Methods and apparatus implementing a technique for providing a secured virtual marketplace. In general, in one aspect, the technique includes maintaining a list of virtual objects as well as data format information for each of a plurality of virtual environment systems. Each virtual object is represented by data. The data format information for a virtual environment system specifies a format that data must have to be processable by the virtual environment system. The techniques includes receiving a request to distribute one or more virtual objects from the list of virtual objects, the request identifying the virtual objects to be distributed and the virtual environment system with which the virtual objects are to interact. The technique includes formatting, in accordance with the data format information and the request, data representing the one or more virtual objects to be distributed and further includes distributing the one or more virtual objects.

The present invention relates to virtual objects and services.
Online virtual environments provide a medium in which real world users ("users") can interact with each other. These virtual environments include but are not limited to: chat rooms; instant messaging communities; and virtual worlds, which in turn can include social worlds such as lambda MUCK, online gaming environments such as Sierra online and EA online, and massive, multiplayer fantasy worlds such as Everquest, Ultima Online, and Asheron's Call.
Virtual environments share some common properties. First, all users participate in a shared context. That is, users typically experience a common environment. For example, two users in a virtual room will experience the same virtual room, including seeing the same room appearance and hearing the same noises in the room.
Furthermore, in some virtual environments, such as a virtual world, users are represented by virtual characters, which will be referred to as avatars. Avatars can be represented textually or visually, depending on the virtual world. For example, in a virtual world where real world players interact through text messages, an avatar can be a simple textual handle such as Bob or Mary. In contrast, in a virtual world that is graphical in context, an avatar can be represented in graphical form. Avatars may be human in appearance but need not be so. In fact, an avatar may take on any shape or form, may perform any action, and may speak in any voice or language, subject to the constraints of the online virtual world in which they reside.
In addition to having avatars, some virtual environments such as a virtual world, can also contain a rich set of virtual objects. In general, a virtual object is defined by its function and form. The functional component of a virtual object describes its functional properties such as whether it is a container, whether it can be worn, where it can be worn, how heavy it is, and what special powers it has. In contrast, the form component of a virtual object describes the look, feel, and sound of the good. Virtual objects can have some function within their virtual world, can be solely used for decorative purposes, or can be both decorative and functional. The virtual avatar, is at its base a virtual object. It has a function, as well as form. An avatar is a special type of virtual object, however, in that it represents a user and is controlled by the user.
The form of most avatars and virtual objects are determined by choosing from a fixed number of appearance options during an avatar or virtual-object creation phase. Often a separate avatar creation phase must be completed for each virtual world, and characters and virtual objects can rarely be transferred across different virtual worlds. Even if they are transferable, the transferred avatar or virtual object exists out of context. For example, the transferred avatar may be a caveman who would be completely out of context in a futuristic virtual world.
Avatars and virtual objects may be customized to a limited extent, the extent depending on the virtual world to which they belong. In some virtual worlds like the SIMs (Electronic Arts) and Unreal Tournament (GT interactive), avatar and virtual object formats are open. That is, users have access to and can modify the form and function of their respective avatars and virtual objects. Accordingly, customization is possible in terms of both function and form. These virtual worlds will be referred to as open worlds. In other virtual worlds like Everquest (Sony), Asheron's Call (Microsoft), and Ultima Online (Electronic Arts), the formats are closed and unavailable to users. In these cases, customization is limited to the rules established by owners of the virtual worlds. These virtual worlds will be referred to as closed worlds.
Virtual objects are being traded in both open and closed worlds. In closed worlds, users must typically put up virtual objects for bidding on a Web site, such as Ebay®, in the real world. Once the bidding commences, and the transfer of real world money is complete, the participating users must arrange to have their respective avatars meet in the relevant virtual world and exchange the relevant virtual objects.
There are some problems with exchanging virtual objects in this fashion. Such exchanges are cumbersome. Users must manually transfer the virtual objects themselves, even though the goods are fully digital in nature. Furthermore, the transfer of goods within the virtual world is unsafe. No security is in place to keep the selling avatar from reacquiring the virtual objects from the buying avatar after the transfer of virtual objects has occurred. For example, nothing prevents the selling avatar from stealing from or killing the buying avatar. Another problem is that the supply of virtual objects are not controlled. Specifically, virtual objects are sold in an ad-hoc manner and their supply is essentially uncontrolled. This lack of control leads to inflationary conditions within the virtual worlds and unstable goods prices within the marketplace. As a result of this uncertainty, the number of trades that occur are limited.
In open worlds such as Unreal, Quake, and the SIMs, users exchange virtual objects through repositories. These repositories accept free virtual object contributions from users, and, in return, make the contributed goods available for free to everyone.
There are some problems with exchanging virtual objects in this fashion. There is little incentive to create high quality virtual objects because there are no monetary rewards for doing so. There is also no control on quality. Because such repositories are free and often managed for free by users, the quality among virtual objects may differ significantly. As a result, it can sometimes be difficult to procure or find high quality virtual objects even if one is willing to pay for it. In addition, little support is given in terms of search and browse functionalities. Furthermore, there are no built-in controls to ensure that the virtual objects actually follow the artistic and functional themes of the virtual environments in which they reside. This break down in themes ultimately may result in a chaotic world, with no consistent world rules to preserve a common context among its users. Such chaos will degrade the experience for users of all virtual environments.
In summary, even though virtual objects are currently traded, most of these trades are limited, insecure, and unmanaged. As a result, the virtual objects available for trading are limited in both quality and range, difficult to find, limited in scope of use, and often unsupported.

Secure virtual marketplace for virtual objects and services


A handheld diabetes manager has a flight mode that cooperatively interacts with an external medical device and includes a port configured to receive a test strip for blood glucose measurement, a blood glucose measurement module operable with the test strip, a communications module and a user interface module. The communications module selectively communicates wirelessly with an external medical device. The user interface module communicates with the blood glucose measurement module and the communications module and operates to provide a graphical user interface on a display of the diabetes manager. The graphical user interface includes a screen with a flight mode option. When the flight mode option is enabled and the external medical device is paired and currently communicating with the diabetes manager, the user interface module interacts with the communication module to send a command to the external medical device to turn off wireless communication of the external medical device.

Diabetes mellitus, often referred to as diabetes, is a chronic condition in which a person has elevated blood glucose levels that result from defects in the body's ability to produce and/or use insulin. There are three main types of diabetes. Type 1 diabetes usually strikes children and young adults, and may be autoimmune, genetic, and/or environmental. Type 2 diabetes accounts for 90-95% of diabetes cases and is linked to obesity and physical inactivity. Gestational diabetes is a form of glucose intolerance diagnosed during pregnancy and usually resolves spontaneously after delivery.
Diabetes is managed primarily by controlling the level of glucose in the bloodstream. This level is dynamic and complex, and is affected by multiple factors including the amount and type of food consumed, and the amount of insulin (which mediates transport of glucose across cell membranes) in the blood. Blood glucose levels are also sensitive to exercise, sleep, stress, smoking, travel, illness, menses, and other psychological and lifestyle factors unique to individual patients. The dynamic nature of blood glucose and insulin, and all other factors affecting blood glucose, often require a person with diabetes to forecast blood glucose levels. Therefore, therapy in the form of insulin or oral medications, or both, can be timed to maintain blood glucose levels in an appropriate range.
Management of diabetes is time-consuming for patients because of the need to consistently obtain reliable diagnostic information, follow prescribed therapy, and manage lifestyle on a daily basis. Diagnostic information, such as blood glucose, is typically obtained from a capillary blood sample with a lancing device and is then measured with a handheld blood glucose meter. Interstitial glucose levels may be obtained from a continuous glucose sensor worn on the body. Prescribed therapies may include insulin, oral medications, or both. Insulin can be delivered with a syringe, an ambulatory infusion pump, or a combination of both. With insulin therapy, determining the amount of insulin to be injected can require forecasting meal composition of fat, carbohydrates and proteins along with effects of exercise or other physiologic states. The management of lifestyle factors such as body weight, diet, and exercise can significantly influence the type and effectiveness of a therapy.
Management of diabetes involves large amounts of diagnostic data and prescriptive data acquired in a variety of ways: from medical devices, from personal healthcare devices, from patient-recorded logs, from laboratory tests, and from healthcare professional recommendations. Medical devices include patient-owned bG meters, continuous glucose monitors, ambulatory insulin infusion pumps, diabetes analysis software, and diabetes device configuration software. Each of these systems generates and/or manages large amounts of diagnostic and prescriptive data. Personal healthcare devices include weight scales, blood pressure cuffs, exercise machines, thermometers, and weight management software. Patient recorded logs include information relating bG levels, meals, exercise and lifestyle. Lab test results include HbA1C, cholesterol, triglycerides, and glucose tolerance. Healthcare professional recommendations include prescriptions, diets, test plans, therapy changes and other information relating to the patient's treatment.
The present teachings are directed to a handheld diabetes manager that includes a user interface with a travel mode for an external medical device, such as an insulin pump, communicating with the diabetes manager.

