A non-invasive, programmable cardio-respiratory monitoring system for performing automated autonomic nervous system function tests by monitoring and analyzing EKG signals in relation to specific paced breathing and/or posture regimens, and immediately computing and disclosing the test results automatically upon completion of one or all of the tests. The accuracy of these tests, which are currently being performed manually and/or with multiple components, is greatly improved bt the invention's capability to issue automated audio-visual instructions to the patient, to analyze any major peak of the QRS complex for determining heart rate variation, to discriminate between normal and abnormal EKG signals, and to edit the automated test results to enhance the validity of the test results.

The heart monitoring device described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,679,144 to Cox et al is capable of performing continuous, real-time analyses of EKG information derived from the patient which portend underlying cardiac complications resulting from occluded coronary arteries or dysfunctional heart muscle. Due to its programmable capabilities, the heart monitoring device can further instruct the patient on the manner of cardiac treatment based on its analyses.
This invention, which is used for the evaluation of autonomic nervous system function, incorporates the real-time heart monitoring capabilities described in the above patent but extends its capabilities to include the evaluation of cardiovascular responses to predetermined breathing and/or posture regimens. This invention also includes an automated method for externally regulating these regimens by means of audio-visual instructions in order to accurately correlate cardiovascular responses to specific stimuli such as respiration and/or posture.
This invention, for the evaluation of autonomic nervous system function, incorporates the portable, self-contained real-time digital heart monitoring device and its capabilities of the Cox '144 patent, specifically its real-time digital monitoring, recording and storing capabilities of electrocardiographic signals, but extends its capabilities to include the evaluation of the cardiovascular responses to predetermined breathing and/or posture regimens.
The cardio-respiratory digital analyses, computations, audio-visual cues for accurately performing the breathing and/or posture regimens, data transfer and data editing capabilities are unique to this invention. The cardio-respiratory analyses were not applicable and are not capable of being performed by the Cox '144 invention because of the different objectives and methodologies of each invention. The computations referred to as "autonomic nervous system (ANS) test results" as used in the specification and claims herein, shall be understood to include the Expiratory/Inspiratory (E/I) ratio, Standard Deviation (SD), Mean Circular Resultant (MCR), Coefficient of Variation, Valsalva Index, Posture Index, and/or any future invented calculation or combination thereof.
The E/I Ratio consists of calculating the time between successive heart beats during a predetermined breathing regimen consisting of paced breathing cycles of inspirations and expirations. Each breathing cycle is comprised of one inspiratory period and one expiratory period for a predetermined length of time. The calculation continues by identifying the maximum interbeat time during the expiratory period in the cycle, the minimum interbeat time during the inspiratory period in the breathing cycle, and then correlating these times using an established formula to produce the E/I Ratio. This formula consists of summing the maximum interbeat times of all expiratory periods and dividing that total by the sum of the minimum interbeat times of all inspiratory periods. To increase the accuracy of the E/I Ratio, the invention has the capability of further analyzing the morphology of each heartbeat to distinguish normal from abnormal beats. Abnormal beats, whether generated from the heart of the patient or any other source, cannot be "regulated" by paced breathing cycles. Thus, the capability to detect these abnormal beats and eliminate them from analyses will greatly increase the accuracy of the E/I Ratio.
It shall be understood that the term, "interbeat time", as used in the specifications and claims herein, is used interchangeably with the terms, "R--R interval", "peak-to-peak interval", heart beat interval" and/or "distance between selected point on one signal to the corresponding point on the succeeding signal".
The Standard Deviation is determined by measuring and recording all of the interbeat times during a predetermined breathing regimen such as twenty-five paced breathing cycles. Each breathing cycle consists of one inspiration and one expiration for a predetermined length of time. The mean interbeat time of the predetermined breathing regimen is calculated. All interbeat times are plotted in relation to this mean interbeat time to provide a statistical estimate, referred to as the standard deviation, of the variability of heart rate during the predetermined breathing regimen. Since the Standard Deviation is linked to the number of observations (i.e. heart rate), gradual changes in heart rate resulting from poorly paced breathing regimens, or accumulation of non-valid interbeat times due to the inability to identify abnormal beats, will erroneously influence the calculation of the Standard Deviation. Therefore, it is advantageous to have the capability to accurately pace the breathing and to distinguish between normal and abnormal beats to increase the accuracy of the ANS tests. This invention has the capability to increase the accuracy by incorporating its abnormal beat detection algorithms and providing its automated audiovisual instructions to the patient.
The Coefficient of Variation result is a derivative of the Standard Deviation computation described above, wherein the Standard Deviation value is divided by the mean interbeat time calculated during the predetermined breathing regimen.
To compute the Mean Circular Resultant (MCR), the invention identifies the time of each heart beat, as represented by an EKG signal, relative to the time of the beginning of each breathing cycle which is comprised of one inspiration and one expiration. An angular displacement (0-360 degrees) from the beginning of the breath cycle is calculated for each cycle. These angles are converted to vectors comprised of X and Y components for all breath cycles comprising the predetermined breathing regimen. The average X and Y components of these vectors are computed to form an "average vector". The MCR is the length of this vector. Any correlation between breathing and the number of heart beats will show up as a length that differs from zero. A perfectly random distribution of heart beats will generate a mean circular resultant at or close to zero. Although the MCR is tolerant of abnormal beats, this invention has the capability to continually differentiate normal from abnormal beats which will increase the accuracy of the other autonomic tests being simultaneously performed.
The Valsalva Index consists of calculating the time between successive heart beats and then relating the maximum interval during the predetermined breathing regimen to the minimum interval during a period of time following the predetermined breathing regimen. At the present time, the standard predetermined breathing regimen for performing the Valsalva test, also referred to a Valsalva maneuver, consists of a twenty-second period of forced expiration followed by a one minute "rest" period during which the patient breathes at his usual pace. To increase the accuracy, the invention has the capability to repeat the predetermined breathing regimens and to incorporate its abnormal beat detection algorithms during this ANS test.
The Posture Index is derived from calculating R--R intervals during the last portion of a series of positional changes by the patient. A predetermined regimen of posture changes are used to derive this Posture Index. At the present time, the standard positional changes consist of instructing the patient via the display means to stand for ten seconds, lie down for three minutes, and then stand for one minute. It is during the last minute of standing in which the maximum interbeat interval between the 25th and 35th beats is divided by the minimum interbeat interval between the 11th and 19th beats. The Posture Index, also referred to as the 30/15 Ratio, is then computed. This 30/15 Ratio was defined by Ewing in the references cited herein. For this calculation, the predetermined breathing regimen is the patient's usual non-paced rate of inspirations and expirations. This invention increases its accuracy with respect to the prior art due to the incorporation of its abnormal beat detection algorithms and its automated audiovisual instructions to the patient.
The term "predetermined physical regimen" shall be understood to include either the predetermined breathing regimen or the posture regimen defined above on which several other tests are based, and any other such future invented test adopted to be performed with the use of the invention.
It shall be understood that the term, "predetermined breathing regimen" and/or "predetermined posture regimen" and the like, as used in the specification and claims herein when describing the specific method for each ANS test, is performed according to established methods in practice today. However, it is conceivable that the predetermined breathing and/or posture regimens may change but the present invention would still be capable of working.
The audio-visual cues emitted by the present invention are unique because they instruct the patient in performing the predetermined breathing and/or posture regimens which are critical for the accurate assessment of autonomic nervous system function. Unlike the Cox '144 patent, the instructions of this present invention pertain to performing the test, whereas the Cox '144 instructional capabilities pertain to issuing of treatment modalities based on the analyses performed during the monitoring and recording of the EKG signal.
The external data handling and editing capabilities are new to this invention. The term, "external data handling means", as used in the specifications and claims herein, shall be understood to include all such optical emitters, receivers, and couplers used to transfer data to and from the apparatus to separate and/or remote data receiving devices. The external data handling means described herein is considered state-of-the-art, but it is conceivable that the handling means will change and the invention will still work. With the inclusion of the external data handling means, the capabilities of the Cox '144 patent are expanded to provide editing of the recorded, analyzed, and stored data. Any and/or all portions of the raw data can be reviewed, so that the data automatically selected by the invention by which it based its ANS test results, can be reselected, or edited. The ANS test results can then be recalculated based on the manually reselected data by the operator.
There is also a group of devices which are capable of monitoring and recording EKG signals either on magnetic tape (see U.S. Pat. No. 3,267,934 to Thornton) or in solid-state memory (see U.S. Pat. No. 4,679,144 to Cox et al), but neither of these devices are capable of correlating specific EKG intervals with specific respiratory and/or posture regimens.
The present invention relates to an instrument which non-invasively monitors EKG information in relationship to the respiratory cycle and/or postural changes, and more specifically it relates to a programmable self-contained instrument with automated audiovisual instructions to assist the patient and medical personnel in performing a series of ANS tests using predetermined breathing and/or posture regimens. The computations during these predetermined breathing regimens consisting of cycles of inspiration and expiration are automatically calculated, and provide a key index of measurement in determining the existence of underlying autonomic neuropathy which portends not only cardiac-related diabetic complications including myocardial infarction, but also other autonomic neuropathies effecting digestion, sexual function, pain perception, kidney function, eye sight, etc. Most recently, the detection of autonomic neuropathy, as determined by measuring beat to beat changes in heart rate (R--R intervals) has been shown to be useful in identifying patients at risk for sudden death and/or sleep apnea. The instantaneous ANS test results derived from this automated invention will be used by the physician to assess and manage his/her patients, such as diabetics with autonomic neuropathies and/or patients diagnosed with, but not limited to, coronary artery disease, or to assist the physician in the diagnosis of autonomic neuropathy resulting from undiagnosed underlying disorders such as diabetes or any other autonomic dysfunction or cardiovascular autonomic dysfunction which predisposes a patient to sudden death. It can also be used by the patient alone, with no assistance, when the patient is interested in self-monitoring the progression, or lack of progression, of autonomic neuropathy. Furthermore, any or all of the data used to compute the ANS test results can be reviewed and edited, if necessary, due to the invention's external data handling means. If the data that were automatically selected by the invention to compute its ANS results were invalid, the operator of the apparatus can reselect and manually input different data for automatic recomputation of the ANS test results.

