There is provided a housing apparatus in and out of which a keyboard and a mouse can be put and taken. The housing apparatus includes a keyboard housing section 11 that houses a keyboard in a vertical position, and a mouse housing section 18 on which a mouse can be placed, the mouse housing section 18 provided integrally with the keyboard housing section 11. The mouse housing section 18 allows mouses to be placed on both sides of the keyboard housing section 11. The keyboard housing section 11 is formed of a pair of supporting frames 12 that stand parallel to each other with a gap therebetween, and the mouse housing section 18 is formed of a flat plate 14 to which the lower ends of the supporting frames 12 are connected.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is applied, for example, when panel display devices, such as liquid crystal monitors, are used to hold a TV conference, and relates to a housing apparatus and a housing rack in and out of which a keyboard and a mouse can be put and taken.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, there have been provided various TV conference systems using networks, and they have been widely used, for example, when panel display devices, such as liquid crystal monitors, are used to hold a TV conference between locations remote from each other with a large number of attendees on both sides.
In such a TV conference system, for example, the attendees are seated in a circle, and display devices, such as liquid crystal displays, are placed in such a way that they face the attendees. Then, the attendees operate their keyboards, mouses and the like to participate in the TV conference.
In this case, by using a display device stand, such as that disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-30913, and attaching a display device to the display device stand, the display device can be moved integrally with the display device stand and hence easily placed in a position where it faces each attendee.
Furthermore, by placing an individual table or the like for each attendee, housing a personal computer body in the table or the like, and placing a keyboard and a mouse on the table or the like, each attendee operates the keyboard and the mouse, thus allowing the TV conference to smoothly proceed.
With the individual table or the like placed for each attendee and the keyboard and the mouse placed on the table or the like as described above, when the attendee is involved in other tasks on the table or the like while participating in the TV conference, the keyboard and the mouse may disturb doing other jobs, thus preventing the smooth proceedings of the TV conference.
On the other hand, to address the above problem, by using a housing stand, such as that disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-69342, placing the housing stand on the table or the like, housing the keyboard and the mouse in the housing stand when they are not used, and taking out the keyboard and the mouse as required for use, the space on the table or the like can be used for other tasks.


A real image mode variable magnification finder optical system has an objective lens system including a first lens unit of negative refracting power, a second lens unit of positive refracting power, and a third lens unit of negative refracting power, provided with positive refracting power as a whole; and image erecting system for erecting an image of an object; and an eyepiece system for observing the erected image, in which the first and second lens units are moved and the third lens unit is fixed to vary magnification. Thus, the finder optical system has important advantages in practical use that its overall length is reduced, aberrations are favorably corrected, and manufacturing costs are low.

a) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a real image mode variable magnification finder optical system for use in photographic cameras, video cameras, etc.
b) Description of the Prior Art
For the finder optical system in which a photographing system is disposed separate from a finder system, an inverse Galilean filter is well known. This finder optical system, however, has drawbacks that its field frame is unclearly viewed and the visual field itself cannot be sufficiently observed due to ghost and flare produced at a half mirror for forming the field frame.
In contrast to this, a Keplerian finder optical system is such that since a real image formed by an objective lens system is observed through an eyepiece system, the drawbacks of the inverse Galilean finder optical system are practically eliminated and the finder with a good view is brought about. A case where the Keplerian, namely, real image mode finder optical system possesses a function of varying magnification is shown in FIG. 1, which uses two units of zoom lenses as an objective lens system 1 comprising a first negative lens unit 2 and a second positive lens unit 3. The finder optical systems of the type are known from, for example, ones set forth in Japanese Patent Preliminary Publication Nos. Sho 61-156018, Sho 64-65519, and Hei 1-309020. In a real image mode variable magnification finder optical system, although an erect image system, such as a Porro prism or a pentagonal prism, is used to convert an observation image from an inverted image to an erect image, a method is known from the past that the reflecting member of the erect image system is divided and a part of the divided reflecting members is moved to the back focus of the objective lens system ranging from the last lens surface to the intermediate imaging position of the objective lens system to thereby include an intermediate image in the erect image system for reduction of the overall length of the finder optical system. To change the inverted image to the erect image, at least four-fold reflection is required, but the two-unit zoom lens type finder of negative and positive powers shown in FIG. 1 has a power arrangement of a retrofocus type, so that it is possible to dispose the reflecting member for once- or twice-reflection even at a low magnification position (wide angle) where the back focus is minimized.
In such a finder system, however, the refracting power of each lens unit must be increased in order to make shorter the overall length of the objective lens system while ensuring a long back focus in which the reflecting member can be disposed, with the resultant problem of increasing the yield of aberration in each lens unit. It is difficult that since spherical aberration and astigmatism produced at the second lens unit having positive power for varying magnification each increase on the minus side in particular, plus aberration is produced only by the first lens unit having negative refracting power for correcting a diopter shift caused by the magnification change, thereby improving the performance of the entire objective lens system.

Real image mode variable magnification finder optical system


A method for sequentially driving light emitting diodes (LEDs) arranged in an array is provided. The method includes steps of a) electrically connecting anodes and cathodes of the LEDs to a ground; b) keeping the cathodes of a first part of the LEDs being electrically connected to the ground; c) increasing anode potentials of the LEDs to a first reference potential, and floating the cathodes of other parts of the LEDs simultaneously; d) supplying a current to the first part of the LEDs, and increasing cathode potentials of the other parts of the LEDs to a second reference potential simultaneously; and e) repeating the steps a)–d) for a second part of the LEDs. In which, the first part of the LEDs is arranged in a target row of the array and the second part of the LEDs is arranged in a row next to the target row.

In order to meet the requirements of the information equipments, the demand for the flat panel display (FPD) is increasing day by day. In addition, since the simplification, compactness, lightness, and power-saving are the current trends for the electric equipments, the cathode ray tube (CRT) display is gradually replaced by the FPD. Nowadays, the technologies for the FPD include the following, the plasma display, the liquid crystal display, the electroluminescent display, the vacuum fluorescent display, the field emission display, the electrochromic display, and the organic light emitting diode (OLED) display. In which, compared with other display technologies, the OLED display has the following advantages, such as self-luminescing, super-thin appearance, high brightness, high luminance efficiency, short response time, wide visual angle, power saving, wide temperature tolerance, flexible panel, and so forth. Therefore, the OLED display is believed to be the major trend of the display market for the coming generation.
The principles of how the OLED luminesces are as follows. First, an organic film is formed between the transparent anode and the metal cathode by evaporating. Then, electrons and electric holes are supplied therein. Finally, through the reaction between the electrons and the electric holes, the energy is generated and transformed into the visible light. Furthermore, since the material used in the manufacturing of the OLED determines the color of the formed visible light, the requirements of the full-color display can be easily achieved. Presently, the OLED displays manufactured by applying the above principles can be divided into two types, the active matrix organic light emitting diode (AMOLED) display and the passive matrix organic light emitting diode (PMOLED) display, based on the driving method.
As shown in FIG. 1, it is common to drive a PMOLED display by using the row scan technology, which applies the three-phase driving method. In which, the OLED matrix 10 is composed of the plural rows of OLEDs and the plural columns of OLEDs and its driving method is discussed as follows.
(1) For each row of the OLEDs, two kinds of operating phases are provided: a. Current sinker phase, the current is sunk into the OLEDs successfully. b. Reverse bias phase, the object is to increase the durations of the OLEDs.
(2) For each column of the OLEDs, each segment of the OLEDs is driven by a constant current source (not shown). Each segment of the OLEDs is driven by the following three-phase driving method: a. Dis-charge phase, the retaining electric charges of the OLEDs are discharged. b. Pre-charge phase, the potentials of the OLEDs are precharged to the turn-on potentials for performing the best electrifying efficiency when current is sunk in. c. Current driving phase, the current is sunk into the OLEDs to make it to luminesce.
Please refer to FIG. 1, again. In which, the OLED matrix 10 under the conventional passive matrix phase achieves the displaying function by means of the above cyclic charging and discharging processes. However, since the OLED has a parasitic capacitance, which is an inherent physical property, it is not a perfect LED.
Please refer to FIG. 2, which shows a diagram of a practical equivalent circuit of organic light emitting diode according to prior art. In which, both the ideal LED 20 and the parasitic capacitance 21 are shown. It is obvious that the existence of the parasitic capacitance 21 will directly affect the conducting rate of the driving circuit. In other words, the OLED will not be able to perform the expected brightness when the voltage difference between the cathode and the anode of the OLED can not reach to the suitable driving voltage rapidly.
Owing to the existence of the capacitance, the above three-phase OLED array driving method will have the following two problems, which seriously affect the displaying quality. FIGS. 3–5 describes the problems. For the convenience of the description, the capacitance symbol in the drawings represents the OLED (since describing the influence of the capacitance is the object herein), and only three OLEDs within one column of the whole OLED array are shown. The above-mentioned description can be easily understood and can be expansively applied to the whole OLED array by one skilled in the art.
Please refer to FIG. 3, which is a diagram illustrating the first problem resulted from using the conventional three-phase OLED array driving method. When the dis-charge phase initiates, the cathode and anode of the OLED 30 are grounded for being discharged, but the OLEDs 31 and 32 respectively located in the second and third row are under reverse bias phase for being reverse charged. When the pre-charge phase initiates, all the OLEDs 30, 31, 32 are charged by the pre-charge power 33. In which, the voltage of the OLED 30 is charged from 0 to Vpre (a pre-charge voltage value), and the voltages of the OLEDs 31 and 32 are charged from −Vrev (a reverse bias voltage value) to Vpre. From the above, it's known that during the pre-charge phase, the electricity consumed by the OLEDs 31 and 32, which are not necessary to be driven for luminescing, are much more than that consumed by the OLED 30, which is necessary to be driven for luminescing. Therefore, under the above situation, the charging efficiency for each segment during the pre-charge phase is always low. Furthermore, under the passive matrix phase, the row number of the OLED being luminesced is always 1, and the row number of the other OLEDs is N-1, in which the letter N is assumed as the total duty numbers. As mentioned in the above, when the row number of the display panel increases, the charging efficiency of the pre-charge phase is getting worse.
Please refer to FIG. 4, which is a diagram showing the measured wave according to FIG. 3. From the wave obtained practically from the measuring, it's found that the charging process during the pre-charge phase is not operated smoothly. The efficiency of the pre-charge phase will affect the efficiency of the next phase, the current driving phase. In addition, as shown in FIG. 4, the rising time for conducting the OLED is too long.
(2) Please refer to FIG. 5, which is a diagram illustrating the second problem resulted from using the conventional three-phase OLED array driving method. When the row scan is shifted from the first row to the second row, the segments involved in the current driving phase will be switched to be dis-charge phase. In which, the anodes of the OLEDs 50, 51 and 52 are charged to a high potential during the current driving phase. Therefore, at the beginning instant of the dis-charge phase, although the anode potential of the OLED 52 is 0, a voltage drop still occurs to the cathode potential of the OLED 52, owing to the existence of the inherent capacitance effect. Then, the cathode potential of the OLED 52 can start to be charged to Vpre. This problem indeed affects the displaying quality and the situation will be getting worse if the column number of the OLEDs increases. The diagram showing the wave obtained practically from the measuring is shown in FIG. 6.


