A loading unit for a disc cartridge includes a cartridge holder movably supported relative to a chassis. The cartridge holder is moved towards a recording and/or reproducing device for recording and/or reproducing information signals on or from a recording medium housed within the disc cartridge. The cartridge holder is configured to hold the disc cartridge inserted therein and has an engaging recess and an insertion detector. The insertion detector is moved in response to the disc cartridge being inserted into the cartridge holder. A stop mounted on the cartridge holder has a retention portion for retention by the chassis and an engaging protrusion for engagement with the engaging recess of the disc cartridge. The stop is slidingly contacted with the chassis in conjunction with movement of the cartridge holder towards the recording and/or reproducing device. The stop is inhibited from movement by the insertion detector when a disc cartridge is not inserted into the cartridge holder and the retention portion is engaged by the chassis. The stop is released from inhibition of movement when the disc cartridge is inserted into the cartridge holder and the insertion detector is moved, thereby disengaging the retention portion from the chassis, whereby the stop engages the engaging protrusion with the engaging recess in the disc cartridge.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a recording and/or reproducing apparatus. More particularly, the present invention relates to a recording and/or reproducing apparatus for a disc-shaped optical recording medium employed as a recording medium.
2. Background of the Invention
In EP-A-047-5595, for example, there has been proposed a disc recording and/or reproducing apparatus in which information signals are adapted for being recorded on or reproduced from a recording disc, such as a magneto-optical disc or an optical disc, employed as a recording medium.
Such disc recording and/or reproducing apparatus includes an outer casing and a disc drive mounted within the outer casing. The disc drive includes a spindle motor, an optical pickup unit, a magnetic head unit and so forth. The disc drive is adapted for recording and reproducing information signals on or from the magneto-optical disc loaded thereon. The disc drive is also adapted for reading information signals from the optical disc loaded thereon.
With the magneto-optical disc, the light beam converged by the optical-pickup unit is radiated on the disc for locally heating its signal recording layer, while a vertical external magnetic field is applied to the signal recording layer of the heated area, for recording information signals conforming to the intensity of the light beam or to the modulation of the intensity of the external magnetic field. Consequently, with this present recording and/or reproducing apparatus, the magnetic head is kept substantially in sliding contact with the magneto-optical disc during the recording mode of recording the information signals on the magneto-optical disc in readiness for driving the optical pickup unit and for enabling the magnetic field of sufficient intensity to be applied by the magnetic head to the signal recording layer.
When reading the information signals from the magneto-optical disc or from the optical disc, the direction of polarization or the intensity of the light beam radiated by the optical pickup unit and reflected by the optical pickup unit is detected. The information signals may be reproduced by demodulating changes in the direction of polarization or in the light intensity. Consequently, when reading the information signals from the recording disc, it is unnecessary for the magnetic head to be in sliding contact with the magneto-optical disc or the optical disc.
With the above-described disc recording and/or reproducing apparatus, it has been proposed to have the magneto-optical disc or the optical disc inserted via an inserting slit formed in the front panel of the outer casing for loading the disc on the disc drive. The disc recording and/or reproducing apparatus of this type is known as the front loading type apparatus and includes a loading unit for transporting the recording disc between the inserting slit and the disc drive. It has been proposed to have the magneto-optical disc or the optical disc housed within a disc cartridge. The disc cartridge is constituted as a thin casing for accommodating the disc therein.
The loading unit of the front loading type disc recording and/or reproducing apparatus, constituted for making use of the disc cartridge, that is the disc cartridge loading unit, includes a cartridge holder into which the disc cartridge is inserted and held therein. The cartridge holder is supported for movement in the outer casing. The cartridge holder is moved towards the disc drive by a disc moving mechanism with the disc cartridge held therein. The cartridge holder transports the disc cartridge up to a position overlying the disc drive for loading the disc cartridge on the disc drive.
Among the above-described disc recording and/or reproducing apparatus, there is such a device in which the magnetic head is kept in sliding contact with the magneto-optical disc when the latter is loaded therein, and in which the magnetic head is spaced apart from the optical disc when the latter is loaded therein.
With the disc recording and/or reproducing apparatus of this type, the disc cartridge is provided with means for deciding whether the recording disc housed therein is a magneto-optical disc or an optical disc, and the magnetic head position is controlled on the basis of the results of decision by the decision means. The decision means detects a discriminating portion formed on the disc cartridge which is in the form of a hole or recess having a different depth for the magneto-optical disc or the optical disc. The mechanism for discriminating the type of the decision means is a manually actuated micro-switch provided on the base block of the disc drive.
However, when the magneto-optical disc is loaded in position in such disc recording and/or reproducing apparatus, the magnetic head is caused to be slidingly contacted with the magneto-optical disc not only when writing the information signals but also when reading the information signals. Consequently, the magnetic head is slidingly contacted with the magneto-optical disc to an unnecessary extent, that is at a higher frequency than the information signal writing frequency, with the result that the wear caused to the magnetic head and to the magneto-optical disc is undesirably increased.
Although it may be contemplated to discriminate whether or not the disc recording and/or reproducing apparatus is in the recording mode and to move the magnetic head based on the results of discrimination, the apparatus tends to be complicated in structure and bulky in size.
When the disc cartridge is loaded on the disc drive of the loading unit for the above-described recording and/or reproducing apparatus by way of loading, the disc cartridge is accommodated and held in the cartridge holder. Consequently, when the disc cartridge is to be removed from the disc drive so as to be discharged out of the disc recording and/or reproducing apparatus by way of unloading, it is necessary to extricate the disc cartridge outwardly from the cartridge holder.
When the unloading is terminated, the cartridge holder is housed within the outer casing of the disc recording and/or reproducing apparatus. Consequently, when the disc cartridge remains accommodated in the cartridge holder, the disc cartridge cannot be taken out of the outer casing.
With the above-mentioned loading unit, the disc cartridge is pushed out during unloading in a forward direction under the bias of a spring mounted within the cartridge holder. With the loading unit, the cartridge holder is introduced into the disc cartridge of the cartridge holder against the bias of the spring, that is as the spring is elastically deformed by the disc cartridge.
Consequently, with the above-described loading unit, smooth insertion of the disc cartridge into the cartridge holder cannot be achieved because of the elastic resistance offered by the spring.
With the loading unit, there is a risk of destruction of the disc cartridge by being thrown into open air under the bias of the spring during unloading. Besides, since the disc cartridge is discharged at a high speed during the unloading operation of the loading unit, there is a risk of destruction of a pawl member used for retaining a shutter member provided in the disc cartridge in a state of closure.

Loading mechanism for a disc recording and/or reproducing apparatus


A novelty pet toy which can be set up with either a stationary base or a rocking base. The toy has a resiliently mounted cartoon character which oscillates back and forth when touched. Thus, a pet, such as a cat, can touch the character which oscillates on its resilient mount providing recreation and exercise for the pet. The base may be hollow and filled with any suitable material, such as cat litter.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention related to pet toys; and, more particularly, to an oscillating cartoon character resiliently mounted to a base which base can either rock or be stationary.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Various types of toys are known for providing amusement, exercise and recreation for pets. Since many pets are kept inside one's house or apartment or the like for long periods of time, it is necessary to provide entertainment and exercise for the pet or the pet will soon become bored and destroy items in the house or apartment.
Such toys can be used by the pet without distracting the pet's owner. However, sometimes it is desirable to reduce the distraction provided by such a toy. For example, in a first mode of operation, the toy may give substantially more action than in another mode of operation. There is thus a need for allowing such a toy to be used in either mode of operation and adapting the same in a quick and efficient manner.


A method includes: determining, by a computing device, transactions of a monolithic application; ranking, by the computing device, the transactions using predefined rules; selecting, by the computing device, a candidate transaction from the ranked list; determining, by the computing device, lines of application code of the monolithic application associated with the candidate transaction; mapping, by the computing device, respective ones of the determined lines of application code to a first operation and a second operation, wherein the first operation and the second operation are different types of operation; and defining, by the computing device, a target state design based on CQRS (Command Query Responsibility Segregation), the target state design including a first microservice that performs the first operation and a second microservice that performs the second operation.

Aspects of the present invention relate generally to computing devices and, more particularly, to transforming select portions of a monolithic application to microservices.
A monolithic application is a single-tiered software application in which the user interface and data access code are combined into a single program from a single platform. Microservices architecture is a methodology that breaks up a software application into plural different services (e.g., microservices) that each perform a very specific process of the application.

