A heat exchange unit (214) arranged to be used to recover energy from exhaust gas, the heat exchange unit (214) comprising a gas inlet duct (222) to which a heat exchange duct (216) is connected, wherein a heat exchange array (752, 754) of a heat exchange system is situated within the heat exchange duct (216) surrounding a maintenance duct and wherein the maintenance duct (226) is arranged to allow access for inspection and/or maintenance of at least part of the heat exchange system.

Heat exchangers used to recover heat from such power plant exhaust gas are often somewhat large and cumbersome in design. Consequently they are often designed to be transported in component form and assembled on site. Additionally they are not optimized efficiently for space and straightforward connection to the gas turbine or gas/diesel engine. These design limitations lead to the requirement for additional floor-space and increased transportation, assembly, testing and maintenance costs. These difficulties sometimes lead to operators opting for simple cycle (no heat recovery), which is considerably less efficient than a combined cycle and in which hot exhaust gas is vented straight to atmosphere. Historically simple cycle power plants may have been installed when there were fewer environmental concerns and fuel consumption was not critical.
Further problems are also recognized in the industry. Irregular flow distribution in power plant exhaust gas delivered to the heat exchanger (for example a velocity of 120 m/s forward flow to a backflow of 20 m/s in the same duct) can cause damage to heat exchange tubes, linings, dampers, burners and other plant equipment. Damage may be caused by excessive vibration, oscillations, or the like. The standard remedy has been to provide longer ducts with increased cross sectional area to allow the higher velocities to reduce naturally over distance. Again however this results in inefficient use of space and increased costs. Alternatively the components may be made significantly stronger and more durable, but this requires more expensive materials and manufacturing and increases weight.
It is sometimes desirable for heat exchangers to convert extra heat energy, when compared to the amount of heat present in the exhaust leaving the power plant, in order to increase the output of the heat exchange process. In presently used systems this is often achieved by a duct burner, which heats the hot exhaust gases further after they have left the power plant and before they enter the heat exchanger. The amount of extra output that can be gained in this way is however limited; the exhaust gases are already at a relatively high temperature which may be close to the maximum temperature tolerance of the heat exchanger, linings and internal components.
According to a first aspect of the invention there is provided a heat exchange unit arranged to be used to recover energy from exhaust gas. The heat exchange unit generally comprises a gas inlet duct to which a heat exchange duct is connected. A heat exchange array of a heat exchange system may be situated within the heat exchange duct and may surround a maintenance duct. The maintenance duct may be arranged to allow access for inspection and/or maintenance of at least part of the heat exchange system.
The maintenance duct may conveniently replace a by-pass duct where this is not required (for example where the heat exchange unit is a steam generator). The maintenance duct may allow for maintenance and/or inspection to be carried out on the heat exchange system in a controlled environment, without the need for the heat exchange unit to be located within a building. The maintenance duct may be sized in order to allow man access thereto; for example it may be sized to allow a man to enter the maintenance duct and inspect the inside thereof.
According to a second aspect of the invention there is provided a heat exchange unit arranged to be used to recover energy from exhaust gas. The heat exchange unit may comprise an inlet duct to which a heat exchange duct is connected. A heat exchange array may be situated within the heat exchange duct and the inlet duct and heat exchange duct may have substantially perpendicular longitudinal axes so as in use gas is delivered to the heat exchange duct in a direction substantially perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the heat exchange duct.
If the inlet duct and heat exchange duct have substantially perpendicular longitudinal axes so as in use gas is delivered to the heat exchange duct in a direction substantially perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the heat exchange duct, advantages over alternative systems may be evident. In some current systems at least part of an inlet duct is provided with a significant curve to allow connection to an end of a heat exchange duct which is substantially perpendicular to the remaining part of the inlet duct. The present system may be more straightforward than this prior art system and may allow for easier and closer connection between the source of the exhaust gas and the heat exchange duct.
According to a third aspect of the invention there is provided a heat exchange unit arranged to be used to recover energy from exhaust gas. The heat exchange unit may comprise an inlet duct to which a heat exchange duct is connected. At least two heat exchange arrays may be situated within the heat exchange duct and between the at least two heat exchange arrays is a heating mechanism.
The heating mechanism may be a burner or electrical elements for example.
Such an arrangement may allow for enhanced heat conversion. This may be particularly useful where an increase in the heat conversion may be required despite a potential loss in efficiency arising from the consumption of additional fuel in the heating mechanism.
It will be appreciated that any one of the first, second and third aspects may be combined with one or both of the other aspects. With this in mind the following embodiments may be combined with one or more of the aspects described above, where the features discussed in said embodiments are also present in said aspect or combination of aspects.
Where a maintenance duct is provided it may be substantially cylindrical. In view of the heat exchange array, this may provide a space-efficient solution whereby the maintenance duct provides enough room for access, but does not necessitate an unnecessary increase in the size of the heat exchange unit.
In some embodiments the heat exchange duct and maintenance duct are substantially coaxial. Again this may provide a space efficient solution whereby the heat exchange duct and heat exchange array necessitate only the minimum required increase in the size of the heat exchange unit.
In some embodiments pipes and headers for supply to and/or exit from the heat exchange array are provided in the maintenance duct.
In some embodiments the maintenance duct provides access to the pipes and headers for their inspection and maintenance. In this way inspection and maintenance can be carried out in a controlled environment (e.g. without inclement weather hampering the work). Additionally the maintenance duct may mean that access to the pipes and headers is significantly improved.
In some embodiments the maintenance duct is provided with a vertical access means for passing substantially the full height of the maintenance duct. Thus a ladder or lift for example may be provided inside the maintenance duct to assist with inspection and/or maintenance.
In some embodiments the maintenance duct provides structural support for the heat exchange unit. This may reduce or eliminate the structural load placed on the heat exchange duct, which may facilitate flexibility with regard to materials used and the design of the heat exchange unit as a whole.
In some embodiments the maintenance duct acts as a deflector for gas entering via the gas inlet duct, so as to alter the gas flow distribution. This may help to improve gas flow distribution.
In some embodiments the gas inlet duct is provided with at least one duct burner. This may allow for enhanced heat conversion in the heat exchange unit.
In some embodiments the gas inlet duct is positioned so as to introduce the gas tangentially to a portion of the interior perimeter of the heat exchange duct. This may improve flow distribution and reduce back pressure. Specifically tangential gas entry may create high speed circulating gas currents which dissipate their kinetic energy in a controlled manner, before moving through the heat exchange duct.
In other embodiments the gas inlet duct is positioned so as to introduce the gas so that the gas impinges upon a splitter within the gas inlet duct. A portion of the maintenance duct may provide the splitter.
In some embodiments first and second heat exchange arrays and the heating mechanism are positioned so as exhaust gas falls to a temperature between 250° C. and 350° C. before reaching the heating mechanism. In some embodiments the two heat exchange arrays and the heating mechanism are positioned so as exhaust gas falls to a temperature of approximately 300° C. before reaching the heating mechanism.
Such arrangements may provide an efficient system. A large quantity of the thermal energy carried by the gas entering via the exhaust gas inlet duct is recovered by the first heat exchange array. Following this, at the temperatures discussed, the gas may still be sufficiently hot (with the given oxygen content in the gas) to allow combustion in the heating mechanism. The heating mechanism may then re-heat the gas to proximate the maximum safe temperature tolerance of the heat exchange unit, linings and internals, whereupon the second heat array recovers the thermal energy from the re-heated gas. The first heat exchange array may also help remove turbulent flow from the exhaust gas in order that the flow is more regular when it reaches the or each heating mechanism. The skilled person will appreciate that turbulent flow can cause problems with such heating mechanisms and potentially extinguish flames therefrom.
In some embodiments the heating mechanism raises the temperature of the exhaust gas to between 700° C. and 800° C. In some embodiments the heating mechanism raises the temperature of the exhaust gas to approximately 760° C. These temperatures may be proximal to the maximum temperature tolerance of materials such as stainless steel which may be used in the heat exchange unit.
In some embodiments the heating mechanism is a ring burner. In view of its shape a ring burner may be particularly appropriate where the heat exchange duct is cylindrical (has a circular cross-section).
In some embodiments the gas inlet duct is not provided with a burner. This may allow for the gas inlet duct to be shorter, thus potentially decreasing the distance between the source of the exhaust gas and the heat exchange unit, making the whole system more space efficient.
In some embodiments the heat exchange array(s) is helical. Such a shape is convenient since it allows for a compact run of tubes. However, other forms of array may equally be possible.
In Some Embodiments the Exhaust Gas is Produced by a Gas Turbine.
In some embodiments the heat exchange unit is a once through steam generator. As will be appreciated embodiments of the present invention may provide a space efficient solution to heat recovery. Use with a once through steam generator (also a space efficient technology) may therefore be advantageous in order that the overall system has a small footprint.
In some embodiments the heat exchange unit is substantially weather proof. This may be advantageous as it may not then be necessary to house the heat exchange unit within a building. Additionally this may make inspection and maintenance of the heat exchange unit easier and safer.
In some embodiments the heat exchange unit is roughly between 2.6 m and 8 m in diameter.
In some embodiments the heat exchange duct is substantially cylindrical. This may be especially suitable in view of the use, in some embodiments, of one or more helical heat exchange arrays, and may provide a space efficient solution.
In some embodiments, when installed, the heat exchange duct is arranged substantially vertically. This may make the heat exchange duct (and heat exchange unit in general) more suitable for replacing any existing exhaust stack. Additionally it may reduce the footprint of the heat exchange duct.
According to a forth aspect of the invention there is provided a method of re-fitting a process heat source unit (exemplified by a simple cycle gas turbine), so as to convert it to combined cycle, the method comprising the steps of:
1) providing a heat exchange unit arranged to recover energy from exhaust gas, the heat exchange unit comprising an inlet duct to which a heat exchange duct is connected, wherein a heat exchange array is situated within the heat exchange duct;
2) delivering the heat exchange unit, which is generally pre-assembled and tested, to the location of the process heat source unit; and
3) replacing an existing exhaust stack of the process heat source unit with the heat exchange unit.
In some embodiments the process heat source unit is a gas turbine.
In some embodiments foundations used for supporting the existing exhaust stack are used to support the heat exchange unit. This may reduce costs and the time necessary for conversion.
In some embodiments the inlet duct and heat exchange duct have substantially perpendicular longitudinal axes so as in use gas is delivered to the heat exchange duct in a direction substantially perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the heat exchange duct This may reduce the height of the heat exchange duct. It may also reduce the time necessary for conversion as a perpendicular inlet duct may be less complicated and more easily structurally supported than for example a co-axial inlet duct.
The method may utilise a heat exchange unit according to any of the above aspects of the invention.