Autonomic neuropathy detection and method of analysis


A receiving circuit of a direct conversion system is provided which includes a differential amplifier circuit which amplifies a received signal, a mixer which combines the amplified received signal and an oscillation signal having a predetermined frequency to thereby perform frequency conversion, and a high gain amplifier circuit in which a plurality of programmable gain amplifiers and a plurality of filters which eliminate noise of the received signal and an unnecessary wave, are connected in a multistage and which is configured such that an amplification factor is varied according to the level of the received signal. In the receiving circuit, the low noise amplifier is brought to a non-operating state to thereby allow execution of a DC offset cancel operation of the corresponding programmable gain amplifier on the pre-stage side of the high gain amplifier circuit. Thereafter, the low noise amplifier is brought to an operating state to thereby allow execution of a DC offset cancel operation of the final-stage programmable gain amplifier.

The present invention relates to a technique effective if applied to a gain programmable signal amplifier circuit, a received signal amplifier circuit employed in a wireless communication system and a receiving circuit which down-converts a high frequency received signal into a signal lying in an audio frequency band on a direct conversion system basis, and to, for example, a technique effective suitable for application to a high frequency semiconductor integrated circuit device (hereinafter called high frequency IC) incorporating therein programmable gain amplifiers that constitute a wireless communication system, and a wireless communication system with the high frequency semiconductor integrated circuit device built therein.
A high frequency IC having frequency conversion of transmit-receive signals and a modem function has been used for recent cellular phones. A superheterodyne system which temporarily down-converts a received signal to an intermediate frequency signal and down-converts it to a signal lying in an audio frequency band, and a direct conversion system which down-converts a received signal to a signal lying in an audio frequency band are known for the conventional high frequency IC. The high frequency IC of the direct conversion system is configured in such a manner that an LNA (Low Noise Amplifier) amplifies a received signal and thereafter a mixer combines the received signal and a local oscillation signal, followed by being down-converted to a signal lying in an audio frequency band, and a high gain amplifier circuit amplifies the weak received signal to about 1500 times at the maximum and passes it to a baseband LSI which performs its baseband processing.
The high gain amplifier circuit takes a configuration wherein since it amplifies the weak received signal while removing noise and a signal having an unnecessary frequency, low pass filters LPFs and programmable gain amplifiers (hereinafter abbreviated as PGAs) are alternately connected in several stages. Incidentally, since an analog amplifier circuit starting with PGA produces a DC offset due to variations in element, etc., offset cancellation is essential.
As described above, the receiving circuit of the cellular phone using the plurality of PGAs has conventionally been provided with offset correction circuits every PGA in general. The receiving circuit has been configured so as to sequentially carry out offset cancellations in order from the first-stage PGA to the subsequent-stage PGAs. Such offset cancel operations of PGAs have been described in, for example, a patent document 1 (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2003-152480).

Wireless communication semiconductor integrated circuit device and wireless communication system


A data processing method, system and computer program repairs character recognition errors for digital images of document forms. A document form processing template is provided which specifies the identity and preferred sequence for selected, customized character recognition processes and selected, customized coded data error correction processes which are reasonably likely to be needed to automatically process a selected batch of document forms whose fields have certain, anticipated, uniform characteristics.

1. Technical Field
The invention disclosed broadly relates to data processing systems and methods and more particularly relates to techniques for the repair of character recognition information derived from scanned document images.
2. Related Patent Applications
This patent application is related to the co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/870,129, filed Apr. 15, 1992, entitled "Data Processing System and Method for Sequentially Repairing Character Recognition Errors for Scanned Images of Document Forms," by T. S. Betts, V. M. Carras, L. B. Knecht, T. L. Paulson, and G. R. Anderson, the application being assigned to the IBM Corporation and incorporated herein by reference.
This patent application is also related to the co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/305,828, filed Feb. 2, 1989, entitled "A Computer Implemented Method for Automatic Extraction of Data From Printed Forms," by R. G. Casey and D. R. Ferguson, the application being assigned to the IBM Corporation and incorporated herein by reference.
3. Background Art
Document forms can be filled out in a variety of ways. The examples of writing methods can include hand printing of block letters, cursive hand writing of characters, impact typing, and printing with a dot matrix printer. There can be a variety of character styles and alphabets used in filling out document forms. Latin alphabets are typically used for document forms filled out in western countries. Kanji and Mandarin alphabets are typically used in some East Asian countries. Hebrew or Arabic alphabets are used to fill out forms in some Middle Eastern countries. And Greek or Cyrillic alphabets are used in some Eastern European countries.
Each of the writing methods and alphabets requires a different, customized character recognition process to convert an image of a field in the document form into an alphanumeric string of coded data.
Errors which occur in the coded data output by a character recognition process, can be repaired if the original meaning of the writer can be inferred from the context of the erroneous data. Since the fields in document forms are categorized by subject matter, such as "Name," "Address," "City," "State," "Zip Code," "Country," etc, the context is already provided for making many error correction inferences. The original meaning of erroneous coded data in the "State" field, for example, can be inferred from correct coded data in the "Zip Code" field of the same document form.
Artificial intelligence (AI) knowledge base techniques can be applied to automatically make error correction inferences for narrow subject matter categories of most fields in a document form. For example, reference lists of common given names can be used for "First Name" fields. Reference lists of city, state or country names can be used for "City," "State" and "Country" fields, respectively. The shorter the reference list, the greater the certainty will be in resolving ambiguous coded data strings for a given field.
The number of different AI reference lists for a given document form can be at least as large as the number of fields on the form. And for each field, if the selection of the appropriate AI reference list is governed by the writing method or by the country where the document form was filled out, then the number of possible AI reference lists for each respective field increases by the number of such variations.
In many applications using document forms for the receipt of information from the public, the forms will be received in batches which are characterized by certain uniformities. For example, an international importer of general cargo will receive bills of lading in a batch with each arriving ship or airplane. If the cargo arriving on a first day was shipped from East Asia, for example, then it is reasonable to expect that some of the bill of lading document forms will have their fields filled out with Mandarin or Kanji characters, as well as with Latin alphabetic characters. On a second day, if the cargo was shipped from Eastern Europe, for example, then it is reasonable to expect that Greek and Cyrillic, as well as Latin alphabetic characters will have been used to fill out the same fields on the bill of lading document forms.
The character recognition processes and the AI error correction processes needed to automatically read the bill of lading document forms for the shipment received on the first day will be different from those which are needed to read the document forms for the shipment received on the second day.
There are still other secondary and tertiary coded data repair processes which can be applied to some of the subject matter fields on a document form. An example of this is a comparison of the corrected coded data derived from the "Name" field, with a data base of customer names for a particular application. If the selection of the appropriate data base is governed by the country where the document form was filled out, then the number of possible data base error correction processes for such a field increases by the number of such variations.
What is needed is a means to select customized character recognition processes and customized coded data error correction processes which are reasonably likely to be needed to automatically process a batch of document forms whose fields have certain, anticipated, uniform characteristics.

Data processing system and method for selecting customized character recognition processes and coded data repair processes for scanned images of document forms

International Business Machines Corporation


A semiconductor device has a split-gate type memory transistor, a capacitor element, and another capacitor element formed on the same chip, in which the capacitor values of the capacitor element and the another capacitor element are independently set to different values. A capacitor element 53 has a dielectric film that includes a silicon oxide film 41 (thermal oxide film), a silicon nitride film 43b and a silicon oxide film 57 (thermal oxide film). A capacitor element 55 has a dielectric film that includes a silicon oxide film 25 (thermal oxide film), a silicon oxide film 37 (CVD silicon oxide film), a silicon oxide film 41 (thermal oxide film), a silicon nitride film 43b and a silicon oxide film 57 (thermal oxide film).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device including a non-volatile memory transistor and a method for manufacturing the same.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, the mixed-mounting of various types of circuits is required in consideration of various factors, such as, for example, to shorten the chip interface delay, to reduce the cost per board area, and to reduce the cost in design and development of boards.

Memory device and dissimilar capacitors formed on same substrate


Embodiments of the present invention provide methods and systems for performing automatic diarisation of sound recordings including speech from one more speakers. The automatic diarisation has a development or training phase and a utilisation or evaluation phase. In the development or training phase background models and hyperparameters are generated from already annotated sound recordings. These models and hyperparameters are applied during the evaluation or utilisation phase to diarise new or not previously diarised or annotated recordings.

