A hard disk drive with a circuit that provides a control signal to a voice coil motor to move a head across a disk. The disk drive includes a circuit that provides a control signal to the voice coil motor to move the head. The circuit also has a state predictor and an inversion filter that compute a vibration estimate used to detect a vibration in the drive. When a threshold vibration is detected a vibration estimate is combined with the control signal to compensate for the vibration. The circuit detects the vibration without the need for an accelerometer or other sensor.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to detecting vibration within a hard disk drive.
2. Background Information
Hard disk drives contain a plurality of magnetic heads that are coupled to rotating disks. The heads write and read information by magnetizing and sensing the magnetic fields of the disk surfaces. Each head is attached to a flexure arm to create a subassembly commonly referred to as a head gimbal assembly ("HGA"). The HGA's are suspended from an actuator arm. The actuator arm has a voice coil motor that can move the heads across the surfaces of the disks.
Information is typically stored in radial tracks that extend across the surface of each disk. Each track is typically divided into a number of segments or sectors. The voice coil motor and actuator arm can move the heads to different tracks of the disks.
Disk drives typically employ a servo to maintain the heads on the centers of the tracks. Deviations from the track center line may create errors in the reading and/or writing of data. The drive may be subjected to vibration. For example, disk drives have a spindle motor that rotates the disks relative to the heads. Rotation of the spindle motor may create a vibration that is transmitted through the drive.
Some disk drives contain an accelerometer that detects the presence of vibration. The output of the accelerometer is fed to the servo system which then compensates for the vibration. The inclusion of an accelerometer increases the cost and complexity of mass producing disk drives. It would be desirable to detect vibration without an accelerometer.


A device and method for controlling a washing machine detects an amount of eccentricity of a tub of the washing machine and determines whether the degree of eccentricity is acceptable. The degree of eccentricity is measured by causing the tub to rotate at a substantially constant speed, and counting the number of times that the rotational speed of the tub changes during a predetermined period of time. The device and method determine whether a degree of eccentricity is acceptable based a comparison of the determined degree of eccentricity to one or more of a plurality of predetermined eccentricity reference values, and based on a number of times that the determination has been made unsuccessfully. The eccentricity reference values are selected based on a compensated laundry volume level. The compensated laundry volume level, in turn, is based on a detected laundry volume level, and a laundry volume compensation index that represents the number of times that the determined eccentricity value of the tub exceeds a predetermined eccentricity value during a predetermined time period.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a drum washing machine. More particularly, it relates to a method and control apparatus of detecting eccentricity in a drum washing machine for detecting eccentricity of a tub, thereby to determine whether or not to perform a dewatering cycle.
2. Discussion of Related Art
As shown in FIG. 1, generally, a tub driving circuit in a washing machine includes a motor 3 actuated by driving power externally supplied thereto for transmitting rotary power to a tub, a speed sensing unit 4 for sensing rotational speed of the motor 3; an arithmetic and control unit 1 for receiving a signal from the speed sensing unit 4, selection signal generated at a key pad (not shown), and signals from various sensors (not shown) and producing various control signals; and a motor driving unit 2 for positively or reversely rotating the motor 3 according to each control signal of the arithmetic and control unit 1.
The following description concerns washing and hydro-extracting operation through the tub driving circuit having such configuration in the washing machine.
In the washing operation, the arithmetic and control unit 1 receives a rotational speed value of the motor 3 sensed by the speed sensing unit 4, a selection signal generated at the key pad (not shown), and signals from the various sensors (not shown) and produces various control signals.
Once the motor driving unit 2 is switched according to the control signal of the arithmetic and control unit 1 and current flowing in forward direction is applied to the motor, the motor 3 is actuated to rotate in the positive direction. The rotary power of the motor 3 is selectively transmitted to a pulsator (not shown) via a clutch (not shown). The pulsator is then interlocked and rotated, thereby to create mechanical, frictional effect between the pulsator and laundry in the tub.
The arithmetic and control unit 1 controls the rotation of the motor 3 continuously for a predetermined period of time to keep the motor 3 rotating at a predetermined control revolutions per minute (RPM) in the positive rotary direction. After the predetermined time elapses, the arithmetic and control unit 1 turns off the motor 3 for a specified time on reduce the speed of the motor 3 and interrupt it.
Once the motor 3 is brought to a standstill, the arithmetic and control unit o produces a control signal to switch the motor driving unit 2, thus applying reverse current to the motor 3. Driving direction of the motor 3 is then changed to the reverse rotary direction. Rotary power by the reverse rotation of the motor 3 is selectively transmitted to the pulsator (not shown) through the clutch (not shown). The pulsator is then interlocked and rotated, thereby to create mechanical, frictional effect between the pulsator and laundry in the tub.
The arithmetic and control unit 1 controls the rotation of the motor 3 continuously for a predetermined time to keep the motor 3 rotating at a predetermined control RPM in the reverse direction. After the predetermined time elapses, the arithmetic and control unit 1 turns off the motor 3 for a specified time to reduce the speed of the motor 3 and interrupt it.
This control over the positive/reverse rotation of the motor 3 by the arithmetic and control unit 1 is repeatedly performed until the termination of an overall laundry process. Alternative repetition of the positive and reverse rotation creates strong mechanical, frictional effect between the pulsator and the laundry in the tub. The laundry is cleaned due to the strong frictional effect.
The hydro-extracting operation is performed as follows.
According to a control signal of the arithmetic and control unit 1, the motor 3 reversely rotates at predetermined RPM (for example, 50 RPM), thereby to disentangle the laundry tangled during the washing operation to some degree. Subsequently, the motor 3 rotates in the positive direction at high speed according to a control signal of the arithmetic and control unit 1 and allows the tub to rotate at the high speed. The dewatering operation is implemented by way of continuously keeping the tub rotating at high speed.
Whether or not to commence the hydro-extracting operation depends on decision on eccentricity of the tub by the arithmetic and control unit 1. This is because, if the tub is eccentric more than a predetermined degree of eccentricity due to the laundry tending to one side, excessive shaking occurs resulting in big noise and breakage in various mechanical devices, such as a rotary shaft of the tub, when the tub rotates.
Accordingly, the driving circuit of the general washing machine has a function of decision on the eccentricity. The process of deciding the eccentricity of the tub will now be described with reference to the diagram shown in FIG. 2.
The arithmetic and control unit 1, based upon the rotary speed of the motor 3 sensed by the speed sensing unit 4, applies a control signal to the motor 3 to make the tub to reversely rotate at "II" RPM. When the tub reversely rotates at the "II" RPM, the laundry which has been twisted during the washing operation is untwisted. This is a laundry untwisting process. Subsequently, the RPM of the tub reaches point "III", the arithmetic and control unit 1 applies a control signal to the motor 3 to increase the rotational speed of the tub to "I" RPM in order to determine whether or not to commence the hydro-extracting operation. The "I" RPM is speed at which the laundry can be attached to the side wall of the tub and rotates along with the tub.
When the tub rotates at the speed of the "I" RPM, the arithmetic and control unit 1 performs constant speed control to maintain the rotational speed of the tub at the "I" RPM. If the arithmetic and control unit 1 applies constant driving voltage to the motor 3 transmitting the rotary power to the tub, the rotational speed of the tub may not be kept at the "I" RPM constantly and may be changeable according to the degree of the eccentricity of the laundry.
After a predetermined time elapses, when the rotational speed of the motor 3 is sensed to be at the point "IV" (the point where variation of the RPM is determined to be almost constant), the arithmetic and control unit 1 senses a current variation of the RPM through the speed sensing unit 4. On the basis of the variation of the RPM at this point, the arithmetic and control unit 1 performs the decision on the eccentricity of the tub, thereby to perform the hydro-extracting operation or laundry untwisting process according to the decision. Afterward, the arithmetic and control unit 1 newly performs the decision on the eccentricity.
Here, adequate time must be given between the points "III" and "IV" because, if the interposed time between the two points "III" and "IV" is not adequate, there may occur an error in the decision on the eccentricity. In the period between the two points "III" and "IV" before the variation of the RPM converges on the predetermined range, the vibration of the RPM is great, so there is possibility of determining that the eccentricity is severe even when the eccentricity of the tub is small.
The process of decision on the eccentricity of the tub is as follows.
As the degree of the eccentricity of the laundry becomes greater, a deviation between the rotational speed of the tub and the "I" RPM gets larger. If the deviation between the rotational speed of the tub and the "I" RPM greatly changes in an instant, a corresponding signal waveform appears as the form of pulses having a peak. In turn, the arithmetic and control unit 1 measures the number of pulses (the number of RPM values) deviating from the "I" RPM for a unit of time and measures the degree of eccentricity of the laundry in the tub based upon the number of the pulses.
After measuring the degree of eccentricity through the above procedure, the arithmetic and control unit 1 compares the measured degree of eccentricity with a predetermined reference degree of the eccentricity. If the measured degree of the eccentricity is less than the reference degree of eccentricity, the arithmetic and control unit 1 performs the hydro-extracting operation. Alternatively, if the measured degree of eccentricity exceeds the reference degree of eccentricity, the arithmetic and control unit 1 controls the RPM of the motor 3 so as to newly perform the laundry untwisting process.
Afterwards, the arithmetic and control unit 1 newly measures the degree of eccentricity according to the procedure illustrated above and performs the hydro-extracting operation or laundry untwisting process according to a measured result. When repeating the measure of the eccentricity, the arithmetic and control unit 1 counts the number of times of the measuring processes. If the measure of the eccentricity is repeatedly performed more than a predetermined number of times, the arithmetic and control unit 1 treats this state as an unbalance error, thereby to terminate all the operation of the washing machine.
In other words, if the measured degree of eccentricty exceeds the predetermined reference degree even though the arithmetic and control unit 1 repeatedly performs the laundry untwisting process to regulate the degree of eccentricity of the laundry in the tub, the arithmetic and control unit 1 determines that this level of the degree of eccentricity of the laundry cannot be regulated by the washing machine itself, thus interrupting all the operation of the washing machine.
However, the eccentricity detecting method in this conventional drum washing machine is to apply constant driving voltage to the motor and measure degree of eccentricity under the stableness of RPM. This conventional eccentricity detecting method in the general drum washing machine requires much time to make the motor be in a stable status. In addition, there may occur a situation where the degree of eccentricity is difficult to be measured according to the volume of the laundry, thus interrupting accurate measure of the degree of eccentricity. Therefore, the eccentricity detecting method of the conventional drum washing machine has a problem in that shaking and noise rapidly occurs when the hydro-extracting operation is commenced.
This is because the eccentricity detecting method of the conventional drum washing machine compares the measured degree of eccentricity with the reference degree of eccentricity without considering the volume of the laundry though the degree of eccentricity is influenced by the laundry volume. When the driving circuit of the washing machine rotates the tub containing much laundry therein at high speed, the laundry is uniformly distributed in the side wall of the tub resulting in a small degree of eccentricity. Alternatively, when rotating the tub containing small amount of laundry therein at high speed, the laundry is gravitated to a portion of the side wall resulting in significant eccentricity. In the eccentricity detecting method of the conventional drum washing machine, the degree of eccentricity is measured without considering the volume of the laundry, so the washing machine has serious possibility of performing wrong operation.
In the conventional eccentricity detecting method, the constant driving voltage is applied to the motor to rotate the tub at the predetermined speed ("I" RPM) and detects the number of pulses (the number of RPM values) deviating from the "I" RPM for the unit time, thereby to measure the degree of eccentricity based upon the detected number. Accordingly, the conventional eccentricity detecting method requires constant speed control for constantly keeping the tub rotating at predetermined speed.
However, according to the conventional art just applying constant driving voltage to the motor 3 for the constant speed control, does not result in the tub being kept at aimed speed, the "I" RPM. The reason is that, although the motor is controlled with the constant driving voltage, actual rotational speed of the tub is not continuously kept at the predetermined speed, "I" RPM and changes irregularly because of the volume of the laundry in the tub and its eccentricity.
After all, the degree of eccentricity measured according to the conventional method cannot be said accurate since it is measured under the state where the rotational speed of the tub is not constant.