A tactile sensor array includes a first electrode layer and a second electrode layer with a two-phase compressible dielectric material therebetween. A ferroelectret film is used as a dielectric layer. In some embodiments, to improve sensor sensitivity and at the same time provide for high stability and reproducibility of sensor readings, the ferroelectret film is vented to atmosphere via a venting network of channels traversing at least one electrode layer and a curved rigid substrate. In some embodiments, an elastic supporting structure is provided that comprises individual elastic fastening elements connecting all layers of the sensor together. These individual elastic fastening elements are located throughout the layers of the sensor and prevent cross-talk between the individual sensors that may be caused by local shifts of parts of the sensor during use.

The present invention relates generally to tactile sensors. More particularly, various embodiments of the invention describe novel tactile sensor arrays configured for elasticity imaging of soft tissue by recording a stress pattern on the tissue surface when a compression load is applied thereto.
Tactile imaging is a recently developed medical imaging technique used to improve upon and reduce the subjectivity in clinical palpation. It is used for external or internal evaluation of various soft tissues of the human body. In particular, tactile imaging is advantageous in objective evaluation of breast tissue for the presence of lumps. When a woman visits her physician, part of the physical exam often includes a clinician attempting to palpate the patient for any lumps or changes in the breast tissue that could indicate the presence of a tumor. This manual palpation method, however, only gives the physician a vague sense of what is actually underneath the skin. Due to the lack of any precise measuring device, if a lump is found through palpation, typically all that can be documented is its general location on the breast and a rough estimate of size.
To solve this problem, various tactile imaging systems have been proposed in the prior art by the inventors of the present invention as well as by others. A typical tactile imaging system consists of a hand-held device, referred to as a tactile probe, which replaces the physician's fingertips with an array of tactile sensors. When this tactile probe is used to compress the tissue, the contact pressure between the patient and the tactile probe is recorded by a computer. Simultaneously, an optional position tracker may be used to record the location of the probe such that the spatial distribution of the stress patterns can be recorded. Presence of lumps in the tissue can then be identified with high precision allowing a more informed clinical diagnosis to be made.
A typical tactile array of the tactile probe may be based on capacitance-measuring individual tactile sensors. Such sensors may be formed by providing a first electrode layer with rows of electrodes and a second electrode layer with columns of electrodes and a compressible dielectric layer therebetween. Individual sensors are formed in locations where rows of electrodes of the first electrode layer cross over columns of electrodes of the second layer. Monitoring capacitance of the sensors (such as for example by analyzing voltage between the electrode layers at each location of the sensor) allows recording of a stress pattern when the sensor is pressed against the tissue. Such tissue compression causes uneven compression of the dielectric layer which is translated into a number of capacitance measurements for respective sensors of the tactile array.
Using such technology for evaluation of the elasticity of the human tissue presents a number of unique challenges. One important requirement for a tactile probe is high consistency and reproducibility of results. The tactile sensor array of the tactile probe has to be designed to provide stable results despite variations of temperature or the method of probe handling which may somewhat change from one clinician to the next. Another important requirement is to provide a tactile probe with high sensitivity so as to detect even a faint difference in the tissue stress pattern which may be indicative of a small or deeply located tumor.
As can be appreciated by those skilled in the art, it is difficult to provide a tactile probe which is both highly sensitive and at the same time demonstrates repeatable and stable results as increasing sensitivity tends to cause an increase in artifacts and drifts caused by changing temperature or other environmental factors.
Ferroelectrets also known as piezoelectrets, are recently-developed thin films of polymer foams, exhibiting piezoelectric and pyroelectric properties after electric charging. Ferroelectret foams usually consist of a cellular polymer structure filled with air. Polymer-air composites are elastically soft due to their high air content as well as due to the size and shape of the polymer walls. Their elastically-soft composite structure is an essential key for the working principle of ferroelectrets, besides the permanent trapping of electric charges inside the polymer voids. The elastic properties allow deformations of the electrically charged voids. However, the composite structure can also possibly limit the stability and consequently the range of applications.
The most common effect related to ferroelectrets is the direct and inverse longitudinal piezoelectricity. In these cellular polymers, stress applied normally to the surface of the polymer film generally decreases the thickness of the sample. The thickness decrease occurs across the voids of the polymer causing to decrease the electrode charges. This effect makes ferroelectrets useful as a tactile sensor as they provide high sensitivity to applied pressure. At the same time, air presence makes ferroelectrets hard to work with as thermal expansion of microscopic air pockets causes the drift of the sensor reading.

Tactile sensor array for soft tissue elasticity imaging


The invention relates to a method and a device for registering 2D projection images of an object relative to a 3D image data record of the same object, in which, from just a few 2D projection images, a 3D feature contained in an object, which is also identifiable in the 3D images, is symbolically reconstructed. The 3D feature obtained in this way is then registered by 3D-3D registration with the 3D image data record.

With specific clinical examinations or treatments there is the need to register 2D projection images, especially x-ray fluoroscopy images, available in real time during the investigation, relative to a previously recorded 3D image data record, to enable the real time flouroscopy images to be overlaid with anatomical image information from the 3D image data record. Examples of such applications are for example minimally invasive investigations or treatments with endoscopes, laparoscopes or catheters, which are introduced into the patient's body via small openings in the body in each case. Catheters are frequently used within the framework of cardiological examinations, for example with arrhythmias of the heart, which are currently treated by what are known as ablation procedures. In such cases a catheter is introduced during the recording of real time x-ray images, so-called fluoroscopy images, via veins or arteries into a heart chamber. In the heart chamber the tissue causing the arrhythmia is ablated by the application of high-frequency current, i.e. left behind as necrotic tissue.
The medical/technical difficulty with such interventions lies in that fact that, although the catheter can be visualized very exactly and at high resolution in the fluoroscopy images during the x-ray checking, the anatomy of the patient is only shown insufficiently in the fluoroscopy images.
In accordance with the method known from US 2003/0220555 A1 it is thus proposed to use a 3D image data record of the investigation area recorded pre-operatively to register the intra-operative 2D fluoroscopy images relative to the 3D image data record, to determine the spatial position and orientation of the catheter tip with reference to the 2D fluoroscopy images and to use this information to include the catheter tip in a presentation of the 3D image data record. The spatial position and orientation of the catheter tip is determined here by back projection from at least two 2D x-ray images, which is relatively simple in this case, since the form and size of the catheter tip is known in advance and this can be recognized very clearly and at high resolution on the fluoroscopy images
The precisely-positioned inclusion of the catheter tip in the 3D data record however requires that the 3D image data record as well as the two 2D fluoroscopy images are registered with each other, i.e., that their coordinate systems are correlated to each other via a transformation matrix. To perform this so-called 2D-3D registration various methods known from the prior art are named in the US 2003/0220555 A1. With image-based registration for example an "artificial" projection image is calculated in each case iteratively from the 3D image record and compared to the 2D image fluoroscopy record actually obtained. This process is repeated while varying the angle of projection until such time as a sufficient match between the artificial projection image, the so-called "digitally reconstructed radiogram (DRR)", and the true 2D fluoroscopy image is obtained.
Another 2D-3D registration algorithm uses a landmark-based registration: To this end special anatomical features such as for example the heart surface or specific vessel branching points etc. are used, which are recognizable both in the fluoscopic images and also in the 3D image data record. Further 2D-3D registration algorithms are described are in the Article of J. Weese, T. M. Buzug, G. P. Penney and P. Desmedt "2D/3D Registration and Motion Tracking for Surgical Interventions", Philips J. Res. 51 (1998), pages 299 to 316. In this method too so-called pseudo-projections are calculated from the 3D image data and compared to the x-ray projection images.
These 2D-3D registration algorithms are time-consuming and relatively unstable as a result of their iterative "trial and error" character. This applies especially if the pre-operative 3D image data record has been generated with a different modality to the fluoroscopy images, that is with MR for example, so that the artificially calculated projection image does not necessarily match the measured fluoroscopy image.
DE 102 01 644 A1 discloses a method for registering an intraoperatively recorded 3D image data record with the patient coordinate system, with the 3D image data record having been calculated from a series of projection images recorded for example with a C-arm device. Marker points attached to the patient which are arranged at least partly outside the reconstructable 3D volume are used for the registration. The marker points are however recorded in at least two 2D projection images, on which the 3D image is calculated, and their spatial position is computed with the aid of the known projection geometry. These are related to the marker coordinates in the patient coordinate system. This allows a registration of the 3D image volume to the patient coordinate system. The method requires however, that the 2D projection images used are already registered to the 3D image volume.

