applies electrostatic or electromagnetic pulses to successive free ends of the plurality of tines so that each tine momentarily vibrates in the plane in rotational sequence along the circumference of the base. The successive vibrations establish a net angular momentum approximating a spinning wheel so that rotation of the sensor about the axis of one of the first or second mounting members causes the other mounting member to experience a deformation due to coriolus force. A plurality of strain gages interconnected to form wheatstone bridges are disposed on the first and second mounting members for respectively sensing deformation of the first and second mounting members in a push-pull manner. The output signals from the strain gages provide an indication of the amount of angular motion. A linear accelerometer may be combined on the same silicon chip, and three such chips may be combined to create an inertial measurement unit that senses rotation and linear acceleration relative to three axes.

The present invention relates to rotation sensors and, more particularly, to a silicon microgyro rotation sensor.
Navigational and inertial guidance systems for many types of craft often use data about the angular rate of motion of the craft to control the desired movement of the craft. One device which provides data about angular motion is the well known gyroscope. Gyroscopes, however, have many disadvantages. They are physically large and heavy, yet they must be built to extremely high accuracies at great cost, and they may be damaged by even low levels of shock and vibration. To minimize the effects of shock and vibration, they must be protected with heavy mounting devices, thus further increasing size, weight and cost. Furthermore, since critical moveable elements, such as bearings, usually wear with use, the gyroscopes must be frequently maintained to retain precision. Despite the frequent maintenance and high accuracy required, they still may have an error drift rate of fractions of a degree per hour.
Another type of angular motion sensor which attempts to overcome the disadvantages of traditional gyroscopes is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,899,587, issued to Juergen H. Staudte. That patent discloses an angular rate sensor comprising first and second tuning forks made of quartz. The stems of the forks are coupled together end to end along an axis of symmetry so that the tines face away from each other and lie in a plane. A mount is provided for attaching the dual fork structure to a support. Energy is provided to the tines of the first fork through a pair of electrodes coupled to an oscillator. The oscillator signals cause the tines of the first fork to vibrate in the plane. When the structure rotates about the axis of symmetry, a coriolus force causes the tines of the second fork to vibrate in a direction normal to the plane. The vibratory motion of the tines of the second fork is sensed with output electrodes for providing a signal indicating angular motion about the single axis.
Unfortunately, the electronics required for driving and sensing the vibratory motion of the forks is very complex and difficult to extract. The device is extremely susceptible to acoustic and vibrational interference, and the piezoelectric properties of quartz make the device very sensitive to stray capacitances. The support mounting for the fork structure creates unwanted stresses and points of failure, and the temperature anomalies of quartz create other electrical and mechanical difficulties. Finally, each device can sense rotation along only a single axis.


The present invention discloses surface covering products and methods and an apparatus for making surface covering products. In particular, the method of the present invention includes depositing color particles on a moving carrier to form a base layer. The base layer then comes in contact with a patterned embossing device such as a roll to create a depressed or displaced pattern image on the base layer. Afterwards, accent particles or pellets are sprinkled or applied over the embossed base layer. The embossed base layer is subjected to heat and/or pressure to consolidate the accent and color particles and form a preformed mass. The preformed mass is then pressed to form a fused, texture-created structure. The surface covering products made from the process of the present invention have unique geometric patterns with well-defined grout lines or irregular decorative designs.

The present invention relates to surface covering products and a method and an apparatus for making the surface covering products (e.g., decorative inlaid floor coverings) having decorative designs. More particularly, the present invention relates, in part, to a unique method for producing surface covering products with great versatility for styling development. Geometric patterns with well defined grout lines or irregular decorative design with multiple color pellets are easily achievable by the present invention.
A typical stencil screen process is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,076,567. The stencil operation requires a series of pattern screens disposed above the travel path of the conveyor means. Each of the pattern screens includes a cover sheet having at least a single contoured pattern opening corresponding in outline configuration to a pattern to be produced in the final product.
Such a stencil operation is disadvantageous because it is a "stop and go" operation. In addition, pattern changes in a stencil production line are time consuming. Also, stencil screens are expensive to design and make. Thus, producing numerous designs can be an expensive proposition. Also, stencil operation can, at times, encounter the problem of unintentionally deforming, smearing, and/or destroying the design during pattern forming. This occurs from improper contact of a subsequent pattern screen on the stopped or moving carrier containing the base layer.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved process for making a decorative surface covering that avoids or overcomes the problems and disadvantages of standard stencil operations.


To provide an industrial method for producing a substituted benzoic acid compound useful as an intermediate of pharmaceutical and agricultural chemicals with high purity and high yield.

Patent Document 1 discloses a method for producing a substituted benzoic acid from 2,4-substituted hydroxybenzoic acid ester as a starting material. This production method has problems such that methyl dichlorobenzoate as a starting material is hardly prepared and is industrially hardly available, anhydrous sodium thiomethoxide used for alkylthiolation of the starting material is industrially hardly available, and the selectivity of the alkylthiolation is low and the yield is low.