Method and control apparatus of detecting eccentricity in drum washing machine


A collision detection method for a drive unit including an electric drive motor and a movable component which is driven thereby, wherein an actual torque and an actual acceleration of the electric drive motor are sensed and a collision of the movable component is detected on the basis of an evaluation of a predefinable mathematical combination of the actual torque and the actual acceleration.

The present disclosure relates to a collision detection method for a drive unit comprising an electric drive motor and a movable component which is driven thereby.
Drive systems of this type are widespread, in particular, in automation technology and are used in a variety of ways, for example in robots, processing machinery or transportation machinery etc. When they are used in these fields it is possible for collisions to occur between the movable component and fixed or movable obstacles, for example goods for transportation or processing, walls, housings, other machine components or even persons etc., are not excluded. In order to avoid injury to persons and damage to machines it is necessary to detect collision in order, for example, to initiate suitable reactions.
DE 102 45 594 A1 discloses a collision detection method in which drive-side and output-side variables are sensed and compared in order to detect a collision. However, such a solution requires a complex sensor system at least on the output side.
It is desirable to specify possible ways of detecting a collision which are easy to implement but nevertheless operate safely and reliably.

Collision detection method for a drive unit


A stereo matching system and a stereo matching method using the same. Here, a Sum of Edge Differences (SED) method as a disparity estimation method utilizing edge information is added to a disparity estimation method utilizing a local method to perform stereo matching. As such, it is possible to correct false matching in a non-texture region generated when stereo matching is performed using only a local method, thereby enabling good stereo matching.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a stereo matching system and a stereo matching method using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, stereo matching refers to estimating disparity as a distance between corresponding points of two images that are obtained by different view points using distance perception ability in a human visual system, and to obtaining a precise and reliable disparity map.
In addition, the disparity map is implemented as a depth map to recover a three-dimensional image for providing depth perception.
Stereo matching may be used in various fields, such as information communication, broadcasting, medicine, games, displays, and so on, which may be referred to as core technology of three-dimensional multimedia.
Stereo matching generally uses a local method. The local method sets a certain block region around a reference pixel of a left image as a reference image among input left and right images.
Then, the stereo matching method finds a region in the right image most closely corresponding to the certain block region around the reference pixel of the left image, to thereby estimate disparity and obtain the disparity map.
The local method includes a Sum of Squared Differences (SSD) method for obtaining a correlation between blocks of certain regions of the left and right images using light and shade information and summing squared differences, a Sum of Absolute Differences (SAD) method for obtaining a correlation between the blocks and summing absolute differences, and a normalized cross coefficient method using (or utilizing) correlation between pixels.
The local method can be performed well as the stereo matching when light and shade differences are clear.
However, since the local method uses the light and shade information only, it is difficult to precisely find similar images in a non-texture region, thereby causing false matching.
FIG. 1 is a view for explaining false matching in a non-texture region.
Referring to FIG. 1, a left image 10a and a right image 10b, each of which has a rectangular element 20a, 20b and a circular element 30a, 30b, are added to obtain a disparity map 10c using SAD as a disparity estimation method through a local method.
The left image 10a is composed of a first rectangular element 20a and a first circular element 30a in a non-texture region, and the right image 10b is composed of a second rectangular element 20b and a second circular element 30b in a non-texture region.
Here, the left image 10a is set as a reference image, and a certain block region is set around a reference pixel of the reference image. Then, the SAD disparity estimation method is performed to find a region in the right image most similar to the certain block region set around the left image using light and shade information.
While it is possible to find substantially similar regions in the non-texture regions of the left image 10a and the right image 10b, it does not provide the precise disparity.
As a result, the stereo matching using the local method generates distortion due to false matching of a third rectangular element 20c and a third circular element 30c in the non-texture region of the disparity map 10c.

Stereo matching system and stereo matching method using the same


The present invention provides an apparatus and a method for stabilizing at least one medical device such as a tracheal or gastric tube entering or covering at least one facial cavity such as the mouth and/or nose, taking advantage of a stabilization stent to secure to a patient's face the tracheal or gastric tube without the need to apply tape to the face, while maintaining visibility of tube markings, preventing kinking of the tube, and keeping infant's face visible to parents and caregivers. In one form, the invention comprises a transverse stent comprising a superior border opposed to an inferior border, an inner surface and an outer surface. A first facial interface is attached to a first terminal end of the transverse stent, and positioned to adhesively adhere and mechanically clasp to a first side of a patient's face. A second facial interface is attached to a second terminal end of the transverse stent and positioned to adhesively adhere and mechanically clasp to a second side of a patient's face. A docking platform attached to the outer surface of the transverse stent supports the medical device. In a different form, the invention also includes gutters positioned on the inner surface of the respective first and second terminal end approximate to the respective first and second facial interface to channel oral fluids away from the respective first and second facial interface. The outer surface contains channels for containing and directing tubing, and fixaton points for attaching anchoring measures such as chin or head straps. The core of the transverse stent is hollowed to permit gas flow.