Diarisation is the segmentation of an audio recording into sections according to speaker. Diarisation is used for annotating audio transcriptions to attribute sections of the transcription to different speakers.
Manual diarisation requires and individual to listen to the audio file. In manual diarisation the individual manually identifies different speakers and annotates the audio file appropriately when the speakers change, for example adding bookmarks and metadata. However, this is a time consuming and labour intensive process. Often manual diarisation is performed in conjunction with transcription of the audio file, but there are circumstances where it is desirable to have diarisation information before transcription or without transcription, such as identifying relevant portions of an audio file for transcription or to listen to, indexing audio files for searching, speaker tracking etc.
Attempts have been made at automating the diarisation process using signal processing techniques to analyse audio files to identify changes in speakers. One known commercial system is used for diarisation of broadcast news for searching purposes and optionally captioning (for example a system used by the BBC). This system operates on relatively short recordings of typically a few minutes in length.
A problem with these systems is that they are computationally expensive and thus impractical for use with long audio files. Further each of these systems has been developed for use with data input from a single audio channel, and typically well produced broadcast quality audio recordings.
However, in some contexts, diarisation and transcription of long proceedings or conversations is required, for example legal proceedings, board meetings, parliamentary sittings etc. Recordings in such contexts often exhibit large linguistic variations for individual speakers over the course of a proceeding, many individual speakers and some overlap or over speaking. Further depending on the nature of the proceeding the audio recording may comprise multiple channels and "spill over" between channels. In such contexts the methodologies of systems discussed above, typically applied to short recordings, tend to prove too inaccurate and computationally expensive to be reliably or effectively used.
There is a need for alternative methods as systems for diarisation of long duration audio recordings.

Method and system for automatically diarising a sound recording


A disk for a hard disk drive. The disk includes a S1 layer of magnetic material located over a substrate, and a layer of ruthenium located over the S1 layer. The disk further includes a top layer of magnetic material and a layer of chromium located adjacent to the top magnetic layer. The chromium diffuses into the top layer of magnetic material to magnetically decouple the grains of the magnetic material. Decoupling the grains of the magnetic material reduces the magnetic noise of the disk and improves the signal to noise ratio of the hard disk drive.

1. Field of the Invention
The subject matter disclosed generally relates to the field of hard disk drives.
2. Background Information
Hard disk drives contain a plurality of magnetic heads that are coupled to rotating disks. The heads write and read information by magnetizing and sensing the magnetic fields of the disk surfaces. There have been developed magnetic heads that have a write element for magnetizing the disks and a separate read element for sensing the magnetic fields of the disks. The read element is typically constructed from a magneto-resistive material. The magneto-resistive material has a resistance that varies with the magnetic fields of the disk. Heads with magneto-resistive read elements are commonly referred to as magneto-resistive (MR) heads.
Each head is attached to a flexure arm to create an subassembly commonly referred to as a head gimbal assembly ("HGA"). The HGA's are attached to an actuator arm that has a voice coil coupled to a magnet assembly. The voice coil and magnet assembly create a voice coil motor that can pivot the actuator arm and move the heads across the disks.
Information is typically stored within annular tracks that extend across each surface of a disk. The voice coil motor can move the heads to different track locations to access data stored onto the disk surfaces. Each track is typically divided into a plurality of adjacent sectors. Each sector may have one or more data fields. Each data field has a series of magnetic transitions that are decoded into binary data. The spacing between transitions define the bit density of the disk drive. It is generally desirable to provide a high bit density to increase the overall storage capacity of the drive.
FIG. 1 schematically shows the layer of a disk 1 that is commonly referred to as an anti-ferromagnetic (AFC) media. The AFC media includes a S1 magnetic layer 2 located over a substrate 3. The S1 layer 2 and substrate 3 are typically separated by an underlayer 4 that strengthens the adhesion of the S1 material.
The S1 magnetic layer 2 is covered with a layer of ruthenium 5 and a top layer of magnetic material 6. The top magnetic layer 6 is protected with an overcoat layer 7, typically a diamond-like-carbon (DLC). The overcoat layer 7 may be covered with a layer of lubricant 8 to minimize any frictional contact between the head and the disk.
AFC media with a layer of ruthenium have been found to have a low thermal decay rate at high density recording. Although it has a lower thermal decay rate, AFC media with a layer of ruthenium has a signal to noise ratio (SNR) that limits the bit density of the hard disk drive. To increase the bit density of the disk drive it is desirable to increase the signal to noise ratio of the disk.

Antiferromagnetically coupled (AFC) media with flash CR interlayer between top magnetic layer and S2 magnetic layer


The invention relates to a production planning method using a plurality of manufacturing devices (INTMA) according to which tasks (TD) of a work plan (BOP) are compared (MA) with manufacturing capabilities (SD) of the manufacturing devices (INTMA) and, depending on the one or more results (MAQ) of said comparison (MA), at least one or more manufacturing devices (INTMA) are commissioned to match their manufacturing capabilities (SD) with the task(s) (TD).

The present embodiments relate to production planning.
A new product design regularly involves a product model (e.g., a CAD model and a parts list) and a sequence of manufacturing steps (e.g., in the shape of a work plan) being determined.
In the subsequent production planning, the actual manufacturing process is defined based on the available equipment and the installation specification (e.g., by a description or mapping structure mBOP). Since the production planning is dependent on the available equipment, this method is to be repeated for each manufacturing installation.
Today, the manufacturing process is planned manually for each manufacturing installation. Owing to the high level of time involvement required for this, the market introduction time for new products is long and the manufacture is inflexible. However, precisely these two aims, a short market introduction time and a high level of flexibility, are relevant to many current market trends, such as, for example, manufacture to order or manufacturing services.
In the industry 4.0 context, "plug-and-produce" concepts that permit more flexible production planning are known. These concepts are based on two fundamental approaches.
Firstly, there is provision for central planning: central planning logic is based on task descriptions or aim descriptions and matches these with capability descriptions for machines and devices at manufacturing level. However, the capabilities of machines frequently cannot be expressed completely as a declarative description. This applies to more complex machines, for example.
Secondly, decentralized approaches exist: such approaches require the use of exclusively intelligent machines, which themselves need to have planning capabilities.
However, coordinating functions continue to be necessary, which frequently lead to less-than-optimum solutions and necessitate additional communication complexity.


A slurry for molding an article is provided wherein a source powder including at least one of a ceramic powder and a metal powder is dispersed, introduced into a forming mold, cured in the forming mold to form the molded article, and at least a part of the forming mold is degraded or dissolved in releasing the molded article from the forming mold. The major components of the slurry include the source powder, a dispersion medium and a gellifying agent, wherein the dispersion medium and the gellifying agent each contain an organic compound having a reactive functional group such that the slurry is cured by a reaction between the organic compound in the dispersion medium and the organic compound in the gellifying agent.