Method for producing a substituted benzoic acid compound

Abstract: A compound represented by the formula (II):

Abstract: (wherein Q is a 5- or 6-membered saturated heterocyclic group (the heterocyclic group may be substituted by alkyl) containing one or two of at least one type of hetero atom selected from the group consisting of an oxygen atom and a sulfur atom, or dialkoxymethyl, T is trifluoromethyl, nitro, cyano, —SOA1, —SO2A1, —PO(OA1)(OA2), —COA1, —CO2A1 or —CONA1A2, each of A1 and A2 which are independent of each other, is a hydrogen atom, alkyl or haloalkyl, X is halogen, alkyl, haloalkyl, alkoxy, haloalkoxy, alkylthio, haloalkylthio, alkylsulfinyl, haloalkylsulfinyl, alkylsulfonyl, haloalkylsulfonyl, dialkylaminosulfonyl, di(haloalkyl)aminosulfonyl, nitro or cyano, Y is a chlorine atom, a bromine atom or an iodine atom, and n is an integer of from 1 to 6), carbon monoxide and a compound represented by the formula R—OH (wherein R is alkyl) are reacted, followed by hydrolysis to obtain a compound represented by the formula (I):

Abstract: wherein Q, T, X and n are as defined above.


In one disclosed embodiment, a portable user-carried device includes wireless communication circuitry capable of determining a relative direction of a wireless signal in a vehicle. A processor may be programmed to determine a location of the device within a vehicle based upon the relative direction of the wireless signal as determined by the wireless communication circuitry. In a disclosed method for activating a function in a vehicle, a state of a user-carried portable device is determined. A function is activated based upon the state of the user-carried portable device.

There are existing proximity systems that use RF to determine proximity. With RF based devices it is hard to determine intent and movement with respect to vehicle. One cannot determine if the user is leaving or approaching the car.
RF based triggers are wireless switches to turn certain behavior when pressed by the user (it is on/off, and the user needs to press the right key to trigger a behavior). If the user is far away nothing happens due to signal attenuation.


The current invention concerns a computer-implemented method, a computer system, and a computer program product for annotation positioning in a CAD drawing. A CAD drawing comprising N anchor points is obtained, with N≥2. A candidate set comprising multiple candidate points is obtained. From the candidate set, N placement points are selected. With each anchor point, a placement point is associated based on combinatorial optimization of an objective function dependent on distances. Each distance is thereby in between an anchor and a placement point. In the CAD drawing, for each anchor point, a leader line in between the anchor point and the associated placement point and an annotation label at or near the associated placement point are inserted.

EP 1 197 923 B1 discloses a method and a system for assisting a user in selecting a location for placement of an annotation on an object so that it annotates the proper portion of the object and complies with applicable standards. The system displays a set of location points on the object to which the leader line of an annotation may be connected so that the annotation meets the requirements of applicable standards. The user may select any one of the location points. The set of location points may be an intersection of the surface of the object and an annotation plane.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,749,588 B2 discloses a method for positioning labels connected to objects in an engineering drawing. The connections are governed by relationships based on calculations simulating particle interactions and collision avoidance. A change in the position of a first label or of the engineering drawing is indicated. A new location of a second label is calculated such that the relationships between the second label and the engineering drawing and between the first and second labels are maintained, and the second label does not overlap other labels or objects in the engineering drawing. Anchor points may be associated with objects in the engineering drawing. Placement nodes may be associated with label locations. Leader lines may connect corresponding placement nodes and anchor points. The positioning of placement nodes may be governed by physical interactions between a placement node and another placement node and/or between a placement node and an anchor point. Disclosed physical interactions, such as mass-spring relationships, are pairwise and distance-dependent. In conjunction with FIG. 5, the document discloses the provision of a label plane, the determination of placement nodes in the label plane via projection of anchor points onto the label plane, and the rearrangement of these placement nodes based on interactions between the placement nodes in the label plane.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,749,588 B2 does not provide for avoiding the crossing of leader lines, which clogs an annotated engineering drawing. The document does not provide for efficient overlap avoidance of a label with an object other than the object corresponding to the label. While additional physical or non-physical constraints might potentially be added to mitigate such overlaps, this creates an unwantedly difficult model to solve, and entirely removes the intention of the document to provide a well-placed and dynamically responsive set of labels, due to the over-constraining. The document does not provide for suitable initial placement nodes for labels. The invention disclosed in the document is not efficient with respect to computer resources (CPU time and memory).
U.S. Pat. No. 7,636,096 B2 and JP 6 299 151 B2 concern avoiding the crossing of leader lines.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,636,096 B2 discloses ballooning an assembly drawing of a computer aided design. Balloons are arranged and connected via leader lines to anchor points, so that upon completion no two leader lines intersect. The document discloses arranging balloons along a line and connecting them via leader lines to anchor points, based on angles, in particular non-reflex angles. For a polygon enclosing a region including the set of anchor points, the region is divided into at least two sub-regions. A boundary of a sub-region includes at least a portion of a side of the polygon. Certain constraints regarding the tangency of a sub-region with the polygon are imposed. The set of balloons is arranged along the polygon such that an amount of balloons along a boundary of each sub-region is at least equal to an amount of anchor points included in the sub-region. The angle-based method is then performed per sub-region.
For concave sub-regions meeting all criteria, e.g. two hooked G-shaped sub-regions, it may occur that leader lines associated with different sub-regions intersect. The method is furthermore unsuitable for generic enclosures, e.g. a circle instead of a polygon, of a region including a set of anchor points. The document remains silent on distances.
JP 6 299 151 B2 concerns arrangement of annotation balloons for connection via leader lines with anchor points of an object. A plurality of placement points for the arrangement of the balloons are determined at regular intervals on an offset contour at a predetermined distance outwardly from the contour of the object (see FIG. 8 of JP 6 299 151 B2). Each of the balloons is assigned to the placement point closest to the corresponding anchor point (see FIG. 9 of JP 6 299 151 B2). A "balloon group" comprises the balloons assigned with one placement point. In case a balloon group comprises multiple balloons, one or more balloons of the balloon group are assigned to other placement points in the vicinity of the placement point of the balloon group, in such a way that an increase in the distance between balloons and anchor points is suppressed on the whole. When overlap of balloons occurs due to this spreading of balloons per balloon group, at least one of two balloon groups associated with the overlap is moved by an amount of movement calculated by using the number of balloons in each balloon group. Thus, ultimately at most one balloon is associated with a placement point.
The method requires more placement points than anchor points (see FIG. 17 of JP 6 299 151 B2). In case certain placement points and/or locations for placement points, associated with a balloon, are particularly desired for an output image, for example to limit a height, a width, an area or an aspect ratio of an output image for publication, the disclosed method may yield an undesired arrangement of balloons.
The present invention aims to resolve at least some of the problems mentioned above. The present invention provides an alternative solution to U.S. Pat. No. 7,636,096 B2 and JP 6 299 151 B2.