Infants requiring mechanical ventilation (assisted breathing) are commonly treated by endotracheal intubation, wherein a flexible tube is inserted into the mouth, down the throat and through the lumen of the trachea a predetermined distance, to deliver oxygen to the lungs. In addition, flexible feeding tubes may also be inserted through the nose or mouth, passing through the esophagus, and terminating in the stomach or lower intestinal tract.
Serious complications can result from accidental extubation (dislodgment) of these tubes, including acute hypoxia, bradycardia, and long term laryngaltracheal damage from reintubation. Therefore, it is critical to prevent accidental extubation. Traditionally, stabilization to prevent accidental extubation has been accomplished by securing the tube to the face by wrapping an adhesive tape around the tube and adhering the tape ends to the patient's face.
However, adhesive tape stabilization methods provide poor fixation, allowing the tube to move when the skin is stretched. The tape obstructs the face, has the potential to obstruct the nasal openings, and loosens with time. Tape is difficult to remove and reapply when adjustments to the tubes are required, often causing injuries to the skin by stripping away the epidermis, especially in premature infants. Tape adhesion methods have a further disadvantage, in that nasal and oral secretions are absorbed by the tape, causing the tape to lose adhesion and loosen, while contaminating the tape with microbial organisms that could colonize the patient and gain direct access to the lung via the endotracheal tube and cause pneumonia
Mechanical ventilation applies a pulling force on the tubing. As a result of this pulling force, an improperly stabilized tube may cause pain and discomfort if the tube slides up and down within the trachea, especially if it hits against the bifurcation of the trachea. Moreover if the tube protruding outside the patient kinks, gas flow will be obstructed. Movement of the tube may cause it to extend and enter the right main bronchus, effectively removing the supply of oxygen to the left lung, or it may extubate completely, removing the supply of oxygen entirely. Such movement of the endotracheal tube in the small premature infant is a major clinical problem. In these patients the trachea is so short there may be only a few millimeters of discretionary tube movement before one of the above complications ensues.
Systems used to increase tube stabilization and limit tube movement have included bite block and neck strap combinations to fix the tube in position; a band extending across and adhered to the full width of the infant's face, wherein the band contains tube receiving receptacles at predetermined locations; adhesive straps with a central opening over the mouth containing various tube locking means; and a flexible bar placed above the mouth and adhered to the infant's cheeks.
With the exception of the bar, these known stabilization attempts have covered the patient's mouth and portions of the tube, making oral hygiene and tube visualization difficult. These devices further require the endotracheal tube be placed within the device prior to intubation, thereby blocking the clinician's visualization of the trachea and increasing the difficulty of successfully placing the tube in its desired location, making the device potentially dangerous.
While known bar stabilization systems do not have the foregoing disadvantages, these known bar systems rely solely on adhesion through cheek pads which have no mechanical clasping. Therefore, the bar is permitted to torque, allowing for excessive movement of the bar and excessive movement of the attached tube. Additionally, the tube can rotate around the bar, allowing it to kink in the patient's larynx, restricting air flow, or placing extended tube pressure on the palate, causing interference with normal palatal development.
In an attempt to relieve palatal pressure, plates have been designed to rest on the tube to prevent tube extended contact with the palate. However, these plates interfere with oral hygiene and are difficult and clumsy to place properly.
What is needed is a stabilization method that allows for securing tracheal and/or gastric tubes and other medical devices without applying tape to the face, maintains visibility of tube markings, and keeps the infant's face visible to parents and caregivers. It should also prevent kinking of the tube and allow for attachment of additional anchorage when heavier loads (such as nasal continuous positive airway pressure (NCPAP) prongs) are applied, and prevent oral secretions from collecting and interfering with adhesion and/or causing infection.
By conceiving a method to stabilize medical devices that enter or cover the nose and/or mouth using mechanical advantage along with adhesives, the present invention fulfills this need, and further provides related advantages.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


Polycaprolactone (PCL) is melted at a temperature of 60.degree. C. or higher and subsequently cooled down to a non-crystallizing temperature and exposed to radiation so that it is crosslinked and a network structure is introduced to impart heat resistance to the PCL. Because of the high degrees of its crosslinking, heat resistance and transparency, the PCL product can be used as a heat-resistant tape or a heat-shrinkable film.

Polycaprolactone (PCL) is a polymer capable of microbiological degradation and various applications have been proposed for PCL as an environment friendly polymer. However, the relatively low melting point (60.degree. C.) of PCL has limited its applicability to a wider scope of fields. According to the present invention, PCL is melted at 60.degree. C. or higher and then cooled down to a non-crystallizing temperature, at which it is exposed to a radiation to introduce a network structure through crosslinking, thereby imparting heat resistance to the PCL. The irradiated PCL has the potential to be used as a tape or a heat shrinkable film.
Radiations used for engineering purposes include gamma-rays from cobalt 60 and electron beams from an accelerator. Having great penetrating power, gamma-rays are mainly used to sterilize medical devices which are final goods packed in corrugated board boxes. The penetrating power of electron beams is not as great as that of gamma-rays but they have the advantage of allowing for continuous application within a short time. Hence, electron beams are extensively used in modifying high-molecular weight materials through crosslinking, graft polymerization or decomposition reaction. The use of electron accelerators is more active than any other types of accelerators since by exposure to accelerated electron beams, a crosslinked structure can be easily introduced into high-molecular weight materials so as to achieve a marked improvement in their heat resistance. In the field of electrical wire coatings made from polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride, electron accelerators have been used for quite many years in order to improve their heat resistance through crosslinking. Several of such high-molecular weight materials require high doses radiation to be crosslinked and, hence, a technique has been proposed that allows for the crosslinking reaction to take place at lower doses through the addition of reactive monomers and the like.
However, not all of the reactive monomer used is consumed in the crosslinking reaction and it remains unreacted in a small amount; hence, the technique is held to be unsuitable for application to materials that are to be used in contact with food.
High-molecular weight materials are composed of either a crystalline region or a non-crystalline region. Since crosslinking due to irradiation mainly occurs in the non-crystalline region, some polymers such as polyethylene will readily crosslink if they are heated to temperatures higher than the melting point and exposed to radiation in an amorphous state. In polytetrafluoroethylene (Teflon), a crosslinking reaction does not occur at room temperature but a decomposing reaction will predominate; according to a recent finding, a crosslinking reaction occurs preferentially in polytetrafluoroethylene in a certain temperature range exceeding its melting point.
In order to crosslink PCL by irradiation at temperatures near room temperature, a dose as high as 200 kGy is required and yet a maximum gel fraction (a measure of the degree of crosslinking) that can be achieved is about 25%. Hence, no adequate improvement in the heat resistance of PCL cannot be accomplished at temperatures near room temperature. On the other hand, crosslinking is more likely to occur in PCL at temperatures near its melting point; however, the crosslinked product formed after the irradiation contains so many voids that a film compression molded from it has only low strength.
Under the circumstances, the present inventors conducted intensive studies and found that when PCL melted at 60.degree. C. was cooled down to a non-crystallizing temperature and then exposed to radiations at that temperature, a product of an extremely high gel fraction was obtained at a lower dose than required by irradiation at temperatures near room temperature or the melting point of PCL; it was also found that the product could be compression molded with a hot press into a film having heat resistance and a high degree of transparency.

Process for producing crosslinked polycaprolactone


Methods, systems, and devices for wireless communications are described. The method includes a method for wireless communications at a base station. The method includes transmitting a message to a number of user equipments (UEs) over a single frequency network channel using a first beam sweep pattern. The method also includes identifying a second beam sweep pattern from a plurality of beam sweep patterns that is different from the first beam sweep pattern for retransmissions of the message. The method further includes transmitting a retransmission of the message to the plurality of UEs over the single frequency network channel using the second beam sweep pattern.

Wireless communications systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, and so on. These systems may be capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing the available system resources (e.g., time, frequency, and power). Examples of such multiple-access systems include fourth generation (4G) systems such as Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems, LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) systems, or LTE-A Pro systems, and fifth generation (5G) systems which may be referred to as New Radio (NR) systems. These systems may employ technologies such as code division multiple access (CDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), or discrete Fourier transform spread orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (DFT-S-OFDM). A wireless multiple-access communications system may include one or more base stations or one or more network access nodes, each simultaneously supporting communication for multiple communication devices, which may be otherwise known as user equipment (UE).
Some wireless communications systems may use a single frequency network (SFN) channel for transmitting data. The SFN channel may be used for various types of communications in the system, such as, for example, multicast and broadcast communications. Beamformed transmissions may in some cases be used to transmit such communications. The beamformed transmissions, however, may be prone to shorter delay spread, narrowband fading, and other challenges that may cause interference at a UE receiving broadcast data from multiple sources.

Beam sweeping patterns for single frequency network broadcast channel


Merchandising and marketing data collection systems (100, 400, 500, 700, 1200, 1300, 1400, 1500) collect data on shopper's (816) interaction with merchandise samples (106, 414, 1212, 1400, 1502), page store personnel, output promotional vouchers and use the merchandise samples to access information about the capabilities of the merchandise being sold.

The general trend of technological progress has brought an ever increasing number of goods to the marketplace. Furthermore, globalization of markets has increased the number of companies vying for each product market and, consequently, the number of choices available to the consumer. In many sectors such as consumer electronics new functionality is added at such a rapid rate that most consumers are unable to maintain a high level of awareness and understanding of available features. Shortened product life cycles also make it difficult to stay abreast of new product developments. In the case of consumer electronics, the use of programmed microprocessors in electronics fosters introduction of new features at such a rapid rate that consumers can not easily keep pace with what is available to them.
Retailers often employ a part time and/or transient work force and are unable to provide intensive training on the variety of features offered by the myriad of goods that they sell. Thus, when a consumer, enters a brick and mortar retailer in the global market place he or she is often confounded by the myriad of choices and lack of available information or knowledgeable assistance.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.