Regarding the molding methods for producing molded components of various molded articles using a molding source material made of ceramic powder, metal powder, or a mixture powder of these two powders, there are various molding methods such as cast-molding, press-molding, and injection molding. Basically, these molding methods are production methods in which a ceramic powder, a metal powder, or a mixture powder of these two powders is put into a forming mold in a dispersed state and cured in the forming mold to form a molded article, and the formed molded article is released to obtain a molded article. In the production methods, suitable molding methods are selected in accordance with the form of the molding source material to be used, the shape of the molded article to be produced, and the degree of complexity of the structure.
In the meantime, the produced molded articles are greatly diversified, varying from those having a simple shape or structure to those having a complex shape or structure, from those having a small thickness to those having a large thickness, and from those having a high dimension precision to those having a low dimension precision with regard to these, depending on the required properties of the molded components. In the case of producing these molded components, whichever molding method is adopted, it is important that the molded articles can be formed with good dimension precision in a forming mold and that the formed molded articles can be released easily without any damage from within the forming mold. In order to deal with these matters, with a premise to adopt an accurate and appropriate molding method, it is required to give full consideration to the molding source materials and forming molds. Further, if the molded components have a special shape or structure, these considerations will be all the more important.
If the molded components have a complex shape or structure, depending on the degree of complexity in the shape or structure, there are problems such as the difficulty of forming the molded articles in an ordinary mold with the use of an ordinary molding source material, the difficulty of releasing the molded articles from within the forming mold, the decrease in the dimension precision of the shape or structure, the difficulty of densifying the molded articles, and the possibility of generating cracks in the case of the molded articles having a large thickness.
As one means to deal with these problems, it is known to adopt the gel-cast method which is one cast-molding method. In Tokkai No. 2001-335371 which is a Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication, a gel-cast method giving consideration to slurries for molding constituting the molding source materials is disclosed.
The gel-cast method makes use of a source material powder made of ceramic powder, metal powder, or a mixture powder of these two powders as well as a dispersion medium and a slurry containing a gellifying agent, as a molding source material. It is a method in which, after the slurry is injected into a forming mold, the slurry is held at a predetermined temperature in the presence of a cross-linking agent for curing to form a molded article. Since the gel-cast method involves injection of a before-cure slurry in a highly fluid state into the forming mold, the gel-cast method has great advantages such as the facility of forming molded articles having complex shapes or structures and the property that the formed molded articles have sufficient strength to withstand the handling by curing of the slurry.
In a conventional gel-cast method, the slurry to be used is prepared by the addition and dispersion of a source material powder and a gellifying agent containing a prepolymer such as polyvinyl alcohol, epoxy resin, or phenolic resin as a major component, into a dispersion medium. The slurry prepared in such a manner is injected into a forming mold made of metal or the like for curing. Here, a cross-linking agent is added to the slurry injected into the forming mold, whereby the slurry is cured to form a molded article by cross-linking reaction between the added cross-linking agent and the gellifying agent.
In the meantime, in the conventional gel-cast method, since the prepolymer constituting the gellifying agent is present in a diluted state in the non-reactive dispersion medium, it is necessary to use a large amount of prepolymer and cross-linking agent in order to attain full curing of the slurry. If this means is adopted, the viscosity of the slurry will be high, thereby deteriorating the fluidity of the slurry.
As a result of this, it is difficult to disperse both of the gellifying agent and the cross-linking agent uniformly in the slurry. This makes it impossible to cure the whole slurry uniformly and increases a possibility that cracks may be generated in the formed molded article at the time of drying or baking. Further, the workability requested in the work of injecting the slurry into the forming mold is not sufficient. In addition, it is difficult to make the slurry extend uniformly into the forming, so that the density of the formed molded article will not be as intended, and the molded article will have a large shrinkage at the time of drying or at the time of baking. This increases a possibility that cracks may be generated at the time of drying or baking.
Further, since the slurry contains a large amount of non-reactive dispersion medium, prepolymer, and cross-linking agent, the molded article formed with the use of the slurry as a molding source material contains a large amount of components that are evaporated and/or lost by burning. For this reason, a large shrinkage occurs in the formed molded article at the time of drying and baking. This will be a large factor in causing deformation of the molded article, generation of cracks, and poor sintering.
Furthermore, since the conventional gel-cast method adopts a forming mold made of metal as a forming mold and when the formed molded article is released from the forming mold, there is a possibility that, particularly in the case of producing a molded article having a fine shape or structure or having a complex shape or structure, the portions with the fine or complex shape or structure of the molded article to be released may be damaged at the time of releasing. In addition, if the forming mold has a portion with an undercut shape or structure, the molded article formed within the forming mold cannot be released without being damaged.
On the other hand, as a molded article having a special shape or structure and used for special purposes, a hollow ceramic molded article having a hollow body part and a narrow pipe part can be mentioned. The sintered body formed by baking the hollow ceramic molded article is used as a hollow ceramic component that have various functional components such as a discharge vessel for a high-pressure electric discharging lamp. Generally, in the hollow ceramic molded article which is a precursor of the hollow ceramic component such as a discharge vessel, the body part and the narrow pipe part are formed as separate parts, and these two are joined with each other and assembled to construct the hollow ceramic molded article.
In recent years, in order to improve the function of the hollow ceramic components and to eliminate the cumbersome work of assembling the construction members in forming the hollow ceramic molded articles, an integral-type hollow ceramic molded article integrally having a body part and a narrow pipe part as well as a hollow ceramic component formed from a precursor made of the ceramic molded article are proposed in International Patent Application No. PCT/JP99/02777 (International Publication No. WO99/62103).
In the hollow ceramic component, from the viewpoint of functions, it is demanded that the inner circumferential surfaces of the body part and the narrow pipe part as well as the boundary parts of these are as smooth as possible and that the wall part of the body part is formed to have a set thickness so as not to give a varied volume. These demands are of course demanded in integral-type hollow ceramic components as well, so that a hollow ceramic component integrally having a body part and a narrow pipe part that can deal with these demands as well as a suitable method of producing the hollow ceramic component are demanded.
As conventional methods for producing a hollow ceramic molded article constituting a precursor of such an integral-type hollow ceramic component, there are the blow molding method disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 10-81183/1998, the cast-molding method disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 07-107333/1995, the reduced-pressure molding method disclosed in the aforementioned International Patent Application, and others. However, in any of these production methods, there are problems in producing an integral-type hollow ceramic component that can deal with each of the aforementioned demands and a hollow ceramic molded article constituting its precursor.
In other words, among these production methods, the blow molding method is a method in which a plastic pipe-shaped molded article is set between two molds of a forming mold, and a pressurized medium such as pressurized air is blown through an opening on one end of the molded article, so as to let the plastic molded article expand from the inside to the molding surface sides of the two molds. According to the blow molding method, a hollow ceramic molded article having an outer shape that conforms to the molding surfaces of the two molds of the forming mold is molded, and a hollow ceramic component can be obtained by baking this. However, by the blow molding method, it is difficult to control the inner shape of the ceramic molded article, so that the wall part of the body part will unlikely have a set thickness and also increases a possibility of lacking in uniformity.
Further, the cast-molding method is a method in which an aqueous slurry is injected through an opening of a casting mold so as to coat the molding surface of the casting mold with the slurry by utilizing the water absorption of the casting mold such as a plaster mold, and a superfluous slurry is discharged from the casting mold. In the cast-molding method as well, a hollow ceramic molded article having an outer shape that conforms to the molding surface of the casting mold can be molded. However, in the same manner as in the blow molding method, it is difficult to control the inner shape of the ceramic molded article, so that the wall part of the body part will unlikely have a set thickness and also increases a possibility of lacking in uniformity.
Furthermore, the reduced-pressure molding method is a method in which a plastic pipe-shaped molded article is set between the two molds of a forming mold and a negative pressure is imparted to a gap between the inner circumferences of the two molds and the outer circumference of the molded article so as to let the plastic molded article expand to the molding surface sides. By the reduced-pressure molding method as well, one can mold a hollow ceramic molded article having an outer shape that conforms to the molding surfaces of the two molds of the forming mold. However, in the same manner as the blow molding method and the cast-molding method, it is difficult to control the inner shape of the ceramic molded article, so that the wall part of the body part will unlikely have a set thickness and also increases a possibility of lacking in uniformity.

Core for molding hollow ceramic molded body and light emitting container


An isolation mechanism for electrically isolating a control input mechanism of an otherwise substantially conventional boomed apparatus (12), such as, for example, an aerial device, digger derrick, or crane, having a workstation (14) coupled with a movable boom (16), wherein the isolation mechanism allows a worker to control movement of the boom (16) and positioning of the work station (14) while protecting against electrical discharge along substantially any path which includes the control input mechanism. In a first embodiment, the isolation mechanism takes the form of an improved control input mechanism (10), portions of which are constructed of or covered with an electrically non-conducting material. In a second embodiment, the isolation mechanism takes the form of a boom extension (110) constructed of or covered with electrically non-conductive material. In a third embodiment, the improved control input mechanism (10) and the boom extension (110) are combined.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to isolation mechanisms for electrically isolating control input mechanisms of boomed apparatuses. More particularly, the present invention concerns an isolation mechanism for electrically isolating a control input mechanism of an otherwise substantially conventional boomed apparatus, such as, for example, an aerial device, digger derrick, or crane, having a workstation coupled with a movable boom, wherein the isolation mechanism allows a worker to control movement of the boom and positioning of the work station while protecting against electrical discharge along substantially any path which includes the control input mechanism.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is often desirable, particularly in the electric utility industry, to provide a boomed apparatus, such as, for example, an aerial device, digger derrick, or crane, operable to facilitate work at or from an elevated position. Such a boomed apparatus is embodied in, for example, a common bucket truck operable to facilitate work high on an electric utility pole or on a wall of a building.
Typically, a bucket truck broadly comprises a work station; a movable boom; a vehicular platform; a control input mechanism; and a control assembly. The work station is operable to lift or otherwise carry at least one worker to the elevated work site, and is coupled with the boom at or near a distal end thereof. Because the work station may be used near highly-charged electrical lines or devices, the work station must be electrically isolated so as to prevent damaging electrical discharge or electrocution of the worker. Thus, the work station is commonly provided with a protective, non-conductive liner so that the worker, as long as he or she remains completely inside the work station and liner, is protected from electrocution.
The boom is movable so as to elevate and otherwise position the work station where desired, and is coupled with the vehicular platform at or near a base end of the boom which is substantially opposite the distal end. Commonly, in order to further electrically isolate the work station from electrical discharge via the boom and the vehicular platform, an intermediate portion or section of the boom is constructed of or covered with an electrically non-conductive, or dielectric, material. The distal end of the boom, however, though electrically isolated from the vehicular platform, must incorporate structural material so as to have sufficient structural strength to support the work station and worker. This structural material is typically an electrically conductive metal, such as steel, with the work station and control assembly being directly exposed or dangerously close thereto.
The vehicular platform is motorized and wheeled or otherwise adapted to quickly and efficiently travel to and from the work site. The vehicular platform will either be in direct contact with an electrical ground, such as, for example, the Earth, or imminently at risk of direct or indirect contact therewith.
The control input mechanism allows the elevated worker to provide a control input to control, via the control assembly, movement of the boom and positioning of the work station. Commonly, the control assembly comprises one or more hydraulic control valves, one or more fluid conduits and a quantity of hydraulic fluid, to transmit the control input down the boom for implementation. The necessary conduit connections, however, prevent the control valves from being located inside the work station and its protective liner. Furthermore, as the control input mechanism must be in direct physical contact with the control assembly in order to actuate the valves in accordance with the control input, the control input mechanism must also be located outside the work station and protective liner. Thus, the worker must reach outside the protective liner to actuate the control input mechanism, thereby exposing him or herself to electrocution. This is of particular concern given that the control valves to which the control input mechanism is coupled are typically constructed of an electrically conductive material. Furthermore, the control valves may be located in close proximity to the aforementioned electrically conductive structural support material used to reinforce the distal end of the boom.
Thus, although the aforementioned dielectric boom portion does protect against electrical discharge via the boom and vehicular platform, it does not protect against direct discharge via the electrically conductive structural material in the distal end of the boom, via the control valves, and via the control input mechanism, thereby leaving the worker vulnerable to damaging or deadly phase-to-phase or phase-to-ground electrical discharge along these paths. For example, were the work station or distal end of the boom to move into or otherwise come into contact with a first phase or ground conductor while the worker is in contact with the control input mechanism and second conductor, the worker would be electrocuted. In this case, the discharge path is from the first conductor, to the distal end of the boom, to the control input mechanism, to the worker, and to the second conductor. It will be appreciated that the dielectric boom portion provides no protection against this or similar discharge paths.
Due to the aforementioned problems and disadvantages in the prior art, a need exists for an improved isolation mechanism for protecting the worker against electrical discharge along substantially any path which includes the control input mechanism.