Insertion of annotation labels in a CAD drawing


A system for venting crankcase emissions from an engine is disclosed generally comprising a crankcase emissions conduit that communicates blow-by gases from the crankcase into the exhaust flow of an exhaust conduit, which includes a venturi, via an inlet located upstream of the minimum inner diameter of the venturi in order to pump the crankcase emissions therethrough. In certain embodiments, the gases are then directed to a filter assembly, which may include a particulate filter and may include a catalyst for facilitating redox of harmful substances to create harmless compounds prior to venting them or recirculating them in the system. In certain advantageous embodiments, an auxiliary oxygen supply is provided to facilitate these burning processes.

As is well know, all piston engines produce some crankcase gases that must be emitted from the crankcase. These crankcase emissions, sometimes referred to as "blow-by" gases, are the result of exhaust gases that leak down into the crankcase from the combustion chamber of the engine's piston cylinders via gaps between the cylinder walls and the piston rings due to the high pressures in the cylinders during compression and combustion. Moreover, the volume of these gases increases over time, as the cylinder liners and piston rings wear, thereby producing more exhaust gas leakage from the combustion chambers.
Because of this leakage, the pressure in the crankcase will rise. However, this pressure should ideally be maintained at a level equal to, or slightly less than, atmospheric pressure in order to avoid causing external oil leakage through various gasketed joints. Therefore, in order to prevent the crankcase gases from pressurizing the crankcase, they must be continually vented therefrom.
Though these gases could be vented to the atmosphere, environmental awareness of crankcase emissions has increased significantly in recent years. As engine emissions have been reduced, the crankcase emissions, which contribute to air pollution, have increasingly become a more significant portion of total engine emissions. Recent regulations have eliminated exceptions for crankcase emissions, treating them the same as other exhaust emissions. Therefore, while it is possible to filter and vent the crankcase emissions to the atmosphere, this method can only be employed when the emission requirements can be satisfied for both the exhaust and crankcase emissions combined.
An alternative to venting these gases to the atmosphere is routing them to the air intake, such as, for example, the systems disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,261,333 to Dickson and U.S. Pat. No. 6,575,022 to Schneider et al. However, as these gases pass through the crankcase, they become contaminated with oil mist. If a crankcase vent is connected directly to the air induction system, the dirty, oily mist may have various ill effects on the engine. This is particularly true in turbocharged engines, where the undesirable consequences of unfiltered crankcase emissions introduced into the engine's air intake can include a decrease in the efficiency of the turbocharger due to coke deposits on the turbine, or a reduction in the performance of the intercooler due to the accumulation of oil, and a significant shortening of the life of the engine. Therefore, it is necessary to filter the crankcase gases prior to introducing them into the air induction system of the engine in order to remove oil and soot, thereby requiring the use of additional filtering assemblies, such as an oil mist separator.
Another alternative, therefore, is to route the crankcase emissions to the exhaust system, which typically already includes a mechanism for disposing of undesirable substances in engine emissions. For example, in a diesel powered vehicle, a diesel particulate filter (DPF) may be positioned in the flow path of the exhaust in order to reduce the amount of soot and harmful gases ultimately emitted. A DPF generally comprises a ceramic filter that traps the particulates in the exhaust gas as it flows through the filter. At high exhaust temperatures, these trapped particulates are burned, resulting in harmless carbon dioxide emissions. Typically, the DPF will employ catalysts—via either a separate catalyst section preceding the filter section or a catalyzed wall filter section—to facilitate oxidation, thereby converting harmful compounds—like hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide—into harmless compounds. Similarly, the use of a catalyst can facilitate oxidation of the carbons trapped in the particulate filter to burn these particulates at lower temperatures. However, the use of such a system may require additional energy consumption to pump the crankcase emissions into the exhaust flow.
What is desired, therefore, is a system for venting blow-by gases from the crankcase of an engine. What is further desired is system of crankcase ventilation that does not require additional filtering assemblies to burn harmful compounds in these emissions. What is also desired is a system that does not require excessive energy consumption to vent and filter the gases.


There are disclosed winding configurations for electric machines that employ printed circuit board (PCB) type end winding connections to enable an automatic and faster assembly of the electric machines. The winding configurations provide a compact PCB-type end winding arrangement with an optimal fewer number of turns/bars in the slots of the board to complete the loop of winding connections. The winding configurations have application in three phase or multiple phase inner rotor or outer rotor electric machine topologies.