A method of supplying parts in a system for assembling a printed circuit board by mounting the parts on a substrate at corresponding predetermined positions thereof. One or more kinds of substrates and at least one group of parts, to be mounted on the corresponding substrates, are introduced into the system lot by lot. The introduced parts on one or more previously prepared parts containers are placed so as to correspond to the substrates on which the individual parts are to be mounted, thereby providing one or more sets of the parts, each set corresponding to a respective one of the substrates. The sets of parts are supplied to a parts mounting station of the system.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to systems for assembling a printed circuit board by mounting a set of components or parts on a substrate (including a ceramic substrate), and more particularly to a system most suitable for assembling printed circuit boards, like those for a large-scale computer, in flexible manufacturing that requires a large number of complicated manufacturing stations.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore it has been a common practice to use printed circuit boards for main circuits in computers, electronic equipments of control systems, and the like. For production of the individual printed circuit board of computers, for example, a CPU, memories, various interfaces, a controller, etc. are fabricated into LSI circuits, and then several kinds of such LSI circuits, along with other electronic components such as resistors, are packaged into a single unit at high density.
Usually, these kinds of printed circuit boards are required to be manufactured efficiently within a short period of time to reduce production time and also to minimize the production costs. Also it is required to accurately mount necessary parts on a substrate accurately.
In a conventional system, for assembling 100 kinds of printed circuit boards on a single parts mounting apparatus using 20 kinds of parts in all, for example, the parts mounting apparatus is equipped with a parts supply unit which is capable of supplying any of 20 kinds of the parts optionally so that any intended printed circuit board, of 100 kinds of printed circuit boards, can be assembled. This conventional system is exemplified by Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open Publication No. 72898/1986.
FIG. 3 is a fragmentary perspective view illustrating the manner that the parts are supplied to a parts mounting area in the parts mounting apparatus of the conventional system. Although in the conventional system, 20 kinds of parts are supplied, only three kinds of parts are illustrated in FIG. 3 for clarity. Also the parts mounting apparatus is omitted in FIG. 3 for clarity.
In FIG. 3, parts 72 are commercially available parts such as TTLs (Transistor Transistor Logic circuits); three kinds of TTLs named A, B and C, for example, are carried to the vicinity of a substrate 74 by three conveyors 81, 82, 83, respectively.
To mount the TTLs named A on the substrate 74, the part 72 is taken out from the forward end of the conveyor 81 and is then attached in a predetermined position of the substrate 74. Then the conveyor 81 is moved an amount corresponding to a single part, whereupon the next part 72, like the preceding part, is taken out from the conveyor 81 and is then attached in another predetermined position on the substrate 74. This procedure is repeated until an intended number of parts have been attached to their predetermined positions on the substrate 74.
Upon completion of mounting of all the parts, the substrate 74 of FIG. 3 is discharged to a subsequent station, and then the next substrate (generally, different from the preceding substrate in number of parts to be mounted and also in mounting positions) is supplied to the parts mounting area.
In the example of FIG. 3, the foregoing procedure is repeated to assemble 100 kinds of printed circuit boards using the three kinds of parts in total.
Therefore, to mount 20 kinds of parts in total on 100 kinds of substrates, for example, 20 conveyors are provided for supplying the 20 kinds of parts to the parts mounting station where the parts are to be mounted on the corresponding substrate.
However, with this prior arrangement, if the number of kinds of parts to be mounted on 100 kinds of substrates increases up to 10,000 kinds of parts in total, it requires 10,000 conveyors provided adjacent to the parts mounting station for supplying 10,000 kinds of parts thereto. Consequently, a gigantic, complicated parts supply apparatus would be necessary, although various countermeasures are possible.
Besides, the cost of fabricating such a huge supply apparatus is considerable and is at variance with the reality; yet real conditions cannot pliably cope with the increase and change of the kinds of parts.
The conventional system requires not only a warehouse to store therein many kinds of parts taken in by manufacturing or purchasing, but also an apparatus for taking out necessary parts from the warehouse and then placing them on the corresponding conveyors. Like the supply apparatus, either the warehouse or the apparatus still have to be complex and large-sized in order to comply with every kind of parts.
Further, the conventional system does not intend to encompass the bringing-in and storing of parts and substrates needed for assembling printed circuit boards and the preparing of the substrates as well as encompass progressing status of the assembling. Since it cannot have a real-time understanding of these facts, any possible unnecessary stop cannot be determined with ease when assembling a wide variety of kinds of printed circuit boards. As a consequence, a streamlined production is difficult to achieve, and the individual printed circuit board is difficult to manufacture in a short period of time.
In the meantime, control systems, such as factory control systems and production control systems, using a computer have recently been developed. For example, an automatic machine is located along the parts conveying line and is controlled by a computer.
However, any one of the prior control systems aims at a centralized control of the working automatic machine and conveying line, which does not necessarily meet the reality. Especially when mounting many kinds of parts, each kind in a small quantity, (e.g., 10,000 kinds of parts, each kind including only a single part) on many kinds of substrates (e.g., 100 kinds of substrates), the prior control system should preferably have carried out assembling so as to take measures suited to the situation, i.e. status of the parts and substrates on the site.
In addition, it is laborious and time-consuming to input to a computer the progressing status of manufacture of many kinds of parts and substrates. In this connection, it is possible to recognize the individual articles using bar codes. If many kinds of articles were recognized individually at every station, it would take considerable time to perform data inquiry and data transfer processing, increasing the latency of each automatic machine.


A method of cementing a tubular string in a wellbore includes: deploying the tubular string into the wellbore; pumping cement slurry into the tubular string; launching a cementing plug after pumping the cement slurry; propelling the cementing plug through the tubular string, thereby pumping the cement slurry through the tubular string and into an annulus formed between the tubular string and the wellbore; and controlling flow of fluid displaced from the wellbore by the cement slurry to control pressure of the annulus.

1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to managed pressure cementing.
2. Description of the Related Art
In wellbore construction and completion operations, a wellbore is formed to access hydrocarbon-bearing formations (e.g., crude oil and/or natural gas) by the use of drilling. Drilling is accomplished by utilizing a drill bit that is mounted on the end of a drill string. To drill within the wellbore to a predetermined depth, the drill string is often rotated by a top drive or rotary table on a surface platform or rig, and/or by a downhole motor mounted towards the lower end of the drill string. After drilling to a predetermined depth, the drill string and drill bit are removed and a section of casing is lowered into the wellbore. An annulus is thus formed between the string of casing and the formation. The casing string is hung from the wellhead. A cementing operation is then conducted in order to fill the annulus with cement. The casing string is cemented into the wellbore by circulating cement into the annulus defined between the outer wall of the casing and the borehole. The combination of cement and casing strengthens the wellbore and facilitates the isolation of certain areas of the formation behind the casing for the production of hydrocarbons.
Once the initial or surface casing has been cemented, the wellbore may be extended and another string of casing or liner may be cemented into the wellbore. This process may be repeated until the wellbore intersects the formation. Once the formation has been produced and depleted, cement plugs may be used to abandon the wellbore. If the wellbore is exploratory, tests may be performed and then the wellbore abandoned.
Not all wells that are drilled and casing strings cemented in place during the well operation are problematic. Conversely, primary cementing of problematic wells has historically been inefficient to unobtainable by manipulation of the traditional variables. What can be recorded today to effectively measure the success or failure of a primary cement job is not adequate for cementing problematic wells. Understanding the objectives of a primary cement job, being able to execute the primary cement job and adequately interpreting the results have ultimately been the criteria of a success or a failure. Whether success is a leak-off test, open-hole kick-off plug, isolation of a hydrocarbon bearing zone of interest, or a fresh water zone that must be hydraulically or mechanically isolated and protected, the tools and methods that operators and service companies employ today that can be controlled and monitored are not always enough to provide the expected nor the desired results.