Handheld diabetes manager with a flight mode


An optical waveguide device includes an LiNbO.sub.3 substrate and an optical waveguide disposed on the LiNbO.sub.3 substrate by diffusing Ti therein. The LiNbO.sub.3 substrate has a step on a surface thereof which corresponds to the area in which Ti is diffused. The step has opposite side edges and a central area therebetween, the side edges having a height greater than a height of the central area, whereby the side edges are raised higher than the central area. The optical waveguide device has a relatively small coupling loss with respect to an optical fiber having a small light beam mode shape, thus eliminating optical device loss faults.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical waveguide device and a method of manufacturing such an optical waveguide device, and more particularly to an optical waveguide device comprising an optical waveguide mounted on an LiNbO.sub.3 substrate by diffusing Ti therein, i.e., a Ti-diffused LiNbO.sub.3 waveguide, and a method of manufacturing such an optical waveguide device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Optical waveguides are generally capable of confining a radiation within a certain region and guiding and propagating the confined energy of the radiation parallel to the axis of the waveguide passage. At present, efforts are being made to replace optical light guides, typically, optical fibers, with optical waveguides for thereby reducing the size of optical components.
The optical waveguides include semiconductor waveguides of GaAs and InP, dielectric (glass) waveguides using glass substrates, and ferroelectric crystal waveguides of LiNbO.sub.3 and LiTaO.sub.3 crystals.
In particular, optical devices such as optical-waveguide modulators for imparting information through electrodes to a light beam that is transmitted through optical waveguides comprise Ti-diffused LiNbO.sub.3 waveguides in which Ti is diffused in an LiNbO.sub.3 crystal that has excellent electrooptical properties.
As shown in FIG. 13 of the accompanying drawings, a Ti-diffused LiNbO.sub.3 waveguide comprises an LiNbO.sub.3 substrate 100 and a metal film 102 of Ti deposited to a thickness of several hundreds .ANG. on the LiNbO.sub.3 substrate 100 and thermally diffused at a temperature of about 1000.degree. C. for 4-10 hours.
As shown in FIG. 14 of the accompanying drawings, the Ti-diffused LiNbO.sub.3 waveguide which has a small smooth step 104 on the Ti-diffused region of the LiNbO.sub.3 substrate 100 has been considered as being characteristically good. Those Ti-diffused LiNbO.sub.3 waveguides which have surface irregularities (surface roughness) on the step 104 have been considered as being not preferable because those surface irregularities tend to increase a light beam propagation loss.
In order to prevent the surface roughness, it has heretofore been customary to introduce water vapor while Ti is being diffused or place a powder containing Li, such as a powder of LiNbo.sub.3 in the diffusion chamber.
The loss of an optical waveguide is determined by a combination of the propagation loss and a coupling loss with respect to the optical mode of an optical fiber. The coupling loss is represented by the ratio of the mode shape of a light beam propagated through the optical waveguide, i.e., the shape of a light beam with respect to a plane perpendicular to the optical axis of the optical waveguide, to the mode shape of a light beam propagated through the optical fiber, i.e., the shape of a light beam with respect to a plane perpendicular to the optical axis of the optical fiber. The coupling loss is larger as the ratio is larger or smaller than 1.
As shown in FIG. 14, on the optical waveguide having a smooth surface configuration for the LiNbO.sub.3 substrate 100, the step 104 of the Ti-diffused region has a uniform height distribution, and the shape of the plane perpendicular to the optical axis with respect to the diffused distribution of Ti, i.e., the mode shape BS of the light beam propagated through the optical waveguide, is substantially circular. This is considered to result from substantially isotropic diffusion of Ti due to the smooth surface of the step 104.
The coupling loss of the optical fiber with respect to a general optical fiber which propagates light with a randomly varying plane of vibration (plane of polarization) is small. However, the coupling loss of the optical fiber with respect to an optical fiber in which the mode shape of a light beam is not circular, among polarization-maintaining fibers which propagate light with a plane of polarization being kept in a certain direction, is large. Particularly, the coupling loss of the optical fiber with respect to an optical fiber in which the aspect ratio of the mode shape of a light beam is not 1, e.g., an optical fiber in which the core is of an elliptical cross-sectional shape, is very large.
If an optical component is to be fabricated using a polarization-maintaining fiber, then since the coupling loss described above greatly affects the optical characteristics (device characteristics) of the optical component, it is necessary to reduce the coupling loss of an optical waveguide even in the sacrifice of a certain propagation loss.

Optical Ti-diffused LiNbO.sub.3 waveguide device and method of manufacturing same


The state nodes in a sequential digital circuit are identified by identifying the minimal combinatorial feedback loops that are present in the digital circuit. Each minimal combinatorial feedback loop has at least one driver node, and one driver node from each minimal combinatorial feedback loop is assigned to be the state node for the loop.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to state nodes and, more particularly, to a method of identifying state nodes at the transistor level in a sequential digital circuit.
2. Description of the Related Art
A state node in a sequential digital circuit represents a memory element. It has two stable states (logic 1 and logic 0), and can retain its value or memory until some other data is written on it. For example, the outputs of all of the flipflops in a sequential digital circuit are driven by state nodes. This is because a flipflop output retains its value until a clock pulse is applied to the flop. Structurally, a state node can be any node on a combinatorial feedback loop in a circuit.

Method of identifying state nodes at the transistor level in a sequential digital circuit using minimum combinatorial feedback loop


A moisture sensor which registers the amount of moisture from tear-shaped precipitation, particularly on a windshield. The device includes a beam director which is mounted on the windshield by an optical adhesive. The beam director has a beam transmitter on one side and a beam receptor on the other. To ensure an optically perfect attachment of the beam director as an integrated unit to the windshield, there is a parallel relationship between the windshield and the facing surface of the beam director. An optical adhesive is applied to the gap between the windshield and the beam director, and is confined to a particular area.

In DE 33 14 770 C2, a device for the operation of a motor-driven windshield wiper system was introduced. This system uses a beam director mounted directly on the inner surface of the windshield. The beam director is associated with a beam transmitter which emits rays through the windshield. If there is the least reflection at the exterior surface of the windshield because of moisture which is present, some portion of the rays are directed to an associated beam receptor.
The attachment of such beam directors to a windshield may be achieved by means of optical adhesives. However, this presents two problems: certifying perfect adhesion and guaranteeing perfect beam paths. Every variation in alignment of the beam directors and discontinuities in the beam paths potentially interferes with the device's reading, and therefore may affect the operation of the windshield wiper system.
Therefore, the needs have arisen for a moisture sensor device which guarantees that (1) the inner windshield surface and the beam director surfaces are parallel, and (2) the optical adhesive is applied uniformly between the windshield and the beam director.


A hardware constitution and method for playing back different types of media content is provided. Data is registered from a desired medium to a user data storing unit of a server from a PC. Content may then be selected by a vehicle onboard apparatus from the server. The data corresponding to the selected content is then transmitted to the vehicle onboard apparatus, and the data is decoded on the vehicle onboard apparatus using a decoder that corresponds to the content medium.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multimedia reproducing system client apparatus, a server apparatus, a multimedia reproducing method, and a multimedia reproducing program, and is especially preferable for application to a system that uses a single reproducing apparatus to reproduce data from multimedia such as a CD (Compact Disc), a DVD (Digital Video Disc), a MD (Mini Disc), a cassette tape, and a radio.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Most reproducing apparatuses such as home audio apparatuses and automobile onboard audio apparatuses include a reproducing unit for different types of sources such as a CD player, a DVD player, an MD player, a cassette deck, and a radio tuner. This type of the reproducing apparatus is designed for a user to switch to a desired reproducing unit to enjoy listening to music or viewing video.
Recently, reproducing apparatuses equipped with a hard disk have been supplied. With this type of apparatuses, it is possible to connect to a communication apparatus such as a cellular phone, to download music data or video data from an external server, and to record the data on a hard disk for reproduction.
In addition, in consideration of the fact that it takes a long time to complete the download when the quantity of data is large, it is possible to carry out streaming reproduction where the reproducing apparatus sequentially carries out the reproduction while receiving the data. Usually, this type of download and streaming reproduction of music and movie is managed by specific service providers, who charge data delivery.
This type of reproducing apparatuses includes apparatuses where a user conducts different types of operations through a touch panel screen. On the other hand, there is technology where general-purpose software parts are used for image design of a GUI (Graphical User Interface) operation screen (see, e.g., Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2000-99317).
Providing hardware for each different type of source such as a CD player, a DVD player, an MD player, a cassette deck, and a radio tuner on the conventional reproducing apparatus increases costs. Additionally, a medium must be brought to a listing/viewing site each time reproduction of content is desired. For example, to listen to a CD indoors using a home audio apparatus, or to listen to a CD in car cabin using a car audio apparatus, it is necessary to bring the CD to the respective listening sites (locations where the reproducing machine exists), and thus, the procedure is very cumbersome. Further, the operation is complicated because it is necessary to switch sources each time one wishes to listen to and view different desired music and video content.
Additionally, when a media based on a new standard emerges, there is such a problem that the new media cannot be handled. For example, a CD based on the new standard, SACD (Super Audio CD), cannot be reproduced on a standard CD playback apparatus. Thus, to playback an SACD, it is necessary to newly purchase apparatuses compliant with the SACD at all desired listening/viewing sites such as a home audio apparatus and a car audio apparatus.
In addition, when music data or video data is reproduced using the download reproduction or the streaming reproduction, a charge occurs every time when the data is delivered to the reproducing apparatus. Therefore, even after data is downloaded to a personal computer (PC) once at home, if the same data is downloaded on a car audio apparatus, the charge occurs again, for example. Thus, there is such a problem that a user cannot freely listen to or view desired data at any time.
When data downloaded on a PC is once copied to a semiconductor memory such as a memory card, and is transferred from the semiconductor memory to a hard disk in a car audio apparatus, the charge occurs only once for the first download. However, a copy protect function may be added to a data to be downloaded, and if this is the case, since the data cannot be copied, and thus, the data cannot be transferred from the PC to the car audio apparatus at all.
Even if data is not copy-protected, due to the capacity limit of a semiconductor memory, data with a large quantity or a large number of data cannot be transferred. In addition, even if data is transferred, the operation is cumbersome because it is necessary to repeat copy operation many times for transferring from a PC to a semiconductor memory, and then transferring from the semiconductor memory to a hard disk of an onboard machine.