Stranded conductors are traditionally used for machine winding arrangements, such as two layer concentric type of windings that are applied manually. Manual winding techniques can be time consuming and inefficient. With conventional random winding techniques for electric machines, it has been found to be difficult to automate the winding process. Furthermore; due to the high part-to-part variation, an overdesign of the machine components is required to meet final performance measures. This requires an increase in size of the parts, an increase in the cost of the parts, and a lower filling factor and power density for the windings placed on the part. In addition, manufacturing cost is increased due to a larger number of steps being required in the manufacturing process along with the manual manufacturing steps in applying the windings.
What is needed therefore is a system and method for electric machine windings that can be automated so that the machine parts can be built through a robotic manufacturing process and assembly, allowing a reduction in the size of the parts containing the windings, reducing manufacturing costs, reducing part-to-part variations, and providing an improved filling factor and power density of the windings. The present disclosure is directed to a winding system and method that addresses these needs, among others.


A two-way fastener includes a first member threaded for being screwed into a first workpiece; a polygonal wall for receiving a tool to screw the first member into the first workpiece, the polygonal wall located at a base end of the first member; and a second member extending in an opposite fastening direction from the first member, the second member configured to be fastened to a second workpiece. A fastening method includes enabling the threading of a first member of a fastener into a first workpiece; and enabling the threading of a second workpiece to a second member extending outwardly from the first member and the first workpiece.

The present disclosure relates to fasteners.
A leg in the table of my living room came loose. The leg at its center had a bore. An internally threaded collar had been press-fitted into the bore. The bore size had been widened such that the collar no longer press-fit into the bore. Attempts to recreate a press-fit were unfruitful, including wrapping the collar with tape and attempting to press the tape-expanded collar into the bore. Attempts to glue the collar into the bore were likewise unsuccessful. Attempts to glue the leg directly to the table were likewise unsuccessful. In each case, the leg continued to wobble. A different type of mechanical fastener was needed.
I was reluctant to bolt the leg from outside the leg to the table top because the screw or nail heads would be viewable on a fairly nice piece of furniture in a fairly nice room of the house. I attempted to find a double-ended fastener that would allow the leg to be re-bolted to the table without being viewable once the leg had been reattached but could find none.
In the end, I re-bolted the leg from the outside, choosing stability over aesthetics. The repair process however led me to conceive of the two-way fastener discussed below.
A patent search revealed U.S. Pat. No. 6,679,668, entitled Double-Ended Fastener. This patent however has the drawback of requiring a separate installation tool 110, 210, 310, 403 and 405 for each of its embodiments of FIGS. 1, 2, 3, 4A and 4B, respectively (see also Claim 1). The drawbacks of a separate, specialized installation tool should be obvious to those of skill in the art. If the tool is lost, broken or forgotten, the fasteners are rendered useless until a new tool is obtained.
A need accordingly exists for an improved two-way fastener.


Disclosed are various embodiments of an ink roller assembly with a capillary ink metering unit and a surrounding porous ink retaining sleeve, wherein the unit is comprised of a pair of capillary sections connected to each other and wherein capillary sections include a hollow shaft and discs with intervening ink capillary chambers interconnected by passages. In another embodiment, a capillary ink metering unit includes discs on a solid shaft, wherein there are passages interconnecting capillary chambers.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the art of ink roller assemblies.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
The following are made of record: U.S. Pat. No. 3,738,269 to W. T. Wagner; U.S. Pat. No. 3,783,083 to W. A. Jenkins; U.S. Pat. No. 3,957,562 to P. H. Hamisch, Jr.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,246,842 to L. E. Williams et al; U.S. Pat. No. 4,399,751 to J. R. Kessler; U.S. Pat. No. 4,416,201 to J. R. Kessler; and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/701,259, filed Aug. 22, 1996 to J. D. Mistyurik et al.


A tray for a bait station, the tray for holding rodent bait or a rodent trap, where the rodent bait station has a base with a hinged cover which is lockable to the base to define an interior volume which can receive a ballast weight of three to twenty-four pounds which biases a floor of the base against a support surface. The station has at least two rodent access openings and upward leading ramps, the ramps leading to and being overlain by a landing which forms a portion of the tray and which allows a rodent to pass onto a tray proper which contains the bait or trap. The opening, ramps, and landing are such that a rodent can move freely within the interior volume so as to access the bait or rodent trap on the tray.

The present invention relates to bait stations containing rodenticide bait or traps in general and to bait stations in combination with a ballast weight in particular.
Bait stations serve two general purposes, the first is to shield the bait or traps from non-target species and people, particularly children, and the second is to facilitate monitoring rodent presence in a particular area, by preventing targeted rodents from removing the bait. The bait station generally consists of a lockable plastic or metal container in which bait or traps are placed. If bait is used, it is often in the form of bait blocks, which are formed of grain mixed with paraffin and rodenticide. The bait blocks are cast or extruded and their use facilitates retaining the bait within the bait station to prevent the targeted rodents from scattering the bait.
To prevent movement of the bait station by a targeted or non-targeted species, a bait station is often screwed or nailed to the floor or other structure. This approach has its limitations. Using fasteners to attach the station may damage the building floor. Moreover, when the bait station is screwed down it is difficult to clean (typically done by inverting it), and the approach is less easily done where the floor is concrete or the like, or where the bait station is outdoors where a ground anchor is necessary. In these situations, instead of attaching the bait station to a fixed object the bait station may be attached to a ballast weight. Any substantial weight attached to the bait station prevents the targeted species from easily removing the bait or traps from their initial position and generally reduces the interest of pets and even children in playing with the bait station, because the added weight means it takes more effort to move or manipulate the bait station. Attachment of weight to a bait station generally requires an additional structure mounted beneath the bait station.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Tray for an internally ballasted rodent bait station


