An apparatus and method for extracting a static background image from a non-static image sequence or video sequence having at least three spatially overlapping frames is presented. Obscured static background areas are filled, according to the disclosure, with actual content as the background area becomes visible over time as non-static objects move with respect to the background. Consecutive image frames are stored in tracking buffers from which alignment is performed and absolute differences determined. Object contours are found in the difference image and bounding boxes determined as object masks. The background is then filled from areas outside these object masks to arrive at a static background image.

1. Field of the Technology
This disclosure pertains generally to video processing, and more particularly to extracting a static background image from a non-static image sequence, or video sequence.
2. Background Discussion
This disclosure pertains generally to image or video sequence processing, and more particularly to a background extraction apparatus and method.
Background extraction is a process by which a static background image is created from the frames of a non-static (motion inclusive) video sequence. The resultant extracted background is free from the non-static objects which were contained in the video, while all locations of the background which were obscured by moving objects have been filled.
The use of a background extraction process from an image sequence or sequence of video frames can be important in numerous image and video applications (e.g., post production). However, performing background extraction can be a complex process resulting in a background containing an undesired level of artifacts, visible boundaries, fills, and other distracting shortcomings. And in many cases the software for performing existing background extraction is not well-suited for real-time operation, such as on cameras and mobiles devices.
Accordingly, a need exists for a practical background extraction apparatus and method which is sufficiently simple for real time implementation in various applications, including on cameras and mobile devices.

Method and apparatus for extraction of static scene photo from sequence of images


The battery thermal management system includes a battery pack, a circulation subsystem, and a heat exchanger. The system can optionally include a cooling system, a reservoir, a de-ionization filter, a battery charger, and a controller.

Electric vehicles use battery power to enable vehicle functions, such as propulsion and support systems. Modern battery technology requires careful thermal management during discharge to prevent undesired thermal events from disrupting optimal power delivery and, in some cases, damaging the battery and/or the vehicle itself. Inadequate thermal management of the battery can endanger the vehicle, its occupants, bystanders, and/or the surrounding environment. In addition, it is often desirable to charge the battery in a fast and efficient manner, which must be balanced against the heat generated within the battery by such charging processes. These challenges are compounded in contexts where the electric vehicle system design is subject to stringent constraints on weight, complexity, and/or safety, such as aviation.
Thus, there is a need in the battery technology field to create a new and useful battery thermal management system and method. This invention provides such new and useful systems and methods.

Battery thermal management system and method


The present invention relates to illumination sources. The invention provides a two-part housing including a battery housing component and a lamp housing component, that are adapted to each other. The housing components are sealed, and the illumination source can be controlled by manipulation of the housing components or optionally by pressure on the exterior of the device.

Flashlights are well-known devices that provide a portable source of illumination. Generally, flashlights are comprised of the following components: a housing, a portable power source, one or more light sources, an activation switch, and optionally control circuitry. The basic modes of operation for the common flashlight are a selectable power on state or power off state. Flashlights with unique features or functionality are known in the art. Changes to these devices generally focuses on the particular physical form or characteristic of the housing of the device, but the functionality remains basic. Other functional innovations with the flashlight include, an integrated rechargeable power source (U.S. Pat. No. 6,183,105), an inline rotational activation switch (U.S. Pat. No. 6,168,288 B1), or a dual-mode operation (U.S. Pat. No. 6,709,129), each incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

Compact illumination source with novel actuator


A variable buoyancy buoy and method for deployment therefor can include a fixed buoyancy portion formed with a cavity and an enclosure. A pressure hull containing instrumentation can be place in the cavity, and a variable buoyancy portion that can be inserted into the enclosure. The fixed buoyancy portion can have a spar buoy configuration or a marker buoy configuration, and can further be formed with at least one opening to establish a path of fluid communication between the exterior of the buoy and the enclosure. The variable buoyancy portion can be a compressible bladder, or compressible foam, which can change form a maximum volume at the water surface to a minimum volume as the buoy descends towards stowage depth. The decrease in buoyancy facilitates retrieval of the buoy by an apparatus on the ocean floor.

Moored buoys are well known in the prior art for use in various purposes, including marking navigational hazards, aids to navigation channels, etc. A moored surface buoy must have a relatively high net buoyancy to limit overtopping in higher sea states. In the case of high surface current, the high net buoyancy is needed to prevent the buoy from being drug under by the tension in the mooring.
In some instances, buoys are deployed from a ship. In other instances, it may be desired to deploy a buoy from a stowage configuration that is already underwater. Reasons for such stowage can include preventing (or at least slowing) the growth of marine growths such as kelp on the outer hull of the buoy. For these cases, a buoy could be required to ascend a water column for deployment, and descend in the water column during retraction and re-stowage. During the retraction phase, a large relative force may be required to bring it back down to the stowage structure. By adding a pressure sensitive variable buoyancy, the buoy can have the advantage of relatively large excess buoyancy at the surface, while having a significantly decreased net buoyancy at depth; thus, saving energy during descent.
In view of the above, it is an object of the present invention to provide a variable buoyancy buoy having variable buoyancy, which can be protected inside a flooded area inside the main floatation portion of the buoy. Another object of the present invention is to provide a variable buoyancy buoy that inhibits formation of marine growth on the buoy and maintains a kelp shedding aspect for the buoy. Still another object of the present invention is to provide a variable buoyancy buoy that decrease in buoyancy with increase depth in the water. Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a variable buoyancy buoy that can require decreased power to retract the buoy when the buoy is stowed underwater. Another objective of the present invention is to provide a variable buoyancy buoy, which is easy to manufacture and use in a cost-effective manner.

Variable buoyancy buoy and deployment methods

The United States of America, as Represented by the Secretary of the Navy


A prosthetic limb test fixture is configured to mimic a human stride. An electronic management system can control the test fixture to follow the position and pattern of a particular selected gait cycle during testing. A proposed prosthesis can be attached to the test fixture. Sensor data collected during testing can be evaluated to determine whether the proposed prosthesis is likely to appropriately fit an amputee patient. Iterative adjustments may be made to the prosthesis based on test data in order to maximize the likelihood of a good fit.

The present disclosure relates to the field of therapy for correcting or improving a human stride, and more particularly to correctly fitting prosthetic limbs or braces.
As simple and typical as it may seem, walking is actually a complex motion involving multiple joints. As a person completes one complete stride, from one heel strike to the next heel strike on the same foot, the person's hips, knee, ankle and toe joints move through various planes and angles. Also, each person walks in a manner that is unique to them. A person's gait cycle is a measurement that quantifies such motion during a person's typical stride. Although there are average patterns in gait cycles, each person has a unique gait cycle.
Many people have flawed or irregular gait cycles. Biomechanical abnormalities can be caused by flaws in a person's gait cycle. Sometimes a person's gait cycle can be evaluated and corrected by treatment in order to correct or relieve such abnormalities.
Patients who have had lower limbs amputated or substantial injuries typically experience major alterations in their gait cycles. Many patients will alter their striding motion to compensate for their disability. This modified gait can potentially cause stress and long term damage to other areas of the body.
For amputees, in particular, the process of fitting a prosthesis often relies heavily on the judgment of the technician performing the fitting. Although such technicians can develop substantial skill with experience, they still must substantially rely on subjective judgment rather than empirical data. As such, optimizing the fit of a prosthesis, and particularly a lower-limb prosthesis, can be time-consuming and inexact.

Prosthetic limb fitting apparatus for predicting the effect of a proposed prosthetic limb on able joints


A data linkage system according to one or more embodiments may make it possible to allow data dealt by one system to be dealt by another system. The data linkage system according to one or more embodiments includes: an acquisition unit that acquires a first individual specification data from the one system; and a storage unit that stores a forward conversion rule for converting data having an individual specification to data having a standard specification. The data linkage system further includes a conversion unit that converts, with reference to the forward conversion rule, the first individual specification data to standard specification data, wherein the storage unit stores the converted standard specification data.

