The invention includes a method of treating an intraocular disorder in a mammal, the method comprising administering to the mammal a Very Late Antigen-4 (VLA-4) antagonist for the treatment of selected ocular disorders.

There are a variety of chronic ocular disorders, which, if untreated, may lead to partial or even complete vision loss. One prominent chronic ocular disorder is age-related macular degeneration, which is the leading cause of blindness amongst elderly Americans affecting a third of patients aged 75 years and older (Fine et al. (2000) NEW ENGL. J. MED. 342:483-492). There are two forms of age-related macular degeneration, a wet form, which is associated with the formation of neovasculature in the choroid (also known as the neovascular form of age-related macular degeneration), and a dry form, which is not associated with the formation of choroidal neovasculaturization. The wet form accounts for approximately 90% of the severe vision loss associated with age-related macular degeneration.
Currently, treatment of the dry form of age-related macular degeneration includes administration of antioxidant vitamins and/or zinc. Treatment of the wet form of age-related macular degeneration, however, has proved to be more difficult. Currently, two separate methods have been approved in the United States of America for treating the wet form of age-related macular degeneration These include laser photocoagulation and photodynamic therapy using a benzoporphyrin derivative photosensitizer. During laser photocoagulation, thermal laser light is used to heat and photocoagulate the neovasculature of the choroid. A problem associated with this approach is that the laser light must pass through the photoreceptor cells of the retina in order to photocoagulate the blood vessels in the underlying choroid. As a result, this treatment destroys the photoreceptor cells of the retina creating blind spots with associated vision loss. During photodynamic therapy, a benzoporphyrin derivative photosensitizer is administered to the individual to be treated. Once the photosensitizer accumulates in the choroidal neovasculature, non-thermal light from a laser is applied to the region to be treated, which activates the photosensitizer in that region. The activated photosensitizer generates free radicals that damage the vasculature in the vicinity of the photosensitizer (see, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,798,349 and 6,225,303). This approach is more selective than laser photocoagulation and is less likely to result in blind spots. Under certain circumstances, this treatment has been found to restore vision in patients afflicted with the disorder (see, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,756,541 and 5,910,510).
Another prominent chronic ocular disorder is uveitis. Uveitis is an inflammatory eye disorder and includes inflammation of the uveal tract, the vascular coat of the eye composed of the iris, ciliary body and choroid. While the ultimate goal of inflammation is to repair the initial cause of cell injury, inflammation can also cause harm to cells. This harm is thought to be caused by leukocytes which migrate from the microcirculation and accumulate and secrete cytokines at the site of accumulation. Among the complications associated with the inflammatory process in uveitis are glaucoma, lens opacification, retinal detachments and cystoid macular edema. All these can cause permanent vision loss.
Available treatments for uveitis are limited. Corticosteroids are the main drugs used for its treatment but they have numerous ocular (cataract and secondary glaucoma) and non-ocular adverse effects. Prolonged systemic steroid use can suppress musculoskeletal growth, cause impaired wound healing and result in increased susceptibility to infections. Cycloplegics are used for the alleviation of pain but can have adverse effects including photophobia and blurred vision. Thus, there is still an ongoing need for methods of preventing the onset of chronic ocular disorders, and once established, the treatment of such a disorder.


Methods and computer systems for identifying protein classes from nucleic acid or amino acid sequence data are disclosed.

Current large-scale sequencing techniques are elucidating numerous novel genes in various eukaryotic and prokaryotic genomes. It is generally recognized that these efforts will be beneficial to the advancement of medicine and biology. To achieve this benefit, identified novel genes must be classified and biological function determined.
Secreted and non-secreted proteins are important classes. Targeting protein drugs into body fluids or onto receptors located on the surface of the cellular membrane is much easier than transporting proteinaceous compounds into the cytosol or the organelles. The relative ease of targeting protein drugs explains why most approved protein drugs are secreted proteins, a trend that is likely to remain so in the foreseeable future. Known secreted proteins include all peptide hormones and their receptors, breast and colon cancer gene products, leptin and its receptor, serum albumin, superoxide dismutase, spliceosome proteins, 7-transmembrane proteins, immunoglobulins, deoxyribonuclease I and several families of serine proteinases.
Secreted proteins are synthesized by a host organism in the cytosol, and in eukaryotes, are exported cotranslationally into the endoplasmatic reticulum and subsequently secreted into the extracellular space or inserted into the membrane. Proteins are transported either across a translocation pore or in direct interaction with lipids.
The vehicles for protein transportation are the mostly amino-terminal signal peptides, extending to 12 to 50 residues in eukaryotes. Signal peptides are the most abundant functional domain in proteins. They consist of three short segments: a usually basic cytosolic part that generally starts with a methionine; a hydrophobic segment; and a cleavage site for the signal peptidase enzyme. In contrast to this sophisticated and effective mechanism, only sporadic natural pathways, such as pinocytosis and membrane punching by performs, exist for the transport in the opposite direction, i.e., from the extracellular space into the cytosol.
Traditional experimental methods for the identification of secreted proteins are labor and cost-intensive. Exemplary methods include peptide sequencing, immunoelectron microscopy and membrane ultracentrifugation.
A more recently developed experimental method for identifying secreted proteins is the DiscoverEase.RTM. protocol of Genetics Institute (U.S. Pat. No. 5,536,637). This protocol utilizes a yeast mutant strain defective in the invertase signal peptide and has been used to identify thousands of secreted proteins.
While experimental techniques are indispensable in finding novel types of secretory signals, screening hundreds of thousands of Expressed Sequence Tag (EST) assemblies generated by large-scale sequencing efforts to identify secreted proteins is feasible only by extremely fast computational tools that can predict secreted proteins for large amounts of sequences at a reasonable cost. However, signal peptides are a classic example of how an identical function is preserved across extremely variable sequences (1). In the hydrophobic segment, for instance, the order of leucine, valine, isoleucine and other hydrophobic residues seems to be irrelevant to function (2). As a result of this variation, signal peptides cannot be identified by the usual sequence analysis methods like BLAST (3), FASTA (4,5) or dynamic programming (6), all of which are based on the conservation of sequences.
Gunnar von Heijne (7) has created a profile-like method for the recognition of the cleavage site, the least variable segment of signal peptides, that works with an accuracy of about 70% on protein data. His method has been coded into computer programs by several authors, including Pascarella and Bossa (8), Folz and Gordon (9) and Popowicz and Dash (10). Attempts to improve the accuracy of this method by increasing the minimal score eliminates several false positives only at the expense of false rejection of bona fide signal peptides.
Neural networks are more accurate tools for the prediction of signal peptides. Ladunga et al. (11) applied the so-called tiling algorithm (12) for the amino-terminal 20 residues of signal peptides in combination with von Heijne's method. Nielsen et al. (13,14) used a standard feed-forward algorithm trained by the back-propagation algorithm (15). In the production system created by Nakai, Kanehisa and coworkers (16-18), decision rules are applied in the form of binary decision trees. A fundamentally different approach (19) predicts signal peptides by modeling the angle of insertion into the membrane and the orientation of the signal peptide in the yeast invertase system. For a recent review on computational methods to predict secreted proteins, see (20).
Despite the current efforts, a need exists to increase the precision of computational methods for identifying secreted proteins. Since large-scale sequencing efforts produce nucleotide rather than amino acid sequence data, the accuracy of predicting secreted proteins will depend upon the sequencing accuracy, the reading frame prediction accuracy and the accuracy of the prediction of the signal peptide/membrane anchor on the protein level. Taking into account the rate of sequencing errors in ESTs (including artificial frameshifts), and the uncertainty in finding the correct reading frame and translation initiation site, the identification of secreted proteins from EST data will require significantly more accurate computational predictions than the ones described above.

Methods and systems for identification of protein classes


The present invention concerns the use of compounds of the Formula (I)

Certain peptides are known to exhibit central nervous system (CNS) activity and are useful in the treatment of epilepsy and other CNS disorders. These peptides which are described in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,378,729 have the Formula (I):
wherein                R is hydrogen, lower alkyl, lower alkenyl, lower alkynyl, aryl, aryl lower alkyl, heterocyclic, heterocyclic lower alkyl, lower alkyl heterocyclic, lower cycloalkyl, lower cycloalkyl lower alkyl, and R is unsubstituted or is substituted with at least one electron withdrawing group or electron donating group;        R1 is hydrogen or lower alkyl, lower alkenyl, lower alkynyl, aryl lower alkyl, aryl, heterocyclic lower alkyl, heterocyclic, lower cycloalkyl, lower cycloalkyl lower alkyl, each unsubstituted or substituted with an electron donating group or an electron withdrawing group;        R2 and R3 are independently hydrogen, lower alkyl, lower alkenyl, lower alkynyl, aryl lower alkyl, aryl, heterocyclic, heterocyclic lower alkyl, lower alkyl heterocyclic, lower cycloalkyl, lower cycloalkyl lower alkyl, or Z—Y wherein R2 and R3 may be unsubstituted or substituted with at least one electron withdrawing group or electron donating group;        Z is O, S, S(O)2, NR4, PR4 or a chemical bond;        Y is hydrogen, lower alkyl, aryl, aryl lower alkyl, lower alkenyl, lower alkynyl, halo, heterocyclic, heterocyclic lower alkyl, and Y may be unsubstituted or substituted with an electron donating group or an electron withdrawing group, provided that when Y is halo, Z is a chemical bond, or        Z—Y taken together is NR4NR5R7, NR4OR5, ONR4R7, OPR4R5, PR4OR5, SNR4R7, NR4SR7, SPR4R5, PR4SR7, NR4PR5R6, PR4NR5R7,
                R4, R5 and R6 are independently hydrogen, lower alkyl, aryl, aryl lower alkyl, lower alkenyl, or lower alkynyl, wherein R4, R5 and R6 may be unsubstituted or substituted with an electron withdrawing group or an electron donating group;        R7 is R6 or COOR8 or COR8;        R8 is hydrogen or lower alkyl, or aryl lower alkyl, and the aryl or alkyl group may be unsubstituted or substituted with an electron withdrawing group or an electron donating group;        n is 1-4; and        a is 1-3.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,773,475 also discloses additional compounds useful for treating CNS disorders. These compounds are N-benzyl-2-amino-3-methoxy-propionamide having the Formula (II):
wherein Ar is aryl which is unsubstituted or substituted with halo; R3 is lower alkoxy; and R1 is lower alkyl, especially methyl.
The above-cited patents are hereby incorporated by reference. However neither of these patents describe the use of these compounds as specific analgesics for the treatment of acute and chronic pain, especially rheumatic inflammatory pain. Particularly the antinociceptive profile and properties of this class of compounds are not disclosed.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method for treating peripheral neuropathic pain

Abstract: for treating different types of acute and chronic pain, especially non neuropathic inflammatory pain in mammals. The pain to be treated may be e.g. chronic inflammatory pain, rheumatoid arthritis pain and/or secondary inflammatory osteoarthritic pain. The compounds show an antinociceptive profile and differ from classical analgesics like opioids and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and are useful as specific analgesics.


A computer system may have a password entry form with a text field for a user to enter a password. The computer may receive text input from the user and display the text input in the text field. In response to the text input of the user, and without additional input from the user besides the text input, the computer may submit the password for verification of correctness. In some embodiments, submission of the password for verification occurs after a trigger event, where trigger events include without limitation a threshold time elapsing from the most recent text input of the user, a threshold time elapsing from the most recent password submission, entry of a threshold number of text characters, “immediate” submission after entry or deletion of a text character, and so forth.

Password systems may protect computer resources. In some systems, a text field is presented where the user may enter a set of text characters comprising a password. When the user is finished entering a password, the user must perform an action to submit the password. The action may be pressing a "submit button" or some other action like pressing the "enter" key on a keyboard. Generally, the user must do something to tell the computer to check the user's entry to verify that the password is correct.
It would be desirable for a computer system to submit the user's password for verification without additional input from the user. Such a novel system would be more convenient than current systems because the user would not need to perform an additional action to tell the computer system to check the password. In addition, such a novel system is potentially faster than current systems because the time for the user to perform an action to tell the computer system to check the password is not needed. Additional advantages of the embodiments described herein will be clear from the description herein below.

Password submission without additional user input


Ferritic stainless steel that has excellent formability and ridging resistance and can be produced with high productivity is provided. The ferritic stainless steel has: a predetermined chemical composition; a microstructure containing ferrite crystal grains which satisfy at least one of a C concentration of 2CC or more and an N concentration of 2CN or more, the ferrite crystal grains having a volume fraction with respect to a whole volume of the microstructure of 5% or more and 50% or less, where CC and CN are respectively C content and N content in the steel in mass %; and a Vickers hardness of 180 or less.

Ferritic stainless steel, such as SUS430, is economical and has excellent corrosion resistance, and so has been used in home appliances, kitchen instruments, etc. In recent years, the use of ferritic stainless steel in cooking utensils compatible with induction heating (IH) has been on the increase, as ferritic stainless steel is magnetic. Cooking wares such as pans are often made by bulging, and sufficient elongation is needed to form a predetermined shape.
Surface appearance also significantly affects the commercial value of cooking pans and the like. Typically, when forming ferritic stainless steel into a product, surface roughness called ridging appears, degrading the surface appearance of the formed product. In the case where excessive ridging occurs, polishing is required after the formation to remove the roughness, which increases production cost. Ridging therefore needs to be reduced. Ridging derives from an aggregate (hereafter also referred to as "ferrite colony" or "colony") of ferrite grains having similar crystal orientations. It is believed that a coarse columnar crystallite generated during casting is elongated by hot rolling, and the elongated grains or grain group remains even after hot-rolled sheet annealing, cold rolling, and cold-rolled sheet annealing, thus forming a colony.
In view of the aforementioned problem, for example, JP 2001-98328 A (PTL 1) discloses "a method for producing ferritic stainless steel, the method comprising: heating a steel raw material containing, in mass %, C: 0.02% to 0.12%, N: 0.02% to 0.12%, Cr: 16% to 18%, V: 0.01% to 0.15%, and Al: 0.03% or less; hot rolling the steel raw material so that a finisher delivery temperature FDT is 1050° C. to 750° C.; starting cooling within 2 sec after the hot rolling ends; coiling after cooling to 550° C. or less at a cooling rate of 10° C./s to 150° C./s, to form a ferrite and martensite microstructure; or further performing a preliminary rolling step of cold or warm rolling at a rolling reduction of 2% to 15%; and performing hot-rolled sheet annealing". Here, instead of quenching after the hot rolling, quenching may be performed after the coiling to form the ferrite and martensite microstructure.
JP 2009-275268 A (PTL 2) discloses "a cold rolled ferritic stainless steel sheet comprising: a chemical composition containing, in mass %, C: 0.01% to 0.08%, Si: 0.30% or less, Mn: 0.30% to 1.0%, P: 0.05% or less, S: 0.01% or less, Al: 0.02% or less, N: 0.01% to 0.08%, and Cr: 16.0% to 18.0%, with a balance being Fe and incidental impurities; and a microstructure made up of ferrite crystal grains in which Cr carbonitride is precipitated, wherein in a section defined by a rolling direction and a sheet thickness direction, a ratio Dz/Dl between a mean ferrite crystal grain size Dz in the sheet thickness direction and a mean ferrite crystal grain size Dl in the rolling direction is 0.7 or more, and an area ratio Sp of the Cr carbonitride occupying an observation field is 2% or more and a mean equivalent circular diameter Dp of the Cr carbonitride is 0.5 μm or more". Here, Sp and Dp of the Cr carbonitride are observed by a scanning electron microscope (SEM) at 2,000 magnifications.

Ferritic stainless steel and process for producing same


A computer-implemented method includes the operations of receiving pre-registration data from a cardholder and receiving cardholder transaction data from an interchange network. Transaction details are extracted from the received cardholder transaction data. The extracted transaction details are compared to the received pre-registration data, and based on the comparison, a transaction confidence score for the transaction is determined.

A typical payment card customer performs transactions in several ways with varying purchase amounts and number of transactions in a given period. The purchase amounts and number of transactions may vary greatly, but generally are predictable to the payment card issuer after the consumer has generated some appreciable transaction history. The issuer owns the transaction approval or decline decision and therefore, would like to decline fraudulent transactions without impacting the consumer's transaction experience. Accordingly, issuers have varying degrees of fraud detection systems and algorithms that facilitate determining if a transaction is legitimate and should be approved. Each payment card issuer, however, is different, so consumer experiences are likewise different.
In some known payment card systems, consumer transactions are declined inadvertently because the transaction was flagged by a computer program as likely fraudulent, although the transaction was a legitimate transaction performed by the consumer. As a result of being declined, the consumer may feel embarrassed during the purchase/checkout transaction. In some instances, the consumer may just try another payment card, thereby driving business away from the primary issuer or may abandon the purchase altogether causing a loss of revenue to the issuer.
In addition, falsely declining a transaction leads to increased issuer call center volume when consumers attempt to find out why a transaction was declined. This typically happens, however, after the declined transaction opportunity has passed. Some examples of transaction where false declines increasingly occur include large one-time purchases, multiple purchases in a short timeframe (particularly at a single merchant), and purchases made in different geographies in a short period. Since known fraud detection systems are reactive, these false declines are problematic to reduce and extremely difficult to eliminate.

Systems and methods for transaction pre-registration


An improved machine for finishing or floating concrete that has been sprayed or blown onto walls or structures. A flat rotating surface is held against the concrete to be finished and a variable speed control is manipulated by the user to smooth and finish the work. The handle of the invention extends radially on opposite sides of the power take off and lies within a plane normal to the axis between the motor and the rotating disk. This plane also passes through the center of gravity between the motor or power means and the rotating working surface. A variable speed control is disposed on the handle to allow the user to vary the revolutions of the float surface. The novel construction of the device allows the user to finish concrete surfaces more quickly and with less strain on shoulders and arms than is presently provided for with either manual floating or prior art tools.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to finishing tools. More specifically, it relates to a finishing tool for concrete with a power driven single rotating surface. A handle means is located intermediate the power means and the rotating work engaging surface. More generally, the invention relates to any situation where the user needs to ablate, abrade, or smooth a vertical or overhung surface for extended periods of time.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the repair or installation of concrete, stucco, or the like, the concrete material is blown onto the surface that is being treated. After this is accomplished, a worker comes along to finish or smooth the dried or partially dried material. This smoothing or finishing is commonly done by hand, is time consuming, and can lead to physical problems for the worker from the strain of having to manipulate the work material with arms outstretched or extended above their head. Additionally, this work finishing is very time consuming, leading to high labor costs for the contractor. The present invention seeks to alleviate this problem by providing a finishing tool that is easily manipulated by the finisher and that allows them to complete the work in a much timelier manner than is currently provided for in the art. The position of the handles in the present invention allows the user to hold the rotating finishing surface against a vertical or semi-vertical wall with greater ease and comfort because of the location of the handles in a side by side relationship proximate to the center of gravity of the drive shaft intermediate of the motor means and the rotating finishing surface.
A number of relevant patents were found in a search at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and they are discussed hereinafter:
U.S. Pat. No. 2,860,506 issued on Nov. 18, 1958 to John D. Drummond discloses a power driven plastering trowel. This is clearly unlike the present invention in that the combination of power means base and radially extending handles taught in the present invention is not shown.
Next in this discussion is U.S. Pat. No. 4,780,992 issued on Nov. 1, 1988 to Roy P. McKervey. This is an apparatus for cleaning pool tile. This is dissimilar from the present invention in that it is designed as a conversion for an existing "weed-eater" or like device and that the novel handle means and engine support of the instant invention is not seen.
Another patent of interest is U.S. Pat. No. 5,147,146 issued on Sep. 15, 1992 to Edward M. Harding, Jr. This is a variable pitch power trowel. Unlike the present invention, as in the patents mentioned above, the unique construction of the radially disposed handle is not disclosed.
The next patent in this discussion is U.S. Pat. No. 5,221,156 issued on Jun. 22, 1993 to Harian S. Martin. This is a concrete finishing machine that is unlike the present invention in that the radially disposed handle and engine support is not seen.
Lastly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,372,452 issued on Dec. 13, 1994 to James A. Hodgson discloses a power trowel. As in other patents mentioned above the novel handle of the instant invention is not taught.
None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed.


When the fact that the display mode of motion picture data is a full screen mode is detected, the display control mode for sending a video signal generated by a graphics controller to an LCD is switched from a normal mode for sending the video signal to the LCD without interposition of a high quality video engine to a high quality mode for sending the video signal to the LCD with interposition of the high quality video engine. The high quality video engine enlarges the screen size of the video signal in either linear scaling mode or nonlinear scaling mode designated by a user. Scaling is validated only in the case were motion picture data are displayed in the full screen mode.

1. Field
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus which can display motion picture data on a display device, and a display control method used in this apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, scaling techniques are used in TV apparatuses to display a video source with an aspect ratio of 4:3 on a wide screen with an aspect ratio of 16:9. Nonlinear scaling is known as one of the scaling techniques (e.g. see JP-A-2000-148128).
Use of nonlinear scaling permits the video source to be displayed on the whole wide screen without horizontal enlargement of image of the center portion of the video source.
Generally, in most cases, an image in the center portion of the screen is significant in motion pictures. Therefore, non-linear scaling is a technique which is effective in enlarging the motion pictures.
A personal computer having an AV playback function equivalent to that of an audio/video (AV) apparatus such as a DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) player or a TV apparatus has been developed recently. Therefore, nonlinear scaling is adapted to the case where motion pictures are displayed on a display device of the personal computer.

Information processing apparatus and display control method


A package substrate having a first redistribution layer (RDL1) and a second redistribution layer (RDL2) is disclosed for a multichip package. The first redistribution layer RDL1 is built according to a first design rule. The second redistribution layer RDL2 is built according to a second design rule and configured on a bottom of the first redistribution layer RDL1. The second design rule has a lower circuitry density than the first design rule has. A lateral communication circuitry is built within the first redistribution layer RDL1 according to the first design rule adaptive for bridging neighboring chips which are configured on a top surface of the first redistribution layer RDL1.

Technical Field
The present invention relates to a package substrate for a multichip package; especially relates to a package substrate having lateral communication circuitry for signal communication between chips within the multichip package.
Description of Related Art
FIG. 1 Shows a Prior Art.
FIG. 1 shows a prior art U.S. Pat. No. 8,901,748. It disclosed a semiconductor package 10 which has an embedded interconnect bridge element 28 with circuitry 34 and metal pad 35 for signal communication between chips 14, 16 configured on top of the package substrate 12. The package 10 is formed on a package substrate 12 that carries the semiconductor dies 14, 16. A cover 18 covers the substrate and the two dies 14, 16. A cooling fin 22 is attached to the top surface of the cover 18. The embedded interconnect bridge element 28 provides circuitry 34 and metal pad 35 for communication between the CPU 16 and memory 14 within the package. The two dies 14 and 16 are coupled through solder balls 24 and metal vias 26 to a power source (not shown) outside the package. The interconnect bridge element 28 provides connectors 30 to the CPU die 16 and provides connectors 32 to the memory 14. The CPU 16 has a first interconnect area 40 closest to the memory 14 for connecting through the embedded bridge element 28 to the memory 14. The CPU 16 has a second interconnect area 42 for connecting with metal vias 26 for power and external data input and output.
The embedded interconnect bridge element 28 disclosed in the prior art needs to be prepared in a separate fabrication process and then embedded in the package substrate, several considerations such as fabrication, singulation, registration and coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) problem . . . etc., need to be taken care. A simpler structure and fabricating process with higher circuitry density and higher reliability for a multichip package need to be developed.

Package substrate with lateral communication circuitry


A method of classifying a test article as one of a plurality of acceptable denominations of articles of currency, comprising applying a statistical classification process which employs discriminant surfaces derived from previous test articles known to be valid or invalid and is arranged to distinguish therebetween, characterized by applying also an acceptance boundary test which limits the acceptance volume for each denomination so as to exclude forgeries for which the discriminant surfaces were not derived.

This invention relates to a money validator for validating articles of value; particularly but not exclusively, to a money validator for validating bank notes.
Money validators are known which comprise sensors (e.g. a plurality of optical heads) for generating sensed signals in response to an article to be validated, and decision means (e.g. a microprocessor, microcomputer or LSI circuit) for decided, on the basis of the sensed signals, whether the article corresponds to a valid denomination or not. Generally, the validation process may consist of comparing the sensed signals (or values derived therefrom), with predetermined thresholds which define acceptable ranges or "windows" of values, within which signals from a valid article are assumed to lie and outside which signals from invalid articles are likely to lie.
It is known to vary the thresholds, and/or the ranges or windows, over time to take account of drift, either in the response of the sensors, or in the properties of a population of articles to be validated; see, for example, European patent 155126 and International application WO80/01963 (British Patent 2059129), or European published Application EP-A-0560023 and corresponding U.S. application Ser. No. 08/013,708.
This technology is found to be effective where there is a clear limit boundary between a genuine sample population and a false sample population. However, this is not always the case. Separating the genuine from the false population, in the measurement space defined by the sensor output signal axes, may require a complex, non-linear boundary.
A pattern recognition technique known in the general field of pattern recognition is the so called "neural network" technique. In neural network techniques, sensor output signals are supplied to a plurality of similar parallel processing units, the outputs of which comprise some function of their inputs. In practice, the "units" are usually not provided by separate hardware, but by a single processor executing sequential processing.
Neural networks generally operate in two phases. In a training phase, the functions applied by each unit are derived by an interative training process comprising presenting known genuine and false samples to the network. In the case of a "supervised" type of network, such as the back propagation or perceptron type, the outputs of the units are monitored, compared with a "correct" network output, and the difference or error between the actual network output and the correct output is propagated back to incrementally affect the functions applied by each unit to its inputs. Where two or more network layers are provided, the function is a non-linear (e.g. sigmoidal) function of the weighted sum of the inputs, which enables the network to discriminate between disjoint patterns, and allows complex non-linear pattern separation discriminants.
After the training phase is complete (and, typically, the training phase may require many hundreds of thousands of iterative adjustments to the network) the network is found to have adapted to the statistics of the population of true and false articles to be validated which was presented during the training phase, and can generally perform a non-linear (in measurement space) separation between true and false articles which are subsequently presented to the network.
Hitherto, however, neural networks have not been applied to banknote recognition. Indeed, there would be resistance to the use of neural network techniques in money validation, because it is difficult to accurately characterise the level of performance of the network since, due to the non-linear nature of the signal processing applied by the network, it is not always clear how effectively, or in what manner, the network is discriminating between true and false articles.


The invention relates to a method for channel equalization in a receiver, in which a signal is received from a communication channel, the signal containing symbols formed of binary information by phase shift keying. In the receiver, channel estimation is performed to estimate the properties of the communication channel, and samples are taken of the received signal at intervals. In the method, a determined number of samples is examined at the time, and a decision step is taken, in which, to find out the transmitted symbols, bit decisions are computed on the basis of said determined number of samples. After each decision step, it is examined, whether said decision step is to be iterated. Upon iteration of said decision step, at least some of the bit decisions of the preceding decision step are used in addition to the samples under examination at the time, for computing the bit decisions.

In radio communication, information to be transmitted is converted in a modulator to a high-frequency radio signal which is transmitted via a communication channel, i.e. a radio channel, to a receiver. In the receiver, the received radio-frequency signal is demodulated, wherein the aim is to use the received high-frequency signals to form the information which substantially corresponds to the original information.
However, this communication based on radio signals is susceptible to noise which can be due to e.g. high-frequency signals caused by other electric devices, changes in the conditions of the communication channel, bars affecting the propagation of radio signals, such as buildings, trees, topography, etc. Methods have been developed to reduce the effect of such noise. In systems, in which the modulation method used is based on phase shift (M-ary Phase Shift Keying, MPSK), receivers commonly apply a channel estimator and a channel equalizer to compensate for changes caused by the communication channel in the signal. The aim of a channel estimator is to determine the transfer function of the communication channel effective on the propagation of the radio signal, wherein it is possible in the channel equalizer to make a correction in the received signal on the basis of this determined transfer function. As the channel equalizer, e.g. the maximum likelihood sequence equalizer (MLSE) and the Viterbi algorithm can be used. With such an arrangement, the effects of the communication channel can be compensated for, to at least some extent. However, such an arrangement involves e.g. the problem that the complexity of the system increases exponentially the higher, the more channel taps are determined from the transfer function in the channel estimator. On the other hand, the more channel taps can be estimated, the better it is possible to compensate for distortions in the signal which are due to e.g. multipath propagation. In a formula, the complexity of the system can be depicted by MH, in which H is the number of estimated channel taps and M is the number of different phase-shift alternatives to be used in the modulation.
As the radio signal is reflected from obstacles, such as buildings, vegetation, topography, etc., it causes so-called multipath propagation, wherein the same signal comes to the receiver along several different paths. Since these different signal paths can have different lengths and they are longer than the distance travelled by the signal directly from the transmitter to the receiver, the signals propagating along different paths are received by the receiver at different times. Furthermore, such a multipath-propagated signal can be stronger than the directly propagated signal, wherein signals which have come to the receiver along different paths cannot be differentiated from each other solely on the basis of the signal strength. Particularly in said phase modulation, multipath propagation has a significant effect on the performance of the receiver. In principle, for example four-tap estimation can be used to compensate for four multipath-propagated signals which come to the receiver at different times. However, receivers of prior art are thus very complex compared to a situation in which for example one-tap estimation is used.
The following is a brief discussion of the transmission of binary information by using phase shift keying. Let us fix the time index t to t=τ+tΔτ in which Δτ is the symbol transmission interval. The symbol S(Bt) corresponds to three bits Bt=└bt,1,bt,2,bt 3┘ at time t(bt,kε{0,1}), when 8PSK modulation is applied. Thus, the symbol generator can be presented by the formulaS(B)=a2(1−b1)b2b3+a4(1−b1)b2(1−b3)+a6(1−b1)(1−b2)(1−b3)+a8(1−b1)(1−b2)b3+a10b1(1−b2)b3+a12b1(1−b2)(1−b3)+a14b1b2(1−b3)+a16b1b2b3  (1)where a=et2π/16.
The symbols are transmitted to the communication channel. In the receiver, the signal to be received at time t is
                              r          t                =                                            ∑                              s                =                0                                            H                -                1                                                                                h                  ~                                s                                                          S                                                  (                                      B                                          t                      -                      s                                                        )                                                              +                      n            t                                              (        2        )            in which {tilde over (h)}s indicates H channel taps and nt indicates channel noise which is assumed to be Gaussian noise.
An optimal channel equalizer would be one that maximizes the likelihood function. If it is assumed that the noise mixed with the signal is Gaussian noise and the probability of all the symbols S is equal, then the maximization of the likelihood functions corresponds to the minimization of the function
                              f                                (            B            )                          =                              ∑                          t              =              0                        T                                                                                                                                r                  t                                -                                                      ∑                                          s                      =                      0                                                              H                      -                      1                                                                                h                      s                                                                                S                                                                    (                                                  B                                                      t                            -                            s                                                                          )                                                                                                        2                                              (        3        )            in which S(B) is the symbol corresponding to bits B, hs are the estimated channel coefficients, and r is the received signal. Consequently, the problem is to find the bits B after receiving r and estimating h. In the above formula, T+1 is the number of transmitted symbols, H indicates the number of channel taps, and s is the tap index. To simplify the notations, time index t indicates the value u+tΔu in which u is time and Δu is the sampling interval. The function f can be minimized by using the Viterbi algorithm. However, the problem is that the complexity of the Viterbi algorithm increases exponentially as the function of the number of channel taps H, as already mentioned above. Another method is to first use a prefilter to reduce the number of channel taps to for example two and, after this, to apply the Viterbi algorithm to maximize the likelihood function. However, this method has the drawback that the result depends e.g. on the quality of the prefilter and the type of the channel. One method applying the Viterbi algorithm is based on the use of a delayed decision-feedback sequence estimator (DDFSE). In this method, the Viterbi algorithm is applied in the feedback filter. The performance of such a sequence estimator is affected by e.g. the number of states used in Trellis coding. If the number of states is sufficiently large, the performance is close to the optimum, but the estimator is thus very complex. Such an estimator operates the better, the smaller the phase shift in the channel, wherein the estimator requires a filter whereby this phase shift can be reduced.

Method for channel equalization, a receiver a channel equalizer, and a wireless communication device


A wire belt splice edge connector is used to connect a wire link to a splice link in a wire belt splice connection proximate an edge of a wire belt. The splice edge connector includes first and second edge connector leg portions, a wire link receiving portion disposed between first ends of the first and second edge connector leg portions, and first and second splice link receiving portions disposed proximate a second end of the first and second edge connector leg portions. The splice link receiving portions, such as loops, receive and interlock with a splice link, and the wire link receiving portion receives and interlocks with a wire link in the wire belt. The edge connector leg portions are substantially parallel to one another forming a U shape with the wire link receiving portion. The wire link receiving portion forms an obtuse angle with respect to the edge connector leg portions.

Wire belts are commonly used for conveying articles during cooling, drying, coating, cooking and many other applications. In one particular application, wire belts are used to convey food articles during cooking or processing of the food. Wire belts are advantageous for food processing because they provide an open flow through mesh, a high degree of flexibility, a sanitary construction, simple installation and maintenance, and the ability to be positively driven. The wire belt typically includes a plurality of wire links interlocked or joined together to form an endless conveyor belt. Forming an endless conveyor from a wire belt typically requires a splice connection between two of the wire links in the wire belt.
Existing splice connections have presented a problem, particularly when wire belts are used in the food industry. One such splice connection is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,794,155 to Bechtel, Jr. According to this patent, an end connecting element or link 26 is used at the end of the splice connection. Many disadvantages have been encountered when using wire belts having this type of end connecting element or link.
The end connecting links in prior art wire belt splice connections do not provide enough support for the loads placed on the wire links at the edge of the wire belt where failure is most likely to occur. When the end connecting link does not adequately support the load at the edge of the wire belt and the wire links bend or break, the existing end connecting links can easily disconnect from the wire belt. In food processing applications, the end connecting links often fall into the food, resulting in a contaminated and hazardous food product. A further disadvantage of the existing end connecting links is that the links used on one side of the wire belt must be formed differently from the links used on the other side.
Accordingly, what is needed is a wire belt splice connector that increases the support of loads at the edge of a splice connection in a wire belt. What is also needed is a wire belt splice connector that will not easily disconnect from the wire belt even if a failure or breakage of the wire links occurs. Further, a wire belt splice connector is needed that can be mass produced to fit on either edge of the wire belt.


An electromagnetic borehole telemetry system for transmitting information between a borehole transceiver and a surface transceiver located at or near the surface of the earth. Tubulars, such as steel casing and liners, are typically set within the well borehole to stabilize the wall of the borehole and to assist in hydraulically isolating penetrated formations. The invention utilizes these tubulars cooperating with one or more signal wires to reduce attenuation and noise in signals transmitted between the borehole and surface transceivers. The one or more signal wires are typically disposed within an annulus formed by the borehole wall and the outside surface of the casing. The one or more signal wires are connected at one end to one or more connection terminals positioned preferably near the bottom a tubular string. Opposing ends of the one or more signal wires are connected to one or more terminals of the surface transceiver. By minimizing signal attenuation and noise, the telemetry system can be effectively used at greater depths in the borehole. The telemetry system can be embodied in a measurement-while-drilling system, a formation testing system, a production monitoring system and other system requiring communication between a downhole assembly and the surface of the earth.

The creation of a hydrocarbon producing well can be broadly classified in three stages. The first stage includes the drilling of the well borehole, where it is desirable to measure properties of earth formations penetrated by the borehole and to steer the direction of the borehole while drilling. The second stage includes testing of formations penetrated by the borehole to determine hydrocarbon content and producability. The third stage includes monitoring and controlling production typically throughout the life of the well. Operations in all stages typically employ a downhole assembly that contains one or more sensors responsive to stage related drilling, formation, or production parameters of interest. Response data from the one or more sensors are telemetered to the surface of the earth and received by a second transceiver for processing and interpretation. Conversely, it is desirable to transmit data via the surface transceiver to the borehole transceiver to control stage related drilling, testing or production operations.
In many of the stage operations discussed above, it is not operationally feasible to use a "hard wire" communication link, such as one or more electrical or fiber optic conductors, between the borehole transceiver and the surface transceiver. When hard wire communication links are not feasible, electromagnetic (EM) telemetry systems offer one means for communicating between borehole and surface transceivers. Data transmission rates using EM communication links are typically much lower than those of hard wire communication links. Signal attenuation in EM communication links is typically much higher than that in hard wire communication links, for a given operational depth within a borehole.
As mentioned above, direct or hard wire communication links for data telemetry are often operationally impractical in many well stage operations. This is especially true in the borehole drilling stage, where measures of parameters of formations penetrated by the borehole are of interest. Systems for measuring such geophysical and other parameters within the vicinity of a well borehole typically fall within two categories. The first category includes systems that measure parameters after the borehole has been drilled. These systems include wireline logging, tubing conveyed logging, slick line logging, production logging, permanent downhole sensing devices and other techniques known in the art. Memory type or hard wire communication links are typically used in these systems. The second category includes systems that measure formation and borehole parameters while the borehole is being drilled. These systems include measurements of drilling and borehole specific parameters commonly known as "measurement-while-drilling" (MWD), measurements of parameters of earth formation penetrated by the borehole commonly known as "logging-while-drilling" (LWD), and measurements of seismic related properties known as "seismic-while-drilling" or (SWD). For brevity, systems that measure parameters of interest while the borehole is being drilled will be referred to collectively in this disclosure as "MWD" systems. Within the scope of this disclosure, it should be understood that MWD systems also include logging-while-drilling and seismic-while-drilling systems.
A MWD system typically comprises a downhole assembly operationally attached to a downhole end of a drill string. The downhole assembly typically includes at least one sensor for measuring at least one parameter of interest, control and power elements for operating the sensor, and a borehole transceiver for transmitting sensor response to the surface of the earth for processing and analysis. The downhole assembly is terminated at the lower end with a drill bit. A rotary drilling rig is operationally attached to an upper end of the drill string. The action of the drilling rig rotates the drill string and downhole assembly thereby advancing the borehole by the action of the rotating drill bit. A surface transceiver is positioned remote from the downhole assembly and typically in the immediate vicinity of the drilling rig. The surface transceiver receives telemetered data from the downhole transceiver. Received data are typically processed using surface equipment, and one or more parameters of interest are recorded as a function of depth within the well borehole thereby providing a "log" of the one or more parameters. Hard wire communication links between the borehole and surface transceivers are operationally difficult because the downhole assembly containing the borehole transceiver is rotated typically by the drill string.
In the absence of a hard wire link, several techniques can be used as a communication link for the telemetry system. These systems include drilling fluid pressure modulation or "mud pulse" systems, acoustic systems, and electromagnetic systems.
Using a mud pulse system, a downhole transmitter induces pressure pulses or other pressure modulations within the drilling fluid used in drilling the borehole. The modulations are indicative of data of interest, such as response of a sensor within the downhole assembly. These modulations are subsequently measured typically at the surface of the earth using a receiver means, and data of interest is extracted from the modulation measurements. Data transmission rates are low using mud pulse systems. Furthermore, the signal to noise ratio is typically small and signal attenuation is large, especially for relatively deep boreholes.
A downhole transmitter of an acoustic telemetry induces amplitude and frequency modulated acoustic signals within the drill string. The signals are indicative of data of interest. These modulated signals are measured typically at the surface of the earth by an acoustic receiver means, and data of interest are extracted from the measurements. Once again, data transmission rate, the signal to noise ratio of the telemetry system is small, and signal attenuation as a function of depth within the borehole is large.
Electromagnetic telemetry systems can employ a variety of techniques. Using one technique, electromagnetic signals are modulated to reflect data of interest. These signals are transmitted from a downhole EM transceiver, through intervening earth formation, and detected using a surface transceiver that is typically located at or near the surface of the earth. Data of interest are extracted from the detected signal. Using another electromagnetic technique, a downhole transceiver creates a current within the drill string, and the current travels along the drill string. This current is typically created by imposing a voltage across a non-conducting section in the downhole assembly. The current is modulated to reflect data of interest. A voltage between the drilling rig and a remote ground is generated by the current and is measured by a transceiver, which is at the surface of the earth. The voltage is usually between a wire attached to the drilling rig or casing at the surface and a wire that leads to a grounded connection remote from the rig. Again, data of interest are extracted from the measured voltage. When data are sent from the surface transceiver to the downhole transceiver, voltage is applied between a point on the rig and a remote ground. This, in turn, creates a current that travels along the drill string and casing, and is detected by the downhole transceiver in the form of a voltage across the non-conducting section of the downhole assembly.

Electromagnetic borehole telemetry system incorporating a conductive borehole tubular


Boundary layer air on the skin structure of an aircraft is sucked off through suction holes in the aircraft skin structure by a least one ejector pump. The ejector pump is operated by at least one of several air flow sources. One source is the excess pressure in the passenger cabin at higher altitudes. The other air flow source is tap air from at least one aircraft engine. If necessary, one or the other or both air supply sources may be utilized to operate the ejector pump or pumps.

It is known to influence the boundary layer flowing along the surface of structural aircraft components such as the body, the wings, the tail assembly and along engine nacelles. For this purpose it is known to use suction generators having their own power source. Such separate power sources require their own fuel, they add to the weight of the aircraft, and they increase the maintenance effort and expense. Further, such suction generators in the form of compressors generally comprise rotating components which adversely affect the overall system reliability. Due to their own weight these compressors add to the fuel consumption of the aircraft in addition to requiring their own fuel.
It is known from German Patent Publication DE-AS 1,280,057 (Handley Page), published on Oct. 10, 1968 to equip aircraft wings with suction openings or porous elements in the outer wing skin requiring a substantial duct system connected to a suction generator arranged in the duct system or inside the aircraft. Details of the suction source are not disclosed. German Patent Publication DE 4,128,078 A1 (Coffinberry), published on Mar. 5, 1992 discloses a boundary layer suction system for an aircraft in which an ejector pump is used for the suction whereby the ejector pump itself is driven by an airflow generated by a suction air compressor unit driven by an electrical generator which in turn is driven by the gas turbine power plant of the aircraft. The sucked off boundary layer air is used as a source for compressed air and as cooling air for the environment control system (ECS). This type of generation of the suction air increases the operating costs of the aircraft so equipped, particularly since it increases the fuel consumption of the aircraft engines.
It is also known from German Patent Publication 736,114 (Wagner), published on Apr. 29, 1943 to connect an ejector pump for sucking off boundary layer air to the suction side of a precompressor of the internal combustion engine of the aircraft.
U.S. Pat. 3,149,804 (Litz, Jr.), issued on Sep. 22, 1964 discloses an anti-stall system in which a propellant gas generator is connected to an ejector for sucking off boundary layer air through holes in the wings.
German Patent Publication DE 3,621,783 (Pulch, Sr.), published on Jan. 7, 1988 discloses a hollow aircraft propeller wherein reduced pressure is generated to suck off boundary layer air from the surface of the propeller. The suction is derived from an ejector system driven by the engine exhaust gas.

Suction generator system in an aircraft for maintaining a laminar boundary flow


Proper exposure is obtained even when the mirror down time is short, which occurs, for example, during continuous photography. This is achieved, for example, by determining the accumulation time and gain for a subsequent round of photometry based on whether a photometry prohibiting signal interrupted the current round of photometry. Additionally, the photometry parameters that are used for photometry can be changed (or set) based on changes in the film feed mode of the camera. The camera can include a photometry circuit that performs photometry on an object field using an accumulating type of photometry element. An accumulation controller controls the start and finish of the accumulation of the photometry element. A feed mode setting device is capable of setting a film feed mode from among a plurality of film feed modes. The plurality of film feed modes includes at least a high-speed mode in which the photographic (time) interval (between photographs) is short and a low-speed mode in which the photographic (time) interval is long. A photometry parameter determining device such as, e.g., a programmed micro-processor, determines the photometry parameters to be used for photometry based on the output of the feed mode setting device. Alternatively, or in addition, the photometry parameters are changed (or set) based on the status of the power source. A camera including this feature would have a status determining device that detects the camera operability status, in particular, the status of the power source. The photometry parameter determining device then determines the photometry parameters to be used for photometry based on the output of the status determining device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to photometry devices that measure the brightness of an object, and relates in particular to photometry devices used in automatic exposure control of a camera.
2. Description of Related Art
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 58-132735 (which corresponds to U.S. Pat. No. 4,563,069) discloses a photometry device that prohibits operation of the photometry system and the focus detection system at fixed intervals during photography and after photography. Specifically, the camera is equipped with a quick return mirror as is common, for example, in single reflex cameras. A signal is generated prohibiting photometry and focus detection, with the aim being to prevent light from reaching the photometry system and the focus detection system while the mirror is up, which occurs during release, and for predetermined time periods after the mirror is returned to the down position.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 58-111022 (which corresponds to U.S. Pat. No. 4,657,368) discloses a single reflex camera that updates control before and after release. During continuous photography this device performs open aperture photometry before the initial release, and thereafter switches to stop-down photometry.
Because the photometry devices described above require accumulation operations to perform photometry when using an accumulating photometry element (such as, e.g., a CCD), it is necessary to continue to guide the luminous flux (i.e., light) to the photometry optical system during accumulation. However, the luminous flux may be obstructed in the course of accumulation, for example, in optical systems that have the mirror up, such as occurs during release in a single reflex camera. Even though some data was present, the data is not read, but rather is discarded, after accumulation has been interrupted. In either of the cases noted above, because the photometry data expected at the start of accumulation cannot be obtained, it is necessary to repeat the photometry operation immediately after the mirror has returned to the down position.
However, during continuous photography, the mirror may again start to go up immediately after it has gone down, and the repeated photometry operation again may become obstructed, and thus interrupted. In this case, it is not possible to perform sufficient photometry even once, and proper exposure becomes unobtainable.
In order to solve this problem, the device of U.S. Pat. No. 4,563,069 prevents erroneous photometry by prohibiting photometry while the mirror is up. However, no measures are disclosed for use when the mirror down time is short, such as occurs during continuous photography.
Although the device of U.S. Pat. No. 4,657,368 takes certain measures during continuous photography, there are no measures disclosed for use with a photometry system that uses an accumulating photometry element.


A hearing aid includes an antenna for wireless communication with another device. The antenna includes a primary element connected to the circuit of the hearing aid and one or more secondary elements parasitically coupled to the primary element. This antenna configuration substantially increases radiation efficiency when compared to an antenna with the primary element alone, without substantially increasing the size, power consumption, and complexity of the hearing aid.

Hearing aids are used to assist patients suffering hearing loss by transmitting amplified sounds to ear canals. The sounds may be detected from a patient's environment using the microphone in a hearing aid and/or received from a streaming device via a wireless link. Wireless communication may also be performed for programming the hearing aid and receiving information from the hearing aid. In one example, a hearing aid is worn in and/or around a patient's ear. Patients generally prefer that their hearing aids are minimally visible or invisible, do not interfere with their daily activities, and easy to maintain. One difficulty in miniaturizing a hearing aid is associated with providing the hearing aid with reliable wireless communication capabilities. Given the reduced space, likely accompanied with reduced power supply and increased interference from other metal parts of the hearing aid, there is a need for providing the hearing aid with a wireless communication system that is small in size and highly power-efficient, and maintains a reliable wireless link in noisy radio frequency situations.

Hearing aid with inductively coupled electromagnetic resonator antenna


The battery management unit for a vehicle includes a charger mounted on the vehicle, configured to connect to an external power source and charge an assembled battery including a plurality of cells with electric power from the external power source; a memory that records which cell is a lowest cell having the lowest voltage when the battery is fully charged; and a cell-balancer that carries out cell-balancing on the voltage of the battery by discharging, when the charger is not charging the battery, the cells having a voltage higher than a current voltage of the lowest cell to the current value of the lowest cell.

In relation to a conventional assembled battery formed by coupling multiple secondary battery cells, one of known techniques balances (equalizes) the voltages of the respective cells when the cells are being used or being charged. Specifically, this technique balances the respective voltages of the cells to reduce the dispersion of voltages (differences of the voltages), aiming at maximizing the battery capacity of the entire assembled battery. Balancing cell voltages while the assembled battery is being charged makes it possible to increase, until the highest voltage of a cell among the multiple cells included in the assembled battery exceeds the upper limit voltage, amounts of electric power charging the remaining cells. Similarly, balancing cell voltages while the assembled battery is being used makes it possible to increase usable electric power of the entire assembled battery. In other words, this can suppress reduction in available battery capacity.
There are two typical schemes to balance the cell voltage. One scheme is to discharge cells having high voltages to reduce the voltages thereof, so that the voltages of all the cells are balanced. One of the examples of this scheme has a configuration in which a resistor and a switch that consume charged electric power are connected in parallel to each cell and balances the voltages of the respective cells by controlling connection and disconnection of the respective switches (e.g., Patent Literature 1: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2003-309931).
The other scheme is to transfer electric power of cells having high voltages to cells having low voltages. For example, each of cells is disconnectably connected to a coil which is magnetically coupled with the each other coils. Electric power is transferred from cells having high voltages to cells having low voltages using electromagnetic induction (e.g., Patent Literature 2: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2006-166615). In either scheme, one or more cells having high voltage among all the cells are detected. The voltage of the high-voltage cells is reduced in order to balance (equalize) the voltage of the entire assembled battery.
Conventional cell-balancing control (equalization control) on cell voltage is carried out on the basis of the cell having the lowest voltage at the time.
For example, the technique disclosed in Patent Literature 1 specifies a cell having the lowest voltage when the total voltage of the assembled battery is equal to or lower than the target voltage. And the technique controls the time of discharging each remaining cell on the basis of the difference between the voltage of the remaining cell and the lowest-voltage cell.
The technique of Patent Literature 2 monitors voltages of the respective cells at any time and controls a time of activating the voltage balancer circuit on the basis of the difference between the highest voltage and the lowest voltage among the monitored voltages.
However, individual secondary battery cells are different in charging-discharging characteristics, so that the characteristics of the cells in the assembled battery are not uniformly degraded. This means that a change in a charged amount or a change in a charging rate may vary a cell having the lowest voltage among the multiple cells. Accordingly, if the voltages of multiple cells are to be balanced while the assembled battery is being used, the cell having the lowest voltage when the cell-balancing being carried out may not always have the lowest-voltage cell after the assembled battery is charged. There is a possibility that the dispersion of voltages rather increases because the cell-balancing is performed on the basis of the lowest voltage at the time.
The assembled batteries are used in vehicles in different manners according to the kind of vehicle, and the difference may affect the dispersion of voltages. For example, an electric vehicle relatively frequently undergoes external charging and consequently balancing of cell voltages can be carried out each time the vehicle undergoes external charging, so that the dispersion of voltage is less increased. The cell-balancing uses electric power from an external power source and therefore can escape from power shortage even if the cell-balancing takes a long time. Advantageously, an optimum state of cell voltages can be relatively easily kept.
In contrast, a plug-in hybrid vehicle, which is capable of charging the assembled battery with electric power generated by the vehicle per se, less frequently undergoes external charging than an electric vehicle. For the above, cell-balancing performed only when external charging as performed in an electric vehicle does not ensure sufficient frequency of the cell-balancing and therefore has a difficulty in preferably suppressing the dispersion of voltages. One solution to ensure sufficient frequency of the cell-balancing is to carry out the cell-balancing also when the vehicle is not undergoing external charging, which forces the vehicle to generate electric power to be consumed during the cell-balancing. Consequently, a longer time that the cell-balancing takes consumes a larger amount of electric power to degrade the fuel efficiency and the electric efficiency. Unfortunately, conventional manners of balancing of cell voltages have a problem that the dispersion of voltages of the cells is not appropriately controlled in some kinds of vehicle and/or in some manners of using an assembled battery.

Vehicle battery management unit having cell balancer based on capacity differences of battery cells

Abstract: Thereby, it is possible to suppress an increase in dispersion of voltages and reduction in battery capacity.

MITSUBISHI JIDOSHA KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA


The present disclosure relates to a solid-state imaging device, a manufacturing method of a solid-state imaging device, and an electronic device capable of preventing occurrence of a flare or a ghost caused by reflection of light in a region other than a light receiving portion of a solid-state imaging element at low cost. The solid-state imaging device includes the solid-state imaging element and a sealing glass which is arranged on the solid-state imaging element and in which a light-shielding resin is embedded in a region corresponding to the region other than the light receiving portion of the solid-state imaging element. The present disclosure is applied to, for example, a solid-state imaging device in which a substrate on which the solid-state imaging element is die-bonded and wire-bonded is packaged, or the like.

A flare or a ghost occurs in an image screen due to reflection of light in a region other than a light receiving portion in a package of a solid-state imaging device. Therefore, it has been proposed to prevent the occurrence of the flare by covering the region other than the light receiving portion with a flare preventing plate (for example, refer to Patent Document 1).

Solid-state imaging device, manufacturing method of solid-state imaging device, and electronic device


With an image-based rendering (IBR) system based on linear interpolated concentric mosaics, an observer is able to wander through a real or synthesized scene and have new view images (optionally including stereo images) of the scene rendered as the observer moves. According to one embodiment, multiple viewing rays are extended in a viewing direction from the image to be rendered at a view point. For viewing rays that do not coincide with captured images, an image is generate based on the captured images. The image is generated by interpolating between at least two captured images based on a constant distance to objects in the scene. The view images that are displayed can be mono or stereo (e.g., simulating a pair of eyes of the observer).

The ability to wander in a realistic 3D scene is attractive to a wide variety of people, ranging from scientists to kids. A significant problem to allowing such wandering is easy construction and real time rendering of complex 3D scene data. Traditional approaches often involve constructing or recovering a complete geometric and photometric model of the 3D scene by using modeling or vision techniques. Then, simulating the flow of light from a source, the light is reflected from the described model into a simulated camera and onto a film plane to produce an image. Such approaches are attractive as they allow various graphic elements, such as new objects, lights and shadows, to be readily added to the rendered scene. However, typically these approaches are also complex and computationally intensive. For most of the complex scenes, real time systems based on this approach are typically not able to run on high performance graphics workstations, much less typical desktop or portable computers.
Another approach that is becoming increasingly popular is referred to as image based rendering (IBR). In IBR, the 3D scene is represented by a plenoptic function, such as is described by E. H. Adelson and J. Bergen in "The plenoptic function and the elements of early vision", Computational Models of Visual Processing, pp. 3-20, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1991. The plenoptic function is constructed discretely by integrating images captured at a set of viewpoints and viewing directions. While rendering, novel views are generated by re-sampling the pre-constructed plenoptic function at given points, along certain paths. Unfortunately, the 7D plenoptic function described by Adelson and Bergen is typically too difficult to construct and store in practice.
More recently, Heung-Yeung Shum and Li-Wei He in "Rendering with concentric mosaics," Computer Graphics Proceedings, Annual Conference Series, pp. 299-306, Proc. SIGGRAPH'99, August 1999, describe an image rendering process based on concentric mosaics. This image rendering process allows an observer to move freely within a circular region and allows images from the observer's viewpoint to be rendered in a more computationally efficient manner than many prior approaches. However, due to the manner in which images are rendered in the described technique, the quality of rendered images can sometimes suffer. Thus, it would be beneficial to provide a way to improve the quality of such rendered images.
Another aspect of image rendering that has been approached is the rendering of stereo images. In S. Peleg and M. Ben-Ezra, "Stereo panorama with a single camera," Proc. Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Conference, 1999, stereo images are generated from a single rotating camera (off-centered). However, in the Peleg and Ben-Ezra system, the user is constrained to a fixed viewpoint—the scene cannot be wandered through by the observer. Thus, it would be beneficial to provide a way to allow stereo rendering of images while wandering through a scene.
The improved image rendering based on concentric mosaics described below addresses these and other disadvantages.

Method and system for rendering concentric mosaics