The dispersion monitoring device of the present invention detects a change in dispersion caused in a system by performing the decision process of a received signal using a data flip-flop in which required decision phase and decision threshold are set, averaging the output signal of the data flip-flop using an integration circuit and determining a received waveform, based on a change in a level of an output signal from the integration circuit. In another preferred embodiment, a signal is inputted to a chromatic dispersion change sign monitor. If a chirping parameter is correctly set, residual chromatic dispersion shifts in the negative direction when the peak value of a received signal is large, and it shifts in the positive direction when the peak value of a received signal is small. Using this fact, optimum dispersion compensation is conducted.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a chromatic dispersion compensation controlling system in an optical communication system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Along with the recent rapid increase of the amount of communication, a larger network capacity has been demanded. Currently, a wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) transmission system with a transmission capacity per channel of 10 Gb/s (gigabit/second) has been put into practical use. However, a far larger capacity will be needed in the future, and if the efficiency in use of frequency, equipment cost, etc., are taken into consideration, the realization of a super-high speed optical transmission system with a transmission capacity per channel of 40 Gb/s or more is expected.
However, since in such a super-high speed optical transmission system, the influence on transmission quality of waveform degradation due to chromatic dispersion, polarization mode dispersion, etc., increases, the transmission distance of optical signal is restricted, which is a problem. Therefore, in order to realize a super-high-speed optical system, an automatic dispersion compensating system for detecting a change in chromatic dispersion and polarization mode dispersion and compensating for them with high accuracy is needed.
Generally, the factor which causes the degradation of transmission quality in an optical communication system, for example, as shown in FIG. 1, is largely classified into two categories; the degradation of an optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) due to the attenuation of signal power or the increase of noise power, and the degradation of the shape itself of a waveform. Furthermore, as the factors of the latter waveform degradation, there are-chromatic dispersion, polarization mode dispersion (PMD), a non-linear effect and the like.
Here, chromatic dispersion is described in detail. In an optical communication system with a transfer rate of 10 Gb/s or over, tolerance to chromatic dispersion is remarkably small. For example, chromatic dispersion tolerance in a system in which 40 Gb/s NZR optical signal is transmitted, is 100 ps/nm or less. Generally, the distance of the repeater span of an optical communication system is not constant. Therefore, for example, in the case of a system using 1.3 μm zero-dispersion single mode fiber (SMF) with a chromatic dispersion value of 17 ps/nm/km, the above mentioned chromatic dispersion tolerance deviates even if there is a difference of several km in the length of repeater span.
However, since the distance of each repeater span and chromatic dispersion value of an optical fiber transmission line possessed by a communication carrier are not accurately known, in many cases, it is difficult to realize chromatic dispersion compensation with high accuracy by a fixed dispersion compensating method using a dispersion compensating fiber (DCF). Furthermore, since a chromatic dispersion value varies under the influences of the temperature, stress, etc., of an optical fiber as time elapses, the chromatic dispersion value must be optimally adjusted not only at the time of the operation commencement but also during the operation of the system by strictly measuring chromatic dispersion.
For example, the chromatic dispersion value of a 500 km transmission line using a DCF as an optical fiber, that is caused when temperature change is 100° C. is as follows:(Chromatic dispersion)=(temperature dependence of zero-dispersion wavelength)×(temperature change of transmission line)×(dispersion slope of transmission line)×(transmission distance)=0.03 nm/° C.×100° C.×0.07 ps/nm2/km×500 km=105 ps/nm
The above-mentioned chromatic dispersion value is almost the same as the chromatic dispersion tolerance obtained when 40 Gb/s NZR optical signal is transmitted. Therefore, the automatic chromatic dispersion compensating system controlling the amount of chromatic dispersion compensation by always monitoring the chromatic dispersion characteristic of a transmission line is indispensable not only in a system using an SMF for a transmission line but also in a system using a 1.55 μm zero-dispersion shifted fiber DSF or a non-zero dispersion shifted fiber (NZ-DSF) for a transmission line.
Next, polarization mode dispersion is described in detail. Polarization mode dispersion is caused by a difference in a propagation delay time between the polarization components of an optical signal (for example, two axes, one is called slow axis and the other is called fast axis), which can be caused in all optical fibers. Generally, the higher the transfer rate of an optical signal is and the longer the transmission distance is, the greater is the influence of this polarization mode dispersion, which cannot be neglected.
There is an optical fiber with a polarization mode dispersion value of over 1 ps/km1/2 (pico-second/kilometer1/2) per unit length in optical fibers constituting old optical transmission lines laid outside Japan. If, for example, 50 km short-distance transmission is conducted using such an optical fiber, light delay difference Δτ that occurs between the two polarization components of transmitted light is 7 ps or more although one corresponding to one time slot of 40 Gb/s NRZ optical signal is 25 ps. Therefore, as in the case of the chromatic dispersion described earlier, transmission distance is restricted by the influence of polarization mode dispersion. Actually, since materials that cause polarization mode dispersion, such as an optical amplifier, chromatic dispersion compensator, etc., must be used in the transmission line of an optical communication system, there is a possibility that the transmission line of optical signal may be further restricted. Besides, since polarization mode dispersion indicates a change with the lapse of time due to a change in stress or temperature applied to an optical fiber, the polarization mode dispersion of the transmission line must be monitored not only at the time of installation but also during operation, and must be dynamically compensated.