Isolation mechanism for electrically isolating controls of boomed apparatus


A vehicle lamp that includes components structured to be simply coupled to each other. The vehicle lamp includes a light source unit that emits light, a metal plate onto which the light source unit is mounted on a surface thereof and dissipates heat generated from the light source unit, and a fixing plate that is coupled to the metal plate and supports the metal plate. A coupling protrusion is formed on any one of the metal plate and the fixing plate, a coupling groove coupled to the coupling protrusion is formed in the other one of the metal plate and the fixing plate, and the metal plate includes two or more walls that face each other and a connection surface which connects the walls.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a vehicle lamp, and more particularly, to a vehicle lamp that includes components structured to be simply coupled to each other.
2. Background Art
Generally, a vehicle is equipped with a plurality lamps to enable the driver of the vehicle to detect objects while driving at night and the lights inform other vehicles and road users of the vehicle's driving state.
Headlamps installed at the front of the vehicle are designed to illuminate the road ahead and should be bright enough to enable the driver to detect obstacles about 100 meters in front of the vehicle at night or in poor lighting conditions. In addition, taillights installed at the rear of the vehicle are designed to inform following vehicles of the location of the vehicle at night or in poor lighting conditions. Brake lights are also installed at the rear of the vehicle to inform the following vehicles that the vehicle is slowing down. The headlamps emit white visible light, and the taillights and the brake lights emit red light.
In a conventional vehicle lamp, a plastic bracket is used to couple components such as a light source, a printed circuit board (PCB), a heat sink, etc. Specifically, the plastic bracket and the heat sink are coupled to each other by inserting a rib of the plastic bracket into an aperture formed in the heat sink. Then, the rib is inserted sequentially into an aperture formed in an aluminum plate and an aperture formed in a flexible PCB to couple the heat sink, the aluminum plate, and the flexible PCB to the plastic bracket. Furthermore, the rib is melted with heat using, e.g., an iron. As the rib melts, the rib spreads laterally to harden, thereby fixing the heat sink, the aluminum plate and the flexible PCB to the plastic bracket. Finally, a reflective mirror, a lens, etc., are coupled to the plastic bracket by, e.g., screws. As a result, the vehicle lamp is completed.
The above coupling structure of the conventional vehicle lamp requires a process using heat. Thus, the entire process of manufacturing the vehicle lamp becomes complicated. In addition, since an additional part (such as the plastic bracket) designed only for coupling parts is required, thus, increasing manufacturing costs.


Provided are a method of designing a rotary thermal actuator and a rotary thermal actuator. The method includes setting the shape of an entire design domain; dividing the entire design domain into a predetermined number of domains which are symmetrical to one another in a rotational direction from the center of the entire design domain; designing the domains using a topology optimization method which uses a driving stage disposed at the center of the entire design domain, an initial shape of thermal expansion members which connect electrodes disposed at outer boundaries of the entire design domain, material properties of the thermal expansion members, and boundary conditions of the domains; and designing the entire design domain such that the designed domains are symmetrical to one another in the rotational direction.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of designing a rotary thermal actuator and a rotary thermal actuator, and more particularly, to a rotary thermal actuator and a method of designing a rotary thermal actuator, which has superior rotation performance and used in a micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) structure, through topology optimization design using an element connectivity parameterization method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various methods of driving micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) apparatuses, such as a driving method using electrostatic force and a driving method using thermal expansion, have been developed. In particular, comb drive actuators using electrostatic force have a short response time due to the properties of electrostatic force and are easy to design. Therefore, the comb drive actuators are widely used to make horizontal, vertical, and rotational motions.
However, the force of the comb drive actuators using electrostatic force is relatively weak compared with the size thereof. Therefore, a larger actuator and a higher driving voltage are required in order to obtain greater force. In particular, MEMS apparatuses for optical communication require very large comb drive actuators that can drive relatively large and heavy mirrors.
On the other hand, thermal actuators using thermal expansion caused by electric energy are easy to manufacture and have relatively stronger force. Therefore, the thermal actuators can replace the comb drive actuators using electrostatic force.
However, while it is possible to make linear motions using the thermal actuators, it is difficult to make rotational motions. Accordingly, topology optimization researches of various forms for thermal actuators have been studied. However, the major portion of them is for simple to-and-fro motions, and driving, such as rotational motions, has not been specifically designed.

Method of designing rotary thermal actuator and rotary thermal actuator

Seoul National University Industry Foundation


An alignment jig for holding components relative to a bicycle frame during curing, the alignment jig comprising, a spacing axle adapted to hold respective components a selected distance apart; and an alignment wedge coupled to and spaced from the spacing axle, the alignment wedge adapted to fit between and contact the inner surfaces of a pair of stays of a bicycle frame to align the alignment jig relative to the bicycle frame.

Bicycle frames have long been constructed of multiple pieces. For carbon fiber, composite or mixed material frames, individual components of the frame are often joined to each other, or to other non-carbon or carbon pieces using a bonding agent such as liquid epoxy resin. For example, a dropout or other component may be inserted into a receiving slot or opening in a tube of a carbon fiber frame and bonded to the tube of the frame using a bonding agent. In most cases, this epoxy bonding agent must fully cure before the frame can proceed through the rest of manufacturing. For these bonding agents, in almost all instances the ambient temperature is inversely proportional to the cure time for the resin. In other words, at higher temperature, the epoxy resin cures faster. Accordingly, in order to maximize throughput of a factory, manufacturers desire to cure the bonded assemblies at the highest safe temperature for the materials used. Higher cure temperatures may increase a factory's efficiency while conversely, low cure temperatures reduce a factory's efficiency.
The desired high temperature curing processes may be problematic for a number of reasons. In particular, bicycle frames require a high degree of precision for alignment and assembly (e.g., of their components). Minor misalignment can result in performance or safety issues.
Thus, to obtain the degree of precision desired for alignment and assembly, manufacturers may use an assembly or alignment jig to fix parts in place while they are being assembled (for example, to hold components in alignment during a curing process). Typical alignment jigs are external frameworks (e.g., the jig wraps around the frame). Such jigs may consume two to three times the floor space of the part being assembled. Moreover, traditional alignment jigs require multiple adjustments for each frame, to accommodate variable tube and component dimensions.
Additionally, and importantly, these frameworks are usually made of long tubes of metal, that, when heated, expand greatly and differently than carbon fiber or other materials that may be used for components of a bicycle frame. Unequal coefficients of heat expansion between such alignment jigs and the components being assembled wreaks havoc on frame alignment. Specifically, components that are properly aligned with wet bonding agents (e.g., epoxy) at room temperature will become misaligned if the temperature is elevated before curing of the bonding agent is complete.
Because of these problems, in most cases bicycle frame manufacturers take one of two less than ideal approaches. In the first approach, the bonding of frame components is done completely at room temperature. While desired alignment may be achieved, this approach is slow and results in a less efficient factory and manufacturing process. In the second approach, the bonding of the frame components is accomplished in two steps. The first step is accomplished at room temperature. In this first step, a minimal amount of bonding agent (e.g., epoxy) is applied in order to "tack" or hold the components being bonded in place (which may be accelerated with a handheld heat gun). At this point, bond strength between the two components is less than a desired final bond strength (e.g., is not sufficient for riding); however, the frame can be handled or processed more aggressively. In the second step, the frame then receives the rest of the necessary bonding agent (e.g., epoxy), and can safely go in an oven. Here, because each component (e.g., carbon tube and inserted component), as well as oven temperature, varies slightly, it is more difficult to "offset" the alignment properly (i.e. misalign the frame at room temperature such that it is aligned at cure temperature). While this second approach is faster than the first, it is still slower than a single step curing process at an elevated temperature, and has the additional disadvantages of being more labor intensive and complicating the bonding process (which may make it more prone to error).
Frames with misaligned components resulting from the one-step bond process are typically unfixable. The resulting frame becomes scrap which is expensive to the manufacturer and reduces factory efficiency. While misaligned components on frames resulting from the two-step process can be reworked if they are caught after the first step; this re-work process is both time consuming and expensive.


An object is to provide a face information transmission system enabling the generation of images with a high possibility of reflecting such elements as the feelings and intentions of a user. A mobile phone, as such a face information transmission system, comprises an image acquisition part to acquire images of a face of a subject; a first generation part to generate first image information relating to the subject and including the positions of characteristic points of the face based on the acquired images; a second generation part to generate a character image according to the facial expression of the face of the subject based on the generated first image information; and a transmission part to transmit the generated character image to another mobile phone.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a face information transmission system.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the spread of electronic mail, there are an increasing number of cases in which various image information is transmitted in addition to simple text information. As one mode for the transmission of image information, there exists technology to acquire an image of the face of a user (a subject), and to transform the face image into another image according to a specified facial expression (see for example Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 10-149433).


