A force feedback interface device including a safety feature. The interface device includes a sensor that senses the position of a user object along a degree of freedom and provides a sensor signal indicating the position of the user object to a host computer. An actuator of the device applies a force to the user object in the degree of freedom. A safety switch connected to the user object disables the actuator when the user is not using the interface device and enables the actuator when more than a predetermined amount of weight is placed on the user object.

The present invention relates generally to interface devices between humans and computers, and more particularly to computer interface devices that provide force feedback to the user.
Computer systems are used extensively in many different industries to implement computer controlled simulations, games, and other application programs. More particularly, these types of games and simulations are very popular with the mass market of home consumers. A computer system typically displays a visual environment to a user on a display screen or other visual output device. Users can interact with the displayed environment to play a game, experience a simulation or "virtual reality" environment, or otherwise influence events or images depicted on the screen. Such user interaction can be implemented through the use of a human-computer interface device, such as ajoystick, "joypad" button controller, mouse, trackball, stylus and tablet, foot or hand pedals, or the like, that is connected to the computer system controlling the displayed environment. The computer updates the game or simulation in response to the user's manipulation of a moved object such as ajoystick handle or mouse, and provides feedback to the user utilizing the display screen and, typically, audio speakers.
In some interface devices, haptic (e.g., tactile) feedback is also provided to the user, more generally known as "force feedback." These types of interface devices can provide physical sensations to the user manipulating the physical object of the interface device. Typically, motors or other actuators are coupled to the interface object and are connected to the controlling computer system. The computer system receives sensor signals from the interface device and sends appropriate force feedback control signals to the actuators of the interface device in conjunction with simulation/game events. The actuators then provide forces on the interface object. The computer system can thus convey physical sensations to the user in conjunction with other visual and auditory feedback as the user is grasping or contacting the object of the interface device. Force feedback interface devices can provide a whole new modality for human-computer interaction.
Force feedback input/output (I/O) devices of the prior art have concentrated on providing maximum haptic fidelity, i.e., the realism of the haptic feedback was desired to be optimized. This is because most of the force feedback devices have been targeted at the specific needs of highly industrial or scientific applications, and not a mass consumer market. To attain such realism, design concerns useful the mass market such as low size and weight, low complexity, programming compatibility, low cost, and safety have been sacrificed in the prior art. As a result, typical force feedback interface devices include complex robotic mechanisms which require precise, bulky, and expensive components that have significant power requirements and are difficult to program for applications.
In addition, the prior art force feedback devices typically use a host computer to close a control loop around the system to generate sensations and maintain safety and stability through direct host control. FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a control system 2 having a typical host controlled loop. A user manipulated object 3, such as a joystick or similar object, is moved by a user to interface with a host computer 4 with a display device 5. Sensors 6 detect the position of the user object in provided degrees of freedom and may also include buttons or other controls that detect user actions such as the press of a button. The sensor data including positional and button data is sent to host computer 4 over a bi-directional communication bus 7 that is typically connected to an interface card plugged into the host computer. To complete the control loop, host computer 4 sends force commands over bus 7 to actuators 8, and the actuators output forces on the object 3 to the user. The functions of reading sensor data and outputting force values to actuators 7 can be a burden on the host processor which detracts from the performance of the host in other host tasks and application execution.
An important concern for a force feedback interface device is communication bandwidth between the controlling computer and the interface device. To provide realistic force feedback, the complex devices of the prior art typically use high speed communication electronics that allow the controlling computer to quickly send and update force feedback signals to the interface device. The more quickly the controlling computer can send and receive signals to and from the interface device, the more accurately and realistically the desired forces can be applied on the interface object. In addition, using a high bandwidth communication interface, force feedback can be accurately coordinated with other supplied feedback, such as images on the video screen, and with user inputs such as movement of the object, activated buttons, etc.
A problem is evident when prior art force feedback interface devices are provided to the mass consumer market. Most home computers have a built-in standard serial communication interfaces, such as an RS-232 interface, RS-422 interface, "game port", Universal Serial Bus interface, or Ethernet interface that may conveniently be used to connect peripherals like a force feedback interface device to the host computer. In addition, manufacturers prefer to provide peripheral devices that use these serial interfaces, since no additional hardware, such as interface cards, needs to be provided with such peripherals. The manufacturing cost of the peripheral device can thus be significantly reduced. However, these standard serial communication interfaces are typically quite slow (i.e. have low bandwidth) compared to other communication interfaces. Realistic and accurate force feedback thus becomes difficult to provide by a controlling computer system to a prior art interface device connected through such a serial interface in comparison with other interfaces such as a direct interface card (e.g., ISA or PCI card) connecting to the data bus of the host computer.
Another important concern in the mass market industry is the issue of user safety. Because a force feedback device can impart physical forces upon the user, the potential for injury must be carefully addressed. To provide a safety measure for the user, the force feedback devices of the prior art typically include a safety or "deadman" switch which the user must activate to allow forces to be applied to the user manipulable object. If the user does not close the switch, no forces can be output. The safety switches of the prior art are typically a button or a pedal which the user must continually press or hold down to allow power to be received by the actuators. However, such safety switches can be cumbersome and/or tiring for the user to close, since the user must constantly maintain a particular grip or position to feel forces. In addition, these types of safety switches are easy to defeat by users; for example, an elastic band can be wrapped around a safety button to keep the button depressed, which defeats the entire safety purpose of the safety switch.
Finally, mass market force feedback interface devices must necessarily be low cost devices that are simple to manufacture so that the device is competitively priced in the high volume, aggressive home computer and home video game markets.

Force feedback device with safety feature


A two loop heat conversion system for high heat density planar devices in which high density heat in an area adjacent to a surface is transferred into a liquid cooling medium closed loop in a radiated heat to liquid heat transfer component positioned in contact with the surface that is connected, to a liquid to gas medium, heat exchanger in a first loop and a gas medium second loop is arranged to carry away all radiated heat from the assembly and all heat extracted from the liquid in the liquid to gas heat exchanger and exhaust it to the ambient. The radiated heat transfer component of the invention provides a transition in manufacturing that is practiced employing the planar type tools in fabrication which usually can neither be practiced manually or observed without substantial magnification.

Structures are being developed in the art wherein temperature control is of importance in a planar layer adjacent to a surface. A highly technically active example being the integrated circuit chip device. Other examples involve structures where there is a layer of a thermally, optically or electrically responsive material beneath a protective cover. Considering the integrated circuit chip as at least an electrically responsive example; as power density increases in such planar structures there is a closely packed area of point sources of heat that must be dissipated through an adjacent surface. In such structures efficiency imitations are being encountered in the transfer of the heat to an external ambient.
At the present state of the art the combined use of liquid and gaseous media is receiving attention in efforts to advance efficiency in heat transfer.
Present developments in the integrated circuit cooling art are directed to the use of air and water which are gaseous and liquid cooling media. However, such systems for the transfer of the heat from the planar source area to the liquid involve large physical space requiring structure.
One illustration in the art appears in U.S. Pat. No. 5,285,347 where a finned heat sink transfer system and a liquid pathway system through the heat sink, are used together.
Another illustration in the art appears in U.S. Pat. No. 5,522,452 where a finned heat sink transfer system operates in a liquid system that includes nozzles spraying fins of the heat sink with liquid.
The systems heretofore in the art require space consuming structure that tends to inhibit progress in the ever increasing need for greater density and in heat transfer efficiency.

Increased efficiency in liquid and gaseous planar device cooling technology

International Business Machines Corporation


An electronic combination lock includes a combination lock having a dial with no markings thereon. Rotation of the dial drives a generator which produces electrical pulses. The voltage pulses serves as a power source for the electronics of the lock. The lock also includes a security feature to disable the lock if the combination dial is stopped between dial rotations for a period of time which indicates dialing by an automatic dialer.

Mechanical combination locks such as those found on safes, vaults, cabinets and other high security enclosures are well known and subject to a number of attacks, such as by drilling, manipulation, and operation by dialer controlled by a computer.
Recently an electronic combination lock for such enclosures has been invented which provides the opportunity to greatly increase the level of security afforded by the lock, while at the same time overcomes many of the shortcomings of the prior art mechanical locks.
A dial type combination lock relies on the rotation of a dial to positions represented by numbers on the dial to rotate mechanical elements within the lock, such that the wheels of the mechanism align to allow a bar to drop into the wheels and retract the lock bar or bolt, allowing the enclosure to be opened.
The electronic combination lock does not have the equivalent mechanical elements and, therefore, can not be attacked in the same manner. For example, the mechanical lock may be drilled to permit the insertion of an optical device into the lock mechanism to observe the positions of the wheels and thus their alignment which permits the opening of the enclosure without the knowledge of the combination.
The electronic lock cannot be drilled for a similar purpose since the electronic lock mechanism will not reveal the position of any element which would be helpful for the attacker to observe and which would give the attacker any information as to the steps need to unlock the device.
The mechanical lock has a fixed position of internal elements relative to the dial and thus may be observed with the movements of the dial repeated by the attacker, at a later time.
The electronic lock does not have a fixed dial to number position relation and thus observation of the movement of the dial is much more difficult if not impossible.
Dialers exist which may be attached to the knob of a dial on a combination lock and which dial combinations under the control of a computer. As each combination fails, the computer then continues to dial other combinations to eventually unlock the lock.
With a combination lock of the mechanical type and sufficient time, a dialer is particularly effective.
The electronic combination locks are dependent upon electronic pulses being generated to indicate to the electronic controls, that the dial is being rotated and in which direction. The pulses may be generated by conventional pulse generation means when a voltage supply is provided to power the pulse generator.
Alternatively, pulses may be generated by the operation of the lock and the the voltage pulses provide a power source for the operation of the lock.
This type of power source eliminates the need for a separate power source for the system, such as a battery or other external voltage supply.
With the control of the device by a series of voltage pulses, the use of the pulses may be used to further control functions of the lock.

Electronic combination lock with high security features


A cable connector includes an electrical contact configured to receive a cable at one end, and an electrical component at another end. The contact can be constructed as a one-piece contact body or a two-piece contact body, and the contact body can include a cable lock that assists in retaining the cable in the contact body.

Electrical connectors provide signal and/or power connections between electronic devices using signal contacts. Cable connectors facilitate electrical connections from a cable to an electrical component, which in some instances can be an electrical connector configured for connection to a substrate, such as a printed circuit board 43.
Referring to FIG. 1A, a conventional cable connector 20 includes a connector housing 22 that defines first and second inputs 24 and 26 that respectively receives a corresponding cable 28 and 30. A pair of crimp sleeves 32 and 34 can be associated with the corresponding pair of inputs 24 and 26, and extend into the housing 22. Each crimp sleeve 32 and 34 is crimped onto respective cables 28 and 30 at one end to secure the corresponding cable in the respective input, and welded at joints 35 and 37 to a receptacle 36 and 38, respectively, at their opposing end. Thus, the crimp sleeves 32 and 34 can establish an electrical connection between each cable 28 and 30 and a header 41 of an electrical component 40 that is received in the corresponding receptacle 36 and 38. The electrical component 40 can be in the form of a connector (a right-angle connector as illustrated) that is configured to attach to a printed circuit board 43. In this manner, electrical signals or power is communicated from each cable 28 and 30 to the circuit board 43. As shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, the connector 20 can be oriented as a right-angle or vertical cable connector.
While such connectors have proven suitable for their intended purpose, it would be desirable to provide a cable connector having a simplified construction.


A procedure for calibrating a vehicle onboard sensor 202 by facilitating the placement of a calibration fixture 110 on a floor relative to a stationary vehicle 100 using a laser emitter 102 secured to a front steerable wheel 104 of the vehicle on the same lateral side as the vehicle onboard sensor. A beam projection axis X of the laser projector is aligned at a known orientation relative to a geometric characteristic of the vehicle 100, such that the beam projection axis X is directed over a placement location P of the calibration fixture on the floor, either inherently or by guided steering of the supporting steerable wheel. A distance between the calibration fixture 110 and a reference point associated with the vehicle 100 is measured, and a current position of the calibration fixture on the floor along the beam projection axis X is adjusted as required to position the calibration fixture for calibration of the vehicle sensor 202 at a selected distance from the reference point along the beam projection axis X.

The present application is related generally to method and apparatus used to facilitate the proper alignment of vehicle onboard sensors for monitoring the environment around the vehicle, such as blind spot monitoring radar, lane departure warning sensors, and cross-traffic warning sensors, and in particular to method and apparatus for guiding placement of sensor alignment equipment in proximity to the vehicle and relative to the vehicle onboard sensors during a reset or calibration procedure.
Modern vehicles are becoming increasingly sophisticated with the addition of various sensors and systems configured to monitor the external environment around the vehicle. A wide variety of vehicle onboard sensors, including acoustic, optical, infrared, and radar are employed by onboard vehicle systems such as backup alarms, collision avoidance systems, brake assist system, lane departure warning systems, cross-traffic warning systems, park assist systems, and blind spot monitoring systems. In extreme vehicle applications, data acquired by multiple systems is integrated together to enable autonomous driving of the vehicle under a variety of environmental conditions. In order for these various systems to function properly, it is necessary to ensure that the vehicle onboard sensors which acquire data regarding objects in the environment surrounding the vehicle are aligned to specific predetermined or known orientations relative to the vehicle. If a sensor is misaligned, the resulting data acquired from that vehicle onboard sensor may not properly detect the presence of an object adjacent to or approaching the vehicle, or may not properly identify the location of observed objects, leading to situations in which warnings are not provided, and corrective action not taken when they should have been, or situations in which warnings or corrective action are provided or taken in error. Failure of such an onboard vehicle system to properly detect and locate objects in the vicinity of the moving vehicle could lead to collisions between the vehicle and the object.
Accordingly, many automotive manufacturers have established specific requirements for alignment of the various vehicle onboard sensors which observe or monitor the vehicle external environment. These requirements often require the placement of observable or reflective calibration targets at precise locations relative to an identifiable or measured point on, or associated with, the vehicle or the vehicle onboard sensor itself. With a calibration target properly positioned, an vehicle onboard sensor can be aligned or calibrated with reference to the observable or reflective calibration target.
For example, many new vehicle models are equipped with Blind Spot Monitoring (BSM) systems. The BSM systems employ radar device concealed in inconspicuous locations, such as behind the vehicle rear bumper cover. Different versions of the radar device may be in various vehicle models, but multiple versions may share the same mounting bracket. In order to perform an aiming or calibration procedure for the radar devices, manufacturers generally require the vehicle be positioned on a level surface. A trihedral radar-reflective aiming or calibration target is placed at an offset distance of up to 8 meters diagonally from the rear corner of the vehicle housing the radar device undergoing aiming or calibration. This distance varies depending on the vehicle model and is commonly referenced to a feature of the vehicle, such as the location of the vehicle body centerline or a computed thrust line.
Recognizing the need to position the observable or reflective calibration targets in precise locations, it would be beneficial to provide vehicle service technicians with a simplified procedure and apparatus to ensure proper placement of the calibration targets relative to each vehicle undergoing a service or inspection procedure.

Method and apparatus for alignment of vehicle blind spot monitoring sensor


An improved reefer wall panel having better foam adhesion by including a plurality of hook and loop tape sections. The sections, as strips, may be applied horizontally or diagonally and may extend from the top to near the bottom of any such wall panel before foaming. They may be applied to the whole of panel, randomly throughout or to just the more vulnerable lower sections of a given panel.