As described above, both chromatic dispersion and polarization mode dispersion are major factors that restrict the performance of an optical communication system, and in order to improve the performance of the optical communication system, a system for dynamically compensating for these segments of dispersion, that is, an automatic dispersion compensating system, is needed. Three key technologies for realizing the automatic dispersion compensation are summarized as follows:    (a) Realization of a variable dispersion compensator    (b) Realization of monitoring the dispersion value of a transmission line    (c) Realization of a feedback control method for optimizing the amount of compensation by a variable dispersion compensator
As to the variable dispersion compensator mentioned in (a) above, there are a virtually imaged phased array (VIPA) disclosed in non-patent document 1, a tunable ring resonator disclosed in non-patent document 2, and a fiber bragg grating (FBG) disclosed in non-patent document 3, all of which are listed up as a prior art reference later.
As to the polarization mode dispersion compensator, a polarization mode dispersion compensator provided with a polarization controller (PC) at the transmitting end of an optical signal, feeding back a transmission characteristic from the receiving end and controlling so as to make the split ratio γ of light intensity into to two polarization modes 0 or 1 is disclosed in non-patent document 4, is so far proposed. A polarization mode dispersion compensator provided with a polarization controller and a polarization maintaining fiber (PMF) at the receiving end of an optical signal, giving the delay difference with an opposite sign to an optical transmission line between two polarization modes is also disclosed in non-patent document 5. Furthermore, a polarization mode dispersion compensator provided with a polarization controller, a polarization beam splitter (PBS), photo-diodes each receiving one of the two optical signal components split by this polarization bean splitter and a variable delay element that gives a delay difference between two electric signals obtained by these photo-diodes, controlling the polarization controller and the variable delay element is in non-patent document 6.
As to monitoring a dispersion value mentioned in (b) above, as a conventional measuring method of a chromatic dispersion value, a pulse method and a phase method for inputting a plurality of segments of light each with a different wavelength and measuring a group delay between a plurality of segments of output light and a phase difference, respectively, are proposed. However, in order to always measure chromatic dispersion without degrading communication quality during system operation using these measuring methods, one set of chromatic dispersion measurement equipment must be provided for each repeater span, and also measurement channel with a wavelength different from that of a data signal must be wavelength-division multiplexed, which are problems. Therefore, such measuring methods are not practical from the viewpoint of economy and equipment size.
As to a chromatic dispersion monitoring method, a method for monitoring chromatic dispersion using the intensity of a specific frequency component in a received base-band signal, utilizing its property that the intensity of a specific frequency component varies depending on waveform distortion is disclosed in non-patent document 7 in order to solve the problems. A method for monitoring chromatic dispersion, based on a bit error rate that is detected by an optical receiver, etc., is also disclosed in parent documents 1 and 2. Furthermore, there is a method for providing comparison DEC in addition to a DEC (DFF) performing the decision process of a main signal and detecting a change in chromatic dispersion is disclosed in non-patent document 8.
As to a monitoring method of polarization mode dispersion, for example, an extinction method (Senarmone method), a rotational analyzer method, a rotational phase-shifter method and a phase modulation method are known. As the representation (expression) method of a polarized state, methods using Poincaré sphere, Jones' vector, Stokes' vector, etc., are proposed (for example, see non-patent document 9). Specifically, a measuring method of polarization mode dispersion using Jones' vector and its device are disclosed in patent document 3.
Prior art technical documents related to the present invention are introduced below.
Patent document 1: Japanese Patent laid-open No. 2001-77756
Patent document 2: Japanese Patent laid-open No. 9-326755
Patent document 3: Japanese Patent laid-open No. 9-72827
Non-patent document 1: M. Shirasaki et al., "Variable Dispersion Compensator using the Virtually Imaged Phased Array (VIPA) for 40 Gbit/s WDM transmission System", ECOC2000, PD Topic 2, 2.3
Non-patent document 2: F. Horst et al., "Tunable Ring Resonator Dispersion Compensator realized in High Refractive-index Contrast Technology", ECOC2000, PD Topic2, 2.2
Non-patent document 3: J. A. J. Fells et al., "Twin Fiber Grating Adjustable Dispersion Compensator for 40 Gbit/s", ECOC2000, PD Topic2, 2.4
Non-patent document 4: T. Ono et al., "10 Gb/s PMD Compensation Field Experiment over 452 km using Principal State transmission Method", OFC2000, PD44
Non-patent document 5: Takahashi et al., "Automatic Compensation Technique for Timewise Fluctuating Polarization mode Dispersion in In-line AmplifierSystems", Electro. Lett., Vol.30, No.4 (1994), pp. 348-349
Non-patent document 6: Takahashi et al., "Polarization Control Method for Suppressing Polarization Mode Dispersion Influence in Optical Transmission Systems", J of Lightwave Tecnol., Vol.12, No. 5(1994), pp. 891-898
Non-patent document 7: Y. Akiyama et al., "Automatic Dispersion Equalization in 40 Gbit/s Transmission by Seamless-switching between Multiple Signal Wavelengths", ECOC'99, pp. I-150-151
Non-patent document 8: S. Kuwabara et al., "Study on Dispersion Fluctuation Monitoring Method applied to Adapted Dispersion Equalization", Journal of Comprehensive Meeting of The Institute of Electronic Information and Communications Engineers, B-10-152 (1997)
Non-patent document 9: "Representation Method and Measuring Method of Polarized State", OPTRONICS (1997), No.5, pp.109-117