Transforming select portions of a monolithic application to microservices

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


A display device includes a display panel having a display area and a bezel area formed around edges of the display area; a backlight unit disposed on a rear side of the display panel to provide light to the display panel; a supporting member to support the display panel and the backlight unit; and a top case having at least one joint and incorporated with a surface of the supporting member, wherein the top case has a main frame combined with the supporting member and a sub frame disposed on the bezel area and combined with the main frame.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a display device, and more particularly, to a display device including a case top with a main frame and a sub frame.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Display devices encompass all devices for displaying images of display signals from outside, and include monitors receiving signals from personal computers and televisions receiving signals from broadcast stations. The display devices have been developed from cathode ray tubes (CRT) utilizing electrons emitted from the cathode in the vacuum to liquid crystal displays (LCD) utilizing variation of transmission degree of crystals according to the applied voltages, Plasma Display Panels (PDP) utilizing plasma phenomena, and so on. Display devices, such as LCDs and PDPs, have succeeded in accomplishing smaller thicknesses as compared to CRTs. By reducing weight and volume of displays, device size may be reduced. In addition, research and development continues for enhancing response speed and display quality.
In recent years, with effort to technical aspects of the display, technical research for design is desired to attract customers and becomes one of main concerns. In this aspect, a bezel area between edges of the display panel to the active area for display is determinative.
Various methods have been suggested to reduce the bezel area and improve its design quality. But it is not so easy to design the device with reduced bezel area while having enough strength for the display panel.
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a liquid crystal display (LCD) device according to the related art.
In FIG. 1, the display device 1 has a backlight unit 30 and a liquid crystal display panel 22. The backlight unit 30 and the liquid crystal display panel 22 are secured by a main support 41, a top case 10, and a bottom cover 42. The top case 10 is a single unit, and is a reversed L-shaped to cover the top surface and the side edges of the display device. The top case 10 defines a rectangular opening portion for displaying images of the display panel 22 and is fixed to the main support 41 or the bottom cover 42. To form the opening portion, it is required to cut a bigger sized metal plate, which increases material cost. Further, since the top case 10 has narrow width, it is not sufficient to reinforce the display device 1.
To solve the above problem, Korean Patent No. 10-1048695 discloses a top case having a plurality of parts, one of which is hooked to the bottom through a hole. To mount the parts of the top case, an additional connection is needed on the top case and the bottom cover side. To strengthen the top case, similar to the related art top case, the top case must be elongated in the bezel area of the display panel.


An object is to provide an electrical connection structure between a module device and outside having high reliability of electrical connection and excellent assembling performance. There is provided the electrical connection structure of a module device, wherein a housing accommodating the module device has a mounting hole for mounting a cable connector electrically connected with an external device, a contact of the module device side is disposed inside a housing positioned in the mounting hole, the structure includes a terminal pressed and connected to the contact of the module device side, and a connector housing that accommodates and holds the terminal, the terminal is held in the connector housing so as to have airtight and watertight properties from a connection portion between the terminal and a core wire of a cable to a covering portion of the cable, and the cable connector and the housing are connected so as to have the watertight property.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an electrical connector and more particularly, relates to a connection structure for electrically connecting a module device such as a camera with an external device such as a control device, power supply, and the like.
2. Description of Related Art
A module device such as a vehicle mounted camera is typically electrically connected to an external control device, power supply, etc. The electrical connection between the vehicle mounted camera and the external device is typically subjected to a variety of harsh environmental conditions, including but not limited to vibration as well as liquids (e.g., water). Despite efforts to date, designing an electrical connection that is both durable to withstand the environmental conditions and reliable to consistently provide a stable electrical connection is difficult. Thus, there remains a need in the art for a durable, reliable electrical connecter and further, there is a need for an easy to assemble electrical connector. An object of the present invention is to provide an electrical connection structure between a module device and an outside external device which has high reliability of electrical connection and excellent assembling performance.

Electrical connection structure between module device and an external device


A system is delineated comprising a TCAS receiver having one or more filters, one or more amplifiers and one or more A/D converters, the one or more A/D converters for digitizing analog data into digital data for decoding one or more of an ADS-B message and a TIS-B message; and circuitry for receiving the digital data and decoding the one or more of an ADS-B message and a TIS-B message, wherein the circuitry includes two or more paths for the decoding.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to TCAS and, more particularly, to a TCAS system for decoding ADS-B and/or TIS-B messages with improved receiver sensitivity.
2. Background
ADS-B: The Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) is an avionics protocol that allows an ADS-B equipped system, such as an ADS-B equipped aircraft, to "see" on a display other ADS-B equipped systems in range of the subject system. An ADS-B equipped system may comprise an aircraft, a ground-based vehicle, such as a service vehicle at an airport, or anything else that one would want to "see" using ADS-B. Air traffic control may also use ADS-B to "see" ADS-B equipped systems.
Under the ADS-B protocol, an ADS-B equipped system periodically broadcasts its own state vector and other information without knowing which, if any, other ADS-B equipped systems might be receiving it, and without expectation of an acknowledgement or reply. ADS-B is "automatic" in the sense that no pilot or controller action is required for the information to be issued. ADS-B is "dependent surveillance" in the sense that the surveillance-type information so obtained depends on the suitable navigation and broadcast capability of the ADS-B equipped system making the transmission.
In operation, an aircraft or other ADS-B equipped system determines position information about itself, typically employing the global positioning system (GPS). The position information is employed to create a digital code, which may be combined with other information such as aircraft type, aircraft speed, aircraft flight number and whether the aircraft is turning, climbing or descending. The digital code, which may contain all of this information or in some cases more or less information, is updated several times a second and broadcast from the ADS-B-equipped system on a discrete frequency, called a data link. To transmit and receive ADS-B, an ADS-B equipped system may employ a Mode-S Extended Squitter (1090 ES) transponder, a Universal Access Transceiver (UAT), both a Mode-S Extended Squitter (1090 ES) transponder and a Universal Access Transceiver (UAT), or any equivalents thereof. ADS-B equipped systems, such as an aircraft or a ground station, within about 150 miles of an ADS-B transmission source may receive the ADS-B and display the received information. For example, a pilot in an aircraft cockpit can see traffic on a Cockpit Display of Traffic Information (CDTI). Additionally, air traffic controllers on the ground can see ADS-B traffic on their traffic display screen, as well as other radar targets.
RTCA: The Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics or RTCA, Inc. is a private, not-for-profit corporation that develops consensus-based recommendations regarding communications, navigation, surveillance, and air traffic management (CNS/ATM) system issues. Its recommendations are used by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as the basis for policy, program, and regulatory decisions and by the private sector as the basis for development, investment and other business decisions. RTCA publication DO-260A is entitled Minimum Operational Performance Standards for 1090 MHz Extended Squitter Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) and Traffic Information Services-Broadcast (TIS-B). Appendix I of RTCA publication DO-260A (Appendix I) describes methods used to detect and correct data errors in ADS-B or TIS-B squitter messages.
TIS-B: TIS-B supplements ADS-B air-to-air services to provide complete situational awareness in the cockpit of all traffic known to the Air Traffic Control (ATC) system. TIS-B is a useful service for an ADS-B link in airspace where not all aircraft are transmitting ADS-B information. The ground ADS-B station transmits surveillance target information on the ADS-B data link for unequipped aircraft or aircraft transmitting only on another ADS-B link. TIS-B uplinks are derived from the best available ground surveillance sources, which may include ground radars for primary and secondary targets, multi-lateration systems for targets on the airport surface and/or ADS-B systems for targets equipped with a different ADS-B link.
ADS-B AND TIS-B MESSAGES: ADS-B and TIS-B messages are transmitted at 1090 MHz and consist of a data field of 112 bits that uses pulse position modulation (PPM) and is preceded by a four pulse preamble. The first 5 bits of the data field is the downlink field (DF). An ADS-B message has a DF field equal to 17 decimal (10001 binary) and a TIS-B message has a DF field equal to 18 decimal (10010 binary).
ERRONEOUS ADS-B AND TIS-B MESSAGES: Data error in an ADS-B or TIS-B message can be due to receiver noise for low level signals that are close to the receiver noise floor or due to overlapping signals that are generated by other transponder replies or from TIS-B ground stations, or other on-channel transmitters such as DME systems tuned to 1090 MHz. These overlapping signals (with the exception of DME systems) are termed "fruit signals" and can either be Air Traffic Control Radar Beacon System (ATCRBS) format of 15 bits or Mode S format of either 56 or 112 bits. Within the data field of 112 bits for an ADS-B or TIS-B message is a subfield of 24 bits that is used for parity encoding and is called the Parity/Identity field (PI field). The 24 bit PI field is generated by a polynomial division of the Mode S message by a fixed 24 bit polynomial. The PI field is used for detecting bit errors and may also be used for correcting bit errors in the message. Using error correction techniques set forth in Appendix I, it is possible to correct some messages which have erroneous bits due to receiver noise or fruit signals. In some cases, the messages can be corrected even if the overlapping fruit signals are much stronger than the ADS-B or TIS-B signal.
The error detection and correction methods set forth in Appendix I rely on the ability to correct bits that have obvious errors and mark other bits that may have less obvious errors as "low confidence" bits. After bits are either corrected or marked as "low confidence," several well known algorithms can be used to correct the messages. These algorithms rely on the use of the PI field and the polynomial division operation to determine if the message has been corrected. These correction methods are set forth in Appendix I and include the "conservative technique," the "brute-force technique" and the "whole message technique." Using these algorithms, the undetected error rate is sufficiently small to meet system safety requirements.
In order to correct obvious bit errors and mark questionable bits as "low confidence," the error correction algorithms set forth in Appendix I first determine the average RF level of the first 4 pulses in the message (these first 4 pulses are referred to as the "preamble"). The error correction algorithms set forth in Appendix I take a number of samples from the top of each of the 4 preamble pulses at a sample rate of 8 or 10 MHz and perform a number of tests and operations on the samples. Since it is possible to have overlapping higher amplitude fruit signals in the preamble, the algorithms attempt to remove these samples since they would provide an undesirable bias measurement of the RF level. This operation forms what is referred to in Appendix I as a "preamble reference level," which is used for decoding the data in the ADS-B message.
Once the preamble reference level is determined, each of the data bits in the ADS-B message are processed using this level to determine the bit value (1 or 0) and whether it is a high or low confidence bit. Several error correction methods are described in the Appendix I, which are termed "multi-sample" due to the fact that each bit (1 micro-second in duration) has a number of samples which are processed (8 for an 8 MHz clock). The multi-sample error correction methods described in Appendix I include the "baseline multi-sample" and the "table look-up multi-sample." Each of these methods rely on the determination of the preamble reference level. Other methods for data detection are possible, and other sample rates which are not defined in Appendix I may be used. Each of these methods assigns a bit value to each bit (1 or 0) and a confidence level for each bit (high or low). According to Appendix I, where obvious bit errors are detectable, the bit value is corrected by one of the multi-sample techniques, and the bit is labeled "high confidence." This bit correction occurs prior to the error detection and correction algorithms described below.
After the message data bit value and confidence has been determined for the 112 bit message by one of the multi-sample techniques, an error syndrome, which is described in DO-260A and DO-185A (both of which are RTCA publications incorporated herein by reference), will be computed to determine if errors exist in the message. The error syndrome uses the PI field and a polynomial division operation in order to make the determination. If the error syndrome is non-zero, then several methods can be used to attempt to correct the message. The methods described in Appendix I are the "conservative technique," the "brute-force technique," and the "whole message technique." Each of these methods makes use of the bit confidence level in order to attempt the correction.
The "conservative technique" can correct messages that have 12 or less low confidence bits that span no more than 24 Mode S bits and have no more than 7 consecutive low confidence bits. If this criteria is not met, then the "conservative technique" cannot be used to correct the message, since it may result in an unacceptable undetected error rate.
The "brute force technique" can correct messages that have 5 or less low confidence bits, regardless of where they occur in the message. If more than 5 low confidence bits exist, the message cannot be corrected using "brute force technique" due to the possibility of an unacceptable undetected error rate.
The "whole message technique" also uses low confidence bits and has similar limitations.
In the case of the error correction methods described in Appendix I (the "conservative technique," the "brute-force technique" and the "whole message technique"), if too many low confidence bits exist or if bits that have errors are not marked as low confidence, the message cannot be corrected. The preamble reference level has a major effect on this determination. Some of the errors in the preamble reference level determination include errors due to noise for low level signals or errors due to overlapping fruit (interference) that corrupt the preamble reference level determination. If the preamble reference level determination is off, then the following undesirable situations may occur:                Bits that should be marked as low confidence bits may be marked as high confidence bits. If the bits have the wrong bit value, the error correction techniques cannot correct the message. The techniques will not attempt to correct bits that are marked as high confidence bits.        Bits that should be marked as high confidence bits may be marked as low confidence bits. If too many low confidence bits exist, the message will not be corrected.
Another problem can occur when the timing of the preamble is not determined correctly (start of the Mode S data). The first bit of the Mode S data is 8 micro-seconds from the first preamble pulse. If the preamble pulse timing is not determined correctly, the data decoding may not be correct. The preamble timing determination may be in error due to noise for low level signals or errors due to overlapping fruit (interference). Some of the same issues will exist in the bit value and bit confidence determination, as described above.
Another problem may occur due to limitations of the decoding algorithms, namely, the enhanced preamble detection algorithms specified in section 4.1 of Appendix I or the enhanced bit and confidence declaration in section 4.2 of Appendix I. These algorithms, as set forth Appendix I, work well when the signal to noise ratio of the ADS-B/TIS-B signal is fairly good, e.g., when the signal level exceeds the noise level by at least 6 dB. The algorithms assume that if higher sensitivity is required, such as is the case for having A3 receiver sensitivity (as used herein "A3 receiver sensitivity" means Class A3 receiver sensitivity, as set forth in DO-260A), an active antenna will be used to improve the signal to noise ratio for the ADS-B receiver. However, when the ADS-B or TIS-B signals have a poor signal to noise ratio, such as when a non-active or passive antenna is used as part of a TCAS system, the Appendix I algorithms do not provide adequate performance.
Thus, a need exists for improved systems and methods for decoding ADS-B and TIS-B messages to achieve at least A3 receiver sensitivity while employing a passive antenna to receive the messages.