Applicant has used a polyester point bond fabric backing called "scrim" on his glass reinforced thermoplastic panels (GRTP) for interior walls of refrigerated trailers, railcars, shipping containers, box trucks, and general refrigeration (or "reefer") storage units since 1998. The idea was originally developed to get good bonding during manufacture of the reefer units. It was intended for the insulating foam poured between the cavity of the inner wall (GRTP) and outer wall (metal skin) to better adhere to the latter. The foam soaks into and bonds to the polyester point bond "scrim" backing. Applicant was granted a patent (U.S. Pat. No. 6,743,742) for his original system. Although the idea was novel and relevant, it was later found to be too broad encompassing "any" panel rather than just panels used for the interiors of refrigerated trailers, truck bodies, container, and rail cars.
Since then, and consequently, the original "scrim" concept was adopted as a standard practice and has been used by many competitors in the truck trailer business that also supplies panels for refrigerated applications. Additionally, various methods to enhance this bond have been limited in their success. For example, lofting the scrim (creating a brush to break surface fibers loose to create better bonding) or using other materials/films to help chemically bond foam to panel do not inherently increase the bonding capability of the scrim surface. Applicant now believes he has a significant improvement to that earlier design.
The goal is to produce a panel with a unique and varied method of bonding to the foam for the reasons set forth herein. Fork trucks and other freight loading mechanisms create tremendous pressure and damage to the inside of a refrigerated unit resulting pressure against the wall as cargo gets stacked in such units. In these cases, the pressure causes bond of "scrim" to foam to separate because the wall's inability to hold onto the foam (grab factor) is less than the pressure exerted. The result is wall delamination from the foam structure and a wall that now is compromised. Since units useful life is up to fifteen years, the separation of the foam to the wall is critical in the longevity of the unit. The scrim helps to grab the foam but methods to scrape or loft scrim, use of films, and other methods of bonding foam have not eliminated the problem. When the wall delaminates from the foam, it allows moisture to infiltrate, resulting in potential damage and ultimate costly repair or replacement of the interior wall.
One known process gets scrim to stick to the back of material comprised of a glass-reinforced polypropylene tape that is layered and then laminated into each panel. That lamination process melts, compresses, and then cools product in a continuous process. The scrim is a "fiberized PET point bond" fabric with a higher melting point than the polypropylene so when it is laid atop of applicant's product and run through the lamination process, it does not melt along with the whole structure. Rather, it absorbs the polypropylene during the melting process. Applicant has now developed a way for his applied polypropylene to NOT absorb all the way through. As such, when his product gets foamed, the backside will allow the "foam soak bond".
Other Relevant Art
In chronological order, they include:
Lowthian U.S. Pat. No. 3,934,064 disclosed a composite structure of knitted glass fabric and thermoplastic polyfluoroethylene resin sheet. FIG. 4 therein showed, in an enlargement, a single loop of yarn (from knitted glass fabric) containing a monofilament of a "melt-fabricable perhalopolyfluoroethylene" polymer resin. The composite structure incorporating that fabric was claimed to have corresponding extensibility.
Adams U.S. Pat. No. 4,474,635 disclosed a cushioned panel and a related method of molding it. For the panel, a non-woven fabric with an outer layer of polypropylene or other thermoplastic was heated to the melting point of the fibers before being inserted into a mold with a decorative surface fabric and piece of foam cushioning. The mold was designed so that edges of the male and female mold halves compress for forcing the molten surface of that substrate into interstices of the surface fabric.
Ott et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,761,318 disclosed a disposable diaper that employed a soft flexible sheet-like fibrous structure with a multiplicity of loops along a first surface, and a layer of thermoplastic resin adhered to a second major surface for anchoring those loops in the fibrous structure. It has no equivalence whatsoever to trailer/container walls.
Novak U.S. Pat. No. 6,863,970 disclosed a product consisting of polyethylene and polypropylene with at least one sheet of fibrous material that enabled bonding of the polyolefin to a non-polyolefin foam. The combination also preferably included a fastener having threaded portions positioned within the foam which threaded portions are not easily removed when an outward force is applied.
Hedley et al Published U.S. Application No. 20100040839 disclosed a method and apparatus for making an embossed thermoplastic liner panel for the interior of a cargo transporter/trailer. The invention inserted a release film between its reinforced polymer feedstock and an impression mat.
Erickson et al. Published U.S. Application No. 20130025766 disclosed a loop fastener material finished by applying foam to a surface of the fabric, that foam containing both a liquid binder and a powder. That binder was allowed to flow into pores of the fabric and coat fiber interstices as the foam collapses. Then, it was dried to stabilize the fabric. The particle size of that powder was selected to cause most of it to remain on the fabric surface while the binder is dried. That fabric surface, with powder bonded thereto, was then activated by heat, RF or UV energy for adhering to yet another surface.
Finally, Lookebill et al. Published U.S. Application No. 20150246511 disclosed a thermal insulated composite wall panel for insulated trailers. The panel included a first liner panel, second liner panel with a layer of fibers and at least one structural polymer resin layer disposed coplanar to and bonded with the fibers layer.

Foam reefer wall backing with hook strip/shape additions and related method


A method and apparatus for efficient runtime memory access in a database is provided. A buffer pool is pre-allocated in cache. Buffers in the buffer pool are sized to accommodate average case queries and frequently executed queries. Buffers from the buffer pool are allocated to query working sets during runtime to reduce cache misses.

In general, a cache is a place for temporarily storing a thing so that the thing can be accessed more quickly and/or efficiently than is possible where the thing is normally stored. Within the context of computer systems, a cache is usually memory used for temporarily storing data so that the data can be accessed more quickly and/or efficiently than is possible in the memory in which the data normally resides. Thus, volatile memory is typically used to cache data that resides on non-volatile memory, such as magnetic disks. Similarly, fast volatile memory is typically used to cache data that resides in slower volatile memory. It is common for computer systems to use multiple levels of cache, where each level of cache is typically smaller and faster than the preceding level.
Caches may be implemented within a processor itself. The processor could then access the cache memory much faster than off-processor cache memory because the address and data bus used to access the cache memory was implemented on the processor die itself. The internal cache memory was called the level one (L1) cache. An L1 cache is a relatively small amount of static RAM (SRAM) memory used as a cache that is integrated or packaged within the same module as the processor. It is clocked at the same speed of the processor. L1 cache is used to temporarily store instructions and data, making sure the processor has a steady supply of data to process while the RAM catches up delivering new data. Data stored in the L1 cache can be used by the processor at no cost in clock cycles.
Referring to FIG. 1, most processors are currently supplied with two levels of caches. The L1 102, or primary cache, is integrated within the processor core itself 101 and is thus the fastest. The next level of cache 103, called L2 or secondary cache, is situated outside the core 101 and usually runs at a lower clock speed than the core 101, though it may also run as fast as the core 101 itself. However, even if the L2 cache 103 runs at the same clock speed as the core 101, the L2 cache 103 will be slower than the L1 cache 102 because it is not part of the core 101 itself. The size of the L2 cache 103 is always much larger than the L1 cache 102 and, if it runs fast enough, its throughput can come close to that of the L1 cache 102. Therefore, the L2 cache 103 plays a very important role in maintaining a high memory throughput to the processor.
Data pre-fetch allows the processor to "look-ahead" and fetch data from slow memory (such as a hard disk) before it is needed by the processor. This results in fewer processor pipeline stalls, and higher overall performance in many applications. The L2 cache utilizes data pre-fetch where the program data handler fetches data sequentially from the slow memory and places the data in the L2 cache. As the processor executes code from the L1 cache, if the code that it needs is not in the L1 cache (called a cache miss), the processor fetches the data from the L2 cache. The cache miss consumes some time and slows the processor's operations. The amount of time wasted is greater if the data is not in the L2 cache and the processor has to access slow memory to fetch the data. This occurs when the execution of the code is not sequential, e.g., when multi-layer function calls or long jumps occur.
Some application programs, such as database management applications, attempt to solve the cache miss problem by allocating L1 cache memory for certain operations and attempting to retain the allocated memory for the duration of the application's operation. This approach works well if there is an unlimited amount of L1 memory, which is impractical. If the L1 cache becomes fully allocated and the processor requires L1 memory space, the processor will take back some of the allocated memory. This approach also results in many cache misses after full allocation of the L1 cache, thereby slowing the application's operations.
Application programs have the ability to manipulate the data stored in the L1 cache. If an application can keep a large portion of its working data in the L1 cache throughout the execution of the application, then it can improve its overall performance. A good example of an application program that would benefit from having data remain in L1 cache is a database management system.
Referring to FIG. 2, database queries and data manipulation language (DML) commands are used to access and manipulate data in a database application. A user creates queries and DML commands 201 which are compiled 203 into an object called a cursor 202. A cursor contains a query plan 204 which describes how a query is executed. A user creates a cursor 202 to provide a prepackaged query or set of queries of the database that can be executed by other users.
FIG. 3 shows a processor 301 allocating L1 cache memory 302 to running applications via a cache memory manager 306. The cache memory manager 306 allocates L1 cache memory 302 to processes from the scratch memory space 305 (free memory space) in the L1 cache memory 302. As processes execute, the scratch memory 305 expands and contracts as the cache memory manager 306 allocates and frees memory.
As users access a database using queries, portions of L1 cache are allocated for storing the cursors constructed for those queries. Specifically, the cache memory manager 306 allocates L1 memory 302 to the "current set" 303 of cursors. The current set of cursors includes the cursors that are currently loaded into L1 memory. As the queries associated with the current set 303 are executed, they require a memory space to perform operations on the database. This memory space is called a working set 304. The cache memory manager 306 allocates the working set 304 from the L1 memory 302 for the current set 303. As a user uses the database application, cursors in the current set change. Consequently, the amount of L1 cache memory that is allocated to the database server fluctuates.
Referring to FIG. 4, a working set 401 contains a frame buffer 402 and a bind buffer 403. The frame buffer 402 and the bind buffer 403 are the two main components of the runtime memory used for the execution of a query. The frame buffer 402 is used to store the results of the query. The bind buffer 403 is used to store in-binds which are the user input variables and out-binds which are the variable values returned by the database. The database reads the in-binds from the bind buffer 403. Output variables values are stored in the bind buffer 403 by the database as out-binds.
The working sets for the entire set of queries used by an application will typically not fit into the L1 cache. This means that cache misses will frequently occur as users execute queries on the database.
Some database applications try to reduce cache misses by not freeing the L1 cache memory that a current set obtains during runtime. This approach works well in a system with an infinite amount of L1 cache memory—which is not feasible. When the L1 cache is filled and space is needed for the working set of a new query, the system writes over one of the working sets in the L1 cache. This leads to many cache misses, because L1 memory space is taken by queries that are infrequently executed and/or by queries that are stale. This results in slower response times because the system has to access the cache miss queries from slower memory.
Based on the foregoing, there is a clear need for a system that provides for the management of L1 cache memory allocation that allows an application program to run in an efficient manner by reducing cache misses. Additionally, the system would intelligently provide an application program with an adequate supply of L1 cache memory without needlessly allocating L1 cache memory because of unusual application program behavior.