Method and device for registering 2D projection images relative to a 3D image data record


Trimmer for vegetables of the broccoli type is provided with a structure supporting a rotating plate in which are mounted vegetable holding systems. Each vegetable holding system is free to rotate about its axis so as to be capable of being propelled with a movement of rotation about that axis by a drive device. The device for driving in rotation acts during a portion of each revolution of the rotating plate during which a cutter associated with the corresponding vegetable holding system is brought by a control system against the vegetable so as to remove heads from the vegetable at the required section.

The developing to the consumption of vegetables having a stem or stalk bearing a bunch of florets, sets the problem of the cutting of these florets which are intended for consumption. To this end, entirely manual processes are known which have the disadvantage of requiring high labor with an extremely high production cost.
Broccoli feed systems are also known in which the broccoli passes by translation in front of one or two cutters driven with a movement of rotation about their axes. Each of these cutters thus comes to cut the broccoli so as to separate the stem from the florets. It is observed that in rudimentary installations of this type, the cutting of the stem or stalk from the florets is always performed in the same manner. For this reason, this kind of machine has the disadvantage of giving florets which are not properly cut and have to be recut manually. Machines of this type are thus relatively unproductive and supply florets of poor quality.

Trimmer for vegetables including broccoli


There is provided mechanisms for configuring a message brokering service address in an M2M device. A method is performed by a gateway. The method comprises sending a request to a DHCP server for configuration. The method comprises receiving a response from the DHCP server comprising at least address information assigned to the gateway. The method comprises receiving an MQTT_BROKER_URI representing the message brokering service address from a node.

The Internet-of-Things (IoT) is generally referred to as a network of physical smart objects such as sensors that exchange information with other sensors, devices or servers, without human interaction. As such, these devices are sometimes referred to as machine-to-machine (M2M) devices. Some examples of services in IoT include built-in sensors in automobiles or homes, heart monitoring implants or smart thermostats systems. Many new protocols have been developed after the introduction of IoT including Lightweight Machine to Machine protocol (LWM2M) and constrained application protocol (CoAP), both of which are light and compact application protocols.
M2M devices may communicate with other M2M devices and systems using wireless or wired technology. Regarding wireless technologies, M2M devices may support short range communication technologies such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and Zigbee. They may also support long range radio technologies however this is often more power consuming than short range communication.
There is a desire to improve the configurability of M2M devices so that they can more easily be adapted to changes in a network, for example if the M2M device is communicating with a malfunctioning or misbehaving server, or if there is a change in ownership.


Embodiments of the present invention provide an approach for implementing service level agreements (SLAs) having variable service delivery requirements and pricing in a networked (e.g. cloud) computing environment. Under embodiments of the present invention, a plurality of SLAs, each having a different price level, is made available to a consumer. The consumer may select one or more of the plurality of SLAs that reflects the consumer's service delivery requirements in a cloud computing environment. A consumer having relatively inflexible service delivery requirements may select one of the SLAs having a relatively higher price, whereas a consumer having relatively flexible service delivery requirements may select one of the SLAs having a relatively lower price. In one embodiment, the SLAs may dynamically provide for relatively lower variable pricing in response to the consumer receiving deferred or a relatively lower level of service during a peak service demand load. In another embodiment, the SLAs may dynamically provide for relatively higher variable pricing in response to consumer service requests that are fulfilled during a relatively higher overall service demand load. In yet another embodiment, the SLAs may dynamically provide for relatively lower variable pricing in response to consumer service requests that occur during a relatively lower overall service demand load.

The cloud computing environment is an enhancement to the predecessor grid environment, whereby multiple grids and other computation resources may be further abstracted by a cloud layer, thus making disparate devices appear to an end-user/consumer as a single pool of seamless resources. These resources may include such things as physical or logical compute engines, servers and devices, device memory, storage devices, etc.
Current systems for managing service demand load relative to infrastructure capacity in a networked (e.g. cloud) computing environment rely on task prioritization, with tasks having a higher priority receiving a relatively greater portion of available resources, and tasks having a lower priority receiving a relatively smaller portion of available resources. These systems do not take into account actual timeliness requirements for consumer initiated workload or tasks, wherein some tasks have critical and/or short term deadlines for completion, and other tasks can be completed over a longer period of time as resources become available at a lower cost. Not taking actual timeliness requirements for the completion of computing workload or tasks into account may require significant capital investment in additional capacity to handle peak demand loads on networked (e.g. cloud) computing systems.

Managing service demand load relative to infrastructure capacity in a networked computing environment

International Business Machines Corporation


A two-way communication device includes a magnetoelastic rod located between an inertial back mass and a front panel of low mass. A coil is located in the vicinity of the rod, and the rod and coil together define an audio-electric transducer. An electronic processing circuit ensures that an audio-electric signal input to the device is applied to the coil to produce a sound wave from the low mass front panel and that when a sound wave impinges on the low mass front panel an audio-electric signal is produced and output from the device.

It is known to provide two-way communication devices or intercoms for a wide variety of uses and applications, but generally they allow communication between two parties across a secure barrier. For example, these devices find application at entry points to homes and flats, in banks where they facilitate communication between bank tellers and customers and in public telephones. By virtue of their very application, two-way communication devices are usually located in public places. Consequently, they are required to be vandal proof and weatherproof.
Conventional two-way communication devices typically comprise loudspeakers, microphones and switches housed within a robust outer casing having apertures in the front face to allow sound waves to enter and leave the device and to locate the switches. Often, attacks by vandals on these devices involve objects being pushed through these apertures to damage or destroy the loudspeaker and microphone diaphragms or to jam the switches. Other attacks can take the form of various liquids such as chewing gum, vomit or super glue introduced through the apertures causing a variety of malfunctions.


A light emitting circuit and a display device capable of providing refresh action to an organic electroluminescence element to which a diode is connected in series, in a comparatively easy structure, in order to improve the average luminance.

