Modules for plastic conveyor belts may comprise a body and a resilient stop cooperatively arranged with the body. The body has at least one aperture which may receive a pivot rod. The resilient stop is preferably bendable in the direction of insertion of the pivot rod and/or in the direction toward the aperture or the pivot axis. Methods of assembling plastic conveyor modules may include bending a resilient stop in the direction of insertion of the pivot rod, and methods of disassembling plastic conveyor modules may include bending a resilient stop toward a pivot rod. Methods of maintaining pivot rods in position in an aperture of a plastic conveyor module may include reacting a resilient stop against axial outward movement of the pivot rod.

The present invention relates to plastic modules, conveyor belts formed from plastic modules, and methods for assembling and disassembling pivotably connected plastic modules.
Conveyor belts formed from plastic modules are used in a wide variety of industrial and commercial settings to transport a myriad of items, e.g., everything from apples to zippers. Each module has a body which may be solid or may comprise a lattice of structural elements or struts, and the upper surfaces of the modules serve as the conveying surface for the items being transported. The ends of the body have one or more holes or apertures in them, and adjacent plastic modules are pivotably connected to one another end-to-end, and/or side-to-side, by pivot rods inserted in the apertures. For example, the apertures at one end of the body of one plastic module are aligned with the apertures at the other end of the body of the adjacent plastic module and a pivot rod may be inserted through the aligned apertures, pivotably connecting the plastic modules. Any number of plastic modules may be connected end-to-end, as well as side-by-side, by pivot rods to form a conveyor belt of any convenient length and width. For example, thousands or more plastic modules may be pivotably connected by thousands of pivot rods to form a conveyor belt hundreds of feet long.
While plastic conveyor belts have proven highly reliable, the assembly of conventional plastic conveyor belts has been a difficult, time-consuming process. For example, many conventional modules include a stop member. Before a pivot rod can be inserted in one direction into the apertures of the modules, a stop member must be moved in another direction out of the path of insertion of the pivot rod. Once the pivot rod is fully inserted, the stop member may be returned to its original position, locking the pivot rod in place within the apertures. This process of moving a stop member in one direction, inserting a pivot rod in another direction, and returning the stop member to its original position greatly complicates the process of forming a conveyor belt, especially a conveyor belt having thousands of modules and pivot rods.
The present invention has many advantages and overcomes several problems associated with conventional plastic module conveyor belts, including the problems set forth above.
In accordance with one aspect of the invention, a module for a plastic conveyor belt comprises a body and a resilient stop cooperatively arranged with the body. The body has at least one aperture for receiving a pivot rod. The resilient stop is bendable in the direction of insertion of a pivot rod in the aperture to an extended position allowing a pivot rod to be positioned in the aperture. The resilient stop further has a non-extended position which resists removal of a pivot rod from the aperture.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, a conveyor belt comprises first and second plastic modules, a pivot rod, and a resilient stop. The pivot rod pivotably connects the first and second plastic modules along a pivot axis. The resilient stop has a non-extended position which resists removal of the pivot rod. Further, the resilient stop is bendable in the direction of the pivot axis toward the pivot rod to an extended position which allows removal of the pivot rod from the first and second plastic modules.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, a method of assembling first and second plastic conveyor modules comprises inserting a pivot rod into apertures in plastic conveyor modules, including bending a resilient stop in the direction of insertion of the pivot rod. The method further comprises positioning the pivot rod in the apertures, including moving the pivot rod beyond the resilient stop wherein the resilient stop returns to a position resisting removal of the pivot rod.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, a method of disassembling first and second pivotably connected plastic conveyor modules comprises bending a resilient stop in the direction of the pivot rod axis and removing the pivot rod from apertures in the first and second conveyor modules.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, a method of maintaining a pivot rod in an aperture of a plastic conveyor module comprises reacting a resilient stop against outward axial movement of the pivot rod , the resilient stop extending at an obtuse angle toward the pivot rod.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, a module for a plastic conveyor belt comprises a body and a resilient stop. The body has at least one aperture defining an axis. The resilient stop is cooperatively arranged with the body. The resilient stop has a non-extended position and is bendable in the direction of the axis toward the aperture to an extended position. The resilient stop is radially spaced from the axis a greater distance in the extended position than in the non-extended position.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, a module for a plastic conveyor belt comprises a body and a resilient stop cooperatively arranged with the body. The body has at least one aperture. The resilient stop has a non-extendable position which occludes at least a portion of the aperture. The resilient stop is bendable in a direction toward the aperture to an extended position which does not occlude any portion of the aperture.
Modules, conveyor belts, and methods embodying the invention represent a significant advance in the art. Not only is the pivot rod reliably held in position by a stop member pivotably connecting the modules, but the assembly of the modules to form the conveyor belt is remarkably easy. As the pivot rod is inserted into the apertures of the modules, the pivot rod can contact the stop member and bend the stop member in the direction of insertion to an extended position out of the way of the pivot rod. Once the pivot rod is fully inserted and positioned within the apertures, the pivot rod no longer contacts the stop member, which, in turn, moves to a non-extended position blocking removal of the pivot rod. This greatly facilitates automation of the assembly of the plastic modules to form a conveyor belt because no separate step is needed to move a stop member out of the way of the pivot rod. The pivot rod automatically moves the stop member to an extended position simply by inserting the pivot rod straight into the apertures. Further, the pivot rod can be inserted into the apertures without bending the pivot rod or negotiating any non-linear paths through the apertures.

Plastic modules, conveyor belts and methods for assembling and disassembling pivotably connected plastic modules


The present invention relates to sealing means made of a plastically deformable material for mechanical sealing of hollow hoses (2) of elastic material by means of an appliance having at least two jaws, at least one of which is movable towards and away from the other and which, when moving towards each other, crimp the sealing means against the hose (2) for contamination-tight sealing of the same, the sealing means (20) comprises at least one sealing member (4, 4′; 44, 44′; 64, 64′; 74, 74′; 84), which has two opposite ends and an opening (40, 40′) that extends between said ends to allow the at least one sealing member to be slipped onto the hose (2) to be sealed.

In, for example, devices for introduction and/or withdrawal of a medium in a container there is a need for contamination-free sealing and cutting of the hoses that extend between the conveying means and the collecting vessels which are connected to the process container. The reason for this is that it is desirable that the collecting vessels, after being filled with a medium from the process container, can be moved without any risk of contamination to a laboratory or the like for sampling or analysis of the medium. In the above application, the requirements for good hygienic conditions and contamination-free environment/surroundings are exacting.
Solutions for sealing a hose are previously known in the art, for instance in the form of a folded clip, which is applied to a folded end of the hose. The clip is then crimped against the hose for sealing of the same, whereupon the hose is cut downstream of the clip by means of a pair of scissors or some other cutting tool. However, a solution of this kind does not satisfy the requirements for good hygienic conditions and contamination-free sealing referred to in the application described above. For example the clips do not always provide the desired sealing effect and there is in most cases at least a small portion of the hose left downstream of the clip. There might even be a small portion of the hose left downstream of the clip on both of the cut hose ends. This hose portion or hose portions contain a small quantity of the medium, which may leak out to the surrounding area with an obvious risk of contamination.
Solutions to the above problem have been suggested in, for example, EP 1 090 281, which is owned by the present applicant and which discloses an appliance for sealing a sleeve that has been preassembled around a hose in a contamination-free manner.
A problem associated with this solution, however, is that during storage the material of the preassembled sleeves may crack due to stress corrosion, a consequence of which may be that the desired contamination-free sealing of the hose is not obtained. There is thus a need for a solution that eliminates this problem.

Sealing means, kit and method for sealing of hollow hoses of flexible material

Abstract: The present invention also relates to a kit comprising a sealing means and an appliance for sealing of hollow hoses and to a method for mechanical sealing of hollow hoses.


A method for aligning a workpiece may include determining a first and second position of a first edge of the workpiece based on a first and a second position of a pickup device. The workpiece may be aligned based on the first and second position of the pickup device. The at least first and second positions of the pickup device may be determined based on an intersection of a laser beam and the workpiece.

In order to pattern a workpiece in, for example, a lithographic process, using either lasers, electron beams, ions or other methods, the workpiece may be aligned with a writing tool in, for example, six different ways. The workpiece may be horizontally aligned with the writing tool in an x-direction and in a y-direction. The workpiece may also be aligned, for example, rotationally aligned. The workpiece may be placed in focus of the writing tool, that is, be aligned in a z-direction. The workpiece and writing tool may be tilt aligned in, for example, two perpendicular directions. The workpiece and the writing tool may not be tilt aligned, and the pattern created by the writing tool may be out of focus for different parts of the workpiece and in focus for other parts.
The alignment of the workpiece in the x-direction, y-direction and the rotational alignment may be performed by placing the workpiece in a pre-aligner, which may include a number of alignment pegs extending from a surface on top of which said workpiece may be replaced. The alignment pegs may be attached to the surface of the pre-aligner for aligning the workpiece in a position. The pre-aligner may blow air through a number of orifices beneath the workpiece, and a cushion may be formed between the surface of the pre aligner and the workpiece. The cushion may transport the workpiece in a direction with a reduced amount of friction and/or force applied. If the pre-aligner is tilted in a direction so that the alignment pegs may be lowered, the workpiece may move towards the alignment pegs. If the alignment pegs are attached to the surface correctly, the workpiece may be placed in the position when contacting the alignment pegs. A gripper may grip the workpiece in a position and may transport the workpiece to a stage for further alignment.
Another conventional method for aligning the workpiece may use a stage, which may be movable in both the x- and y-direction and rotatable along a central axis. The workpiece may be placed, within tolerances, at the stage. A detector may detect the position of the edges of the workpiece while moving the stage. The stage may be in an aligned position, for example, when the actual position of the edges of the workpiece may be in a position.