Method and apparatus for marketing retail goods


An oil drain structure for an oil mist separator including a drain pipe extending from the oil mist separator into the internal combustion engine, the drain pipe having an oil discharge hole extending through a lower end portion of the drain pipe along an axial direction of the drain pipe, and a check valve including a valve body disposed below the lower end portion of the drain pipe, the valve body acting to open and close the oil discharge hole from a side of a lower surface of the lower end portion of the drain pipe, a valve head portion fitted into the drain pipe with a fine clearance as an orifice and being moveable in the axial direction of the drain pipe, and a stem portion extending through the oil discharge hole to connect the valve body and the valve head portion with each other.

As is well known, an oil mist separator that separates and removes an oil mist present in a blow-by gas blowing from a combustion chamber into a crankcase is provided in a head cover of an internal combustion engine. The oil mist separator is configured to separate the oil mist from the blow-by gas using a collision plate or the like, and supply the gas from which the oil mist is separated to an intake system. The oil mist separator is also configured to return the oil separated to an interior of the internal combustion engine through a drain pipe.
Here, when a pressure difference between the interior of the engine and an interior of the oil mist separator which undergoes an intake negative pressure is increased, there is a fear that the oil may be flowed back from the interior of the engine into the interior of the oil mist separator through the drain pipe or may be brought or blown into an intake system by entrainment on the blow-by gas.
As a countermeasure against the above possibility, Patent Literature 1 discloses an oil separator provided with a check valve for opening and closing a lower end opening, that is, an oil discharge hole of the drain pipe. The check valve is detachably mounted to the lower end of the drain pipe through a plurality of arm members that are slidably engaged with a plurality of guide members provided on an outer periphery of the drain pipe.
Patent Literature 1 recites the following configuration. When a pressure difference between the interior of the oil mist separator and the interior of the engine is small, for instance, at a time at which the engine is stopped, the check valve is pushed down by the weight of the oil so that the oil discharge hole is opened. On the other hand, during an operation of the internal combustion engine, the check valve is sucked by the intake negative pressure so that the oil discharge hole is closed to thereby prevent a backflow of the oil. Also, when the oil is accumulated in the drain pipe, the check valve is pushed down by a head pressure of the oil so that the oil is drained, and after that, the check valve is sucked again by the negative pressure so that the oil discharge hole is closed.
However, the check valve of Patent Literature 1 is not provided with a member operative in response to the pressure difference other than a disc-shaped valve body that closes the oil discharge hole formed at the lower end of the drain pipe from an outside of the drain pipe, namely, a lower end side of the drain pipe, so that the valve body itself is allowed to upwardly move in response to the pressure difference. Accordingly, when a clearance between the check valve in an open state thereof and the lower end of the drain pipe is large, or when the intake negative pressure exerted to the interior of the oil mist separator is small; i.e., when the pressure difference between the interior of the oil mist separator and the interior of the engine is small, there is a fear that the check valve is not sucked and kept in the open state due to its own weight.
Further, in a case where the own weight of the check valve is increased due to adhesion of an oil droplet to the valve body, there is a fear that the opening operation of the check valve and the closing operation thereof become unstable.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an oil drain structure of an oil mist separator which includes a check valve adapted to ensure desired opening and closing operations thereof due to an own weight of accumulated oil and a pressure difference between an interior of the oil mist separator and an interior of the engine.

Oil drain structure for oil mist separator


A system and method of the present invention are directed to identifying tissue of interest in the body using a large set of heterogeneous medical images acquired over a period of time using consistent acquisition protocols and processing techniques and comparing a single person's medical image to that set at a pixel/voxel level to determine clusters of interest that may be statistically measured and identified for review in the body.

Currently, the identification of regions of interest in a medical image is determined by comparing imaging results to a static set of normal or control groups. In certain instances, the identified control groups are too small of a subset to be statistically significant when measuring regions of interest at a granular level (e.g., pixel or voxel level). Another weakness of a small control group, especially when analyzing subtle differences, is the normal variation contained in the human body in different areas of the body like the brain.
These and other drawbacks exist.

System and method for implementing a medical imaging composite average and clustering technique


Systems and methods for automatically generating test scripts are described. The systems and methods may access information from a template that includes at least one entry associated with a test case to be applied to a system under testing, apply a translation scheme to the accessed information, and generate a test script in a language that is associated with the translation scheme and that is based on the information accessed from the template. The systems and methods may then utilize the test script to test the functionality of a system under testing, among other things.

Typically, there are many steps involved in order to test the functionality of software. For example, the steps may include a manual tester writing out a business scenario or test case, a series of meetings between the manual tester and a test script developer, a test script developer creating test scripts from information derived from the business scenario and the meetings, and so on. Thus, these steps often require many different people associated with the generation of a test script, which may be time and resource consuming for an organization, among other things.


A flash memory test system supplies test data to a flash memory under test to write the test data in the specified address of the memory and compares the data in the specified address with expected data to determined whether the data writing for the address is completed. If the data writing is unsuccessful, the write operation is repeated until the test data is correctly stored in the address or the predetermined maximum number of the write operation is reached. The number of repeated write operation is recorded for each address and displayed relative to the physical image of the flash memory under test. The flash memory test system includes a comparator for comparing the data in the flash memory under test with the expected data, a fail counter for counting the number of write operation, a fail analysis memory for storing fail information and the counted numbers, and a work station for processing the fail information and the counted numbers and displaying the results of the analysis with respect to a physical image of the flash memory under test.