Method and apparatus to improve the ability to decode ADS-B squitters through multiple processing paths

Aviation Communication&Surveillance Systems LLC


A magnetic recording medium for contact recording has a layered structure sequentially with a substrate made of an aluminum alloy having a maximum surface roughness R.sub.max between 100 .ANG. and 300 .ANG. and having no surface protrusions or unevenness higher than 760 .ANG., a magnetic layer formed thereon by sputtering through underlying layers of Tiw film and Cr film, a non-magnetic first protective film formed by sputtering, a second protective film having hard particulates with average diameter 50-300 .ANG. dispersed in an inorganic oxide film, and a lubricant film. The second protective film is formed by applying a solution containing both an organic compound and the particulates and subjecting it to a heat treatment. The medium has a maximum surface roughness of 100-300 .ANG. and no surface protrusions or unevenness high than 760 .ANG. and is usable for contact recording with a recording head having flying height of less than 760 .ANG..

This invention relates to a magnetic recording medium such as a magnetic recording disc for contact recording.
High recording densities are recently being required of magnetic recording devices. In order to achieve a high recording density, both the linear and track densities must be improved. The linear density is related to the so-called flying height of the head for recording and reproducing such that the flying height must be reduced in order to increase the linear density. The flying height of a head for the commercially available magnetic recording disc drive currently having the largest linear density is about 1500 .ANG.. In order to achieve still higher recording densities, there have been attempts to operate the head in contact, or nearly in contact, with the recording disc during read and write operations. Such a read-write method is referred to as contact recording whereby the head occasionally comes into contact with a part of a magnetic disc for recording and reproducing while the latter rotates at a specified speed. Such a read-write method requires a new type of magnetic discs with improved mechanical durability and improved uniformity in the surface conditions. The flying height of the head is less than about 760 .ANG. (3 microinches) and even if the disc surface is ideally flat, the slider part of the head may come to touch the disc surface due to the vibrations of the actuator or an external shock when the head seeks over the disc. The probability of such an occurrence is particularly high if the average flying height is less than 760 .ANG.. For this reason, the contact recording may be characterized by the range of flying height of the head less than 760 .ANG..
Japanese Patent Publication Tokkai 52-20804 discloses a magnetic recording medium obtained by forming a non-magnetic layer of Ni-P on a substrate of an aluminum alloy, a magnetic layer of Co-Ni-P on this non-magnetic layer, and thereafter a protective layer of polysilicate by coating the magnetic layer with a tetrahydroxy silane solution and then subjecting it to a heat treatment. Japanese Patent Publication Tokkai 61-73227 discloses another magnetic recording medium obtained by forming a non-magnetic layer of Ni-P on an aluminum substrate, a magnetic layer of Co-Ni-P on this non-magnetic layer, a protective layer of polysilicate with hard particulates dispersed therethrough by coating the magnetic layer with a tetrahydroxy silane solution containing these particulates and subjecting it to a heat treatment, and then a lubricant layer comprising perfluoro polyether on this protective layer. More recently, Japanese Patent Application Tokugan 01-138095 disclosed a recording medium which is produced by sequentially forming a magnetic layer and a protective layer on a substrate of a glass or ceramic material and is characterized wherein the surface roughness (R.sub.max) of the substrate is less than 100 .ANG..
One of the most important requirements to be satisfied by a recording medium for contact recording is that there should be no irregular protrusions higher than the flying height of the head. The so-called head crushing by such surface protrusions of a recording medium can be evaluated by a so-called glide test and the requirement mentioned above may be rephrased that the recording medium for contact recording must be able to pass a glide test at a lowest possible value. Since the head usually flies at a height of less than 760 .ANG., recording media for contact recording must be those which can pass a glide test at a lower height than the flying height of the head.
It is evident that textured discs of conventional types cannot be used for the purpose of contact recording because textures, after all, are scratches which are purposefully created for preventing adsorption of the head and include irregular bumps of about 1000 .ANG. in height. Since these bumps are greater than the flying height of the head, head crushing is easily caused by these bumps. Even if the texturing process is omitted, the polished surface of an aluminum alloy substrate plated with Ni-P, for example, generally contains polisher traces such that, even if the average surface roughness (R.sub.a) is as small as 100 .ANG., the maximum surface roughness (R.sub.max) may be 500-1000 .ANG., the surface protrusions and indentations being far from uniform. This is not surprising, however, because it used to be considered important to prevent the adsorption of the head and the surface roughness was intentionally created on the non-magnetic substrate. Thus, there has been no need to polish the plated surface of Ni-P to a degree required for the purpose of contact recording. Conventionally, furthermore, the flying height of the head was generally greater than 1000 .ANG. and there was no serious problem to be encountered even if the surface of the recording medium contained bumps of 1000 .ANG. in height. If use is made of a substrate of an aluminum alloy for contact recording, therefore, care must be taken to reduce the polisher traces such that substrates capable of passing a glide test at 760 .ANG. can be obtained.
Aforementioned Japanese Patent Publication Tokkai 52-20804 discloses a magnetic recording medium having a magnetic layer of Co-Ni-P plated over a mirror-polished Ni-P plated layer but the recording medium according to this reference is not appropriate for contact recording for many reasons. Firstly, since the average roughness (R.sub.a) of its mirror-polished substrate surface is about 400 .ANG. and its maximum roughness (R.sub.max) is therefore thought to be 2000-4000 .ANG., this substrate cannot be considered appropriately polished for the purpose of contact recording. Secondly, it is considered essential to reduce as much as possible the gap between the magnetic layer and the magnetic head if it is desired to increase the recording density of the magnetic recording medium. The protective layer formed over the magnetic layer must also be made thinner than the conventional carbon coating (300-500 .ANG.) and its thickness should be reduced ideally to zero, or at least to less than 200 .ANG.. In reality, however, use is made of a polysilicate film as thick as 1000 .ANG. as the protective layer and hence the separation between the magnetic layer of the recording medium and the magnetic head becomes disadvantageously large. Thirdly, the polysilicate film formed as a protective layer does not serve to reduce friction when it contacts the magnetic head. Fourthly, since the protective layer of an active polysilicate is formed directly on the magnetic layer, this active polysilicate tends to adversely affect the characteristics of the magnetic layer and hence the recording and reproducing characteristics of the recording medium as a whole. Fifthly, it is extremely difficult to form a thin polysilicate film of less than 200 .ANG. in thickness uniformly and directly over a magnetic layer. Sixthly, the polysilicate protective layer is not reliably capable of stopping water which enters from its surface. Hence, the number of defects can increase within an atmosphere with high humidity, contributing to deterioration of the characteristics of the recording medium.
As for the magnetic recording medium according to aforementioned Japanese Patent Publication Tokkai 61-73227 having as protective layer a polysilicate film with hard particulates dispersed therethrough, it has the advantage of improved resistance against abrasion, and a lubricant layer can be more easily maintained thereon. Since use is made of a substrate with average surface roughness (R.sub.a) of 200 .ANG. and maximum surface roughness (R.sub.max) in the range of 1000-2000 .ANG., however, it cannot be considered appropriate for contact recording. Additional disadvantages include, as above, that the protective layer of polysilicate is directly formed on the magnetic layer so as to adversely affect the recording and reproducing characteristics of the latter, that the protective layer is not reliably capable of stopping water which enters from its surface, and that it is extremely difficult to form a thin polysilicate film of less than 200 .ANG. in thickness uniformly and directly over a magnetic layer.
Aforementioned Japanese Patent Application Tokugan 01-138095 discloses a magnetic recording medium having a glass or ceramic substrate with surface roughness (R.sub.max) less than 100 .ANG. but these substrate materials are fragile and hence the cost of fabrication becomes significantly higher than if a substrate of an aluminum alloy is used.