However, the above-mentioned conventional dispersion monitoring technologies have the following problems. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 2, a method for detecting the intensity of a specific frequency component in a received base-band signal and monitoring chromatic dispersion, disclosed in Non-patent document 7, etc., so called a clock monitoring method, includes a wide-band photo-diode (PD) and a clock amplifier corresponding to a 40 GHz frequency band, etc., and needs a configuration close to a main signal system optical receiver unit (O/E). Since particularly in order to separately compensate for dispersion for each channel in a WDM system, a clock monitor corresponding to each channel is needed, cost and size increase, which is a problem. In order to solve this problem, the integration of a main signal system and a monitoring system is effective. However, since it is very difficult to realize a high-accuracy band-pass filter (BSP) extracting a clock component from a received base-band signal in an integrated circuit, it is not practical, which is also a problem.
Since in the case of a SONET/SDH signal, dispersion monitoring can be realized by using a supervisory byte included in a section overhead, such as a byte B1, etc., without adding a new configuration to an existing system, and since in the case of a system adopting forward error correction, dispersion can be realized by using the correction information of FEC-IC, without adding a new configuration to an existing system, a method using a parameter indicating transmission quality, such as the error rate, Q factor, etc., disclosed in Patent documents 1 and 2 for the monitor of chromatic dispersion, has a great advantage in cost and size. However, as shown in FIG. 1, since the parameter, such as an error rate, etc., is affected by both waveform degradation and OSNR degradation, it is difficult to detect a change in a factor that causes waveform degradation, such as chromatic dispersion with high accuracy, which is also a problem.
Furthermore, since the method for detecting a change in chromatic dispersion using the DEC (DFF) disclosed in Non-parent document 8, etc., needs a high-speed circuit as fast as a main signal system circuit as a monitor system circuit, it is difficult to realize such a circuit and to ensure a desired monitor characteristic, which is also a problem. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 3, in a system adopting the above-mentioned monitoring method, comparison DECs 101 and 102 detecting a change in chromatic dispersion are added in addition to a main signal DEC100, and a decision voltage Vm (=Vth+ΔV) shifted from an optimal decision threshold Vth to a mark signal side and a decision voltage Vs (=Vth−ΔV) shifted to a space mark side are set in the comparison DECs 101 and 102, respectively. In the detection of a change in chromatic dispersion during system operation, firstly, a received main optical signal is amplified after optical/electric conversion and is distributed to each DEC in which each decision voltage is set. Then, the exclusive OR of the respective data outputs of the main signal DEC100 and comparison DEC101 is computed by an EXOR 103, and the exclusive OR of the respective data outputs of the main signal DEC100 and comparison DEC102 is computed by an EXOR 104. The EXORs 103 and 104 generate pulse outputs if two inputted data do not coincide. The respective pulse outputs from the EXORs 103 and 104 are counted in counters 105 and 106, respectively, and by monitoring the counted numbers by a controller 107, the direction of change of chromatic dispersion is detected. Therefore, all the circuits of the comparison DECs 101 and 102, EXORs 103 and 104, and counters 105 and 106 need a high-speed circuit as fast as the main signal system circuit, thus causing the problems described earlier.
Typical communication speed per wave in a current wavelength division multiplexing system is 10 Gb/s. However, aiming at the further increase of communication capacity, an attempt is being made to realize a communication speed per wave of 40 Gb/s. In the course of the development of a wavelength-division multiplexing optical communication system with communication speed per wave of 40 Gb/s, it is found that in order to realize the wavelength-division multiplexing optical communication system with communication speed per wave of 40 Gb/s, the management of chromatic dispersion must be controlled more strictly than ever.
A method for performing the feedback control of a variable dispersion compensator using transmission quality information, such as an error rate, a Q factor, etc., has been so far proposed. Particularly, a method using information similar to an error rate is considered to be advantageous in cost.
FIG. 4 shows a configuration using an error rate as a chromatic dispersion monitor as one example of conventional configurations. FIG. 5 shows its operation.
In the conventional chromatic dispersion compensation controlling system shown in FIG. 4, an optical signal transmitted from a transmitter 100 is transmitted through a transmission line 110, is amplified by an optical amplifier 120 and is inputted to a variable dispersion compensator 130. The chromatic dispersion of the optical signal is compensated by a variable dispersion compensator 130. Then, the optical signal is converted into an electric signal by an optical/electric converter 140, and is received by a receiver 150. In the receiver 150, the error rate or similar information of the received signal is computed, and is transmitted to the control circuit 160 of the variable dispersion compensator 130. The control circuit 160 controls the amount of dispersion compensation of the variable dispersion compensator 130, etc., based on this error rate or similar information. In this case, the error information detecting function of the receiver 150 acts as a chromatic dispersion monitor.
If chromatic dispersion changes due to a change in some condition, the conventional chromatic dispersion monitor searches for the optimal chromatic dispersion point using an algorithm, such as a dithering method or a down-hill method, since there is no means for determining whether the amount of chromatic dispersion compensation is excessive or insufficient. For the dithering method, see Patent document 4, and for the down-hill method, see Non-patent document 10.