This invention relates to a flash memory test system which tests and evaluates flash memories, and more particularly, to a flash memory test system which tests write and erase performance of a flash memory, counts the numbers of times of write or erase operations required until the data is successfully written or erased for each address of the flash memory, and processes and analyzes the acquired data and displays the distribution of the numbers of times with respect to the physical locations in the flash memory.
A flash memory is a non-volatile IC memory which belongs to a category of programmable read only memories (PROM) whose data therein is rewritable. A flash memory has a feature in that all of the data bits or a block of data bits in the flash memory can be erased or written at the same time. A flash memory is a large capacity memory whose data is rewritable for a number of times. A flash memory has such functional modes as a data read mode, a data write mode (program mode), a write data verify mode (program verify mode), an erase mode, and other functional modes.
The function in these modes is controlled by writing a specific command corresponding to each of the modes in a controller within the flash memory from the external source by a timing of a write enable (WE) signal. The flash memory does not have an exclusive terminal for writing these commands, and thus, shares a data terminal of the memory to write the commands. The switching between the data and the command is performed by, for example, changing a voltage of a specific voltage supply. In this patent specification, the present invention is explained in detail mainly with respect to the write function, but it can be similarly applied to the erase function of the flash memory as well.
In writing the data in each address, because of the unique physical structure, a flash memory does not necessarily succeed data writing in one write operation. Rather, a plurality of write operation must be repeated several times until the data successfully stored in the designated address. The number of repetition required for the successful data writing (heretofore "writing number") is different from address to address even when the kind of flash memory to be tested (heretofore "MUT") is the same.
In testing the flash memories, for the reasons of achieving longer life times, the data write operation should not be repeated for the addresses that have already experienced the successful data writing. In the data writing test, the MUT is judged as "good quality" when the data writing is successfully completed in the memory cells of all of the addresses within a predetermined number such as 25 times of the write operation.
FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing a flash memory test system in the conventional technology. In general, a memory test system supplies test data (write data), control data and address data to a flash memory under test to write the test data in the specified address of the flash memory. The data stored in the flash memory is then read out and compared with expected data, which is usually the same as the write data, and the comparison results are stored in a fail analysis memory with respect to each address of the flash memory for failure analysis.
In FIG. 4, the flash memory test system includes an engineering work station (EWS) 10 and a test processor 11 which are connected to a tester hardware through a tester bus. The tester hardware includes a timing generator 12, a pattern generator 13, a wave formatter 14, a driver 15, an analog comparator 16, a logic comparator 17 and a fail analysis memory 18. A flash memory 5 to be tested (MUT) is connected to the driver 15 and the analog comparator 16.
The work station EWS 10 functions as a user interface controller while the test processor 11 controls the overall operation of the test system. Based on a start command from the EWS 10, the test processor 11 starts the test operation. Sending and receiving of control signals or data signals is performed between each unit through the tester bus. The timing generator 12 generates clock timing signals which determine the overall timings of the test system and sends the clock timing signals to the pattern generator 13.
The pattern generator 13 generates a control signal CS such as WE (write enable) signal, a test pattern data signal TPD and an address signal ADRS to be supplied to the MUT 5, and an expected value pattern to be supplied to the logic comparator 17. The address signal ADRS is also supplied to the fail analysis memory 18. The wave formatter 14 converts the wave shapes of the logic signals from the pattern generator 13 to appropriate wave forms such as RZ (return-to-zero), NRZ (non-return to zero) or EOR (exclusive OR) wave forms. The wave formatter 14 then gives the wave formatted logic signals to the MUT 5 through the driver 15.
In this manner, in the write operation, the test data TPD is written in the address of the MUT 5 defined by the address data ADRS when the control data CS indicates write cycles. In the read operation, the resultant data in the address of the MUT 5 is examined by reading the data therein. In the read operation, the control data CS shows read cycles, and the address data ADRS defines the address of the MUT 5 whose data to be examined.
The resultant data from the MUT S is compared by the analog comparator 16 with reference voltages to determine the logical levels of the read out data. The output of the analog comparator 16 is provided to the logic comparator 17 wherein it is compared with the expected data from the pattern generator 13. The logic comparator 17 determines whether the stored data in the MUT 5 logically coincides with the expected data, and the comparison results are sent to the fail analysis memory 18.
The fail analysis memory 18 gives a write enable inhibit signal /WE to the wave formatter 14 for the address of the MUT 5 whose stored data agrees with the expected data, thereby prohibiting the system from repeating the write operation for the same address any further. The write operation is repeated for the remaining addresses whose data does not agree with the expected data until the stored data agrees with the expected data or until the predetermined maximum numbers of write operation have been performed.
During this repeated write and read process, in case where all of the addresses attain PASS (match) results, the process terminates by sending an MF (match flag) signal from the fail analysis memory 18 to the pattern generator 13. Alternatively, when the writing test is repeated until the predetermined maximum number of times, the process terminates and proceeds to the next test. The fail analysis memory 18 stores the results of the data writing test to be used in the fail analysis stage of the MUT 5.
After the predetermined numbers of the writing test are completed for all of the addresses of the MUT 5, the EWS 10 acquires the content of the fail analysis memory 18 through the test bus and the test processor 11. Based on the information from the failure analysis memory 18 that is read out, the failure information is shown on a display of the work station EWS 10. Although not shown, the failure information is shown, for example, in a bit-map display for each address or each bit. As an example, a failure map that shows a blank for each satisfactory address, and shows character F for each defective address of the MUT 5.
FIG. 5 is a timing chart for explaining the procedure of the writing test for the flash memory by the memory test system of FIG. 4. FIG. 6 is a flow chart showing the procedure of the writing test. With reference to FIGS. 5 and 6 in combination with FIG. 4, the operational procedure of the writing test of the flash memory is further explained below. In this example, it is explained for the case where the MUT 5 has a controller therein to compare the data in the specified address of the MUT 5 with the test data (expected data) and generate a fail signal when both data disagree with each other.
The timing chart of FIG. 5 shows three logic signals to be transmitted from the wave formatter 14 to the MUT 5. The address of the MUT 5 is specified by the address signal ADRS of FIG. 5A from the wave formatter 14. The write enable signal WE of FIG. 5B is provided to the MUT 5 through the control signal CS. When the write enable signal WE is low, the write operation of the MUT 5 is effective. The test data TPD of FIG. 5C is transmitted to the MUT 5 to be written therein.
First, a command signal for the program setup mode is sent through the test pattern data TPD to set the MUT to the program (data write) mode. Then, test data is transmitted to the MUT 5 to write the test data in the address specified by the address ADRS. Then the program verify mode is set to verify the data in the specified address while maintaining the test data during the verify mode. The controller in the flash memory 5 reads the data in the specified address and compares the data with the test data, i.e., the expected data. When they do not match with one another, the write operation for the address is considered to be failure and a program fail signal is output from the MUT 5. This process is repeated for all of the addresses of the MUT 5.
FIG. 6 is a flow chart of the above-explained writing test. As noted above, because of the unique physical structure of a flash memory, one cycle of the write test does not necessarily pass all the addresses. Hence, the similar test procedure is repeated several times after the first cycle of the writing test. Further, in testing a flash memory, it is usually required that the write operation be suspended for the addresses that are already successful in writing the data therein. Hence, by referring to the fail analysis memory 18 that stores test results up to the last test cycles, the write enable inhibit signal /WE is transmitted to the wave formatter 14 for the addresses that have already passed the writing test, so that the write enable signal WE is prohibited from reaching the MUT 5.
In FIG. 6, upon starting the writing test, RETRY is set to "1" in the step S1, and the address ADD is set to "0" in the step S2. Then, in the step S3, it is determined whether PROGRAM, i.e., the data writing for the first address of the MUT 5 has been completed. If it is not completed, PROGRAM (data writing) starts in the step S4, and in the VERIFY step S5, the data in the designated address is compared with the expected data.
In the step S3, if the answer is "yes", i.e., the data writing is completed, the write enable WE is masked based on the write enable inhibit signal /WE from the fail analysis memory 18 to prohibit the system from writing the data in the same address. Then, in the step S7, it is determined whether the address in question is the maximum address. If it is not, the address number is added by one in the step S8 and the process goes back to the step S3 to repeat the process in the steps S3-S7.
If the address in question is the maximum address in the step S7, then it is determined whether all the addresses of the MUT 5 are successful in the data writing in the step S9. In case where not all of the addresses are successful, it is determined whether the number of RETRY reaches the predetermined maximum number in the step S10. If the answer is "no", RETRY is added by one in the step S11 and the whole process in the foregoing is repeated. If the answer in the step S10 is "yes" or all of the addresses in the MUT are successful in the data writing in the step S7, the work station EWS 10 reads the data in the fail analysis memory 18 in the step S12 and determines whether all the data indicate "PASS" in the step S13. If the answer is "yes", the MUT 5 is judged as a good device, if "no" it is a defective device.
The pass/fail test for a flash memory can be sufficiently achieved by the conventional test system in the foregoing. However, flash memories have a limited life-span since it is basically a read-only memory that are rewritable. The number of times for rewriting data therein is limited, and such numbers of times vary from device to device. Hence, if it is possible to anticipate the number of possible rewrite operation in the write/erase cycles, a value of the flash memory will be increased. The value of the flash memory is further increased if the numbers of possible rewrite operation can be increased.
It is known in the art that one of the factors that affects the number of possible data rewriting in flash memories is the uniformity in the manufacturing process of the flash memories. Moreover, the uniformity in the manufacturing process of the flash memories correlates to the number of times required for the successful data writing in the flash memories. The minimum number of the possible write/erase cycles can be predicted from this uniformity. Further, based on the manufacturing uniformity, it is considered that the life times of the flash memories can be prolonged.


The present invention relates to the introduction, in an electro-optical transfer function that converts an encoded signal into an output signal, of a first calibration parameter that is determined based on a measurement of a luminance of black performed in the film theatre. Thanks to the invention, the movie image takes into account the actual conditions that affect the black rendering in the theatre.

Nowadays, in the context of digital cinema movies are provided to cinemas under digital format, for example as computer files comprising movie information. The movie information is processed by a digital system and then the movie is projected on a screen in the darkness of a film theatre. Though, the restitution of the movie image in the film theatre depends on various projection conditions: e.g. the projection system, the theatre itself, their interaction . . . . For example, the emergency exit lights, the reflection of the light from the screen on the bright and/or glossy surface of the theatre, the quality of the projector lens influence the perceived image projected on screen. As a consequence, depending on certain conditions of the cinema, the image projected on the screen will be more or less faithful to the precise intention of the movie creative team (director, director of photography . . . ).

Signal encoding and decoding for high contrast theatrical display


A web is threaded in the reeling of a paper or board web, by passing a web tail strip (W) into a reeling nip between a reeling drum (10) and a reel spool (12), on which a web roll is formed. The tail strip (W) is passed into the reeling nip by a suction zone (20) which extends substantially around the entire reeling drum circumference and is (10) in an area where a full-width web runs during reeling, so that the tail strip (w) can be conducted directly along the suction zone (20). The suction zone (20) is placed in the longitudinal direction of the reeling drum (10), i.e. in the width direction of the web.