Magnetic recording medium comprising an aluminum alloy substrate, now magnetic underlayers, magnetic layer, protective layer, particulate containing protective layer and lubricant layer


The instant invention relates to a method and system of securing a child seat in a vehicle that includes a child seat and a child restraint seat and where the child seat has rearwardly projecting anchorage means and a tether hook, and the child restraint seat is an integral and permanent part of a previously existing seat frame or it is installed as OEM in the vehicle and two front projecting loops are provided that engage with the two rearwardly projecting anchorage means of the child seat and a rearwardly projecting loop that engages the tether hook of the child seat and the said three loops are physically attached to a tubular frame of the child restraint seat and are a permanent and integral part thereof to anchor said child seat.

Child safety seats have become more and more popular and thus have also become more and more inventive and effective in manners of securing the child safety seat to a vehicle seat. Most commonly a child safety seat rests on a vehicle seat and is secured thereon by the corresponding vehicle seat belt. This method is effective in preventing a child seat from flying off the vehicle seat when rapid deceleration of the respective automobile occurs, as in an accident. However, even when the vehicle""s seat belt is pulled tight, there is still undesirable slipping and movement of the child seat on the vehicle seat which may allow for the tippage of the child seat or additional snapping forward of the child seat and thus excessive torque and force upon the infant.
There have been many recent improvements on the common method of securing the child seat to the vehicle seat rather then merely use of the vehicle""s seat belt. Darrow in U.S. Pat. No. 6,030,046 disclosed an apparatus for anchoring a child seat within a motor vehicle through the use of an anchorage bar. Stack, et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 6,095,604 disclosed a child seat with a tether hook on a strap, and a vehicle seat with a connector receptacle on the rear portion of the seat, whereby the tether hook is associated with the connector receptacle. Also, Jackson et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 6,082,819 disclosed a child seat with a removable base frame, whereby said base frame is directly and removably attachable to a vehicle seat frame.
The instant invention also relates to a method for securely attaching a child seat to a child restraint seat to insure the proper location for the child restraint system and to insure the strength of the system in order to reduce the likelihood of the anchorage systems"" failure. The instant invention relates to the effective securing of child seats to child restraint seats to increase the likelihood that restraints of child seats are properly secured and thus more fully achieve their potential of effectiveness in motor vehicles as set out in the standards in National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Section 571,225, Standard No. 225, Child Restraint Anchorage Systems.
The instant invention relates to a method of securing a child in a vehicle by means of a child seat system, wherein said system includes a child seat and a child restraint seat and where the child seat has rearwardly projecting anchorage means, and the child restraint seat is an integral and permanent part of a previously existing seat frame or it is installed as OEM in the vehicle.
The invention applies to child restraint anchorage systems for passenger cars, trucks, multipurpose passenger vehicles with a gross vehicle weight of 8,500 pounds or less and to buses including school buses, with a gross vehicle weight of 10,000 pounds or less. This invention, accordingly, applies best to passenger vehicles equipped with free-standing passenger seats, to passenger vehicles equipped with three or more forward facing rear designated seating positions, and to passenger vehicles for which the anchorage system is accessible without removing a seating component of the vehicle.
The present invention comprises a system for securing a child seat to a child restraint seat. Said system includes a child restraint seat that is fixedly associated with and supported by a vehicle frame member, where said frame member has rigid engagement means for attachment to a vehicle in order that the frame member and vehicle are an integral part of the seat; and having a cross-member that is rigidly secured thereto with a plurality of metal loops attached to said cross-member wherein two of said loops project forward toward the front of the seat in a horizontal plane parallel to the horizontal portion of said seat and another of the loops projects rearward of said cross-member. The loops are rigidly secured to the cross-member and are readily available for use as anchorage attachment tether points; and the child seat has securing means that are anchored to said forward projecting loops to act as two of the anchorage attachment tether points; and the rearwardly projecting loop is secured to act as a tethering anchor for the child restraint seat by being removably associated with a tether hook that is associated with a strap that is secured to the child seat. In addition, this system is accessible without the need of any tools other than a screwdriver or a coin, and once accessed, it is ready to be sealed without the need for any tools in order to prevent the entry of exhaust fumes into the passenger compartment, and to maintain the current temperature control of the vehicle.
The child restraint seat frame""s cross-member may be tubular in shape. Also, a tether anchorage means may include openings that are secured to said forward extending loops by means of pin means once said loops are fitted into said openings. Also, the loops may protrude through upholstery so that they may be associated with tether anchoring means.
Moreover, it can be seen that a method of attaching a child restraint system to a vehicle is described that includes a child restraint seat having a tubular metal frame which supports anchorage attachment means comprising two forward anchorage attachment loops and one rearward anchorage attachment loop; the child restraint seat is then associated with an existing seat frame having at least two metal cross bars by a means of attachment of the child restraint seat frame to the two metal cross bars of the existing seat frame, the means of attachment including, in combination, metal bolts of suitable length to project through the metal cross bars of the existing seat frame and secured by nuts of suitable size.
The aforestated method may also include several variations. First, the two forward anchorage attachment loops and one rearward attachment loop may comprise stainless steel wires welded to a stainless steel cross tube of child restraint seat, where the stainless steel cross tube is welded to the child restraint seat frame. Also, the child restraint seat frame may comprise a tubular U-shaped seat frame with a tubular cross-brace which supports the anchorage attachment means, including the attachment means of two forward anchorage attachment loops and one rearward attachment loop, such loops are metal loops of stainless steel wire welded to a tubular cross brace of child restraint seat frame.
Moreover, the means of attachment of the tubular metal frame of the child restraint seat to the metal cross bars of the existing seat frame may include a frame with four seat mounting brackets welded to the stainless steel tube seat frame and four cap screws or bolts of sufficient length to project through the metal cross bars of the existing seat frame and are held in position by suitably sized spacers and spacer washers and hex nuts tightened into position at required torque. The method also provides accessible tether anchorages for tether hooks ready for use without need of any tools. Further, this method of attaching the child seat permits sealing of the passenger compartment to prevent entrance of exhaust fumes into the passenger compartment.
Further objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Child restraint seating method and system


In one embodiment of the invention, programmable circuits, such as FPGAs, may be used to implement different types of functions, such as a multi-bit adder, using look-up table (LUT) circuits as their building blocks. Efficient generation of carry-out signals and fast-carry generation signals using available SRAM cells in the various embodiments of the LUT circuit can reduce and/or eliminate area-inefficient look-ahead carry logic without a significant delay in signal generation.