For example, if an optimal point is searched from the starting point (O: point 2) shown in FIG. 5 by the down-hill method, there is no method for determining which to select, points 1 or 3 as a subsequent amount of compensation. Thus, point 1 is selected, and as a result, there is a possibility that there may be a heavy penalty. Therefore, in order to reduce the error rate, it is determined that the error rate of this point 1 is too high and point 3 is newly selected. Thus, the optimal point is gradually searched.
Next, the larger the variable amount of chromatic dispersion compensation of the variable chromatic dispersion compensator is, the shorter time is needed to optimize the amount of chromatic dispersion compensation (in FIG. 6, change units). However, a change unit is increased, the penalty caused when the amount of chromatic dispersion compensation is wrongly determined to be excessive or insufficient, also increases. Therefore, in order to compensate for chromatic dispersion with high accuracy, conventionally the change unit is set to a small value. Therefore, the prior art has an advantage of following the change with low speed (that is, a small width of change) with high accuracy, but it does not suite to follow a change with high speed (that is, a large width of change) at high speed.
The situation where the high-speed control of a wave dispersion compensator is required and its speed required then are considered below. Here, two changes; (1) a change in the chromatic dispersion value of a transmission line accompanying the switch of a route or a wavelength, and (2) a change in a transmission line chromatic dispersion value due to the change of PCD (polarization dependent chromatic dispersion) accompanying the change of higher-order PMD (polarization mode dispersion), are considered. In the case (1) above, generally, a protection time of 50 msec is a required reference control speed. Specifically, the process proceeds as follows:
Occurrence of a failure→detection of the failure→notification of the failure (=Tp≡20 msec)→switch of a route (Ts≡several msec)→main signal transmission delay (=Td)→completion of restoration
and it must be as follows:Tp+Ts+Td<50 msecThus, a time allocated to the main signal transmission delay (Td) is 20-30 msec, and this must include the control time of a variable chromatic dispersion compensator as well as the control time of EDFA. Therefore, an allowable control time including the control time of EDFA and the control time of a variable chromatic dispersion compensator is at maximum approximately 20 msec. As to case (2) above, since there is no system restriction, the control time must be at maximum 20 msec.
Next, the tunable dispersion range of the amount of chromatic dispersion compensation required by the variable chromatic dispersion compensator is considered. The automatic chromatic dispersion compensating system also compensates for the transmission line chromatic dispersion caused as time elapses. However, since the main factor of the timewise change is a change in ambient temperature in an installation environment, and its change speed is slow, the compensation for the transmission line chromatic dispersion caused as time elapses is omitted here.
Change in the chromatic dispersion of a transmission line accompanying the switch of a route or a wavelength.
Chromatic dispersion is compensated for each span, using a DCF (dispersion compensating fiber), and it is the main object of the variable chromatic dispersion compensator to compensate for the influence of its dispersion slope at the receiving end. If it is assumed that the system conditions are as follows:
One span: 100 km
Dispersion slope: 0.08 ps/nm2/km
Wavelength width to be used: 35 nm
and the remaining influence of dispersion slope is 20%, the change width Dv of a chromatic dispersion value handled by the variable chromatic dispersion compensator is at maximum as follows:
                    Dv        =                                  0.2          ×          0.08          ×          35          ×          100                                        =                                  56                                                                          ps            /            nm
Change in a transmission line chromatic dispersion due to a change in PCD accompanying in a change in higher-order PMD.
Since PCD, being one element of higher-order PMD, varies depending on input polarization, a change in PCD is a phenomenon in which the chromatic dispersion of a transmission line varies. It is considered that PCD changes at high speed by fiber touch (stress is applied by touching an optical fiber by hand or blowing it). The speed of this change is generally in order of kHz, and compensation must be made at a speed of several msec.
FIG. 6 shows the experimental result of a change in the optimal amount of dispersion in a system whose overall average PMD is 8 ps (that is, 0.33 ps/4 km) and which has six spans of 100 km (100 km×6) (#1 through #7 indicate different polarized states). As shown in FIG. 6, it is observed that the optical amount of chromatic dispersion compensation changes by maximum 50 ps/nm. It is reported that the typical PMD value of an existing SMF (single mode fiber) is 0.2 ps/√km, and that the grater the influence of the first order PMD is, the greater the influence of higher-order PMD is (see Non-document 11). Therefore, it is considered that the influence of PCD in a general system is at maximum approximately 50 ps/nm.
Patent document 4: Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2002-33701
Non-patent document 10: M. Nagaoka, "Knowledge and Prediction", Iwanami seminar, Software science 14, Iwanami Bookstore (1988), pp.114-120
Non-patent document 11: G. Shtengel, E. Ibragimov, M. Rivera, S. suh, "Statistical Dependance between First and Second-order PMD", No. 3, OCF2001
As a result, the following is specified:
Request for control speed: Several msec or less
Request for control range: Up to 60 ps/nm
Furthermore, if it is assumed that the allowable penalty of a chromatic dispersion compensator is 0.5 dB, and a system has the chromatic dispersion tolerance characteristic shown in FIG. 6, the adjustment accuracy is specified as follows:±10 ps/nmIts control method must have a chromatic dispersion monitor that can determine whether chromatic dispersion increases or decreases and further roughly can compute its amount instead of optimizing by repeatedly determining whether chromatic dispersion increases or decreases as in the down-hill method, and also has a function to control the amount of chromatic dispersion compensation as soon as a change occurs in chromatic dispersion.

Chromatic dispersion compensation controlling system