As known in the prior art, in connection with the reeling of a paper web, a reeling drum is used which is provided with suction zones of the sector type, i.e. suction takes place through holes situated in a suction drum shell only in part of the circumference of the drum in the area of a certain sector. One prior-art arrangement in the reeling of a paper web, using a reeling drum provided with a suction zone sector, is disclosed in FI patent 74446. In known arrangements in which the suction zone is formed into a sector, it is hardly at all possible to remove the boundary layer air flow produced by the rotating drum. In addition, the suction zone sector in known applications is situated outside the web in the length direction of the drum, i.e. in the width direction of the web, and for this reason during threading it has been necessary to guide the tail strip to the side, i.e. to the zone area, by means of blowing. In many cases, the location of the suction zone sector is also not optimal on the circumference of the drum because the tail strip typically misses the area of the suction sector in the threading operation. If the tail strip misses the suction zone, the tail strip slips out of the machine to the tending side, thus not entering the nip between the reeling drum and the reel spool, i.e. a holding/pulling point. The strip may also be directed towards the middle of the machine and it may slip into the nip from some unpredictable point. This leads to a random amount of loose strip. The tightening of the loose strip lengthens the time taken by threading unnecessarily. In many cases it does not even succeed, but breaks when it flaps and flutters into other structures of the machine. After unsuccessful threading attempts, the threading path must be cleared to remove broken tail strips in order that new attempts may be made, which in turn further increases the threading time unnecessarily. The arrangement known from FI patent 74446 is primarily intended to aid reeling in order that the reeling speed might be increased, when needed. This known arrangement does not teach threading of a web.
In the arrangements known from the prior art, the holes through which a suction effect is arranged to be produced, are generally placed in the ridges between the grooves of grooved drums.
With respect to the state of the art relating to the threading of a paper web in connection with finishing devices, reference may be made, for example, to FI patent 98742, which discloses a method and an apparatus for threading a paper web on a surface treatment line for paper. In this known arrangement, the paper guide rolls and the surface treatment roll of the surface treatment line are provided with a suction sector and a blow sector, and by using them it is possible to cause the tail strip to adhere reliably to the perforated surface of the roll by means of the suction sector, and by means of suction it is possible to assure the right direction of the draw of the tail strip as well as the guidability of the draw, and formation of an air film between the paper web and the roll is avoided by means of the blow sector, and the tail strip is separated from the roll surface by means of blowing.
With respect to the prior art, reference can also be made to U.S. Pat. No. 5,915,648 disclosing a perforated roll for guiding a flexible material web, in particular a paper web, which has a jacket and a hollow interior and a respective cover at each end of the jacket. The jacket has a plurality of passage openings for passage of air therethrough, and at least one impeller inside the interior of the roll having a suction side for drawing air into the roll through the passage openings.

Method and device for threading a web in the reeling of a paper or board web


A method for processing image or video data is performed in an image processing pipeline. Color filtered mosaiced raw image or video data is received. A one-level wavelet transform of subbands of the color filtered mosaiced raw image or video data to provide LL, HH, LH and HL subbands. The LH and HL subbands are de-correlated by summing and difference operations to provide decorrelated sum and difference subbands. Additional n-level wavelet transformation on the sum and difference subbands and the LL and HH subbands to provide sparsified subbands for encoding. LL and HH and sum subbands are recombined into standard color images e.g., red, green, and blue color components, which are subsequently processed by color correction, white balance, and gamma correction. The sparsified subbands are encoded.

Digital imaging systems, including cameras that obtain still and video data, include an image sensor and a color filter. The image sensor itself is capable of sensing intensity of radiation at each pixel of the sensor, which ranges into tens of millions of pixels for modern cameras. Color filters are used to sense color components of each pixel. Known as color filter array or CFA, pixel-sized color filters are patterned to provide three separate color channels, e.g., red (R), green (G), and Blue (B) channels. Each pixel of the image sensor is filtered by the color filter to receive only one of the three or more colors. Accordingly, each pixel does not physically record the full color spectrum incident upon that pixel. The image read out by the sensor is referred to as raw image or raw sensor image or color mosaic image or CFA image. Pixel values of raw images are encoded with pixel intensities, as filtered by their respective color filter array at that pixel. The digital imaging system therefore includes a processing pipeline to process raw image data from the image sensor. A critical initial function of the processing pipeline as used in known imaging systems ranging from inexpensive digital cameras to the highest-level professional model SLR and mirrorless cameras is recovering the fully color value at each pixel of the image sensor as described by intensity of at least three color components, e.g., red, green, and blue. This process is known as de-mosaicing and is conducted as one of the earliest stages of imaging processing.
The de-mosaicing obtains a full-color image, including a set of complete red, green, and blue values (or other color space channels) for each pixel. This de-mosaicing process is required to render raw images into a viewable format.
A widely used patterning of color filters is known as a Bayer color filter array. The de-mosaicing process when the Bayer color filter array is employed is sometimes referred to as debayering. The process is complex but also must be conducted at high speed. Modern imaging systems are capable of processing many images per second. Rendering of these images, such as via viewfinder requires de-mosaicing. Different camera manufacturers and image processing software systems employ different techniques for de-mosaicing. All are designed to permit rendering of a full image in real time or close to real time.
Professional photographers and photo enthusiasts prefer to work directly with the raw sensor data to gain maximum control over the post-processing and set their cameras to store raw sensor data for each frame. Storing the raw sensor data is challenging because of the presence of color filter array, and requires an effective, lossless or low loss (lossy), compression scheme. Many professional grade cameras, for example, are capable of acquiring 5-10 or more frames of data per second, which places significant demands upon compression and storage operations.
Wavelet compression is an image compression technique that can be lossless or lossy. Lossless compression permits an image to be perfectly reconstructed by the compressed data, whereas lossy compression permits an approximation of a perfectly reconstructed image as a function of some compression rate. Zhang and Wu provided a reversible lossless spectral-spatial transforms that can remove statistical redundancies in both spectral and spatial domains and applied the Mallat wavelet decomposition scheme, called Mallat wavelet packet transform, to the task of decorrelating color mosaic data. Zhang & Wu, "Lossless Compression of Color Mosaic Images," IEEE Trans Image Process. 2006 June; 15(6):1379-88. Malvar and Sullivan describe a low-complexity integer-reversible spectral-spatial transform that allows for efficient lossless and lossy compression of raw sensor images. The technique maps the pixel array values into a format that can be directly compressed in a lossless, lossy, or progressive-to-lossless manner. The technique uses an invertible macropixel spectral-spatial transformation (MSST) for each macropixel of a CFA as a pre-processing stage. Malvar and G. J. Sullivan, "Progressive to lossless compression of color filter array images using macropixel spectralspatial transformation," IEEE Conference of Data Compression, 2012.
It was empirically observed that the one-level wavelet transform of a CFA sampled image was predominantly low passed. N. Zhang and X. Wu, "Lossless compression of color mosaic images," IEEE Trans. Image Process., vol. 15, pp. 1379-1388, May 2006. There is a profound difference between the LeGall 5/3 wavelet transform of a CFA sampled image shown and the wavelet transform of a luminance image. Specifically, the wavelet sub bands (i.e. LH, HL, and HH) in a CFA wavelet are not sparse, unlike the highly compressible high pass components of an ordinary wavelet. Zhang and X. Wu therefore proposed a Mallat wavelet packet decomposition to sparsify the wavelet transformed raw sensor image data with additional multiresolution analysis.
A rigorous analysis the wavelet transform applied to raw sensor image data has been published. K. Hirakawa and P. J. Wolfe, "Rewiring filterbanks for local fourier analysis: Theory and practice," IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory, vol. 57, pp. 5360-5374, July 2011. J. T. Korneliussen and K. Hirakawa, "Camera processing with chromatic aberration," IEEE Trans. Image Process., vol. 23, pp. 4539-4552, August 2014. The analysis is summarized as follows. Let x(n)=[r(n)g(n)b(n)]T be a color image where (r(n)g(n)b(n)) represent the red, green, and blue color components, respectively. Then the CFA sampled data y(n) at pixel location is:
                                             y                  (         n         )                =                                              c                      (           n           )                    T                                     x                    (          n          )                                                             =                                   g                    (          n          )                  +                                          c            r                      (           n           )                                         α                      (           n           )                            +                                          c            b                      (           n           )                                         β                      (           n           )                                                                (     1     )          where α and β defined as α(n)=r(n)−g(n) and β(n)=b(n)−g(n) are taken to be proxies for chrominance images; and the vector c(n)=[cr(n)cg(n)cb(n)]T∈{0,1}3 is a sampling lattice (e.g. c(n)=[1 0 0] denotes a red pixel at pixel location n). The CFA sampled image of (1) is composed of luminance components (fully observed green pixels) and chrominance components (sparsely sampled color differences). The advantage to such decomposition is that α and β are lowpass signals.
The first level input of y(n) is:wi,jy(n)=wi,jg+wi,jcr·α(n)+wi,jcb·β(n)  (2)
where wc denotes the wavelet coefficient for components c (e.g., c=g), and the subband index (i,j)∈{L, H}2 denotes lowpass (L) and highpass (H) in the vertical and horizontal directions.
Let L* and H* denote subbands of conjugate wavelet transform coefficients computed using conjugated wavelet filters. Approximating the detail coefficients of chrominance by zero (i.e., wi,jα(n)=wi,jβ(n) for (i,j)≠{l, L}, the wavelet transform of (2) can be rewritten as:wLLy(n)=wLLg(n)+¼wLLα(n)+¼wLLβ(n)wLHy(n)=wLHg(n)+¼wLL*α(n)−¼wLL*β(n)wHLy(n)=wHLg(n)+¼wL*Lα(n)−¼wL*Lβ(n)wHHy(n)=wHHg(n)+¼wL*L*α(n)+¼wL*L*β(n)  (3)
The wavelet coefficients of the CFA sampled image are therefore interpreted as a linear combination of the coefficients of luminance and the lowpass coefficients of chrominance. This is appropriate because the LH, HL, and HH subbands are dominated by lowpass components α and β (rather than the highpass components. The Hirakawa and P. J. Wolfe paper defined a relationship between the LH and HL subbands, which relationship has been applied to conduct de-mosaicing.