A multi-bit adder is a circuit that receives two multi-bit binary input values and generates a multi-bit binary sum value corresponding to the sum of the two input values. Two conventional types of multi-bit adders are ripple-carry adders and look-ahead carry adders.
FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of conventional 4-bit ripple-carry adder 100, which receives two 4-bit binary input values (A3 A2 A1 A0) and (B3 B2 B1 B0) and generates a corresponding 5-bit binary sum value (C4 SUM3 SUM2 SUM1 SUM0), where A3, B3, and C4 are the most-Significant bits (MSBs) and A0, BO, and SUM0 are the least-significant bits (LSBs) of the three binary values, respectively.
Ripple-carry adder 100 comprises four 1-bit adders 101-104 connected serially from LSB adder 101 to MSB adder 104. Each 1-bit adder receives three 1-bit input values Ai, Bi, and Ci and generates 1-bit sum bit SUMi and 1-bit carry bit Ci+1, according to Equations (1) and (2) as follows:SUMi=Ai XOR Bi XOR Ci  (1)Ci+1=Ai·Bi+(Ai XOR Bi)Ci  (2)where the "XOR" operator is the logical "exclusive OR" function, the "·" operator is the logical "AND" function, and the "+" operator is the logical "OR" function. Note that Ci is the ith carry bit, which is received from the previous 1-bit adder, while Ci+1 is the (i+1)th carry bit, which is applied to the subsequent 1-bit adder.
If adder 100 is operated, in a stand-alone manner, as a 4-bit adder, then carry bit CO is 0, and carry bit C4 is the MSB of the resulting multi-bit sum. Alternatively, one or more instances of 4-bit adder 100 can be connected in series to form a multi-bit adder, in which case, carry bit C0 corresponds to carry bit C4 from the previous instance of 4-bit adder 100 (if there is one), and carry bit C4 is applied as carry bit CO to the subsequent instance of 4-bit adder 100 (if there is one).
Adder 100 is referred to as a "ripple-carry" adder, because the carry bits ripple through adder 100 in a serial manner. In particular, the carry-in bit (CIN in FIG. 1) received at each 1-bit adder is not valid until after the previous 1-bit adder has generated its carry-out bit (COUT). As such, adder 102 must wait until adder 101 has completed its implementation of Equation (2) before it can complete its implementation of Equations (1) and (2). Similarly, adder 103 must wait until adder 102 has completed its implementation of Equation (2) before it can complete its implementation of Equations (1) and (2). Lastly, adder 104 must wait until adder 103 has completed its implementation of Equation (2) before it can complete its implementation of Equations (1) and (2). This results in an inherent limitation to the speed at which a ripple-carry adder can generate its multi-bit output sum value, which speed decreases as the number of bits increases.
To overcome the processing-speed limitations associated with ripple-carry adders, look-ahead carry adders may be used.
FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of conventional 4-bit look-ahead carry adder 200, which, like 4-bit ripple-carry adder 100 of FIG. 1, receives two 4-bit binary input values (A3 A2 A1 A0) and (B3 B2 B1 B0) and generates a corresponding 5-bit binary sum value (C4 SUM3 SUM2 SUM1 SUM0).
Like ripple-carry adder 100, look-ahead carry adder 200 comprises four 1-bit adders 201-204 connected serially from LSB adder 201 to MSB adder 204, where each 1-bit adder receives three 1-bit input values Ai, Bi, and Ci and two 1-bit values SUMi and Ci+1 are generated according to Equations (1) and (2). Unlike, ripple-carry adder 100, however, look-ahead carry adder 200 includes look-ahead carry generation logic 205, which generates carry bits C1-C4 in parallel with the processing of 1-bit adders 201-204.
Look-ahead carry adder 200 takes advantage of the fact that carry bit Ci+1 generated by the ith 1-bit adder has a value of 1 only (i) if both bits Ai and Bi are a 1 or (ii) if only one of bits Ai and Bi is a 1 and carry bit Ci from the previous 1-bit adder is also a 1. Thus, carry bit Ci+1 may be re-defined from Equation (2) according to Equation (3) as follows:Ci+1=Gi+Pi·Ci  (3)where generate bit Gi and propagate bit Pi are defined according to Equations (4) and (5) as follows:Gi=Ai·Bi  (4)Pi=(Ai XOR Bi)  (5)
Substituting Equation (5) into Equation (1) yields an alternative formula for generating sum bit SUMi, according to Equation (6) as follows:SUMi=Pi XOR Ci  (6)
Substituting Equations (4) and (5) into Equation (2) to generate a formula for carry bit C1 yields Equation (7) as follows:C1=G0+P0·C0  (7)Substituting Equations (4), (5), and (7) into Equation (2) to generate a formula for carry bit C2 yields Equation (8) as follows:C2=G1+P1·G0+P1·P0·C0  (8)Continuing this pattern, formulas can be generated for carry bits C3 and C4 according to Equations (9) and (10) as follows:C3=G2+P2·G1+P2·P1·G0+P2·P1P0·C0  (9)C4=G3+P3·G2+P3··P2·G1+P3·P2·P1·G0+P3·P2·P1·P0·C0  (10)
Since (as indicated by Equations (4) and (5)) the propagate and generate bits, Pi and Gi, depend only on the input bits, Ai and Bi, and since (as indicated by Equations (7)-(10)) carry bits C1-C4 depend only on the propagate and generate bits, P0-P3 and G0-G3, and carry bit CO, the processing in look-ahead carry adder 200 can be implemented in the following three steps, where the operations within each step are implemented in parallel.
In the first step, each 1-bit adder implements Equations (4) and (5) to generate its propagate and generate bits, Pi and Gi, and provides those values to look-ahead carry generation logic 205. In the second step, look-ahead carry generation logic 205 implements Equations (7)-(10) to generate carry bits C1-C4. In the third step, each 1-bit adder implements Equation (6) to generate its corresponding sum bit SUMi.
In this way, 4-bit look-ahead carry adder 200 of FIG. 2 can operate faster than 4-bit ripple-carry adder 100 of FIG. 1, albeit at the added cost of implementing look-ahead carry generation logic 205, whose complexity increases as the number of bits increases.

Fast-carry arithmetic circuit using a multi-input look-up table


A driver circuit includes: a first transistor connected between a line of first voltage and an output terminal; a first overcurrent detector configured to output a first signal when overcurrent flows into the first transistor; a first control unit configured to turn on and off the first transistor at a predetermined period and turn off the first transistor when the first signal is output from the first overcurrent detector; and a counter configured to count the number of times by which the first signal is output from the first overcurrent detector within a predetermined time interval, and to output a shut-down signal to stop an operation of the driver circuit as a value of the count reaches a predetermined value of equal to or more than 2.

In a liquid crystal display, a plurality of gate lines (GL) is sequentially selected and a positive voltage is applied to the selected gate line (GL) while a negative voltage is applied to the other gate lines (GL). For example, if one gate line GL is circuit-shorted to a negative voltage line through a defect, overcurrent flows into transistors of a driver circuit when a positive voltage is applied to the gate line GL. Since such overcurrent flowing into the transistors may overheat or damage the transistors, there is a need to turn off the transistors.
As one of methods for detecting overcurrent of transistors, there has been proposed a method for detecting a voltage drop due to on-resistance of transistors and determining that overcurrent flows into transistors if the detected voltage drop exceeds a predetermined voltage.
However, in a method of turning off the transistors when the overcurrent flows into the transistors, no overcurrent is detected when the transistors are turned off, and then, when a normal gate line GL not circuit-shorted is selected, a driver circuit is normally operated. This may result in repeated overcurrent flown in the gate line GL and hence overheating and damage of the transistors.

Driver circuit and television set using the same


A food tray (40) is pivotally attached on one side (42) to a vertical breast portion (24), which in turn is pivotally attached at it's top end by a bolt and wingnut (22) to a neck hook (29), for hanging the unit on the user's neck. A drinking cup ring (50) is pivotally attached to the center of breast portion (24), for supporting a drinking cup. Two oppositly pivoting arms (30) open outwardly at the top end of breast portion (24) to support a napkin (36) between breast plate (24) and the user, to protect user's clothing. The unit folds up by swiveling arms (30) inwardly, swiveling neck hook (20) downward,, cup ring (50) upward, and breast portion downward into food tray (40). The unit will pack into box 12" .times.10".times.3" deep.