Method and apparatus for efficient runtime memory access in a database


In a clean room cups (70) are applied to the standpipe (28) of an unfilled inkjet cartridge. A sealing cup (80) is applied to the ink outlet (46, 48, 50) of the cartridge. Inert gas is forced back and forth between the cups and expelled into the clean room through a filter. Such cleaning removes particles, which significantly improves reliability of the filled cartridge.

Inkjet printheads typically expel ink through very small nozzles on the printhead. In thermal inkjet printheads the ink is moved by vaporizing water or other component of the ink employing a semiconductor substrate (chip) having resistors proximate to each nozzle. The nozzles are very small and may become clogged.
To minimize clogging, prior art inkjet printheads contain a filter between the main reservoir for ink and the channel to the chip. Such filters are of a fine mesh which prevents any potentially-clogging contaminants from passing through the filter. In order to anchor the filter, each reservoir has a standpipe leading to its flow channel to the chip. The standpipe presents a round regular top to which the filter can be fixed by heat staking or other process. Also, inkjet printheads in the prior art are made in isolated, decontaminated "clean" rooms, such as those used for semiconductor manufacture.
It has been found in accordance with this invention that the foregoing standpipe and filter, and clean room manufacture, are only partly effective in eliminating clogging of nozzles from contamination. It is the premise of this invention that regions between the top of the standpipe and the end of channels to the chip are sources of contamination because they are functionally past the filter.

Contaminant cleaned inkjet cartridge manufacture


The apparatus includes a frame to accommodate more than two instrumentation modules; a multiplexed bus associated with the frame and including more than two connectors; and a sense instrumentation module and a source instrumentation module mounted in the frame, electrically connected to respective ones of the connectors, and collectively including a communication link, and a circuit path that includes, in series between a sense input and a source output, a sense circuit to generate a sense output signal representing a sensed parameter dependent on a source signal; a feedback controller to generate a control signal in response to the sense output signal; and a source circuit to generate the source signal in response to the control signal. The communication link is in the circuit path, and includes a bus transmitter and a bus receiver each configured to select a channel of the multiplexed bus via which to communicate.

Some measurement tasks, such as four-terminal (Kelvin) resistance measurements and the measurement of the threshold voltage of multiple FETs, require that feedback loops be established between more than one source circuit and more than one sense circuit. Currently-available measurement equipment, such as the model 4142B modular DC source/monitor formerly sold by Agilent Technologies, Inc., Santa Clara, Calif., can only establish a feedback loop between a single source circuit and sense circuit, and is therefore unsuitable for performing measurement tasks that require multiple feedback loops.
Accordingly, what is needed is a measurement apparatus in which respective feedback loops can be established within multiple pairs of sense circuits and source circuits.

Apparatus having feedback loops between multiple pairs of instrumentation modules


An electronic musical instrument for conducting an arpeggio performance of a stringed instrument capable of readily producing a pattern for the arpeggio performance as one likes, and also of conducting the arpeggio performance which is perceived as being less musically incompatible even if the player makes a mistake during a performance of allocating of pitch at the time of the arpeggio performance. A pattern for the arpeggio performance is produced adopting such a rule that a time axis is renewed when all the strings become silent, or such a rule that it is regarded as having the same timing while a pedal is kept depressed. When the arpeggio performance is conducted, even if a mismatch occurs between the string of the pattern and the string played for a pitch allocation, those strings are compulsively allocated together.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic musical instrument to which an electronic stringed instrument having a string vibration sensor, such as a electric guitar and the like, is connected, or which is formed in integration with such an electronic stringed instrument, and more particularly, an electronic musical instrument having a function referred to as an arpeggiator.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hitherto, there is known an electronic musical instrument having a function referred to as an arpeggiator. An arpeggiator means such a function that inputted or generated pitch information is associated with a predetermined arpeggio (broken chord) whose pattern and timing of sounds is controlled to automatically perform the arpeggio playing. Of the electronic musical instruments having the function of such an arpeggiator, there is known an electronic musical instrument to which an electronic stringed instrument, such as an electric guitar and the like, is connected (cf. Japanese Patent Laid Open Gazette Sho. 53-60625).
According to the conventional electronic musical instrument connected to an electronic stringed instrument for performing the arpeggio function, it would be difficult to make up arpeggio patterns as one likes, or even if it is possible to make up arpeggio patterns as one likes, there is a need to make up arpeggio patterns with very difficult schemes. This is not easy for a performer of the electronic stringed instrument to deal with.
Further, when the arpeggio playing is performed, pitch information is obtained by playing strings of electronic musical instruments, and the pitch information thus obtained is associated with an arpeggio pattern prepared beforehand. However, in the event that the associated string is not played, there is a possibility that musically unnatural incomplete arpeggio playing is inadvertently performed in such a manner that sounds are partially omitted.

Electronic musical instrument for conducting an arpeggio performance of a stringed instrument


A spinal implant is described in this disclosure. The implant includes first and second pieces separated by a controlled break location. Spinal implant kits having multiple spinal implant pieces derived from a common source also are disclosed.

Chronic back problems cause pain and disability for a large segment of the population. In many cases, chronic back problems are caused by intervertebral disc disease. When an intervertebral disc is diseased, the vertebrae between which the disc is positioned may be inadequately supported, resulting in persistent pain. Stabilization and/or arthrodesis of the intervertebral joint can reduce the pain and debilitating effects associated with disc disease.
Spinal stabilization systems and procedures have been developed to stabilize diseased intervertebral joints and, in some cases, to fuse the vertebrae that are adjacent the diseased joint space. Most fusion techniques include removing some or all of the disc material from the affected joint, and stabilizing the joint by inserting an implant (e.g., a bone graft or other material to facilitate fusion of the vertebrae) in the cleaned intervertebral space.
Spinal implants can be inserted into the intervertebral space through an anterior approach, a posterior approach, or postero-lateral approach. The anterior approach involves a surgeon seeking access to the spine through the front (i.e., abdominal area) of the patient. The posterior approach involves a surgeon seeking access to the spine through the back of the patient. The postero-lateral approach is similar to the posterior approach with access coming more from either or both sides of the patient. A variety of different anterior, posterior and postero-lateral techniques are known.
It is often an advantage to use the posterior approach because such an approach typically involves a smaller and less intrusive opening than those required by anterior approach techniques. Because a posterior approach involves a smaller opening, two or more implants are often used in this approach as compared to using a single larger implant. For example, in one technique, adjacent vertebral bodies are stabilized by implanting separate implants between the vertebral bodies on opposite sides of a sagittal plane passing through the midline of the vertebral bodies. When using multiple implants to support adjacent vertebrae, it is desirable for the implants to have similar or identical mechanical properties so that uniform support is provided on both sides of the sagittal plane. In some instances, it also is desirable for the implants to have similar or identical biologic properties (e.g., to reduce the risk of tissue rejection and to enhance the uniformity of creeping substitution).