Methods for treating conditions or disorders which can be alleviated by reducing food intake are disclosed which comprise administration of an effective amount of an exendin or an exendin agonist, alone or in conjunction with other compounds or compositions that affect satiety. The methods are useful for treating conditions or disorders, including obesity, Type II diabetes, eating disorders, and insulin-resistance syndrome. The methods are also useful for lowering the plasma glucose level, lowering the plasma lipid level, reducing the cardiac risk, reducing the appetite, and reducing the weight of subjects. Pharmaceutical compositions for use in the methods of the invention are also disclosed.

The following description summarizes information relevant to the present invention. It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art to the presently claimed invention, nor that any of the publications specifically or implicitly referenced are prior art to that invention.
Exendins are peptides that are found in the venom of the Gila-monster, a lizard found in Arizona, and the Mexican Beaded Lizard. Exendin-3 is present in the venom of Heloderma horridum, and exendin-4 is present in the venom of Heloderma suspectum (Eng et al, J. Biol. Chem., 265:20259-20262 (1990); Eng et al, J. Biol. Chem., 267:7402-7405 (1992)). The exendins have some sequence similarity to several members of the glucagon-like peptide family, with the highest homology, 53%, being to GLP-1[7-36]NH2 (Göke et al, J. Biol. Chem., 268:19650-19655 (1993)). GLP-1[7-36]NH2, also known as proglucagon[78-107], has an insulinotropic effect, stimulating insulin secretion from pancreatic β-cells; GLP also inhibits glucagon secretion from pancreatic α-cells (Ørskov et al, Diabetes, 42:658-661 (1993); D'Alessio et al, J. Clin. Invest., 97:133-138 (1996)). GLP-1 is reported to inhibit gastric emptying (Williams et al, J Clin Endocrinol Metab., 81(1):327-332 (1996); Wettergren et al, Dig Dis Sci., 38(4):665-673 (1993)), and gastric acid secretion. (Schjoldager et al, Dig Dis Sci., 34(5):703-708 (1989); O'Halloran et al, J Endocrinol., 126(1):169-173 (1990); Wettergren et al, Dig Dis Sci., 38(4):665-673 (1993)). GLP-1[7-37], which has an additional glycine residue at its carboxy terminus, also stimulates insulin secretion in humans (Ørskov et al, Diabetes, 42:658-661 (1993)). A transmembrane G-protein adenylate-cyclase-coupled receptor believed to be responsible for the insulinotropic effect of GLP-1 is reported to have been cloned from a β-cell line (Thorens, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 89:8641-8645 (1992)).
Exendin-4 potently binds at GLP-1 receptors on insulin-secreting βTC1 cells, at dispersed acinar cells from guinea pig pancreas, and at parietal cells from stomach; the peptide is also said to stimulate somatostatin release and inhibit gastrin release in isolated stomachs (Göke et al, J. Biol. Chem., 268:19650-19655 (1993); Schepp et al, Eur. J. Pharmacol., 69:183-191 (1994); Eissele et al, Life Sci., 55:629-634 (1994)). Exendin-3 and exendin-4 were reported to stimulate cAMP production in, and amylase release from, pancreatic acinar cells (Malhotra et al, Regulatory Peptides, 41:149-156 (1992); Raufman et al, J. Biol. Chem., 267:21432-21437 (1992); Singh et al, Regul. Pept., 53:47-59 (1994)). The use of exendin-3 and exendin-4 as insulinotrophic agents for the treatment of diabetes mellitus and the prevention of hyperglycemia has been proposed (Eng, U.S. Pat. No. 5,424,286).
C-terminally truncated exendin peptides such as exendin[9-39], a carboxyamidated molecule, and fragments 3-39 through 9-39 have been reported to be potent and selective antagonists of GLP-1 (Göke et al, J. Biol. Chem., 268:19650-19655 (1993); Raufman et al, J. Biol. Chem., 266:2897-2902, 1991; Schepp et al, Eur. J. Pharm., 269:183-91, 1994; Montrose-Rafizadeh et al, Diabetes, 45(Suppl. 2):152A, 1996). Exendin[9-39] is said to block endogenous GLP-1 in vivo, resulting in reduced insulin secretion. (Wang et al, J. Clin. Invest., 95:417-21, 1995; D'Alessio et al, J. Clin. Invest., 97:133-38, 1996). The receptor apparently responsible for the insulinotropic effect of GLP-1 has reportedly been cloned from rat pancreatic islet cell (Thorens, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 89:8641-8645, 1992). Exendins and exendin[9-39] are said to bind to the cloned GLP-1 receptor (rat pancreatic β-cell GLP-1 receptor (Fehmann et al, Peptides 15(3):453-6, 1994) and human GLP-1 receptor (Thorens et al, Diabetes 42(11):1678-82, 1993). In cells transfected with the cloned GLP-1 receptor, exendin-4 is reportedly an agonist, i.e., it increases cAMP, while exendin[9-39] is identified as an antagonist, i.e., it blocks the stimulatory actions of exendin-4 and GLP-1. Id.
Exendin[9-39] is also reported to act as an antagonist of the full length exendins, inhibiting stimulation of pancreatic acinar cells by exendin-3 and exendin-4 (Raufman et al, J. Biol. Chem. 266:2897-902, 1991; Raufman et al, J. Biol. Chem., 266:21432-37, 1992). It is also reported that exendin[9-39] inhibits the stimulation of plasma insulin levels by exendin-4, and inhibits the somatostatin release-stimulating and gastrin release-inhibiting activities of exendin-4 and GLP-1 (Kolligs et al, Diabetes, 44:16-19, 1995; Eissele et al, Life Sciences, 55:629-34, 1994).
Exendins have recently been found to inhibit gastric emptying (U.S. Ser. No. 08/694,954, filed Aug. 8, 1996, (abandoned, but see, U.S. Pat. No. 6,858,576) which enjoys common ownership with the present invention and is hereby incorporated by reference).
Exendin [9-39] has been used to investigate the physiological relevance of central GLP-1 in control of food intake (Turton et al, Nature, 379:69-72, 1996). GLP-1 administered by intracerebroventricular injection inhibits food intake in rats. This satiety-inducing effect of GLP-1 delivered ICV is reported to be inhibited by ICV injection of exendin [9-39] (Turton, supra). However, it has been reported that GLP-1 does not inhibit food intake in mice when administered by peripheral injection (Turton, Nature, 379:69-72, 1996; Bhavsar, Soc. Neurosci. Abstr., 21:460 (188.8), 1995).
Obesity, excess adipose tissue, is becoming increasingly prevalent in developed societies. For example, approximately 30% of adults in the U.S. were estimated to be 20 percent above desirable body weight—an accepted measure of obesity sufficient to impact a health risk (HARRISON'S PRINCIPLES OF INTERNAL MEDICINE 12th Edition, McGraw Hill, Inc. (1991) p. 411). The pathogenesis of obesity is believed to be multifactorial but the basic problem is that in obese subjects food intake and energy expenditure do not come into balance until there is excess adipose tissue. Attempts to reduce food intake, or hypernutrition, are usually fruitless in the medium term because the weight loss induced by dieting results in both increased appetite and decreased energy expenditure (Leibel et al, (1995) New England Journal of Medicine 322: 621-628). The intensity of physical exercise required to expend enough energy to materially lose adipose mass is too great for most people to undertake on a sufficiently frequent basis. Thus, obesity is currently a poorly treatable, chronic, essentially intractable metabolic disorder. Not only is obesity itself believed by some to be undesirable for cosmetic reasons, but obesity also carries serious risk of co-morbidities including, Type 2 diabetes, increased cardiac risk, hypertension, atherosclerosis, degenerative arthritis, and increased incidence of complications of surgery involving general anesthesia. Obesity due to hypernutrition is also a risk factor for the group of conditions called insulin resistance syndrome, or "syndrome X." In syndrome X, it has been reported that there is a linkage between insulin resistance and hypertension. (Watson N. and Sandler M., Curr. Med. Res. Opin., 12(6):374-378 (1991); Kodama J. et al., Diabetes Care, 13(11):1109-1111 (1990); Lithell et al., J. Cardiovasc. Pharmacol., 15 Suppl. 5:S46-S52 (1990)).
In those few subjects who do succeed in losing weight, by about 10 percent of body weight, there can be striking improvements in co-morbid conditions, most especially Type 2 diabetes in which dieting and weight loss are the primary therapeutic modality, albeit relatively ineffective in many patients for the reasons stated above. Reducing food intake in obese subjects would decrease the plasma glucose level, the plasma lipid level, and the cardiac risk in these subjects. Hypernutrition is also the result of, and the psychological cause of, many eating disorders. Reducing food intake would also be beneficial in the treatment of such disorders.
Thus, it can be appreciated that an effective means to reduce food intake is a major challenge and a superior method of treatment would be of great utility. Such a method, and compounds and compositions which are useful therefor, have been invented and are described and claimed herein.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Exendin agonist analogs to treat diabetes


To provide an ether composition containing no —OCF2O— structure, having a low viscosity and being excellent in chemical stability in a wide temperature range. An ether composition comprising a polyether compound (A) containing at least two —(OCF2CF2)— units, containing no —OCF2O— structure and having an average molecular weight of higher than 2,000 and at most 20,000, and an ether compound (B) containing at least one —(OCF2CF2)— unit and having an average molecular weight of at most 2,000.