1. Field of Invention
The present Invention relates to food trays, in particular to a food tray which is supported by the user's neck.
2. Description of Prior Art
Food trays are made in many forms. Most commonly, they comprise a flat rectangular platter with a raised edge all round, often with handles at each end for easy carrying. Some are made of metal and have a raised-up integrally-made edge which facilitates holding and carrying. Still others are made especially for the use of Individuals, and are intended to hold a plate of food and a drinking cup or glass, usually in indented holders shaped to contain them relatively securely. Such food holders or trays are used at parties, picnics, barbecues, and other large gatherings where there are too many guests to seat them at a table.
The problem with trays such as those described is that the user must either find seating or have a place to set the tray down, because it is extremely awkward to simultaneously hold the tray and eat from it. In America, where people often eat with the fork alone, the task is difficult enough, as trays usually cannot be balanced with one hand. For those who use the British system, requiring both hands for the silverware, both holding a tray and eating from it is virtually impossible. Moreover, when a plate is held in one hand while the user attempts to manipulate silverware or food with the other, the balance is so precarious that much spilling takes place.


There is a display device configured to couple to a structure, such as a wall. The display device includes a display module having a base plate. The display module includes an array of containers extending from the base plate. The display module includes a plurality of supports disposed between each of the containers of the array of containers. The display module includes a pair of end tabs coupled to each end of the array of containers. The display device includes a pair of brackets configured to couple to the pair of end tabs of the display module. The pair of brackets include a support plate and a channel disposed on the support plate about a 45 degree angle. The pair of brackets include an attachment surface disposed on the support plate and a vertical slit aperture disposed adjacent the channel.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display devices, specifically to a modular display device.
2. Description of the Related Art
A display device is structure used to display objects for viewing, for example in a retail store, retail environment, or at home. In retail, the objects are normally being offered for sale. A display device may be freestanding on the floor or may be smaller and mounted on the wall. Display devices are typically made by specialist companies and often made to order. They also are made in variety of styles and materials as available at a store fixture supplier. Some improvements have been made in the field. Examples of references related to the present invention are described below, and the supported teachings of each reference are incorporated by reference herein: U.S. Pat. No. 6,964,443, U.S. Pat. No. 6,640,981, U.S. Pat. No. 6,530,485, U.S. Pat. No. 6,520,366, U.S. Pat. No. 6,394,288, U.S. Pat. No. 5,996,818, U.S. Pat. No. 5,947,305, U.S. Pat. No. 5,938,048, U.S. Pat. No. 56,878,862, U.S. Pat. No. 5,285,907, U.S. Pat. No. 4,179,033, U.S. Pat. No. 3,311,402, U.S. Pat. No. D551,036, U.S. Pat. No. D618,074, and U.S. Patent Publication No.: 2008/0128319.
The inventions heretofore known suffer from a number of disadvantages which include being limited in use, being limited in positioning, being limited in mountability, being expensive, being difficult to install, being limited in adaptability, failing to adequately support materials disposed therein, not supporting accessory devices, being awkward, having limited mounting configurations, being difficult to move, difficult to clean, difficult to replace, and the like.
What is needed is a display device that solves one or more of the problems described herein and/or one or more problems that may come to the attention of one skilled in the art upon becoming familiar with this specification.


A head restraint assembly adapted for inwardly rotating between a substantially upright use position and a relatively retracted storage position is disclosed. According to one exemplary embodiment, the head restraint assembly is configured for use with a vehicle seat having a collapsible seat back for providing improved clearance as the seat back moves between a use position and a storage position. The head restraint assembly generally includes a support member having a first portion adapted for pivotally coupling to the seat back and a second portion that outwardly extends through an aperture defined by a top surface of the seat back for supporting a head supporting cushion. The first portion of the support member has a substantially curvilinear profile for allowing the required size of the aperture in the top surface of the seat back to be minimized in a longitudinal direction relative to the seat back.

The present invention relates generally to the field of head restraints for a seat and in particular for a vehicle seat. More particularly, the present invention relates to the field of movable head restraints for a vehicle seat having a seat back that is configured to move between a generally upright use position and a relatively collapsed or otherwise retracted stowed position.
It is generally known to provide a head restraint that extends upward from a seat back of a vehicle seat. It is also generally known to provide vehicle seat with a seat back that is configured to move between a generally upright use position and a retracted stowed or storage position (i.e., a collapsible vehicle seat). Providing a collapsible vehicle seat may be advantageous for a variety of reasons such as providing additional storage or cargo space within the vehicle or improving access to other areas within the vehicle that may otherwise be limited because of the presence of a vehicle seat or components thereof (e.g., arm rests, head restraints, etc.).
Collapsing the seat back of a vehicle seat, and in particular a seat back of a second or third row vehicle seat, that supports an upwardly extending head restraint is often difficult due to interference caused by the extended height of the vehicle seat back due to the head restraint (i.e., insufficient clearance between the seat back and/or head restraint and a second article within the vehicle). For example, a head restraint outwardly extending from a seat back is likely to strike or otherwise contact an article within the vehicle (e.g., a seat back positioned in front of the rotating seat back, an instrument panel, an overhead component, etc.) when the seat back is collapsed, thereby preventing the stowed or storage position from being obtained.
Vehicle seats having movable head restraints have been developed in an attempt to overcome the spatial obstacles presented when moving a seat back from a use position to a stowed position. A typical arrangement for such a movable head restraint is to provide a folding mechanism for moving the head restraint from a generally upright use position to a storage position. The folding mechanism is typically coupled to the head restraint support posts that extend upward from the upper portion of the seat back and which mount the head restraint to the seat back. The support posts are rotated through an arc of approximately 90° to fold the head restraint to a storage portion. Openings are provided in the seat back to enable forward or rearward rotation of the support posts. Conventionally used linear support posts require longitudinally extending openings of substantial size in the seat back to enable rotation of the support posts. If it is desirable to have the support posts travel through an arc greater than 90°, the size of the opening must be increased accordingly. Substantially sized openings in the seat back may be undesirable for aesthetic and craftsmanship purposes and often cannot be adequately concealed.
It would be advantageous to provide a vehicle seat assembly having a seat back that collapses to a generally flat stowed position wherein a relatively flat load floor is created when the vehicle seat assembly is in the stowed position. It would also be advantageous to provide a collapsible vehicle seat assembly having a head restraint for every location intended to receive a seat occupant. It would further be advantageous to provide a head restraint that retracts to a storage position to provide clearance between the collapsible seat back and an article within the vehicle. It would further be advantageous to provide a head restraint that is configured to minimize the required size of the opening in the seat back for enabling inward rotation of the head restraint. It would further be advantageous to provide a head restraint that is configured to inwardly rotate an angular distance greater than 90° to improve the "flatness" that can be achieved when the vehicle seat is in the stowed position. It would further be advantageous to provide a head restraint that is configured to inwardly rotate an angular distance greater than 90° while still being able to minimize the size of the required opening in the seat back. Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide a head restraint for use with a vehicle seat providing one or more of these or other advantageous features.


The present invention is to provide a method of automatically enabling or disabling backlight of an electronic device based on a predetermined time, which is implemented in the electronic device including a memory having an established backlight control database containing a predetermined enabled and disabled time of backlight respectively. In response to a user pressing a key of the keypad as determined by the electronic device, the electronic device is able to automatically read and inquire the predetermined enabled or disabled time of backlight, and activate or deactivate the keypad backlight immediately when a predetermined condition (i.e., the predetermined enabled or disabled time of backlight) has been reached.

High technology, particularly electronics technology has known a rapid, spectacular development in recent years. As such, a wide variety of new electronic products are available in a fast pace. A unique one of the new electronic products is cellular phone having advantages of compactness, multi-function, and easy operation. Cellular phones also have characteristics of being lightweight, slim, and advanced. Thus, it is obvious that cellular phone is the most important one of the wide variety of new electronic products.
Conventionally, backlight device is only provided in a keypad of a cellular phone. The backlight device is adapted to enable or disable in a simple way. For example, a user can press any key of the keypad to enable the backlight device irrespective of day or night. Light is thus emitted from the enabled backlight device.
The above technique can solve the problem of being unable to see keys of cellular phone clearly in the night or dark environment by emitting light by activating the backlight device. However, control of the backlight device in the keypad is disadvantageous because it is done by manually enabling or disabling the setting. As such, many users frequently experienced tediousness and inconvenience in setting the activation or deactivation time of the backlight device. As a result, it is frequent that the backlight device of a cellular phone is always in an enabled state irrespective of day or night.
However, electric energy of battery of a cellular phone is consumed significantly because the backlight device is in an operating state for a long period of time even in a bright daytime and also the cellular phone is frequently used. As a result, both standby time and operating time of the cellular phone are shortened greatly.
Thus, it is desirable to provide a method of automatically enabling or disabling backlight of a cellular phone based on a predetermined time in order to overcome the above drawbacks of the prior art.

Method of automatically enabling or disabling backlight of electronic device based on a predetermined time


A method for determining an insertion trajectory of a tool for reaching a moving target object prior to its insertion into a tissular matrix. The method comprises acquiring images of the tissular matrix, constructing a three-dimensional representation of the tissular matrix, determining coordinates of the initial position of the target object and any obstacles, and determining at least one potential trajectory of the tool from the coordinates of any obstacles and the initial position of the target object. The method further comprises simulating insertion of the tool in the tissular matrix to determine displacement of the target object during insertion of the tool up to the initial position of the target object along a potential trajectory, determining a new position of the target object based on the determined displacement, and determining the insertion trajectory for the new position of the target object.

