A multibeam scanning apparatus includes a polygon mirror provided between laser beam generation sources and a photosensitive drum of a target, for deflecting laser beams emitted from the laser beam generation sources to scan the photosensitive drum, galvanomirrors provided between the polygon mirror and each of the laser beam generation sources, for allowing a radiating position of each of the laser beams to move on the photosensitive drum, a sensor located in a downstream position of the polygon mirror and optically in conjugation with the photosensitive drum, for sensing the radiating positions of the laser beams on the photosensitive drum, and controller for controlling the galvanomirrors in order to set the radiating positions of the laser beams on the photosensitive drum in response to a signal output from the sensor.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multibeam scanning method and apparatus suitable to be applied to a laser printer, a digital copying machine whose recording section is equipped with a laser printer, and the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
As is well-known, in a laser printer or a digital copying machine whose recording section has a laser printer, a laser beam emitted from a single laser source is deflected by a rotating polygon mirror serving as a scanning element, and the surface of a photosensitive drum is scanned with the deflected laser beam to thereby record an image.
To gather recording speed in such a machine, the transfer speed of image information for modulating a laser beam should be increased, as should be the rotational speed of a polygon mirror. Since, however, there is naturally a limit to an increase in these speeds, there is a limit to an improvement in recording speed using a single laser beam, too.
An image recording technique of overcoming the above drawback is proposed in, for example, Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKOKU Publication No. 1-43294. In this technique, the surface of a photosensitive drum is scanned with a plurality of laser beams at once, and these laser beams are modulated by different items of image information thereby to record an image. Since a plurality of lines of the image are formed simultaneously using a plurality of laser beams, the recording speed can be increased by the number of laser beams without changing the speed of the rotating polygon mirror or the image information transfer rate.
The above-described machine is called a multibeam scanning apparatus. As a laser beam generation source of the apparatus for generating a plurality of laser beams, there are known an array of laser diodes arranged in one chip, as disclosed in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKOKU Publication No. 1-43294 and a plurality of laser diodes which are separate from each other, as disclosed in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKOKU Publication No. 6-94215.
The former laser beam generation source has the advantages of both generating laser beams without varying a pitch therebetween and reducing in size. If, however, the power of generation is increased to achieve high-speed recording, there occurs a crosstalk wherein the laser beam emitted from one laser diode influences the laser beam emitted from another laser diode. The pitch between laser beams is structurally difficult to narrow and thus the beams have to be emitted with a pitch corresponding to several lines of recording. It is thus necessary that a laser beam should jump over an image portion formed by a previously-emitted laser beam in which direction the photosensitive drum moves. The former therefore has a drawback of complicating an image forming process.
The latter laser beam generation source is capable of generating a laser beam at higher power and shortening the wavelength of the laser beam to record an image with high precision, without causing any crosstalk; on the other hand, it has drawbacks of making it difficult to set the pitch between laser beams to a desired value and causing the pitch to vary due to environmental temperature, heat generated from a laser diode itself, and the like, since the separate laser diodes have to be incorporated into an optical unit.
Since a laser scanning optical system is generally constituted as a magnifying optical system which magnifies an image several tens of times from each of laser beam generation sources to the surface of a photosensitive drum, the laser beam generation sources need to be positioned with precision of submicron. It is actually however impossible to secure such precision. Therefore, the multibeam scanning apparatus using the separate laser diodes includes a beam pitch correction control mechanism as described in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKOKU Publication No. 6-94215.
In the beam pitch correction control mechanism, before a plurality of laser beams are deflected by a rotating polygon mirror, a laser beam is split into beams by an optical means such as a beam splitter, and a pitch between the beams is detected, thus controlling the positions of the beams. In this case, however, there often occurs a shift in beam pitch on the surface of the photosensitive drum. The multibeam scanning apparatus is so constituted that a laser beam is deflected by the rotating polygon mirror and radiated to the surface of the photosensitive drum through an optical element such as an f-.theta. lens. If the optical element is formed of an inexpensive plastic lens or the like, the positions of laser beams radiated to the surface of the photosensitive drum will be varied due to irregularities of the respective elements, environmental humidity, etc. Consequently, even though a pitch between laser beams is detected to control the positions of the beams before the beams are deflected by the polygon mirror, the pitch is difficult to set to a desired value on the surface of the photosensitive drum.
The above-described drawbacks are summarized as follows.
In a prior art multibeam scanning apparatus using a laser diode array as a laser beam generation source, a pitch between laser beams can be determined with high precision; however, it is difficult to increase in power for high-speed recording and shorten the wavelength of each laser beam for high resolution, and also necessary to perform an interlaced scanning accompanying a complicated control. On the other hand, in another prior art multibeam scanning apparatus using each of a plurality of separate laser diodes as a laser beam generation source, it is possible to increase in power for high-speed recording and shorten the wavelength of a laser beam for high resolution, but a beam pitch is very difficult to be set to a desired value and it is varied due to environmental temperature, humidity, and the like.

Multibeam scanning method and apparatus with positional adjustment features


A rotation sensor utilizing light reflection and/or refraction techniques including a light source, a light reflecting surface and a reflected light receiving member in which the elements are positioned so that the intensity of light reflected by the reflecting surface and received by the receiving member is unique for each rotational position being measured. The invention also relates to a method utilizing the above sensor.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a rotation sensor for measuring or detecting rotation or angular orientation between first and second or two or more members. More specifically, the present invention relates to a rotation sensor utilizing light reflection and refraction principles. The present invention also relates to a method for sensing the rotation or angular orientation of a first member relative to a second member.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A variety of rotation sensors are currently available in the art for sensing or measuring relative rotation of a rotatable member. One such rotation sensor is an optical encoder. In such a rotation sensor, a matched light source and a photodetector are provided on the opposite sides of a disk. The disk is attached to a shaft which is in turn mechanically coupled to the device whose rotation is to be measured. The disk is provided with a plurality of apertures which vary in radial position as the disk rotates, enabling light to pass through only at certain radii corresponding to its degree of rotation. Optical encoders are commonly available to provide absolute or incremental angle measurement. Although optical encoder rotation sensors function satisfactorily for certain applications, their use in many applications is limited because of size and weight limitations. They are also sensitive to electromagnetic interference (EMI).
Rotation sensors utilizing electrical resolver technology continue to be used in some aircraft applications. Electrical resolvers rely on mutual induction of electrical coils to convey the rotational position. Rotation sensors using this technology are generally quite massive, are usually less accurate and more expensive than sensors using optical encoders, and are also sensitive to EMI.
Resistive potentiometers are also used in some rotation sensors. The principal limitation of this type of rotation sensor is the limited number of cycles per lifetime, particularly with small sensors. Further, the output of the potentiometer, in most applications, requires shielding. Although normally smaller in size than an optical encoder sensors, they are often less desirable for small volume, critical applications because of unreliability and reduced precision. A further major drawback to potentiometer based sensors, like the others described above, is that the signal is conveyed via a wire; therefore, they are not immune to electromagnetic interference (EMI).
Hall effect rotation sensors involving the rotation or movement of a magnet past a detector are also available. However, they likewise suffer from the limitation of not being immune to EMI.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a rotation sensor which is small, lightweight, immune to EMI and is accurate and reliable.


a bidirectional repeater for repeating an electrical signal traversing a conductive line coupled between a gateway node and a sensor, the bidirectional repeater comprising a first input-output port coupled to the gateway node, a second input-output port coupled to the sensor, a first transceiver configured to receive a synchronization signal from the first input-output port and to transmit a resynchronized data signal to the first input-output port, a second transceiver configured to transmit the synchronization signal to the second input-output port and to receive a data signal from the second input-output port, and a repeater circuit coupled to the first and second transceivers and configured to pass through the synchronization signal, and to resynchronize the data signal to generate the resynchronized data signal.