Perfluorinated polyether compounds having a plurality of functional groups at their terminals are widely used as a lubricant, a surface modifier, a surfactant, etc. The present inventors have provided an effective process for producing a compound containing no —OCF2O— structure among perfluorinated polyether compounds (Patent Document 1). Further, they have found that such a compound is excellent in self-replenishing property and is chemically stable. The self-replenishing property is such a nature that when a part of a coating film formed by application of a compound to a substrate surface becomes defective by a certain reason, the compound around the defective portion will cover the defective portion to replenish the defective portion.
However, they have noticed that when the compound containing no —OCF2O— structure is applied to a substrate, the viscosity tends to be high as compared with a perfluoropolyether having a molecular weight at the same level and containing a —OCF2O— structure. They have noticed that particularly the viscosity of a polyether containing no —OCF2O— structure and having three or more hydroxyl groups at its terminal is higher by several times. Further, when a polyether compound containing no —OCF2O— structure is used at low temperature, the self-replenishing property tends to decrease.
Patent Document 1: WO04/035656

Ether composition and solution composition


A method and apparatus are provided for creating traditional multi-line appearance telecommunications capabilities in a computer network for communications received from a switched circuit network. The system and method create key system and attendant/attendee relationships between the respective terminal end-points of the computer network. In addition, multiple line appearances may be supported simultaneously at a single terminal end-point.

H.323 is an International Telecommunications Union (ITU) standard that provides guidelines for terminals and equipment that provide multimedia communications services over computer networks such as packet based networks (PBNs). H.323 terminals and equipment may carry real-time audio, video and/or data.
The packet based network over which H.323 terminals communicate may be a point-to-point connection, a single network segment, or an inter-network having multiple segments with complex topologies, such as local area networks (LANs), Intra-Networks, and Inter-Networks, including the Internet.
H.323 terminals may be used in point-to-point, multi-point, or broadcast (as described in the ITU H.332's standard) configurations. They may interwork with other equipment described in standards, such as H.310 terminals on B-ISDN, H.320 terminals on N—ISDN, H.321 terminals on B-ISDN, H.322 terminals on Guaranteed Quality of Service LANs, H.324 terminals on switched telephone and wireless networks, V.70 terminals on telephone networks, and voice terminals on telephone networks or ISDN through the use of gateways. H.323 terminals may be integrated into personal computers or implemented in stand-alone devices such as video telephones.
Computer networks which are capable of transmitting data or information between locations, such as the above-mentioned Internet, have been used to transmit audio information between computers. At the transmitting computer, a person's voice may be digitized using a conventional analog to digital (A/D) converter and transmitted to the receiving location where it is passed through a conventional digital to analog (D/A) converter and presented as audio. This type of audio connectivity is somewhat similar to flat rate telephony, in that audio information may be transmitted from one location to another by way of a high bandwidth, flat rate communications medium. However, this type of computer telephony system suffers from several major disadvantages. First, the system is limited to only those customers who have access to the Internet and who are using compatible end-point software. In addition, while Internet access has now widely proliferated, it has not reached the near universal accessibility of traditional telephone service over public switched telephone networks (PSTN) and the like. Thus, such a computer telephony system is totally useless if a user on the Internet desires to communicate with someone who does not have access to the Internet.
On the other hand, an H.323-based communications system allows a computer network, such as the Internet, to interact with a conventional telephone network, such as a PSTN, general switched telephone network (GSTN), integrated services digital network (ISDN), or other switched circuit network (SCN), all of which are referred to generally herein as switched circuit networks. Such a system provides the appropriate translation between switched circuit network and packet based network data formats and between different communication procedures, in order to allow a user on one system (such as the PSTN) to communicate with a user on an otherwise incompatible system (such as a packet based network).
While the H.323-based communications system is quite effective at supporting communication between two otherwise incompatible networks, current use of that system has been somewhat limited. The system supports communication between two parties and also provides for conferencing of multiple parties in a single call. However, H.323-based systems do not presently address the provision of more traditional multi-line phone behavior offered in PSTN and other more conventional telecommunications networks. This is a significant drawback, especially for those who are already reluctant to convert from conventional telecommunications networks to an H.323-based system for their telecommunications needs.
Accordingly, it will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that there continues to be a need for a communications system that allows for communication between a packet based network and a conventional switched circuit network, while simultaneously providing various multi-line appearance capabilities offered on switched circuit networks. The present invention addresses these needs and others.

Multi-line appearance telephony via a computer network


To improve line utilization efficiency in short-cycle data collection, it is provided a method of managing communication in a communication system, the communication system including: an aggregation unit configured to receive information through a communication path from a plurality of terminals, which are sources of information transmission; and a reservation unit configured to determine, for each of the plurality of terminals, timing at which the terminal transmits a signal, the method comprising steps of: receiving, by the reservation unit, a relative time specified by a user as a time at which the terminal transmits the information; and determining, by the reservation unit, as scheduling information, an absolute time unique throughout the communication system so that interference with another communication session is avoided when the terminal holds communication at the relative time.

This invention relates to a communication system.
In a contract on the provision of a communication network service, a price is determined by a band of a line, a QoS, and a time slot, which are components of policies shared between a service provider and a service recipient, and the service provider provides a line and a network device that are shared under the determined conditions. In an IoT system in which an object, for example, a sensor, serves as a source of information transmission, machine-to-machine (M2M) communication is expected to increase. In the collection of decentralized information from sensors or the like, a large number of sensors distributed in a decentralized manner periodically report information, the pieces of reported data are aggregated in a separately provided central processing device, and the aggregated information is utilized as secondary information. In JP 2017-212494 A, there is disclosed a technology of specifying a time slot so that sensor data requiring a fairly long information collection cycle is communicated when communication traffic is light.
A brief description is given on an example of the related art according to JP 2017-212494 A with reference to FIG. 15. An example of hour-to-hour fluctuations in traffic in a day in a general-purpose communication system is illustrated in a lower part of FIG. 15. A horizontal axis 1000 represents a day (24 hours). An hour-long time slot is represented by a strip 1020, and twenty-four slots represent 24 hours. A black portion in a lower part of each strip indicates average traffic 1010 in an hour of the corresponding time slot. A white portion in an upper part of each strip indicates the capacity of a network, and an arrow 1030 indicates a margin (i.e., a difference between the capacity and the occupied traffic) of the network.
Key points of the technology disclosed in JP 2017-212494 A are described with reference to FIG. 15. Periods "a" and "b" are light traffic periods, which are time slots light in communication traffic in the day's traffic, and having ample room for additional transferred traffic. A case of additionally transferring IoT traffic over this network is considered. The disclosure of JP 2017-212494 A includes setting the transmission time of an IoT device so that IoT traffic is transmitted in light traffic time slots ("a" and "b" in FIG. 15), which are acquired from an analysis of traffic on the network.
Communication in the light traffic time slots is illustrated in an upper part of FIG. 16. FIG. 16 is divided into two, an upper part and a lower part, and black bars indicating timing (for example, timing 1101) and white bars indicating timing (for example, timing 1111) are illustrated in the upper part. The white-bar timing 1111 represents timing at which a terminal A transmits data, and the black-bar timing 1101 represents timing at which information transmitted by the terminal A is referred to, namely, timing to be utilized by a central processing device. According to JP 2017-212494 A, white-colored timing bars are all arranged in the time slots "a" and "b", which are light traffic periods, as illustrated in FIG. 15. In other words, a scheduler has, in advance, knowledge of when light traffic periods are through research, and generates data transmission timing, which is indicated by a white bar, based on the knowledge.
Although the disclosure of JP 2017-212494 A includes utilizing a light traffic time slot of a network device to collect non-real-time data, for example, daily, weekly, or monthly collected data about plant growth or cracks in a bridge, from a sensor for IoT, information collection in a cycle fairly shorter than a day is not considered, and the technology of JP 2017-212494 A is not capable of dealing with communication in such a short cycle. A problem in this regard is described with reference to FIG. 16. A horizontal axis 1000 in FIG. 16 represents a day as in FIG. 15, and the timing of collecting data four times a day is illustrated in FIG. 16. As in FIG. 15, white-bar timing (1111, 1112, 1113, and 1114) of each terminal represents timing at which the terminal transmits data, and black-bar timing (1101, 1102, 1103, and 1104) represents timing at which pieces of data transmitted from terminals are aggregated and processed. The time slots "a" and "b" in the example of FIG. 16 precede the data processing timing 1101 and the data processing timing 1104, respectively. The transmission timing 1111 and the transmission timing 1114 at which sensor information is transmitted are accordingly placed in the light traffic periods. For the data processing timing 1102 and 1103, however, transmission timing aimed for light traffic time slots cannot be set because there are no preceding light traffic time slots.
When a user is allowed to freely define the use of a communication path, on the other hand, burst traffic on the network and other problems arise as pointed out by the example of the related art. In the case of hourly report, for example, it is difficult for an application developer to design an application taking the network state into account, and communication is accordingly expected to concentrate at 00:00 every hour. As a result, traffic concentrates around 00:00, which does not help to disperse traffic. Some measure to control timing is therefore required.

Communication management method, communication system, and storage medium


An ink manifold for use with a heater chip in an inkjet printhead, including a first planar surface and a second opposite planar surface, a plurality of ink channels located on the first planar surface of the ink manifold for supplying ink to the heater chip, and a plurality of ink ports located on the second opposite planar surface of the ink manifold, each of the plurality of ink ports being in liquid communication with a respective one of the plurality of ink channels, each of the plurality of ink channels having a bottom wall defined by bottom wall portions that rise from each ink port within the ink channel to a maximum height at an angle of at least 12 degrees.

FIG. 1 illustrates the top surface of a portion of a conventional heater chip 40, with an arrangement of backside ink trenches, one shown as numeral 46. The backside ink trench 46 receives a supply of ink and couples the ink internally to the individual heater chambers where the ink is nucleated to form a droplet of ink that is jetted from a nozzle plate (not shown), which is situated on the bottom side of the heater chip 40. The backside ink trench 46 can be supplied with an ink having a magenta color. In like manner, the backside ink trench 48 can be supplied with a cyan colored ink, and the backside ink trench 50 can be supplied with a yellow colored ink. Lastly, in the example, the two backside ink trenches 52 and 54 can both be supplied with a black colored ink. The rows and columns of nozzles are located on the bottom surface of the heater chip 40.
Attached to the backside ink trench side of the heater chip 40 is a conventional ink manifold 42, only a portion of which is shown. The length of the ink manifold 42 can be somewhat longer than, or the same length as the heater chip 40. In any event, the ink channels on the bottom of the ink manifold 42 are closed channels, although the cross section shown in FIG. 1 is through the ink channel features. There is thus one ink manifold 42 for each heater chip 40. The staggered heater chips 40 and associated manifolds 42 are mounted to a page wide plastic or ceramic base member (not shown). The base member communicates the supply of the various ink colors from the respective ink supply reservoirs to the ink manifold 42.
The ink manifold 42 includes elongate ink channels that are mirror images of the backside ink trenches 46-54 of the heater chip 40. The manifold ink channel 56 supplies ink to the backside ink trench 46 of the heater chip 40, and ink channels 58 and 60 supply respective colored inks to the associated backside ink trenches 48 and 50. A larger-width ink channel 62 of the manifold 42 supplies black ink to both of the backside ink trenches 52 and 54 of the heater chip 40. The ink manifold 42 is constructed with a number of ink ports on the top side thereof, where each ink port is connected internally to a respective ink channel. In particular, the ink port 64 is coupled to channel 56, ink port 66 is coupled to channel 58, ink port 68 is coupled to channel 60 and ink port 70 is coupled to channel 62. The ink ports are illustrated as being square or rectangular, but could be other shapes. As noted above, situated over the ink manifold 42 is a base member for interfacing the manifold 42 to the different sources of liquid ink.
FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view through line A-A of FIG. 1. As shown in FIG. 2, the manifold ink channel 56 has a foot-like design, which a heel section 45 and a toe section 47. The other ink channels 58, 60 and 62 have a similar design. There is a known issue where air bubbles are 'trapped' in the toe region of the ink channels. Due to the non-uniform velocity field in the channel, air is not completely removed during priming operations. This air bubble grows over time with normal use and frequent maintenance operations are required to keep the air volume at a low enough level to allow defect free print quality.

Fluid manifold and methods of making the same


Compounds of the formula ##STR1## wherein A.sup.1 denotes a single covalent bond and A.sup.2 denotes 1,4-phenylene or trans-1,4-cyclohexylene or A.sup.1 denotes trans-1,4-cyclohexylene and A.sup.2 denotes a single covalent bond; X.sup.1 signifies fluorine or chlorine; X.sup.2 represents fluorine or, when X.sup.1 signifies chlorine, also hydrogen or chlorine; and R.sup.1 signifies 1E-alkenyl with 2 to 12 carbon atoms,. their manufacture, liquid crystalline mixtures which contain such compounds and their use for electro-optical purposes.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is concerned with novel halophenyl-substituted dioxanes, their manufacture, liquid crystalline mixtures which contain these compounds as well as their use for electro-optical purposes.
2. Description of the Invention
Liquid crystals are used primarily as dielectrics in indicating devices, since the optical properties of such substances can be influenced by an applied voltage. Electro-optical devices based on liquid crystals are well-known to a person skilled in the art and can be based on various effects. Examples of such devices are cells having dynamic scattering, DAP cells (deformation of aligned phases), guest/host cells, TN cells having a "twisted nematic" structure, STN cells ("super-twisted nematic"), SBE cells ("super birefringence effect") and OMI cells ("optical mode interference"). The most common indicating devices are based on the Schadt-Helfrich effect and have a twisted nematic structure.
The liquid crystal materials must have a good chemical and thermal stability and a good stability towards electric fields and electromagnetic radiation. Further, the liquid crystal materials should have low viscosity and in the cells should give short response times, low threshold potentials and a high contrast. Further, at the usual operating temperatures of about -30.degree. C. to about +80.degree. C., especially of about -20.degree. C. to about +60.degree. C., they should have a suitable mesophase, for example a nematic or cholesteric mesophase for the above-mentioned cells. Further properties such as the electrical conductivity, the dielectric anisotropy and the optical anisotropy must fulfill different requirements depending on the type of cell and field of application. For example, materials for cells having a twisted nematic structure should have a positive dielectric anisotropy and an electrical conductivity which is as low as possible. For some years there has been a particular interest in actively addressed liquid crystal displays, e.g. TFT applications ("thin film transistor") in television sets. However, the use of cyano compounds having a positive dielectric anisotropy in such displays generally leads mainly to an undesired high increase in current.
Since liquid crystals are usually used as mixtures of several components, it is important that the components have a good miscibility with one another.


In a sky shot, when a closing and opening detection unit detects the opening of a document cover, contour detecting means detects as a probable edge point a pixel thought to be a document edge point, a contour correction unit determines whether the probable edge point is a document edge or not, and an image forming unit forms image data of a document on the basis of the document edge point.

In copying a thick document on a copying apparatus, the document cover can not be closed tight and the copying apparatus is started with the document left open in what is called the sky shot. In a sky shot, an image sensor provided in the copying apparatus reads the area not covered with a document on the document table, that is, the area outside the document contour as black image. Therefore, if the image read is printed by printer or the like, the area around the document contour are printed black, which is undesirable from the point of view of aesthetics and increased consumption of toner.
To address this problem, a copying apparatus is proposed in which the image sensor does not read the area outside the document contour as black image. For example, a copying apparatus described in Japanese unexamined patent application No. 7-23224 finds upper left point (x1, y1) of the document and lower right point (x2, y2) and detects the area defined by a rectangle of the document formed with the line between the upper left point and the lower right point as its diagonal and detects the area as document contour as shown in FIG. 18.
For detection of the upper left point and the lower right point, for example, the copying apparatus scans the document beginning with the top reading line α in FIG. 18 and acquires the density values of the scanned pixels. If the acquired density value of the pixel is larger than a specific threshold value, this pixel is taken as white pixel and if the value is smaller than the threshold value, the pixel is taken as black pixel.
Furthermore, the copying apparatus scans each reading line α and memorizes the first pixel found as white pixel in each reading line α (hereinafter referred to as rise point). And then if a pixel found as black pixel (hereinafter down point) is detected, the distance L between the rise point and the down point will be worked out.
The copying apparatus compares this distance L and a distance threshold value. In case the distance L is larger than the distance threshold value, the copying apparatus recognizes the rise point and the down point as probable edge point thought to be an edge point of the document on the reading line α.
Furthermore, in case the probable edge points are recognized on the object reading line α and the adjacent reading lines α, the copying apparatus decides that the probable edge point recognized on the object reading line α are edge points of the document.
Of the edge points of the document thus obtained, two points are picked up. That is, the copying apparatus takes the value of the x coordinate (x1) of the extremely left edge point of the document, and the value of the x coordinate (x2) of the extremely right edge point of the document positioned. Also, the copying apparatus takes the value of the y coordinate (y1) at the rise point detected in the uppermost reading line α in FIG. 17 and the value of the y coordinate (y2) of the down point detected in the lowest reading line α.
Here, Y axis direction is the direction of main scanning and X axis direction is the direction of sub scanning. Furthermore, the left side is the upper side of the main scanning and right side is the lower side of the main scanning.
As set forth above, the copying apparatus detects the coordinates of the upper left point and the lower right point which are located at the ends of the diagonal of the rectangle and generates a rectangle surrounding the document and defines the document contour with the rectangle.
Then, from the image data read by main scanning, the copying apparatus erases the image outside the document contour on the basis of the document contour defined as described above.
However, the copying apparatus defines the document contour with the coordinates of 2 points as the ends of the diagonal of a rectangle document. In case the document is not a rectangle or the edges of the rectangular document are not placed along the main scanning direction (Y) and sub scanning direction (X), it can happen that there comes out an area within the rectangle where the document is not over lapped and the area will be read as black image by image sensor.
It is also noted that the above copying machine carries out pre-scan prior to the main-scanning the document. And it can happen that the user mistakes pre-scan for main scan and removes the document from the document table. If the document is removed before main scan begins, the image sensor can not read the document.
Furthermore, if a document is copied in a sky shot with the image of a fluorescent lamp in the ceiling projected on the document table, there is a possibility that the image sensor mistakenly detects the area projecting the image of the fluorescent lamp as white image. If the area mistakenly detected is outside the document, the copying apparatus detects a document contour larger than the actual document and leaves a black area in the document image area as shown in FIG. 19(a).
Another problem is that if one end portion of the area projecting the light is mistakenly detected as the document edge, part of the document contour is not perceived by the copying apparatus as shown in FIG. 19(b), and that part of the document image is cut off.

Image reading apparatus and processing apparatus

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.