Sampled image compression methods and image processing pipeline

The Regents of the University of California


A circuit inspection method includes supplying electric charges to a first, second, and third electric charge holding electrodes in an electric circuit; outputting the electric charges held in the first electric charge holding electrode after a predetermined period of time from supplying of the electric charges; changing voltages of the first and second scan lines to a drive voltage to output the electric charges held in the second electric charge holding electrode; and determining whether an electric charge writing function and an electric charge holding function of the second electric charge holding electrode are good or not based on a quantity of the supplied electric charges and a quantity of the electric charges output from the second electric charge holding electrode.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a circuit inspection apparatus for an electric circuit formed on an array substrate which employs a multiple pixel structure and an electric circuit equivalent to the electric circuit, and a method of manufacturing a liquid crystal display which employs the circuit inspection method and the multiple pixel structure.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a liquid crystal display, an active matrix liquid crystal display using a TFT (Thin Film Transistor) as a switching device is known. In the active matrix liquid crystal display, a liquid crystal material is sealed between a TFT array substrate on which scan lines and data lines are arranged in the form of a matrix and thin film transistors are arranged at crossing points between both the lines and a counter substrate arranged spaced apart from the TFT array substrate with a predetermined interval, a voltage to be applied to the liquid crystal material is controlled by the thin film transistors, so that a display can be achieved by using the electro-optic effect of liquid crystal. The ON/OFF-operations of the thin film transistors are controlled by voltages applied by the scan lines and the data lines. The scan lines and the data lines are connected to drive circuits, respectively.
In consideration of a tendency to improve definition of a recent liquid crystal displays, the number of data lines and the number of scan lines increase with an increase in number of pixels, and the number of drive ICs tends to increase. Since this tendency causes an increase in manufacturing cost and a decrease in yield, a structure (to be referred to as a "multiple pixel structure" hereinafter) in which a voltage is applied to a pixel electrode group belonging to a plurality of columns by one data line to reduce the number of data lines and the number of drive ICs to be connected to the data lines is proposed.
FIG. 14 is an equivalent circuit diagram showing an example of a structure of a TFT array substrate constituting a liquid crystal display having the multiple pixel structure. As shown in FIG. 14, for example, a pixel electrode A1 is connected to a scan line Gn+1 and a scan line Gn+2 through a first thin film transistor M1 and a second thin film transistor M2. A display signal is supplied from a data line Dm to the pixel electrode A1. A pixel electrode B1 is connected to the scan line Gn+1 through a third thin film transistor M3. Similarly, a display signal is supplied from the data line Dm to the pixel electrode B1. The other pixel electrodes are connected to the same circuit structures to sequentially supply the pixel electrodes A1, B1, C1, and D1 and display signals from the same data line Dm, thereby displaying an image. By employing the structure, as shown in FIG. 14, the number of data lines can be reduced. Consequently, the number of drive ICs connected to the data lines can be reduced. For this reason, an advantage of being able to reduce manufacturing cost can be achieved (For example, see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 2002-196357 and 2003-330034).
In general liquid crystal display, gradation displays on each display pixel are performed depending on quantities of electrical charge accumulated in pixel electrodes respectively arranged on the display pixels. Therefore, from a viewpoint of keeping quality of display image characteristics, it is important that appropriate charges are supplied to the pixel electrodes depending on display gradations and that the supplied charges are held for a predetermined period of time. In an inspection, performed in manufacturing steps, of a circuit structure formed on an array substrate, an electric charge writing function and an electric charge holding function especially related to pixel electrodes are intensively inspected.
A conventional inspection method related to a circuit structure formed on an array substrate is as follows. In general, as in an image display, thin film transistors corresponding to pixel electrodes are turned on, and known electric charges are supplied by data lines through the ON thin film transistors. A predetermined period of time after, the thin film transistors are turned on again, and charges held in the pixel electrodes are output outside through the data lines. For example, a value of charges in supplying is compared with a value of charges in outputting to determine whether the circuit structure of each display pixel is good or not.
It is desired that an inspection for a circuit structure be performed to all display pixels. For this reason, in a conventional inspection method, after predetermined electric charges are supplied to the pixel electrodes as in image display, the scan lines are sequentially scanned as in the image display to extract electric charges, thereby determining whether the display pixels are good or not.
However, a liquid crystal display which employs the multiple pixel structure, a defective pixel cannot be easily specified when an inspection is performed to circuit structures formed on an array substrate. This problem will be described below in detail.
As also shown in FIG. 14, the liquid crystal display which employs the multiple pixel structure has a structure in which the pixel electrode A1 is electrically connected to the data line Dm when the first thin film transistor M1 and the second thin film transistor M2 are turned on. Therefore, when electric charges accumulated in the pixel electrode A1 are output outside, the scan line Gn+1 and the scan line Gn+2 in FIG. 14 must supply voltages (to be referred to as "drive voltages" hereinafter) required to drive thin film transistors to turn on the first thin film transistor M1 and the second thin film transistor M2.
On the other hand, the third thin film transistor M3 arranged for the pixel electrode B1, as also shown in FIG. 14, has a configuration in which a gate electrode is connected to the scan line Gn+1. Therefore, when the drive voltage is supplied by the scan line Gn+1, the third thin film transistor M3 is also controlled in an ON state. The moment the pixel electrode A1 and the data line Dm are electrically connected to each other, the pixel electrode B1 and the data line Dm are electrically connected to each other.
A thin film transistor corresponding to the pixel electrode D1 has a structure in which a gate electrode is electrically connected to the scan line Gn+2. Therefore, when the scan line Gn+2 supplies a drive voltage to output charges accumulated in the pixel electrode A1 outside through the data line Dm, at the same time, the pixel electrode D1 and the data line Dm are electrically connected to each other.
As described above, when the pixel electrode A1 and the data line Dm are electrically connected to each other to output the accumulated electric charges outside, the pixel electrode B1 and the pixel electrode D1 are also consequently electrically connected to the data line Dm. Therefore, when the liquid crystal display which employs the multiple pixel structure is to be inspected, not only electric charges accumulated in the pixel electrode A1 but also electric charges accumulated in the pixel electrodes B1 and D1 are output outside through the data line Dm, so that only a sum of electric charges accumulated in the plurality of pixel electrodes can be recognized. It is very difficult to accurately determine whether the circuit structure is good or not.
The present invention was made to solve the above-mentioned problems and has an object of realizing a technique which can accurately detect quantities of electric charges held in a plurality of electric holding electrodes such as pixel electrodes, like an electric circuit formed on an array substrate for a liquid crystal display employed a multiple pixel structure.

Circuit inspection method, method of manufacturing liquid-crystal display, and circuit inspection apparatus

International Business Machines Corporation


When powering up a xerographic fusing apparatus with two parallel lamps, power is applied to each lamp in a stair-step fashion, in which incremental increases in applied power for each lamp are staggered in time. This feature contributes to desirable anti-flicker effects of the whole apparatus.

The present invention relates to a fusing apparatus, as used in electrostatographic printing, such as xerographic printing or copying, and methods of operating thereof.
In electrostatographic printing, commonly known as xerographic or printing or copying, an important process step is known as xe2x80x9cfusing.xe2x80x9d In the fusing step of the xerographic process, dry marking material, such as toner, which has been placed in imagewise fashion on an imaging substrate, such as a sheet of paper, is subjected to heat and/or pressure in order to melt or otherwise fuse the toner permanently on the substrate. In this way, durable, non-smudging images are rendered on the substrates.
Currently, the most common design of a fusing apparatus as used in commercial printers includes two rolls, typically called a fuser roll and a pressure roll, forming a nip therebetween for the passage of the substrate therethrough. Typically, the fuser roll further includes, disposed on the interior thereof, one or more heating elements, which radiate heat in response to a current being passed therethrough. The heat from the heating elements passes through the surface of the fuser roll, which in turn contacts the side of the substrate having the image to be fused, so that a combination of heat and pressure successfully fuses the image.
In more sophisticated designs of a fusing apparatus, provision can be made to take into account the fact that sheets of different sizes may be passed through the fusing apparatus, ranging from postcard-sized sheets to sheets which extend the full length of the rolls. Further, it is known to control the heating element or elements inside the fuser roll to take into account the fact that a sheet of a particular size is being fed through the nip. When a relatively large sheet is passed through the nip, it is desirable to have an even distribution of heat along the length of the fuser roll, while when a smaller sheet is passed, it is desirable to radiate heat only along the portion of the fuser roll corresponding to the sheet, so that the system as a whole does not overheat.
Another design consideration which has recently become important in the office equipment industry is the avoidance of xe2x80x9cflickerxe2x80x9d with regard to a power system associated with the printing apparatus. xe2x80x9cAnti-flickerxe2x80x9d mandates, which basically require that the alternating current consumption of the machine as a whole does not affect the behavior of other equipment, such as fluorescent lighting, within the same building, are of particular concern in Europe and developing countries.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,301,359 discloses a fusing apparatus in which thermal sensors are located symmetrically relative to a midpoint along the length of a fuser roll, in order to take into account a profile of heat distribution along the fuser roll.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,309,591 discloses a fusing apparatus in which the heating elements are controlled to take into account the thermal expansion of at least one roll.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,300,996 discloses, at FIG. 5 thereof, a fuser roll which includes, among other features, two parallel heating elements.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,497,218 discloses a fuser roll in which a first heating element distributes heat substantially along the entire fuser roll, and a second heating element provides heat only over a portion of the length of the fuser roll.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,826,152 discloses a fuser roll in which the heating elements are disposed within a hollow cylindrical tube inside the roll. Each heating element is independently controllable.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,899,599 discloses a fuser roll in which there are provided two parallel heating elements.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,008,829 discloses, at FIG. 2 thereof, a fuser roll in which one heating element radiates heat mainly toward the middle of the fuser roll, while a second heating element radiates heat mainly at the ends of the fuser roll.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of operating a xerographic fusing apparatus, the apparatus having a first heating element and a second heating element, comprising the steps of incrementally changing an amount of power applied to the first heating element; and incrementally changing an amount of power applied to the second heating element outside of a predetermined time window relative to incrementally changing the amount of power applied to the first heating element.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of operating a xerographic fusing apparatus, the apparatus having a first heating element and a second heating element. When increasing power applied to the first heating element and second heating element, the first heating element and second heating element are caused to be connected in series. When the fusing apparatus is in a running condition, the first heating element and second heating element are caused to be not connected in series.

Method of operating a xerographic fusing apparatus with multiple heating elements


An apparatus and method for printing postal indicia and similar images. The apparatus includes two print stations and an ink jet printhead transportable between the stations. The printhead forms images on a transfer roller located at each of the stations and the image is then transferred from the roller to a substrate. At the second station the transfer roller is incorporated in a detachable roller and is used to print remotely located substrates.

The subject invention relates to an apparatus and method for printing images. More particularly, it relates to an apparatus and method for printing images such as postal indicia printed by postage meters to evidence that appropriate postage has been paid on a mail piece as evidence that postage has been paid, i.e. that the prepaid amount stored in the meter has been properly decremented, a postal indicia on a mail piece.
A typical indicia includes fixed elements such as city name, state, meter identification, arbitrary and complex elements to inhibit counterfeiting of the indicia, and variable elements such as date, and, of course, a postage amount represented by the indicia. Typically indicia have been printed by complex mechanical rotary or flat bed printing elements which include a fixed printing element for printing fixed information and adjustable elements for printing variable information.
One problem with such postage meters has been providing indicia for packages or other bulky articles on which a postage meter cannot print directly. Heretofore indicia for packages have been printed on separate labels or tapes which were then applied to the package in the same manner as a postage stamp. While generally satisfactory the cost of label stock represents a significant cost for mailers, particularly in developing countries where postal rates are low.
Recently postage meters using digital printing have been proposed to allow incorporation of encrypted information in indicia to deter counterfeiting as well as to simplify printing of variable information in indicia. One particularly desirable form of digital printing which has been proposed for use in a postage meter is ink jet printing, and particularly piezoelectric ink jet printing. One such postage meter is described in commonly assigned, co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 554,179, filed Nov. 6, 1995, for MAIL HANDLING APPARATUS AND PROCESS FOR PRINTING AN INDICIA COLUMN-BY-COLUMN IN REAL TIME, by Arsenault et al. (E-394) In this meter a printhead having a number of ink jets is oriented transversely to the printing direction and is moved over the mailpiece to print the indicia. Because the printhead has a density of 80 jets per inch while a vertical resolution of 240 dots per inch is desired for the indicia, the printer described in the above reference application prints the indicia in 3 interleaved passes.
Thus, it is a object of the subject invention provide an improved apparatus and method for printing images such as postal indicia on packages or other bulky articles on which a postage meter cannot print directly.

Ink jet printing apparatus with handheld applicator


A signal receiving device includes: a first conversion unit comprising a first input terminal to which a signal including a voltage signal and a reference voltage is inputted, and a first output terminal which output a first current signal voltage-current converted from the signal; a second conversion unit comprising a second input terminal to which the reference voltage is inputted, and a second output terminal which output a second current signal voltage-current converted from the reference voltage; a current mirror circuit comprising a third input terminal to which the second current signal is inputted, and a third output terminal which output a third current signal corresponding to the second current signal; and an output unit connected to both the first and third output terminals.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a signal receiving device capable of inputting a weak voltage signal.
2. Description of the Related Art
A signal amplifier amplifying an inputted signal is in use (for example, see JP-A2007-129501 (KOKAI)). In the signal amplifier described in Document, a voltage signal inputted to a signal input terminal is converted to a current by a transistor and outputted as a current signal via a current mirror. On this occasion, if a voltage of the inputted signal is lower than a threshold voltage of the transistor, the transistor becomes in an OFF state, so that the outputted current is zero. In other words, if an inputted signal is weak, it is difficult to output a current from the signal amplifier.


Apparatus and methods are described for space-efficient, high-speed data communications for integrated circuits. Bandwidth is multiplied by using multiple individual wireline communications channels coupled to form a communications lane. The data receiver for a channel implements symbol-rate equalization and crosstalk filtering that is space efficient, allowing high-speed data communications to be added as an ancillary function to an IC.

Advances in semiconductor technology have brought electronic devices with continually higher operating speeds and a concomitant need for faster communication channels to transport data among these devices. Many technological advances and solutions have resulted from efforts to maximize the speed and quality of these communication channels as their increasing speeds have introduced new challenges. For example, higher frequencies increase the impact of the skin effect in physical conductors and dielectric losses in insulation material.
High-speed serial (HSS) links that convey a data signal from end to end using a wireline have grown in popularity as a worthwhile communications channel. The great variability in the physical composition and construction of individual wirelines, and other factors, have resulted in sophisticated transceiver circuits that can dynamically adapt to actual operating conditions, maximizing the rate at which data can be reliably received. The sophistication of these transceivers, however, generally requires a large amount of circuitry capable of occupying the entire area of an integrated circuit (IC) die. Accordingly, these solutions cannot be practically employed where high-speed serial communication is only ancillary to the principal purpose of the chip.
Moreover, multiple communication channels may be operated in tandem as a unified communication lane to support data transfer rates beyond the capability of a single channel. The increased data rates brought by coupling the data capacity of multiple channels brings with it the increased likelihood of signal cross coupling between the channels. Left unaddressed, this cross-coupled interfering noise reduces the potential maximum data rate at which each individual channel can receive data reliably. The problem with crosstalk from co-located transmitters at the receiver input takes on increasing significance as channel frequencies move from the sub gigahertz range to 6 GHz, 10 GHz, and beyond.
As a further complication, the move to higher and higher frequencies presents new signal reliability challenges to wireline (i.e., solid conductor) data transmission on wirelines measured in inches, or that may be wholly contained within the confines of a single IC die.

Self-tuning high speed transceiver for IC wireline channel


A passive equalization structure is provided. The passive equalization structure includes a semiconductor substrate having first and a differential pair having first and second signal conductors. The first signal conductor is formed in a first layer of the semiconductor substrate. The second signal conductor is formed in a second layer in the semiconductor substrate that is different than the first layer. The passive equalization structure further includes first and second reference planes, whereby the first and second signal conductors are formed between the first and second reference planes. The first reference plane has a first thickness, and the first signal conductor has a second thickness that is different than the first thickness. A conductive via may short the first and second reference to minimize uncertainty and variations in capacitance from the first and second signal conductors and unwanted stray capacitance effects.

Transmission links such as circuit traces, integrated circuit interconnect lines or pins, backplanes, wires or cables, antennas, air, or other transmission media may attenuate, delay, or otherwise change the characteristics of signals traveling through them. Signal attenuation may be frequency dependent; different frequency signal components can be attenuated by different amounts. In general, high-frequency signal components are attenuated more than lower frequency components. Phase delay or group delay caused by the transmission link may also be frequency dependent, causing different signal frequency components to arrive at the receiver or transceiver with different delays.
In a dielectric stack such as those commonly used in backplanes, transmission losses may be due to skin effect and dielectric losses. Skin effect losses may lead to intersymbol interference (ISI), which results in an increased bit error rate (BER). In some integrated circuit devices, active equalization circuits may be provided to improve signal transmission. An active equalization circuit may amplify higher frequency components more than lower frequency components to compensate for bandwidth loss. However, such an equalization technique is fairly complex as it needs to be accompanied by a decision feedback equalization (DFE) circuit, which typically uses feedback to reduce the ISI in a presently transmitted signal. In addition, the use of an active equalization circuit increases cost and power consumption for the receiver or transceiver.

Methods and apparatus for passive equalization in high-speed and high density integrated circuits