An electroluminescence element (hereinafter referred to as 'EL element'), which is a capacitive light emitting element, can be electrically expressed as an equivalent circuit, as shown in FIG. 1. As can be understood from FIG. 1, an element can be substituted by a constitution of a capacity component C and a component E having a diode characteristic coupled in parallel to the capacity component. Therefore, an EL element can be considered to be a capacitive light emitting element. When a light emitting driving DC voltage is applied between the electrodes of the EL element, electric charge is accumulated in the capacity component C. When the voltage across the electrodes exceeds the barrier voltage or the light emission threshold voltage peculiar to the EL element, electric current starts flowing from the electrode (the anode side of the diode component E) to an organic functional layer forming a light emitting layer. As a result, the EL element emits light at light intensity proportional to the current.
The voltage V-current I-luminance L characteristic of the EL element is, as shown in FIG. 2, similar to the characteristic of a diode in that the current I is very small at a voltage lower than the light emission threshold voltage Vth and increases at a voltage higher than the light emission threshold voltage Vth. Further, the current I and the luminance L are nearly proportional to each other. The EL element shows light emitting luminance proportional to the current I which flows in accordance with a driving voltage V when the driving voltage applied to the EL element exceeds the light emission threshold voltage Vth, and shows no light emitting luminance when the driving voltage V applied to the EL element is equal to or lower than the light emission threshold voltage Vth.
When a voltage is applied to the EL element of which the function has deteriorated for repeated light emission, in a direction contrary to the forward direction, namely, a reverse bias voltage is applied, it is known that there is refresh action such that the function of the EL element is recovered.
As is also still known, in a light emitting circuit for making an EL element emit light, when a driving current is supplied to the EL element through a diode which is connected to the EL element in series, the EL element emits light, and then maintains the light emission by electric charge, which is accumulated in the capacitive component of the EL element in accordance with the driving current, for a while even after stopping the supply of the driving current. This phenomenon is can be effectively used in improving the average luminance of the EL element when a scanning time for every line is short in a display device for displaying through line scanning of a display panel with a plurality of EL elements arranged in a matrix shape, especially a display panel having a large number of lines.
In a light emitting circuit in which a diode is connected to an EL element in series, however, it is difficult to form a structure for applying a reserve bias voltage to the EL element to provide the refresh action.

Light emitting circuit for organic electroluminescence element and display device


An airbag (10) comprises a plurality of interconnected adjacent inflatable cells, wherein a cell is attached to an adjacent cell by at least two seam lines (31, 32), said lines being spaced from each other to define a cell area, which is comprising a gas passage portion (1c, 2c, 3c, 4c) between said adjacent cells.

Curved airbags, or 3-D airbags, are airbags that require a curvature to deploy between an occupant and a part of a vehicle. The curved part is necessary because the inflator is located in a vehicle area that prevents the airbag from deploying in a straight direction. Knee airbags and passenger airbags are typical examples of curved airbags. In the present application the wording "airbag" is used to identify the inflatable part, or cushion, of an airbag assembly.
Passenger airbags are active safety systems designed to deploy between an occupant and an instrument panel during vehicles impacts; passenger airbags are also designed to avoid windshield damage during the deployment of airbags. Knee airbags are designed to deploy in front of the knee area of an occupant and can be mounted on both the driver and passenger sides; on the driver's side, knee airbags are located below the steering column while on the passenger's side, the airbag can be mounted below the glove box.
When a collision occurs, knee airbags inflate upwards to fill the space between the dashboard and the passenger's lower legs, while passenger airbags inflate downwards to fill the space between occupant and instrument panel. In both cases, the initial (straight) deployment direction of the airbag must change into a direction that follows the vehicle structure, upwards in the case of knee airbags and downwards in the case of a passenger airbag.
In order to have a curved airbag, i.e. in order to have an airbag in which the direction of deployment is changed, the known art makes use of several different techniques, sometimes combined together. Namely, production of known 3-D airbags requires at least one of the following techniques: complex cushion design with a large number of different pre-cut portions that must be sewn together in time-consuming processes; complex pre-folding; use of tethers and complex steps to attach tethers to the airbag fabric.
There are known airbags comprising a plurality of cells, chambers or compartments, and valves used to inflate the cushion. Tethers are also located inside the cushion airbag to prevent a violent impact of the airbag against the occupant during the airbag deployment.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,338,069 discloses an airbag comprising a plurality of cells and a plurality of valves, where each valve can connect a first cell to a second cell and is configured to close once a predetermined pressure is reached in the second cell, to prevent fluid outflow from the second cell. The inflator that fills the knee airbag is discharging into a manifold or a common distribution volume which distributes the filling gas to the cells of the airbag through the valves. The cells of the airbag can be contained in an envelope of plastic film or can be connected together along their adjacent edges. US 2011/101660 discloses an inflatable knee airbag having a plurality of inflatable chambers.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,622,418 discloses a knee airbag with a single cell including a separate internal tether. This document discloses a method of manufacturing a knee airbag including the steps of providing a single layer with a virtual central line and two panel surface parts; folding the two panel surface parts, connecting the parts to each other; folding an area of the virtual central line in the folding direction; and forming a sewing line to connect the first panel surface part to the second panel surface part. The method of manufacturing disclosed in this document provides a single cell knee airbag with separate internal tethers.
In US20050151351, a knee airbag capable of withstanding high internal pressures is formed from one continuous fabric sheet. The knee airbag has internal tethers to withstand the high internal pressure by maintaining the airbag at a constant volume and shape. Internal tethers are disposed within the airbag cushion and are attached to oppositely facing loops. The knee airbag further includes an external tether attached to the exterior of the airbag wall to control the direction of the deployment of the knee airbag.
Thus, as previously mentioned, known methods of manufacturing a curved airbag, i.e. a 3-D airbag, require a long, complex and expensive process with multiple and complex sewing patterns that are time consuming and that require a specialized workforce.
Moreover, during inflation of known curved airbags, the gas within the cushion does not propagate with an even distribution of pressure in the inner volume of the airbag. In fact, known knee airbags with a single cell unroll as the volume of the gas inside the cushion increases. Known airbags with multiple horizontal cells are filled sequentially, i.e. the first cell is filled before the second cell, and so on. The propagation of air with a uniform distribution of pressure inside all the cells the airbag cushion would promote a faster filling of the knee airbag and an even resistance of the cells when the occupant impacts the airbag.