The forms of marketplace sites to sell merchandise on the Internet include an online mall including online shops and an EC (Electric Commerce) site that mainly sells its own merchandise on a website operated by itself. The merchandise being sold at the EC site includes attractive merchandise such as local products. However, there is a problem that the merchandise from the EC site does not get increased sales, since the EC site has less chance that the merchandise gets noticed by consumers, than major online malls (for example, NON-PATENT LITERATURE 1). On the other hand, when an operator of the EC site opens a store in the major online mall in an attempt to increase sales chance, costs such as a commission fee are increased rather, which may lead to the red.
Moreover, the consumers may compare online malls and EC sites to purchase certain merchandise. However, interfaces for finding target merchandise vary among online malls and EC sites. For this reason, it takes a lot of effort for the consumers to find the target merchandise from a large number of shops and compare the merchandise.
For example, the inventor of this application has had a hard time comparing ten reservation sites to make a hotel reservation for a business trip. Particularly, most of smaller hotels are not included in major reservation sites and the like, and it is difficult to even reach reservation sites of such smaller hotels. Moreover, there is even no marketplace site presenting merchandise gathered from major merchandise marketplace sites.
In addition, in order to allow data of one site A to be handled by another site B having a different data specification, conventionally, one linkage system for linking data between the sites A and B is needed. In order to further increase the number of sites and link the three sites A, B, and C having different data specifications, three linkage systems are needed, which includes a linkage system between the sites A and B, a linkage system between the sites B and C, and a linkage system between the sites A and C. In order to link an X number of sites whose specifications are different from each other, an X(X−1)/2 number of linkage systems are needed. Thus, it is difficult to link a large number of sites.
Note that many online malls provide affiliate services. The affiliate services may be provided by the companies of the online malls themselves or may be provided by an affiliate service provider (ASP).
In this disclosure, the term "merchandise" also includes providing services.


An apparatus for detecting the presence of liquid in a high pressure gas pipeline (4) is described. The apparatus comprises a sight glass (2), providing a window into the inside of the pipeline, and a light sensor (1), for receiving and sensing reflected light from the inside of the pipeline through the sight glass. The apparatus also comprises a processor, for automatically detecting the presence of a liquid based on the sensed reflected light. In this way, automatic detection of the presence of liquid in a gas pipeline can be achieved based on the measurement of reflected light, which can be expected to differ when liquid is present compared with when no liquid is present. No visual inspection by an operator is required—although the data can be stored for later operator use or verification if necessary.

High pressure gas pipelines are used to transport natural gas. Sometimes, liquid may be present in the gas volume, and may be conveyed along the pipeline along with the gas. Generally, the presence of liquid in a gas pipeline is undesirable, and it is therefore beneficial to be able to detect its presence, and preferably to monitor how much liquid is present in the pipeline (volume) and the flow rate of liquid through the pipeline (volumetric flow rate). The determination of low levels of liquid has been attempted before but poses particular problems for many systems using techniques such as sonic and ultrasonic, microwave, time of flight distance measurement systems and laser triangulation.
Detection of liquids in a pipeline can have complex requirements to characterise both high speed and low speed particles and liquid flows. It follows that a variety of techniques are required to fully characterise the liquid flow when present. For example, optical systems in high pressure gas systems need to have the primary optical component (sight glass or sight glasses) in contact with high pressure in the pipeline. Two problems exist with optical components in gas pipe lines that have been addressed in the Applicant's previous patent applications. In particular, these detail a sight glass with secondary containment, and a triangulation system to determine liquid depth on the pipe wall. While this works well in high pressure vessels and low velocity gas flows in pipelines, when liquid is present in high velocity gas flows, droplets of liquid are picked up by the gas and thrown forward making a laser based triangulation or optical distance measurement system using time of flight system susceptible to high levels of noise as droplets pass through the field of view. The presence of aerosols in the gas flow similarly results in high noise levels.
Some pipeline inspection systems use an imaging system in a pipeline, mounted on pigs or small vehicles to inspect the internal pipe wall for defective welds, corrosion and other defects in the pipe.
Embodiments of the present invention seek to address some of the problems associated with detecting liquid in gas pipelines.

Detecting the presence of liquid in a high pressure gas pipeline


A cluster view method of a database to perform compaction and clustering of database objects, such as database materialized view is shown. The database can comprise a cache to store changes to storage units of tables of the database objects. The cluster view method can implement clustering to remove data based on the cache and clustering to group the data of the materialized view.

Databases are used for data storage and access in computing applications. A goal of database storage is to provide enormous sums of information in an organized manner so that it can be accessed, managed, and updated. In a database, data may be organized into rows, columns, and tables. Maintenance operations can be performed on a database to reduce the size of the database and organize the data for faster database results.

Maintenance of clustered materialized views on a database system


Call setup methods in a multi-domain network and a multi-domain network use dynamic link tagging and/or overbooking of External Network-Network Interface (ENNI) links. Thus, improved call setup systems and methods include two approaches to improve upon the responsiveness of the network for connection setups including bandwidth reservation in optical networks using “dynamic link tags” and link overbooking in optical networks based on a greedy approach. The bandwidth reservation and the link overbooking can be utilized together or separately to improve call setup. Advantageously, the improved call setup systems and methods can provide a generic bandwidth reservation mechanism, such as in Automatically Switched Optical Network (ASON) networks, to overcome the limitation of ENNI in concurrently updating the abstract link bandwidth and thereby improving the responsiveness of the network.

Optical (i.e., transport) networks and the like (e.g., wavelength division multiplexing (WDM), Synchronous Optical Network (SONET), Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH), Optical Transport Network (OTN), Ethernet, and the like) at various layers are deploying control plane systems and methods. Control plane systems and methods provide automatic allocation of network resources in an end-to-end manner. Exemplary control planes may include Automatically Switched Optical Network (ASON) as defined in G.8080/Y.1304, Architecture for the automatically switched optical network (ASON) (February 2005), the contents of which are herein incorporated by reference; Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching (GMPLS) Architecture as defined in Request for Comments (RFC): 3945 (October 2004) and the like, the contents of which are herein incorporated by reference; Optical Signaling and Routing Protocol (OSRP) from Ciena Corporation which is an optical signaling and routing protocol similar to PNNI (Private Network-to-Network Interface) and MPLS; or any other type control plane for controlling network elements at multiple layers, and establishing connections there between. Control plane systems and methods use bandwidth advertisements to notify peer nodes of available link capacity. The bandwidth advertisements exchange information over a dedicated and well known communication channel with peers on opposite ends of the communication link.
External Network-Network Interface (ENNI) is defined in OIF-E-NNI-Sig-02.0 (April 2009) "OIF E-NNI Signaling Specification," the contents of which are herein incorporated by reference. ENNI is used for multiple vendor networks/domains which do not share individual network topology there between. Abstract link information is flooded between various domains that do not carry enough resource information to allow path validation for inter-domain calls. Further the resource information on abstract links is not updated dynamically. Therefore path validation is not comprehensive for inter domain calls. This can lead to call setup on an invalid path and thus to crank-backs (i.e., failed connection setups) which cannot be avoided. Call-setup also takes a significantly higher time to establish/fail. During this, a particular ENNI link acts a bottleneck for the new connections. It allows connections of bandwidth equaling to its link bandwidth and rejects any new connections.
In ENNI networks, the bandwidth for inter-domain connections within a vendor cloud is defined by way of Abstract Links that are not updated dynamically or flooded across the cloud. Since this bandwidth is practically un-reserved and may be occupied by other connections (including internal network-network interface (I-NNI) connections), this may lead to gradual deviation of available bandwidth within a domain without the other domains coming to know, thereby causing transit/terminating calls to crank-back as they enter this domain. Also the number of concurrent in-progress call setups is limited to only the bandwidth available on the ENNI and unable to take advantage of the fact that few of the concurrent calls may fail eventually leading to spare bandwidth. This is accentuated by the delays involved in end-to-end connection establishment in multi-domain multi-hop ENNI networks. All of the above lead to high rate of crank-backs.
There is currently no bandwidth reservation capability in the networks for ENNI-connections on in control planes which does not involve explicit reservation. Also the current available bandwidth between a pair of ENNI endpoints (Abstract link bandwidth) is not updated dynamically to other Routing Controllers (RCs) in the network. Therefore, all the outside calls landing on a domain would have to crank-back if sufficient bandwidth is not available to establish them. At present, call setup in ENNI links can only support, for example, 32 simultaneous (in-progress or established) Optical channel Data Unit-0 (ODU0) calls on an Optical channel Transport Unit-3 (OTU3) ENNI Link. Suppose there are 32 ODU0 calls going on an OTU3 link and a RESV message has not been received back for any of the call. If the transient node gets 33rd call on this link, this call will be rejected due to non-availability of the resources. But the resources are not yet involved in the call and there is a high chance of failure of the currently progressing calls. Thereby, it ends up losing the opportunity of any of the failed calls releasing bandwidth to setup this call.
Conventionally while checking for availability of resources on an outgoing ENNI link, a node blocks those resources so that other calls are not able to use them. This conventional approach has a drawback, e.g. assume that on outgoing link 32 timeslots are available. Now if the 32 calls are being setup simultaneously (assume each call consume one timeslot), thus timeslots start getting blocked. Let's say that at time t=0, a first call came in and t=10, a last 32nd call came in. Since all the resources get blocked, this transit node cannot handle any further call until some of the resources are freed. On a transit node, each call can have different starting and end point. Assume some of destination endpoints rejected the calls and the rejection message reached the transit node at, e.g., t=50. When this rejection message reached the transit node at t=50 this node unblocked some of the resources and can now take up further calls. So essentially between t=10 and t=50 all the resources get blocked for calls even if some of the calls became eventually unsuccessful.
Current approaches do not take into the account high chance of failure of calls in control plane networks, such as ASON. So it does not effectively utilize all the resources. A better approach is needed with respect to utilization of the resources available on ENNI links.

Call setup systems and methods using dynamic link tagging and overbooking of links in multi-domain transport networks


A predetermined inductance element L is connected serially or in parallel with a selfelectrostatic capacitance C.sub.d of a vibrator of a vibration driven motor, a serial resonance or a parallel resonance of the above LC circuit is used, and thereby provides an optimum driving circuit for the vibration driven motor.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a vibration driven motor and, more particularly, to a driving circuit for a vibration driven motor.
2. Related Background Art
In recent years, a vibration driven motor called an ultrasonic motor or a piezo-electric motor has been developed and has been put into practical use by the same applicant as the present invention or the like. As already well-known, the vibration driven motor is a new type motor of the non-electromagnetic driving type which is constructed in a manner such that by applying an alternating voltage to an electro-mechanical energy conversion element such as piezo-electric element, electro-strictive element, or the like, a high frequency vibration is caused in the above element, and a vibration energy is taken out as a continuous mechanical motion. The vibration driven motor is mainly classified as a standing wave type motor or a travelling vibration type motor according to the kind of vibration which occurs in the piezo-electric element or electro-strictive element.
FIG. 5 schematically shows a driving circuit of a conventional vibration driven motor of the travelling vibration type. Reference numeral 1 denotes a vibrator comprising a coupling member of a piezo-electric element or an electro-strictive element and an elastic member; 1a, 1b, 1a', and 1b' indicate driving electrodes for applying an alternating voltage to the piezo-electric element or electro-strictive element; 2 indicates an oscillator to generate the alternating voltage; 3 indicates a phase shifter of 90.degree.; and 4a and 4b indicates amplifiers.
As shown in the diagram, the above motor is a two-phase driven motor and there is no difference between the first and second phases except that the phase of alternating voltage which is applied to each phase is shifted by .+-.90.degree. by the 90.degree.-phase shifter 3. Therefore, only the one-phase portion shown by reference numeral 5 will now be described.
FIG. 6 shows an equivalent circuit of the first phase portion 5. Reference numeral 6 denotes an amplifying section; and 7 denotes an equivalent circuit of the vibration driven motor. The equivalent circuit 7 comprises: an RLC serial circuit (which is constructed by an equivalent resistor 7a of a resistance value R.sub.m, an equivalent coil 7b of a self-inductance L.sub.m, and an equivalent capacitor 7c of an electrostatic capacitance C.sub.m) of the mechanical vibrating portion; and a capacitor 7d of a specific electrostatic capacitance C.sub.d of the vibrator 1 which is connected in parallel with the RLC serial circuit.
However, hitherto, assuming that the alternating voltage which is applied is set to V.sub.i and the voltage across the driving electrodes 1a and 1a' is set to V.sub.O, it is generally necessary to apply a voltage within a range from tens of volts to hundreds of volts to the vibration driven motor. Therefore, a voltage step-up ratio n=.vertline.V.sub.0 /V.sub.i .vertline. exerts a large influence on the characteristics of the motor.
The vibration driven motor increases and controls an amplitude of vibration wave by using the mechanical resonance. For this purpose, an alternating voltage of a frequency near a mechanical resonant frequency ##EQU1## is applied. However, the equivalent circuit constants R.sub.m, L.sub.m, and C.sub.m of the mechanical vibration of the vibration driven motor vary depending on an environmental temperature of the motor, a magnitude of amplitude, or the like. Therefore, in the frequency characteristics of the equivalent circuit shown in FIG. 6, an input electric power and an output power of the motor vary widely. A driving circuit suitable for the above frequency characteristics is needed.

Driving circuit for vibration driven motor


A musical resonator mounting arrangement includes a resonator unit, a support plate, a coupling plate having one end fastened to the support plate and an opposite end connected to an end plate of the resonator unit by a connecting plate, a clamping unit controlled to secure the support plate to a musical instrument, enabling corrugated metal wires of the resonator unit to be retained in contact with the musical instrument, and an adjustment screw fastened to the support plate and the coupling plate at one end and screwed up with an adjustment nut for adjusting the contact pressure between the musical instrument and the corrugated metal wires of the resonator unit.

The present invention relates to a musical resonator mounting structure, and more particularly to such a musical resonator mounting structure which can be conveniently mounted on a musical instrument, and adjusted to keep corrugated metal wires of resonator unit in contact with the musical instrument.
FIGS. 1 and 2 show a musical resonator mounting structure installed in a drum according to the prior art. This musical resonator mounting structure comprises a resonator unit, two holder plates, and an adjustment device. The holder plates are fastened to the drum at two opposite sides. The adjustment device is mounted on one holder plate, comprised of a link and a lever. The resonator unit comprises a first end plate fixedly fastened to one holder plate, a second end plate fastened to the link of the adjustment device, and a plurality of corrugated metal wires connected in parallel between the end plates and arranged at the bottom side of the drum. By means of operating the lever of the adjustment device to lift the link, the corrugated metal wires of the resonator unit are stretched and closely attached to the bottom side of the drum, as shown in FIG. 1, therefore the corrugated metal wires are vibrated when the drum is played by beating. When the lever of the adjustment device is operated to lower the link, the corrugated metal wires of the resonator unit are released and disconnected from the bottom side of the drum, as shown in FIG. 2. This musical resonator mounting structure has drawbacks. Because the length of the corrugated metal wires of the resonator unit is approximately equal to the diameter of the drum, much metal material is used for making the corrugated metal wires. Another drawback of this musical resonator mounting structure is the complicated procedure of processing mounting holes on the frame of the drum for mounting the holder plates. Furthermore, the manufacturing cost of the adjustment device is high, and its installation procedure is complicated.


A system, method, and computer program for identifying evolving regions in a graph of interrelated nodes representing a computer system environment. The method includes generating a series of samples (302) of the environment. Each sample includes a plurality of interrelated nodes (502) and at least one edge (504) classified into a plurality of at least one of node type and edge type, respectively. A summary (900) of the plurality of at least one of node type (502) and edge type (504) is created for the series of samples (302). A summary instance (312) of the summary (900) is created for each sample. At least one summary instance (312) is compared to at least one subsequent summary instance (314) and at least one result (318) is stored in memory (106). A successive behavior is characterized for one or more of the at least one of the node type and the edge type.

Analyzing how an environment of a computer system is evolving is essential to ensure reliable and optimal performance from the system. One way of representing the evolution of the system is by using a visual medium such as a graph. For example, a graph can represent snapshots of live objects such as memory, processor, network, or other system resources in a running computer system. A common challenge when using graphs is identifying subsets of graphs that are growing without bound. These graph subsets may eventually cause the system to crash when it exceeds available system resources, such as memory. This problem is known as a memory leak.
Prior art systems have implemented various techniques to address the above graph evolution analysis problem. However, these techniques cannot be applied in many important runtime environments, for example, Java environments, that have restrictions on data collection and environment analysis. The limitations of the prior art are especially evident when analyzing deployed programs. In this setting, there are certain operations that prior art techniques are restricted from performing and many times the assumptions used by the prior art techniques are invalid.
One common restriction of graph evolution analysis is that snapshots of evolving graphs that are analyzed are taken at widely spaced intervals. For example, when analyzing the memory of Java programs, snapshots are usually taken hours apart. These long intervals ensure that a sufficiently long period of evolution is captured, especially when the evolution is slow or intermittent. Long intervals between snapshots are also important if there are other evolutions occurring concurrently with the problematic one. If the interval is too short, the evolution of interest may be drowned out in the background noise of other evolutions. Another common restriction is that the analysis of the program should be performed while the program is executing in its native environment. When a program is executed in a clean-room setting, reproducing the problems of interest during the program's execution is very difficult or impossible.
These restrictions imply that evolution analysis techniques cannot assume that graph nodes have unique and persistent identities. However, prior art techniques have carried these assumptions. These assumptions are difficult to enforce because they impose a large space and time overhead on the program's execution. Some prior art systems have implemented techniques that only assume, without enforcing, persistent identity. These prior art techniques have none of the overhead, but will produce incorrect results when nodes are renamed, for example, by a garbage collector.
Another problem is that prior art techniques that enforce persistent identity usually require modification of the way a program behaves as it executes. The restrictions discussed above, require that on deployed applications these techniques cannot modify how the program behaves as it executes, especially when executing in its native environment.
Yet, another problem is that programs typically have other concurrent mechanisms that periodically rename graph nodes. So even if snapshots were taken over a short enough interval and the overheads confined to that interval, the overheads of persistent identity still cannot be tolerated. For example, in Java, the garbage collector routinely moves objects around, therefore causing the object's address to periodically change. If the renaming period is shorter than the period from first snapshot acquisition to the last snapshot acquisition, persistent objects names are not yielded. To address these naming issues in Java, the header of each object could be augmented with a 64-bit identifier, or the garbage collector could be augmented to notify the analyzing application when an object is renamed. However, these naming strategies have space, time, and configuration implications that limit their applicability to deployed settings. Furthermore, their impact is not confined to the duration of analysis, e.g. if one adds 64 bits to each object, that impact is felt throughout that execution of the program.
Another problem is that the prior art systems for evolution analysis assume persistent node identity. Some techniques, known, collectively as "snapshot differencing" operate as follows. Two snapshots are taken and aligned by corresponding the nodes in the second snapshot with the nodes in the first snapshot. Then an interactive picture of the difference is drawn. For example, the interactive picture shows that a node previously had outgoing edges pointing to two nodes of a certain color and now the node points to three such colored nodes. These differencing techniques only work if nodes can be aligned and the prior art techniques do so by assuming and sometimes enforcing persistent node identity.
Additionally, some prior art systems, in addition to assuming and enforcing persistent node identity provide mechanisms for removing false positives. However, a critical step in false positive removal does not adhere to the in-production restriction discussed above. The validation mechanism operates by taking the generated patterns and modifying the program so as to keep track of how many times each pattern is matched as the program runs. However, this technique does not adhere to the restrictions discussed above because it modifies the program's normal execution.
Therefore a need exists to overcome the problems with the prior art as discussed above.

Method and system for finding evolving regions in graphs without persistent node identity

International Business Machines Corporation


Scrap aluminum is reclaimed by a salt flux-based reclamation process using potassium chloride in place of the commonly used sodium chloride. The spent flux which remains after the recovery of the aluminum is useful as a soil fertilizer, with the potassium content of the flux serving as a source of potassium nutrient for the soil. The potassium in the spent flux is highly water soluble at all values of pH while the aluminum in the spent flux remains at a limited solubility, particularly under the conditions expected to be encountered in soil. Thus, despite the known phytotoxicity of aluminum and the presence of aluminum in the spent flux, the spent flux is discovered to be useful as a plant fertilizer with the maximum benefit from the potassium and minimal if any harm from the aluminum.

With the continuing and ever-increasing interest in the recycling of materials from consumer and industrial waste, the secondary aluminum industry continues to be viewed as an important and significant means of preserving and obtaining maximum benefit from a valuable natural resource. The secondary aluminum industry uses a variety of methods and technologies to recover usable aluminum metal from various types of aluminum scrap and other aluminum-bearing waste materials.
One such method is the melting of the aluminum in the waste material while the material is in contact with a molten salt flux. The salt is either 100% NaCl or NaCl and up to 60% KCl. The preference for NaCl may be attributed to its lower cost, and the inclusion of KCl is a means of lowering the melting temperature of the flux. In either case, with sufficient agitation and a sufficiently fluid flux, the molten salt wets the impurities in the waste material and in so doing causes the aluminum to separate from both the flux and the impurities originally present in the aluminum. The flux also protects the melted aluminum, preventing it from becoming oxidized in the furnace itself. The separated aluminum forms droplets which coalesce to form a liquid aluminum pool beneath the molten salt, and this pool is readily drawn off as highly pure aluminum suitable for use in aluminum sheet mills, for the preparation of alloys, and all other types of aluminum processing.
The remaining flux together with the impurities retained with it are typically disposed of in landfills or dumps in a manner which conforms with environmental standards. The potential for environmental contamination remains, however, since NaCl may contaminate aquifers and water tables. A further concern is that the number of appropriate disposal sites is diminishing, and the cost of the use of these sites continues to increase.
These and other problems are addressed by the present invention, which provides a modification of the flux in a manner which produces spent flux which is not only safely disposable but also useful in an environmentally acceptable manner.

Potassium fertilizer from aluminum reclamation by-products


A cutting apparatus in one form comprises a base attachable to one surface of a sheet of drywall or the like. An elongate blade assembly is rotatably attached to the base to permit blade assembly rotation along the drywall. A cutting blade is attached to the distal end of the support member to cut into the drywall along a circular profile as the blade assembly is rotated. An advancer interconnects the base and the blade assembly along which the blade is advanced deeper into the drywall sheet as the blade assembly is rotated. The advancer may be a threaded shaft extending from the base onto which the blade assembly is rotatably threaded, so that the progressive advancement is proportional to the rotation of the blade assembly.

Drywall, also known as sheetrock, is widely used in the construction of interior building walls. Drywall is typically comprised of a layer of gypsum sandwiched between two layers of tough cover paper. Sheets of drywall may be permanently fastened directly to a frame comprised of wall studs or other underwall surface structures to provide smooth wall surfaces. In such construction, drywall sheets are commonly positioned over light switches and other electrical fixtures, as well as ventilation ducts in the like with openings provided in the drywall to receive these components.
Access holes are often required in installed drywall for wiring projects, to reach concealed building components (e.g. pipes) and for installation of equipment, such as additional light fixtures or stereo speakers. Moreover, localized damage to drywall often requires that the damaged portion be cut out and patched.
Cutting holes in drywall has been somewhat problematic. Hand-held saws are often used for this purpose, but are undesirable since such saw blades are designed to reciprocate back and forth while extending completely through the drywall. Thus, the saw blade reciprocation may be impeded by underlying wall studs. Moreover, the saw blade may protrude through the drywall and cut into electrical equipment, risking injury to the saw user or damage to the equipment.
To patch holes in drywall, thin metal or plastic patches are often placed in the holes and covered with spackle. Such patched areas tend to lack the structural integrity of unpatched drywall.
A need exists for an improved apparatus and method for cutting holes in sheets of drywall which overcomes these and other disadvantages of the prior art.

Wall surface cutting and repairing apparatus and method


A load balancing in a multiple DRAM system comprises interleaving memory data across two or more memory channels. Access to the memory channels is controlled by memory controllers. Bus masters are coupled to the memory controllers via an interconnect system and memory requests are transmitted from the bus masters to the memory controller. If congestion is detected in a memory channel, congestion signals are generated and transmitted to the bus masters. Memory requests are accordingly withdrawn or rerouted to less congested memory channels based on the congestion signals.

DRAM systems are among the most common and least expensive memory systems used in computers. They are smaller in size, compared to Static Random Access Memory (SRAM) systems, and their small size enables the manufacture of high density DRAM systems. However, conventional DRAM systems are also slower than SRAM, and must be periodically refreshed in order to maintain the data stored in the memory. Hence, one of the significant considerations in controlling DRAM is the speed at which data can be read from or written to the memory.
A common technique to increase the access speed to and from the DRAM is called interleaving. The memory system is divided into two or more memory channels which can be accessed in parallel. Data in contiguously addressed memory locations are distributed among the memory channels such that contiguously addressed data words may be accessed in parallel. A request from the computer's processing unit to access contiguously addressed data words can be performed in parallel by a memory controller in such an interleaved system more rapidly than if these words were stored sequentially in the particular memory channel.
Data can flow across each memory channel independently and in parallel to other memory channels in interleaved memory access schemes. Memory systems may also be designed such that each memory channel is mapped to certain memory addresses and data can be transmitted to/from a memory channel based on the memory address mapping.
Depending on the nature of applications requiring access to the memory system at any given time, the traffic on a particular memory channel may increase drastically. As a result, that memory channel may get choked, stalling further access. For example, if a memory system comprises four memory channels, data in sequentially addressed data words may be distributed such that every fourth data word is allocated to a particular memory channel. If consecutive instructions in a particular application require sequential accesses to every fourth data word in the memory, then all the memory requests are routed to a single memory channel, causing the memory channel to be choked. Other memory channels may be relatively free in this scenario, but their available bandwidth is not effectively utilized. Sometimes exceptions or interrupts may also cause accesses to a particular memory channel to stall.
Load balancing schemes are commonly employed to remap memory addresses assigned to a particular memory channel in order to redistribute and balance the traffic load among different memory channels. In a common load balancing scheme, access patterns are statically generated by reordering a sequence of memory transactions, such that sequential transactions may proceed in parallel through two or more channels.
However, since the conventional approach is static in nature, and relies heavily on the access patterns, real time congestions on memory channels are not effectively handled by conventional load balancing schemes. For example, exceptions or interrupts may unpredictably alter the traffic in a channel. The conventional approach cannot adapt to balancing the load within a given timeframe. Since the traffic among the channels is not distributed efficiently, the available bandwidth in under-utilized channels in a given time frame goes unexploited. There is a need for load balancing techniques which are not encumbered by the limitations in conventional techniques.

Load balancing scheme in multiple channel DRAM systems


A system and method for controlling access to digital content, including streaming media. The system includes a web server, media server and end user processor, such as a personal computer, coupled to a network. The web server cryptographically generates a ticket in response to an end user's request for access to a file. The ticket is based, at least in part, on a time at or near when the ticket is generated. The media server generates an authorization ticket, preferably using the same cryptographic algorithm as the web server. The media server authorization ticket is based, at least in part, on a time at or near when the media server receives the request for access to the file. The media server determines whether to grant access to the file by comparing the ticket, as generated by the web server, to the ticket, as generated by the media server.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to controlling access to digital content and, more particularly, to ticket-based systems and methods for limiting access to streaming media, wherein the ticket is based, in part, on a time component.
2. Description of Related Art
With the advent of the Internet and the World Wide Web, an industry has developed around the delivery of digital content, such as streaming media content. By way of example, streaming media may be used for any of a number of purposes, including entertainment, distance learning and corporate purposes. Entertainment companies stream movies and sporting events, distance learning companies stream educational content, and corporations stream training materials.
With many such uses of streaming media, controlling access to the content is imperative. For example, entertainment companies may charge end users for each viewing of an item of streaming media, referred to in the entertainment vernacular as "pay-per-view." Similarly, distance learning companies charge students for access to on-line educational courses, and thus for access to streaming media. Corporate content is often confidential, and thus also requires controlled access.
Accordingly, systems have been developed to limit access to streaming media. The current industry standard for limiting access to streaming content involves the streaming media server authenticating end users before providing the streaming media content. More specifically, the streaming media server typically includes a software plug-in of compiled code that contains the logic for determining whether or not to grant access to the streaming media. Such an authentication plug-in, however, is often complicated and difficult to develop and maintain. For example, if the need arises to change to logic for granting access to the streaming media content, altering the compiled plug-in on the streaming media server is difficult. Furthermore, with all of the logic residing at the streaming media server, the streaming media server must have direct access to a database or distributed message passing service. Moreover, even in instances where validates a particular end user as being authorized to access the streaming media content, such end user is often able to circumvent the authorization process by sharing its access with unauthorized end users. Such sharing of access may take many forms, including the sharing of usernames and passwords of links to the content. Similar problems exist with systems used for controlling access to other forms of digital content. Accordingly, a need exists for an improved system and method for controlling access to digital content, particularly streaming media content, and authorizing end users.
3. Summary of the Invention
The present inventions solves this and other needs by providing a system and method for controlling access to digital content, such as audio, visual, video, textual and streaming media. One system and method according to the present invention controls access to streaming media and includes a web server, media server and end user processor, such as a personal computer, coupled to a network.
In operation, the web server cryptographically generates a ticket in response to an end user's request for access to a file. The ticket is based, at least in part, on a time at or near when the ticket is generated. In certain embodiments, the ticket is based on additional information, including, for example, a security time interval, or an identifier of the end user.
Prior to a media server providing access to the requested file, the media server generates an authorization ticket, preferably using the same cryptographic algorithm as the web server. The media server authorization ticket is based, at least in part, on a time at or near when the media server receives the request for access to the file. The media server determines whether to grant access to the file by comparing the ticket, as generated by the web server, to the ticket, as generated by the media server.
In one embodiment, if the tickets do not match, then the time at which the web server generated the ticket differs from the time at which the media server generated the ticket by more than a predetermined amount, and the ticket can be logically thought to have "expired." Accordingly, the media server does not grant access to the media content. If the tickets match, then the tickets were generated within an authorized time interval, and the media server grants the end user access to the requested media content.

Method for controlling access to digital content and streaming media


A ladder manufactured with steps that contain a foam rubber cushioning. The hard ladder step is notched out at a one inch depth at the front edge to insert and permanently glue the one and one half inch wide foam rubber cushion, covered in a waterproof fabric, and extending the foam rubber cushion out one half (1/2) inch further than the front edge of the hard step. The cushioned steps are then attached to the ladder frame. The ladder step cushioned with the foam rubber provides a soft edge to lean ones legs against while using the ladder. The foam rubber cushioned step can be built into any style ladder and ladders made of various materials.. The use of a ladder manufactured with this cushioned step would help protect him or her from pain or injury caused from leaning their legs against a ladder step made of a hard substance.

1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to manufacturing ladders with a cushioning material built into the steps to protect the users legs from pain and injury while leaning against the ladder steps.
2. Description of Prior Art
The use of ladders and ladder accessories of a wide variety of designs is known in prior art. The prior art discloses a large number of ladders and accessories. By way of example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,577,574 to Joseph discloses an adjustable stepladder, which could have padded steps to stand on. U.S. Pat. No. 2,518,107 to Wilson discloses a portable shin shield for temporary attachment to existing stepladders, unlike this invention, a non-removable cushion built directly into newly manufactured ladder steps.
In this respect, other ladders and accessories depart from the present invention substantially. Therefore, it can be appreciated that there exists a need for the present invention of new ladders to be built with cushioned step edges to protect the legs while leaning against the steps when using a ladder.


A lithium ion battery cell includes a graphite cathode, and an excess pressure valve. The excess pressure valve is configured to open in the presence of a predetermined battery cell internal pressure and discharging gases that have been produced inside the battery cell. Such gases are discharged together with graphite particles entrained in the gas. The battery cell further includes a capacitance sensor that has at least one capacitor positioned in the battery cell and configured such that the graphite particles that are entrained in the gas that is being discharged deposit themselves at least in part in a gap that is located between two electrodes of the capacitor and cause a change in the dielectric value in the gap. The change in the dielectric value causes a change in a capacitance of the capacitor.

It is possible as a result of a defect for gas to be produced in lithium ion battery cells. As a consequence, an excess pressure arises inside the lithium ion battery cells. In the presence of a defined pressure inside a battery cell of this type, an excess pressure valve opens in order to discharge the gases and to avoid the battery cell becoming thermally unstable. During this process, graphite dust that is released from the graphite cathode of a battery cell of this type is also discharged and deposits itself on the surface of the battery cell.
It is known from the prior art to use capacitance sensors for many purposes such as by way of example for ascertaining spacings, pressures, fill levels or moisture contents. Capacitance sensors function on the basis of the change in the capacitance of an individual capacitor or of an entire capacitor system. The capacitance can be influenced in numerous ways that mostly arise as a result of the selected application.

Lithium ion battery cell having a capacitance sensor and method for monitoring the condition of a lithium ion battery cell of this type


A method for passing messages in a parallel computer system constructed as a plurality of compute nodes interconnected as a network where each compute node includes a DMA engine but includes only a limited number of byte counters for tracking a number of bytes that are sent or received by the DMA engine, where the byte counters may be used in shared counter or exclusive counter modes of operation. The method includes using rendezvous protocol, a source compute node deterministically sending a request to send (RTS) message with a single RTS descriptor using an exclusive injection counter to track both the RTS message and message data to be sent in association with the RTS message, to a destination compute node such that the RTS descriptor indicates to the destination compute node that the message data will be adaptively routed to the destination node. Using one DMA FIFO at the source compute node, the RTS descriptors are maintained for rendezvous messages destined for the destination compute node to ensure proper message data ordering thereat. Using a reception counter at a DMA engine, the destination compute node tracks reception of the RTS and associated message data and sends a clear to send (CTS) message to the source node in a rendezvous protocol form of a remote get to accept the RTS message and message data and processing the remote get (CTS) by the source compute node DMA engine to provide the message data to be sent.

The invention relates broadly to message passing in parallel computer systems using direct memory access (DMA) engines, and more particularly relates to a DMA engine for implementing a rendezvous protocol through use of a limited number of DMA reception and injection byte counters to support a large number of outstanding messages by sharing, a method for message passing in a parallel computer system including DMAs at local compute nodes comprising the system constructed with a limited number of injection and reception byte counters, and parallel computer system including such DMAs or DMA engine.
Parallel computer systems include multiple processors, or multiple compute nodes comprising processors, which run threads or local instances of global applications to accomplish tasks or processes, e.g., BlueGene/P ultrascalable Petaflop Parallel Supercomputer, by IBM Corporation. The local application or thread carries out the message passing to complete designated, node-specific portions of the task or process. At the compute nodes, "events" are generated each time a message is received, and are processed according to compute node's inherent event processing algorithm. To ensure proper communication between various compute nodes comprising a parallel computer system, a standard known as message passing interface (MPI) has developed. MPI is the industry-standard message passing interface.
An MPI program consists of autonomous processes, executing their own code, which need not be identical. Typically, each process or application communicates via calls to MPI communication primitives, where each process executes in its own and shared memory. Such message passing allows the local processors comprising the compute node, and applications running thereon (a thread or instance of the global application or process) to cooperate with each other. Generally speaking, an MPI is an interface designed to allow a user to code data such that the local processors at the compute nodes comprising the network are able to send and receive data and information to coordinate the disposition of the global application or process. MPI is available on a wide variety of platforms ranging from massively parallel systems (IBM, Cray, Intel Paragon, etc.) to networks of workstations.
The use of Direct Memory Address (DMA) technology provides for reducing CPU (processor) workload in the management of memory operations required for messaging in any computer system, and are particularly relied on in large parallel computer systems. DMA, or DMA engines, work in conjunction with the local application or thread implementing the MPI application. Workload that would normally have to be processed by a CPU at a compute node is instead handled by the DMA engine. The use of DMA technology in large parallel computer systems is limited somewhat by such system's inherent the need for tight hardware control and coordination of memory and message-passing operations. That is, required tight coupling between memory operations and CPU operations poses some challenges, including the need for a sending side compute node (a source compute node originating a message to be passed to another or multiple other compute nodes) to have awareness of the receiver node's remote address spaces, multiple protection domains, locked down memory requirements (also called pinning), notification, striping, recovery models, etc.
In parallel computer, such as the BlueGene/P, a "Rendezvous" protocol is often used to send long messages between compute nodes. Following the Rendezvous protocol, a source compute node (a thread or instance of the global application running on the sending side) sends a long message by first passing a request to send (RTS) packet to the target compute node. The RTS contains information or data identifying the source compute node and the message being. sent, e.g., number of total bytes. The target compute node replies to the RTS by generating and sending a "CTS (clear to send)" packet, assuming the target compute node is able to receive. The CTS includes information or data describing the target compute node (destination side) in order to receive the entire message. Finally, the source compute node sends self-describing "data" packets to the Target node, which can arrive in any order. The packet transfer continues until the entire message has been sent. RTS packet transfers, or message transfers following the Rendezvous protocol, are ordered with respect to the transfer of other messages out of a compute node, or into a compute node, e.g., with respect to other rendezvous or eager messages.
As mentioned above, computer systems and in particular parallel computer systems such as BlueGene/P utilize DMA engines to asynchronously move data (e.g., message passing) between in-node memory and the communications network (other compute nodes). DMA engines operate under a set of constructs used by message passing libraries (as in MPI) to set up and monitor completion of DMA data transfers. In large parallel computer systems such as BlueGene/P, DMAs may be fabricated within or integrated into the same ASIC comprising the node's processors. As such, size is a consideration and therefore such DMAs often have finite resources, for example, byte counters to tracks the number of bytes sent or received in a DMA transfer, which must be managed wisely to maximize the exchange of the many messages (at the compute node comprising the DMA channel). In peak performance applications, many messages might be regularly outstanding that must be managed by the DMA engine before data transfers.
Message passing libraries used for DMA message transfer in parallel computer systems inefficiently implement known rendezvous protocol for some applications. Before the instant invention, it has been unknown for conventional parallel computer systems to operate with DMA engines that have inherently limited numbers of byte counters and other registers because of size constraints. Until the recent development of IBM's BlueGene/P ultrascalable Petaflop Parallel Supercomputer, which includes compute nodes with DMA engines integrated within a single ASIC core (and therefore a limited number of byte counters), efficiency utilizing such a limited number of byte counters was not a priority for computer designers. Hence, other versions of the rendezvous protocol to provide for a DMA engine's efficient management of a limited number of counters are unknown, and would be desirable for use in a supercomputer such as BlueGene/P.
What would be desirable in the field of parallel computer systems and their design, and in particular in parallel computer systems including DMA engines constructed to operate with limited byte counter resources, is a DMA engine capable of supporting a large number of outstanding messages and detection of message completion in a parallel multi-computer system in which there is a DMA engine.

Message passing with a limited number of DMA byte counters


A sawing machine includes a workbench, a band saw pivotally installed on the workbench, a weight movable between an idle position on the workbench and a working position on the band saw and an adjustable torque provider for providing an adjustable torque to the band saw. The adjustable torque is set to a maximum when the weight is in the idle position in order to lift the band saw from the workbench. The adjustable torque is set to a minimum when the weight is in the working position in order to lower the band saw toward the workbench.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a sawing machine based on a band saw and, more particularly, to a device for retaining such a sawing machine in a sawing position.
2. Related Prior Art
There are many sawing machines based on band saws. In such a sawing machine, a band saw is pivotally installed on a workbench and is moved automatically relative to the workbench. Normally, the band saw is lifted from the workbench automatically. Hence, workpiece can be put on the workbench under the band saw. While sawing, a user presses the band saw to the workpiece. Some workpieces are thin, while others are thick. Some workpieces are hollow, while others are solid. In some cases, it takes only a while to saw a workpiece. However, in other cases, it takes quite some time to saw a workpiece. In this case, it is exhausting for the user to keep on pressing the band saw downwardly toward the workbench. Moreover, it is difficult for the user to press the band saw in a consistent manner. Sometimes, the user might press the band saw against the workpiece with too much force or too little force. The user might damage the band saw by pressing the band saw too hard against the workpiece. Pressing too gently, the user might spend too much time on the task. In addition, it is a waste of time, since the user can do almost nothing else while pressing the band saw.
The present invention is therefore intended to obviate or at least alleviate the problems encountered in the prior art.


An internal memory has an address book table for registering data regarding a communication destination party, a telephone number, and a country flag indicative of a country where the communication destination party is present, in a manner that they are shown corresponding to one another. A calling processor compares a country flag attached to a communication destination party selected using a memory dial function, and information obtained from an RF module regarding a country where the communication circuit can be established. When the flag information and the information from the Rf module coincide, the calling processor determines that the ongoing call is a domestic call, and thus dials the telephone number as registered in the address book table and, when they do not coincide, the calling processor determines that the ongoing call is an international call, and thus dials international access and country codes prior to the telephone number registered in the address book table. Using a portable communication device having the above arrangement, the user can automatically place a call to a party in or out of the country where the user is present even when the destination party information for each communication destination candidate party is registered only in a single formation.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a portable communication device, and particularly to a device employing an automatic calling method for calling in which the user making a call using a memory dial function need not be concerned as to whether the call is a domestic or international call, and the automatic calling method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Communication devices, such as portable telephone devices and portable information terminals having a telephone communication function, generally have a memory dial function. A memory dial function is a function for storing and retrieving a name and telephone number of a communication destination party from an internal memory, which is referred to as an electronic telephone book or an address book, to allow the user making a call using a memory dial function to complete a call by merely selecting the name of a party he wishes to call from the name list shown on the LCD of a portable telephone device. The user does not need to actually dial the number.
Here, since there is no uniform communication format usable for worldwide radio telephone systems, a portable telephone device for use, for example, in Japan may not be used as is in the United States, where a different communication format is adopted. However, telephone devices employing an exchangeable RF (radio frequency) module for attachment to the device body have recently been considered. The body of such a telephone device for use, for example, in Japan can also be used in the U.S. by simply exchanging of its RF module with the one for use in the U.S. Also integrated portable telephone devices incorporating a plurality of radio technologies are now available. In addition, it is expected that portable telephone devices usable in two or more countries will be realized when W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) and other global standard formats for next generation portable telephone devices are put into a practicable use.
When the main body of a certain telephone device becomes usable in two or more countries, address data stored in the internal memory of the device body will be usable in Japan and in other countries.
However, for a portable telephone device having an exchangeable RF module, even if the body of a portable telephone device for use, for example, in Japan is usable in the U.S. after RF modules of, are exchanged, the exchanging is not enough to make the memory dial function of the device effectively usable in the U.S. That is, it is generally the case that a telephone number registered in the address book of a portable telephone device for use in Japan is the sequence required to make a call from one party in Japan to another party (Mr. A) in Japan (i.e., a number generally beginning with "0"). Therefore, conventionally, a person in the U.S. cannot make a call to Mr. A in Japan using a memory dial function of that portable telephone device because the registered telephone number for establishing a domestic telephone circuit connection with a party in the same country where the user is present does not include the digits necessary for making an international call, i.e., an international access code for specifying an international telephone company and a country code of the communication destination party. Therefore, dialing a telephone number registered in the internal memory does not achieve a telephone call from a party in the U.S. to a party in Japan. In light of this, an unfulfilled desire for users is the ability to make a call using a memory dial function without having to concern themselves as to whether the dialed party is then in them same country where the user is then present.
It is also highly desired that a user be able to use a memory dial function without concern as to whether or not a communication destination party is in or out of the country where the user is then present, particularly as it is expected that it will soon be possible to place domestic and internationals calls from anywhere in the world using the same portable telephone device due to improvement of portable telephone devices and adoption of uniform global radio telephone communication standards.

Portable communication device for domestic and international communications and automatic calling method for domestic and international calls


An interactive method and apparatus are disclosed through which a fluid purification system operator inputs the system's parameters and the method then identifies one or more fluid purification equipment packages which will be optimized at the component level to the operator's specific requirements. The invention includes a relational database containing data on fluid purification equipment, the components thereof and ancillary equipment, and associated operational software to which the operator gains access through a computer and which then presents to the operator a series of questions relevant to gas purification equipment and system requirements. The questions are such that the responses elicited from the operator for each question determine what the successive questions will be and what optimal components will be identified. The software and databases may be in memory on the computer, embodied on CDs or DVDs run by the computer, or accessed through the Internet.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention herein relates to equipment used for fluid (i.e., gas, liquid or mixed gas and liquid) purification. More specifically it relates to methods for identifying such equipment which is optimal for use in an particular fluid purification system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are many processes in industry which involve fluid purification. These include processes in which reactant materials are deposited from fluid streams and processes in which fluids are used to remove impurities from surfaces of materials. The degree of purity which is necessary for a particular fluid stream will depend upon the use to which the fluid stream is to be put, but in many cases it is necessary to purify the fluid to a level at which the contaminant concentration in the fluid is at the parts per million (ppm) or parts per billion (ppb) level.
There are numerous types of fluid purification equipment available in the marketplace. However, notwithstanding the different types of equipment available, operators of fluid purification processes often find that the selection of available commercial "off the shelf" devices does not provide a device which is particularly suitable for the unique nature of an operator's particular process. Consequently in the past operators of fluid purification processes have often been faced with the choice of using a market-priced, commercial piece of equipment which may be acceptable but is not ideal for the process or of having to have an expensive custom piece of equipment designed specifically for the process.
Those prior art pieces of equipment were originally available for selection through catalogs. The process operator examined catalogs from several vendors and selected the piece of commercial equipment that came closest to what would be useful in the his or her process. The vendor's sales personnel might be available to assist with the operator's selection, but the end result was still selection of a standard piece of equipment, with little or no accommodation to the operator's particular process. With the advent of the Internet, vendors have in effect been able to put their catalogs online, so that operator using the Internet can select an available piece of fluid purification equipment at the price that the operator is willing to pay. The Internet has also allowed vendors to replace the indexing system of typical catalog with a data input system which allows the operator to enter representative parameters of his or her process and then the vendor's software identifies the closest commercial product available from that vendor. Such systems, however, whether in printed catalogs or on the Internet are still at the level of end products. The operator must therefore determine which properties of the end product he or she is willing to compromise on to obtain other components which are closer to optimal for the process of interest. An operator who is faced with only a limited number of available commercial products may have no choice but to accept equipment with, for instance, poor corrosion resistance in order to obtain, for instance, the desired range of fluid flow rates through the equipment. This is a result of the lack of prior art methods and software which would allow an operator specify or obtain a device which would be optimum for the particular fluid purification process in question on a component-by-component basis.
Another current problem for operators is that effectively they can only access information and order equipment during the regular working day, since they must normally interact directly with vendors' personnel to obtain quotes, discuss product selection, etc. Even where the operator has a vendor's catalogue, they can do little more than get a preliminary idea of what they might need from the catalogue, and must still work directly with the vendor's personnel to develop the full equipment and cost package. This is a particular problem if a vendor is located in a different time zone from the operator. Of course this also means that vendors must maintain substantial staffs of personnel to work with the operators to develop such packages, since the catalogues alone do not enable operators to determine for themselves what equipment is appropriate for their systems, and the catalogues certainly do not allow an operator to custom design a system specifically to meet his or her needs.
It would therefore the advantageous if a method were available through which a fluid purification process operator could specify in detail the applicable parameters of his or her process and which would then result in specification of components which when assembled would be specifically adapted to be used in the operator's process in an optimal manner. It would also be advantageous for that system to be fully available to an operator at all times.

Method of identifying fluid purification equipment which is optimized for individual fluid purification systems


Methods, systems, and computing platforms for mobile data communication are disclosed. Processor(s) may be configured to electronically receive a plurality of user mobile interaction data and storing the user mobile interaction data in a computer readable database over a threshold period of interaction time for a mobile device. The processor(s) may be configured to electronically process the user mobile interaction data with a machine learning controller based on a set of machine learning training data including predefined user activity data so as to output at least one most probable time vector. The processor(s) may be configured to electronically output the at least one most probable time vector to a notification processing module.

In the internet-of-things era, many digital products can be connected to the internet. Enterprise organizations utilize various computing infrastructure to make decisions and trigger actions. The computing infrastructure may include computer servers, computer networks, and sensors. Such an environment may include the Internet of Things (IoT). Often time, an IoT environment generates a plethora of raw data that can overwhelm an enterprise organization. As the digital economy continues to develop, cybersecurity has become a formidable task in the internet-of-things era.

Method and system for mobile data communication


A punch tool includes a casing; a plurality of small-diameter punches vertically movable and circularly arranged in the casing; a plurality of large-diameter punches vertically movable and circularly arranged in the casing; a punch driver provided to be vertically movable and relatively rotatable on an upper portion of the casing; and a striker provided on the punch driver to be capable of striking the respective punches. Stripper springs corresponding to the respective small-diameter punches are provided. Since the respective large-diameter punches are arranged between the small-diameter punches, the stripper springs for the small-diameter punches on both sides of the large-diameter punch serve as stripper springs of the large-diameter punch.

A punch tool including a plurality of punches circularly arranged has a configuration in which a plurality of punches are circularly arranged in a casing attachable to and detachable from a rotating holder mounted on a punch holder rotatably in a punch press, and a striker capable of freely striking each punch is provided to be vertically movable in the upper portion of the casing. An example of a corresponding prior technique is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H8-155561.
In a configuration described in the above patent publication, a plurality of punches are supported to be vertically movable in a punch mounting portion in the casing, and a head portion of each punch is engaged with a peripheral groove having a cross-sectional shape of a T-shape formed on a striking plate corresponding to the striker. When punching work is performed on a workpiece by each punch, a stripping force for drawing the punch from the workpiece acts on a central portion of the striking plate.
Therefore, when the punch is drawn out of the workpiece, an unbalanced load acts on the punch and a bending moment acts thereon, which can cause a jamming phenomenon on a slide guiding portion, such as a sliding portion of the punch or the striking plate. In the configuration of the Patent Document 1, an elastic member is arranged opposite to the center of the lower face of the striking plate. Therefore, a problem arises that it is difficult to doubly arrange a plurality of punches along an inside circle and an outside circle, so that it is difficult to arrange more punches.
The present invention has been achieved to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a punch tool where an unbalanced load does not act when a punch is drawn out of a workpiece after punching work, and more punches can be arranged.


An image formation apparatus for forming a three dimensional print image on a recording medium by an image of three dimensional printing material and an image of color material in accordance with image data, comprises a designation unit for designating a three dimensional print region using three dimensional printing material and a non-three dimensional print region, with regard to the image data; and an image processing unit for performing different color conversions on the image data depending on the three dimensional print region and the non-three dimensional print region designated by the designation unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image formation apparatus such as printer and copier and an image formation method for forming a three dimensional (3D) image by applying an electrophotograph method or an electrostatic recording method and using foaming toner. More specifically, the present invention relates to an image formation apparatus and an image formation method which have a color conversion function to realize identical coloration of image formed with an ordinary color image formation method and a 3D image formation method that forms color image on foaming toner.
2. Description of Related Arts
Typically, conventional image formation apparatuses such as printers and copiers using an electrophotograph method or an electrostatic recording method have been formed a monochrome or full-color image such as character, graphic image and photograph on a plane recording medium such as recording paper, to allow the image formed on the recording medium to be visually recognized for the transmission of desired data.
If, on the other hand, image data could be represented three dimensionally, reality for the image is enhanced, in addition to the possibility to use additional sense-tactile-.
As techniques of three dimensionally printing an image such as Braille characters and topographical maps by electrophotograph method, the techniques disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid Open No. 2000-131875 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-134006 are known.
These publications describe image formation methods in which 3D images are formed during, for example, electrophotograph recording process by placing a toner image containing color materials of predetermined colors on a foaming toner image, foaming the foaming toner image by the heat generated in fixation process, and melting and adhering the toner image of each color on the forming toner-made image.
On the other hand, in an ordinary color image formation, toner of predetermined colors is placed on a recording medium, the toner is melt and adhered onto the recording medium directly according to the image data and fixing a mixture of color toners of multiple colors as a color image.
FIGS. 10A and 10B are schematic sectional views, respectively, illustrating a color image (ordinary print image) formed on a recording medium by an ordinary image formation method, and a 3D color image (3D print image) formed on recording medium by fixing toners of each color on a foaming toner, using a conventional image formation apparatus.
The ordinary print image shown in FIG. 10A is fixed on a plane recording paper and thus generates less scattered reflection (shown by the arrow of solid line) while the 3D print image shown in FIG. 10B tends to generate an increased diffusion of reflection (shown by the arrow of solid line) due to convexo-concave portions of a color image made of ordinary toners that is formed by foaming the foaming toners on the recording paper.
The above difference has caused a problem in which even the ordinary print image and the 3D print image have been created with the same color data, they produce visually-different coloration, thereby causing deteriorated image quality of a resulted print.

Image formation apparatus and image formation method


A proximity sensor and proximity sensing method using a change in light quantity of a reflected light are disclosed. The proximity sensor may include a quantity change detection unit which detects a change in a quantity of reflected light which is output light which has been reflected by an object, where an intensity of the output light changes, and a proximity determination unit which determines a proximity of the object to the quantity change detection unit based on a change in the intensity of the output light and the detected change in the quantity of the reflected light.

1. Field
The following description relates to a proximity sensor and a proximity sensing method using a quantity change of a reflected light, and more particularly, to a proximity sensor and a proximity sensing method that determine proximity of an object by a quantity change detection unit using a light source that varies an intensity of an output light.
2. Description of the Related Art
A technology has been developed for recognizing motions of a user by detecting a change in light quantity which varies according to the motions of a user.
Since this technology detects the change in light quantity without measuring a value of the light quantity, when the user is not moving, a distance between the user and a sensor cannot be measured.
A proximity sensor determines the proximity of a user by measuring a distance with respect to the user. Therefore, a proximity sensor does not recognize motions of the user.
Accordingly, there is a demand for a sensor capable of recognizing motions of a user while also determining the proximity of the user who is not moving.

Proximity sensor and proximity sensing method using light quantity of reflection light


A single phase induction motor comprises: a stator installed at an inner circumferential surface of a motor body, the stator on which a plurality of coils are wound; a rotor rotatably installed at a center portion of the stator and provided with a rotation shaft at a center thereof; and a magnet unit freely and rotatably installed between the stator and the rotor with an air gap.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a motor, and more particularly, to a single phase induction motor capable of reducing a consumption electric power and reducing noise by installing a magnet unit in a body of an induction motor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, an induction motor is an alternating current having no commutator, and one of a rotor and a stator is connected to a power and the other is operated by induction.
FIG. 1 is a longitudinal section view showing an inner part of a single phase induction motor in accordance with the conventional art, and FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along line A-A′ of FIG. 1.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the conventional single phase induction motor comprises: a motor body 1 serving as a casing; a stator 2 arranged along an inner circumferential surface of the body 1; an AC squirrel cage rotor 3 rotatably arranged at a center portion of the stator 2; and a rotation shaft 4 around which the rotor 3 is rotated. Herein, the rotor 3 is constructed to always maintain a constant interval with the stator 2.
Between the rotation shaft 4 and the motor body 1, a rotation shaft bearing 4a is installed so that the rotation shaft 4 can not be influenced by the motor body 1.
The stator 2 is formed of a plurality of laminated silicon steel sheets, and is provided with a plurality of coil winding protrusions 5 at an inner circumferential surface thereof. A plurality of slots 6 are formed with a constant interval between the coil winding protrusions 5, and a coil 7 is wound on said each coil winding protrusion 5.
The rotor 3 is also formed of a plurality of laminated silicon steel sheets, and is provided with conductor bar holes 8 in the laminated sheets at a constant interval. Conductor bars 9 formed of Aluminum are inserted into the conductor bar holes 8, and end rings 10 are connected to upper and lower end portions of the conductor bars 9.
Operations of the conventional induction motor will be explained as follows.
If a power is applied to the coil 10, a rotating magnetic field is generated by a current of the coil 10 and an induced current is generated at the conductor bars 9.
By an interaction between the generated rotating magnetic field and the induced current, a rotation torque is generated at the rotor 3 and the rotation torque is outputted through the rotation shaft 4.
However, in the conventional induction motor, both a current for generating the rotating magnetic field and an induced current generated from the rotor are supplied through a coil connected to an external power source. At this time, by a primary copper loss generated from the stator coil and a secondary copper loss generated from the conductor bars of the rotor, loss of current is increased and thereby efficiency of the motor is decreased.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A Channel estimating apparatus and method for use in a broadband wireless communication system are provided. The receiving method includes determining a control unit for a channel estimation using burst allocation information of selected sectors; extracting pilot symbols from received data based on the control unit; and acquiring a channel estimate value for each transmission unit by performing a Joint Channel Estimation (JCE) with the extracted pilot symbols that are based on the control unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a receiver and a receiving method for use in a wireless communication system. More particularly, the present invention relates to a channel estimating apparatus and method which takes into account neighbor sector or cell interference in a broadband multiple access wireless communication system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Communication systems were originally developed to provide voice services. Now, communication systems are being developed to provide packet data services and various multimedia services as well as voice services. An exemplary system capable of providing wireless packet data services is a third generation (3G) mobile communication system. The 3G mobile communication system provides various high speed multimedia services. The 3G mobile communication system distinguishes users using a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) scheme. The CDMA scheme distinguishes channels by allocating different orthogonal codes to users or to data transmitted to users.
However, the 3G mobile communication system fails to provide high speed data with high quality because of a lack of available codes. In other words, since the amount of usable codes are restricted, transmission rates are limited. To address this problem, researches and developers of mobile communication systems are considering a next-generation communication system which is referred to as the fourth generation (4G) broadband wireless communication system. The broadband wireless communication system is able to classify and transmit users or data to be sent, using an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) scheme. The 4G wireless communication system features a high transmission rate of up to 100 Mbps. Furthermore, unlike the 3G system, the 4G system can provide services having various level of Quality of Service (QoS).
Currently, the 4 G communication system is being developed to guarantee mobility and QoS in a Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) communication system such as wireless Local Area Network (LAN) system and wireless Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) system. Exemplary communication systems include the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.16d communication system and the IEEE 802.16e communication system. However, various other systems using the OFDMA scheme are under development.
As discussed above, the broadband wireless communication system adopts the OFDMA scheme, ensures mobility, and utilizes the same frequency in every cell to increase frequency efficiency.
FIG. 1 is a simplified diagram of a conventional BWA system implemented with multiple cells.
In FIG. 1, Base Station (BS) 0, BS 1, and BS 2 are each communicating within their respective cells 100, 101 and 102 using the same frequency. In this situation, the multicell system has a frequency reutilization of '1,' thereby increasing its frequency efficiency. However, by using the same frequency in adjacent cells, the resulting inter-cell or inter-sector interference may impair the performance of the system.
For example, in view of a Mobile Station (MS) 103 communicating with BS 0, a transmit signal of an MS 104 communicating with BS 1 of the neighboring cell and a transmit signal of an MS 105 communicating with BS 2 of the neighboring cell acts as interference signals to BS 0. In other words, BS 0 receives the interference signals 107 and 108 in addition to the received signal 106 from MS 103 in its cell. The interference signals of the neighboring cells affects the signal of MS 103 in the corresponding cell and thus deteriorates demodulation performance.
Therefore, a need exists for an apparatus and method for canceling interference caused by neighboring cells in a multicell system.