Method and apparatus for multimedia reproduction


An apparatus for mass analyzing molecules includes a mass spectrometer configured to select precursor ions having a mass to charge ratio range, a metastable species generator configured to generate a metastable species for introduction into the mass spectrometer, and a mass detector configured to detect a mass of the product ions. The apparatus also includes interaction region in the mass spectrometer where the precursor ions are converted into product ions via interaction of the precursor ions with the metastable species. The mass spectrometer includes at least one of a three-dimensional ion trap, a linear ion trap, or an ion guide. The interaction region is located inside the three-dimensional ion trap, the linear trap, or the ion guide; and at least one of the precursor ions or at least one of the product ions are excited by an alternating electric field or collisionally activated to produce additional product ions.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to procedures and devices for fragmenting ions, preferably biomolecular ions in tandem mass spectrometers.
2. Background of the Invention
Over the last decade, mass spectrometry has played an increasingly important role in the identification and characterization of biochemical compounds in research laboratories and various industries. The speed, specificity, and sensitivity of mass spectrometry make spectrometers especially attractive for rapid identification and characterization of biochemical compounds. Mass spectrometric configurations are distinguished by the methods and techniques utilized for ionization and separation of the analyte molecules. The mass separation process can include techniques for ion isolation, subsequent molecular fragmentation, and mass analysis of the fragment ions. The pattern of fragmentation yields information about the structure of the analyte molecules introduced into the mass spectrometer. The technique of combining ion isolation, molecular fragmentation, and mass analysis is referred to in the art as tandem (or MS/MS) mass spectrometry. MS/MS mass spectrometry is typically implemented as tandem in space (such as triple quadrupole instruments) and tandem in time (such as 3D ion traps) instruments. In tandem in space instruments, precursor ions are selected at a given set of coordinates, and then transferred to different set of coordinates for ion dissociation, and the products are analyzed at yet another set of coordinates. MS/MS in time means that precursor ions are selected at given set of coordinates and then exposed at a later time to dissociation at the same coordinates, followed by yet a later episode of mass analysis at the same coordinates.
One common method for ionizing biomolecules and organic compounds is electrospray ionization (ESI) whereby ions are ionized at atmospheric pressure outside the mass spectrometer via charging, dispersing and evaporating of small droplets. These ions are introduced via atmospheric pressure interface into the vacuum of a mass spectrometer. Matrix assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) is another widely used method for ionization of larger biomolecules. In this technique, analytes are mixed with a matrix which absorbs laser irradiation and facilitates ionization. By using pulsed lasers for one-step desorption and ionization, MALDI has application under both reduced pressure and atmospheric pressure conditions.
Fragmentation of ions can be achieved in commercial tandem mass spectrometers through collisionally induced dissociation (CID) with buffer gas molecules in a quadrupole collision cell, as described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,285,027, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. In radio frequency ion traps (both three-dimensional and two-dimensional traps), ions can also be fragmented by collisions with a buffer gas. In ion traps, the oscillation of ions to be fragmented can be excited by a bipolar alternating field, as described by Louris, J. N. et al, Anal. Chem. 1987, 59: 1677, U.S. Pat. No. 6,177,666 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,420,425, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. In CID, the energy of collision is quickly redistributed over the large number of vibrational degrees of freedom available in large biomolecules. The energy redistribution causes preferable cleavage of week bonds. Thus, the CID method seldom provides sufficient MS/MS sequence information for proteins larger than 10 kDa. Since the excitation in CID is not specific, the most labile bonds are typically cleaved (which are often a modifying group) and not necessarily the structurally important bonds.
Electron capture dissociation (ECD) is a more recent fragmentation technique that utilizes an ion-electron recombination reaction, as described by Zubarev et al, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1998, 120: 3265-3266, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. The maximum cross section for the ion-electron interaction is achieved at very low electron energies (e.g., lower than 0.5 eV) and exceeds the collision cross section for interacting with neutrals by about 100 times. To date, ECD has been implemented in ion cyclotron resonance Fourier transform mass spectrometers (ICR-FTMS) with electrons injected directly into ICR cell. Realizing ECD in other types of mass spectrometers has so far been unsuccessful due to the difficulties of introducing low energy electrons into strong and/or varying electrical fields present in ion traps, quadrupole ion guides and sector mass analyzers.
There is a demand for simple and effective ion fragmentation techniques.

Method and apparatus for ion fragmentation in mass spectrometry


The present invention provides an EndoS mutant enzyme having an amino acid sequence of EndoS D233Q and further having a particular additional mutation and exhibiting a reduced hydrolysis activity, in comparison with the activity of EndoS D233Q, to an N-linked sugar chain (N297-linked sugar chain) linked to Asn at position 297 in IgG and a gene encoding the same.

Glycoproteins widely reside in tissue in animals and plants, the cell membrane and wall of eucaryotic microorganisms, and the like. Recently, it has been becoming clear that sugar chains of glycoproteins play important roles in mechanisms such as differentiation of cells, canceration, and cell-cell recognition and studies are underway on the correlation between the structure and the function of sugar chains to elucidate these mechanisms. In culture cell lines, a glycoprotein is translated as a protein consisting of a uniform amino acid sequence and then glycosylated by posttranslational modification to be delivered into the culture medium. Since this posttranslational modification is not determined uniquely according to its amino acid sequence, sugar chains that are added vary in their structures even on the same protein expressed in the same culture system.
Antibodies are glycoprotein molecules having N-linked sugar chains (N297-linked sugar chains) linked to the Asn side chains at position 297 located in the Fc regions of the heavy chain molecules. Antibodies are important molecules in basic studies and in the field of medicine and are eagerly studied and developed particularly as antibody medicines. As such, various effects of sugar chains are becoming clear (Non Patent Literature 1: J. N. Arnold, et al., Annu. Rev. Immunol, 2007, 25, 21050). Currently, the therapeutic antibodies that are used are mainly of the IgG class of molecules. Such antibodies are produced by cultured animal cells such as by CHO cells and NS0 cells in general and N297-linked sugar chains of antibodies produced by these animal cells are biantennary complex-type sugar chains, which are heterogeneous in the core fucose, the terminal sialyl and galactosyl groups, and bisecting GlcNAc (Non Patent Literature 2: R. Jefferis, Biotechnol. Prog., 2005, 21-11-6). It has been revealed that N297-linked sugar chains of antibodies have a large influence on effector activities including ADCC (antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity) and CDC (Non Patent Literature 3: Nimmerjahn, Nat. Rev. Immunol. 2008, 8, 34-47; Non Patent Literature 4: Jefferis Nat. Rev. Drug Discovery, 2009, 8, 226-234) and the possibility that they also have an influence on half-life in blood has been reported (Non Patent Literature 5: D. Bumbaca, AAPSJ, 2012, 14, 3). Moreover, it has been revealed that antibodies 2,6-sialylated at the nonreducing terminals of the N297-linked sugar chains are active pharmaceutical ingredients in the IVIG (Non Patent Literature 6: Wang, ACS Chem. Biol. 2012, 7, 110-122). Moreover, it is considered that the heterogeneity of N297-linked sugar chains in therapeutic molecules including IgG and Fc fragments has a large influence on their nature and quality as an active ingredient and there is an undeniable possibility that contamination with a small amount of heterogeneously glycosylated molecules significantly changes the properties of end-products.
In response to this current situation, techniques for making sugar chains homogenous in the production of glycoprotein molecules including therapeutic antibodies and antibody Fc regions are being developed. Known methods for making sugar chains to be added to a glycoprotein homogenous include the transglycosidation reaction using enzymes (Non    Patent Literature 6: Wang, ACS Chem. Biol. 2012, 7, 110-122; Non Patent Literature 7: Wang, Trends Glycosci. Glycotechnol. 2011, 23, 33-52). This is a multi-stage process consisting of cleavage (hydrolysis reaction) of sugar chains and condensation of sugar chains (transglycosylation reaction) in an in vitro environment. In particular, for the purpose of converting N-type sugar chains, a group of enzymes referred to as endo-(3-N-acetylglucosaminidases are used. Such enzymes are required 1) to have an ability to hydrolyze complex-type sugar chains specifically as their substrates and 2) to have an ability to catalyze the transglycosylation reaction of a particular structure, as their properties. Endo-P-N-acetylglucosaminidases are isolated from various species and different wild type and mutant enzymes are used depending on the kind of sugar chains to be modified as substrates. EndoA (enzyme derived from Arthrobacter protophormiae) (Non Patent Literature 8: Takegawa, Biochem Int. 1991 July; 24(5): 849-55), EndoD (enzyme derived from Streptococcus pneumoniae) (Non Patent Literature 9: Fan, J Biol Chem. 2012 Mar 30; 287(14): 11272-81), EndoM (enzyme derived from Mucor hiemalis) (Non Patent Literature 10: Umekawa, Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 1994 Aug 30, 203(1): 244-52), EndoH (Non Patent Literature 11: Robbins, J Biol Chem. 1984 Jun 25; 259(12): 7577-83), EndoF2 (enzyme derived from Flavobacterium Meningosepticum) (Non Patent Literature 12: Huang, Chembiochem. 2011 April 11; 12(6): 932-941), EndoE (enzyme derived from Enterococcus faecalis) (Non Patent Literature 13: Collin, JBC 2004, 279-21), EndoS (enzyme derived from Streptococcus pyogenes) (Non Patent Literature 14: Collin, EMBO J. 2001 Jun 15; 20(12): 3046-55), and the like are used for the purpose of making sugar chains homogenous, but only EndoS is confirmed to be an enzyme having both hydrolysis activity and transglycosylation activity on a substrate which is complex-type N297-linked sugar chains having core fucose (Non Patent Literature 15: Allhorn, BMC Microbiol. 2008, 8, 3; Non Patent Literature 16: Goodfellow, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2012, 134, 8030-8033).
Further known concerning EndoS is that the hydrolysis activity of EndoS D233Q (in which there is a mutation that substitutes Asp at position 233, the nucleophilic catalytic residue among the 2 catalytic residues (which are Asp at position 233 and Glu at position 235) with Gln) is suppressed to some extent. This mutant is known to catalyze the transglycosylation reaction selectively under conditions in which the reaction system contains a lot of intermediates having sugar chains with oxazolinated reducing terminals (Non Patent Literature 17: Huang, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2012, 134, 12308-12318; Patent Literature 1: WO 2013/120066 A1; Non Patent Literature 18: B. Trastoy et al., PNAS (2014) vol 111, No. 18, pp6714-6719). Moreover, many sequences of enzymes classified as being EndoS enzymes that are sequences derived from different serotypes of different strains in the species pyogenes have been reported. In particular, EndoS2 derived from the serotype M49 (Non Patent Literature 19: Sjogren, Biochem J. 2013 Oct 1; 455(1): 107-18; which may also be referred to as EndoS49) has been reported to have similar substrate properties.
However, the activity of these known EndoS enzymes and mutant enzymes such as EndoS D233Q is not sufficient to perform sugar remodeling of therapeutic antibodies on an industrial scale and a technical improvement that makes effective sugar remodeling possible is required.