Distributed sensor networks use a set of spatially scattered sensors designed to obtain measurements from the environment. A central node connected to the sensors collects the data, which is used to extract relevant information about the environment.
Conventional network types, such as the RS-485 network, allow the implementation of linear bus topologies (e.g., in-line serial drop communication links). However, such networks have bandwidth/data rate limitations that constrain the quantity of and the physical spacing between sensors employed. Data rates (baud rates) are typically governed by cable length and physical signaling protocols. Electrical cables have an inherent low-pass filtration characteristic (due to intrinsic inductance, resistance, and capacitance), which leads to lower data rates for longer spans of the electrical cable. Data protocols attempt to optimize signal integrity and may limit the bit error rate for a given design parameter. Extending length and number of distributed sensors may require additional busses or cables running at slower baud rates. Manufacturability may become increasingly more expensive as additional cables are added to accommodate sensor bandwidth, which can lead to solutions that may not be realistic in terms of cost.
Some semiconductor manufacturers have developed RS-485 transceiver devices with built-in cable equalization (e.g., high-frequency gain circuits) that extends the range of an RS-485 network. While these devices may succeed in lengthening the range of such networks, they still have a limit to their maximum range. Further, these devices do not attempt to address the concept of synchronization.
Other network types such as Ethernet and USB have existing methods for extending their range; however, these methods often impose high power consumption, cost, and even size making them unsuitable for many applications, such as long-distance sub-sea surveillance.
What is desired is an extendable synchronous low power telemetry system for distributed sensor networks that is low cost, reliable, and readily scalable.

Extendable synchronous low power telemetry system for distributed sensors


A device for control interface sensitive to movement of a body, includes a detection surface; at least one capacitive sensor including a measurement electrode including an active surface facing the detection surface, or substantially coinciding with the detection surface; electronic excitation and processing components for exciting the measurement electrodes at an alternating electrical potential and processing the signals emanating from the capacitive sensors, to provide distance information between the active surface of the electrodes and one or several objects; a guard of electrically conducting material disposed in proximity to the measurement electrodes, at least along the face of the measurement electrodes substantially opposite to the active surface, which guard is excited at an alternating electrical potential substantially identical to the alternating electrical potential of the measurement electrodes, wherein: the measurement electrodes and the guard are made of substantially transparent conducting materials; and the device for interface is substantially transparent.

So-called virtual, that is gestural and/or tactile and vocal man-machine interfaces, as opposed to interfaces where the user acts on mechanical sensors such as keyboard keys or switches, are most often 3D cameras in the field of gestural interface and active surfaces, often transparent and integrated on the display screens, in the field of tactile interface. These tactile interfaces are widespread under the name of "touchpad" for multiple industrial and consumer applications, such as for example smartphones, home automation or game interfaces.
The screen enables to display for example a keyboard or the software interface the image of which varies in response to actions from the user, which generally consist of a displacement, a tapping or even a prolonged contact of the finger or a stylus onto the screen surface in order to perform controls. More recently, so-called gestural interfaces have developed to meet the increasingly great complexity of digital products emanating from the convergence of communication and entertainment information technologies. These interfaces are most often based on a 3D camera and an image processing capable of interpreting at a long distance, up to 5 meters, the movements of the body or the hand to interact with the screen.
Among virtual controls, can also be mentioned the vocal control which enables the request to be performed from the voice.
Among existing tactile technologies, capacitive technologies are frequently used because:                they do not require exerting any mechanical action onto the screen surface unlike resistive techniques for example,        they are well-adapted to the meshing of the screen surface by a sensor network directly integrated to the surface thereof, which enables a much more compact and robust integration than with optical techniques for example which require a network of transmitters-receivers raised with respect to the detection surface.
It is more and more attempted in virtual interfaces to have a proximity detection function, which enables new man-machine interaction modes to be created without any contact. Sensors must then be able to detect displacements or shapes within several centimeters, in a sufficiently accurate and determined manner to be able to transform them into controls.
If optical technologies cannot be dispensed with when accurately detecting movements at a very long distance (beyond 40 centimeters), capacitive technologies turn out to be very well adapted to interfaces without proximity contact, in particular because all sensors can be integrated to a non-planar active surface, for example a screen, without dead area or without requiring external devices (cameras).
Amongst capacitive tactile interfaces, the most used techniques are generally based on the charge transfer principle. They enable sensitivity in the order of one picofarad to be obtained but they are not adapted to make a gestural interface. Indeed, their sensitivity does not enable the approach of a finger to be detected because the capacity generated does not then exceed a few hundreds picofarads. Stray capacitances present in this type of sensor and in electronics prevent any sensitivity improvement.
Moreover, these techniques are very sensitive to electromagnetic disturbances, stray electrical charges and electric conduction of the dielectric covering the electrodes. When the air relative humidity is higher than 60%, most dielectrics become slightly electrically conducting and charges generated by the electronics are modified, which disturbs the capacitive measurement.
Among technical solutions employed to make non-tactile capacitive interfaces, some are known which implement a pseudo-guard enabling the stray capacitances to be strongly reduced in the sensor and electronics. However, these techniques only enable at most one order of magnitude on sensitivity to be gained, which enables the presence of a finger to be detected at only a few mm on the sensitive surface of the sensor.
Regarding capacitive gestural interfaces, it is known from document U.S. Pat. No. 6,847,354 to Vranish, capacitive sensors implemented with an active guard. This active guard is created using a unity gain amplifier which generates in the guard a voltage with an amplitude identical to that of the measurement electrode.
The drawback of this method is that the electronics generates by a physical principle stray capacitances which correspond to the sum of the input capacitances of the amplifier to generate the active guard, also called pseudo-guard, and of the circuit to excite the measurement electrode. These stray capacitances easily reach one picofarad and add up to the capacitance to be measured, which only represent one hundredth of this total value.
Moreover, the capacitance measurement is not direct because the Vranish electronics obtains the image of the capacitance to be measured by measuring its current via a reference resistor. This resistor generates a stray phase shift of the electrical current which strongly degrades the detection quality, or of demodulation of the signal representing the capacitance to be measured. Another drawback is the crosstalk level between different electrodes. Indeed, each electrode is excited by an operational amplifier the gain of which is approximately a unity one. Any gain deviation between different amplifiers causes a high further stray capacitance.
These drawbacks do not enable the position of an object such as a finger or a hand to be detected and located at several centimeters or even tens of centimeters with each sensor.
On the other hand, capacitive technologies implemented for making gestural interfaces have been developed most often in an attempt to be integrated to screens or at least substantially planar surfaces. The structures of sensors are arrays, as in U.S. Pat. No. 6,847,354, and interfaced with electrode structures disposed as a grid X-Y. These technologies are poorly adapted to the instrumentation of surfaces with more complex shapes.
In particular, they are hardly applicable to devices for virtual controls or gestural interfaces based not on an instrumented planar surface but on other types of geometries including cavities, reliefs, undulations simulating for example keys, buttons or wrapping the user wherein sensors can be disposed as various geometries, sometimes under dielectric materials with a high thickness, and must sometimes be able to be disposed and managed independently of one another.
Document FR2884349 to Rozière is known, which discloses a system based on capacitive sensors including a single measurement electrode. The device enables objects to be detected beyond 10 cm with each electrode, thanks to a floating bridge electronics. The measurements from the electrodes are sequentially read by means of a scrutinizing system.
However, this device, intended to equip walls of movable instruments, is specifically designed to cover anti-collision applications, and does not cover the gestural interface applications.
Whereas gestural interfaces will have an increasing importance, the touch however remains prevailing, even in virtual interfaces capable of detecting movements at a distance, for psychological and security reasons in particular. Indeed, on the one hand the tactile feeling promotes comfort to the user, on the other hand the touch allows efficient validation of commands in operating contexts where security is important (medical equipment, vehicles).
The object of the present invention is to provide a gestural interface and a gestural and tactile interface, comprised of a device and a method for monitoring actions and inputting controls, which is compact and integrable in a variety of environments, while allowing:                anticipating actions by accurate measurements of displacements without contact, and        securely validating commands through detection of physical actions on a surface.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Device and method for control interface sensitive to a movement of a body or of an object and viewing screen integrating this device


An image retrieval system performs both keyword-based and content-based image retrieval. A user interface allows a user to specify queries using a combination of keywords and examples images. Depending on the input query, the image retrieval system finds images with keywords that match the keywords in the query and/or images with similar low-level features, such as color, texture, and shape. The system ranks the images and returns them to the user. The user interface allows the user to identify images that are more relevant to the query, as well as images that are less or not relevant to the query. The user may alternatively elect to refine the search by selecting one example image from the result set and submitting its low-level features in a new query. The image retrieval system monitors the user feedback and uses it to refine any search efforts and to train itself for future search queries. In the described implementation, the image retrieval system seamlessly integrates feature-based relevance feedback and semantic-based relevance feedback.

The popularity of digital images is rapidly increasing due to improving digital imaging technologies and easy availability facilitated by the Internet. More and more digital images are becoming available every day.
Automatic image retrieval systems provide an efficient way for users to navigate through the growing numbers of available images. Traditional image retrieval systems allow users to retrieve images in one of two ways: (1) keyword-based image retrieval or (2) content-based image retrieval. Keyword-based image retrieval finds images by matching keywords from a user query to keywords that have been manually added to the images. One of the more popular collections of annotated images is "Corel Gallery", an image database from Corel Corporation that includes upwards of 1 million annotated images.
One problem with keyword-based image retrieval systems is it can be difficult or impossible for a user to precisely describe the inherent complexity of certain images. As a result, retrieval accuracy can be severely limited because images that cannot be described or can only be described ambiguously will not be retrieved successfully. In addition, due to the enormous burden of manual annotation, there are few databases with annotated images, although this is changing.
Content-based image retrieval (CBIR) finds images that are similar to low-level image features of an example image, such as color histogram, texture, shape, and so forth. Although CBIR solves the problem of keyword-based image retrieval, it also has severe shortcomings. One drawback of CBIR is that searches may return entirely irrelevant images that just happen to possess similar features. Additionally, individual objects in images contain a wide variety of low-level features. Therefore, using only the low-level features will not satisfactorily describe what is to be retrieved.
To weed out the irrelevant images returned in CBIR, some CBIR-based image retrieval systems utilize user feedback to gain an understanding as to the relevancy of certain images. After an initial query, such systems estimate the user's ideal query by monitoring user-entered positive and negative responses to the images returned from the query. This approach reduces the need for a user to provide accurate initial queries.
One type of relevance feedback approach is to estimate ideal query parameters using only the low-level image features. This approach works well if the feature vectors can capture the essence of the query. For example, if the user is searching for an image with complex textures having a particular combination of colors, this query would be extremely difficult to describe but can be reasonably represented by a combination of color and texture features. Therefore, with a few positive and negative examples, the relevance feedback process is able to return reasonably accurate results. On the other hand, if the user is searching for a specific object that cannot be sufficiently represented by combinations of available feature vectors, these relevance feedback systems will not return many relevant results even with a large number of user feedbacks.
Some researchers have attempted to apply models used in text information retrieval to image retrieval. One of the most popular models used in text information retrieval is the vector model. The vector model is described in such writings as Buckley and Salton, "Optimization of Relevance Feedback Weights," in Proc of SIGIR'95; Salton and McGill, "Introduction to Modern Information Retrieval," McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1983; and W. M. Shaw, "Term-Relevance Computation and Perfect Retrieval Performance," Information processing and Management. Various effective retrieval techniques have been developed for this model and many employ relevance feedback.
Most of the previous relevance feedback research can be classified into two approaches: query point movement and re-weighting. The query point movement method essentially tries to improve the estimate of an "ideal query point" by to moving it towards good example points and away from bad example points. The frequently used technique to iteratively improve this estimation is the Rocchio's formula given below for sets of relevant documents DR and non-relevant documents D′N noted by the user:                               Q          ′                =                              α                                                                           Q                    +                      β                                      (                                                1                                      N                                          R                      ′                                                                                ∑                                          i                      ∈                                              D                        R                        ′                                                                                D                    i                                                              )                                -                      γ                                      (                                                1                                      N                                          N                      ′                                                                                ∑                                          i                      ∈                                              D                        N                        ′                                                                                D                    i                                                              )                                                          (        1        )            where α, β, and γ are suitable constants and NR′, and NN′ are the number of documents in D′R and D′N respectively. This technique is implemented, for example, in the MARS system, as described in Rui, Y., Huang, T. S., and Mehrotra, S. "Content-Based Image Retrieval with Relevance Feedback in MARS," in Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. on Image proc., 1997.
The central idea behind the re-weighting method is very simple and intuitive. Since each image is represented by an N dimensional feature vector, the image may be viewed as a point in an N dimensional space. Therefore, if the variance of the good examples is high along a principle axis j, the values on this axis are most likely not very relevant to the input query and a low weight wj can be assigned to the axis. Therefore, the inverse of the standard deviation of the j-th feature values in the feature matrix is used as the basic idea to update the weight wj. The MARS system mentioned above implements a slight refinement to the reweighting method called the standard deviation method.
Recently, more computationally robust methods that perform global optimization have been proposed. One such proposal is the MindReader retrieval system described in Ishikawa, Y., Subramanya R., and Faloutsos, C., "Mindreader: Query Databases Through Multiple Examples," In Proc. of the 24th VLDB Conference, (New York), 1998. It formulates a minimization problem on the parameter estimating process. Unlike traditional retrieval systems with a distance function that can be represented by ellipses aligned with the coordinate axis, the MindReader system proposed a distance function that is not necessarily aligned with the coordinate axis. Therefore, it allows for correlations between attributes in addition to different weights on each component.
A further improvement over this approach is described in Rui, Y., Huang, T. S. "A Novel Relevance Feedback Technique in Image Retrieval," ACM Multimedia, 1999. Their CBIR system not only formulates the optimization problem but also takes into account the multi-level image model.
All the approaches described above perform relevance feedback at the low-level feature vector level in image retrieval, but fail to take into account any semantics for the images themselves. The inherent problem with these approaches is that adopting relevance feedback used in text information retrieval to image retrieval does not prove to be as successful as hoped. This is primarily because low-level features are often not as powerful in representing complete semantic content of images.
As a result, there have been efforts on incorporating semantics in relevance feedback for image retrieval. In Lee, Ma, and Zhang, "Information Embedding Based on User's Relevance Feedback for Image Retrieval," Technical Report HP Labs, 1998, the authors propose a framework that attempts to embed semantic information into a low-level feature-based image retrieval process using a correlation matrix. In this framework, semantic relevance between image clusters is learned from a user's feedback and used to improve the retrieval performance.
There remains, however, need for improvement in the image retrieval systems and methods that utilize relevance feedback. The inventors propose a system that integrates both semantics and low-level features into the relevance feedback process in a new way. Only when the semantic information is not available is the technique reduced to one of the previously described low-level feedback approaches as a special case.

Image retrieval systems and methods with semantic and feature based relevance feedback


Centering pulses within the output sample period corrects for instantaneous phase errors in multi-reference switching amplifiers. In the preferred embodiment, the pulses are ordered by the relative magnitude of each switched reference.

Multi-Reference Switching Amplifiers, of the type shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,535,058 and PCT/US99/26691, the content of these being incorporated herein by reference, yield significantly higher instantaneous resolution than standard switching amplifiers, through the summation of multiple modulated outputs. In that they operate with pulsewidth modulated (PWM) signals, however, multi-reference amplifiers (like all Class D amplifiers) are subject to distortion unless phase correction is applied.
Switching amplifiers usually rely upon modulation of pulsewidths controlling switching devices which gate power to the load. Resultant output power then approximates the integral of the gated voltage or current over the output sampling period. As these pulsewidths change with dynamic data, however, pulsewidth position within the output sample period becomes significant. Considerable distortion is induced unless the relative phase of each output pulse remains constant. Centering output pulses in the output sample period typically ensures instantaneous phase coherency. It is for this reason that many analog switching amplifiers use triangle, as opposed to sawtooth, reference waveforms.
Multi-reference amplifiers, which sum and/or time-multiplex several switched references, require coherent relative phase of all switched reference pulsewidths to ensure low distortion. Additionally, pulsewidths unrelated to modulation values are typically added to each of these switched reference pulsewidths, as illustrated in my U.S. Pat. No. 6,492,868 "Dynamic Range Enhancement Technique," the entire content of which is also incorporated herein by reference. To ensure coherent relative phase of this plurality of pulsewidths can be a difficult task. A need therefore exists for an effective method of correcting instantaneous phase errors in multi-reference switching amplifiers.

Multi-reference switching amplifier modulation method and apparatus


A system and method for presenting, selecting and retrieving actual samples of wallcoverings based upon selected criteria generated by the user. The user is provided with an input card or brochure listing a number of design characteristics. This input card or brochure includes a chart of color-range cells, each cell representing a range of shades of a base color. Based upon these characteristics, the system would produce a listing of all design patterns, such as wallcoverings which meet these characteristics. The computer system would generate a listing of these patterns. Additionally, the system could include a warehouse/storage facility operatively connected to the computer so as to physically provide the user with the design patterns which were chosen.

The present invention relates generally to the presentation, selection and retrieval of samples of wall-coverings, such as wallpaper. However, the teachings of the present invention can be extended to cover the storage and retrieval of any design provided on a fabric or similar backing.
Presently, the retailing of wallcoverings (wallpapers, borders, fabrics, etc.) is based upon customers searching through wallcovering books provided at a central location, such as a retail outlet, the books containing samples of wallcoverings. Often, this searching occurs within a dismal retail environment, where the store layout, storage and display of the wallcovering books suffers from the same neglect and shortcomings as the wallcovering books themselves.
Each central location is provided with approximately 200 to over 1,000 books, with each book including from 30 to over 100 samples. A specialized wallcovering store having a competitive selection of books would contain approximately 70,000 wallcovering samples. Stores claiming over 1,000 books would have over 100,000 wallcovering samples. These assortments are continually changed as old books are discontinued and new books added.
The books themselves are supplied by the various wallcovering manufacturers and distributors. Each vendor tends to include patterns in each book based on a general theme and/or style. This loose unstructured grouping of patterns would often mean that the customer would have to at least peruse, if not examine, each book.
The customer's task of reviewing each of the store's assortment of patterns may be somewhat facilitated by a knowledgeable salesperson and, by either, excluding or only including the books designed primarily for children's rooms and/or other marginal books. However, in practice, since each store does not include a comprehensive collection of wallcovering books, the prudent customer would be forced to visit many stores and examine many books before selecting a particular wallcovering.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,931,929, issued to Sherman, attempts to solve the problem of forcing an individual to search through many books of wallcoverings before a final selection can be made. This patent is directed to a process for the identification, description and display, on a video monitor, of design components, such as interior decoration products, selected by inputting desired component characteristics to a digital computer. However, while a highly trained decorator may be able to make a final selection of a wallcovering based upon a video image of the wallcovering, most retail customers would not be able to make such a decision. Rather, most customers would be better served by the opportunity to view and touch an actual sample of the wallcovering and perhaps borrow the sample to review in their home. This is important, since presently, most customers would, if possible, borrow a number of books from the retail store so that they can judge how a particular pattern would match with the actual decor of the house of a particular room. Even if the customer is interested in only one wallcovering from a particular book, they are forced to borrow the entire book to make such an assessment.
Additionally, the patent to Sherman indicates that color can be one of the desired component characteristics which can be relayed to the digital computer. Although this is the case, the treatment of color by Sherman is based on a single most dominant color, and up to five sub-dominant color references for each wallcovering. This attempt to establish a dominant color indicates a fundamental failure in the understanding of the use of color in the design of the wallcovering art. Furthermore, Sherman uses a machine-readable color input means which indicates that the colors are digitized quantities of hue, chroma and value so that each color falls within a predetermined block of color coordinates. The use of a color analyzer as part of the process to produce a color match to a required color is an enhancement when the product's ability to match the desired color has an effective equivalent color spectrum, such as when one is matching paints. However, in the case of ready-made wallcoverings, this scenario would prove to be ineffective. For example, if we were to limit the technically possible number of background colors to a fraction of the possible range of colors, e.g. 1,000, and then do the same for the foreground color, and select from among 40 possible motifs and among five possible motif styles and five possible motif patterns, we would require an assortment of approximately 1 billion patterns to ensure at least one match for every possible combination. Even if we were to limit the number of colors to 100, we would require an assortment of approximately 10 million patterns. This should be contrasted to the typically well stocked store which provides approximately 100,000 patterns.
Therefore, based upon the foregoing, a new method and system for choosing wallcoverings or other fabrics containing a particular pattern thereon should be developed and implemented.

Wallcoverings storage and retrieval system


A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a program that causes a computer to execute a process, the process includes acquiring first multiple tasks; dividing each task in the first multiple tasks in accordance with a cache size; classifying second multiple tasks in accordance with a range of data to be referred to at a time of execution of each task in the second multiple tasks that have been obtained by the dividing; and determining an execution order of tasks in a group for each group that has been obtained by the classifying.

In recent years, various analyses have been actively performed by using big data. Big data contains lots of various pieces of data, and a lot of time is spent in processing data for various analyses. In order to reduce the time taken in processing data, optimal allocation of data processing to computer resources is needed.
An entity that processes data may be referred to as a task. A task here is a unit of executing processing in a computer. The task generally indicates the entire processing performed by one piece of software (or a program), but can be interpreted as a part of the processing in a broad sense. The task may also be referred to as, for example, a job, a process, and a thread.
For example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2013-150094 discloses a technique of task scheduling. In the task scheduling, tasks, in which access regions of memory overlap much more, are continually executed. For example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2013-150094, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2010-92222, and the like are disclosed as related arts.

Storage medium, task execution management device, and task execution management method


An elongated flexible cutting string, or substantially self-supporting strut cutting element, is connectable to a rotating device for use in a method of cutting vegetation. The cutting string has numerous advantages over conventional cutting strings, having a drag coefficient which is at least about 5% (e.g. 10-300%) less than the drag coefficient of a string having a substantially round and smooth cross-section. The drag coefficient of aerodynamic line 10 is 1.0 or less, e.g. about 0.35 or less. The cross-sectional configuration preferably simulates a tear drop (with or without an extension nose), and can have a textured (e.g. with golf ball simulating dimples, saw toothed or a wavy configuration) exterior surface. The pitch of the line is positively maintained while it is rotated in a cutting plane, e.g. controlled with an eyelet and/or a compound taper. Other cross-sectional configurations are an ellipse of at least 1.25:1 ratio, those that simulate a spearhead, keyways of different sorts, a diamond with rounded apices, or an ice cream cone. When a single string having a dimension perpendicular to the direction of movement of about 0.08 inches is rotated it uses less than the theoretical equivalent of 200 watts of power at about 9000 rpm for a 14 inch swath and 3.5 inch diameter rotating head.

The present invention generally relates to the field of lawn care, grass and weed cutting apparatus and methods and more particularly, is directed to a flexible but rigid aerodynamic cutting string for use with such devices and methods as flexible line trimmers and the like.
Heretofore, there have been many cutting methods and devices for maintaining well-manicured lawns and grass areas, particularly adjacent buildings, fence lines and other obstacles protruding from the turf above the grass to be cut. Maintaining grass and weed areas along roadways, embankments and generally uneven surfaces also present particular problems to those responsible for their maintenance.
Present-day grass and weed cutting tools have not been without difficulties in that they are laborious and time consuming to use. Such tools include manually operated shear disk and scissor type devices mounted on extended handles. In other prior art cutting tools, a gasoline engine or electric motor is assembled to a wheeled frame and is used to drive a rotating blade in a vertical or inclined plane for cutting grass and weeds, particularly along the sides of buildings. Such a tool is expensive and can be dangerous to operate.
The availability of small electric motors and gasoline engines have lead to the development of improved grass cutting tools. Many of the tools take the form of a high speed rotating metal blade or flexible cutting line mounted on an extended handle. Conventional flexible line trimmers employ the use of flexible cutting line intended to cut grass, weeds, and vines in areas not intended or not possible for such devices as the walk-behind or ride-on lawn mower.
Through years of development, Original Equipment Manufacturers have developed flexible line cutters into one of the most widely used tools for grass cutting and care. Prior art flexible cutting line for flexible line trimmers include several attempts at providing a means to more efficiently, and cleanly, cut grass and weeds by providing generally cylindrical, round, star, triangle, and indented square shaped cutting line, none of which employ the concept of aerodynamic maximization, or attempt to control its longer axis into the plane of the cut.
The wetted surface area facing the air flow and total contour plays an important role in how air flows over a rotating cutting line. As the string is rotated on currently designed trimmers, a laminar flow is created, with a disruptive zone at the trailing side of the cutting edge of the line. The disruptive zone includes a pressure differential, and further creates a wake which leaves behind eddy disturbances for the next string to flow through. The pressure differential, in essence, pulls the string backwards. The engine attempts to propel the string forward but the pressure differential negates a portion of the energy due to the creation of a separating type air foil from its boundary. Further, the eddy's and turbulent and/or laminar conditions created by the wake trailing the cutting line add additional forces to the forward entry path of the next forward moving line.
According to the invention it has been found that air drag and subsequent flow conditions play an important role in cutting efficiency and energy consumption in line cutting devices. Higher air drag and disturbed flow conditions leads to lower tip speed, lower fuel efficiency, and erratic line bending because more power has to be exerted in order to maintain proper and effective cutting speed. Air drag increases as the line size (diameter) increases from 0.050" to 0.130", and higher, but increases even more dramatically when sharper shapes such as square, star and cross lines are used. Therefore, as size increases and shape changes to more square or sharper cutting lines or more acute angular changes, the fuel efficiency further decreases, and the fuel usage increases. In contrast, by reducing the air drag on the string, speed will increase, as will energy efficiency as well as reduced environmental emissions.
The cutting elements and methods of the invention, aside from aerodynamic improvements, create additional benefits in reducing wear (a longer wearing surface with increased cross-sectional area compared to conventional line), increasing stiffness (a longer, more structural beam in the operating direction which increases the moment of inertia (l) of the formula-Stress=Moment * c/l), and creating a sharper cutting surface than circular shaped cutting line.
According to one aspect of the present invention an elongated flexible cutting string connectable to a rotating device for cutting vegetation is provided. The flexible cutting string has an aerodynamic cross-sectional configuration over at least a significant length (typically more than 80% of the length) thereof, including a maximum cross-sectional dimension and a minimum cross-sectional dimension typically less than 85% of the maximum cross-sectional dimension, and the configuration having a drag coefficient which is at least 5% less (preferably at least 10-300% less, e.g. about 50-200% less) than the drag coefficient of a string having a substantially round and smooth cross-section. For example, the string of the invention has a C.sub.D (drag coefficient) of 1.0 or less, e.g. 0.8 or less, preferably 0.6 or less, and most preferably about 0.35 or less.
The cross-sectional configuration may comprise a wide variety of shapes, perhaps the most simple of which is a simulation of the tear drop. The tear drop may have a textured (i.e. non-smooth on a macroscopic level) exterior surface, such as aerodynamic dimples (such as in a golf ball), a saw-tooth configuration, or an exterior surface wavy configuration. Other cross-sectional configurations include an ellipse with a ratio of at least 1.25:1 (preferably at least about 2:1, e.g. about 8:1), simulating a spearhead (comprising a small cross-sectional area rectangle merging into a large cross-sectional area trapezoid), simulating a keyway (having a small diameter circle merging into a large diameter circle, or having a small cross-sectional area trapezoid merging into a larger cross-sectional area trapezoid of substantially the same shape), simulating a diamond with rounded apices, or simulating an ice cream cone (e.g. having a small cross-sectional dimension substantially a cone-shaped portion merging into a larger cross-sectional dimension substantially parabola shaped portion). The elongated flexible cutting string preferably is primarily (that is at least 50.1%) or substantially (i.e. at least 90%) non-metallic, e.g. polymeric plastic, such as nylon, or other conventional reinforced polymeric plastics for such purpose, or rubber or rubber-like materials, or both plastic and rubber-like materials, and may have reinforcing fibers, or fillers, or other materials therein.
According to another aspect of the present invention a cutting element for cutting vegetation, which may be in the form of a flexible string or a substantially self-supporting (that is semi-flexible) strut, is provided comprising: An elongated substantially solid body comprising more than 50% polymeric material, and having a generally tear drop shaped cross-sectional area, and an exterior surface. The exterior surface may be textured, such as having aerodynamic dimples formed over the majority thereof, or having a wavy configuration. By using such "textures" the flow boundary layer is kept closer to the cutting element than if it were smooth, and separates more on the rear side of the cutting element instead of more toward the top or front. Therefore the pressure differential (perhaps even negative pressure at the rear) that exists from the front to the rear of the cutting element in the direction of rotation will be lower, thus creating a lower drag force. This occurs at the same Reynolds number. The dimpled (or other textured) configuration of the cutting element according to the invention will have a lower coefficient of drag (at least about 10% lower, preferably about 20% or more lower) because the dimples (or other texturing) change the separation flow to a point further to the rear of the profile.
While not nearly as advantageous as the strut configurations according to the invention, the golf ball simulating dimples may also be utilized in a conventional substantially circular cross-section cutting string. That is according to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a primarily polymeric plastic elongated cutting element having a substantially circular cross-section and an exterior surface, and golf ball simulating dimples formed over the majority (or substantially all) of the exterior surface.
According to another aspect of the present invention a method of cutting vegetation using at least one elongated flexible string having a beam-like structure with a first axis which is the strongest axis and has the highest moment of inertia, and a second, weaker, axis, is provided. The method comprises the steps of: (a) Rotating the elongated string about an axis of rotation so that the first axis of the beam-like structure thereof is positively mounted or controlled (e.g. by an eyelet with the same cross section as the string, by the natural forces acting on such a high inertia element, and/or by a compound taper of the string with longest cross-section at the rotating head, etc.) moves in a cutting plane. And, (b) bringing the rotating string into contact with vegetation so that the cutting plane is generally transverse to a portion of the vegetation to be cut, and the string cuts the vegetation.
The string may have an exterior surface with aerodynamic surface texturing, in which case step (a) is practiced to rotate the string so that the drag coefficient thereof is at least 10% less (preferably at least about 20% less) than if step (a) were practiced with an identical string having no surface texturing.
Step (a) may be practiced so that the drag coefficient of a single string is 1.0 (preferably 0.8, or 0.6, or 0.35, or less). For example, step (a) may be practiced on a theoretical or calculated basis by rotating a single string having a dimension perpendicular to the direction of movement of about 0.08 inches so as to use less than the equivalent of 200 watts of power at about 9000 rpm for a 14 inch swath and 3.5 inch rotating head diameter; or by rotating a single string having a dimension perpendicular to the direction of movement of about 0.08 inches so as to use less than the equivalent of 0.4 horsepower at about 8000 rpm for a 17 inch swath and 4.5 inch rotating head diameter, or by rotating a plurality of strings each having a dimension perpendicular to the direction of movement of about 0.08 inches so as to use less than the equivalent of 0.4 horsepower at about 8000 rpm for a 17 inch swath, and 4.5 inch rotating head diameter, per string. The equivalents can be calculated, at least approximately, utilizing the following equations: EQU Drag=1/2.rho.AC.sub.D V.sup.2
and EQU HP=Drag.multidot.V/550
Where:
C.sub.D =coefficient of drag PA1 .rho.=density of air PA1 V=velocity=w.multidot.r PA1 Area=D.multidot..DELTA.r PA1 D=diameter (largest cross-sectional dimension) of line; and PA1 .DELTA.r=radius extending from trimmer head. PA1 (a) Rotating the one or more primarily or substantially non-metallic flexible elongated strings having a dimension perpendicular to the direction of movement of about 0.08 inches about a common axis of rotation so that the aerodynamic profile of each moves in a common cutting plane so as to use less than the theoretical equivalent of 0.4 horsepower at about 8000 rpm for a 17 inch swath, 4.5 inch diameter rotating head per string. And, (b) bringing the one or more rotating primarily or substantially non-metallic flexible strings into contact with vegetation so that the common cutting plane is generally transverse to a portion of the vegetation to be cut, and the string cuts the vegetation. For example step (a) may be practiced by providing a rotating head, with an eyelet for each string through which the string extends, the eyelet having substantially an identical cross-sectional configuration to the string; and by powering the rotating head with a power source so that the head rotates, at least when the one or more strings are not in contact with vegetation, at the equivalent of between about 6000-9000 rpm for a 17 inch swath.
Therefore ##EQU1##
For a typical substantially tear drop shaped strut, where the length is four times the thickness, the maximum coefficient of drag is estimated about 0.35 while in laminar flow conditions, whereas for a (macroscopically) smooth surfaced circle C.sub.D =about 1.2 (the lowest conventional string C.sub.D). If the diameter equals 0.095 inches and r equals eight inches, then the theoretical horsepower required to power the circular cross-section string is 0.3175 whereas the horsepower to power the tear drop shaped string is 0.0926.
Where step (a) is practiced by rotating a generally tear drop cross-sectional string, the tear drop cross-section can be rotated in one of two ways. As the tear drop cross-section string has a larger more rounded leading end, and a smaller more pointed trailing end, step (a) may be practiced by rotating the string so that the larger more rounded end provides the cutting edge of the string so that the larger more rounded end comes into first contact with the vegetation, or step (a) may be practiced by rotating the string so that the smaller more pointed end provides the cutting edge of the string and therefore first comes in contact with the vegetation. Or, the at least one string may comprise a plurality of flexible strings each having a beam-like structure with first and second axes, and step (a) may be practiced to rotate all of the plurality of strings so that the first axis of the beam-like structure of each is positively substantial and will move in substantially the same cutting plane. For example the plurality of strings may comprise at least three strings, e.g. four strings, so that step (a) is practiced to rotate the at least these strings with the first axis of each positively maintained in substantially the same cutting plane.
Because less power is necessary in order to move a same dimensioned string at a given RPM according to the invention, it is possible to either increase the number of flexible strings that can be powered by conventional engines, or increase the cutting diameter of the lines, or use smaller and lighter weight engines in the future, or use more portable battery powered or electric units, or convert conventional two cycle engines to less polluting two or four cycle engines. Also various modifications of each of these may be employed. For example the plurality of strings may comprise at least three strings, with step (a) practiced to rotate the at least three strings with the first axis of each in substantially the same cutting plane using a conventional approximately twenty-five cc gasoline powered two cycle engine, or a comparable four cycle engine.
Step (a) may be practiced by providing a rotating head, with an eyelet through which the string extends, the eyelet having a substantially identical cross-sectional configuration to the string, and powered by powering the rotating head with a power source. The rotating head may be powered by a battery or electric powered power source easily portable and usable by an average adult human.
According to another aspect of the present invention a method of cutting vegetation using one or more elongated or substantially non-metallic (e.g. primarily polymeric) flexible strings having an aerodynamic profile in a cutting plane, is provided. The method comprises the steps of:
According to the present invention cutting strings which have improved aerodynamic operation over such strings known in the prior art are provided. Cutting strings according to the present invention also can have improved durability by reducing wear over such strings known in the prior art, are easy to use, and low in cost, and have reduced cost of operation as a result of energy or fuel savings compared to conventional strings, and are easy to manufacture.
The invention includes a number of embodiments which eliminate or greatly reduce the drag, fluttering and force-imbalances which are created as a result of the pressure differential and wake which are formed behind the flexible line as it moves. This is achieved by employing an aerodynamic profile for the line which lowers the coefficient of drag and reduces the forces created by the air foil, or by producing conventionally shaped strings with drag-reducing texturing. The invention also encompasses related components, such as the rotating head, the eyelet and string spool.
The present invention can be used with continuous length (extruded) or fixed length (injection molded) flexible lines, formed of aerodynamic connecting links, pre-cut lengths of flexible line, and/or other moving, less flexible, cutting attachments. In addition, the aerodynamic cutting string of the present invention can be employed with single, double, triple, quadruple or multiple line heads of any given diameter.
It is the primary object of the present invention to provide a more efficient cutting string or other cutting element for a rotating head trimmer or the like, and a highly efficient method of cutting vegetation using such a string. This and other objects of the invention will become clear from an inspection of the detailed description of the invention, and from the appended claims.


A magnetic force estimating unit (38) for estimating the magnetic force of a permanent magnet of a rotor of a motor (6), a determining unit (39), and a demagnetization responsive timing changing unit (40) are provided in an inverter device (22) or an electric control unit (21). The magnetic force estimating unit (38) performs a determination of the magnetic force with a predetermined rule from detection signals of at least two of the motor rotation number, motor voltage and motor current. The determining unit (39) determines whether or not a demagnetization occurs. In response to the result of determination by the determining unit (39), the demagnetization responsive timing changing unit (40) changes the timing, at which the maximum electric current relative to the phase of the rotor is fed, so that with respect the motor drive by the inverter device the reluctance torque of the motor may be increased.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrically driven vehicle such as, for example, a battery operated automobile or a fuel cell powered automobile utilizing a combination of fuel and battery and, more particularly, to a motor control device for the electric automobile of a type utilizing an interior permanent magnet synchronous motor.
2. Description of Related Art
In an electric automobile, reduction in performance and failure of a motor used to drive the automobile significantly affect the roadability and the safety. In particular, with an electric automobile drive device of a battery drive type, an embedded permanent magnet synchronous motor (also referred to as an IPM type DC brushless motor) utilizing a neodymium magnet and having a high efficiency performance has been utilized in order to increase the cruising distance with a limited available battery capacity. Also, in the field of an in-wheel motor device, the system has hitherto been suggested in which for the purpose of securement of the reliability, the temperature of, for example, a motor is measured to monitor the excessive load and the electric drive current for the motor is limited or the motor rotation number (motor number of revolutions or motor speed) is reduced in dependence on the measured temperature (such as disclosed in, for example, the patent documents 1 to 3 listed below).    [Patent Document 1] JP Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2006-258289    [Patent Document 2] JP Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2004-328819    [Patent Document 3] JP Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2008-168790
In the motor used for the electric automobile, particularly the motor of a type utilizing the neodymium permanent magnet, the permanent magnet has a low heat resistance temperature and, therefore, if the ambient temperature exceeds the heat resistance temperature, the irreversible demagnetization occurs. Accordingly, the motor driving capability abruptly decreases and, depending on the circumstances, the automobile will become unable to control. Although as described above, in the in-wheel motor device, the motor temperature is measured to monitor the excessive load and, if required, the drive is limited, the control relying on the result of measurement of the motor temperature is incapable of taking any countermeasure against the reduction in performance brought about by the demagnetization of the permanent magnet used in the motor.
In view of the foregoing, the present invention has for its primary object to provide a motor control device for an electric automobile, which device is capable of suppressing a reduction of the motor driving force in the event of the occurrence of demagnetization in a permanent magnet used in a motor.
Another important object of the present invention is to provide the electric automobile of the type referred to above, which can run by its own bootstraps, i.e., by its resources, to the nearest place where the maintenance servicing is available, with the reduction in motor driving force being prevented, in the event of the occurrence of demagnetization in a permanent magnet used in a motor.
The summary of the present invention will be hereinafter described with the aid of reference numerals shown in the accompanying drawings and used for facilitating a better understanding of preferred embodiments of the present invention.

Motor control device for electric automobile


An inflatable boat boarding ladder, adaptable to any size inflatable boat, for assisting divers to exit the water and to board the boat. The ladder, supported at an outside angle to the vertical, is prohibited from rotating under the boat when the ladder is engaged by the users foot thus providing greater stability than the conventional rope style ladders. The instant invention provides a longer ladder than the conventional ladders making it easier to use. The ladder is supported by a flexible saddle made of a sandwhich of two layers of HYPALON encasing reinforcing transverse plattens pf ABS plastic.

1. Field of the Invention
The present inventionn relates to ladders for boarding inflatable boats. More specifically it relates to ladders for assisting divers in exiting the water and entering the boat.
2.Description of the Related Art
A wide variety of boarding ladders specifically designed for boarding small boats are known in the related art. U.S. Pat. No. 4,572,330 issued to Langevin in Feb. 1986 discloses a boat ladder for boarding an inflatable pontoon boat, dinghy, or similar small craft having opposed generally parallel gunwales. The ladder has two generally parallel ladder supports, each with a first end bendable across on of the gunwales. Plural and parallel ladder steps extend betwwen the two ladder supports and a strap is coupled at one end to the first end of both ladder supports. U.S. Pat. No. 4,186,820 issued to Cosman et al in February 1980 discloses a boarding ladder for use in conjunction with an inflatable boat having an inflatable side pontoon and specifically, to an improved boarding ladder including a strap assembly for mounting the ladder to the inflatable boat.


A network information detection apparatus includes a packet monitoring section and a subnet mask detection section. The packet monitoring section monitors packets on LAN connecting a plurality of network devices. Based on an IP address included in at least one monitored packet, the subnet mask detection section detects a subnet mask of a network device having the monitored IP address. When a destination MAC address and a destination IP address included in the monitored packet do not indicate the same network device, a router of the LAN can be detected by detecting an IP address corresponding to the destination MAC address.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique of automatically acquiring network information from a network system, and in particular to a device and method for detecting network information such as subnet masks and router IP addresses from a local network.
2. Description of the Related Art
When one wishes to connect a computer to a network, it is necessary to acquire network information such as subnet masks, IP addresses and router addresses and set them into the computer. If the user has the knowledge of networks, such network information setting can be made manually but it would take time for acquiring necessary network information. Moreover, erroneously setting of network information may cause confusion in the entire network.
On the other hand, in the case where DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) server exists, network information can be automatically acquired from the DHCP server. However, to automatically acquire network information, a server aiming at providing network information must be installed.
Japanese Patent Application Unexamined Publication No. 2002-190811 discloses a method of automatically acquiring the IP addresses and subnet masks of devices on a network. According to this conventional method, when network information cannot be obtained from a DHCP server, an ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) address mask request is sent. Information is collected from monitored traffic on the network and replies generated to the ICMP request to determine an effective IP configuration. Within the determined subnet, unused IP addresses are detected and a default router is detected using an ICMP selection message.
In the conventional IP configuration acquisition method, however, the ICMP address mask request message is sent to the network and the reply to the request is used to detect the subnet mask. Accordingly, the load on the network is increased and it is difficult to speed up the subnet mask detection. In addition, the conventional router detection method merely employs the router IP address detection method described in RFC1256 without paying attention to speedups of router detection. Furthermore, since some routers do not provide support for ICMP router selection message, there are cases where the conventional method cannot detect routers.

Device and method for automatically detecting network information


A modified antisense oligonucleotide of about 10 to about 40 nucleobases is disclosed. The oligonucleotide comprises a targeting sequence having a region complementary to at least one string of three or more identical contiguous nucleobases in a target sequence, wherein the target sequence comprises at least one additional nucleobase compared to the region of the targeting sequence and the at least one additional nucleobase has no complementary nucleobase in the region of the targeting sequence, and wherein the targeting region complementary to the at least one string of three or more identical contiguous nucleobases is internal to the targeting sequence.

Antisense oligomers offer great potential as pharmaceutical drugs, as evidenced by the number of antisense drugs currently in clinical development, and aided by the fact that a number of potential limitations of antisense oligomers have been successfully addressed over the past several years (see, for e.g.: Devi et al., 2002; Antisense Nucleic Acid Drug Dev.; see also, for e.g.: Stein et al., 2001; Antisense Nucleic Acid Drug Dev.). Novel uncharged oligomer backbones have been developed to improve uptake into cells, and to increase resistance to nuclease degradation (see, for e.g.: Iversen et al., 2001; Antisense Drug Technology). For some oligomer structures, for example, morpholino based structures, the modified backbone has been found to give enhanced binding affinity to its target nucleic acid (see, for e.g.: Iversen et al., 2001; Antisense Drug Technology; see also: Summerton et al., 1997; Antisense Nucleic Acid Drug Dev.).
In some antisense applications, the optimal targeting sequence against which the antisense oligomer is directed to may include a biological palindrome sequence or, alternately, a string of three or four or more nucleobases. Surprisingly, it has been found that antisense oligomer compounds directed towards a target sequence having a string of three or more identical contiguous nucleobases, or alternatively a biological palindrome sequence, can compromise the antisense activity of the compound, as well as present difficulties in a manufacturing process.


A dual independent phasing system (DIPS) phaser assembly for coaxial camshafts having two axially stacked, thin phasing subassemblies which are each conventional vane-cell type phaser assemblies is provided. These phasers are preassembled together as a unit to make one DIPS phaser assembly. The rotor of the rear phaser is attached to the outer camshaft of the coaxial cam, and the rotor of the front phaser is attached to the inner camshaft. The radial force from the timing chain or belt is transmitted to the outer camshaft via a chain ring or pulley connected to the stator of the rear phaser. In order to provide for ease of mounting, the DIPS phaser assembly (including the front and rear phasers) is attached to the outer camshaft via mounting bolts which are passed through openings in the rotor of the front phaser in order to attach the rear phaser rotor to the outer camshaft. A central mounting bolt is used to connect the front phaser rotor to the inner camshaft. A radially stacked DIPS phaser assembly is also provided which offers further reduced axial space requirements.

The invention relates to a dual independent phasing system for independently adjusting the phase angle of both the intake and exhaust camshafts of a inner and outer camshafts of a concentric camshaft.
It is known to use two axially spaced apart camshaft phasers in connection with inner and outer shafts of a concentric camshaft assembly in order to separately adjust the timing of the inner and outer camshafts. This allows the timing of the intake and exhaust valves to be adjusted to obtain improved torque/power as well as improved emissions. Further, this arrangement provides additional benefits in engine idle stability and fuel economy.
Camshaft phasers that operate according to the vane-cell principle for single camshafts are known. These are described in publications by the assignee of the present invention, including U.S. Pat. No. 6,805,080, which is incorporated herein by reference as if fully set forth.
One known system for adjusting the control timing of a concentric camshaft assembly is described in DE 10 2005 039 751 A1. In this publication, a camshaft phaser located at the front of the engine is connected to an outer shaft of a co-axial camshaft arrangement and a second camshaft phaser located at the rear of the engine includes an outer housing that is connected to the outer camshaft and an inner rotor that is connected to the inner camshaft. This arrangement provides separate phasers which allows for easier control; however, it involves more difficulty in accessing the rear camshaft phaser as well as more complicated assembly and engine compartment space requirements.
DE 10 2006 024 793 A1 generically describes a dual phasing system for a concentric camshaft assembly which includes two camshaft phasers which are located at the front of an engine and are axially spaced adjacent to one another. The two camshaft phasers allow independent control of the outer and inner co-axial camshafts relative to the crankshaft in order to separately adjust the timing of the intake and exhaust valves of the internal combustion engine. The arrangement provides a specific spool valve control located within the inner camshaft for controlling the flow of hydraulic fluid to both the first and second camshaft phasers.
DE 10 2006 028 611, also discloses two camshaft phasers located axially adjacent to one another at the front of a concentric camshaft assembly of an internal combustion engine. The first camshaft phaser is connected to a front camshaft bearing arrangement which includes oil passages for delivering hydraulic fluid to and from the camshaft phaser for the outer camshaft. Hydraulic fluid for controlling the camshaft phaser connected to the inner camshaft is delivered via internal hydraulic fluid passageways located between the outer and inner camshafts and inside the inner camshaft which are supplied with hydraulic fluid through a separate camshaft mounting bearing arrangement.
These previously known dual independent phasing systems for concentric camshafts suffer from a number of drawbacks with respect to space requirements and ease of assembly to the front of a camshaft as a single assembly. Further, the prior known arrangements suffer from high external oil leakage due to the attachment method of the vanes to the covers of the camshaft phasers. Further, no system is provided for independently controlling the camshaft phasers for the inner and outer shafts so that they can be locked in base positions. Further, it would be beneficial to provide a dual independent phasing system which fits in roughly the same space within the engine assembly as a standard phaser so that additional space allocation with the engine compartment is not required.

Dual independent phasing system to independently phase the intake and exhaust cam lobes of a concentric camshaft arrangement


Disclosed are a display panel and display device. The display panel includes: a sensor setting area and a display area around the sensor setting area, where the sensor setting area includes at least one photosensitive element setting area and each of the at least one photosensitive element setting area is the same.

With the development of display technology, more and more display panels and display devices are used in people's daily life and work. In order to improve the user experience, sensor modules, such as cameras, infrared sensors and the like, are typically integrated into existing display device structures.
At present, in order to satisfy a high screen ratio, a sensor setting area is usually disposed in an intermediate area at one end of the display panel, and a sensor module is disposed in a corresponding position in the sensor setting area. However, the existing structure of the sensor setting area results in a poor photosensitive effect of the sensor module.

Wuhan Tianma Micro-Electronics Co., Ltd.


A throttle valve (10), in particular for injecting a fluid into a geological formation, is described, which comprises a valve body (10) having a piston chamber (11), an annular piston (20) having a fluid channel (21), which extends from a high-pressure side (H) to a low-pressure side (L) of the throttle valve, with the annular piston (20) being displaceable within the piston chamber (11) and the fluid channel (21) being transmissive or closed depending on the position of the annular piston (20) in the piston chamber (11), and a cover plate (12) which is provided on the high-pressure side of the valve body (10) and through which the fluid channel (21) protrudes from the high-pressure side piston chamber (11), wherein the fluid channel (21) is closed in axial direction with a sealing disk (22) which can be rested tightly on the cover plate (12) on the high-pressure side, and the fluid channel (21) has a radial throttle opening (23) adjacent to the sealing disk (22). A fluid injection device having such a throttle valve is also described.

The invention relates to a throttle valve, and a fluid injection device which is provided with such a throttle valve, for injecting a fluid into a geological formation, and a method for injecting a fluid into a geological formation. The invention further relates to methods for mounting and demounting the throttle valve in an injection tube section.
It is known to store carbon dioxide (CO2) which is produced during natural gas processing or combustion processes in geological formations. Storage of carbon dioxide takes place typically by way of an injection tube which reaches into the geological formation. For reasons of stability, the injection tube is disposed in a bore hole which is encased and cemented as far as the lower region. In order to create a hydraulic communication with the rock formation, the tubes are subsequently perforated in selected regions. From the end region of the injection tube, the CO2 is to be filled over a large space into the pores of the rock of the geological formation.
The injection of CO2 in the liquid state is provided in a technical realization known from practice. With a density of approximately 0.7 kg/dm3 and the required condensation pressure for CO2 during the feeding (approx. 65 bar), at the deepest end of the bore hole (approx. 800 m) the ambient pressure in the geological formation is significantly exceeded by the pressure of the liquid CO2. As a result of the high overpressure, there is a danger of an unwanted change of the rock due to cracks, which can also propagate through the covering layer (e.g. clay or salt) above the storing formation. There is therefore an interest in reducing the pressure of the liquid CO2 in the bore hole by way of a throttle valve.
Numerous types of valves for regulating and interrupting fluid streams are known in all areas of technology. Valves can be differentiated according to the sealing properties, the control properties, the type of drive, the medium flowing through or the application field. By way of example, pinch valves are known from patent documents EP 1 035 360, U.S. Pat. No. 5,535,983 and WO 92/03676, in which the cross-section of a hose-like segment is reduced by an external radial pressure. Although the pinch valves enable a reliable closing function, disadvantages can however result from limited control properties. DE 36 85 640 T2 describes an underground sliding sleeve valve and its installation in a tube. A bore hole valve having a selectively movable valve element is known from EP 0 986 690 B1. DE 69 629 973 discloses a remotely controlled valve having a movable valve stem, which can be activated with the help of liquid. These conventional-valves have disadvantages due to a complex construction and limited functional reliability.
DE 2 549 113 describes a sleeve valve in which the closed state is dependent on the position of a cylindrical sleeve relative to a valve plate. The sleeve is connected to a annular piston, which is mounted in a cylinder with freedom to slide. By applying a pressure medium to the cylinder, the annular piston can be displaced and the sleeve valve actuated in this way. Due to its complex construction and limited ability to accurately adjust the pressure reduction, in particular under high pressure conditions, the sleeve valve according to DE 2 549 113 has significant disadvantages, due to which a use in geotechnical tasks and especially for the injection of CO2, is excluded.
Furthermore, conventional valves generally have at least one of the following disadvantages. Firstly, they do not have both a reliable closing function and a distinctive regulation behavior. Secondly, the energy for the regulation must be supplied by way of separate fluidic or electric lines. Significant limitations with respect to maintenance and exchangeability of the conventional valves represent a further disadvantage.
It is the object of the invention to provide an improved throttle valve, in particular for injecting a fluid into an underground storage, with which the disadvantages of the conventional throttle valves are avoided. It is a further object of the invention to provide an improved fluid injection device with which the disadvantages and limitations of the conventional techniques for injecting fluids into underground storages are avoided. Another object of the invention is to provide an improved method for injecting a fluid into an underground storage, in particular into a geological formation.

Throttle valve for injecting a fluid into geological formations

Helmholtz-Zentrum Potsdam Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum-GFZ


Method for enhancing resistive anomalies in electromagnetic geophysical survey data. Scaled values of a measured electromagnetic field parameter are plotted on a depth section at locations related to corresponding source/receiver locations. Scaling is performed relative to a reference signal selected to represent a baseline free of unknown resistive bodies. Scaled values are represented by a color scale in the display, and the color scale may be adjusted to enhance perceived anomalies. The method may be employed in either the frequency domain or the time domain.

Controlled-source electromagnetic ("CSEM") geophysical surveys use man-made sources to generate electromagnetic fields to excite the earth, and deploy receiver instruments on the earth's surface, on the seafloor, in the air, or inside boreholes to measure the resulting electric and magnetic fields, i.e., the earth's response to the source excitation. FIG. 1 illustrates the basic elements of an offshore CSEM survey. A vessel tows a submerged CSEM transmitter 11 over an area of subseafloor 13. The electric and magnetic fields measured by receivers 12 are then analyzed to determine the electrical resistivity of the earth structures beneath the surface or seafloor. This technology has been applied for onshore mineral exploration, oceanic tectonic studies, and offshore petroleum and mineral resource exploration. See A. D. Chave, S. Constable, and R. N. Edwards, in Electromagnetic Methods in Applied Geophysics (ed. M. N. Nambighian), Vol. 2, 931-966, Society of Exploration Geophysicists; L. MacGregor, M. Sinha, and S. Constable, Geophy. J Int. 146, 217-236 (2001); T. Eidesmo, S. Ellingsrud, L. M. MacGregor, S. Constable, M. C. Sinha, S. Johansen, F. N. Kong, and H. Westerdahl, First Break 20.3, 144-152 (2002).
The conventional method of displaying electromagnetic data for interpretation is to show the amplitude of the electric field versus offset (distance between transmitter and receiver). As FIG. 2 illustrates, the picture becomes very confusing if the data corresponding to all receivers of the same tow line are displayed together.
Another data display method consists in selecting a constant offset and displaying, in map view, the ratio or the difference between the observed amplitude at this offset and a reference amplitude (S. Ellingsrud, et al., The Leading Edge 21 972-982, (October, 2002)). The selection of one unique offset may not be optimal, and valuable information is lost if one cannot look at the whole-offset curve.
MacGregor and Sinha disclose presenting the results of a CSEM survey using normalized values wherein the observed field is divided by the field calculated for a reference model. Alternatively, they state that normalization could be based on the survey data itself, using data collected adjacent to the target. They suggest this technique for allowing clearer visualization of effects of buried structures on CSEM signal properties, effects that might otherwise be less clear because the signal amplitude in a typical survey is likely to vary by several orders of magnitude over the useful set of offsets. (PCT International Publication No. WO 03/048812, Jun. 12, 2003)

Method for identifying resistivity anomalies in electromagnetic survey data