This invention relates to a method for estimating the optical power of corrective lenses in a pair a eyeglasses worn by a spectator, characterized in that it comprises the following steps:                acquire two consecutive images of this spectator's face located in front of a means for acquiring these two images, one of these images being acquired with eyeglasses and the other without,        calibrate one of the two acquired images with respect to the other,        identify the position of the iris of each eye in each image,        evaluate the size magnification or size reduction of each imaged iris, and        estimate the optical power of the corrective lenses based on the evaluated magnification or reduction.

This invention relates to a method for estimating the optical power of corrective lenses in a pair of eyeglasses worn by a spectator.
The invention is situated in the domain of viewing media streams on screens. In this domain, it may be necessary to adjust the processing of media streams viewed on these screens according to data regarding the optical power of corrective lenses in a pair of eyeglasses worn by a spectator. One may thus, for example, adjust the depth-of-field effect of streams viewed on a 3D screen with a corrected spectator view so that the spectator is not disturbed when viewing the media stream.
The problem solved by this invention is to obtain the optical power of corrective lenses in a pair of eyeglasses worn by a spectator and thus to be able to adjust the processing of media streams to be viewed on screens.
A first approach for obtaining data regarding this optical power is to ask the spectator to provide, by means of a user interface, actual and specific data defined by a healthcare professional, such as an ophthalmologist, an optometrist, or an eyeglasses provider. However, knowing and entering this data is impractical because such data is most often unavailable to the spectator when the spectator wishes to view a media stream on a screen. Additionally, this data is expressed in different units of measure, depending on the country, without there necessarily being any correspondences between them, making it difficult to use this data to adjust the processing to be applied to media streams to be viewed.
Another approach is to physically measure the optical power of the lenses with, for example, a lensometer. However, such measurements cannot be widely deployed due to their cost and are therefore reserved for professionals.
According to this invention and in general, the optical power of corrective lenses in a pair of eyeglasses worn by a spectator is estimated from two images of the spectator's face, taken by a camera located in front of the spectator, who is positioned to view a media stream on a screen.

Method and device for estimating the optical power of corrective lenses in a pair of eyeglasses worn by a spectator


An apparatus includes a sense element and an oscillator. The oscillator is coupled to the sense element and is used to generate an oscillator signal and a gain control signal. The oscillator signal is amplitude compensated when noise is detected in the sense element. A method includes detecting magnetic interference in a sense element coupled to an oscillator, and adjusting a gain control signal in the oscillator to compensate for the magnetic interference.

Sensors, such as proximity sensors, are used in industrial machinery, such as welding equipment and industrial robots. Proximity sensors detect the presence of material objects, such as metal targets. Proximity sensors are used to detect the presence of both stationary and non-stationary targets. A table for holding a work piece to be welded, such as an engine block, is an example of a stationary target. To detect a table a proximity sensor is moved toward the table until the table is detected. A moving robotic arm, such as a robotic arm moving a work piece, such as an engine block, onto a table is an example of a non-stationary target. A moving robotic arm is detected as it moves to a position near a proximity sensor.
Unfortunately, some environments in which proximity sensors are used are electromagnetically noisy environments. For example, sensors are used in environments that include arc welders. Arc welders create a electromagnetically noisy environment. Some sensors fail when used in such an electromagnetically noisy environment. A failed sensor can cause manufacturing lines to shut down or industrial machinery to malfunction. For these and other reasons there is a need for sensors that do not fail in the presence of a magnetic field.

Sensor and method including noise compensation


When attaching a watermark to image data including a non-background object and a background object, first the watermark is drawn, and next the background object is drawn. Then, the watermark is drawn again after the background object has been drawn. Thereafter, the non-background object is drawn.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of attaching an additional image to a one-page image obtained by drawing one or more objects including a bitmap object, in a predetermined sequence, and also to a processing system that uses the method.
2. Related Art
During the printing of a document or the like created by application software, a technique is known in the art of attaching an additional image called a watermark to an image of the document that is to be printed (hereinafter called a "main image"). The watermark could be text, such as "Company Secret", "Copy", or "Confidential".
The attachment of a watermark is a function that is generally incorporated within a dedicated driver software for a printing device (such as a printer). When it comes to printing a document created by the application software, a main image with a watermark attached thereto is output for printing by a user specifying an instruction to attach a watermark from a print setting screen of the driver software and also selecting a watermark that is to be attached.
Watermarks could of course be formed of text data, but the watermarks could also be created as image data in a format such as a bitmap. In addition, although such watermarks could be provided by a driver software as default, a user could also create them new.
When a watermark is attached to a main image, the watermark could either be attached in front of the main image (hereinafter called "forward attachment") or be attached behind the main image (hereinafter called "rearward attachment"). Depending on the driver software, the configuration could be such that the user can select either of these methods, but a default setting of rearward attachment is usually common.
With forward attachment, as shown specifically in FIG. 21(a), the main image is drawn first and finally the watermark is drawn on top of the main image (overwriting), so the watermark has priority in portions at which the main image and the watermark are overlaid, erasing the portions of the main image.
With rearward attachment, as shown specifically in FIG. 21(b), the watermark is drawn first and the main image is drawn over the watermark, so the main image has priority in portions at which the main image and the watermark are overlaid, erasing the portions of the watermark.
A main image created by presentation software, however, generally include of a background object representing a background (an object in bitmap format) and various objects for the presentation, which are drawn overlapping on the background object.
In other words, when a main image of such a configuration is finally rasterized by a printing device, first a background object is drawn and then various other objects are drawn on top of the background object. In general, a background object is often drawn over a comparatively wide range of one page, and a background object could even cover the entire page.
For that reason, if the rearward attachment is employed when outputting such a main image with a watermark attached thereto for printing, it is highly likely that the watermark will hide behind the background object. If the region in which the watermark is drawn is completely comprised within the region in which the background object is drawn, the watermark will be overdrawn by the background object and will be completely erased thereby, as shown in FIG. 21(c).
If the background object in this case is colored, a user seeing the printed result can confirm visually that "the watermark has been erased by the background", and it is also possible that the user might wish to erase the watermark intentionally with the background.
However, it is also possible to have a background object that is a completely white area or just a frame surrounding white (in the example shown in FIG. 21(c), the background object is completely white except for the frame). Since it would seem to the user that there is nothing drawn in that white area in such a case, the user would be unaware that the white background object has been drawn there in practice and would naturally expect to see the watermark printed in that white portion (which is actually a white background object).
However, in practice the watermark is overwritten by the white background object (the white bitmap object) and is not printed. In other words, from the user's viewpoint, the printed result might cause the user to wonder whether there is a fault in the driver software or the printing device, raising feelings of unease and inconvenience, since there is no watermark drawn in the white area that is supposed to have a watermark drawn therein.
In order to overcome this problem, Japanese Patent-Application Publication No. HEI-11-149355 proposes a technique that is to determine, for a character string object within one page, whether or not it is a character string object that is either not overlaid by another object or not requiring consideration of overlapping, to ensure that each character string object that is overlaid by another object and requiring consideration of overlapping is printed reliably.
This technique ensures that the watermark is printed above another object when the another object overlaps the watermark. However, since this technique does not determine whether the another object is a background or an object that is not a background, the watermark is always drawn at the front.
For that reason, if the above-described technique is used for attaching a watermark to a main image created by presentation software when printing out, the watermark is printed reliably, but main objects other than the background would be hidden by the watermark, which is not in line with the user's intentions of "I want to print a watermark but I also want to print all non-background objects reliably."
It is also conceivable to use the previously-described forward-attachment for displaying the watermark reliably. However, in this case, the watermark will be displayed unconditionally at the foremost position, giving rise to a similar problem to the above (in that objects other than the background are also covered by the watermark), which is not in line with the user's intentions.


When a nickel (Ni) layer is formed on an electrode pad made of aluminum-silicon (Al—Si) by an electroless plating method, prior to the precipitation of zinc (Zn) which becomes a catalyst, copper (Cu) is formed in the form of discontinuous spots or islands on the surface of the electrode pad, thereby providing a copper (Cu) thin layer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device constructed by providing a bump electrode above an electrode pad and a manufacturing method of the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
With a demand for miniaturization and higher performance of an electronic device, higher performance, higher integration, and higher-density mounting of a semiconductor device which is mounted on the electronic device are also demanded.
Therefore, as one way of satisfying the demand for higher-density mounting, so-called bare chip mounting is attracting attention as a mounting form of a semiconductor element (semiconductor chip).
In this bare chip mounting, as a way of connecting an electrode of a semiconductor element and an electrode wiring in a substrate on which the semiconductor element is mounted, so-called face down mounting (flip chip mounting), in which the semiconductor element is mounted on the substrate by providing a bump electrode on a principal surface of a semiconductor chip and connecting the bump electrode to the electrode of the substrate, tends to be used.
When a semiconductor device including the above bump electrode is manufactured, zinc (Zn) is precipitated on an electrode pad, for example, made of aluminum-silicon (Al—Si) by an electroless plating method, and then a nickel (Ni) layer is formed by the electroless plating method with the zinc (Zn) as a catalyst, thereby forming a bump foundation layer.
Subsequently, after a gold (Au) layer is formed so as to cover the nickel layer, the bump electrode is formed using solder or the like as a material on the nickel layer (for example, see Patent Document 1).
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent No. 3615206
However, if a conventionally used electrode pad (Si: 1 wt %) made of aluminum-silicon (Al—Si) is used as the electrode pad when the bump electrode is formed by the above conventional art, there is a large possibility that the adhesion of the bump electrode to the electrode pad is not sufficient, which causes detachment of the bump electrode.
Usually, in a so-called shear teat to test the adhesion strength of the bump electrode, as shown in FIG. 10A, the test is performed by bringing a shear tool 111 into contact with a bump electrode 105 formed above the surface of an electrode pad 103 with a foundation layer 104 made of nickel (Ni) therebetween, the electrode pad 103 being provided above a semiconductor substrate 101 with an insulating layer 102 therebetween.
Namely, the sharp-edged shear tool 111 is used, and by moving this shear tool 111 with respect to the bump electrode 105 in a direction parallel to the surface of the semiconductor substrate 101 and bringing it into contact with the bump electrode 105, lateral pressure is applied to the bump electrode 105.
Incidentally, in this figure, numeral 106 denotes a passivation layer made of silicon nitride, polyimide, or the like, and numeral 106a denotes an opening (window) formed in the passivation layer 106.
If the bump electrode 105 is firmly connected to the electrode pad 103, as shown in FIG. 10B, even where the shear tool 111 is brought into contact therewith, the bump electrode 105 is not detached from the electrode pad 103, and the bump electrode 105 stays without its portion of contact with the shear tool 111 being separated and removed.
However, when the adhesion between the electrode pad 103 and the bump electrode 105 is not sufficient, as shown in FIG. 10C, detachment occurs between the electrode pad 103 and the foundation layer 104 due to pressing force of the shear tool 111 to the bump electrode 105, and consequently the bump electrode 105 together with the foundation layer 104 is detached from the electrode pad 103.
As just described, the adhesion between the electrode pad 103 made of aluminum-silicon (Al—Si) and the foundation layer 104 is low, and therefore it is difficult to provide the bump electrode 105 with high adhesion to the electrode pad 103.
The inventor has found that one of the causes of contact between the electrode pad 103 and the foundation layer 104 without sufficient adhesion is the form of zinc (Zn), which acts as a catalyst in the above nickel plating, when it is formed on the electrode pad 103.
Namely, the zinc (Zn) which acts as the catalyst when the foundation layer 104 is formed has low adhesion to the electrode pad 103 made of aluminum-silicon (Al—Si) described above, and hence, as shown in FIG. 11A, a region where zinc (Zn) 107 does not exist occurs on the surface of the electrode pad 103.
The zinc (Zn) 107 is deposited by the electroless plating method such as a double zincate method using a bath containing the zinc, but it is difficult for the bath containing the zinc to come into uniform contact with the surface of the electrode pad 103, so that nonuniform density or one-sided distribution occurs in precipitation/deposition of the zinc (Zn).
This one-sided precipitation of the zinc (Zn) 107 also causes one-sided formation of the foundation layer 104 made of nickel (Ni), and as shown in FIG. 11B, a region S where the foundation layer 104 does not exist occurs on the surface of the electrode pad 103.
Due to the above occurrence of the region where the foundation layer 104 does not exist, as shown in FIG. 1C, the bump electrode 105 is formed across both the foundation layer 104 formed one-sidedly on the electrode pad 103 and a surface-exposed portion of the electrode pad 103, and thereby a portion where the bump electrode 105 comes into direct contact with the electrode pad 103 occurs.
In such a connection structure, not only the adhesion between the electrode pad 103 and the foundation layer 104 further deteriorates, but also a solder component contained in the bump electrode 105 is diffused into the electrode pad 103, which significantly impairs the reliability of the semiconductor device.

Semiconductor device having an electrode pad, a bump provided above the electrode pad and a bump foundation layer therebetween


A beverage preparation machine of the type which uses pre-packed cartridges of beverage ingredients. The cartridges may be designed so that air becomes entrained so as to produce a desired foam or crema. Air inlets are provided in an outlet nozzle to allow air to enter the beverage preparation machine and so be available for entrainment. Advantageously, the air inlets extend through the sides of the nozzle in an elevated position at a widened portion of the nozzle. This reduces the flow of beverage into and through the air inlets, aiding cleanliness.

Coffee houses have been a part of the "coffee culture" since the 17th century. Throughout the years methods of making coffee have been refined and skilled people trained to produce the best coffee beverages. The first coffee machines were developed in the early 1800s and an automatic espresso machine was invented in the 1930s. The automation of the coffee making process has, in turn, lead to a rapid growth, particularly in the last ten years, in the number of coffee houses/shops with more specialist drinks, such as espresso and cappuccino, being in high demand. These types of beverages have historically been regarded as luxury items because of the need for expensive, complex machines capable of producing the high pressures necessary for making them, which had to be properly operated and maintained by a trained barista to produce good quality. Coffee aficionados agree that an espresso can be spoiled by a badly trained operator despite the use of a good quality machine and good quality coffee. This trend, however, has not only lead to an increased demand from consumers for luxury top quality beverages, but also a desire for a greater variety of speciality beverages, and the ability to make such beverages in the comfort of one's own home.


In an approach a request to write data to memory is received, wherein the memory includes: a first set of dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) accessible via a first memory channel, and a first set of storage class (SCM) memory accessible via a second memory channel. The data is written to the first set of DRAM via the first memory channel. The data is mirrored to the first set of SCM via the second memory channel.

The present invention relates generally to the field of data replication and redundancy, and more particularly to memory mirroring with storage class memory (SCM).
Memory mirroring is the division of memory into two channels. Data sent through a first channel is stored to a first memory bank and mirrored to a second channel where the data is stored to a second memory bank, creating as redundant copy of the memory. Typically, a first half of the memory is the main system memory, and the other half of the memory acts as a backup such that if the first memory bank fails, the second memory bank has redundantly stored the data and thus, may be able to provide the missing data. Generally, on a memory read, data is read back from the main system memory and the backup is ready if, for example, an uncorrectable error is detected on the read operation. Memory mirroring increases data reliability.
Dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) is a type of random-access semiconductor memory that stores each bit of data in a memory cell consisting of a capacitor and a transistor, both the capacitor and transistor typically based on metal-oxide semiconductor (MOS) technology. DRAM typically takes the form of an integrated circuit chip. One of the largest applications for DRAM is the main memory in modern computers.
SCM, or persistent memory (P-MEM), treats fast non-volatile memory as DRAM and includes the fast non-volatile memory in the memory space of a server. Access to data in the memory space of the server is faster than access to data in local, PCI-connected solid-state drives (SSDs), direct-attach disks, or an external array.

Hybrid memory mirroring using storage class memory

International Business Machines Corporation


A network element management system has a user interface that displays a table having a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns. The table has a plurality of logical identifier for a network element listed in the first column. The table has a plurality of physical dependencies listed in the first row. The table has at least one list of physical equipment displayed in a row containing a first logical identifier, where each piece of physical equipment in the list is linked to the first logical identifier and where each piece of physical equipment is located in a column that corresponds to the physical dependency which the physical equipment fulfills.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to telecommunication systems, and specifically to a network element management system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A telecommunications network is typically comprised of a number of network elements. One example of a network element is a digital cross-connect system. A digital cross-connect system is a network device used by telecom carriers and large enterprises to switch and multiplex low-speed voice and data signals onto high-speed lines and vice versa. The digital cross connect is typically used to aggregate several T1 lines into a higher-speed electrical or optical line as well as to distribute signals to various destinations. For example, voice and data traffic may arrive at the cross-connect on the same facility, but be destined for different carriers. Voice traffic would be transmitted out one port, while data traffic goes out another.
Digital Cross-Connect Systems (DCS) typically consist of a rack with one or more shelves, where each shelf has a number of different cards/modules. The cards/modules can be configured to connect the incoming low speed lines with the outgoing high capacity lines. Over time the DCS may be upgraded by adding additional shelves and/or additional card/modules, or the DCS may be modified by reconfiguring the current cards/modules. To be able to upgrade or modify the DCS, an understanding of the current logical configuration of the DCS is required. The logical configuration of a DCS is the relationship between the current cards, shelves and modules, how the cards/modules and shelves relate to other cards/modules and shelves, and how the DCS logically identifies the links (logical identifiers) between the cards/modules and shelves.
Currently, determining the logical configuration of a DCS is a time consuming and error prone activity. One reason for this difficulty is that the physical location of a card/module in the shelf may not have any relationship with the logical configuration for the card/module.
Current software programs designed to aid with the determination of the logical configuration of a DCS may determine that a shelf has an open slot for a card/module, but do not determine the logical sub-distribution frame (SDF) address for the open slot. For example, the Tellabs 5500 Metro Watch product allows an engineer to determine that there are shelves installed with open slots for cards/modules, but it does not tell the engineer what the logical SDF address is for the slots and cards/modules.
Another problem with current management tools is that the physical dependencies between different cards/modules can not be determined. Therefore there is a need for a network element management system that overcomes these problems.


The present disclosure concerns a subperiosteal dental implant for receiving at least one replacement tooth of a patient, the subperiosteal dental implant comprising an implant frame superposable to at least a section of a jaw hone of the patient, the implant frame having a bone-facing surface at least partially contacting the jaw hone of the patient when the implant frame is superposed thereto, and an opposed gum-facing surface, the implant frame having at least a section along which a cross-section profile includes a base defining at least partially the bone-facing surface and at least partially the gum-facing surface, a ridge protruding from the base and defining at least partially the gum-facing surface, and a first shoulder and a second shoulder that are both defined on the gum-facing surface of the base, each one being located on a respective side of the ridge.

Subperiosteal implants are implants being positioned below a patient's gum and are abutted against, or extend above, the jaw bone, rather than inside the bone. For example and without being limitative, this particular type of implant is commonly used for patients having a shallow jaw bone and which cannot or do not want to undergo a procedure to rebuild the jaw bone.
Subperiosteal implants typically include an implant frame, for instance made of metal, and one or more replacement tooth being attachable to the implant frame. The implant frame is superposable to at least a section of the jaw bone of the patient; it is positioned over the jaw bone and attached thereon, underneath the gum tissue. The one or more replacement tooth is then affixed to the implant frame.
In order to ensure a better fastening of the implant frame of the subperiosteal implant, it is particularly advantageous to make the jaw bone migrate at least partially over the implant frame. This type of implants is known as endosseous implants.
In view of the above, there is a need for a subperiosteal dental implant which would foster the migration of the jaw bone to cover at least partially the implant frame.


Disclosed is a method, system, program, and data structure for updating code in a first and second controllers. The first and second controllers are capable of accessing storage regions in a storage device. The first controller receives a code update and signals the second controller. Access to the first controller is disabled and the code update is applied to the first controller. In response to the signaling, the second controller receives commands directed to all of the storage regions during the code update to the first controller.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system, method, and program for updating code in a first and second controllers.
2. Description of the Related Art
In prior art storage systems, one or more host computers access a storage space maintained in a storage device through a storage controller. In mass storage systems, the storage device may comprise one or more Direct Access Storage Devices (DASDs), comprised of interconnected hard disk drives. The storage controller manages the flow of data from host systems to DASDs. Host systems view the physical storage space as a partition of Logical Unit Numbers (LUNs). The hosts will submit input/output (I/O) commands to a particular LUN, and the storage controller will translate the target LUN to a physical storage area.
To avoid total system failure in the event that one system component fails, storage controller subsystems incorporate redundant hardware components. For instance, one typical prior art storage subsystem includes multiple storage controller processors to provide hosts multiple paths to the same DASD and LUNs. In the event that one storage controller path fails, the path to the other storage controller can be used to access the DASD.
In high end storage controllers, such as the International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) 3990 and Enterprise System Storage Server,** a host may send an input/output (I/O) command to any host or controller 0I/O adaptor in the subsystem and the I/O adaptor would then route the I/O to the controller handling the target LUN of that I/O operation. With such prior art high end systems, the host does not need to know the controller that is primarily managing a particular LUN because the controllers include the interface circuitry to route the I/O to the primary controller. Such solutions require expensive interface hardware that is not feasible for lower cost storage subsystems. Lower cost storage subsystems also use two controllers, such as Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) or Fibre Channel controllers, that provide separate paths to the same DASD. **Windows and NT are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation; AIX and OS/390 are registered trademarks of IBM and MVS and Fibre Channel Raid Storage Controller are trademarks of IBM.
In the prior art, to update the firmware or code in a subsystem comprised of multiple controllers, the entire subsystem is taken off-line while the firmware in both controllers is updated. The firmware is typically maintained in a programmable memory such as a flash memory. Once the programmable memory of the controllers is updated, the system may be brought back online. One disadvantage of this approach is that the host will not be able to access the data from the DASD during the firmware update. In many cases, the host may have a short timeout period causing a timeout when it cannot access data while the controllers are updating their firmware. To recover from such timeouts, the host will have to reboot, thereby disrupting clients accessing data through the subsystem. Further, even if the upgrade operations do not cause the host to timeout, host applications are still denied access to data during the upgrade to the new firmware. Thus, the operation of loading new firmware can be quite disruptive to all hosts and their attached clients accessing data through the subsystem.
Thus, there is a need in the art to provide an improved methodology for updating firmware code in controllers.

Method, system, and program for updating firmware to a storage system comprised of multiple controllers


An apparatus including a switch and a push-button coupled to the switch. The push-button can include a push-button head including a push-button face and a contact portion opposite from the push-button face. An applied force can move the push-button head in an actuation direction in a switch actuation plane relative to the switch to actuate the switch. The contact portion can actuate the switch when the applied force moves the push-button head in the actuation direction. The push-button can also include a compressible member that compresses in a compression plane parallel with and offset from the switch actuation plane. The compressible member can include a first end coupled to the push-button head and a second end opposite from the first end. The second end can be coupled to a fixed point relative to the switch.

1. Field
The present disclosure is directed an apparatus including a push-button with a compressible member. More particularly, the present disclosure is directed to an apparatus including a push-button that has a compressible member that is offset from a switch actuation plane that reduces the space required by the push-button.
2. Introduction
Presently, portable electronic devices have push-buttons that users press to activate functions and features of the electronic devices. For example, a smartphone uses a home key that a user presses to activate the home screen of the smartphone. As another example, a music player includes volume buttons that a user presses to change the volume of the music player. As a further example, a camera includes a shutter button that a user presses to take a picture. To be as portable as possible, the electronic devices are relatively small to fit in a user's hand, in a user's pocket or on a user's body. Due to size constraints, components of an electronic device are tightly packaged into the device's housing to make a device as portable as possible.
Unfortunately, the size constraints make it a challenge to fit all of the desired components into the device while keeping the device small and portable. The size makes it especially challenging to incorporate push-buttons into the device because push-buttons require extra space for movement of the button and for springs to return a push-button to its original position after the push-button is pressed.
Thus, there is a need for an apparatus with a push-button having a compressible member that reduces the space required by the push-button.

Apparatus including a push-button with a compressible member


Disclosed herein is a precursor solution for forming a biaxially oriented buffer layer through low-temperature heat treatment, by which a highly oriented buffer layer can be formed even when the precursor solution is heat-treated at a low temperature of 1000° C. or lower at the time of forming a buffer layer through a wet chemical method. The precursor solution is prepared by adding a carboxylate or an alkoxide of bismuth, boron, lead, gallium, or the like, which is a metal salt for forming an oxide having a low melting point of 1200° C. or lower after pyrolysis in an oxygen atmosphere, to a precursor solution for forming a buffer layer through a wet chemical method.

Generally, an oxide superconducting wire rod, represented by YBa2Cu3O7-x, has high current transport capacity and excellent critical current characteristics in high magnetic fields. Therefore, it is expected that such an oxide superconducting wire rod will enable large-capacity power equipment to have a small size, high efficiency and large capacity when it is applied to power cables, industrial motors, generators, and the like in the future. The oxide superconducting wire rod, as shown in FIG. 1, includes a metal substrate A, a buffer layer B and a superconducting layer C, and the current transport characteristics thereof change greatly depending on the orientation of superconductor grains. Therefore, in order to manufacture a superconducting wire rod having a high critical current density (Jc), superconductor grains must be highly biaxially oriented. In particular, a buffer layer, serving to transmit the orientation of a metal substrate to a superconducting layer and to suppress the reaction between a metal substrate and a superconducting layer, plays an important role in the manufacture of a superconducting wire rod, and the cost of preparing the buffer layer accounts for most of the total cost of manufacturing the superconducting wire rod. Therefore, in order to impart functionality to the buffer layer, the buffer layer must be grown on the metal substrate while being biaxially oriented thereon, and, in order to suppress the reaction between the metal substrate and the superconducting layer, the buffer layer must have high density or be thick. Further, the properties of the metal substrate must not be deteriorated during the process of forming the buffer layer on the metal substrate. In order to accomplish the above object, various materials, such as CeO2, YSZ, Y2O3, RE2Zr2O7 (RE=La, Sm, Ce, etc.), SrTiO3, and the like, are currently used to form the buffer layer.
Currently, in order to form a buffer layer on a metal substrate produced through a process of manufacturing an oxide superconducting wire rod, high-vacuum methods, such as sputtering, pulsed laser deposition (PLD), thermal evaporation, metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD), etc., or wet chemical methods, such as metal organic deposition (MOD), etc., are used.
The high-vacuum methods are disadvantageous in that, since they must be performed in a high vacuum, that is, at a low pressure of 10˜5 Pa, expensive high-vacuum systems and advanced high-vacuum technologies are required, thus decreasing process stability and economic efficiency, which are prerequisites to the practical use of the superconducting wire rod. In contrast, the wet chemical methods, such as metal organic deposition (MOD), etc., are economically advantageous in that they need not be performed in a high vacuum, and include simple processes, for example, coating and heat-treatment.
However, when a buffer layer is formed through metal organic deposition (MOD), a highly oriented and densified buffer layer can be formed only when heat-treatment is conducted at 1000° C. or higher, generally at 1100° C. Therefore, the wet chemical methods are also problematic in that the crystal grain boundaries of a metal substrate are transformed, and thus grooves are formed in the surface thereof. The grooves, formed along the crystal grain boundaries of the metal substrate, worsen the connection between superconducting crystal grains, thus deteriorating the critical current characteristics of a superconducting layer, at the time of forming a superconducting layer. In particular, the grooves become an obstacle to a process of extending a superconducting wire rod, which is necessary for practical application of the superconducting wire rod.
When such problems, occurring in the process of forming a buffer layer, are overcome, and simultaneously, a highly oriented and densified superconducting layer is formed at low cost, the productivity of an oxide superconducting wire rod is maximized, thus having far-reaching effects on the practical use of the oxide superconducting wire rod.
Therefore, in order to overcome the above problems, methods of forming a buffer layer, which can form a highly oriented buffer layer even when it is heat-treated at a low temperature of 1000° C. or lower, are required.

Synthesizing precursor solution enabling fabricating biaxially textured buffer layers by low temperature annealing

Korea Institute of Machinery & Materials


An object of the present invention is to improve the sealability of a capacitor, to maintain the sealability thereof, or to suppress any degradation of the sealability thereof. In a capacitor (2), a base (6) including an insertion through hole (18-1, 18-2) is disposed on a side of an opening sealing member (14) of a capacitor main body (4), the opening sealing member is attached to an open portion of an outer package case (10) of the capacitor main body, and a terminal lead (16-1, 16-2) of the capacitor main body penetrates through the opening sealing member and passes through the insertion through hole to be disposed on an outer side of the base. The capacitor includes a resin layer (8) between the base and the opening sealing member. The base or the opening sealing member includes a protruding portion (20, 317-1) that is adjacent to the resin layer.

To mount a capacitor on a wiring board, for example, the capacitor includes a base, and a mounting means is used to solder folded terminal leads that are pulled out to an outer side face of the base, to the wiring board. The capacitor used for this type of mounting is called "surface-mount capacitor". The surface-mount capacitor has high general versatility and is used in, for example, an automobile.
When a capacitor is disposed outdoors such as the inside of an automobile, the environmental temperature around the position at which the capacitor is disposed increases. The capacitor therefore needs to withstand a high temperature environment. For example, a resin layer is formed between an opening sealing body and a base of the capacitor and the sealability of the capacitor is thereby enhanced (see, e.g., Patent Literature 1). According to this configuration, the heat resistance of the capacitor can be improved. In the capacitor having the base, insertion through holes are formed in the base and terminal leads of the capacitor pass through the insertion through holes to be disposed on the outer side of the base.

Capacitor and method for manufacturing same


An image decoding method and apparatus according to an embodiment may extract, from a bitstream, a quantization coefficient generated through core transformation, secondary transformation, and quantization; generate an inverse-quantization coefficient by performing inverse quantization on the quantization coefficient; generate a secondary inverse-transformation coefficient by performing secondary inverse-transformation on a low frequency component of the inverse-quantization coefficient, the secondary inverse-transformation corresponding to the secondary transformation; and perform core inverse-transformation on the secondary inverse-transformation coefficient, the core inverse-transformation corresponding to the core transformation.

Image data is encoded by a codec based on a predetermined data compression standard, e.g., the Moving Picture Expert Group (MPEG) standard, and then is stored in the form of a bitstream in a recording medium or is transmitted via a communication channel.
As hardware for reproducing and storing high resolution or high quality image content is being developed and supplied, a need for a codec for effectively encoding or decoding the high resolution or high quality image content is increasing. Encoded image content may be decoded to be reproduced. Recently, methods of efficiently compressing high resolution or high quality image content are being performed. For example, an efficient image compressing method is performed by randomly processing an encoding-target image.

Method and device for encoding or decoding image


A tissue grasping forceps and needle holder. A pair of movable arms are pivotably connected about a pivot connection, with each arm having a handle portion on one side and a working portion on the opposite side of the pivot connection. The working portions interengage when the handle portions are closed to a minimum spaced relation. The working portion has a clamp components and jaw component, with the clamp component comprising a plurality of synchronous teeth located to interlock when the handle portions are in the minimum spaced relation. The jaw component comprises a plurality of regularly spaced tines, with the tines being joined in pairs when the handle portions are in the minimum spaced relation with a gap between the tines, and an interstice between each spaced pair.

This invention relates to surgical instruments, and in particular to a single implement having a tissue grasping forceps and needle holder.
The grasping of a block of tissue to be removed during a surgical procedure can be difficult because the grasping forceps typically has only a single set of jaws, usually containing three teeth per jaw, and works best on surfaces parallel to the top of an operating table. When the surface is perpendicular or at an angle to the flat surface of the operating table, it is difficult to use such forceps because they do not grasp the surface easily. This makes it difficult to manipulate a block of tissue needing removal. Grasping of the tissue during the surgical procedure allows its manipulation and facilitates excision.
During certain procedures, such as breast lumpectomy surgery, localizing needles are used to locate a tumor. The amount of tissue around the tip of the needle needing removal is determined by the surgeon, and then a block of breast tissue is removed. During that removal, it is necessary to cut the needle where it protrudes from the skin and passes through the breast tissue. A length of needle, typically two to four centimeters, is left in tissue that is removed, and then is sent to a radiographer to make sure that the needle and tumor are removed adequately with a margin of healthy tissue surrounding the tumor. The cut end of the needle protrudes from the block of tissue to be removed, and during removal, the piece of needle remaining can be dislodged or moved during the excision process. There is currently no good way to secure the needle to the tissue at the angle and location achieved when the needle was placed.

Tissue grasping forceps and localizing needle holder


A table including a clincher mechanism is provided to be supported pivotably by a rear portion of a main body frame, the table is integrally formed with a wing piece 9 projected along the main body frame, a locking device is formed between the wing piece of the table and the main body frame, and by engaging the locking device with the wing piece, a pivoting force in an opening direction of the table is hampered.

As shown by FIG. 10 and FIG. 11, generally, an electric stapler of this kind is constituted by a cartridge 32 charged with a number of staples and attachable to and detachable from a magazine portion 31 of a main body case 30, a driver mechanism 33 for striking out the staple at inside of the cartridge 32 from the magazine portion 31 by being driven by a motor provided at inside of the main body case 30, and a table 35 arranged to be opposed to a portion 34 for striking out the staple by the driver mechanism 33 and pivotably supported by a side plate constituting the main body frame 30 for striking out the staple charged in the magazine portion 31 to sheets of paper P to be bound arranged between the magazine portion 31 and the table 35 from the magazine portion 31 by driving the driver mechanism 33 by driving the motor and folding to bend a front end of a leg of the staple penetrated through the sheets of paper to be bound by a clincher 36 arranged on the table 35.
Normally, the table 35 is arranged to be remote from the staple striking portion 34 of the magazine portion 31 and is operated to pivot to pinch the sheets of paper P to be bound between the table 35 and an upper face of the magazine portion 31 before inserting the sheets of paper to be bound and striking out the staple by the driver mechanism 33. Although the table 35 needs to support a lower face side of the sheets of paper to be bound against a binding load generated during a time period in which the leg of the staple struck out from the magazine portion 31 by the driver mechanism 33 penetrates the sheets of paper to be bound and is folded to bend along a rear face of the sheets of paper to be bound by the clincher 36 formed at a front end portion of the table 35, since an operating stroke of the table 35 is varied in accordance with a thickness of the sheets of paper to be bound, the table 35 cannot directly be driven to pivot by a cam, a link mechanism or the like, and the table 35 is operated by interposing a spring force at the cam or the link mechanism. However, in order to support the binding load which normally becomes about 8 through 10 Kg, a spring of a large load is needed, and a drive mechanism for driving the table 35 by way of the large spring load is enlarged to constitute a factor of hampering small-sized formation of the electric stapler for being included in a copier or the like.
Hence, as shown by FIG. 10 and FIG. 11, there is disclosed a lock mechanism of the table for fixing the table 35 at a closing position by a wedge member fitted to a portion of the table 35 operated by a spring urge force in a direction of pinching the sheets of paper P to be bound in JP-A-2001-191265 or the like. The lock mechanism of the table is constituted by the table 35 a rear end portion of which is pivotably supported by a pivotal support shaft 38 and urged in the closing direction by a torsional coil spring 39, an operating link 40 for holding the table 35 at an opening position, and a wedge member 37 engaged with the table 35 for hampering the table 35 from being pivoted in the opening direction.
Normally, before operating the electric stapler, a support portion 41 formed at the operating link 40 is engaged with a fixed shaft 42 integrally pivoted with the table 35 to hold the table 35 at the opening position, and when the sheets of paper P to be bound is mounted on an upper face of the magazine portion and the electric stapler is operated, engagement of the support portion 41 and the fixed shaft 42 is released by operating the operating link 40 in cooperation with the driver mechanism 33 for striking out the staple to operate the table 35 in a binding direction by the torsional coil spring 39 to pinch the sheets of paper P to be bound arranged between the table 35 and the magazine portion 31. In accordance with operation of the table 35, the wedge member 37 is slid to move by the spring force to engage a locking portion 43 formed at the wedge member 37 with the fixed shaft 42 pivoted integrally with the table 35 to thereby hamper the table 35 from being pivoted in the opening direction to lock at the closing position.
According to the above-described mechanism, the wedge member 37 is slidably held by the main body case 30, the wedge member 37 is slid to move by the spring urge force to engage with the fixed shaft 42 integral with the table 35 to lock the table 35 at the closing position and therefore, no problem is posed since when a range of varying the thickness of the sheets is small, a range of varying a pivotal stroke of the table 35 is comparatively small. However, in the case that a maximum number of sheets for an electric stapler to bind the sheets of paper P is large, the range of the operating stroke of the table 35 is increased, a distance of sliding to move the wedge member 37 is obliged to set to be large, and small-sized formation of the electric stapler cannot be achieved. Further, the wedge member is engaged with the fixed shaft 42 arranged at a vicinity of the pivotal support shaft 38 pivotably supporting the table 35 and therefore, although the wedge member can be adopted in a small-sized stapler which does not produce a large binding load, locking cannot sufficiently be carried out for a large-sized stapler generating a large binding load at a front end side of the table 35.

Tape locking mechanism for motor-driven staplers


A relay device and a communication device capable of realizing the contents protection procedure between devices that are not connected to the same network are disclosed. A relay device and a communication device are so configured that between a device/service/sub-unit on the second network and a device on the first network which are a pair that is carrying out transmission or reception of contents to be protected, a device on the first network or a device/service/sub-unit on the second network can carry out the contents protection procedure while recognizing the target of the contents protection procedure as the relay device, so that there is no need for a device on the first network or a device/service/sub-unit on the second network to account for the other network that is connected via the relay device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a relay device for relaying data transfer between networks such as IEEE 1394 buses and radio networks, and a communication device for carrying out communications through a network such as IEEE 1394 bus and radio network.
2. Description of the Background Art
In recent years, the so called "digitalization of home AV environment" is attracting much attentions as exemplified by the beginning of the digital broadcasting and the sales of digital AV instruments. Digital AV data have some excellent characteristics including the fact that various compression schemes are applicable, the fact that they can be processed as multimedia data, the fact that they are not degraded no matter how many times they are playbacked, etc., so that they are expected to have even wider use in future.
However, this digital AV technique has another aspect that "an illegal copy of contents can be made easily". Namely, for any digital contents, it is in principle possible to produce a copy with the same quality as the original, that will not degrade at all forever, by making "bit copy" so that the so called "illegal copy" problem arises.
Some techniques for preventing this "illegal copy" are currently discussed, including "1394CP Content Protection system Specification" that is discussed by the CPTWG (Copy Protection Technique Working Group). In this technique, for contents (such as MPEG data for example) to be transferred between nodes connected to the IEEE 1394 bus, the authentication between the transmitting and receiving nodes is carried out in advance so as to enable the sharing of an encryption key (contents key), and the contents are subsequently transferred by encrypting the contents such that the contents cannot be read by anyone except for those who have carried out the authentication procedure. In this way, a node that has not carried out the authentication procedure cannot ascertain the value of the contents key so that even if the transferred data (encrypted data) are obtained by such a node, the encrypted data cannot be decrypted by such a node. By making a rule that nodes that can participate in the authentication are only those nodes that are permitted by a prescribed authentication authority, it is possible to prevent an illegal node from acquiring the encryption key so that it is possible to prevent the illegal copy.
The IEEE 1394 bus is a network system having some very excellent characteristics including the fact that its speed is 100 Mbps at least, the fact that the network itself is equipped with an automatic configuration recognition function, the fact that it has a QOS transfer function, etc., so that it has been established as the de facto standard of a network for home digital AV use.
However, because of these characteristics, the IEEE 1394 also give rise to various constraints in the case of "connecting the IEEE 1394 with other networks". For example, in the case of connecting the IEEE 1394 bus with a radio network or a public network, it is impossible to directly extend the IEEE 1394 protocol to the radio network or the public network, because these networks are not as fast as over 100 Mbps in general and the automatic configuration recognition function of the IEEE 1394 cannot be directly extended to these networks so easily. For this reason, There are some propositions including a method in which a protocol conversion gateway is provided between the IEEE 1394 and the other network such as radio network or public network so as to interconnect them, and a method using the so called proxy server for providing services on one network as services on the other network.
In the case of attempting to apply these methods to the 1394 copy protection described above, currently the copy protection technique is defined only for the IEEE 1394 bus and currently there is no technique for extending this copy protection technique to the case of "connecting the IEEE 1394 with the other network".

Relay device and communication device realizing contents protection procedure over networks


A portable GPS/radio unit (10) communicates over a wireless radio network (12) with at least one other such unit. The unit (10) may transmit radio signals over the network (12) indicative of the unit's location. The unit (10) includes a single, push-to-talk button (38) that may be pressed to both transmit a voice communication and to initiate transmission of location data. The unit (10) also includes a “polling” function that requests location data from other units, an auxiliary coding system that codes or encrypts all transmitted data, and an emergency message feature that facilities the transmission and receipt of emergency messages.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to radios and global positioning system (GPS) receivers. More particularly, the invention relates to a combined GPS receiver and radio unit operable for sending GPS-derived data and other information to other such units.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The global positioning system (GPS) is an electronic satellite navigation system which permits users to determine their position with respect to the Earth. Global positioning may be determined with a handheld GPS receiver which detects and decodes signals from a number of satellites orbiting the Earth. The signals from each of these satellites indicate the position of the satellite and the time at which the signals were sent. To decode the satellite signals, known as spread spectrum signals, and thereby calculate desired position and navigational data, a GPS receiver must first "find" or acquire the signals emitted from a minimum number of satellites. Once the receiver is "locked on" to the spread spectrum signals, the user's global position and other navigational data (e.g., velocity of movement) can be calculated.
In addition to the growing popularity and demand for GPS navigational devices, portable two-way radios continue to enjoy widespread popularity. In 1996, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) established the Family Radio Service (FRS) so that families and other small groups could communicate with one another over very short distances (typically less than two miles) at no charge and without an FCC license. The FRS, which is one of the Citizens Band Radio Services, includes 14 channels in the UHF 465 MHz band. There are a number of commercially available two-way radios which are designed for use with the FRS.
The increasing use of both portable radios and GPS receivers has led to proposals to incorporate the two into combined units. It is anticipated that such combined units will provide enhanced capabilities such as the ability to transmit GPS-derived location data between two or more units so that the users of the units may monitor each other's location. For example, a family may use several of these combined units to not only communicate with one another but also to monitor each other's location so that parents may keep track of their children.
Unfortunately, currently-proposed combined GPS/radio units suffer from several limitations that limit their utility. For example, proposed designs for combined GPS/radio units include, in addition to the typical controls found on GPS receivers and FRS radios, numerous other buttons that must be operated to trigger the transmission of location data between the units. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that such additional buttons complicate operation and increase costs of the units.
Another limitation of currently-proposed combined GPS/radio units is that location data is only transmitted from a first unit to other units when the user of the first unit elects to do so. This is a problem because users often wish to know the location of other users, even if these other users forget to transmit such information. For example, parents may wish to monitor the location of their children, but only may do so with currently-proposed units if the children periodically transmit their location information back to their parents.
Another limitation of currently-proposed combined GPS/radio units and FRS radios in general is their lack of privacy. Because the FRS is an unlicensed, shared communication service, communications from several different groups of people are often transmitted at the same time, causing interference. This is especially true in areas where FRS radio use is popular, such as in amusement parks, sporting events, concerts, etc. Such interference can be avoided to a certain extent by selecting between 14 available FRS channels, but often, some or all of the channels are used simultaneously. Also, once members of a group have selected a channel and separated from one another, it is difficult to get all of the members to simultaneously switch to a different channel.
To prevent FRS radio users from hearing unwanted radio transmissions, many FRS radios incorporate continuous tone coded squelch systems (CTCSS). A CTCSS controls the audio output of a radio so that users only hear desired communications. A CTCSS includes circuitry for generating and a selector for selecting between a number of sub-audible tones, one of which is transmitted any time a radio is operating in the CTCSS mode. Other radios with a CTCSS that receive the transmission will disable their squelch and therefore enable audio output if they have been set to the same sub-audible tone. The radios will not disable their squelch for communications that are transmitted with a different or no CTCSS sub-audible tone.
Unfortunately, many people incorrectly assume that a CTCSS prevents others from listening to their conversations. In fact, a CTCSS only prevents a user from hearing unwanted conversations, but does not prevent others from listening to the user's conversations. Radios that do not have a CTCSS or that have a CTCSS that is turned off can receive and hear all communications transmitted in their vicinity. For example, a group of users may enable the CTCSS on their radios and communicate with one another without hearing communications from other people. However, users of other radios without a CTCSS or with a CTCSS that is not enabled may listen to all of groups' communications. The same is true for transmitted location data. For example, with prior art combined GPS/radio units, unauthorized persons may intercept transmitted location data and use such data to improperly monitor the location of other radio users.
Another limitation of currently-proposed combined GPS/radio units and FRS radios in general is that it is sometimes difficult to transmit and receive emergency messages. FRS rules require users to give priority to emergency messages; however, FRS channels are frequently so crowded that emergency messages cannot be heard or are interfered with. Moreover, users of radios with a CTCSS as described above cannot hear an emergency message unless the CTCSS on their radios is turned off or tuned into the same sub-audible tone transmitted with the emergency message.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved combined GPS/radio unit that overcomes the limitations of the prior art.

Combined global positioning system receiver and radio


A CPU for adjusting color purity and color displacement at the center of a screen is provided on an outer circumferential surface of a neck portion. BVM coils for modulating a scanning velocity in a horizontal direction of electron beams are provided at a position where they are overlapped with the CPU in a tube-axis direction. A ring-shaped ferrite core is provided at a position where it is overlapped with the BVM coils in the tube axis direction. Two surfaces vertical to a tube axis of the ring-shaped ferrite core are covered with resin layers. Because of this, the ring-shaped ferrite core can be prevented from being cracked.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a color picture tube apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In order to correct an edge of a displayed image to enhance image quality, a method for modulating a horizontal scanning velocity of electron beams is known. According to this method, in general, a pair of auxiliary coils called beam velocity modulation (BVM) coils are provided at a neck portion of a picture tube so as to be integrated with a deflection yoke and a convergence and purity unit (CPU) (see JP57(1982)-45650Y).
The BVM coils improve a visible state between a dark area and a light area of an image displayed on a screen during a horizontal scanning period as follows. The transition of a lighting state is predicted from a video signal waveform. In a period on a dark side during a transition period of a lighting state, electron beams are accelerated so that they are horizontally scanned at a velocity equal to or higher than an average scanning velocity. On the other hand, in a period on a light side during the transition period of a lighting state, electron beams are decelerated so that they are horizontally scanned at a velocity equal to or lower than the average scanning velocity. Thus, among the areas of the transition of a lighting state on a screen, in an area on a dark side, an excitation time of phosphors is shortened to decrease brightness, and in an area on a light side, an excitation time of phosphors is prolonged to increase brightness. Accordingly, the edge of an image is corrected so as to increase the sharpness of the areas of the transition of lightness and darkness.
In the case where the above-mentioned BVM coils for modulating the horizontal scanning velocity of electron beams are provided so as to be integrated with the CPU, an eddy current is excited in an electron gun made of a metallic conductor due to the magnetic flux generated by the BVM coils, and the metallic conductor generates heat, resulting in a reduction in a velocity modulation effect by the BVM coils.
In order to enhance the sensitivity of the BVM coils, a method has been proposed for mounting a magnetic substance, which focuses and intensifies the magnetic field generated by the BVM coils, in the electron gun (see JP6(1994)-283113A).
However, the above-mentioned method has the following problems: since a magnetic substance for focusing a magnetic field is metal, a new eddy current is likely to be generated; a process for welding a new component is necessary, which increases a cost; and furthermore, sufficient sensitivity cannot be obtained.
Furthermore, it also is considered that, in order to decrease crosstalk between the magnetic field generated by the BVM coils and the electron gun metal to minimize the generation of an eddy current, the BVM coils are placed close to the end of a deflection yoke on the electron gun side. However, in this case, the BVM coils are placed close to a horizontal deflection coil, so that crosstalk between the magnetic field generated by the BVM coils and the horizontal deflection magnetic field is increased to cause new ringing. Therefore, there is a limit for placing the BVM coils close to the deflection yoke, and hence, a sufficient increase in sensitivity cannot be realized.
As one measure, as shown in FIG. 9A, a method has been worked out, for mounting a ring-shaped ferrite core 90 on an outer circumference of the BVM coils so that the ferrite core 90 is integrated with a CPU, thereby intensifying the magnetic flux generated by the BVM coils.
However, the ring-shaped ferrite core 90 simultaneously absorbs a vertical deflection magnetic field 92 generated by the deflection yoke 6, thereby weakening the vertical deflection magnetic field 92 on the side of a neck portion of the deflection yoke 6, as indicated by a broken line 94 in FIG. 9A (in FIG. 9A, a Z-axis indicates a tube axis of a color picture tube). Consequently, preliminary deflection of electron beams is decreased, and as shown in FIG. 9B, rasters 96 in the upper and lower portions of a screen are distorted as indicated by broken lines 98, causing image distortion. In order to reduce such raster distortion, it is preferable to make the ring-shaped ferrite core 90 as thin as possible (decrease the size thereof in a tube axis direction), and place it close to a cathode.
Thus, the configuration of placing the ring-shaped ferrite core 90 together with dipole, quadrupole, and hexapole magnet rings of the CPU has been considered.
In an assembly process of a color picture tube apparatus, the dipole, quadrupole, and hexapole magnet rings of the CPU are fixed so as to keep their positions (rotation positions around a tube axis) after adjusting convergence and purity. As a method for fixing the dipole, quadrupole, and hexapole magnet rings of the CPU, the following methods are known: a tightening fixing method for screwing with a lock ring; and an elastic fixing method for fixing by supplying an elastic compression force with an elastic ring having elasticity. In any of the methods, the dipole, quadrupole, and hexapole magnet rings of the CPU are fixed due to the compression force in the tube axis direction.
The ring-shaped ferrite core 90 has a twist and a wave in a thickness direction (tube axis direction) due to sintering in the course of production. Thus, in the case of fixing such ring-shaped ferrite core 90 together with the dipole, quadrupole, and hexapole magnet rings by the above-mentioned tightening fixing method, the ring-shaped ferrite core 90 will be cracked due to the compression force in the tube axis direction during tightening of a lock ring. Furthermore, even in the case of fixing the ring-shaped ferrite core 90 together with the dipole, quadrupole, and hexapole magnet rings by the above-mentioned elastic fixing method, the ring-shaped ferrite core 90 also will be cracked due to the elastic compression force in the tube axis direction and the external force caused by the vibration during transportation and the like. When the ring-shaped ferrite core 90 is cracked, the effect of intensifying the magnetic field of the BVM coils will be reduced.

Color picture tube apparatus having beam velocity modulation coils overlapping with convergence and purity unit and ring shaped ferrite core

Matsushita Toshiba Picture Display Co., Ltd.


A method of forming EMI shielded enclosures, an EMI shielded enclosure and EMI shield are provided. A sealer composition is applied onto a surface and is allowed to substantially dry cure into a uniform, seamless layer. An adhesive composition is applied to the dried sealer composition. Then, an electrically-conductive material, such as metallic sheet, such as copper sheeting, is attached to the dried sealer composition by the adhesive composition. Alternatively, a bonded sheet of dielectric material is applied to the adhesive composition. Then the metallic sheet is attached to the bonded sheet of dielectric material by an adhesive composition second layer.

A. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding techniques and more particularly to a method of forming EMI shielded enclosures, and an apparatus for shielding an enclosed volume by insulating the enclosed volume from interfering background electromagnetic waves and from the conductive effects of moisture.
B. Description of the Prior Art
EMI shielded enclosures are used for many purposes including minimizing the susceptibility of data processing equipment to external surveillance and for isolating sensitive equipment from interference due to ambient electromagnetic radiation and other outside activity. For example, in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) applications, EMI must be minimized to prevent artifacts, or pictorial flaws in the final image. Also, the superconducting magnets, an integral part of MRI, must be isolated from outside magnetic influences such as automobile traffic, elevators, or other activities involving movement of large ferrous objects that can distort the homogeneity of the magnetic field. Ideal EMI shields should also incorporate a seamless construction, particularly in the floor, whereby mechanical seams, found in typical enclosures, are eliminated so as to minimize ground-level corrosion and enhance load bearing characteristics.
A commonly used type of shielded enclosure is a room totally enveloped or surrounded by a layer of electrically conductive material, such as a metal plate, a metal sheet or a metal screen. One example of an EMI shielded enclosure is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,806,703, issued Feb. 21, 1989.
One EMI shielding procedure involves securing plates of metal shielding material, such as steel, to the floor, walls and ceiling of an enclosure (or containment room), that houses the magnetic resonance imaging device. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,651,099, discloses first covering a concrete-slab floor with water-impermeable plastic sheeting, and then placing asbestos board over the plastic sheeting. Finally, steel plating is placed over the asbestos flooring. The steel plating then can be covered with a decorative tile or other type flooring. Another EMI shielding procedure is disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 4,755,630, including adhesively securing a plastic sheeting to the floor, then installing multiple layers of plywood, layed perpendicular to each other, onto the plastic sheeting. The plastic sheeting acts as a moisture barrier between the floor and the plywood. Aluminum sheets then are secured, such as with screws, onto the plywood subflooring.
Such shielding techniques are costly and labor intensive in that they involve elaborate preparation prior to the attachment of the metallic sheeting. These techniques also allow EM interference to develop due to the oxidation which often occurs between the nails, screws or similar mechanical fasteners and the EM shielding material whereby the fastener is no longer firmly grounded to the shielding material but instead acts as an antenna to receive any EM interference. While known methods and devices reduce EM interference, a need exists for an improved EMI shielded enclosure capable of, for example, essentially eliminating surreptitious monitoring of data processing activities, eliminating secondary ground paths via the floor which interferes with the troubleshooting of equipment, and also minimizing or eliminating EM interference that occurs due to the electrically-conductive effects of moisture between the metallic RF shielding material and a support substrate. Further, by eliminating all electrical contact between the EMI shielded enclosure and electrically grounded conductive members of the supporting parent structure, a single point ground system will be achieved which eliminates multiple ground loops and the associated stray currents flowing in the shielded enclosure surfaces which deteriorate shielding effectiveness.

Method of forming EMI shielded enclosures, EMI shielded enclosures and EMI shields