Curved airbag and method of manufacturing


This invention provides a method for identifying a purchaser who purchased content from which an illegal copy was produced. A provider system encrypts purchased by the purchaser using a public key of a purchaser system and sends the encrypted content to the purchaser system. The purchaser system creates a digital signature of the content with the use of a private key of its own and embeds the created digital signature into the received content. When an illegal copy is found, the provider system verifies the digital signature, embedded in the illegal copy as a digital watermark, to identify the purchaser who purchased the content from which the illegal copy was produced.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to technology which authenticates the relation between digital data and an individual/organization.
2. Description of Related Art
As the information society has evolved recently, more and more digital data is used instead of traditional printed matter as communication media. Digital data is sometimes sold as a valuable commodity.
In the information society like this, some means are necessary to authenticate the relation between digital data and an individual/organization in order to prevent crimes or malicious actions including illegal copying, illegal alteration, and illegal use of digital data. For example, to check that digital data has been provided by an authentic organization, some means are necessary to authenticate the relation between the digital data and the authentic organization. Similarly, to check the source of digital data or to check the individual or organization owning the right to digital data, some means are necessary to authenticate the relation between the digital data and an individual or an organization.
Conventionally, a technique known as a digital signature has been used to authenticate the relation between digital data and an individual/organization.
As described in xe2x80x9cANGO RIRON NYUMON (Introduction to Cryptography)xe2x80x9d, pages 133-137, Kyoritsu Shuppan Co., Ltd. 1993, the digital signature technique, developed to prove the correctness of documents, combines public key cipher technology with one-way functions.
In this technology, a pair of keys, a private key S and a public key V which satisfy g(f (n, S) V)=n and f(g (n, V), S)=n, is created first, where n represents data, and f and g represent functions. These formulae mean that data encrypted with the private key S may be decrypted by with the public key V and that, conversely, data encrypted with the public key V may be decrypted with the private key S. It should also be noted that it is virtually impossible to find the private key S from the public key V.
Once the private key S and the public key V are created, the creator passes the public key V to a partner and holds the private key S privately.
When the key creator sends data to the partner, the creator passes data to which a digital signature is attached. This digital signature is created by evaluating data with a predetermined one-way function and then encrypting the resulting evaluation value with the private key S.
The one-way function described above can calculate an evaluation value from data, but it is impossible to virtually calculate the original data from the evaluation value. In addition, it is necessary for the one-way function used in creating a digital signature to return a unique bit string for each piece of unique data; that is, the probability of the function returning the same bit string to two or more pieces of data must be very small. An example of such functions is a one-way hash function which evaluates data and returns a bit string as the evaluation value of the data. The evaluation value h(D) calculated by the one-way hash function is called the hash value of D, where h is the one-way hash function and D is data.
Upon receiving data to which a digital signature is attached, the receiving partner evaluates the data with the one-way function to obtain an evaluation value and then checks if the evaluation value matches the value generated by decrypting the digital signature using the public key V. When they match, it is verified that the digital signature was created by the holder of the private key S corresponding to the public key V and that the digital signature is for the data that was received.
The technique described in xe2x80x9cApplied Cryptographyxe2x80x9d, John Wilsy and Sons, Inc. (1996), pp 39-41, is known as a technique for creating digital signatures for use by a plurality of persons that are attached to one piece of data.
When this technique is used, not all signature creators need to generate the hash value of data to create a digital signature; and instead, each of the second and subsequent signature creators calculates the hash value of the digital signature of the immediately-preceding creator to get his or her digital signature. That is, the first signature creator calculates the hash value of data and then encrypts the resulting hash value with his or her own private key to get a digital signature, as described above. The second creator encrypts the hash value of the first creator""s digital signature with his or her own private key to get a digital signature. This is repeated for the subsequent signature creators. That is, the n-th creator encrypts the hash value of the (nxe2x88x921)th creator""s digital signature with his or her own private key to obtain a digital signature.
In this case, the digital signatures created by n signature creators are verified as follows. The final digital signature is decrypted by the public key of the final (n-th) signature creator, the decrypted digital signature is then decrypted by the public key of the (n-1)th signature creator, and so on, until the digital signature of the first signature creator is decrypted. If the result obtained by decrypting the signature by the public key of the first signature creator matches the hash value of the original data, it is determined that the digital signature was created by n signature creators each having his or her own public key and that the digital signature corresponds to the data. However, when the sequence in which the signature creators created signatures is not known, this technique requires that the above process be performed for the number of times generated by permutating all signature creators.
Also available for authenticating the relation between digital data and an individual/organization is a technique known as a digital watermark.
As described in Nikkei Electronics (1997), No. 683, pp. 99-107, this technique embeds management information, such as copyright information, into image data itself.
The digital watermark technique has the following features. Embedded data is not usually seen when image data containing that embedded information is displayed and, in addition, the image data itself displayed on a screen is almost not affected by the embedded information. Removing only the embedded information is difficult and, if the embedded information is removed accurately, the picture quality of the image data is significantly degraded. In general, even when the image data is compressed, embedded information may be restored to some extent.
A digital watermark technique which enables information to be embedded, not into image data, but into text data, drawing data (graphic data), and audio data has also been proposed.
In Nikkei Electronics (1997), No. 683, pp. 99-107, a technique using such digital watermark for preventing the illegal copy of contents, which are composed of digital data such as image data, is also described.
This technique embeds the identification of the contents purchaser into the contents in the form of a digital watermark. When illegally copied contents are seized, the embedded information is extracted to identify the person (that is, the purchaser) who produced the illegal copy.
The basic procedure for embedding purchaser""s identification information is as follows:
(1) The provider (contents provider) assigns a unique number to a contents purchaser.
(2) The provider embeds the number of the contents purchaser into the contents in the form of a digital watermark.
(3) When illegally-copied contents are found and seized, the provider or inspection division extracts the number from the contents to identify the purchaser.
(4) The penalty is imposed on the purchaser for illegal copy or for lending the contents to a person who produced the illegal copy.
Recently, a WWW (World Wide Web) system, composed of a WWW server program and a browser program, has become popular as means for providing and sending information to a plurality of users over an open network such as the Internet. As this type of WWW system has become widely used, it has become necessary to be able to authenticate the relation between a Web page, which contains digital data made available on a WWW server, and an individual/organization in order to prevent crimes or malicious actions from occurring through the illegal use of the WWW system. For example, when a Web page is guaranteed by some authentic organization, it is necessary to be able to authenticate the relation between the Web page and the organization to allow the user to make sure that the Web page is truly guaranteed. Similarly, to check the individual""s or organization right to a Web page creator or a Web page, the relation between the Web page and the individual or organization must be able to be authenticated.
As described in the April 1996 issue of xe2x80x9cOPEN DESIGNxe2x80x9d (published by CQ Publishing Co., Ltd. Issuer: Ryoji Gamou), pp. 4-22 and pp. 40-78, a WWW system features not only the easy-to-operate graphical user interface (GUI) but also the usability which allows the user to reference related information linked by hypertext. This WWW system has contributed to the fast growth of the Internet.
The outline of a WWW system introduced by the publication is as follows:
The WWW system is composed of at least one WWW server on which a WWW server program for publishing information runs and at least one client terminal on which a browser program for browsing published information runs. Data is transferred between the WWW server and the client terminal via the communication protocol called HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol).
To publish information on the WWW server, a server user must create a Web page containing data to be published. This page contains text data, image data, audio data, video data, and link data to other Web pages, all interconnected using a structure description language called HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language). Then, the user stores this Web page in a location (directory) in the WWW server so that it may be accessed from other computers (client terminals or other WWW servers).
To browse a published Web page from a client terminal using a browser program, a terminal user must type the URL (Universal Resource Locator) of the Web page. Then, the Web page is sent from the WWW server to the client terminal. The text data, image data, and video data of the Web page are displayed on the client terminal screen. Audio data, if included in the page, is produced from the speaker connected to the client terminal.
The recent trend is that the WWW system like this is used not only as the communication means but also in business. One such application is an electronic commerce system which provides the user with information on goods using this WWW system.
The overview of this electronic commerce system is described in xe2x80x9cJYOHOSHORI (Information Processing), No. 9 of volume 38xe2x80x9d, pp. 752-810 (Issuer: Kouji Iizuka, Published by Jyohoshori Gakkai (Information Processing Society of Japan)).
The electronic commerce system described in the above-mentioned publication not only provides the user with information on goods but also settles accounts with the use of the cryptography technology, such as common key cipher and public key cipher, and the authentication technology such as digital signatures. In this system, many settlement methods, including bank settlements, credit card settlements, or electronic money settlements, are used.
In such an electronic commerce system, most vendors include into their web pages the image data, such as the logos of credit card companies, to allow the user to instantly select one of various payment methods. This is similar to a real-world (not a virtual world such as the Internet) store where the logos of the credit card companies are put up on the counter or in the show window.
Sometimes, a Web page may also contain image data, such as logo marks indicating the Web page creator or an authentic individual or organization which has authorized the Web page, to allow a Web page user to instantly ascertain who has created the Web page or that the Web page has been authorized by the authentic individual or organization.
The above-described digital watermark technology has the following problems.
First, the relation between information embedded as a digital watermark and an individual/organization indicated by the embedded information is not always guaranteed. That is, it cannot be always said that the information embedded in the digital data indicates the relation between the individual/organization and the digital data correctly.
For example, with the illegal copy prevention technique described above, a number embedded in the illegally-copied contents cannot always be used as a proof that the illegally-copied contents were purchased by the purchaser corresponding to that number. That is, because the number was given by the provider one-sidedly, the purchaser may insist that the number found in the copy is not the one assigned to him or her.
In the case of the Web page described above, there is a possibility of an illegal user forging information to pretend to be some other user and embedding it as a digital watermark or alternatively he may pretend that the information is guaranteed by an authentic organization.
Second, the relation between digital data and an individual/organization indicated by the information embedded as a digital watermark is not guaranteed.
For example, in the illegal copy prevention technique described above, there is no proof that a purchaser""s number is embedded correctly in the content purchased by the purchaser. In other words, there is a possibility that a person other than the purchaser (for example, a person at the provider) has mistakenly or maliciously embedded the purchaser""s number in a content not purchased by the purchaser.
In the case of the Web page described above, there is a possibility of an illegal user extracting a digital watermark, embedding it in a Web page by an individual/organization, and embedding it in his/her Web page to pretend to be the legal purchaser or to pretend that his/her page is guaranteed by an authentic organization.
Third, when there are many copyright holders for a single content with much copyright information that must be embedded in it with the use of the digital watermark technique, the quality of the content (image quality when the content is image data) is significantly degraded.
Fourth, the digital watermark technology is not suitable for digital data, such as a Web page, containing several types of data. For example, when the technology is used for digital data containing text data, drawing data, and image data, each type of data must be processed separately.
On the other hand, the digital signature technique is cumbersome because digital data as well as the digital signatures associated with the digital data must be managed as a pair. In addition, digital signatures, which can be separated from digital data much easier than digital watermarks, cannot be used for preventing illegal copies.