1. Field of the Invention
The field of the invention generally relates to medical imaging and more particularly relates to methods for determining an insertion trajectory of a tool for reaching a target object, prior to its insertion into a tissular matrix, moving within the tissular matrix, from image acquisition suitable for producing a three-dimensional representation of the tissular matrix.
The field of the invention also relates to the field of robotic systems for positioning a tool for reaching a target object, prior to its insertion into a tissular matrix, within the tissular matrix, from a determination of an insertion trajectory.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Determining an insertion trajectory of a tool for reaching a target object to be inserted into a tissular matrix within the tissular matrix is important in the medical field.
Indeed, chances of success for intervention depend on this determination, since incorrect or insufficiently accurate determination can result in failure in the attempt to reach the target object, or can even cause complications potentially serious for the health of the patient due to damage to some tissue or organs as the tool is moving through the tissular matrix.
Therefore, the medical world is actively researching methods for determining an insertion trajectory.
By way of example, document "Multi-criteria trajectory planning for hepatic radiofrequency ablation" by Baegert et al., in "Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Intervention—MICCAI 2007", 2007, discloses a method for determining an insertion trajectory for the insertion of a needle for hepatic radiofrequency ablation. This method takes into account a number of parameters, including some strict criteria, such as the needle not passing through a vital organ, bone or a major blood vessel; and other flexible criteria. Associated with each criterion is a function reflecting the state of the criterion as a function of a trajectory taken by the needle. A macro-function is then created by weighted addition of functions. Minimization of the macro-function gives the insertion trajectory.
However, this method does not take into account deformation of the tissular matrix into which the tool is inserted. Yet, deformation of the tissular matrix causes displacement of the target object. Therefore, even though the trajectory has been optimized by this method, it is still possible to miss the target object or touch other tissue.
A method for brachytherapy is known from "Needle Insertion Parameter Optimization for Brachytherapy", by Dehghan et al., in "IEEE Transactions on Robotics", Col. 25, No. 2, April 2009. In this method, the aim is to reach a plurality of target objects at the same time. In order to find the insertion trajectory, simulation of the deformation of the prostate, during insertion of the needle along a line passing very close to the target objects, is carried out to detect displacement of the target objects. A new trajectory passing very close to the new positions is determined from the new positions of the target objects. Simulation of the deformation of the prostate, during insertion of the needle along the new trajectory, is carried out, here again, to detect displacement of the target objects.
The steps for determining a new trajectory and of simulation are reiterated until the distance between the needle and the target objects which are displaced is under a threshold, the latter trajectory being the insertion trajectory.
However, this method cannot be applied to determining an insertion trajectory to reach a single target object. In fact, application of the method requires being able to determine the trajectory passing very close to the target objects. Yet, there is no single solution when there is only a single target object. Rather, there are an endless number of solutions.

Method for determining an insertion trajectory of a tool in a deformable tissular matrix and robotic system executing the method

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique


A time domain reflectometer (TDR) transducer (10) for determining a level (24) of liquid (16) in a container (12) includes a first electrode (34) and a second electrode portion (36) with a measuring volume (114) therebetween for receiving material (16) to be measured. The second electrode portion (36) has a shielded electrode section (36A) isolated from the first electrode (34) and an unshielded electrode section (36B), such that an energy pulse propagates along the shielded electrode section (36A) without signal loss, and boomerangs along a second opposite direction across the first conductive electrode portion (34), the measuring volume (114) and the unshielded electrode section (36B) where partial reflection of the pulse occurs at least at the interface (24) of the material (16) to create a return echo that travels in reverse direction, boomeranging back through the shielded electrode section (36A) for analysis by an electronic assembly (32).

This invention relates generally to the measurement of one or more material properties, and more particularly to an apparatus and method for determining liquid level and using time domain reflectometry (TDR) for determining at least a level or height of a material within a container, or the position of one object with respect to another, and/or a dielectric constant, specific gravity, permittivity, or other property of the liquid, fluid, and/or material of interest.
Prior art devices that employ time domain reflectometry (TDR) are typically very expensive and thus not feasible for low-cost devices required for certain products and markets that are cost-competitive. For example, known TDR sensors for determining liquid level within a container require high-cost high-precision electronic components, including high-precision temperature sensors, capacitors, resistors, and expensive microcontrollers with very high accuracy timers to determine liquid level with a relatively high degree of accuracy. Such TDR devices also employ expensive parts that interface with the measuring probe and the electronics, and can require more assembly and calibration time than desired, as well as the need for expensive calibration equipment during factory calibration, resulting in prohibitive costs that can rarely be justified except where the highest measurement accuracy is required.
In addition, prior art TDR devices are typically mounted at the top of a tank so that the coaxial probe extends into the tank from the top to the bottom thereof. When an electromagnetic pulse is introduced along the coaxial probe, a measurable return echo is created at the air/liquid interface. These types of devices, although expensive, can work well and produce accurate results when the dielectric constant k of the liquid being measured is relatively low. However, when the liquid has a relatively high dielectric constant, such as Freon (k=11), water (k=80), and so on, the energy from the radar wave is quickly dissipated and accuracy is compromised, if measurements can be made at all.
Dissipation of the radar wave is even more problematic with tanks that have bottom mounting configurations for receiving a liquid level transducer. When the TDR transducer is mounted at the bottom of the tank holding a liquid, with the coaxial probe extending upwardly into the tank from the bottom, the electromagnetic energy can dissipate into the fluid and may fail to produce a return echo at the liquid/air interface, and thus liquid level measurement may not occur. This is especially problematic with liquids having a high dielectric constant, as the liquid level in the tank increases, creating a situation where even liquids with a lower dielectric constant may cause sufficient dissipation of the electromagnetic pulse so that the generation of a measurable return echo at the liquid/air interface does not occur, resulting in failure of the liquid level measurement.
It would therefore be desirous to provide a TDR transducer that overcomes one or more of the disadvantages of prior art solutions.


A controller for an electric booster element in a water heater is described. The electric booster element is powered from mains power and the controller comprises a control module and a capacitive module adapted to store power and supply stored power to the control module. The control module produces a control signal for controlling a relay to supply or restrict mains power supply to said booster element, said control signal depending at least in part on time of use data.

As a measure to encourage users to use energy intensive appliances in periods where there are moderate to low demands on the electricity grid, power suppliers have introduced time of use tariff periods, where the energy tariffs during peak periods are higher than those during low demand periods. A further measure to reduce peak demand is provided by Australian Standard 4755 (AS4755) compliant "demand response enabling devices", which allow the power supplier to control the operations of the appliances, to manage the demand on the system. Built in devices included in or retrofittable devices added to water heaters, to optimise the responses of the water heaters to these periods, are desirable as they help reduce the energy consumption cost.
Any reference herein to known prior art does not, unless the contrary indication appears, constitute an admission that such prior art is commonly known by those skilled in the art to which the invention relates, at the priority date of this application.


An in-cell touch display panel system includes: first and second substrates configured therebetween a liquid crystal layer, a black matrix layer, a sensing electrode trace layer, an insulation layer, and a sensing electrode layer. The black matrix layer is composed of a plurality of opaque lines. The sensing electrode trace layer is composed of a plurality of trace conductor lines. The insulation layer is disposed on one surface of the sensing electrode trace layer facing the liquid crystal layer. The sensing electrode layer is composed of a plurality of transparent sensing electrodes obtained from patterning a common voltage layer. Each transparent sensing electrode is connected with at least one trace conductor line, while the plurality of trace conductor lines are disposed corresponding to positions of the plurality of opaque lines of the black matrix layer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a structure of touch display panel and, more particularly, to an in-cell touch display panel system using metal wires to connect with sensing electrodes.
2. Description of Related Art
A conventional touch display panel includes a touch panel and a display unit overlapped with the touch panel. The touch panel is configured as an operation interface. The touch panel is transparent so that an image generated by the display unit can be viewed directly by a user without being sheltered by the touch panel. Such well known skill of the touch panel may increase additional weight and thickness of the touch display panel, and may further reduce the light penetration rate, and increase reflectance and haze of the touch display panel.
On-cell and in-cell touch technologies were invented to overcome the drawbacks of traditional touch technology described above. The on-cell technology is to dispose sensors on the back side of a color filter substrate to form a completed color filter substrate. One of the on-cell touch technologies is provided to dispose touch sensors on a thin film and then bond the thin film onto the upper one of the two substrates.
The in-cell technology is to dispose the sensors within the LCD cell structure. Currently, there are resistive, capacitive and optical three primary in-cell touch technologies, wherein the resistive touch technology employs two conductive substrates and the voltage variation of a common layer between the two substrates for determining a touch position on the touch display panel.
The in-cell touch technology is provided to integrate the touch sensor within the display unit so that the display unit is provided with the ability of the touch panel. Therefore, the touch display panel does not need to be bonded with an additional touch panel so as to simplify the assembly procedure. Such skill is generally developed by TFT LCD manufactures.
There is older touch control technology known as out-cell, which is typically applied to the resistive and capacitive touch panels. The out-cell touch technology is provided to add a touch module onto a display module. The touch module and the display module can be manufactured by the two separate parties.
However, for all the in-cell, on-cell and out-cell touch technologies, they all need a transparent sensing electrode layer to be configured on an upper or lower glass substrate, which not only increases the manufacturing cost but also complicates the manufacturing process, and which may also lower the aperture ratio and thus need to increase the strength of backlight, resulting in huge power consumption which is disadvantageous to make the mobile device compact. Furthermore, because the distance between the transparent sensing electrode layer and the common electrode (Vcom) layer of the LCD display panel is very tiny, the capacitance formed by the finger and the transparent sensing electrode layer is much smaller than that formed by the transparent sensing electrode layer and the common electrode (Vcom) layer when performing touch sensing with the transparent sensing electrode layer. Therefore, for calculating the touched coordinate by using the touch sensing of the transparent sensing electrode layer, the variation of values obtained from different sensing electrodes becomes too small to distinguish, which is disadvantageous to coordinate calculation. That is, due to the capacitance between the transparent sensing electrode layer and the finger being much smaller than that between the transparent sensing electrode layer and the common electrode (Vcom) layer, the capacitance between the transparent sensing electrode layer and the finger is likely to be influenced by the capacitance between the transparent sensing electrode layer and the common electrode (Vcom) layer, resulting in decreasing the accuracy of touch sensing. Therefore, it desired for the aforementioned touch display panel system to be improved.