A hand-held manually swingable chum distributing device including a substantially elongated bat-shaped housing having a hollow interior, a closed handle at a proximal end thereof and an enlarged open distal end. The distal end is defined by an opening formed preferably generally diagonally to a longitudinal axis of the housing. The hollow interior is sized to receive and hold a quantity of chum therein which is placeable or pourable into the hollow interior when the housing is held tipped upwardly and with the opening upwardly facing. An interior surface of the housing adjacent the opening is smooth and uninterrupted to allow the chum within the hollow interior to flow smoothly therefrom when the housing is held by the handle and swung. Flotation material within the handle preferably renders the device buoyant in water.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to fishing accessories, and more particularly to a portable hand-holdable chum distributing device for manually dispersing quantities of chum and bait across the surface of water.
2. Description of Related Art
Chumming or dispersing of live or cut bait or variations thereof is well recognized for attracting fish to the vicinity of a fishing boat, shore or dock from which a fisherman is attempting to catch fish. Chum is generally referred to as any animal matter such as fish parts, blood, fish oil and variations thereof and/or combinations of other animal parts of a similar consistency.
Chumming may be accomplished by simply pouring quantities of chum overboard onto the surface of the water and allowing it to disperse by wind, waves and current. Additionally, chum may be frozen into blocks and then attached to the back of the boat by a flexible chum line. However, a number of patented prior art devices are intended to facilitate the dispersion of live bait and chum by various means.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,047,320 to Lee discloses a bait dispenser for dispensing live bait, namely crickets, grasshoppers and the like. A design patent issued to King, et al. teaches a tubular fishing tool as shown in D462,106.
A live insect dispensing cage to be used by fisherman is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 6,651,377 to Pleasants and Jelasco, et al. teaches a chum dispensing assembly in U.S. Pat. No. 7,013,595. U.S. D489,428 to McManus, et al. is directed to a bait dispenser and U.S. Pat. No. 5,377,445 to Brannon teaches a dispenser for live baits such as crickets. Another cricket dispensing container is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 5,067,270 to Garrick.
A vial for placement on a fishing line for dispensing chum is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,054,230 and U.S. Pat. No. 2,786,297 to Simmons teaches a dispensing receptacle for dispensing bait. A tubular fishing tool is shown in U.S. Design Pat. D462,106 to King, et al. and Smyth teaches a hand caster for a hand line fishing system.
The present invention provides for a very simple and yet effective device for manually dispersing chum across the surface of the water. This device is easily loadable, preferrably with the narrow handle within a conventional fishing rod holder of a boat. The device is durable, being made of preferably blow molded plastic material and is easily storable when not in use.


The present disclosure describes various embodiments of surveillance systems and methods. In one such embodiment, an exemplary surveillance system includes at least one video camera configured to capture video data of a surveilled area; and a computing device that stores a surveillance program. An exemplary surveillance program includes computer-executable instructions configured to: analyze the video data captured by the at least one video camera; identify objects that enter the surveilled area and log a time at which the objects entered the surveilled area; determine an object type for each object; track the identified objects to determine a period of time the objects have been present within the surveilled area; and generate and transmit an alert for each identified object that has been present within the surveilled area for a period of time that exceeds a predetermined time threshold.

Video surveillance is often used in both public and private areas as a security measure. One form of video surveillance is passive video surveillance in which video of the surveilled area is continuously captured by one or more cameras. If a security breach occurs, such as a break-in, the video data can be reviewed after the breach in an effort to determine who caused the breach. While such a determination can be valuable in terms of identifying wrongdoers, passive video surveillance does little to prevent such breaches from occurring in the first place. In addition, passive video surveillance can result in the recording of many hours of useless video data, which is time consuming to review if and when a need for such review arises. Moreover, substantial storage capacity is required when there are multiple cameras that continuously record video data. If such storage space is limited, the video data may be captured at a slow frame rate, in which case the video data may be of low quality and, therefore, little value.
Another form of video surveillance is active video surveillance in which one or more security personnel review video of the surveilled area in real time. While such surveillance can be used to prevent or interrupt a security breach, it requires active participation by one or more security professionals. This is unattractive for several reasons. First, such security professionals typically must be paid to monitor the captured video. This can be expensive, especially when multiple security professionals are required. Second, it is possible for such persons to miss potential security threats, especially when one or more individuals are responsible for monitoring multiple video feeds. In addition, human beings can be easily distracted and their ability to closely monitor video feeds can be significantly hindered by human factors such as fatigue or boredom.
While some automated surveillance systems have been developed, many such systems rely on movement for identifying a potential threat. Accordingly, if a potential wrongdoer stops moving, he or she can become invisible to the surveillance system, which creates a vulnerability.
In view of the above discussion, it can be appreciated that it would be desirable to have an effective surveillance system and method that is capable of automatically monitoring an area in real time for security threats.

Surveillance systems and methods for automatic real-time monitoring

Board of Regents, The University of Texas System


In a commercial aircraft with a main deck (2) and a lower deck (5, 6), at least one passenger cabin (16, 16′) is also provided on the lower deck. The fuselage diameter lies on the order of a wide-body aircraft, and an energy-absorbing deformation structure (22, 23, 24) is arranged underneath the lower deck cabin. The invention proposes to arrange the wings (7) on the aircraft fuselage in accordance with the shoulder wing configuration, and to arrange the landing gear (10) outside on the fuselage such that the landing gear bays are spaced apart from one another by a certain distance that is defined by the positioning of the bottom longeron spars (9). This may provide that the lower deck volume situated underneath the main deck can be optimally utilized for payloads. The lower deck areas may also be interconnected in such a way that a significant useful width of the passage between the landing gear bays is achieved.

With respect to the economic feasibility of commercial aircraft, it is important to design as much of the available fuselage volume as possible for accommodating payloads or, in other words, to prevent unnecessary voids in the fuselage. One particular problem arises when—for example, in modern wide-body aircraft—the cargo space underneath the main deck is larger than necessary for transporting the luggage of the passengers. Although a sufficient volume for additional freight containers is available in this case, the revenues are reduced in comparison with the more economical transport of passengers.
In wide-body aircraft, in particular, with an average fuselage diameter in excess of 5 m, a lower deck of corresponding size is provided underneath the very wide main deck that approximately lies in the center of the fuselage cross section. This geometry also ensures the accessibility of the lower deck, for example, if part of the cargo space floor is lowered and forms a center aisle. A lower deck that can be utilized by persons is known and described, for example, in DE 44 16 506 C2.
According to DE 43 13 592 C2, passengers can be accommodated in the lower deck due to the fact that energy-absorbing structural elements are arranged underneath the lower fuselage shell in order to protect the passengers by reducing the impact forces in case of a crash. This publication discusses a conventional low-wing commercial aircraft, in which the utilization of the lower deck is significantly restricted due to the space requirement of wing torsion boxes and landing gears. In such instances, the lower deck is not realized continuously, i.e., passenger areas situated forward and rearward of the wing and the landing gears are not interconnected.

Commercial aircraft with a main deck and a lower deck


For the video recording of a field illuminated by a lamp, especially a surgical lamp, where at least one light beam for illuminating the field emerges from a light exit area of a lamp housing in the direction of a predetermined housing axis, the optical axis of a video camera mounted with freedom to swivel a certain distance away from the exit point of the light beam is shifted automatically by a positioning element until the axis at least approximately intersects the light beam in the area of the illuminated field. The positioning element is driven by signals from a control unit. The video camera is preferably shifted in a stepwise manner. The distance to the illuminated field is determined by the fine focusing of the camera by the autofocus function, and then signals are transmitted from the control unit to the positioning element of the camera to compensate for the parallax between the optical axis of the camera and the light beam or beams emerging from the lamp.

The invention pertains to a process for the video recording of field illuminated by a lamp, especially a surgical lamp, where at least one light beam for illuminating the field emerges in the direction of a predetermined housing axis from at least one light exit area of a lamp housing. The invention also pertains to a corresponding device.
A process for transmitting video signals and an image transmission system for surgical lamps is known from DE 195-23,377 C1. For this purpose, a surgical lamp is equipped with a video camera near the lamp housing to produce external images of the surgical field in association with a monitor screen and a control device. An adjustable suspension device is used to connect the lamp housing to a hanger bracket on the ceiling of the operating room.
FIG. 1 of this DE reference shows a lamp in which the video camera is mounted off-center.
The problem with a setup such as this is that any adjustment of the surgical lamp relative to the object being recorded, i.e., the surgical field, also results in a change in the orientation of the image with respect to the surgical field, i.e., a change in the appearance of the field being shown. As a result, it is possible that the image being reproduced will be appear to the surgeon to be displaced or rotated with respect to the original view of the surgical field.
An image transmission system for a video camera in conjunction with a surgical lamp and a control device with a monitor screen and a control unit is also known from EP 0,989,744 A1, which system has at least one image sensor in the camera, which is mounted in an adjustable support, where the control unit actuates at least one drive device to position at least the image sensor relative to the object being recorded. The video camera in this case is connected to the body of a surgical lamp, which is held in a stationary mount by means of an adjustable suspension. At least the image sensor of the video camera is supported with freedom to rotate around its optical axis, and the video camera is mounted in a swivel bearing located in the body of the surgical lamp, the axis of the swivel bearing extending approximately perpendicular parallel to the optical axis of the video camera.
The problem here is that only a frontal view in the direction in which the object being recorded is illuminated is possible.
When the camera, especially a video camera, is to be attached to a lamp, such as a surgical lamp, it can be necessary or desirable to mount the camera outside the optical axis of this lamp. In this case, the optical axis of the camera must be at an angle to the optical axis of the lamp so that it can illuminate the center of the field. We speak in this case of a parallax between the two objects.

Process and device for the video recording of an illuminated field


Described herein are methods and compositions for forming three-dimensional objects via material jetting processes, the methods including the repeated steps of selectively depositing a liquid thermoset material onto a surface from a nozzle of at least one jetting head in a first specified direction and exposing at least a portion of the liquid thermoset material to a source of actinic radiation in order to form a three-dimensional object from the cured thermoset material, wherein the jetting head is configured to eject droplets of the liquid thermoset material from the nozzle at prescribed elevated operating temperatures, and wherein the liquid thermoset material is chosen so as to possessing prescribed viscosity and rheological characteristics.

Additive fabrication processes for producing three dimensional objects are well known. Additive fabrication processes utilize computer data of an object to build up three-dimensional objects in a layer-wise or portion-wise fashion from various materials which may take the form of liquid resins, solid powders, melted filaments, or pastes/slurries. Also known as additive manufacturing or 3D printing, seven such non-limiting additive fabrication techniques are currently defined under ISO/ASTM52900-15, including: binder jetting, directed energy deposition, material extrusion, material jetting, powder bed fusion, sheet lamination and vat photopolymerization.
Material jetting is a well-known, non-limiting form of additive manufacturing that has recently increased in commercial popularity. Material jetting for additive fabrication involves the selective ejection of one or more materials from a prescribed number of jet heads. In such processes, liquid droplets of the material to be deposited are quickly and successively transferred onto a surface in a predefined pattern. In material jetting additive fabrication processes, the deposition process is repeated until a three-dimensional object is formed. In material jetting additive fabrication processes, the surface onto which materials are jetted may include, without limitation, a rigid build platform, a flexible foil, a previously solidified portion of jetted material, or a powder bed of a different material.
A wide array of different materials may be employed in additive fabrication processes. Thermoplastic materials are commonly used in sheet lamination and material extrusion processes, such as fused filament fabrication (FFF). Thermoplastics are also commonly used in directed energy deposition processes such as selective laser sintering (SLS), although metals and other inorganic materials may be used in SLS processes as well. Vat photopolymerization techniques such as stereolithography typically employ a single liquid thermoset material from which the three-dimensional articles are cured.
Material jetting processes are advantageous because they enable the simultaneous use of a plurality of different materials or material types in the same build process. For example, jetting print heads in an additive fabrication process may dispense waxes or thermoplastic materials which solidify upon cooling after selective deposition on the surface to be covered. Such materials are often used as a scaffolding material to provide support for the desired object to be formed, in order to prevent deformation during the build process. Other jetting print heads, on the other hand, may be designed to eject photopolymers that respond to the application of actinic radiation to form irreversible thermoset bonds at prescribed wavelengths and/or intensities.
Electromagnetic radiation is used to encourage rapid curing of the thermosetting materials. The radiation may be emitted in the UV, visible, UV/vis, or infrared portions of the electromagnetic spectrum and may be applied, for example, by lasers, lamps, or LEDs. The electromagnetic, or actinic, radiation may be applied selectively, e.g. by drawing a specific pattern with a laser, using a digital micromirror device (DMD), or a mask, or unselectively, e.g. by passing a lamp over the entirety of a surface. Post-processing by applying additional temperature or light to the newly formed three-dimensional object may be necessary to achieve the desired properties of a three-dimensional object formed from a thermosetting composition.
Thermoset materials designed for additive fabrication processes are well-known generally. Low viscosity, typically low-molecular weight radically-polymerizable resins are known to exist in material jetting additive fabrication processes. Such resins generally consist of one or more (meth)acrylate compounds (or other free-radical polymerizable organic compounds) along with a free-radical photoinitiator for radical generation. U.S. Pat. No. 5,418,112 describes one such radical-curable system. Although such radically-polymerizable resins typically possess low viscosities and will readily cure under even relatively lower energy and/or intensity, they are not always capable of producing solid objects which are sufficient for many end-use applications. First, several (meth)acrylate-based resins considered suitable for material jetting additive fabrication processes have traditionally produced cured parts that are overly brittle or possess other undesirable mechanical properties. Therefore, they may produce parts which are typically not robust enough for non-prototyping applications. Also, such resins may exhibit problems of deformation, such as production of warped or malformed parts, because of residual strain due to the differential shrinkage during curing. Such problems are exacerbated on larger-platform additive fabrication machines, wherein the cumulative differential shrinkage effect amplifies part warping or malformation as cured objects become larger. These problems of deformation can be partially rectified through software which accounts for known shrinkage rates by modifying the CAD file from which a solid three-dimensional part is generated. However, software corrections are insufficient to completely compensate for deformation in parts which have intricate and complicated shapes or require a strict dimensional tolerance across longer distances.
Another well-known type of thermoset material suitable for use in additive fabrication systems is a "hybrid" curable resin, or one that comprises: (1) epoxies, oxetanes, or other types of cationically polymerizable compounds; (2) one or more cationic photoinitiators; (3) acrylate resins or other types of free radical polymerizable compounds; and (4) one or more free radical photoinitiators. Examples of such hybrid curable systems are described in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,434,196. Such materials have long-been known to afford the creation of cured parts produced via additive fabrication processes that may possess superior mechanical properties relative to low molecular weight all-acrylate based systems. Furthermore, hybrid curable systems are considered superior to all-acrylate systems in that they suffer less from the differential shrinkage problems which have long-plagued all-acrylate systems.
Various hybrid curable photopolymer compositions for additive fabrication processes are further described in, e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 7,183,040. Such compositions, which are particularly optimized for stereolithography processes, include prescribed amounts of a cationically curable component having a linking aliphatic ester group, an additional epoxy-group containing component, an oxetane-containing component, a multifunctional acrylate, a free-radical photoinitiator, and a cationic photoinitiator. The components formed therefrom possess a desirable combination of stiffness, toughness, heat resistance, and resistance to water absorption.
Yet additional thermosets capable of producing three-dimensional parts with exceptional toughness are described in U.S. Pat. No. 9,676,899. Therein, radiation curable resin compositions are disclosed which comprise cationically polymerizable components and various species of impact modifiers that impart high tensile modulus and high toughness into the parts cured therefrom, as measured by high impact strength and/or high resistance against crack propagation.
Even further thermosets capable of producing three-dimensional parts with exceptional degrees of stiffness and heat resistance are described in U.S. Pat. No. 9,228,073. Therein, compositions are disclosed and claimed which utilize a prescribed matrix of filler particles to facilitate the achievement of such desirable properties into resins containing cationically curable and free-radically curable constituents.
Thermosets capable of producing three-dimensional parts from hybrid-curable photopolymer compositions in additive fabrication processes employing radiation sources operating in the UV/vis region of the electromagnetic spectrum are described and claimed in U.S. Pat. No. 9,708,442. Such compositions possess a photoinitiating package including Norrish Type I photoinitiators with prescribed ionization potentials, a compound possessing an electron-donating substituent attached to a vinyl group, a cationically curable constituent, a cationic photoinitiator, and a free-radically curable component.
Compositions described in the above thermoset compositions yield excellent properties in the cured objects they create, but the chemistry required to do so often results in highly viscous liquid compositions. In some cases, the compositions prescribed possess a viscosity at 25° C. of up to and well-above 1000 centipoise (cPs).
Purported advancements enabling the use of materials with slightly elevated viscosities (in relation to the low-viscosity traditional "inks") in contemporary material jetting additive fabrication processes are described in, inter alia, US2002/008333 and US2010/0092691. These references note that jet deposition may occur at elevated temperatures, in turn enabling the materials employed to possess viscosities ranging from 50-500 cPs at 25° Celsius. However, tradeoffs are still required: the references teach that, in order to function properly in the jetting process, such compositions must still possess extremely low viscosities (such as below 20 cPs) at the printing temperature. The references concede that the initial viscosity of many curable compositions that can provide desirable final properties make them difficult to jet.
Despite the foregoing, the amount of materials actually suitable for use with known material jetting systems for additive fabrication systems remains extremely limited. Specifically, there is an unmet need for material jetting systems and processes which utilize a broader array of highly viscous thermoset materials that are capable of yielding three-dimensional articles with superior mechanical properties.

Compositions and methods for high-temperature jetting of viscous thermosets to create solid articles via additive fabrication


A universal distal securement element for surgical pins of all utilized diameters, comprises a protective sphere provided with a bore for a pin and a clamping screw disposed in a tapped hole which opens into the bore. A crescent-shaped elastically deformable insert is disposed in the bore and the clamping screw bears against it. The deformable insert is deflected so that the insert has an internal cavity of progressively smaller cross section the deeper the screw is screwed into the tapped hole, thereby to permit clamping by the insert within the sphere of surgical pins of various diameters. The bore is circular in cross section and the crescent-shaped insert has edges that are disposed against sides of the bore remote from the screw, whereby upon screwing the screw progressively into the tapped hole, these edges approach each other. Alternatively, these edges overlie each other on the same side of the bore as the screw, whereby upon screwing the screw into the tapped hole, the overlapping edges slide against each other with an area of overlap that increases progressively as the screw is screwed into the hole.

Distal pins used currently in surgery of the hand for the consolidation of the joints have diameters from 0.8 mm to 3 mm in steps of 0.2 mm to 0.5 mm. There exists, for protecting the end of this pin, in the external portion, a distal securement element in the form of a ball of plastic material resisting autoclaving. This ball is pierced diametrically by a hole permitting the passage of distal pins of similar diameters. For example, a distal securement element whose bore is 1.2 mm in diameter can receive pins that are 0.8 mm, 1.00 mm and 1.2 mm. For larger diameters, the exterior diameter of the ball will be greater. All these existing distal securement elements are pierced in the equatorial plane with a tapped hole in which the screwing action of a screw driver on a headless screw applies point pressure to the pin inserted in the element, such that this element will thus be fixed in rotation and in translation on the pin, thus preventing the latter from drifting relative to the hand, or relative to any other part of the body in which this pin might be implanted.
The distal securement element facilitates by its shape the treatment in dressing the wound, it thus makes it unnecessary for a surgeon to bend by 90 degrees the distal pin as was the case before this distal securement element.
To permit use of a securement element of this type for all diameters of existing pins, it has been proposed (French 2,633,822) to provide the securement element with orthogonal bores at the crossing of which opens the tapped hole of the clamping screw. This known arrangement is difficult to use by the physician, who must choose the bore corresponding to the pin which he has emplaced. Moreover, the unused bore constitutes a receptacle for organic products and organisms which are dangerous for the adjacent wound.

Device for securing the distal end of a surgical pin


A battery powered wireless fluid pressure sensor has a sealed chamber which can be vented to the outside atmosphere through a re-sealable reference port to allow a user to set the reference atmosphere inside the pressure sensor enabling the pressure sensor to provide absolute, gauge and true gauge pressure readings. The sensor calculates and transmits the fluid pressure taking into account the temperature of the pressure transducer, the temperature of the electronic devices and the barometric pressure inside the sealed chamber to provide accurate pressure measurements over a wide range of operating conditions.

Accuracy, versatility, ease of use, durability, and cost of manufacturing are important parameters for fluid pressure sensors. In the past hermetically sealed sensors have been used to provide a reference atmosphere for the pressure transducer (the pressure transducer providing an output indicative of a pressure differential on two surfaces of the transducer). A hermetic seal requires a container that is rigid and sealed well enough to withstand the normal wear and tear of a component which may be used in relatively instrument unfriendly industrial environments such as in chemical refineries and oil wells.
Such hermetically sealed pressure sensors provide a pressure measurement that is with respect to the environment inside the sensor package when the sensor was sealed. Sealing the sensor package in a vacuum increases the cost of manufacturing the sensor, while sealing the package at the factory ambient pressure prevents the accuracy of any direct absolute pressure measurement since moving the sensor to a different altitude will cause a pressure differential between the reference pressure of the sensor and the ambient air pressure. Either reference environment does not allow simple, direct measurement of both absolute and gauge pressure.
The use of a wireless pressure sensor allows easy relocation of the sensors and the easy addition of additional sensors as compared to more conventional wired pressure sensors.
What is needed is a fluid pressure sensor that is of high accuracy in an industrial operation while also being versatile, easy to set up and use, durable, and cost effective to manufacture.
It is a principal object of the present invention to a fluid pressure sensor that provides these needed parameters.


An apparatus for mixing a catalyst with a resin and then spraying the mixture onto a surface. The catalyst is mixed with air before the catalyst/air mixture is introduced to the resin in the mixing tube. The sprayer is provided with a specially designed check valve to prevent resin and catalyst from back flowing into the air/catalyst supply line. The construction of the check valve prevents it from clogging or becoming stuck shut during operation.

This invention relates to a method and apparatus for mixing a resin and a catalyst and, more particularly, to an apparatus for efficiently mixing a high viscosity heavily filled resin with a catalyst and pressurized air wherein the catalyst and pressurized air are mixed before introduction to the resin.
Resins have numerous uses including, but not limited to the construction of swimming pools, the exterior coating of buildings, the protective interior coating of tanks, as well as the protective coating of secondary containment walls. A resin such as polyester is typically applied to a surface with a catalyst such as methyl-ethyl-ketone peroxide. Catalysts allow the resin to polymerize and cure. The present state of the art methods of resin application involve the spraying of the resin and methyl-ethyl-ketone peroxide onto a particular surface with a spray gun. A variety of spray guns are known in the art.
An internal mix gun is often used when solvent emissions are a problem, because internal mixing limits the amount of atomized material and catalyst exiting the gun. Internal mix guns generally have three feed lines, a resin line and a catalyst line which feed into a manifold, and an air line. The resin and catalyst are typically mixed in the manifold. After mixing, the resin and catalyst are expelled from the gun in confluence through a nozzle or similar orifice with pressurized air from the air line. The pressurized air supplies sufficient pressure so that the resin and catalyst are sheared and atomized as they are expelled from the gun. A major drawback of this type of gun is that during a spraying operation, catalyzed resin often backs up into and catalyzes within the air supply. Catalyzed resin in the air supply leads to costly and time-consuming down time while the spraying operation is shut down and the air supply is cleared of any obstructions. Standard check valves are rarely effective as they quickly become hardened shut with catalyzed resin or the internal workings of the check valve become frozen with catalyzed resin. Yet another problem with this type of gun is that a portion of the catalyst supply line extends beyond the on/off valve (i.e. between the on/off valve and the manifold) so that when the device is turned off, some catalyst drains from the end of the supply line into the manifold thereby wasting catalyst.
A second type of gun typically used is an external mix gun. In an external mix gun, the resin and catalyst are atomized and expelled separately and directed toward one another. The resin and catalyst combine in the air shortly before contacting the article being treated. A major drawback of the external mix gun is the incomplete mixing of resin and catalyst, which often leads to patches of incompletely catalyzed resin appearing on the finished article. Such portions of uncatalyzed resin can produce points of weakness or blisters on the surface of the finished article.
A more important problem with external mix guns is the exterior atomization of the catalyst. Because of the incomplete mixing of the catalyst with the resin, much of the atomized catalyst disperses into the atmosphere and, more particularly, in the immediate work environment where the application is taking place. Concern over the safety of workers breathing catalyst contaminated air has led to numerous restrictions on the use of external mix guns. Such guns have even been completely banned in at least one state.
Yet another type of gun is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,388,767, 5,388,768, and 5,388,763. In the device disclosed in these patents the resin and catalyst are not mixed in a manifold nor are they mixed after they are expelled. Rather, in these devices, the resin and catalyst are separately introduced into a mixing tube where they mix as they migrate toward the spray tip of the mixing tube. Separately combined with the mixing tube is a pressurized air stream which introduces pressurized air into the mixing tube. The pressurized air aids in mixing the catalyst and resin in the mixing tube and also aids in expelling the catalyst/resin mixture out of the end (spray tip) of the mixing tube. One problem with this design is that in order to prevent the resin from backing up into the catalyst supply line in the event of a clog in the mixing tube, it is necessary to introduce the catalyst into the mixing tube at the same pressure as the resin is introduced, which can approach 3000 pounds per square inch (psi) depending on the viscosity of the resin. It is undesirable to introduce catalyst at such high pressures since catalyst can often be corrosive and dangerous. If a catalyst line ruptured at high pressure, the catalyst could spray violently thereby potentially causing serious damage to life and property. Another problem with the design disclosed in these patents is that it can be difficult for the thick resin to thoroughly mix with the watery catalyst as the catalyst and resin migrate through the mixing tube. In fact, the relatively high viscosity catalyst often creates its own path as it travels through the mixing tube instead of completely mixing with the resin, thereby resulting in incomplete mixing of the resin and catalyst.
The difficulties encountered in the prior art discussed herein above are substantially eliminated by the present invention.


A system and method for distributing shared content based on a probability is provided. The system includes a shared content request unit to receive a shared content request; a bid retrieval unit to retrieve a plurality of shared content items based on the share content request, and to retrieve a plurality of bids corresponding to the plurality of shared content items, respectively; a probability retrieval unit to retrieve a plurality of likelihood values for each of the plurality of bids, respectively; a bid adjustment unit to adjust the plurality of bids based on the corresponding plurality of likelihood values; and a shared content selection unit to select shared content based on the adjusted plurality of bids.

Various content sources and web sites incorporate an auction process for determining shared content to distribute along with the content. Shared content may be directed towards goods or services, and include information about the goods or services and/or meta data associated with the goods or services. The meta data may include a link to an external web site, serving additional information about the goods or services.
The shared content may be incorporated instream along with the content being served. Thus, if a user accesses the content, the shared content may be presented before or during the presentation of the content.
The auction process for shared content distribution employs a bidding process. Thus, various parties that are associated with the shared content may bid for certain search queries/keywords associated with the content source. For example, if a visitor to the content source searches for dog videos, the auction process may serve shared content at a rate contingent on a bid submitted by each shared content provider.
The content source may desire to maximize revenue. Thus, in choosing shared content to serve alongside content already being served, the content source may select the highest bid recorded during the auction process.

Distribution shared content based on a probability


An embodiment comprises: a housing; a bobbin disposed in the housing; a coil disposed on the bobbin; a magnet disposed in a side portion of the housing, and including a first side surface facing the coil and a second side surface opposite to the first side surface; and a yoke disposed in the upper portion of the housing and overlapping the magnet in the optical axis direction, wherein: the centerline of the magnet is located on one side with reference to a reference line; a first groove adjoining one end of the first side surface of the magnet is disposed at a first end of the magnet; a second groove adjoining the other end of the first side surface of the magnet is disposed at a second end of the magnet; the reference line passes through the center of the housing and is perpendicular to the outer surface of the side portion of the housing where the magnet is disposed; and the centerline of the magnet is a straight line passing through the center between the first end and the second end of the magnet and perpendicular to the first side surface of the magnet.

A mobile phone or a smartphone having mounted therein a camera module that captures and stores images or video of a subject has been developed. In general, the camera module may include a lens, an image sensor module, and a voice coil motor (VCM) for adjusting the distance between the lens and the image sensor module to adjust the focal distance of the lens, i.e. to perform autofocus.

Lens driving device, and camera module and optical device including same


An improved radio frequency wave attenuating wall (ceiling or floor) or door material comprises a laminated structure having as an integral part thereof one or more layers of a viscoelastic material which also functions as a glue and one or more electrically conducting layers. An electrically conducting material such as tape or a formed metal channel provides an electrical connection between the electrically conducting material and an exposed outer surface of the laminated structure. In one embodiment the electrically conducting material is paint. In one embodiment, standard wallboard, typically gypsum, comprises the external surfaces of the laminated structure and one or more conductive layers are constructed between the gypsum exterior. In one embodiment, the conducting layer material is selected to provide physical security in addition to radio frequency wave attenuation. The construction is such that acoustical attenuation is also achieved.

The security of information, such as that transmitted by radio frequency waves, is emerging as a privacy, economic, security, and anti-terrorism issue. In spite of security technologies such as data encryption, information may be surreptitiously obtained by sensing the emissions of keyboards, wireless mouse pointing devices, computer monitors, security systems and such. Unintended listeners may receive the emissions of telephone systems outside the user's premises. Employees may make calls with cell phones and inadvertently transmit background sounds or conversations. Some restaurants, theaters, churches and other public places want to prevent cell phones or pagers from being used. In some cases the information represented by the signals may not be important, but the signals themselves interfere with nearby sensitive equipment. Thus it is important in many circumstances to contain emissions within, and/or to prevent emissions from penetrating, a certain room or building.
Prior solutions have typically used electrically conducting materials, such as wire mesh or sheet metal, to enclose the volume of interest. The conducting materials are mechanically and electrically connected together and then grounded. Installation is done by building an enclosure a layer at a time. For example, one method in use today is to weld steel plates together on six sides of a room, with an opening for a door, typically steel. This method is labor intensive, requires a highly trained labor force, may require heavy duty material handling equipment, and the resulting structure slowly loses its RF shielding ability over time as small cracks develop in the welds due to building motion and/or settling.
In areas requiring high security it is also desirable to be able to detect attempts to penetrate the protected area to, for example, install a secret listening or viewing device.
Accordingly, what is needed is a new material and a new method of construction to reduce the transmission of RF signals into or out of an enclosure which allows easier construction, does not deteriorate over time, and is tamper resistant. The ability to simultaneously reduce acoustic energy (i.e. sound) transmission from or into the enclosure is also desirable.

Radio frequency wave reducing material and methods for manufacturing same


A system to collect and store in a special data structure arranged for rapid searching massive amounts of data. Performance metric data is one example. The performance metric data is recorded in time-series measurements, converted into Unicode, and arranged into a special data structure having one directory for every day which stores all the metric data collected that day. The data structure at the server where analysis is done has a subdirectory for every resource type. Each subdirectory contains text files of performance metric data values measured for attributes in a group of attributes to which said text file is dedicated. Each attribute has its own section and the performance metric data values are recorded in time series as Uinicode hex numbers as a comma delimited list. Analysis of the performance metric data is done using regular expressions.

In the management of IT systems and other systems where large amounts of performance data is generated, there is a need to be able to gather, organize and store large amounts of performance data and rapidly search it to evaluate management issues. For example, server virtualization systems have many virtual servers running simultaneously. Management of these virtual servers is challenging since tools to gather, organize, store and analyze data about them are not well adapted to the task.
One prior art method for remote monitoring of servers, be they virtual servers or otherwise, is to establish a virtual private network between the remote machine and the server to be monitored. The remote machine to be used for monitoring can then connect to the monitored server and observe performance data. The advantage to this method is that no change to the monitored server hardware or software is necessary. The disadvantage of this method is the need for a reliable high bandwidth connection over which the virtual private network sends its data. If the monitored server runs software which generates rich graphics, the bandwidth requirements go up.
This can be a problem and expensive especially where the monitored server is overseas in a data center in, for example, India or China, and the monitoring computer is in the U.S. or elsewhere far away from the server being monitored.
Another method of monitoring a remote server's performance is to put an agent program on it which gathers performance data and forward the gathered data to the remote monitoring server. This method also suffers from the need for a high bandwidth data link between the monitored and monitoring servers. This high bandwidth requirement means that the number of remote servers that can be supported and monitored is a smaller number. Scalability is also an issue.
Other non IT systems generate large amount of data that needs to be gathered, organized, stored and searched in order to evaluate various issues. For example, a bridge may have thousands of stress and strain sensors attached to it which are generating stress and strain readings constantly. Evaluation of these readings by engineers is important to managing safety issues and in designing new bridges or retrofitting existing bridges.
Once performance data has been gathered, if there is a huge volume of it, analyzing it for patterns is a problem. Prior art systems such as performance tools and event log tools use relational databases (tables to store data that is matched by common characteristics found in the dataset) to store the gathered data. These are data warehousing techniques. SQL queries are used to search the tables of time-series performance data in the relational database.
Several limitations result from using relational databases and SQL queries. First, there is a ripple that affects all the other rows of existing data as new indexes are computed. Another disadvantage is the amount of storage that is required to store performance metric data gathered by the minute regarding multiple attributes of one or more servers or other resources. Storing performance data in a relational database engenders an overhead cost not only in time but also money in both storing it and storing it in an indexed way so that it can be searched since large commercial databases can be required if the amount of data to be stored is large. Furthermore, SQL queries are efficient when joining rows across tables using key columns from the tables. But SQL queries are not good when the need is to check for patterns in values of columns in a series of adjacent rows. This requires custom programming in the form of "stored procedures" which extract the desired information programmatically. This is burdensome, time consuming and expensive to have to write a custom program each time a search for a pattern is needed. As the pattern being searched for becomes more complex, the complexity of the stored procedure program also becomes more complex.
The other way of searching for a pattern requires joining the table with itself M−1 number of times and using a complex join clause. This becomes impractical as the number of joins exceeds 2 or 3.
As noted earlier, the problems compound as the amount of performance data becomes large. This can happen when, for example, receiving performance data every minute from a high number of sensors or from a large number of agents monitoring different performance characteristics of numerous monitored servers. The dataset can also become very large when, for example, there is a need to store several years of data. Large amounts of data require expensive, complex, powerful commercial databases such as Oracle.
There is at least one prior art method for doing analysis of performance metric data that does not use databases. It is popularized by the technology called Hadoop. In this prior art method, the data is stored in file systems and manipulated. The primary goal of Hadoop based algorithms is to partition the data set so that the data values can be processed independent of each other potentially on different machines thereby bring scalability to the approach. Hadoop technique references are ambiguous about the actual processes that are used to process the data.
Therefore, a need has arisen for an apparatus and method to reduce the amount of performance data that is gathered so that more sensors or servers can be remotely monitored with a data link of a given bandwidth. There is also a need to organize and store the data without using a relational database and to be able to search the data for patterns without having to write stored procedure programs, or do table joins and write complex join clauses.

System for organizing and fast search of massive amounts of data


An apparatus for determining a passing time of a passive RFID sports timing transponder includes a housing for protecting the apparatus; an RFID reader unit connected to an RFID antenna for remotely determining an identity and a passing time of the transponder; a location unit for determining a location of the apparatus; a mobile communication unit connected to a mobile communication antenna for transmitting the identity and the passing time of the transponder and the location of the apparatus to a processing unit; and a communication unit for communicating with another similar apparatus in an immediate spatial vicinity to synchronize operation of the RFID reader unit and an RFID reader unit of the similar apparatus to avoid interference. The RFID reader unit, the RFID antenna, the location unit, the mobile communication unit and the neighbor communication unit are integrated in a common printed circuit board that is mounted within the housing.

In the field of timing at sports events, for example running events, marathons, bicycle races, skiing races, car races, horse races or comparable events, timing of participants' start, finish, and split times plays an important role. In prevailing timing systems, oftentimes a person, a vehicle or an animal, whose time is to be measured, carries a radio element (sports timing transponder, in particular an active or passive RFID tag) for noncontact, automated timing. Runners, for instance, may carry radio elements that are attached to shoe laces or to a bib number for being attached to the participant's shirt or pants or also to a sports equipment like a bike, a cart or a rifle etc. In the case of cycling events, it is possible to attach respective radio elements to the handlebar of a bicycle. At start, finish and split time positions along a track, measuring points are provided to detect the presence of the radio element. For this purpose, a measuring point comprises a corresponding antenna and data processing means to process the received data and to determine a passing time, i.e. a moment in time at which the radio element passes the measuring point. Usually, the determined passing times for the participants are then communicated to a central evaluation point.
In this context, a sports timing transponder particularly designates a radio element that is able to transmit as well as to receive radio signals. Herein, a sports timing transponder particularly refers to a passive RFID tag that has no integrated energy source. Upon passing a measuring point, the sports timing transponder is activated, i.e. read out, by a corresponding RFID reader. Based on this read or based on multiple reads a passing time is determined by a processor connected to the RFID reader. Usually, the passive RFID sports timing transponder transmits its identity when being activated by the RFID reader. Current sports timing systems usually include a suitcase-sized apparatus (decoder) including in particular the RFID reader. This decoder is connected to a corresponding RFID-antenna. The antennas are usually ground antennas that are integrated in cable channels or positioned at a side of a race track on a tripod. Apart from the RFID reader, which is usually an RFID reader originally intended for logistics applications, current apparatuses include at least a battery, a processing module and different options for communication. Relevant drawbacks of current solutions are high costs, weight, size and energy consumption. This is particularly relevant for sports events at remote locations or for capturing split times in difficult-to-access places. Usually, the number of split time positions along a track is rather limited due to the size, weight and cost of the timing system.
In view of this, there exists a need for cost-efficient, small, lightweight and easily installable timing systems that could preferably be powered by a battery for the duration of a sports event. Such timing systems could then be installed along the race track for providing split times. Additionally, such timing systems could be installed in locations that cannot be accessed with current timing systems such as mountain trails or the like.

Apparatus for determining a passing time of a passive RFID sports timing transponder


A loading cam for continuously variable transmissions includes cam rollers contacting an input disk and a cam flange to press the input disk in the axial direction of a main shaft of the transmission upon shifting, a holding member engaged with the cam flange to hold the cam rollers, and a cover attached to the holding member. The cover cooperates with the holding member to define a passage for supplying lubricating oil for the cam rollers.

The present invention relates generally to a loading cam for continuously variable toroidal transmissions and more particularly, to a lubrication structure thereof.
A loading cam interposed between a cam flange and an input disk comprises cam rollers which contact the cam flange and the input disk, and a holding member for holding the cam rollers to restrict the positions thereof. The loading cam serves to press, upon shifting, the input disk to an output disk by relative rotation of the cam flange and the input disk so as to ensure frictional engagement with a power roller interposed between the two disks.
Generally, the loading cam is lubricated with oil supplied through holes formed at the base of the cam flange. When relative rotation of the cam flange and the input disk occurs, e.g. upon shifting, the cam rollers and the holes do not positionally correspond to each other, causing insufficient lubrication of the cam rollers, resulting in remarkably accelerated wear of the cam rollers and a cam surface, and possible seizure of the cam rollers.
In this connection, JP-A 2-261950 proposes a loading cam including a trough extending from the input disk to cover an end of a drive plate or cam flange or a trough connecting the drive plate and the input disk, and an oil reservoir formed inside the trough to hold lubricating oil for the cam rollers.
As for the above loading cam, engine torque transmitted to the input disk through the drive plate and the loading cam produces inevitable deformation of the input disk, which accompanies deformation of the trough. This requires an increase in space for the trough, resulting in enlarged size of the transmission, and results in possible detachment of the trough from the input disk.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a loading cam for continuously variable toroidal transmissions which ensures lubrication of the cam rollers without any increase in size.

Loading cam for continuously variable toroidal transmissions


A compact optical pickup in which the optical elements are mounted on an optic holder driven as a unitary structure. The pickup includes the optic holder having a vertical hole at one end through which a laser beam passes, a horizontal opening which communicates with the vertical hole, an objective lens installed at the top of the vertical hole, a reflection mirror at the juncture of the vertical hole and horizontal opening, and a hybrid optical unit consisting of optical elements positioned at the other end of the optic holder to scan the reflection mirror with the laser beam via the horizontal opening and detect the laser beam reflected from the disk. The pickup further includes a support for suspending the optic holder from a base, simultaneously keeping balance between the objective lens at the one end of the optic holder and the hybrid optical unit at the other, and elastically supporting the optic holder, and a driver for driving the optic holder vertically and horizontally. The objective lens, the laser diode and the photodiode are integrally mounted on the optic holder, so that their optical axes never skew and are always coincident with each other.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical pickup which scans an optical recording disk with a light beam, detects the light beam reflected therefrom and outputs an electrical signal so as to reproduce information on the disk, and more particularly to an optical pickup in which optical e elements such as a light generating device, an objective lens and a photodetector are mounted on a holder to be driven as a single body.
2. Background
Optical pickups for scanning an optical recording disk with a light beam and detecting the reflected light beam to output an electrical signal are used for audio/video laser disk players. Further, for use as portable players and in automobiles, small, lightweight laser disk players are required. To accomplish this, the optical pickup, which occupies a relatively large space inside the player, should be lighter and smaller. A small optical pickup enables the miniaturization of the players, and as a rule is favorable for portable use and for use in automobiles. Besides being beneficial for the laser disk player, a lightweight optical pickup greatly contributes to the high speed data processing of a compact disk ROM system or magneto-optical disk drive which is used as a computer's peripheral device.
FIG. 1 illustrates a simplified conventional optical pickup. As shown in FIG. 1, the optical pickup comprises a laser diode 1 for generating a laser beam, a grating 2 for diffracting the laser beam into three beams, a half mirror for passing portions of the incident laser beams and reflecting the remainder, an objective lens 4 for focusing the laser beams on a disk 5, a cylindrical lens 6 for changing the focusing position and shape of the laser beams using astigmatism, and a photodiode 7 for sensing the laser beams reflected by disk 5 and focused by cylindrical lens 6 to detect an electrical signal such as a playback signal or focusing/tracking error signal. In order to compensate for the focusing/tracking error due to the vibration of disk 5, objective lens 4 is mounted on actuator coils 8 so as to be driven in the horizontal and vertical directions with respect to the disk. The entire optical pickup is installed so as to be conveyed in the radial direction of disk 5 by a conveyer such as a voice coil motor (not shown), to seek particular information stored on the disk 5.
Such a mechanical configuration of an optical pickup is divided into two types, a single-body type wherein an objective holder 9 is driven with an optical pickup main body 10 as a single, integral body, and a separated type wherein the objective lens holder 9 is separated from the main body 10 so as to be independently driven. The single-body type is highly desirable because of its stable operation and because few focusing/tracking servo errors occur. However, the single-body type is disadvantageous in that high-speed search operations may not be performed since the actuator coil 8 must drive the entire optical pickup.
Thus, the separated type optical pickup is usually used in computer peripheral devices such as the compact disk ROM system or magneto-optical disk drive, since the actuator load of the separated type is small. However, the critical shortcoming of the separated type is that when the objective lens is moved its optical axis deviates from that of the main body so that aberration of the objective lens becomes larger and servo errors occur frequently.
Referring to FIG. 1, the laser diode 1, objective lens 4 and photodiode 7, are typically arranged in a T-shaped configuration with the half mirror 3 being disposed at the point of intersection. Since such a large space is unnecessarily occupied, this configuration is unfavorable for miniaturizing the optical pickup. In other words, since the conventional optical pickup is generally relatively large and heavy due to its optical element configuration, miniaturization of the player (or drive) and the increase of data processing capability is difficult to achieve.