Another problem with digital watermarks and digital signatures is that, because they are invisible, the digital data user cannot immediately understand the relation between digital data indicated by digital watermarks or digital signatures and an individual/organization.
For example, digital watermarks and digital signatures do not present the user with information on the relation between a Web page and an individual/organization in the same way as a Web page including logo marks as image data does. This means that digital watermarks and digital signatures do not directly guarantee that the relation between digital data indicated by digital watermarks or digital signatures and an individual/organization corresponds to the relation between digital data presented directly to the user and the individual/organization.
On the other hand, a logo mark added to a Web page is image data. Therefore, it cannot be authenticated that the Web page actually contains data that is indicated by the relation between the logo mark and an individual/organization.
Take the logo mark of a credit card company for example. Imagine that an illegal user copies the logo mark of a credit card company from the Web page of a legal agent of the company, pastes it into an appropriate location of the Web page of the agent owned by the illegal user, and then stores the Web page in the WWW server so that any computer may access it. In this case, a consumer may judge, from the logo mark of the credit card company contained in the Web page of the agent owned by the illegal user, that the agent is legal and may send data necessary for settlement, such as a credit card number, to that WWW server. As a result, the illegal user is able to obtain the credit number of the consumer illegally and make an illegal profit.
In view of the foregoing, it is an object of this invention to provide a technique which authenticates the relation between digital data and an individual/organization more reliably. It is another object of this invention to provide a technique which directly presents the user with digital information on an individual/organization associated with digital data such that the relation between the digital information and the individual/organization corresponds to the relation between the digital data itself and the individual/organization.
To achieve the above objects, a method according to this invention is an embed-in-content information processing method for processing information embedded in a content using an electronic computer, the method comprising the steps of creating cryptographic information by encrypting specific data using a private key in accordance with a public key cipher system used by content-handling persons; and embedding the created cryptographic information into the content such that the cryptographic information cannot be separated from the content without using a predetermined rule.
Here, the description that the cryptographic information cannot be separated from the content without using the predetermined rule means that, when the predetermined rule is not used, the cryptographic information cannot be separated by a method other than the trial-and-error method.
In this method, the cryptographic information is extracted from the content containing the cryptographic information for use in decrypting with the use of a public key paired with the private key used by the content-handling persons, and then the decrypted result is verified to check if it matches the specific data. If the content in which the cryptographic information is embedded is an illegal copy, the content-handling person of the content from which the illegal copy was created may be identified.
In this case, this determination is made by verifying information embedded in the illegal copy, wherein the information depends on the private key known only to the content-handling person of the content and may be created only by the content-handling person of the content. This makes clear the correspondence between the information embedded in the illegal copy and the content-handling person of the content from which the illegal copy was created.
The cryptographic information embedded in the content may be a value dependent on the content into which the cryptographic information is to be embedded. For example, the value may be a digital signature generated by encrypting the hash value of the content. This value makes even clearer the correspondence between the information embedded in the illegal copy and the content-handling person of the content from which the illegal copy was created.
To achieve the above object, this invention is an embed-in-content information processing method for embedding information on k (k is an integer equal to or larger than 2) content-handling persons using an electronic computer, the method comprising the steps of embedding a digital signature into the content such that the digital signature cannot be separated from the content without using a predetermined rule, the digital signature being created by encrypting an n-bit hash value using a private key in accordance with a public key cipher system used by a first content-handling person, the n-bit hash value being obtained by evaluating the content with a first hash function; and sequentially repeating digital signature embedding for a second person to a k-th content-handling person, wherein, for an i-th content-handling person (i is an integer between 2 and k), the content into which the digital signatures of the first to an (ixe2x88x921) content-handling persons are embedded is evaluated with a second hash function, wherein a resulting n/2-bit hash value is encrypted using the private key of the i-th content-handling person to generate the digital signature of the i-th content-handling person, and wherein the digital signature of the i-th content-handling person is embedded into the content in which the digital signatures from the first to the (ixe2x88x921)th persons are already embedded such that the digital signature of the i-th content-handling person cannot be separated from the content without using a predetermined rule.
This method allows the k person""s digital signatures to be embedded into the content using n+(kxe2x88x921)xc2x7n/2 bits, with little effect on the security.
This invention is also an embed-in-content information processing method for embedding information on k (k is an integer equal to or larger than 2) content-handling persons using an electronic computer, the method comprising the steps of creating a digital signature of a first content-handling person by encrypting a hash value using a private key in accordance with a public key cipher system of the first content-handling person, the hash value being created by evaluating the content with a first hash function; sequentially repeating digital signature creation for a second person to a k-th content-handling persons to create the digital signatures of the content-handling persons; and embedding the digital signature of the k-th content-handling person into the content such that the digital signature cannot be separated from the content without using a predetermined rule, the digital signature being obtained by performing the digital signature creation for the k-th content-handling person, wherein, during the digital signature creation processing for an i-th content-handling person (i is an integer between 2 and k), a value dependent on the digital signature of the (i-)th content-handling person is encrypted using the private key of the i-th content-handling person to generate the digital signature of the (ixe2x88x921)th content-handling person. According to the embed-in-content information processing method, when the value determined by the value of the digital signature is n bits long, embedding only n-bit data into the content enables information for verifying k content-handling persons to be embedded into the content.
To achieve the above object, this invention is an information authentication method managed by a manager trusted by both an information publisher and an information browser, wherein the information publisher adds multimedia data to information published by the information publisher in such a way that the multimedia data may be validated and wherein the information browser checks the validity of the information according to whether or not the multimedia data is validated.
In this method, the information is validated, for example, by the manager, who is contacted by all participants, validating multimedia data added to the information.
More specifically, a user who browses a Web page determines its validity according to whether the manager authenticates the validity of the image data pasted in the Web page, that is, whether the image data is valid, and whether the manager authenticates the fact that the image data is pasted in the Web.
In this method, when the multimedia data is validated, the information may be presented to the information browser as necessary. For example, when the image data is determined to be valid in the above Web page, the information may be filtered so that the Web page may be displayed.
To achieve the above objects, this invention provides a method for creating authenticatable digital data including authentication data for authenticating the digital data using an electronic computer, the method comprising the steps of generating mark data recognizable by a user when the user uses the digital data; generating watermark-embedded mark data wherein specific information is embedded as a digital watermark into the mark data; and including the watermark-embedded mark data into the digital data to generate the authenticatable digital data.
In this method, the specific information may be a hash value generated by evaluating the digital data with a predetermined hash function.
The specific information may also be a digital signature generated by encrypting an evaluation value, generated by evaluating the digital data with a predetermined function, with a private key according to predetermined public key cipher.
According to those methods, the mark may be validated with the information embedded in the watermark-embedded mark data. The hash value embedded as the digital watermark may be used to authenticate that the mark is given to the digital data. The digital signature embedded as the digital watermark may be used to authenticate the validity of an individual/organization which guarantees the mark.
This invention also provides a plurality of systems for realizing the methods.
For example, this invention provides a content distribution system comprising a distribution system outputting a content to be distributed and a content receiving system receiving the distributed content, wherein the distribution system comprises encrypting means for encrypting a content to be distributed and wherein the receiving system comprises decrypting means for decrypting a distributed content; signature creating means for creating cryptographic information by encrypting specific data using a private key in accordance with a public key cipher system used by a user of the receiving system; and signature embedding means for embedding the created cryptographic information into the content such that the cryptographic information cannot be separated from the content without using a predetermined rule.
This invention also provides a content distribution system wherein the decrypting means, the signature creating means, and the signature embedding means are configured such that decrypting cannot be performed by the decrypting means before the cryptographic information is created and embedded by the signature creating means and the signature embedding means and wherein it is difficult to modify the receiving system such that decrypting is performed by the decrypting means before the cryptographic information is created and embedded by the signature creating means and the signature embedding means, respectively.
This invention also provides a content distribution system wherein the encrypting means of the distribution system encrypts the content using the public key of the user of the receiving system and the decrypting means of the receiving system decrypts the content encrypted using the private key of the user of the distribution system.
These content distribution systems may have a verification system comprising signature extracting means for extracting cryptographic information from the content in which cryptographic information is embedded and signature verifying means for verifying that a result obtained by decrypting the extracted cryptographic information using a public key used by content-handling persons matches the specific data.
In these content distribution systems, the signature creating means of the receiving system may use information containing a decrypted-content-dependent value as the specific data and may use a digital signature which the receiving system user has for the content as the cryptographic information, the digital signature being generated by encrypting the specific data using the private key in accordance with the public key cipher system used by the receiving system user.
This invention also provides a data processing system used to attach a signature to a content. This system comprises digital signature creating means for calculating a hash value by evaluating the content with a hash function and then encrypting the calculated hash value with a private key of a user of the data processing system in accordance with the public key cipher system used by the user to generate a digital signature; and digital watermark creating means for embedding the created digital signature into the content as a digital watermark.
This invention also provides a system comprising a generation system which generates authenticatable digital data and an authentication system which authenticates authenticatable digital data, wherein the generation system comprises means for generating mark data recognizable by a user when a user uses the digital data; means for generating watermark-embedded mark data into which specific information is embedded as digital watermark; and means for including the watermark-embedded mark data into the digital data to generate the authenticatable digital data and wherein the authentication system comprises means for extracting the mark data from the authenticatable digital data; means for extracting from the extracted mark data the predetermined information included as the digital watermark; and means for authenticating the digital data based on the extracted information.
More specifically, the authenticatable digital data is a Web page containing mark data. Based on the information embedded in the mark data as the digital watermark, the authentication system authenticates the Web page as well as the contents output by the mark data when the Web page is browsed. In this case, note that the individual/organization which generates the authenticatable digital data need not be the individual/organization which publishes this Web page. In this case, the individual/organization, which generates the Web page containing the authenticatable digital data according to a request from the individual/organization which publishes the Web page, may also create that Web page.
This invention also provides a recording medium including therein a program to be run by an electronic computer to execute the methods described above.
For example, this invention provides a computer-readable medium having stored therein a program which causes an electronic computer to perform a program comprising the steps of generating mark data recognizable by a user when the user uses the digital data; generating watermark-embedded mark data into which specific information is embedded as a digital watermark; and including the watermark-embedded mark data into the digital data to generate the authenticatable digital data.


Methods of manufacturing semiconductor device assemblies include attaching a back side of a first semiconductor die to a substrate and structurally and electrically coupling a first end of laterally extending conductive elements to conductive terminals on or in a surface of the substrate. Second ends of the laterally extending conductive elements are structurally and electrically coupled to bond pads on or in an active surface of the first semiconductor die. Conductive structures are structurally and electrically coupled to bond pads of a second semiconductor die. At least some of the conductive structures are aligned with at least some of the bond pads of the first semiconductor die. An active surface of the second semiconductor die faces an active surface of the first semiconductor die. At least some of the conductive structures are structurally and electrically coupled to at least some of the bond pads of the first semiconductor die.

The present invention relates generally to semiconductor device assemblies that include what are commonly referred to as "multi-chip modules," in which two or more semiconductor dice are stacked relative to one another. More particularly, the present invention relates to semiconductor device assemblies that include two semiconductor dice stacked together in a face-to-face configuration, laterally extending conductive members providing electrical communication between bond pads on active surfaces of the semiconductor dice and a substrate. The present invention also relates to methods of manufacturing such semiconductor device assemblies.
Integrated circuit semiconductor devices are small electronic circuits formed on or in a surface of a wafer of semiconductor material such as, for example, silicon, gallium arsenide, or other III-V type semiconductor materials. Generally, a plurality of integrated circuit devices is fabricated simultaneously on a single wafer. The wafer is then subdivided into discrete devices (each of which is often referred to as a semiconductor "chip" or "die"), which then may be further processed and "packaged" to provide an end product. Packaging of a semiconductor device typically includes, among other processes, encapsulating at least a portion of the semiconductor die in a dielectric material to electrically insulate and physically protect the relatively fragile semiconductor die. Such semiconductor devices are produced and sold in various package configurations including, for example, lead frame configurations, chip-on-board (COB) configurations, board-on-chip (BOC) configurations, and flip-chip configurations.
The continuing demand for miniaturization of high performance electronic devices (such as cell phones, portable computers, and other hand-held devices) has required that integrated circuit semiconductor devices be as small as possible and consume as little surface area as possible on the circuit boards or other substrates on which they are mounted.
In an effort to conserve the amount of surface area occupied by integrated circuit devices on a substrate, various types of increased density packages have been developed. Among these semiconductor device packages are the so-called multi-chip modules (MCM), which may include assemblies of semiconductor devices that are stacked one on top of another. The amount of surface area on a carrier substrate that may be saved by stacking semiconductor devices is readily apparent—a stack of semiconductor devices consumes roughly the same surface area on a carrier substrate as a single, horizontally oriented semiconductor device or semiconductor device package.
Multi-chip modules may contain a number of semiconductor devices that perform the same or different functions, effectively combining the functionality of all of the semiconductor devices thereof into a single package.
A multi-chip module 10 is shown in FIG. 1A. The multi-chip module 10 is configured as a chip-on-board (COB) type semiconductor package, in which a first semiconductor die 12 having an active surface 14 and a back side 15 is mounted on a substrate 22 such that the active surface 14 faces upward and the back side 15 is disposed adjacent and attached to the substrate 22 by way of an adhesive material 24.
The multi-chip module 10 also includes a second semiconductor die 16 having an active surface 18 and a back side 19. The second semiconductor die 16 is mounted to and positioned vertically above the first semiconductor die 12 such that the active surface 18 faces upward and the back side 19 is disposed adjacent and attached to the first semiconductor die 12 by way of an adhesive material 24.
The first semiconductor die 12 may include a plurality of electrically conductive bond pads 28 disposed on the active surface 14 thereof, and the second semiconductor die 16 may include a plurality of electrically conductive bond pads 28′ disposed on the active surface 18 thereof. The conductive bond pads 28, 28′ may electrically communicate with the integrated circuits contained within each of the respective semiconductor dice 12, 16. As shown in FIG. 1B, the bond pads 28, 28′ may be disposed in one or more rows extending substantially along or proximate to a centerline 21 of each of the first semiconductor die 12 and the second semiconductor die 16.
Laterally extending conductive elements 26 such as bond wires are used to provide electrical communication between conductive bond pads 28 on the active surface 14 of the first semiconductor die 12 and conductive terminals 30 on a first surface of the substrate 22, and between conductive bond pads 28′ on the active surface 18 of the second semiconductor die 16 and the conductive terminals 30 on the first surface of the substrate 22. The multi-chip module 10 may also include an encapsulating material 36 that is used to protect and insulate the first semiconductor die 12, the second semiconductor die 16, and the laterally extending conductive elements 26.
Horizontally extending conductive traces and vertically extending conductive vias may be used to provide electrical communication between the conductive terminals 30 and conductive terminals 32 provided on a second, opposite surface of the substrate 22. Conductive solder bumps 34 may be provided on the conductive terminals 32 and used to structurally and electrically couple the multi-chip module 10 to a higher-level substrate such as a circuit board.
Another multi-chip module 38 is shown in FIG. 2. The multi-chip module 38 is configured as a board-on-chip (BOC) type semiconductor package, in which a first semiconductor die 12 having an active surface 14 and a back side 15 is mounted on a substrate 40 such that the active surface 14 faces downward and is disposed adjacent and attached to the substrate 40 by way of an adhesive material 24.
The substrate 40 shown in FIG. 2 is substantially similar to the substrate 22 shown in FIG. 1A. The substrate 40, however, also includes an aperture 42 through which the plurality of bond pads 28 disposed on the active surface 14 of the first semiconductor die 12 are exposed. Laterally extending conductive elements 26 such as bond wires that extend through the aperture 42 are used to provide electrical communication between the bond pads 28 disposed on the active surface 14 of the first semiconductor die 12 and conductive terminals or traces on the second side of the substrate 40 opposite the semiconductor die 12.
The multi-chip module 38 also includes a second semiconductor die 16 having an active surface 18 and a back side 19. The second semiconductor die 16 is mounted to and positioned vertically above the first semiconductor die 12 such that the active surface 18 faces upward and the back side 19 is disposed adjacent and attached to the back side 15 of the first semiconductor die 12 by way of an adhesive material 24. Laterally extending conductive elements 26 such as bond wires are used to provide electrical communication between the bond pads 28′ disposed on the active surface 18 of the second semiconductor die 16 and conductive terminals 30 on the substrate 40. As previously discussed in relation to FIG. 1B, the bond pads 28 of the first semiconductor die 12 and the bond pads 28′ of the second semiconductor die 16 may be disposed in one or more rows extending substantially along or proximate to a centerline 21 of each of the first semiconductor die 12 and the second semiconductor die 16.
The multi-chip module 38 may also include an encapsulating material 36 that is used to protect and insulate the first semiconductor die 12, the second semiconductor die 16, and the laterally extending conductive elements 26.
Horizontally extending conductive traces and vertically extending conductive vias may be used to provide electrical communication between the conductive terminals 30 and conductive terminals 32 provided on a second, opposite surface of the substrate 22. Conductive solder bumps 34 may be provided on the conductive terminals 32 and used to structurally and electrically couple the multi-chip module 38 to a higher-level substrate such as a circuit board.
A large number of manufacturing processes or steps are required to fabricate the devices shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B and FIG. 2, each of which contributes to the cost of the device.
There is a need for multi-chip modules that require fewer manufacturing processes for fabrication thereof, include fewer components, exhibit improved electrical performance, and that are smaller than multi-chip modules presently known in the art.

Semiconductor device assemblies including face-to-face semiconductor dice and related methods


A method for league, tournament, and competition video game playing implemented through an application from an application provider's server and downloaded onto a game player's smartphone. A player selects on the smartphone to play a game over the internet. The player is placed in a lobby, selects a game, contest, and platform and uses the smartphone for audio/visual communication during game play. Players are matched with players of similar skills based on skill measurements. Eliminated players are returned to the lobby for continuous play. Player identity is validated, and player cheating is detected. The application provides on the player's smart phone accounting, social media, lobby, recent matches and live matches functions. Winners are provided payouts. Eliminated players may have continuous play.

There are hundreds of millions of potential e-sports competitors looking for opportunities to join and play competitive video games. Many of these competitors play competitive video games as a way to make money and more are starting to view it as a viable career choice. Teams of players of select games are being created and sold and these video game players receive salaries plus a percent of what they earn through successful completion of tournaments. However, these players and teams encompass a tiny fraction of the video game playing market and they severely limit who is able to participate in interactive video gaming tournaments. The primary difference between professional sports and video games is the percent of people with sufficient skill necessary to compete on a professional level. With growing interest in virtual games, there is an exponentially larger number of people with the skill to compete in professional, interactive video gaming tournaments compared to the number of people that are qualified to participate in professional sports. However, there is currently no adequate system or method to incentivize, facilitate, and support extensive professional, interactive video gaming leagues and tournaments.
Video games which are accessible to multiple players via a server or peer to peer network are well known. For example, hundreds of millions of players access games known as massive multi-player online games. Players of these games customarily access a game repeatedly over a given period of time. The games are often constructed such that players pay a periodic subscription price or a onetime purchase price for the game. Often, though not necessarily, these games have no defined "winner" or "winning goal," but instead attempt to create an enjoyable playing environment and a strong player community.
In some current embodiments, interactive gaming tournaments with entrance fees and cash prizes based on skill rely on an event organizer to collect and distribute the entrance fees and prize pools by visually witnessing the outcome of matches. These games also allow players to experience a rising sense of excitement by providing them with goals and objectives within the game that give the gaming experience a greater feeling of purpose and meaning.
Video games are in the nascent stages of being recognized as a viable spectator sport. Current video game systems and social media-based methods for the development and distribution of video game content have not been adequate to provide skill-based player growth and monetization for video game players. The video gaming industry lacks the mechanics and the structure to develop professional, interactive video gaming leagues and tournaments. In any successful, long term traditional sport with a broad fan-base, there exist several key qualities. Fans and players are acquired through a structured set of leagues ranging from youth leagues to professional leagues. Skilled athletes have a well-defined path to making income. Game integrity is maintained through a governing body. Marketing athletic events is aimed at player recognition and improvement of player skills. These qualities do not exist in video game industry.
League-based play is critical for creating player popularity and providing a path for players to receive income. A lack of a well-defined path to player income reduces long-term player interest in playing and reduces the interest in fans watching the games. Social media marketed video game players are watched for their personalities and reputations rather than their skills and performance. Currently there is no adequate process to identify skilled players for eSports that encompasses the entire video player population. There is currently no effort to enable video games to operate like traditional professional athletic sports. Although there are 2.5 billion video game players world-wide, there is no effective global communication and interaction among these video game players. There is no financial incentive or satisfactory compensation for the majority of these video game players. There are unfair competitive advantages and lack of adequate security in current professional video game play. What is needed is a system and method for professional league, tournament, and competition video game playing that addresses these problems and deficiencies.

Method and system for competitive video game playing


To provide a lighting apparatus that includes a simple and small moving mechanism capable of changing the light emanation direction and that has superior heat dissipation properties, the lighting apparatus includes a light-emitting unit, and a heat dissipation unit for dissipating heat generated by the light-emitting unit during light emission, wherein a heat transfer unit is connected between the light-emitting unit and the heat dissipation unit, and the light-emitting unit is in surface contact with the heat transfer unit and is connected with the heat transfer unit to be rotatable with one point or one line in the center.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lighting apparatus; more specifically, it relates to a lighting apparatus including a relatively small light-emitting unit formed using a light-emitting diode.
2. Description of Related Art
In a conventional lighting apparatus including a heat dissipation section such as a heat sink, a light-emitting section is directly mounted in the heat dissipation section to dissipate heat generated by the light-emitting section.
However, problems arise from the conventional lighting apparatus that includes the light-emitting section directly mounted in the heat dissipation section. When changing the light emanation direction, the overall lighting apparatus including the heat dissipation section needs to be moved. As such, a large moving mechanism needs to be provided in the apparatus, and the structure of the apparatus is complicated.


The present invention provides a method of producing a genetically engineered transgenic organism, by (a) incorporating into the organism a functional DNA sequence that confers a trait on an organism and (b) incorporating into the organism a non-functional DNA sequence, wherein the non-functional DNA sequence encodes an information message using a predefined coding scheme, wherein the information message provides information about the functional DNA sequence, and the predefined coding scheme can be used to map a plurality of information messages into a plurality of non-functional DNA sequences and additionally, the functional and the non-functional DNA sequence are incorporated into the same chromosome of the organism.

Genetic engineering is a technical process and as such it is subject to specific rules and regulations that are designed so as to ensure proper technical, ecological and economical environments for the process itself and for the resulting products. Such rules are well established in other fields of technology and, among other purposes, are intended to ensure high quality and reproducibility of the process and resulting products, and to protect the general public, consumers, producers, as well as the environment. Genetically modified (GM) organisms are special products created by humans in that they are self-replicating. Thus, any transgenic material released into the environment has a potential of persisting for a very long time. The scientific community is often accused of being overly fascinated by scientific discovery and recklessly endangering public health and environment by advocating early release of genetically modified organisms, such as GM plants. Since 1994, some 3.5 trillion transgenic plants have been grown in the Americas, and no evidence of ill effects was found. Still, 'good technology practices' concerning the process of genetic manipulation and the transgenic organisms as products are far from being mature, and further efforts should be conducted. One such element of more advanced biotechnological processes is providing proper technical information data, including labeling and registration of the products.
Several groups have advocated to label food products containing GM organisms (GMOs). The recent decision of the European Union to curb the moratorium on transgenic plants is a positive move in the right direction (Schiermeier, Q. 2001, Nature, 409, 967-968). However, the states which are de facto behind the moratorium called for additional rules on the tracebility and labeling of GM products.
The labelling of objects including liquid and solid materials, valuable objects etc. with nucleic acid fragments has been disclosed in a number of patents/patent applications (see WO9014441; EP408-424; WO9117265; WO9404918; WO9416902). Two patent applications (WO9617954; WO0059917) claim, in addition to non-living objects, the use of DNA/biopolymers for labelling living objects. However, these publications do not provide the teaching of a secure labeling with regard to transgenic organisms. In particular transgenic plants and animals were genetically engineered in such a way as to separate the functional and technical (informational) part of the DNA insert on a host chromosome. The prior art labelling method does neither address the problem of losing the label during multiple reproductions of the GMO nor the problem of a high frequency of loss or corruption of the information content of the label.
It is therefore a problem of this invention to provide methods which allow an unambiguous and secure genetic labelling of GMOs.
It is another problem of the invention to provide methods which allow the tracing of transgenes and GM organisms released into the environment and products derived therefrom.

Method of encoding information in nucleic acids of a genetically engineered organism


An ultra-wide-angle type zoom lens is disclosed, comprising, in the order from the object side, a negative first lens unit, a negative second lens unit and a positive third lens unit, wherein zooming from the wide-angle end to the telephoto end is performed by differentially moving the second and third lens units.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to zoom lenses suited to be used as the photographic lens for single-lens reflex cameras, video cameras, or still video cameras and, more particularly, to a zoom lens adapted to an extremely wide angle of view.
2. Description of the Related Art
When a zoom lens is designed to have its maximum angle of view increased, it is common to employ a refractive power arrangement having a negative lens unit positioned at the front, i.e., the so-called negative lead type. For example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. Sho 49-2548 discloses a 2-unit form of wide-angle zoom lens having negative and positive refractive powers in this order from the front. With the use of the 2-unit form, zoom lenses of even wider angle of view are proposed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Applications No. Sho 52-26236 and No. Sho 57-190917.
However, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. Sho 57-190917 mentioned above only shows a temperate idea in that the zoom lens has a zoom ratio of 1.7 or so and its maximum angle of view is limited to 94.degree. or less.
By the way, although the increase of the angle of view to 100.degree. or wider has already been achieved in the field of fixed focal length lenses, it is in the field of zoom lenses that such an ultra-wide-angle lens is not yet achievable in the present state of art. This is attributable to the fact that a much-desired increase of the maximum angle of view may be attained by strengthening a refractive power of each of the negative and positive lens units, but, if so, it becomes extremely difficult to sustain good optical performance under the condition that the back focal distance is kept at a predetermined value. Particularly, astigmatism and distortion are very difficult to correct well.


An image sensor includes: image capturing pixels and focus detection pixels disposed together on a single substrate; and adjacent pixels that are not equipped with a photoelectric conversion unit and are disposed adjacent to the focus detection pixels.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image sensor that includes both image capturing pixels and focus detection pixels arrayed on a single substrate, a device that captures an image and detects the focusing state of a photographic lens by utilizing this image sensor, and a camera equipped with the image sensor.
2. Description of Related Art
There are devices known in the related art that capture an image and also detect the focusing state of a photographic lens by using an image sensor comprising image capturing pixels and focus detection pixels arrayed together on a single substrate (see, for instance, Japanese Laid Open Patent Publication No. 2003-244712)