A new class A/F amplifier has an filtering and matching input circuit, a summing junction, an amplifying circuit, a filtering and feedback biasing circuit, and an output filtering and matching circuit. The filtering and matching input circuit responds to a radio frequency access input signal, for providing a filtered and matched radio frequency access input signal. The summing junction responds to the filtered and matched radio frequency access input signal, and further responds to a filtering and feedback biasing signal, for providing a summed, filtered, matched and feedback radio frequency access input signal. The amplifying circuit responds to the summed filtered, matched and feedback radio frequency access input signal, for providing an amplified, summed, filtered, matched and feedback radio frequency access input signal. The feedback and filtering biasing circuit responds to the amplified, summed, filtered, matched and feedback radio frequency access input signal, for providing the feedback and filtering biasing signal. The output filtering and matching circuit responds to the amplified, summed, filtered, matched and feedback radio frequency access input signal, for providing an amplified, summed, filtered, matched and feedback radio frequency access output signal. The class A/F amplifier substantially reduces harmonics in the radio frequency signal that cause power interference between adjacent channels, resulting in greatly improved mobile communication service having much fewer dropped calls and an enhanced calling range.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to amplifiers; and more particularly, to amplifiers for mobile communication systems using radio frequency multiple access signals.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the prior art, class A and F amplifiers for amplifying a radio frequency signal in a base station of a mobile radio communication system are known in the art. However, with today's high peak to average power signals, neither a class A nor a class F amplifier provides adequate harmonic filtering of the radio frequency signal. Because of this, one disadvantage of the prior art class A and F amplifiers is that the harmonics in the radio frequency signal cause power interference between adjacent channels, resulting in degraded mobile communication service, including more dropped calls and a reduced calling range.
For example, the class A amplifier has appreciable power gain, produces a magnified replica of the input signal voltage or current wave, and is typically used in multimode or multi-signal transmitters where accurate reproduction of both the envelope and the phase of the signal is required. Tuned circuits or low-pass filters are not integral components of class A amplifiers, although they may be included to improve harmonic suppression. An example of the class A amplifier is shown and described on pages 352-355 (see FIG. 12-3) of H. L. Krauss, Solid State Radio Engineering, John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1980.
The nonlinearity in class A amplifiers produces two types of unwanted signals, called harmonics and intermodulation distortion (IMD) products. The IMD products (identified as third, fifth, seventh order products) are prominent near the carrier frequency. They cause distortion in the received signal and/or adjacent channel interference. In a typical radio frequency power amplifier, the unwanted harmonics may be removed by filters, but the unwanted IMD products generally cannot be removed. Current code division multiple access (CDMA) amplifiers have a 15 dB peak to average ratio which greatly increases the IMD and harmonics.
The class A amplifier also dissipates large amounts of power to amplify a signal due to the biasing operation in the center of a typical power amplifier load line. Thus the class A amplifier is not an efficient amplifier. Furthermore, the class A amplifier cannot suppress IMD products due to a lack of harmonic traps.
Furthermore, the class A amplifier under large signal conditions tends to self bias. This self bias moves toward shutting the device off, generating further harmonics and intermodulation products. A large signal condition is defined as an input signal that is strong enough to distort the output signal beyond the IS97 specification.
In comparison, the class F amplifier is characterized by a load network that has resonances at one or more harmonic frequencies as well as the carrier frequency. The class F amplifier has a transistor that usually operates as a current source or a saturating current source, similar in operation to a classical class C power amplifier. A third-harmonic peaking amplifier provides an example of the operation of the class F amplifier. The transistor acts as a current source, producing the same half-sine-wave similar in operation to a class B amplifier. The fundamental-frequency tune circuit bypasses the harmonics, producing a sinusoidal output voltage. Generally, the third-harmonic resonator makes possible a third-harmonic component in the collector voltage, which flattens the collector voltage. An example of a class F amplifier is shown and described on pages 454-458 (See FIG. 14-9) of H. L. Krauss, Solid State Radio Engineering, John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1980.
But the class F amplifier does not amplify a signal linearly. The class F amplifier is essentially biased off, and strongly flattens the signal which introduces large amounts of IMD distortion. Thus the class F amplifier is not linear. Furthermore, the class F amplifier will not amplify low power signals. Thus if a signal is 10 dB below normal, then the class F amplifier will not amplify it. For example, CDMA signals with peak to average power ratios of 15 dB cannot be amplified linearly. The class F amplifier also has a radio frequency choke (RFC) which allows undesirable radio frequency harmonics to travel unfiltered through the amplifier.
In view of the above, there is a real need in the prior art for an amplifier that effectively filters harmonics from the radio frequency signal and also suppresses IMD products.

Class A/F amplifier having second and third order harmonic input and output filtering and self bias distortion correction


Systems and methods for performing logical semantic sentence comparisons and sentence-based searches. Training is performed by running an NLP pipeline on unstructured text comprising sentences and creating sentence matrix representations on the unstructured text; storing the matrix representations in an indexed database; combining the stored matrix representations; running an SVD on the combined matrix; storing the SVD components in the indexed database; reiterating through the output of the NLP pipeline the sentences of the unstructured training text to form a low-dimensional matrix conversion for each sentence for storage in the database based on the calculated SVD components. Subsequent query statements are run through the same process based and converted into low-dimensional matrix representations using the SVD components from training; the low-dimensionality query matrix is compared to the stored low-dimensional matrices to determine the closest relevant documents, that are returned to the user.

Information Retrieval (IR) is the science of helping the user find a text or other media in a large group of documents. The user usually does this by inputting a query. A search engine takes a query and evaluates it against the group of documents. Usually, this evaluation is a simple number, and the document with the highest or lowest number will be the first document retrieved. Multiple documents can be retrieved, sorted according to this value, allowing the user to see a number of possible matches to what they were looking for.
There are two major types of queries in IR—structured and unstructured. In a structured query, the query must obey a predefined syntax known as a query language. SQL is one of the most widely used query languages. Query languages depend on a pre-defined structured representation of the data, which the user must specify. Since it is extremely difficult to form a consistent and sophisticated representation of the data from natural language, applying query languages to text search is a very difficult task.
Many modern search engines, such as Bing, Google, or AltaVista use unstructured queries, where both documents and queries are represented as a mathematical structure built from a concatenation of words. One of the most commonly used structures is the vector, where each element in the vector is a function of a word's frequency in the document, and distance metrics between these vectors are used to measure similarity or distance between the query and the document. This approach is often referred to as "bag of words."
One of the major limitations to this model is that it does not take into account the order of words in a sentence. If the user typed in "George Bush likes broccoli" and "broccoli likes George Bush," the results would be the same. However, they are saying completely different things, because in the first sentence, "George Bush" is the subject and "broccoli" is the object, and in the second sentence, these roles are reversed. This is because the sentences are expressing different logical relationships. Although some systems, like Watson and Lexis-Nexis, have rudimentary accommodation for these relationships, the dominant vector space model can only handle these in a very unstable and brittle fashion. This is because each word must be indexed not only according to its lexical identity, but also by its role in the sentence, i.e. "George Bush as subject," "George Bush as object," etc. Needless to say, with so many combinations of words and roles, the size of the vectors grows exponentially. Moreover, if the query sentence is "The President likes broccoli," the term "President as subject" will not match with "George Bush as subject."
Some systems attempt to arrive at a logical representation of the sentence by looking at words as they appear in order. While this approach is valid for simple sentences, it fails with complex sentences. For example, in the sentence "Dari, the language of the elite in Afghanistan, is a dialect of Modern Persian," word order alone cannot tell the user that Dari is the subject, and "is a dialect" is the predicate. In fact, some systems, due to their text-cleaning processes, may decide that "Afghanistan" is the subject and"is Modern Persian" is the object. Moreover, if a word were added to the sentence, then it may completely throw off the comparison.
Currently, users searching for documents must either accept a high recall (large number of relevant documents returned) with low precision (low proportion of results are relevant) using "bag of words" approaches, or low recall (few documents returned) with high precision (high proportion of results are relevant) provided by relational approaches. The first option may provide the desired documents, but the desired documents may be buried in a haystack of irrelevant material that can take a lot of time to review. The second option may provide relevant results, but some other relevant results may be missed if the query is not correctly structured relative to the way the data is stored. The desire is to achieve high recall and high precision.
The bag-of-words approach may be improved by using latent semantic indexing (LSI) techniques. In LSI, a document is represented as a vector of real numbers. Each element in this vector corresponds with a word. A zero in an element means that this word is not present in the document. A nonzero value in this element means that the word is present. The magnitude of this value is usually a function of the word's frequency in the document. It is usually a count of that word, normalized in some way. In LSI, a mathematical approach called Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) is used to transform the vector space and effectively reduce the dimensionality of the document vectors, while preserving, many of the meaningful characteristics of documents in terms of the words used. A distance metric between vectors, such as Euclidean distance, indicates how different two documents are from one another in terms of the words used. In a search engine, a query vector and one or more document vectors are compared and the document vectors that minimize this distance are the documents that are returned.
The fundamental unit of data in LSI is the document. Thus, the nuances of language present in sentences (both query sentences and target sentences) are ignored. LSI does not utilize a representation of a sentence that is syntactic and semantic. That is, it does not provide a hierarchical representation of dependencies among parts of the sentence.

Systems and methods for sentence comparison and sentence-based search


A device receives, from a server device, a request to determine whether a call is authorized to be forwarded, where the call is intended to be established between the server device and a first client device via a network, and the call is forwarded from the first client device to a second client device. The device receives, from the network, network data associated with the call and account data associated with a first user of the first client device. The device determines that the call is forwarded based on the network data, and processes the account data and information indicating that the call is forwarded, with a machine learning model, to determine a score indicating whether the call is authorized to be forwarded. The device provides the score to the server device to cause the server device to perform one or more actions.

Call forwarding is a telephony feature of some telecommunications systems that redirects a telephone call received by a called party to another destination (e.g., a mobile device telephone number, a telephone number where the called party is available, and/or the like). Call forwarding or diversion may be based on a busy signal, conditional, unconditional, user enacted and/or selected, predictive, responsive, and/or the like.

Systems and methods for utilizing machine learning to detect and determine whether call forwarding is authorized


An end effector assembly includes a first jaw member defining a wedge configuration having first and second planar surfaces angled inwardly to an apex, and a second jaw member defining a nest configuration having a cut-out defined by third and fourth planar surfaces angled inwardly to a trough. The jaw members are movable between spaced-apart position and approximated positions. In the approximated position, the first and third and second and fourth planar surfaces are disposed in parallel orientation relative to one another imparting a first grasping pressure to tissue disposed therebetween, while the apex is received within the trough imparting a second grasping pressure to tissue disposed therebetween. The jaw members are adapted to connect to a source of energy for conducting energy between the parallel planar surfaces to create a pair of tissue seals, and between the apex and trough to cut tissue between the tissue seals.

Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to surgical devices and, more particularly, to surgical forceps and end effector assemblies thereof for treating, e.g., sealing, and/or cutting tissue.
Background of Related Art
A surgical forceps is a plier-like device which relies on mechanical action between its jaws to grasp, clamp, and constrict tissue. Energy-based surgical forceps utilize both mechanical clamping action and energy to affect hemostasis by heating tissue to coagulate and/or cauterize tissue. Certain surgical procedures require more than simply cauterizing tissue and rely on the unique combination of grasping pressure, precise energy control and gap distance (i.e., distance between opposing jaw members when closed about tissue) to "seal" tissue. Typically, once tissue is sealed, the surgeon has to accurately sever the tissue along the newly formed tissue seal. Accordingly, many tissue sealing devices have been designed which incorporate a knife or blade member which effectively severs the tissue after forming a tissue seal. More recently, tissue sealing devices have incorporated energy-based cutting features for energy-based tissue division.

Surgical forceps for treating and cutting tissue


A luminaire housing with a printed bottom panel is provided. The luminaire housing has a luminaire housing frame. The printed bottom panel is coupled to the luminaire housing frame and has a first surface generally facing the interior of the luminaire housing. The first surface of the printed bottom panel has an opaque ink layer applied thereto that defines a printed area. The printed area outlines at least one light permeable light passageway.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains generally to a luminaire housing, and more particularly to a luminaire housing with a printed bottom panel.
2. Description of the Related Art
Luminaire housings often have a luminaire housing frame constructed from plastic, extruded metal, or other material. The luminaire housing frame may define one or more light exit openings through which light from a light source located interiorly of the luminaire housing frame may exit to illuminate a desired area. The light openings may include downlight, uplight, and/or sidelight openings. One or more lenses or louvers may be placed adjacent the light exit opening(s) to limit glare from the light source and/or to alter characteristics of light from the light source prior to the light illuminating the desired area.
Many such luminaire housings may be non-aesthetically pleasing. For example, such luminaire housings may contain unsightly edges and junction points visible to a user that may be formed at junctures of luminaire housing components such as lenses, baffles, and/or luminaire housing frames. Also, for example, such luminaire housings may contain lenses or baffles which have a rugged industrial look.

Luminaire housing with printed bottom panel


A method for operating a blood treatment apparatus including an extracorporeal blood circuit having a blood filter with a blood chamber and a dialysate chamber, between which a membrane is arranged. The method encompasses operating a blood pump from a first time point, at which an ultrafiltration pump is stopped, at least until a second time point, at which at least one of the following conditions is met for the first time after the first time point: a time interval after has elapsed, the blood pump has conveyed a volume after, a measurement of a fluid in the extracorporeal blood circuit exceeds or falls below a threshold.

During or after the end of an extracorporeal blood treatment, the blood which is present in the extracorporeal circuit is usually displaced from the extracorporeal blood circuit in direction of the vascular system of the patient by means of a substituate liquid (hereafter also shortly referred to as substituate) and is thus reinfused into the patient. It is often desirable to reinfuse as much of the patient's blood from the blood treatment apparatus as is technically possible to minimize the loss of valuable blood cells and other blood constituents. However, a certain amount of substituate is infused into the patient when the blood is reinfused.
Since removing parts of the liquid fraction from the blood of the patient is usually a therapeutic target, the infusion of substituate is undesired and even counterproductive, as the preceding treatment was expressly intended, amongst others, to remove water from the patients' blood.
This is all the more relevant for pediatric patients, who may afford the loss of blood cells less than others and whose total blood value is smaller, such that the reinfusion of substituate may be more detrimental than for other patients.

Method for operating a blood treatment apparatus, control unit and treatment apparatus for executing the method


A drilling and chipping tool includes a striker mechanism and a holder (10) for a tool bit. Blows are transmitted to the holder and the tool bit through an axially extending anvil (4) located in the tool. The anvil (4) can be connected to a shifting member (7) by a locking element (6). The shifting element (7) is axially displaceable by an actuation member (8). The axial displacement of the shifting member (7) moves the anvil (4) between a first position for transmitting blows and a second position for blocking the transmission of blows from the anvil (4) to the holder (10).

The present invention is directed to a manually operated drilling and chipping tool including a striker mechanism and a tool bit holder. The striker mechanism delivers axially directed blows through an anvil to a tool bit clamped in the holder. The anvil has at least one recess into which a locking element can be positioned by a shifting member operable from the outside by a actuation member.
In a hammer drill disclosed in DE-PS 3 627 869 the blocking of blows by a pneumatic striker mechanism is achieved by hook shaped elements shiftable into a recess of a striking member. The striking member is thus held in an end position where it can not deliver blows to the tool bit.
The hook shaped elements are movable in the radial direction. An actuation device operable from the outside includes an eccentric deformation in the radial direction in its interior circumferential region, so that the axial stroke of a pin shaped element can be controlled. Accordingly, axial movement of the pin shaped element can be achieved by turning the actuation device in the circumferential direction, whereby the pin shaped element controls the radial movement of the hooked shaped elements. Since the striking member can be locked only in its leading position, it must be designed so that it can press the hooked shaped elements which are biased by spring means in the radial direction. The elements are displaced radially apart over an inclined plane, so that the inclined plane can drop into a recess in the striking member following on the inclined plane. As a result, the striking member can be locked only when it is moved by the striking mechanism in the working or operational direction.


In one embodiment an online game advertising system provides an architecture for enabling the definition, sales, distribution, and management of interactive advertisements, sponsorships, and placements that appear within an online video game as part of the game experience or during idle load, wait, and pause screens. For example, in a race car game, when a driver pulls in for a pit stop, the engine oil brand that the game player may choose may be defined as locations for advertisements or product placements for real life engine oils and game publishers and advertisers may manage what specific advertisements to place in these locations.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to an online game advertising system, which in one embodiment serves as an architecture for enabling the definition, sales, distribution, and management of interactive advertisements, sponsorships, and placements that appear within an online video game as part of the game experience or during idle load, wait, and pause screens.
2. Discussion of Background
The primary business model of traditional offline video games is that game publishers generate revenues through the unit sales of games on the wholesale market. With the advent of pervasive Internet and broadband connectivity, video game publishers are adding online capabilities to their games in order to attract more game players and to explore new revenue models.
Existing online games allow players to play against other live players. Some of these games display banner advertisements that border the main viewable area of the screen in which the game is played. Game players often find these advertisements intrusive and annoying as they distract from the main focus of playing the game.
Video game play is an immersing experience in which game players interact with the characters, scenery, and challenges of the game itself and with other live persons who are also playing the game. Like television and movies, playing video games is a highly engaging experience that often requires the attention of its participants.


The present invention introduces a simulation software for displaying a human being comprised of a plurality of arm joints, wherein each of the plurality of arm joints comprises a 1st part and a 2nd part. The invention also displays one or more wrinkles on or near the joint of the 1st part and the 2nd part, wherein the 1st part and the 2nd part are connected, and the angle produced by the 1st part and 2nd part is variable. The more the value of the angle decreases, the more the amount and/or the height of the wrinkle increases, thereby enabling the wrinkle simulation software to display the movement of the human being and the movement of the 1st and the 2nd part in a realistic manner.

The invention relates to a simulation software and more particularly to a simulation software which displays human beings on monitors, LCDs, screens, and other display means in a realistic fashion.
Lately, simulation software is being used in video games, military training devices, and other types of devices which implement virtual reality. These devices are designed to display various types of objects which exist in the real world, however, the users thereof perceive a sense of awkwardness to the movement of a human being displayed thereon since these devices do not reflect the movement of a human being in the real world in a precise manner. One reason for such awkwardness is that the clothes worn by a human being do not wrinkle at all when he/she bends his/her limbs. FIG. 1a and FIG. 1b illustrate the method of displaying an arm of a human being by utilizing the prior art. As described in FIG. 1a, arm AR of a human being is composed of hand HD, lower arm LA, joint JT, and upper arm UA. Assuming that arm UA is covered by fabric FB, i.e., the human being is wearing the clothes which cover his/her arms. When arm AR is stretched as described in FIG. 1a and joint JT is not bent, wrinkle does not occur on or near joint JT. When arm AR is bent as described in FIG. 1b, due to the nature of fabric FB one or more wrinkles occur on or near joint JT in the real world. The prior art does not describe the movement of limbs in such a way and because no wrinkles are shown, the users perceive a sense of awkwardness.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,317,125 introduces a video object generation method (100) for converting a model (102) such that a tessellation operation (164) can create a realistic character in real time during game play. According to this prior art, a shelling and slicing operation (106) produces data strings (140) describing a plurality of slices (110) of the model (102). An assign body parts and edit strings operation (130) places cuts (134) on the model (102) and an apply influences operation (144) establishes the influence on each of a plurality of points (142) from a plurality of bones (148) of a skeleton (146). In real time operations (162) a tessellation operation (164) creates a triangle mesh (165) appropriate to the position and importance of the character in game space, and a properly bent character is displayed in a display operation (168). This prior art introduces the concept of producing realistic images, however, does not explain nor imply the present invention, i.e., the method of producing and displaying wrinkles on limbs of a human being.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,317,130 introduces apparatus and method to enable an animation character object, which is pictorially deformed by computer graphics techniques to display a human body or animal or the like in the form of a caricature or model, to offer precise and more natural motions at its selected constituent portions that have inherently no joints and no bones by giving thereto joints and skeletons. According to this prior art, apparatus and method for generating skeleton-based animation images in accordance with the principles of the invention include solving means as follows. A face section of a cubic character object is provided with auxiliary skeletons as vertically coupled together. Skeletons are provided which extend from respective endpoints of such auxiliary skeletons and are coupled defining an umbrella shape as a whole. These skeletons are associated with models each consisting of an ensemble of polygons for rendering the character deformable by changing rotation amount of each skeleton. This prior art introduces the concept of producing realistic images, however, does not explain nor imply the present invention, i.e., the method of producing and displaying wrinkles on limbs of a human being.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,310,619 introduces a three-dimensional, virtual reality, tissue specific model of a human or animal body which provides a high level of user-interactivity. According to this prior art, the model functions can be analyzed and user-modified on a tissue-by-tissue basis, thereby allowing modeling of a wide variety of normal and abnormal tissue attributes and corresponding study thereof. The model can be user-modified through a keyboard, or other VR tools such as a haptic interface. The haptic interface can modify the model to correspond to the tissue attributes of a user, and can provide sensory output corresponding to the interaction of the model to a prescripted scene. A three-dimensional, virtual reality, tissue specific model of a human or animal body which provides a high level of user-interactivity. The model functions can be analyzed and user-modified on a tissue-by-tissue basis, thereby allowing modeling of a wide variety of normal and abnormal tissue attributes and corresponding study thereof. The model can be user-modified through a keyboard, or other VR tools such as a haptic interface. The haptic interface can modify the model to correspond to the tissue attributes of a user, and can provide sensory output corresponding to the interaction of the model to a prescripted scene. This prior art introduces the concept of producing realistic images, however, does not explain nor imply the present invention, i.e., the method of producing and displaying wrinkles on limbs of a human being.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,625,577 introduces a motion analyzing method which analyzes and displays motions of a human being or an animal using a computer in an interactive manner without requiring trial and error or without depending on intuition of an analyst. According to this prior art, a human body or an animal body is divided into a plurality of segments connected by joints, each of the segments acting as a minimal unit of motion. Data for modeling the human or animal body on the basis of physical constraints and the inherent nature of each of the segments is maintained in a database. Motions are input to be analyzed and the input motions are analyzed using inverse dynamics. The resultant movements and the center of gravity of each of the segments, the force and torque exerted on each of the joints, the movement and the center of gravity of the whole body, and the forces and torques exerted on the centers of gravity are superimposed on the human or animal body model of the database and are displayed on a screen. The new motions thus displayed can be used for the teaching of new skills in the industrial or performing arts, in sports, or in animal training. This prior art introduces the concept of producing realistic images, however, does not explain nor imply the present invention, i.e., the method of producing and displaying wrinkles on limbs of a human being.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,215,500 introduces methods and systems for compressing and decompressing 3-D geometry data which includes regularly tiled surface portions. According to this prior art, one compression method includes representing a surface portion as a "vertex raster", which comprises specifying an extent value and encoding the vertex parameter values of vertices within the surface portion. The extent of the surface portion specifies the arrangement of vertices within the surface portion, and allows the vertices to be properly assembled into drawing primitives during decompression. The encoded vertex parameter values may be encoded globally (by setting initial values and corresponding delta values), locally (on a per-vertex basis), or using a combination of these techniques. Absolute, delta encoding, or delta-delta encoding may be utilized for these parameter values. Vertex parameters which may be encoded in this manner include position, color, normals, z-displacement values, texture map coordinates, and surface material properties. Additionally, connectivity information may also be encoded using this compression method by specifying quad split bits and half-resolution edges. Quad split bits are used to tessellate a quadrilateral formed by neighboring vertices of a surface portion according to the direction of the strongest color change. Half-resolution edges are utilized to gradually shift from an area of high resolution to an adjacent surface portion represented in lower resolution. For graphical objects which include a plurality of adjacent surface portions, a step command is disclosed which allows data from one surface portion to be advantageously reused. Decompression of a vertex raster representation may comprise decoding the extent value, global parameter values, and a per-vertex stream of local parameter values. This prior art introduces the concept of producing realistic images, however, does not explain nor imply the present invention, i.e., the method of producing and displaying wrinkles on limbs of a human being.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,204,860 introduces a system that defines a wire curve deformation primitive with a free-form parametric curve associated with the closest points to the curve on a surface of a model. According to this prior art, the wire curve includes a radius influence defining the points on the object which will be deformed. A scale factor determines the amplitude of the scaling or point movement that is caused by the wire curve. A blending function of the wire curve defines the transition from the deformed regions to the undeformed regions of the object. The wire curve can have associated with it holder curves defining the domain of deformation about an object caused by one or more wires. A holder curve holds the points of the object in place. Locators are used to define different parameters values along the wire curve. Changes in parameter values around the locators are accomplished by interpolation. Deforming includes preprocessing steps as well as deformation stage operations. This prior art introduces the concept of producing realistic images, however, does not explain nor imply the present invention, i.e., the method of producing and displaying wrinkles on limbs of a human being.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,144,385 introduces a character animation system executing on a computer. According to this prior art, the system provides a simple, efficient and powerful user interface that allows the user to specify complex animations of multi-legged characters by placing footprints on a surface. A compiler automatically generates a natural looking animation based on the footprints. Motions such as walking, running, jumping, etc. are easily animated depending on the way footprints are placed. The user is able to create new footprint patterns and modify existing patterns. Footprint blocks on a timeline are used to specify the time duration that each foot is in contact with a footprint. The user may specify keyframes in the animation sequence that allow more complicated body movements to be incorporated with the footprint based animation. This prior art introduces the concept of producing realistic images, however, does not explain nor imply the present invention, i.e., the method of producing and displaying wrinkles on limbs of a human being.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,088,034 introduces a method and apparatus wherein three-dimensional compressed geometry is decompressed with a unit having an input FIFO receiving compressed data bits and outputting to an input block state machine and an input block, whose outputs are coupled to a barrel shifter unit. According to this prior art, input block output also is input to Huffman tables that output to the state machine. The state machine output also is coupled to a data path controller whose output is coupled to a tag decoder, and to a normal processor receiving output from the barrel shifter unit. The decompressor unit also includes a position/color processor that receives output from the barrel shifter unit. Outputs from the normal processor and position/color processor are multiplexed to a format converter. For instructions in the data stream that generate output to the format converter, the decompression unit generates a tag sent to the tag decoder in parallel with bits for normals that are sent to the format converter. The decompressed stream of triangle data may then be passed to a traditional rendering pipeline, where it can be processed in full floating point accuracy, and thereafter displayed or otherwise used. This prior art introduces the concept of producing realistic images, however, does not explain nor imply the present invention, i.e., the method of producing and displaying wrinkles on limbs of a human being.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,064,390 introduces an apparatus and method for representing expression in a tissue-like system that may include a human face, where the system is particularized to a specified individual. According to this prior art, a graphical representation generator implemented in a computer determines a representation, in terms of a finite-element model, of the surface of the tissue of the system, providing a graphic output defining the surface in world coordinates. An expressive detail generator, including a wrinkle generator, modifies the surface determined by the graphical representation generator before the surface has been mapped into world coordinates in accordance with three-dimensional features of the tissue-like system of a particular subject. This prior art introduces the concept of producing realistic images, however, does not explain nor imply the present invention, i.e., the method of producing and displaying wrinkles on limbs of a human being.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,850,222 introduces a computer system for displaying clothing on a rendered image of a human body referred to as a virtual dressing room system ("VDRS"). According to this prior art, the VDRS receives a series of contour lines defining the three-dimensional shape of the human body. A contour line is a series of points that defines the perimeter of the body in a horizontal plane. The VDRS also receives a sequence of points defining the two-dimensional shape of the clothing. The VDRS also scales the sequence of points defining the two-dimensional shape of the clothing to the approximate width of a portion of the human body over which the clothing is worn. For each point of the two-dimensional shape, the VDRS identifies a corresponding point on a contour line, and adjusts the point of the two-dimensional shape of the clothing to correspond to the identified point. The VDRS renders the shape of the human body on a display device, and lenders the scaled and adjusted two-dimensional shape of the clothing on the display device to effect the display of the human body wearing the clothing. This prior art introduces the concept of producing realistic images, however, does not explain nor imply the present invention, i.e., the method of producing and displaying wrinkles on limbs of a human being.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,802,220 introduces a system which tracks human head and facial features over time by analyzing a sequence of images. According to this prior art, the system provides descriptions of motion of both head and facial features between two image frames. These descriptions of motion are further analyzed by the system to recognize facial movement and expression. The system analyzes motion between two images using parameterized models of image motion. Initially, a first image in a sequence of images is segmented into a face region and a plurality of facial feature regions. A planar model is used to recover motion parameters that estimate motion between the segmented face region in the first image and a second image in the sequence of images. The second image is warped or shifted back towards the first image using the estimated motion parameters of the planar model, in order to model the facial features relative to the first image. An affine model and an affine model with curvature are used to recover motion parameters that estimate the image motion between the segmented facial feature regions and the warped second image. The recovered motion parameters of the facial feature regions represent the relative motions of the facial features between the first image and the warped image. The face region in the second image is tracked using the recovered motion parameters of the face region. The facial feature regions in the second image are tracked using both the recovered motion parameters for the face region and the motion parameters for the facial feature regions. The parameters describing the motion of the face and facial features are filtered to derive mid-level predicates that define facial gestures occurring between the two images. These mid-level predicates are evaluated over time to determine facial expression and gestures occurring in the image sequence. This prior art introduces the concept of producing realistic images, however, does not explain nor imply the present invention, i.e., the method of producing and displaying wrinkles on limbs of a human being.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,687,737 introduces an optimal electrophysiologic mapping system for map-directed arrhythmia surgery and cardiac research allows rapid and accurate interpretation of cardiac activation sequences. According to this prior art, the system can display activation or potential distribution data on an anatomically accurate 3-D model of the heart and allows fast, interactive control of viewing characteristics, including control of which cardiac surfaces are displayed, control of virtual lighting, rotational control of the displayed image, etc. The system employs two computer programs, GETPIC3 and MAP3, and runs on a Silicon Graphics workstation capable of rapid graphics calculations and displays. The system utilizes 3-D models of epicardial and endocardial surfaces created with the GETPIC3 program from a sequence of 2-D images of a heart. The individual surfaces are triangulated and may be smoothed using a spline function. The MAP3 program displays activation times either as static isochronous maps or as dynamic time-since-last-activation maps. In the latter case, surface color denotes the time elapsed since a particular area activated. Potential distribution data may also be displayed dynamically. A mouse allows the system operator to control real-time rotation of the model in three dimensions, and any surface can be hidden interactively for better viewing of the data. Control is also provided over the starting, stopping, reversing, and repeating of data, as well as over the frame rate for dynamic displays. This prior art introduces the concept of producing realistic images, however, does not explain nor imply the present invention, i.e., the method of producing and displaying wrinkles on limbs of a human being.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,504,845 introduces a three dimensional image of a solid form which is presented to an operator by means of a stereoscopic display. According to this prior art, the operator defines a panel on the surface of the form with a set of bounding seam lines. A polygonal mesh is generated between the seam lines and is manipulated in three dimensions by the operator to achieve a desired surface appearance, including wrinkles, folds, pleats and other details. Manipulation of the mesh is constrained by the mechanical properties of the surface material or fabric being modelled. Surface texture and shading are then mapped onto the mesh to fully render the surface appearance in three dimensions. This prior art introduces the concept of producing realistic images, however, does not explain nor imply the present invention, i.e., the method of producing and displaying wrinkles on limbs of a human being.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,267,154 introduces a biological image formation aiding system and a biological image forming method which are provided in which three-dimensional data corresponding to a standard shape of a biological article, standard motion thereof, and a standard material feeling of an outer surface of the biological article are prepared, and a realistic three-dimensional synthesized image of an entire biological article with individuality can be formed simply. According to this prior art, the system includes a shape data storage for storing data corresponding to a three-dimensional shape of a biological image; a motion data storage for storing data corresponding to three-dimensional motion of the biological image, a material feeling data storage for storing data corresponding to a three-dimensional material feeling of an outer surface of the biological image; editing/processing units capable of modifying at least one of the data corresponding to the three-dimensional shape of the biological image, the three-dimensional data corresponding to the motion of the biological image, and the data corresponding to the three-dimensional material feeling of the outer surface of the biological image in accordance with a producer's intent; and an output unit responsive to the outputs of the editing/processing unit for synthesizing the data corresponding to the three-dimensional biological image, the data corresponding to the three-dimensional motion of the biological image, and the data corresponding to the three-dimensional material feeling of the outer surface of the biological image after modification with each other to provide synthesized three-dimensional data for a biological image to be produced. This prior art introduces the concept of producing realistic images, however, does not explain nor imply the present invention, i.e., the method of producing and displaying wrinkles on limbs of a human being.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,326,967 introduces an image creating apparatus which displays a plurality of identical game-element images in predetermined colors on an image display unit by pasting textures on polygons provided in a virtual three-dimensional space. According to this prior art, the image creating apparatus includes a polygon-data storage unit for storing the coordinates of N (integer not less than 2) sets of polygons constituting the element images so that N game elements are arranged and displayed on the display unit; a texture-selection-data storage unit for selecting one set of the textures which corresponds to one of the characters; a color-data storage unit for storing, as a basic color, a first color determined for the one set of the textures; a color-data setting unit for setting a second color; and a composite-color setting unit for setting composite colors for the textures to be pasted on N sets of polygons, the composite colors being obtained by mixing the first color and the second color at different ratios. This prior art introduces the concept of producing realistic images, however, does not explain nor imply the present invention, i.e., the method of producing and displaying wrinkles on limbs of a human being.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,322,448 introduces a image processing device for games which is a device whereby a prescribed number of models (characters) are set up in virtual space, these models are controlled such that they move in prescribed directions in the virtual space, and images of this virtual space from a virtual viewpoint are displayed on means for display. According to this prior art, in order to display the movement of the models that are arranged in virtual space more realistically, in one construction thereof, this device is provided with means for image processing that apply virtual centripetal force to the models. Furthermore, in order to display the movement of the models more realistically and to heighten the dramatic effect, in one construction thereof, this device is equipped with means for processing residual image presentation in order to represent the track of movement of a model as residual images. This means for processing is equipped with means for storage that store without modification motion data of the model prior to the current motion and with means for display control that display this stored data together with the current motion data. This prior art introduces the concept of producing realistic images, however, does not explain nor imply the present invention, i.e., the method of producing and displaying wrinkles on limbs of a human being.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,320,988 introduces a method of transforming the shape of a skeleton model, wherein this method can easily handle a skeleton model of a multiple-branching structure and enables the easy setting of complicated restrictive conditions. According to this prior art, node coordinates and arc-normal vectors are used as basic variables. Basic equations, which comprise an equation defining the length of an arc and which use basic variables as unknowns, and an evaluation expression for uniquely specifying a solution that satisfies these basic equations are modified, based on data such as mouse input. A solution for the basic variables that satisfies the basic equations and minimizes the value of the evaluation expression is obtained, and the shape of the skeleton model is transformed accordingly. The evaluation expression is used to set minimization of the sum-of-squares of arc-to-arc angles, rubber-banding, dampers, and inertia. The basic equations and the evaluation expression are updated in synchronization with the end of a loop. A spring restriction can be set, and the use of a restrictive condition in the next loop of the calculations can be determined from whether or not the restrictive condition was used in the previous loop, and whether or not an object has passed a boundary. This prior art introduces the concept of producing realistic images, however, does not explain nor imply the present invention, i.e., the method of producing and displaying wrinkles on limbs of a human being.