Method and apparatus for aligning a substrate on a stage


Systems and methods for suppressing off-axis sidelobes and/or clutter, near-field reverberation clutter, and/or grating lobe contributions are disclosed. A dual apodization with median (DAM) filtering technique is disclosed. The dual apodization technique may include summing aligned channel data with apodization functions (406, 412, 414) with complementary apertures applied. Median values for a zero function (RF3) and the resulting signals (RF1, RF2) from the complementary apertures are determined to generate a median value signal (416, MVS). The median value signal is used to generate an ultrasound image with enhanced image contrast. A method of image smoothing of the ultrasound image with enhanced image contrast is also disclosed. The smoothed image may include low frequency components of the ultrasound image with enhanced image contrast and high frequency components of an original image.

In medical ultrasound, image contrast is often compromised as a result of acoustic clutter due to off-axis scattering, reverberation clutter due to near-field anatomical structures, and random electronic noise. In order to address this problem, several adaptive weighting techniques have been proposed in the medical ultrasound community.
Well-known adaptive weighting techniques such as the coherence factor (CF), the generalized coherence factor (GCF), the phase coherence factor (PCF) and the short-lag spatial coherence (SLSC) technique have been proposed, but they all require access to per-channel data to compute a weighting mask, which is used to weigh down the contributions from acoustic clutter and reverberation clutter from the original image. The required access to per-channel data may make hardware implementations of these techniques difficult, especially on pre-existing ultrasound systems.

Methods and systems for ultrasound contrast enhancement

PHILIPS IMAGE GUIDED THERAPY CORPORATION


A method and an apparatus are provided for managing blocks according to the update type of data in block-type memory. The method includes receiving data to be stored from an application; determining an update frequency of the data; extracting information of nonvolatile memory space in which the data will be stored according to the update frequency of the data; and transmitting information about the data and the space to the nonvolatile memory so that the data is stored in the space using information of the extracted space.

1. Field of the Invention
Methods and apparatuses consistent with the present invention relate to storing data in nonvolatile memory, and more particularly, to managing blocks according to the update type of data in block-type memory.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the related art, flash memory is impact resistant and has a low power consumption, and has been used as storage in mobile devices and embedded systems.
Generally, NAND flash memory is divided into a page consisting of a 512-byte (1 sector) or 2048-byte (4 sectors) data area and a 16-byte or 64-byte backup area, and a block that has bound several pages as one bundle. One NAND flash memory consists of multiple blocks. To carry out a write operation on an already-written page, the NAND flash memory must perform an erase operation that erases the whole block to which the sector belongs. Further, the number of times each block can be erased is related to the lifetime of the NAND flash memory, and thus all blocks of the NAND flash memory should be evenly used.
To provide linear space, in which reading and writing is possible in sector units, such as in a hard disk, flash memory needs a separate Flash Translation Layer (FTL) because of the different physical structure. The FTL converts a requested logical address into a physical address on flash memory in upper application.
In a related art FTL that uses a mapping method, logically-consecutive sectors can be recorded in different physical positions. Because an erasing unit is bigger than a writing unit in the NAND flashy memory, when reaching a certain limit, the work of collecting consecutive data dispersed in different physical positions into the same address space using random blocks is called merging.
FIG. 1 illustrates a merging operation of a flash memory. As shown in blocks LSN #512-#767, data, which physically needs to exist within the same block has been physically dispersed in two or more blocks. The dispersed data is copied to the same physical block 10 (a merging operation).
Further, a file system is an application operated in the upper layer of the FTL; it records predetermined data about a certain logical address in the FTL or reads recorded data. Because such a file system has been designed for magnetic disks such as a hard disk or a floppy disk, characteristics of the aforementioned related art flash memory are not reflected well. For example, correction of data recorded on a magnetic disk can be achieved only by writing new data to the position where the existing data was recorded. However, in the case of NAND flash memory, the work of invalidating conversion information on the page, on which the existing data has been recorded, writing new data to the new page, then correcting the conversion information should be performed due to the physical characteristics of the memory. Hence, frequent data-correction requests sent to the FTL will cause frequent merging operations.
FIG. 2 illustrates block space of related art flash memory. A file system in the memory space (shown by reference numeral 15) is produced by formatting. Address space on a disk is divided into space where metadata to manage data of a file system is recorded, and block space. As shown by reference numeral 20, block space is divided into data blocks that include one or more sectors, and as shown by reference numeral 25, and blocks data are managed by the file system.
The file system calculates the size of file-system metadata, which is necessary for managing the whole storage space in the formatting process as shown by reference numeral 15, then allocates space for the file-system metadata, and allocates remaining space as block space.
The file system allocates usable data blocks so as to add a new file or record content of a file. A newly-allocated data block is indicated as a data block "in use" by the file system.
As described above, the file system allocates the entire storage space by storing file-system metadata and data to be recorded by the upper application.
However, such data is often differs in the access pattern. For example, the file-system metadata is small compared with regular data, and is often edited. Further, regular data is relatively large, but after being recorded the data is not often edited compared with the file-system metadata.
Hence, frequently-corrected data and rarely-corrected data are scattered in the storage space. If different types of data exist in the same block of the NAND flash, the block can frequently be the object of merging. Such frequent merging may lower the total performance of the file system, and may reduce the lifetime of flash memory.
Therefore, there is a need for a method and apparatus for effectively using flash memory considering data access or characteristics of recording.

Method and apparatus for managing blocks according to update type of data in block-type memory


An operational amplifier is dynamically accelerated depending on its internal state. Acceleration is disabled when the internal state indicates a risk of instability. When the internal state of the operational amplifier indicates no risk of instability, the acceleration is turned on to speed up the circuit operation.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to operational amplifier, in particular to an operational amplifier that is dynamically accelerated.
2. Description of Related Art
Operational amplifier (opamp in short) is an important circuit building block for numerous applications. Depending on its target application, an opamp usually needs to satisfy a list of requirements, for example: DC gain, unit-gain bandwidth, phase margin, slew-rate, and so on. Opamp is usually used in a closed-loop circuit configuration, where the overall circuit precision and linearity is determined by its DC gain, and the overall circuit speed is determined by unit-gain bandwidth (for small signal input) or slew-rate (for large signal input), while the stability of the circuit is determined by the phase margin. It is very difficult to design a high DC gain amplifier with a high unit-gain bandwidth and/or a high slew-rate while at the same time having a comfortable stability margin. To ensure good stability, compensation technique is usually employed in an opamp design. Compensation, however, reduces the unit-gain bandwidth and/or the slew rate.
An application (of operational amplifier) of particular interest pertaining to the subject matter of the present invention is switch-capacitor circuit. A typical switch-capacitor circuit works in a two-phase manner. The two phases are "sampling" phase and "transfer" phase, and their operations are controlled by a plurality of clock signals. In a typical two-phase switch-capacitor circuit working at a sampling rate of f, the duration of each phase is roughly half of the sampling clock period T=1/f. FIG. 1 depicts a circuit configuration for a typical two-phase switch capacitor circuit. During sampling phase, the input voltage VIN is sampled into the sampling capacitor C1, as shown in FIG. 1A. During transfer phase, the charge stored on the sampling capacitor C1 is transferred to the integrating capacitor C2 via the opamp circuit comprising an opamp 110, as shown in FIG. 1B. Opamp 110 is connected in an inverting amplification configuration, where the positive input terminal is connected to ground and the negative input terminal is connected to both the sampling capacitor C1 and the integrating capacitor C2. After the circuit settles in the transfer phase, the output voltage VOUT will be VIN·C1/C2. Although the switch-capacitor circuit depicted in FIG. 1B is a single-ended circuit, in practice most switch-capacitor circuits are implemented using fully differential circuits.
A typical waveform of the output voltage VOUT of the switch-capacitor circuit 100 of FIG. 1B during transfer phase is shown in FIG. 2A. Here, the transfer phase starts at time 0. The charge stored at C1 is transferred to the integrating capacitor C2. Consequently the output voltage VOUT, which is the voltage across the load capacitor CL, rises gradually and eventually settles to the final value VIN·C1/C2. Due to the finite driving capability of the opamp 110, the charge transfer process actually goes through two phases: "slewing" phase and "linear settling" phase. Initially, the output voltage VOUT rises linearly with time, no matter how large the differential input voltage at the opamp 110 is. During the duration where the output voltage increases linearly with time, opamp 110 is said to be slewing as it is driven at its maximum capacity. As the output voltage VOUT comes close enough to the final settled value VIN·C1/C2, at a time instant denoted as ts in FIG. 2, opamp 110 no longer needs to be driven at its maximum capacity. Then, the opamp enters the linear settling phase, where the output voltage VOUT increases at a slower rate than it does during the slewing phase. FIG. 2B depicts the corresponding waveform of the current IC2 flowing through the capacitor C2. During the slewing phase, the current IC2 stays at a constant value IC2MAX determined by the maximum driven capability of the opamp 110. After it enters the linear settling phase, the current IC2 exponentially decays toward zero. At the timing instant ts, the current makes a smooth transition from staying constant to delaying exponentially. The purpose of the switch-capacitor circuit 100 is to transfer the charge from the input capacitor C1 to the integrating capacitor C2. Therefore, the switch-capacitor is more efficient in slewing phase (than in linear settling phase) as the current IC2 is higher and thus the charge is transferred faster. In prior art, however, a switch-capacitor circuit during transfer phase usually spends comparable amounts of time in slewing and linear settling. Therefore, it needs to have a sufficiently high slew-rate and also a sufficiently high unit-gain bandwidth to meet the overall timing budget. As mentioned above, it is difficult to achieve both high unit-gain bandwidth and high slew rate while ensuring comfortable stability.

Dynamically accelerated operational amplifier and method thereof


Disclosed is an optical fiber network system which has optical transmitter-receivers disposed in optical network units(ONUs) of number N. an optical transmitter-receiver in a central office which is connected with the ONUs through a passive splitter to form one-to-N star connection, wherein multiplexing is conducted such that a downstream signal from the central office to the ONUs is treated by time division multiplexing(TDM) and a upstream signal from the ONUs to the central office is treated by time division multiple access(TDMA), characterized in that: the passive splitter is replaced by a multi-channel/single-channel conversion cable for interfacing between an array optical fiber with cores of number M and singlecore optical fibers of number M; the optical transmitter-receiver in the central office is replaced by an array optical transmitter and an array optical receiver; and the array optical transmitter and the array optical receiver are connected with the multi-channel/single-channel conversion cable through an array optical fiber cable.

As an optical subscriber transmission system which economically provides a narrow-band service such as a telephone, a passive optical network(PON) system has been proposed and developed. The PON system has, as shown in FIG. 1, a passive double star(PDS) composition in which a one-to-N optical transmission system between a central office 1 and optical network units(ONU)11 to 1N of number N performs distribution/multiplexing through a passive splitter 3. The user multiplexing is performed such that a downstream signal is treated by time division multiplexing(TDM) and a upstream signal is treated by time division multiple access(TDMA). Thus, the optical transmission line between the central office 1 and the splitter 3 and an optical transmitter-receiver 2 in the central office 1 are shared by ONUs 11 to 1N of number N to economize.
Since the PON system is directed to the narrow-band service such as a telephone, to apply it to a broad-band service such as video or movie, it should have an increased transmission capacity while utilizing the existing optical transmission line and optical transmitter-receiver as much as possible.
In the conventional method for increasing the transmission capacity while utilizing the existing equipment, using wavelength division multiplexing(WDM) and enhancing the degree of TDM are proposed. One way of providing WDM and enhanced TDM is, as shown in FIG. 2, that a wavelength not used for the narrow-band service is assigned to each ONU or each service by using the high-density wavelength multiplexing technique another way is that a high clock rate burst for the broad-band service is transmitted mixed with a low clock rate burst. For example, this is reported in the 5th Conference on Optical/Hybrid Access Networks, lecture No. 6.03 and the 6th International Workshop on Optical Access Networks, lecture No. 2.4. In FIG. 2, the PON system comprises the central office 1 and ONUs 11 to 1N connected thereto by the optical transmission lines 51 to 5N, wherein the central office 1 comprises the single core type optical transmitter-receivers 71 and 72, the passive splitter 3, the wavelength multiplexing and demultiplexing circuit 7 connecting each of the optical transmitter-receivers 71 and 72 to the passive splitter 3, and the optical transmitter-receiver 2, and ONU 11 comprises the optical transmitter-receiver 31 and the optical transmitter-receiver 41 having a function of wavelength multiplexing.
On the other hand, in the PON system for the narrow-band service, an example that the splitter is disposed in the central office has also been proposed. In this case, without the relaying of a transmission line, ONUs of number N and optical transmitter-receivers of number N in the central office are, as shown in FIG. 3, connected one-to-one, respectively, to form a single star topology. Therefore, the transmission capacity of each ONU can be increased. In FIG. 3, the PON system comprises the central office 1 and ONUs 11 to 1N connected thereto by the optical transmission lines 51 to 5N, respectively, wherein the central office 1 comprises optical transmitter-receivers 21 to 2N, and ONU 11 to 1N comprise the optical transmitter-receivers 31 to 3N, respectively.
However, in the conventional optical fiber network system, to add WDM to the existing PON system to provide the broad-band service, an expensive light source for WDM and an expensive wavelength selecting device as well as the temperature control therefor, which needs a large consumed power, are required. Namely, as compared with the case of originally laying the single star topology, the conventional optical fiber network system with WDM needs more expensive and larger central office equipment and ONUs.
Furthermore, in the case of using the high-speed burst mixed with the low-speed burst, a burst mode compatible receiver which has a reception sensitivity worse than that of a receiver for a continuous signal needs to be sped up. Therefore, it is very difficult for the receiver to get a practical reception sensitivity.
In the case of shifting to the single star topology, it is impossible for the total number of optical transmitter-receivers of numbers required in PON to be accommodated in the central office device designed for PON when utilizing the single star topology.


A media receiving apparatus capable of preventing media from being positioned in an invalid display area or a program from being temporarily stopped, even if the vertical/horizontal ratio of the resolution of the display section is switched while a broadcast or streaming program is being displayed. In this apparatus there are a plurality of display sections D1 and D2 with different resolutions, and a display directive section (303) directs a display section to be set as active in accordance with the mode of use of the user. A layout information selection section (304) selects a layout corresponding to the resolution of the display section indicated by the display directive section (303) from layout information that includes layouts corresponding to display sections D1 and D2 distributed from a media distribution apparatus, and in accordance with the selected layout a media display control section (306) selects media distributed from the media distribution apparatus, performs conversion processing comprising enlargement or reduction, and displays media on the display section designated by the display directive section (303).

Currently, there is a technology called SMIL (Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language) as a method of integrating media including text data, still-image data, video data, voice data, and music data, and describing its spatial and temporal arrangement, standardized by the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium).
Here, still-image data denotes JPEG, PNG (Portable Network Graphics format) or suchlike bit-mapped compressed data and SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) or suchlike vector type compressed data; video data denotes compressed data using the MPEG-4 or H.264 system; voice data denotes compressed data using the G.729 or AMR (Adaptive. Multi-Rate) system; and music data denotes compressed data using the MP3 or MIDI system.
Hereinafter, text data, still-image data, video data, voice data, and music data are referred to generically as media data.
SMIL is a descriptive language similar to the hypertext descriptive language HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) currently extremely widely used through the Internet, and is better suited to distributing multimedia data including video data.
Hereinafter, a method will be described, using the accompanying drawings, whereby multimedia data described by means of SMIL and held on a server is distributed to a client via a network.
FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a conventional media data distribution system. In this diagram, server 11 stores SMIL files, server 12 stores audio files and video image files, and server 13 stores text files and still-image files. Servers 11 through 13 and client 15 are mutually connected via network 14.
Client 15 accesses server 11 storing SMIL files using a communication protocol such as HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol), and acquires an SMIL file in which media are described. Client 15 decodes the acquired SMIL file, and acquires the respective media data stored therein—that is, text data, still-image data, video data, audio data, and so forth. Specifically, video data and audio data are acquired from server 12, and text data and still-image data are acquired from server 13.
Based on space and time information written in the acquired SMIL file, client 15 plays back the respective media data (video data, audio data, text data, and/or still-image data) at an appropriate location and appropriate time. SMIL data and the various kinds of media data may also be stored in the same server.
Next, a sample SMIL file description will be described using an accompanying drawing. FIG. 2 is a drawing showing an example of a conventional SMIL file description. In this drawing, <smil> in line 1 indicates that this is an SMIL document, and </smil> in line 18 indicates the end of the SMIL document.
The area from <head> in line 2 to </head> in line 9 is an area in which time-unrelated information is written, and here, information showing the spatial layout of the media is written in the area from <layout> in line 3 to </layout> in line 8.
The area from <body> in line 10 to </body> in line 17 is an area in which time-related information is written, and here, information showing the media playback time is written in the area from <par> in line 11 to </par> in line 16.
To give a more concrete explanation, lines 5 through 7 define areas v, t, and i in which video data, text data, and still-image data respectively are positioned, and lines 12 through 15 define time information for playback of video data, voice data, text data, and still-image data respectively.
Item "src=" in each of lines 12 through 15 specifies a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) for acquiring media data. In this example, video data and voice data are specified as being acquired by means of the RTSP (Real Time Streaming Protocol) protocol and text data and still-image data are specified as being acquired by means of the HTTP protocol.
Item "region=" specifies a location where media data is displayed, and corresponds to a region specified inline 5 through line 7. For example, text data specified in line 14 has a "region=t" specification, and therefore corresponds to the region specified in line 6.
By using SMIL in this way, a content provider can freely describe the layout of media to be distributed.
Next, a method of changing the layout of distributed media during reception of distributed data will be described. According to Patent Literature 1, various control buttons for moving or eliminating (erasing) media being displayed are provided as appropriate in a screen displaying media. By manipulating these buttons, a user can change the layout smoothly without interrupting the display of information.
Patent Literature 1: Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. 2002-312090

Display apparatus and media display method


A method of routing packets in network system where the network system comprises a plurality of edge nodes and a plurality of core nodes. Selected core nodes are coupled to communicate with selected edge nodes. The network system also comprises a plurality of external nodes, with selected external nodes coupled to communicate with selected edge nodes, and where different external nodes are associated with a plurality of different entities sharing resources on the network system. The method comprises proposing a set of entities from the plurality of different entities. The proposed set comprises entities associated with external nodes that share respective connections to a number of edge nodes in the edge nodes such that the shared number is less than a total number of all edge nodes to which each different entity in the set is connected, with other aspects then taken with respect to the proposed set.

The present embodiments relate to computer networks and are more particularly directed to a scalable virtual local area network ("VLAN") grouping in a provider Metro Ethernet.
Ethernet networks have found favor in many applications in the networking industry for various reasons. For example, Ethernet is a widely used and cost effective medium, with numerous interfaces and speed capability up to the Gbps range. Ethernet networks may be used to form a network sometimes referred to as a Metro Ethernet Network ("MEN"), which is generally a publicly accessible network that is often affiliated with a metropolitan area—hence, the term "Metro" Ethernet. A MEN provides a so-called Metro domain, typically under the control of a single administrator or manager, such as an Internet Service Provider ("ISP"). A MEN is typically used to connect between an access network and a core network. The access network often includes edge nodes that couple to private or end users, that is, customer nodes, making connectivity to the network. The core network is used to connect to other Metro Ethernet Networks and it provides primarily a packet switching function.
With the development of the MEN architecture, there have further evolved additional topologies associated with such a network. One type of such an overlay is referred to as virtual local area network ("VLAN"). Previously a LAN was considered a network spanning a short distance, such as within a single building or campus and for a single company. However, with the MEN architecture, an entity such as a business can obtain interconnection at greater distances and through the MEN, thereby giving rise to the VLAN in that from the perspective of the entity, users within it still have access in a manner that appears for practical purposes no different than a LAN, but it is considered "virtual" in that it spans a greater distance to remote locations and overlays a bigger network. In addition, under the control of the ISP or other manager, a MEN is often used by multiple entities, or "customers," whereby from one customer's perspective all other customers' VLANs are transparent. However, certain policies and issues are enforced by the manager because the different VLANs do in some instances share resources and, thus, a level of consideration of the interaction between supporting different customers across the same resources must be contemplated.
One aspect in support of multiple and different customers as well as within a customer on a MEN arises in connection with so-called Q-tags, which receive their name in that they are part of the IEEE 802.1Q standard and which are sometimes also known as VLAN tags. A Q-tag is a field that is included in each packet that is communicated in the MEN at the provider level so as to route the packet and thereafter also removed from the packet prior to the packet being routed ultimately to a customer node. For purposes of background to the preferred embodiments described later, two such Q-tags are of interest. A first Q-tag is used by a VLAN customer to subdivide its customer VLAN, sometimes referred to as a C-VLAN, such as by group within the customer. In other words, this first Q-tag identifies different groups within the C-VLAN of the respective customer. For example, if a customer has different business groups, it may assign a different Q-tag to each respective group, and network packets on its C-VLAN with a same Q-tag may then be treated in a manner consistent with the specific group corresponding to that Q-tag. Additionally, because this tag is inserted and used by the customer, it is sometimes referred to as a customer Q-tag. More recently, however, a so-called Q-in-Q scheme has been proposed under the still-developing IEEE 802.1ad standard. This scheme gets its name from the fact that it proposes adding a second Q-tag in each packet and, hence, this second Q-tag is essentially embedded in the same packet with the 802.1 Q-tag. This second Q-tag is inserted in the packets by a provider edge node that is controlled by the MEN manger (e.g., ISP) and to identify a customer. In other words, in general for a MEN with different C-VLANs, then each C-VLAN has a corresponding different Q-tag of this sort. Further, since this second type of Q-tag is inserted by the provider edge node, then it is sometimes referred to as a provider Q-tag.
While the preceding use of Q-tags has proven useful in various operations of a MEN, a drawback has arisen with the increased number of C-VLANs per MEN. Particularly, the provider Q-tag has been understood to use the same general format as the customer Q-tag, particularly given the embedded nature of the Q-in-Q scheme. Thus, since the customer Q-tag is limited to 12 bits, then so has been the provider Q-tag. Moreover, while 12 bits typically provide 4,096 different identifiers (i.e., 212=4,096), some of those identifiers are reserved and, hence, in actuality only about 4,000 identifiers are available for the customer Q-tag. Similarly, therefore, only about 4,000 identifiers are available for the provider Q-tag. While this number may appear sufficient in some contexts, in contemporary MENs an increasing number of C-VLANs may require support in a single Metro domain and, hence, once that number exceeds 4,000, then each C-VLAN may no longer be separately identified by a respective provider Q-tag. Therefore, there is a potential scalability problem that needs to be addressed.
One solution has been proposed in an effort to address the above-introduced drawback of increased number of C-VLANs with the corresponding limitation of provider Q-tags in a single MEN. Specifically, an e-mail comment to the proposed IEEE 802.1ad standard suggests allowing different C-VLANs to have the same provider Q-tag, only where those different C-VLANs are all connected to an identical set of edge nodes. For example, for a MEN having edge nodes EN0 through ENy, and for two different customers Customer A and Customer B, both having customer nodes connected to the same set of edge nodes EN0 through ENy, then a single C-VLAN is used to identify Customer A and Customer B. As a result, traffic that is broadcast along this single C-VLAN will be received by the edge nodes that are connected to both Customer A and Customer B and, hence, that traffic may then be filtered if needed by the edge nodes or otherwise forwarded to one or both of those customers. While this approach therefore reduces the number of C-VLAN identifiers needed to indicate all of the C-VLANs on a MEN, it is also constrained in that there may be a limited number of customers that are connected to the very same set of edge nodes. Thus, this approach also has limitations and may not properly scale to a situation having a large number of C-VLANs.
Given the various nodes, attributes, and connectivity described above and known in the art, a need has arisen to address the system limitations, as is achieved by the preferred embodiments as further detailed below.

Scalable VLAN grouping in a provider Metro Ethernet


A telescoping mast having a latch assembly includes a latch body mountable to a first tube section, a latch mechanism supported by the latch body, a toggle mechanism operatively connected to the latch mechanism, and a latch plate mountable to a second tube section. The latch mechanism includes a pawl member pivotably between an engaged position for interlocking with a corresponding recess in the latch plate to thereby restrict axial movement between the first and second tube sections, and a disengaged position allowing relative axial movement between the first and second tube sections. The toggle mechanism is movable between an over-center locked configuration corresponding to the engaged position of the latch mechanism and an unlocked configuration corresponding to the disengaged position of the latch member.

The present exemplary embodiment relates to masts. It finds particular application in conjunction with telescoping masts for antennas, lights and other payloads, and will be described with particular reference thereto. However, it is to be appreciated that the present exemplary embodiment is also amenable to other like applications.
Telescoping masts generally include multiple tube sections that are configured to telescope or nest within each other. A drive system is typically configured to sequentially deploy and/or retract the tubes between extended and retracted configurations. Locks or latches are generally used to lock each tube to its adjacent tube or tubes when in the extended configuration.
High-end telescoping mast customers, particularly military customers, are using mechanical masts for vehicle mounted, unguyed payload elevation involving highly sensitive surveillance and targeting electronics. These electronics are often used in an attempt to view objects over very long distances and are adversely affected by poor stability. In many applications, maintaining line-of-sight to targets is very important.
There are generally two techniques used to stabilize the payload of a telescoping mast. A first technique is gyro stabilization. Gyro stabilization can be used but it adds significant weight and cost to the payload. A second technique uses sophisticated algorithms to correct the captured image and maintain sight of their "target", but such technique is not highly effective for rapid and "unpredictable" movements.
The interaction of external forces (such as wind) and clearances in the mast joints cause rapid and "unpredictable" movements that decrease the performance of long range "viewing" payloads. These movements can be small changes in heading (north, south, east, west), commonly called rotation and/or small changes in relation to the horizon, commonly called deflection.
The current art generally attempts to limit rotational movement via direct interaction between the tubes. The bottom, or base, tube is rigidly attached to a vehicle or shelter. In the case of cylindrical tubes, all of the subsequent tubes above that tube are prevented from rotating by a raised or recessed surface that creates at least one edge along the entire length of the tubes. That edge interacts with a groove or protrusion on the mating tubes such that any two tubes can slide axially (extend/retract) relative to each other but are prevented from rotating with respect to the each other and the base tube. This is commonly called "keying" the tubes or a "key" and "keyway" arrangement. In the case of non-cylindrical tubes, the shape of the tube itself prevents rotation via interaction of the corners of tubes.
The current art similarly attempts to limit deflection via direct interaction between the tubes. Again the bottom, or base tube, is rigidly attached to a vehicle or shelter. The subsequent tubes, even when fully extended, maintain a substantial overlap. That is, each tube remains inside the tube below it by a significant percentage of its length, commonly called "lap distance". With this lap distance and by maintaining a close fit between the outer diameter of one tube and the inner diameter of the tube below it, the amount that one tube can freely tilt with respect to the tube below it is limited.
To allow the sliding movement (extension and retraction of the mast) under reasonable manufacturing tolerances and under typical military environmental conditions (hot, cold, sand, dust, ice) clearance must be maintained between the interacting surfaces to prevent binding. That clearance directly causes increased rotation and deflection.
The locks or latches on each tube provides vertical support against the weight of the payload to keep the tube extended after it has been driven to its extended position by the mast drive system. It is generally considered desirable to have such locks be automatically driven by the normal extension/retraction of the mast so that no outside power is required (for simplicity) and no manual intervention is required (for safety and to allow remote operation). The locks are a source of noise that can, in some instances, make the mast unfit for certain applications (e.g., military application).
Current lock designs tend to be noisy, require a large space, require manual engagement, and/or require a separate power source. In addition, many lock designs only lock the tubes in the extended position.

Toggle latch for sequentially extended mechanical mast


In a wireless communications system that supports directional communications (e.g., a millimeter wave (mmW) system), a base station and a user equipment (UE) may utilize directional transmissions during a paging procedure. In some cases, a base station may use beam sweeping to transmit a control channel, which may contain a paging group information. For example, the base station may configure the UE or a group of UEs to monitor for the paging group information over a set of time-frequency resources. A UE that receives the paging group information may determine transmission resources to monitor for a subsequent data channel transmission based at least in part on the identified paging group information. The base station may then transmit the paging information over the indicated transmission resources.

The following relates generally to wireless communication, and more specifically to conveying paging group information through control channel transmissions.
Wireless communications systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, and so on. These systems may be capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing the available system resources (e.g., time, frequency, and power). Examples of such multiple-access systems include fourth generation (4G) systems such as a Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems or LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) systems, and fifth generation (5G) systems which may be referred to as New Radio (NR) systems. These systems may employ technologies such as code division multiple access (CDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), or discrete Fourier transform-spread-OFDM (DFT-S-OFDM). A wireless multiple-access communications system may include a number of base stations or network access nodes, each simultaneously supporting communication for multiple communication devices, which may be otherwise known as user equipment (UE).
In some wireless systems, devices (e.g., base stations and UEs) may communicate using directional transmissions (e.g., beams), in which beamforming may be applied using multiple antenna elements to provide a beam in a particular direction. In some cases, a base station may be unaware of a particular location of a UE, such as when a gap in communications occurs while a UE is moving. When the base station does not know the direction in which to transmit to the UE, the base station may transmit to the UE by sweeping through a set of beams focused in different directions (e.g., and transmitting a duplicative signal or information on each of the beams). Additionally or alternatively, the base station may transmit on one beam (e.g., or a few beams), and the UE may sweep through a set of beams in an attempt to locate the beam or beams on which the base station is transmitting. That is, in some cases, both the base station and the UE may sweep through a set of beams to transmit and receive. However, sweeping through a set of beams may be costly in terms of time, power consumption, and system resources (e.g., especially for transmissions with a large payload). Improved techniques for transmitting paging information may be desired.

Conveying paging group information through control channel transmissions


A puller allowing easy and readily replacement of the jaws within a confined area is comprised of a threaded rod, a drive mechanism, an activation mechanism, and multiple jaws; provided with an auxiliary connecting arm and an auxiliary fixing arm respectively to a connecting base and a bolting base for a connecting arm extending from a connecting base and a bolting base; any jaw being retractable to be respectively connected to the auxiliary connecting arm and the auxiliary fixing arm; a winged nut being turned to draw the auxiliary connecting arm and its corresponding connecting arm, thus to grab a work piece by its circumference while a centering end of a threaded rod holding against the axis of the work piece to remove it.

(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to a puller, and more particularly to one that allows easy replacement of jaws depending on the conditions of work environment.
(b) Description of the Prior Art
As illustrated in FIG. 5 of the accompanying drawings, a puller of the prior art is applied in the replacement or assembly operation of a work piece by holding the circumference of work piece to remove the work piece by pushing a cylindrical rod against it.
The prior art is essentially comprised of a puller 7 having disposed at its center a threaded rod 8 and outwardly extending from its center three fixed arms 71; a connection holder 9 is provided at where below the puller 7; a connecting arm 91 extending from each fixed arm 71; a jaw 92 is pivoted to the terminal of each connecting arm 91; a spring 82 of the threaded rod 8 is inserted onto the puller 7; and a knob 81 is screwed to where above the spring 82. Accordingly, by turning the knob 81 to push against the spring 82, the puller 7 is driven to close in all three jaws 92 to grab the work piece.
In practice, three jaws are pulled to clamp the work piece and the knob 81 is adjusted to where appropriately to provide sufficient clamping force to three jaws; and the threaded rod 8 pushes against the mandrel to remove it.
However, in a confined space where the work piece is located, three jaws 92 are prevented from clamping the work piece at the same time, or any jaw 92 fails to exercise normal clamping as contained by the structure in the vicinity of the work piece. Therefore, the puller with three jaws must be removed and another puller with two jaws is needed. As a result, it's time and efforts consuming work to replace the puller. Furthermore, it takes extra room and money to have both of the puller with three jaws and another with two jaws.


An imaging apparatus has: an imaging optical system; an imaging element configured to receive light transmitted through the imaging optical system to generate an electric signal; a main body; a display device provided on a back face of the main body and capable of displaying an image generated on the basis of the electric signal generated by the imaging element; and an electronic viewfinder provided inside the main body and capable of displaying the image generated on the basis of the electric signal generated by the imaging element, wherein an eyepiece part of the electronic viewfinder is provided to a transmissive region of the display device.

In recent years, many manufactures have enriched their lineups of compact digital cameras and mirrorless digital cameras, and have intended to differentiate between upper-end models and lower-end models. In the upper-end models, for example, an electronic viewfinder (EVF) is built in a main body of the digital camera. On the other hand, the electronic viewfinder in the lower-end model is configured to be externally added as an option.
Some digital cameras of the upper-end model, each having a built-in electronic viewfinder, are provided with a protrusion on an upper part of the main body, others having a flat upper part of the main body, and the like.
Patent Document 1 shows one example of the digital camera provided with a protrusion on the upper part of the main body. In the digital camera in Patent Document 1, a liquid crystal display is provided on a back face of the main body, and an eyepiece part of the electronic viewfinder is provided to the protrusion on the upper part of the main body.
Patent Document 2 shows one example of the digital camera of the type having the flat upper part of the main body. In the digital camera in Patent Document 2, a display apparatus and the eyepiece part of the electronic viewfinder are each provided on the back face of the camera main body.


An apparatus for the ultrasonic testing of internal areas of prefabricated composite assemblies as described. The composite assemblies have one or more internal areas formed therein. The apparatus includes at least one receive transducer, at least one transmit transducer, a vertical member, a support member slidably attached to the vertical member, a pair of substantially parallel hollow rods, and an ultrasonic testing system. Each rod comprises a transducer attachment end with receive transducers attached to the transducer attachment end of a first rod, and transmit transducers attached to the transducer attachment end of a second rod. The rods are slidably attached to the support member and manually movable with respect to a composite assembly to be tested. The ultrasonic testing system is coupled to the receive transducers through the first rod, and coupled to the transmit transducers through the second rod.

This invention relates generally to ultrasonic inspection of composite assemblies and more specifically, to methods and systems for inspection of composite assemblies that may include cavities.
More and more structures are fabricated utilizing composite materials. For example, airframes currently being developed incorporate more composite parts than previous airframes. However, utilization of more composite parts results in additional requirements for ultrasonic inspection to provide information with regard to the integrity of these additional composite parts.
Most facilities that fabricate composite materials, and thus composite parts, have limited capabilities for providing a fast, thorough ultrasonic inspection of these composite parts. One example of such a composite part is a movable trailing edge wing component. Traditionally, such a part was fabricated from metallic materials. In new generation aircraft, this component will be fabricated from composite material. As such, ultrasonic inspection will need to be utilized for this component, and the information provided by such an ultrasonic inspection will be utilized in the manufacturing process. Specifically, the ultrasonic inspection information will be utilized in adjusting the manufacturing process to ensure that quality parts are being produced for such an airframe component.
At least some composite components will be fabricated to include deep recessed cavities, for example, up to 30 inches deep. These cavities limit current ultrasonic technologies from performing a fast and thorough inspection. While computer controlled, gantry based, ultrasonic inspection systems are known to exist, for many inspection applications, such systems are prohibitively expensive to implement, and may not include flexibility for the inspection of many different composite assemblies.

Methods and systems for inspection of composite assemblies


The embodiments contemplate a printed circuit board of at least two layers for providing remote wireless communication between a wireless device and a unit, as well as methods of creating an omni-directional radiation pattern for transmitting/receiving information using a notch antenna formed in the printed circuit board having radio frequency circuitry. The notch antenna, with a closed and opened end, may be etched or embedded into a ground plane conductor on a first layer of the board. A transmission line positioned on the bottom surface of a second layer of the board crosses under the portion of the board containing the notch antenna. A first and second intermediate layer electrically connected between the first layer and the second layer may serve as return ground planes for the transmission line. A capacitive circuit, positioned in series with the transmission line and across the notch antenna, functions to reduce and/or eliminate inductance of the transmission line.

Various constraints in the design of meters that employ wireless radio transmitters and/or receivers restrict the type, size, and orientation of antennas that can be used in the metering devices. Such constraints include orientation and space restriction of meters. For example, a large portion of electricity meters are oriented vertically in a socket on a wall of a building. It is desirable to limit the size of the meter so that the meter does not extensively protrude from the wall on which it is located. It is also desirable to vertically mount printed circuit boards within the meter. The size constraint of limiting the outward protrusion of the meter from a wall coupled with the constraint of vertically mounting printed circuit boards within the meter makes it difficult to implement a conventional dipole, monopole, or loop antenna into a housing of such meters.
Another design constraint is a requirement that the antenna produce vertically-polarized electric fields in order to create effective omni-directional radiation coverage patterns. The internal implementation of conventional, vertically-polarized antennas with metering circuitry in a meter results in unfavorable consequences due to the close proximity of the antenna and the metering circuitry. For example, low gain and poor coverage patterns may result in such a situation where monopole, dipole, or loop antennas are incorporated.
Yet another constraint that may be encountered in the design of meters employing wireless capabilities is that external antennas are not practical, making the implementation of an internal antenna a necessity. External antennas may be easily implemented for metering devices but are extremely dangerous if human contact is encountered due to the high potential of service lines. Furthermore, external antennas are susceptible to unwanted tampering and accidental damage.
Problems with cross-talk and interference from electronic circuitry typically require separation and electrical isolation of the electronic circuitry from the ground and power planes of the printed circuit assembly. In order to accomplish the electrical isolation, separate assemblies are needed, which increases the size of the device incorporating the circuitry.
Accordingly, there is a need for the internal incorporation of an antenna into a metering device containing wireless functionalities without altering or adversely affecting the orientation or size of the metering device and for providing an effective omni-directional radiation coverage. The present invention satisfies one or more of these needs as well as other needs.


An input device includes a positioning element and a spring member. The positioning element comprises a generally disc shaped member. The spring member is a generally annular shaped spring member that is generally planar and that defines a generally serpentine pattern. The spring member is positioned laterally outward relative to the positioning element and is configured to exert a biasing force radially inwardly toward the positioning element.

The optical mouse has been overwhelmingly popular for controlling functions of computers and other electronic devices. However, the conventional optical mouse is too big and unsuitable for use in many portable electronic devices such as personal digital assistants, telephones, etc. Accordingly, other types of conventional input devices, such as TouchPad™ devices and puck-based input devices, have been developed and embedded into portable electronic devices, such as laptop computers, phones, etc. These input devices have become more important as portable electronic devices continue to incorporate more functionality, such as electronic mail, wireless computing, photography, etc.
Conventional puck-based input devices are attractive for handheld electronic devices because of their low profile. In some conventional puck-based input devices, a resilient mechanism, such as a spring, is deployed in association with the puck to maintain a desired position of the puck. The resilient mechanism is arranged to bias the puck to return to a center position after the puck has been moved to an off-center position, in which the user captures a user input. Unfortunately, the resilient mechanisms in conventional puck-based input devices either typically provide inaccurate and sloppy re-centering of the puck, or do not have a small enough form factor for many portable electronic applications.
In rate control devices such as the IBM TrackPoint™ the position of the puck maps to the velocity of the cursor. For rate control devices, accurate recentering is important because if the puck is not returned precisely to center, the cursor may drift when the user is not touching it. To work around this problem, these conventional input devices typically employ a sufficiently large central "dead zone," or use a very stiff restoring spring, both of which are detrimental to a good user experience. The Neuropointer™ by NEC is an example of a conventional portable puck-based navigation device which uses a rubber membrane to re-center the puck. Because the membrane is essentially a linear spring, the recentering accuracy is relatively poor.
Other conventional input devices attempt to address the accuracy of re-centering a puck with re-centering mechanisms having alternative force restoring force profiles. Unfortunately, these conventional input devices are too thick to fit in many portable electronic devices.
Users continue to demand more precision and accuracy in user input devices of portable electronic devices, while designers face continual pressure toward increasing miniaturization and increased functionality. With these challenges, conventional input devices fall short of market expectations by exhibiting inaccurate puck centering and positioning.

Re-centering mechanism for an input device

Avago Technologies ECBU IP (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.


A CPU reads a clear pattern held in a register in a watchdog timer when a system is booted up or reset, thereby determining whether or not the boot-up or the reset is a reset performed by the system or a reset due to runaway of a program to be executed and performing a process for booting up the system so as not to restart the task in which the runaway has occurred.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a CPU (Central Processing Unit) runaway determination circuit and a CPU runaway determination method, provided in a computer-embedded device such as a microcomputer board incorporated in a home-use appliance.
2. Description of the Related Art
A control circuit of the computer-embedded device is provided with a watchdog timer. The watchdog timer is arranged to generate a reset signal when the CPU has entered a runaway state in a logic circuit including the CPU, and to reboot the CPU thereby preventing runaway of the CPU. Specifically, when a clear signal is input from the CPU to the watchdog timer, the watchdog timer resets a counter. When the clear signal from the CPU is stopped and a count value reaches a predetermined value, the CPU is determined to have entered the runaway state. Then, the watchdog timer outputs a reset signal to the CPU.
As a specific example of the watchdog timer, there has been proposed a CPU runaway determination circuit in which a delay circuit which operates at a rising edge of a power VC is provided at an input port of a CPU. From a logic value of the state of the input port immediately after the CPU is reset, a determination is made as to whether a start is an initial start by activation of power or a restart due to the runaway (JP-U-5-87644).
Further, in connection with an information processor in which a CPU reads a program stored in ROM (Read-Only Memory) or RAM (Random Access Memory) and a plurality of program-processing sections run the program, there has been proposed a watchdog timer for specifying in which of the program-processing sections a runaway has occurred. Specifically, the watchdog timer is provided with a status register having storage areas assigned to first and second program-processing sections which are subjected to monitoring. Upon detection of any of the program-processing sections in which the runaway has occurred, the watchdog timer writes a result of detection into a corresponding storage area within the status register. Upon receipt of a notice of detection of a runaway from the watchdog timer, the control section makes a reference to the storage areas of the status register, thereby specifying the program-processing section in which the runaway has occurred (JP-A-2005-92430).
However, when the delay circuit is provided at the input port of the watchdog timer in JP-U-5-87644, the CPU determines that the start is a restart due to the runaway. In a case where a problem still exists in a program or hardware even when the CPU is initialized by the reset signal from the watchdog timer, there is a risk that the runaway occurs repeatedly. Moreover, when an element such as memory is broken, the runaway immediately occurs even when the CPU is rebooted.
Moreover, JP-A-2005-92430, when the watchdog timer has detected the runaway of the program-processing section, the control section can make a reference to the storage areas of the status register, to thus specify the program-processing section in which the runaway has occurred and be able to appropriately handle the program-processing section. However, latch circuits must be provided as many as the program-processing sections executed by the control section. Therefore, when the number of programs to be executed by the control section increases, the circuit configuration becomes more complicated and intricate, thereby increasing the number of components and eventually increasing a manufacturing cost.
There are many cases where even in a control circuit of a computer-embedded device, a plurality of tasks is executed as a result of a logic circuit including a CPU having recently become of higher performance and of higher functionality. In this case, it is required to specify in which task (process or thread) a runaway has occurred, and reset the system while avoiding the task in which the runaway has occurred.

CPU runaway determination circuit and CPU runaway determination method


A disclosed safety system for a vehicle is discloses and includes at least one sensor for sensing movement and forces on the vehicle indicative of an impact along a first sensing axis parallel with a longitudinal axis of the vehicle and a second sensing axis angled relative to a lateral axis of the vehicle. An electronic control unit is in communication with the at least one sensor and derives movement and force along the different axes from the information obtained relative to movement and forces along the second sensing axis. The electronic control unit uses the derived information to determine if a safety response is required based upon movement sensed by the at least one sensor and the information derived from information relating to movement along the second sensing axis.

Vehicle safety systems, including airbag deployment systems, utilize sensors located on the vehicle to detect crash situations. The crash sensors communicate with an electronic control unit (ECU) that makes decisions on when to deploy safety devices such as an airbag. Information used by safety systems includes direction and force of an impact. Sensors must be arranged to sense data along each axis a vehicle to determine the direction from which an impact occurs. Therefore, multiple sensors are utilized throughout the vehicle to detect force and movement indicative of an impact that is utilized by the safety system.
The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.


There is provided a machining apparatus in which movement of a machining point is a little, restriction on the machining operation of an articulated robot is a little and movement of a worker for the teaching operation is a little. The machining apparatus has an articulated robot which is controlled in attitude according to a teaching operation and has a catch instrument for catching a workpiece at an arm tip thereof, and a machining unit equipped at a fixed portion located within an arm reachable zone of the articulated robot, wherein the machining unit has a working tool having a profiling portion where a machining target portion of the workpiece caught by the catch instrument of the articulated robot is pressed according to the attitude control of the articular robot, and a floating mechanism that pushes the working tool in a press direction of the workpiece.

When a plastic workpiece is molded by blow molding or the like, plastic material protrudes from mating faces of molds (dies) being used, so that unnecessary protrusions (burr) occur on the surface of the workpiece.
There has been recently proposed a deburring apparatus in which a working tool for deburring is mounted at the tip of an arm of an articulated robot and the robot is controlled to be operated on the basis of position data, etc. based on teaching so that the burr on the surface of the workpiece fixed at a predetermined position is removed by the working tool (see Patent Document 1, for example).


A ratiometric vapor sensor is described that includes a first sensor and a second sensor. The first sensor includes a first semiconductor component comprising a vapor-sensitive semiconducting organic compound, while the second sensor includes a second semiconductor component comprising a modified vapor-sensitive semiconducting organic compound including a modifying organic group. The ratiometric vapor sensor can be used to detect the presence of a vapor such as nitrogen dioxide, and determine the concentration of the vapor by comparing the outputs of electrodes connected to the first and second sensor.

Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is one of most common toxic gases produced by combustion engines, and it is particularly relevant for health and safety in work and ambient environments when NO2 concentrations reach the 1-10 ppm range. The exposure of this air pollutant has been known to cause various lung diseases and contributes to smog formation. Due to the increasing attention to environmental issues in recent years and the recognition of the variability of NO2 concentrations across space and time, the sensing and detection of NO2 has become a research focus.
Analytic methods like gas chromatography use passive badges to collect NO2 and, as such, they are cumulative samples, measuring a total accumulated amount of NO2 as a single output value, revealing little temporal evolution in concentrations. Furthermore, samples are expensive to analyze, limiting the number of samples that can be collected. Sensors have the potential to dramatically increase the resolution of NO2 measurements at greatly decreased cost and may be small enough for deployment in homes or even as wearable personal samplers. Traditional chemiresistive sensors for NO2 based on semiconducting oxides are operated at high temperature, which causes power consumption and possibly safety issues and thus restricts the wide application in room-temperature detection. Epifani et al., Adv. Funct. Mater., 16, 1488-1498 (2006); Siemons et al., Adv. Funct. Mater., 17, 2189-2197 (2007). Very recently, Il-Doo Kim et al. reported porous RuO2 Nanosheets with sensitivity of 1.124% at 20 ppm at a film temperature of 80.3° C. Choi et al., Adv. Funct. Mater., 27, 1606026 (2017). Ratiometric sensing of NO2 was also achieved by using inorganic materials. Sen et al., Sens Actuators B Chem., 178(1):222-227 (2013). For example, the concentration of NO2 can be determined by ratiometric dual-color quantum dots. Yan et al., Analyt. Chem., 87, 2087-2093 (2015).
The high power requirements, possible toxicity, sensitivity to temperature and relative humidity, and drift of existing sensors limit the applicability of existing NO2 sensors for long-term (weeks to months) deployment in homes or occupational environments. Less expensive and lower-power sensors that address these challenges, or provide early indications for when a shorter-term deployment of the high-power sensors would be needed, would allow a more complete characterization of exposures for health assessments considering variability in NO2 concentrations.
Solution-processed semiconductors have been widely investigated in thin film devices because of their low cost, flexibility and room temperature operation. Bujak et al., Chem. Soc. Rev. 42, 8895-8999 (2013). A variety of solution-processed polymer materials have been explored for sensing gases such as the most reported ammonia (NH3) (Khim et al., Adv. Mater., 28, 2752-2759 (2016); Han et al., Sensors and Actuators B: Chem., 225, 10-15 (2016)), sulfur dioxide (SO2) (Matsuguchi et al., Sensors and Actuators B: Chem., 77, 363-367 (2001)), and H2S (Lv et al., Chemistry, 22(11), 3654-9 (2016)) which are all based on thin-film transistors. Other efforts, including adjusting the thickness of the sensing film (Esser et al., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 51, 5752-5756 (2012)), changing device structures (Zhang et al., Chem. Soc. Rev., 44, 2087-2107 (2015)), and using composite-materials by blending carbon nanotubes or different oxides (Tao et al., Nanotechnology, 27, 065502 (2016)) with polymer semiconductors have been made to further improve the sensitivity. Although few solution-processed organic materials were reported to detect NO2 (Das et al., Adv. Mater., 19, 4018-4023 (2007); Marinelli et al., Sensors and Actuators B: Chem. 2009, 140, 445-450 (2009). the sensitivity is far lower than for other typical toxic gas sensors. Using composite materials is still the main strategy to enhance the sensitivity of NO2 sensors (Zhou et al., Carbon, 108, 372-38 (2016)) due to the larger ratio of surface area to volume; the interaction mechanism in such materials can be difficult to define.
Thiophene polymers are successfully used in NO2 sensors based on organic field-effect transistors (OFETs). For instance, regioregular polyhexylthiophene and its copolymer hybridized with SnO2 were reported as an active layer to detect NO2 (Ram et al., Synth. Met., 151, 77-84 (2005)) but they are not tailored to be selective for NO2 gas. Although poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) nanotube-based sensors showed good response towards sensing NO2 at room temperature, good sensitivity (>50%) could only be achieved under relatively high concentration of NO2 (>50 ppm). Shaik et al., J. Environ. Chem. Eng., 3, 1947-1952 (2015). Therefore, the development of simple and high-performance detectors sensing NO2 concentrations in the 1-10 ppm range remains a challenge and needs further development.
An additional challenge is the development of OFET sensors capable of determining the concentration of an analyte. While the strength of a signal from an OFET sensor can vary in response to the concentration of an analyte, the strength of a signal from an OFET sensor can also be significantly affected by time of exposure, making these two causes for high signal strength difficult to distinguish. Accordingly, there remains a need for OFET sensors which are capable of not only detecting the presence of an analyte, but its concentration as well.


An access controller combines one or more Secure Access Modules (SAMs) or other cryptographic processors with embedded storage, individually accessible by the controller such that waiting on the reply from one of the modules does not prevent accessing the others, a host CPU, running the computer program to perform authentication and access control, and a waiting queue, possibly in system memory, to put the request in when all SAMs are used. The state of the SAMs, possibly using system memory, is tracked to be able to find a free access module or to be able to match a response to the corresponding request. One or more connections (serial, network, wireless or otherwise) are used to connect to transparent smart card readers and door controllers.

Access control systems typically consist of one or more door controllers, a plurality of sensors and relays and a plurality of identification cards readers. The controller may be a computer system that has a database of cardholders and access policy, a set of I/O ports and it may be responsible for applying the access policy. The sensors and relays are used to monitor doors states and activate the door strikes to unlock doors when required. Identification card readers communicate with user identification badges and retrieve the users' credentials. That information is conveyed to the door controller, for example by the means of an RS485 bus, a network connection or other communication mechanism. The controller then decides to activate the door strike relay (can also be a magnetic lock) or not.
In low security systems, the identification credential often is an RFID card or fob that provides a serial number when prompted. The serial number received at the card reader is transmitted to the access controller that checks if the serial number is permitted access. With these systems, if the card or fob is read by a third party, it is possible to make a copy of the RFID card or token that can grant access to an intruder.
In higher security systems, the credential can include a cryptographic processor that provides authentication while avoiding the need to exchange a secret or other information that would allow a third party to make a copy of the RFID card or token. Such credentials can be "smart cards".
When authenticating a smart card, it is known in the art to use secure access modules that can be similar in design to smart cards and provide the counterpart cryptographic processing to establish the identity of the RFID card presented to the reader device. A secure access module (SAM) provides for storage for the cryptographic keys and algorithms that is more secure than when a regular computer platform is used, because the SAM has a tamper-proof package whose memory is not readable from the outside. As is known in the art of financial transaction point-of-sale (POS) terminals, a secure access module or SAM can be connected to a slot in a device that has a card reader and PIN keypad. The cryptographic exchange between the client's smart card and the SAM is done using keys that are securely stored in the SAM and smart card, and the communication can be encrypted so that no compromising eavesdropping is possible. The SAM provides to the controller or microprocessor of the device a message that the card is authenticated, and the device transmits the authentication information over a bus or network connection.
In access control systems, it is known to use a SAM inside the reader itself or in a module associated with the reader located a small distance from the reader inside of the protected premises. In this case, using a SAM allows the smart card of the user to be authenticated, and the authentication information is then sent to an access controller for making the decision as to whether the user of the card should be granted access. It will be appreciated that the authentication information sent from the reader to the access controller also is best to be encrypted to prevent interception. This requires managing cryptographic keys for that communication.


Devices for use in cold-field emission and methods of forming the device are generally presented. In one example, a method may include providing a conductive base, dispersing carbon-filled acrylic onto the conductive base to form a conductive film, coupling a copper plate to a first side of the conductive film, and irradiating the conductive film. The method may further include dispersing carbon nanotubes (CNTs) on a second side of the conductive film to form a substantially uniform layer of CNTs, removing excess CNTs from the second side, and curing the conductive film. In one example, a device may include a polycarbonate base, a layer of carbon-filled acrylic on one side of the polycarbonate base and a layer of irradiated carbon-filled acrylic on the other, a copper plate coupled to the carbon-filled acrylic, and a substantially uniform layer of randomly aligned CNTs dispersed on the irradiated carbon-filled acrylic.

Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Carbon nanotubes are used in many applications due to a unique structure that enables strength, flexibility, and unique electrical properties. Carbon nanotubes are allotropes of carbon that have a cylindrical fullerene structure, and may be categorized as single-walled nanotubes (SWNT) or multi-walled nanotubes (MWNT). As the names suggest, SWNTs are cylinders composed of a single wall, while MWNTs include multiple (two or more) concentric cylinders.
A strength and flexibility of carbon nanotubes results from covalent sp2 bonds formed between individual carbon atoms in the carbon nanotube. In one example, carbon nanotubes have been shown to be as much as 100 times stronger than steel. Electrical properties in carbon nanotubes result from a nearly one-dimensional electronic structure, which allows electronic transport to occur ballistically with reduced scattering of electrons. This may allow carbon nanotubes to carry higher currents with reduced heating.

Cold field emission cathode using carbon nanotubes


A device for providing an electrical or fluid junction includes a connecting structure such as a plate that it is connectable with an end of a columnar component having a hollow profile, and a junction structure such as a housing that is connected to the connecting structure and that includes at least one opening for providing an electrical or fluid junction for an external plug and a further opening for routing a line from the electrical junction into the columnar component.

Lifting columns, which may sometimes be referred to as telescopic columns or telescopic actuators, are used in a wide variety of medical devices, for example, in wheelchairs, examination tables, patient beds, and medical equipment. They are also used outside the medical field, for example, in industrial applications for facilitating movement of machine parts or other components along a direction of movement.
It is known to run lines (electrical lines or fluid lines), wires, conduits, etc. in the interior of columnar structures like table legs, supporting columns, and lifting columns, which structures may be referred to here interchangeably hereinafter by the words "column" and "columnar component." It is thus often desirable to provide electrical or fluid junctions for these columns to connect lines outside the column to lines inside the column. These junctions may comprise, for example, a plug, or other electrical junction, on a side of the column, and these plugs may be integrated into the hollow profile section of the column. Adding plugs or other connectors to a column generally requires a post-processing or machining of the column, and this increases the complexity of the production process. Furthermore, the configuration of each plug must be specified at the time the column is ordered. In other words, in known systems, plugs which are to be accessible from the side of a column are integrated into the profile of the column when made. This means that the hollow profile section must be adapted or modified for each specific use. After the column is completed, it may be difficult for impossible to add or remove plugs, junctions or connectors to/from a column.
It would therefore be desirable to provide an arrangement that increases the design flexibility of columns with electrical or fluid junctions.

Device for providing an electrical or fluid junction


A pressure valve having a valve body inserted into a bore of a valve housing. The valve body on one end that has plunged into the valve housing has a valve seat face in contact with a movable valve member which can be seated by a restoring force and which is adjoined by a through conduit. The movable valve member penetrates the valve body, for the sake of simpler axial securing of the valve body in the valve housing and also for easier dismantling, the valve body is secured axially in the valve housing via a detent connection.

The invention is based on a pressure valve for controlling fluid flow to a fuel injection valve. One such pressure valve, known from an earlier German Patent Application, DE 197 10 891.1, is inserted there into a feed line between a pump work chamber of a fuel injection pump and an injection site of the internal combustion engine to be supplied. This known pressure valve, acting as an equalxe2x80x94pressure valve, has a cylindrical valve housing, in which an axial through bore embodied as a stepped bore is provided. A cylindrical valve body embodied as a tubular stub is inserted from the first face end into the stepped bore in the valve housing. The stepped bore has an axial through conduit, and with an end face protruding into the valve housing, The stepped bore forms a valve seat surrounding the through conduit. An axially displaceable valve member, with a sealing face, comes into contact with this valve seat face by the force of a restoring spring. The movable valve member then protrudes into the through conduit of the valve body and, with an end face that has plunged into the valve body, the end face forms a valve seat face for a further valve member, opening in the opposite direction from the first valve member, of a reverse-flow valve disposed inside the valve body.
The cylindrical valve body, in the known pressure valve, is press-fitted via its radial circumferential surface into the through bore in the valve housing. This press-fit connection, however, has the disadvantage that the surfaces of the valve body and of the through bore in the valve housing must be machined very precisely, which entails very major production effort and expense with respect to the tolerance at these fitting faces. Furthermore, a valve body press-fitted into the valve housing in this way is very difficult to dismantle later, so that replacing the pressure valve components for repair purposes later on can be accomplished only at relatively major effort and expense. As an alternative to this, it is known in pressure valves for the valve body to be screwed into the valve housing by means of a thread. This screw connection, however, is also relatively complicated from a production standpoint and moreover weakens the high-pressure strength of the components. The known pressure valves thus have the disadvantage that axially securing the valve body and the valve housing against unintended slipping out can be achieved only at relatively major effort and expense in production, or at the cost of poor dismantling capability.
The pressure valve according to the invention has the advantage over the prior art that axially securing the valve body in the valve housing can be achieved very simply from a production standpoint, and furthermore assures easy dismantling of the two components. To that end, the valve body is advantageously secured axially in the valve housing by means of a detent connection. This detent connection is formed, in a manner similar to a tongue-and-groove connection, by means of an annular collar protruding radially from the circumferential wall of the cylindrical valve body and a receiving annular groove in the wall of the bore of the valve housing. The receiving annular groove is spaced apart in the bore wall of the valve housing from the axial end face toward the valve body, and this intermediate region of the bore has a diameter that is less than the outside diameter of the annular collar, acting as a pressure collar on the valve body. On the opposite side, the receiving annular groove of the valve housing bore is adjoined by a further bore portion, whose diameter is again less than the diameter of the annular collar on the valve body; the two bore portions adjoining the receiving annular groove of the valve housing bore preferably have the same inside diameter. The annular collar on the valve body is also spaced apart from the end faces of the valve body by two shaft regions whose diameter is less than the diameter of the bore regions of the valve housing bore that adjoin the receiving annular groove on both ends. In addition, on its end remote from the valve housing, the valve body has a head piece of enlarged cross section, which is spaced apart from the annular collar by the smaller-diameter shaft region, and whose diameter is greater than the diameter of the bore in the valve housing and is also greater than the annular collar. The axial length of the receiving annular groove in the valve housing bore is greater than the axial length of the annular collar on the valve body. The receiving annular groove is embodied and disposed such that the head piece on the valve body, when the annular collar protrudes into the receiving annular groove, can be brought into contact with the end face of the valve housing. When the annular collar is protruding into the receiving annular groove, it is furthermore possible, with contact of the annular collar on the end toward the valve body of the receiving annular groove, to establish an axial spacing between the end face of the valve housing and the head piece on the valve body. This disposition and embodiment of the receiving annular groove in cooperation with the annular collar on the valve body provides a secure, sealing contact of the valve body head piece with the end face of the valve housing and an initially easy retraction of the valve body out of the valve housing bore, at least far enough that a puller tool can engage the head piece of the valve body from behind. Because of this improved engagement of a puller tool, the valve body can then simply be pulled out of the valve housing. The sealing between the valve body and the valve housing can advantageously be improved by providing that on the annular end face, toward the valve housing, of the head piece on the valve body, or on its end face that has dipped into the valve housing, a biting edge is provided, which cooperates sealingly with a corresponding counterpart face on the valve housing. The axial sealing force is brought to bear either while the pressure valve is being built into a corresponding component, or by an external, separate component.
Another advantage is attained in that when the valve body is inserted or press-fitted into the bore of the valve housing, the body edges to be overtaken that are located on the annular collar, the receiving annular groove or the end face of the valve housing are chamfered, to prevent canting of or damage to the components in the press-fitting process. Furthermore, even very slight differences in diameter between the faces on the valve body and on the valve housing suffice to assure reliable function.
The pressure valve of the invention, in the exemplary embodiment, is embodied as an equal-pressure valve, and the valve member guided axially displaceably in a through bore in the valve body that forms a through conduit receives a further reverse-flow valve that opens counter to the opening direction of the valve member. The axial ends of the through bore in the valve housing are advantageously embodied as line connections, which can be adjoined for example by a feed line to a fuel injection valve or on the other hand a pump work chamber of a high-pressure fuel pump. The embodiment according to the invention of the axial securing of the valve body inside the valve housing is not, however, limited to this type of equal-pressure valve but instead can be used in all similar valve types, in which a tubular component is to be axially secured in a bore of a second component. Alternatively, a transposition would be possible such that the radially protruding annular collar is provided on the bore wall and the radially inward-oriented receiving annular groove is provided on the valve body to be inserted.
Further advantages and advantageous refinements of the subject of the invention can be learned from the drawing, description and claims.