In-cell touch display panel system using metal wires to connect with sensing electrodes


A system having both load sharing structure and a primary/backup structure. The system has a primary unit mounted on each sub-system to share load according to load sharing processing order for events, a backup unit mounted on each sub-system to receive and store minimum data only necessary for restoration from the primary unit, the data is stored in the backup unit of a predetermined sub-system, a configuration management unit, a distributed algorithm processing unit, a shared resource, an event, and a distributed control environment.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a distributed control system, and more particularly, to a system combined with a load sharing structure and a primary/backup structure for efficiently and stably operating the system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, systems for distributively controlling many physically-distributed systems are divided into either a dual system (hereinafter, primary/backup structure) or a load sharing system. Systems that are primary/backup systems have resources and measures in place when a primary unit malfunctions. If a primary unit malfunctions in a primary/backup structure, the system can complete the processing of an event by using a backup unit. In such primary/backup systems, the backup unit contains all the information (is a duplicate) of the primary unit.
Systems that are load sharing have a plurality of units that can process events. The work in processing the events is distributed among the units so that to alleviate congestion that would result if only one unit is used.
However, primary/backup systems are inefficient because every piece of data must be duplicated into the backup unit. This requires a lot of overhead and resources to duplicate everything. Load sharing systems do not have primary/backup capabilities and systems with primary/backup capabilities do not have load sharing capabilities.
The above problems will be described as follows. The primary/backup structure does not have an efficient load sharing system and does not use all available system resources, thereby causing a waste of resources and deteriorating system efficiency. The primary/backup structure must be always increased in pairs, one for the primary unit and the other for the backup unit, causing an increase of cost.
The load sharing structure is advantageous in that it uses system resources efficiently by distributing processing of events in a uniform way among the units or sub-systems. However, this advantage is realized only when all systems are normally operated. If a certain system malfunctions in a load sharing structure, it becomes impossible to continue processing events in the down system, and furthermore, shared data occupied to be used cannot be restored. As a result, the load sharing system becomes unreliable because the load sharing system lacks backup and restoration capabilities.

System combined with loadsharing structure and primary/backup structure


A disclosed example involves managing power states, signing a suspend-to-RAM (STR) data structure by: generating a header key, a scatter/gather table key and a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) key using a root key generated by the secure processor. Generating a header signature using the header key, the header signature based on a table header and a random or pseudo-random value. Generating a scatter/gather table signature using the scatter/gather table key, the scatter/gather table signature based on a scatter/gather table header and a random or pseudo-random value. Generating a DRAM signature using the DRAM key and a value from a region of DRAM. Storing the header signature, the scatter/gather table signature and the DRAM signature in the STR data structure. Resume the processor system from the low-power mode when the data structure is valid based on a comparison of a first signature and a second signature.

Energy Star standards define power levels for acceptable low-power consumption ratings of electronic devices. To comply with such Energy Star standards, electronic devices often implement one or more low-power modes. Such low-power modes include a full-off power state, a suspend-to-RAM (random access memory) power state, a suspend-to-disk (hibernate) state, and/or one or more types of standby power states. The full-off power state typically consumes the lowest amount of power of any platform power state. However, the full-off power state requires the platform to complete a full boot of the platform software after a power-on operation is re-applied. Such a full boot incurs undesirable boot latencies.
The suspend-to-RAM power state is an alternative to the full-off state. The suspend-to-RAM power state retains the operating state of the platform software as it existed immediately prior to entering the suspend-to-RAM power state. Because the platform software operating state is retained in RAM during the suspend-to-RAM power state, the platform software need only execute portions of a boot process to continue where it left off before entering the suspend-to-RAM state.

Methods and apparatus to protect memory regions during low-power states


Methods and devices to synthesize vertically aligned carbon nanotube (VACNT) arrays directly on a catalytic conductive substrate without addition of an external metallic catalyst layer and without any pretreatment to the substrate surface using a plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) method are provided. A method comprises providing a catalytic conductive substrate, that has not been pretreated through a plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) method or other methods, to a PECVD device, etching the catalytic conductive substrate to form catalytically active nano-features on the surface of the catalytic conductive substrate, and growing vertically aligned carbon nanotubes on the surface of the catalytic conductive substrate, without an external metallic catalyst layer, by providing a carbon source gas to the catalytic conductive substrate.

Since the discovery of carbon nanotubes (CNTs), time, money, and efforts have been expended to exploit their properties towards developing new devices and improving current technologies. Due to their unique physical structures, including one dimensionality, high surface area, high aspect ratio, and exceptional electronic, mechanical and thermal properties, CNTs have shown potential for a number of different applications
Plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) has been used to synthesize vertically aligned CNT (VACNT) arrays at lower temperatures. However, many PECVD techniques are complex and expensive and limited to research laboratory scale which make them unsuitable for the large-scale production. There is also the possibility of having a weak attachment of catalyst nanoparticles to the substrate, which helps cause degradation of VACNT composites over time. Hence, for the applications like field emission, electrodes and sensors, it is desirable to grow VACNTs directly on a conducting catalytic substrate without addition of an external catalyst layer.

Apparatus and method for synthesizing vertically aligned carbon nanotubes

The Florida International University Board of Trustees


A search method, an apparatus, and a system for providing preview information are provided. The search method includes receiving a list of search result items and preview information from a server in real time and outputting the list and the preview information. Therefore, a search time can be efficiently reduced, which enables a user to obtain a desired search result more rapidly.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a search method, an apparatus, and a system for providing preview information, and more particularly, to a search method, an apparatus, and a system for providing preview information as search result in real time.
2. Description of Related Art
Recently, as use of multimedia apparatuses has become widespread, the quantity of content used in multimedia apparatuses has also increased exponentially. Due to the increase in content, a user may select and use diverse content.
However, due to the abundance of content, a user must perform precise and complicated searches in order to find desired content.
In particular, conventional automatic completion of a search provides only search result list, such that the user cannot identify each item in the search result list. Therefore, the user must click each item in the search result list in order to identify detailed content for each item.
Therefore, there is a need for a method for searching for desired content or data more easily and rapidly.

Search method, apparatus, and system for providing preview information


A method of fabricating a transistor comprises the steps of: forming a gate electrode above a substrate made of a first semiconductor material having a first lattice spacing, forming recesses in the semiconductor substrate at respective locations where a source region and a drain region are to be formed, epitaxially growing a second semiconductor material having a second lattice spacing different from the first lattice spacing in the recesses, and implanting a dopant in the second semiconductor material after the growing step.

Silicon Germanium (SiGe) alloy has been used in non-recessed source/drain regions (such as raised source/drain) for a shallow junction to suppress the short channel effect. The short channel effect is a well-known phenomenon in which the threshold voltage becomes less predictable as the gate dimensions are reduced.
U.S. patent application No. 2003/0080361 describes a process for manufacturing an improved PMOS transistor. Recesses are etched into a layer of epitaxial silicon after formation of spacers adjacent the gate electrode, and implantation of dopant. Source and drain films are deposited in the recesses. The source and drain films are made of an alloy of silicon and germanium. The alloy is epitaxially deposited on the layer of silicon after spacer formation. The alloy has a lattice having the same structure as the structure of the lattice of the layer of silicon. However, due to the inclusion of the germanium, the lattice of the alloy has a larger spacing than the spacing of the lattice of the layer of silicon. The larger spacing creates a stress in a channel of the transistor between the source and drain films. Silicon under a biaxially stressed film, such as SiGe, enhances carrier mobility to improve current performance.
However, the short channel effect was increased as a result of the higher temperature conditions of epitaxially forming the silicon/geranium alloy in the source drain regions. An improved fabrication method that can improve device performance and the processing window is desired.

Method of making transistor with strained source/drain

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd.