An operating device is connected to an image processing apparatus that generates image data to be displayed on a display according to a program. The operating device supplies a signal for varying the image data to be generated by the image processing apparatus. A joystick includes a lever and a disc interlocked therewith, and the rotation of the disc is detected by a photo-interrupter. Pulses from the photo-interrupter are counted by a resettable counter. A reset signal is supplied to the counter when three buttons are simultaneously depressed, when a power supply is turned on, or otherwise when a signal is received from a CPU of the image processing apparatus.

Conventional joysticks are structured to detect in which direction and to what degree an operating member thereof is inclined. The "home" or neutral position to which the operating member returns when not operated by an operator is the origin point from which inclination of the operating member is measured. Because the origin point is fixed and not alterable by a user, the user cannot freely modify the location of the origin point.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an operating device in which errors incurred through mass production can readily corrected and the origin point of the operating device can be determined and modified freely by an user.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an image processing system using such an operating device.
An operating device is connected during use to an image processing apparatus (10) that generates image data to be displayed on a display according to a program, to supply a signal for providing variation to the image data to be generated by an image processing apparatus, the operating device comprising: an operating member (451), a rotating member (457, 467), a rotation detecting means (459, 469), a count means (444X, 444Y), a reset signal generating means (442, 443, 447, 448), and a transfer means (442, 445, 43).
The operating member is supported to be tilt-operated by an operator so as to incline within a predetermined range and rest, when not operated by the operator, at a predetermined neutral position. The rotating member is arranged for rotation depending upon an inclination amount of the operating member. The rotation detecting means detect a rotational state of the rotating member. The count means varies a count value thereof depending on a rotational amount of the rotating member detected by the rotation detecting means. The reset signal generating means generates a reset signal to reset the count value of the count means. The transfer means transfers the count value counted by the count means to the image processing apparatus.
An image processing system includes an image processing apparatus for generating image data to be displayed on a display according to a program, and an operating device for connecting during use to the image processing apparatus so as to supply a signal for the image data to be generated by the image processing apparatus. The image processing apparatus (10) includes a program memory (20), a first receiving means (173), a central processing means (11), a first transmitting means (172), and an image signal generating means (16), and wherein the operating device (40) includes an operating member (451), a rotating member (457, 467), a rotation detecting means (459, 469), a count means (444X, 444Y), a reset signal generating means (442, 443, 447, 448), a second receiving means (173), a transfer means (171), and a second transmitting means (172).
The program memory is stored with a program for image processing. The first receiving means receives data generated by the operating device. The central processing means generates command data according to the program stored in the program memory, and generating image data depending upon the program and the data received by the first receiving means. The first transmitting means transmits the command data generated by the central processing means to the operating device. The image signal generating means generates an image signal for displaying an image on the display depending upon the image data from the central processing means. The operating member is supported to be tilt-operated to be inclined within a predetermined range by the operator and rested, when not operated by an operator, at a predetermined position. The rotating member is arranged for rotation depending upon an inclination amount of the operating member. The rotation detecting means detects a rotational state of the rotating member. The count means has a count value varied depending on the rotational amount of the rotating member detected by the rotation detecting means. The reset signal generating means generates a reset signal to reset the count value of the count means. The second receiving means receives the command data transmitted from the first transmitting means. The transfer means outputs the count value data counted by the count means in response to reception of predetermined command data by the second receiving means. The second transmitting means transmits the count value data output by the transfer means to the image processing apparatus.
When the operator holds the operating device in hand and inclines the operating member, the rotating member rotates depending upon the inclination. As a result, the rotation detecting means generates an electric signal responsive to the rotation of the rotating member. In response to the electric signal, the count means counts the rotational amount of the rotating member. The reset signal generating means generates a reset signal to reset the count value of the count means. The transfer means transfers the count value of the count means to the image processing apparatus. In response to this, the image processing apparatus generates an image signal varied depending on the count value.
The central processing means generates command data according to the program stored in the program memory. The first transmitting means transmits the command data to the operating device. The transmitted command signal is received by the second receiving means. The transfer means, in response to the reception of the commaqnd signal by the receiving means, outputs data of the count value counted by the count means. The count value data is transmitted by the second transmitting means to the image processing apparatus. This transmitted count value data is received by the first receiving means. The central processing means generates image data based on this count value data and a program. In accordance with this image data, the image signal generating means generates an image signal for displaying an image on the display.
According to the present invention, the number of program steps for image processing can be reduced so that the program is simplified and the shortening of programmer operating time is shortened and operation is simplified.
The above and other objects, features, aspects, and advantage of the present invention will become more apparent from the ensuing detailed description of the present invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Operating device and image processing system using same


The present invention is an apparatus and method for mixing a plurality of materials in-situ to form an admixture and heating a localized portion of admixture upon dispense. The heat thereby primarily effects the speed of chemical reaction and curing of only the exiting reactants with little effect upon the admixture not dispensed. The apparatus and process are especially useful for encapsulating a plurality of workpieces at a high throughput. Advantageous configurations are described such as wherein the workpieces and/or the dispensing mechanism may be mounted on a carrier and fed by an assembly line. Alternative admixture chemistries are described.

It is a constant endeavor to find improved ways to apply resins to encapsulate components, chips and/or modules. Presently chip or glob top encapsulation is generally accomplished with premixed materials. Pitfalls associated with this method range from improper resin storage, difficulty of flow control, and improper tube or syringe properties for application requirements. In order to extend the mixture's shelf life, it has to be frozen and subsequently thawed for use. It is absolutely essential to maintain the mixture at its required temperature. Failure to maintain proper storage temperature causes accelerated aging. This often results in increased material viscosity requiring ejection at a high pressure.
Most encapsulation methods presently employed require long cure cycles. A long cure cycle is particularly costly and inappropriate for use in an automated assembly line for a high volume throughput. This is evident by considering a typical assembly line situation. An assembly line with a line speed of 12 feet/min, and a cure time at raised temperature of 10 minutes, requires an oven at least 120 feet long. Currently, proper curing of a one pot, premixed encapsulation material takes about two hours at a raised temperature. To partially overcome this problem for devices mounted on a continuous tape-like strip, the parts are rolled after the encapsulating material, the encapsulant, has gelled. This is to prevent the parts from flowing, peeling or sticking to each other. In addition, the parts have to be cut and placed in a cassette for post curing.
Successful use of a one pot reactant material mixture in a large volume encapsulation application is difficult. In any one pot mixture, a reaction is progressing at all times. Increasing the temperature of the reacting system accelerates the reaction, while cooling slows the reaction. The actual change in the reaction rate is dependent on the viscosity. Intrinsically it depends upon the activation energy for the reaction. The reaction rate approximate doubles with every 10.degree. Centigrade increase in temperature. The use of very high temperatures to force a reaction to proceed extremely quickly is limited by the thermal stability of the reactants and products of the reaction. For aliphatic containing epoxy resins, this temperature is limited to about 170.degree. C. Aromatic epoxy resins can sustain substantially higher temperatures, but the reactivity of these species is substantially slower than for aliphatic systems and some reaction chemistries are not suitable for aromatic based resins.
One solution is to include a very efficient and fast catalyst system in the filled epoxy resin used for chip encapsulation. Shelf life becomes a very significant problem if the catalyst is very fast. Methods and devices to mix two liquids with and without the simultaneous application of thermal energy exist. Unfortunately, none can be successfully used in an application requiring very fast reaction. The problem of uniform heating throughout the mixing chamber was addressed by Griffith, U.S. Pat. No. 4,678,881, by using a heated paddle. The present invention presents a solution in which the catalyst is mixed with the resin only immediately prior to its being dispensed to encapsulate a device.
Inoue, U.S. Pat. No. 4,834,545, addresses the problem of mixing and dispensing an admixture of two materials by utilizing a conical mixing chamber and axial motion of the mixing spindle to eject the resin. There is no provision for heating. If the entire chamber was heated, residual resin in the mixing chamber following ejection would cure and result in buildup and eventually clogging and poor dispense column control.
Continuous reactors, such as that presented by Wilt, U.S. Pat. No. 4,438,074, typically have very long residence times with temperature control. There is no means of dispensing controlled amounts of the product and certainly no means for heating the mixture after dispense. These systems are typically used in mixtures which include a solvent. The resultant lower viscosity mixture does not require large shearing forces to be dispensed from the mixer. Materials requiring relatively large shearing forces preclude many means for dispensing the resin. The present invention is applicable even to filled materials which generally may require large shearing forces to be dispensed.
Haeuser, U.S. Pat. No. 4,741,623, shows a means for pumping a liquid into a mixing chamber, but gives no indication as to how the reactants are mixed or dispensed from the mixing chamber or subsequently heated.
Japanese patent, JP7833275, describes the mixing of two reactants and injection into a mold. This patent does not concern itself with controlled dispense or heating the reactants upon exit. The present invention used in conjunction with the device described in this patent would result in the resin curing within the mixing chamber and clogging it.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a means that can satisfactorily deliver a controlled volume of fast curing resin in a very precise and consistent manner around a device. This would eliminate the need for very long and expensive tunnel ovens in assembly line applications. It is another object to use epoxy resins that are highly filled to attempt to better match the coefficients of thermal expansion (CTE) of the resin and the chip. A very heavy loading of greater than 50 volume percent decreases the mixture's CTE to about 30 ppm as compared to about 60-80 ppm for the neat resin. The chip's CTE is about 2 ppm. The CTE of the lead frame on which the chip is mounted is about 18-25 ppm. By reducing the CTE mismatch, residual stress is reduced in the resulting structure.
It is another object of the present invention to reduce the resin's viscosity by heating it prior to its being applied to the chip. This allows the resin to settle around the chip and to effectively encapsulate the chip without leaving substantial voids or bubbles. It also reduces the time necessary to reheat the resin on the chip thereby reducing the necessary curing time. It enables the reaction to start prior to deposition on the chip. This is advantageous since viscosity increases very slowly in the initial stages of a reaction. The rate of increase of the viscosity increases with the extent of reaction until the gel point is reached. At this point the viscosity is essentially infinite. Prior heating also helps the small amount of resin to drop properly from the tip of the applicator. Proper resin dropping is related to surface tension and viscosity which decrease with temperature.
If the mixer or the stirrer in the mixer is heated in entirety, the chemistry starts prematurely. Premature heating would cause the formation of surface coatings even if the resin is flushed out of the mixer often. The coatings gel and become permanent within the mixer. Ultimately, the thickness of this coating becomes sufficient to contaminate the mixer. This would require that the mixer be disassembled and cleaned or replaced.
The present invention overcomes these problems and provides a method and apparatus which may be employed in extremely high volume throughput applications. The encapsulating material is mixed in-situ which leads to a shortened cure time in the order of several minutes or less, for example five minutes. This process also provides improved and increased processing capability and longer material pot life.

Apparatus for mixing a multi-component encapsulant and injecting it through a heated nozzle onto a part to be encapsulated

International Business Machines Corporation


A cover for a cable harness including: (i) a first layer comprising a first color; (ii) a second layer layered adjacent to the first layer, the second layer comprising a second color that is different than the first color; and (iii) an adhesive layer adhered to the first layer, at least a portion of the adhesive is not covered by the second layer. The first color can black, while the second color is white. The second layer comprises fibers that can be substantially free of dye. At least one of the first layer and the second layer can be polyethylene terephthalate. The cover can cover a plurality of cables of a cable harness. If wear forms a hole through the first layer, the second color of the second layer is visible from an environment external to the covered cable harness through the hole through the first layer.

Some vehicles include cables for a variety of purposes, such as to conduct electricity, transfer data, and manipulate actuable components. Sometimes these cables are bundled together into a cable harness to minimize the space that the cables occupy and to reduce interaction of the cables with other components of the vehicle. Sometimes a cover covers the cable harness to protect the disparate cables from wear caused by contacting other components of the vehicle. Such wear could cause one or more of the cables to fail and, thus cause the vehicle to operate less optimally. However, there is a problem in that the cover sometimes contacts other components of the vehicle and eventually an area of the cover is abraded away, leaving one or more of the cables subject to contacting the other components and subsequently abrading until failure.

Cover for a cable harness with different color layers


An image retrieval method includes reading from a first database a first image group mapped to an object as a retrieval target, and extracting an image feature quantity of a plurality of images of the first image group. A second image group mapped to an object as a search key is read from a second database and an image feature quantity of a plurality of images of the second image group is extracted. Similarity is determined between the first image group and the second image group, based on the image feature quantity of the plurality of images of the first image group and the image feature quantity of the plurality of images of the second image group. On an output device, as retrieval results, the plurality of images of the first image group are displayed in order of similarity of the object as the retrieval target based on determined similarity.

Techniques for retrieving similar objects are applied in a variety of fields such as industrial design retrieval in design examinations, product image retrieval in design and manufacture, 3-dimensional computer aided design (3D-CAD), and drawing search in component images. The industrial design retrieval in design examinations is described below.
In the design examination, existing designs similar to a design of a verification target are retrieved to determine design similarity. In the industrial design image retrieval in the design examination, an existing design and a text describing the feature of that existing design are stored on a database (DB) with the design tied to the text. The database is then searched with a keyword as a search key representing the feature of the design as the verification target. The existing design similar to the design as the verification target is thus retrieved.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-164503 discloses a three-dimensional model retrieval method as a typical image retrieval application. In accordance with the disclosure, a three-dimensional model similarity retrieval is performed with a two-dimensional image as a search key. Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-288690 discloses a cubical image display method displaying an image on a cube in the typical image processing.

Apparatus and method for retrieving image


A writing instrument has an elongate body equipped with a pocket connector. The connector includes a leg secured to the body and a relatively ridged, elongate stem extending from the leg in generally parallel relationship with a face surface of the body to define a pocket receiving space therebetween. The stem has a remote spring engaging surface near an end of the stem remote from the leg. A pocket engaging leaf spring is disposed in the space and has ends in biased engagement with the remote spring surface and another spring surface near the leg. The spring is bowed such that a central portion of the spring is closer to the body face than the spring ends. The disclosed body is a scabbard which remains in a user's pocket when the writing implement is in use.

Writing instruments equipped with clips for positioning such an instrument relative to a pocket and holding it in a pocket have been provided in a wide variety of shapes and forms. While such clips have been provided in a wide variety of forms, they in general have certain common characteristics. The characteristics are:
1) The clip itself is typically an elongated, yieldable element having a pocket face engaging projection at an end of the element remote from a connection of the element to the body of the writing instrument.
2) The elongate element is resiliently flexible such that it yields to permit a pocket face to be inserted between the projection and the body of the writing instrument while biasing the projection against the pocket face to clamp the instrument in the pocket.
One disadvantage of prior clips has been that the range of aesthetically pleasing designs available has been limited by the physical need for a resilient stem. A further disadvantage has been the tendency to cause excessive wear to a pocket face when writing instruments are frequently inserted and removed from a pocket. As a consequence, persons such as engineers who must frequently insert and remove writing instruments will resort to using unsightly pocket inserts which have flaps to overlie the pocket face to protect the pocket face from wear and soiling.


A method of repairing severed or damaged data transmission lines of an imager provides a shunt path around the electrical defect in the data transmission line by means of a diode common transmission line. The repair shunt includes a first scan line segment, a common electrode segment, and a second scan line segment, which segments are fused together and to the data line having the electrical defect to bypass the electrical defect. The respective conductive lines are fused together with spot welds formed with the application of a laser. A repaired imager has a data line having an open circuit defect, with respective first and second portions of said data line being coupled to a repair shunt comprising an associated pixel scan line segment and a common electrode segment. In one embodiment of the present invention, a plurality of spot welds are provided in the imager array, each in its unwelded state but capable of being welded by the application of heat.

Portions of this invention were made with Government support under Government Contract No. MDA 97294-30028 awarded by DARPA. The Government has certain rights in this invention.
1. Field of the Invention
The field of the invention is imaging or display arrays having address transmission lines, i.e., scan and data transmission lines, and more particularly, to a process for repairing transmission lines that become damaged during the fabrication process of the imager or display arrays.
2. Background
Solid state radiation imagers are commonly formed on a substantially flat substrate, typically glass, and comprise an array of pixels that are used for generating an electrical signal corresponding to the incident radiation. Each pixel includes a photosensitive element, typically a photodiode, and an associated switching element, preferably a field-effect transistor (FET). The array of pixels is typically arranged in a row-column matrix, with each pixel addressed by two electrical transmission lines, a scan transmission line and a data transmission line. The scan lines are typically oriented along rows of the pixel array and coupled to the gate electrode of pixel in that row, with signals applied to the scan lines determining whether the FET is in a conductive or non-conductive state. Data lines are typically oriented along columns of the pixel array and are coupled to source electrodes of the respective pixel FETS in that column, and are used to transfer the electrical signal (corresponding to the charge accumulated on the photosensor during a period of radiation exposure) to readout electronics coupled to the array. The photosensor is further coupled to a common electrode, which electrically connects one contact of the photodiodes in parallel. In various embodiments, the common electrode comprises molybdenum, and in other embodiments the common electrode comprises a layer of indium tin oxide (ITO) which overlays the pixel array.
The operability of the imagers is dependent upon the electrical integrity of the data transmission lines to provide necessary low noise contact to each photosensor to which it is coupled. More particularly, the data transmission lines need to be functional after the completion of all the processing steps for fabricating the imager. However, damage to these transmission lines may occur during processing steps in forming the various components of the imager, such as deposition and patterning of layers of conductive, semiconductive, and dielectric materials to form the photodiodes and FETS and coupled them together in the pixel array. Damaged data lines having open circuit condition render can render significant portions or an entire column of pixels inoperative. A repair process for reestablishing electrical integrity in a severed or damaged data transmission lines is thus helpful to enhance imager performance and increase yield in the fabrication process.
A process for repairing data transmission lines that may have become severed or damaged during the processing steps of the imager desirably is a simple process so as not to unduly degrade the efficiency of the imager fabrication processes and that the integrity of the repair be verifiable in a quick and convenient manner. It also desirable that the have sufficient electrical integrity to provide reliable low noise electrical contact along the data line to maintain imager performance characteristics.

Process for repairing data transmission lines of imagers


A method and apparatus for supporting a dock leveler in a manner to reduce the effects of free fall and stump-out. The apparatus includes the use of a retractable support leg. The method includes maintaining the support leg in a support position and retracting the support leg under certain conditions.

Dock levelers are mounted in loading docks and are used to bridge a gap between a loading dock and the end of a vehicle parked at the loading dock. For example, trucks or tractor trailers may be loaded and unloaded at loading docks with the help of a dock leveler. The dock leveler enables material handling equipment such as a fork lift to move between the dock and the vehicle bed. Because not all vehicle beds are of the same height, many dock levelers are configured to pivot up and down in order to adjust and create a bridge between the loading dock and the vehicle bed. Typical dock levelers include a ramp portion. In addition, dock levelers may include a lip mounted at the end of the ramp. When a vehicle backs up to the dock, often the lip is extended and rests directly on the bed of the vehicle. Some dock levelers use the bed of the vehicle as a support for the lip and the ramp so that vehicles, such as fork lifts, material, and operators may move between the vehicle bed and the dock.
If a vehicle, whose bed is supporting the dock leveler and load (e.g. fork lift, material, dock worker), were to pull away from the dock, the dock leveler may become unsupported and move rapidly down to a low position under the influence of gravity and strike the support structure in the pit of the dock leveler. This condition is known in the industry as free fall. Free fall can have unpleasant consequences when dock workers or material handling vehicles such as fork lifts are on the dock leveler during a time when free fall occurs. In order to mitigate the effects of free fall, many dock levelers are equipped with various devices in order to limit or negate the effects of free fall.
One such device used to limit the effects of free fall is a support structure known as a support leg. A dock leveler may have one or more support legs. Often a dock leveler has a pair of support legs. Many support legs are configured so that they support the dock leveler at dock level, (a position where the ramp is level with the surrounding loading dock). When vehicles back up to a loading dock with the bed of the vehicle located at dock level or above, the dock leveler may be raised, the lip extended, and the dock leveler lowered until the lip rests on the bed of the vehicle. If the vehicle has a bed located above dock level, the support legs may be slightly above a corresponding support structure configured to support the support legs. Thus, if free fall occurs, the support legs will only permit the dock leveler to fall a limited amount before the support legs engage their support structure.
One problem associated with support legs is that if a vehicle with a bed located below dock level backs up to the dock, the support legs must be retracted to allow the ramp to lower until the lip rests on the bed of the vehicle. If the support legs are not retracted, the deck will be supported at dock level and the lip will fall to rest on the bed of the vehicle. Thus the angle of the lip relative to the vehicle bed will be steeper than normal. This condition of the support legs preventing the deck from being lowered is known in the industry as stump-out.
Stump-out can also occur as a vehicle is loaded. For example, the support legs may initially be above their support structure when the vehicle first backs up to a dock leveler. But as the vehicle is loaded and becomes heavier, the vehicle suspension may deflect due to the increasing load. As the vehicle bed becomes lower and lower the support legs may engage the support structure thus causing stump-out.
Stump-out can also occur when the support legs are still slightly above the corresponding support structure. As a fork truck moves in and out of the vehicle, deflection of the vehicle suspension will cause the vehicle and the dock leveler to move up and down several inches and cause the support legs to impact the corresponding support structure.
Stump-out can cause a variety of problems. For example, the steep angle of lip may inhibit material handling equipment such as a fork lift, from exiting the vehicle. The steep ramp may also cause the counterweight of a fork lift to impact the lip causing damage to the dock leveler, and potential injury to the fork lift driver. When stump-out is caused by deflection of the vehicle suspension, the repeated pounding of the support legs on the corresponding support structure can cause structural damage to the dock leveler and to the concrete pit that supports the dock leveler.
In order to avoid stump-out many dock levelers include retractable support legs that maintain the ramp in a substantially horizontal position when the ramp is not in use (i.e., when the dock leveler is not engaged with the truck bed). These legs can be retracted for servicing truck beds that are below dock level. Typically a pair of support legs are pivotally attached to the ramp near the lip hinge and extend downwardly to engage a supporting sub frame. These support legs may be spring biased forward toward a supporting position and may be retracted to a non-supporting position by one of several means.
Both manual and automatic mechanisms have been used to retract support legs. Manual support leg retraction mechanisms may require an operator to engage a mechanism, for example, by pulling a chain to retract the support legs as the ramp is being lowered. Automatic support leg retraction mechanisms typically retract the support legs as the lip of the dock leveler is extended. In this way the support leg is retracted when the lip engages a truck. However, retracting the support legs with manual mechanisms may require additional labor when trying to mate the dock lever to the truck, and retracting the support legs with automatic mechanisms may add complexity to the dock leveler.
Accordingly, a dock leveler that is able to deal with the problems of free fall and stump-out while at the same time reducing the amount of labor and complexity of a dock leveler is desired.

Support leg system and method for supporting a dock leveler


A method of performing scheduling and a method of controlling call admission in a communication system are disclosed. A method of controlling call admission a new user equipment which enters a network in a communication system includes performing scheduling by giving priority lower than that of a user equipment which is previously receiving a service to the new user equipment, and determining whether to admit call of the new user equipment depending a result of scheduling for a certain time period.

In a communication system, scheduling can be used in various meanings and mainly relates to efficient distribution of limited resources. For example, in case of uplink, scheduling is to determine as to when to transmit data through which user equipment using which channel resources (code, frequency, time, power, data rate, etc.). In case of downlink, scheduling is to determine as to whether a network provides services to which one of a plurality of user equipments for a specific time period at what level of Quality of Service (QoS), wherein the plurality of user equipments are receiving a specific service.
In downlink scheduling according to the related art, on the assumption that QoS requirements of all users are satisfied owing to sufficient network resource, there are provided scheduling algorithms that can satisfy the above requirements. However, since the network resource is not always sufficient, QoS requirements of all users are not always satisfied. Accordingly, it is necessary to consider what requirements for satisfying QoS of the users are under the circumstances that the network resource is not sufficient.
Furthermore, in order to actually realize and operate the scheduling algorithms at a desired level, it is necessary to determine as to whether QoS requirements of all users can be satisfied even in the case that a user who newly desires to enter a network is admitted to enter the network. If QoS requirements of all users are satisfied, the new user is admitted to enter the network. If not so, an action which does not admit network entrance of the new user is necessarily required. This is referred to as call admission control (CAC). A call admission control algorithm which is operated along with the scheduling algorithm has not been suggested until now.
However, the call admission control algorithm does not solve every problem due to time variable characteristics in resources of a radio channel. In other words, even though the call admission control algorithm determines that a user who newly arrives in the network is admitted to enter the network, a problem occurs in that the current status may be varied to the status where the user is not admitted to enter the network, as the time passes. However, the conventional scheduling algorithms fail to suggest preparations for the above problem.
Finally, a problem occurs in that the conventional scheduling algorithms do not handle as to how to use remaining resources after ensuring QoS of users. For this reason, this problem could lead to serious waste of radio resources under the circumstances that various types of QoS should be ensured.

Method of performing scheduling in a wired or wireless communication system and apparatus thereof


A method, non-transitory computer readable medium, and network device that generates a network communication including a destination address associated with a second network device and a destination port number, wherein the destination port number corresponds to a service operating on the second network device. An initial SSL handshake protocol message is generated and at least the destination port number is inserted into a server name indicator (SNI) extension of the initial SSL handshake protocol message. An SSL connection is established with the second network device using a predetermined port number and the initial SSL handshake protocol message is sent to the second network device. Information included in the network communication is sent to the second network device using the SSL connection.

Network traffic can be optimized, managed, and/or distributed by one or more network traffic management apparatus. Many networks include a plurality of network traffic management apparatus, such as associated with one or more local area networks (LANs) and/or one or more server pools, for example. Additional advantages can be obtained by communicating network traffic between network traffic management apparatus, such as client-side and server-side network traffic management apparatus symmetrically disposed on either side of a wide area network (WAN), for example. In one such deployment, at least one network traffic management apparatus is disposed on a client side of a WAN as associated with a LAN connecting many client computing devices 16(1)-16(n). Additionally, another network traffic management apparatus is disposed on a server side of a WAN as associated with one or more server pools.
In order to manage network traffic in this exemplary deployment, it is advantageous for one or more of the network traffic management apparatus to communicate other information, such as configuration information, to one or more other network traffic management apparatus. Accordingly, a process, thread, application, daemon (e.g. rsync daemon), or service (collectively referred to herein as a "service") operating on a first network traffic management apparatus, may want to communicate information, such as synchronization data, to a service operating on a second network traffic management apparatus. The service operating on the second network traffic management apparatus can be identified by and associated with a port number. Additionally, it is generally desirable that such communications are secure and that the various network traffic management apparatus are authenticated.
However, many networks employing network traffic management apparatus have a limited quantity of port numbers, often arbitrated by a firewall provided by one or more network devices. As a result, such networks may only make one port number available to a network traffic management apparatus and may use a firewall to restrict network communications identifying a different port number not allocated to the network traffic management apparatus. Accordingly, network communications originating from a first network traffic management apparatus and identifying a service on a second network traffic management apparatus by a destination port number may be filtered prior to reaching the intended destination service operating on the second network traffic management apparatus, which is undesirable.

Methods for secure communication between network device services and devices thereof


Indicating a movement of an ultrasonic tag is accomplished by a transducer operable to provide electrical signals caused by the movement. The movement can cause mechanical vibrations, sound vibrations, or pressure in the transducer, to generate the electrical signals. A controller can detect the electrical signal from the transducer generated by the movement, whereupon the controller obtains tag data and modulates the tag data to be supplied to a powered up emitter. The emitter transmits the modulated tag data in a transmission to an ultrasonic tag reader using an ultrasonic carrier sound wave.

Ultrasonic identification tags can be used to identify and inventory various products labeled with such tags, such as in a retail, factory, or warehouse environment. Ultrasonic identification tags generally transmit data modulated as a sequence of an ultrasonic carrier sound wave. The modulated data includes information, such as a serial number or other identification data, and/or product information, for example. An ultrasonic reader may then receive and demodulate the data from the ultrasonic sound wave, determining a presence of the product and the information about the product.
Typically, an ultrasonic tag is a relatively small device with its own enclosed power source or battery. Of course, producing ultrasonic signals requires power, and continually transmitting ultrasonic signals would quickly drain the battery. One way for the ultrasonic tags to conserve power is to not keep the transmitting emitter (transponder) powered at all times. When the tag receives an appropriate ultrasonic trigger signal from an ultrasonic reader, the tag responds in kind by powering up its ultrasonic emitter and transmitting its modulated data from the emitter.
A problem arises in the case where a tagged product is moved. The system that inventories these products will not know that the tagged product has been moved until the next time the reader tries to read the tag. Moreover, the reading range of ultrasonic tags is relatively low and, if the product has been moved far enough away, the system will not know where the product is, and will not know which local tag reader to trigger in order to locate the tagged product.
Accordingly, there is a need for a technique for detecting the movement of ultrasonic data tags.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.
The apparatus and method components have been represented where appropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present invention so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein.


A computer-implemented method for determining a set of target items to be annotated for training a machine learning application. The method comprises providing a training data set with a set of data samples and an auto-encoder with a classifier. The auto-encoder comprises an embedding model that maps the set of data samples to a set of compressed feature vectors. The set of compressed feature vectors define a compressed feature matrix. Further provided are: a definition of a graph associated to the compressed feature matrix, applying a clustering-algorithm to identify node clusters of the graph and applying a centrality algorithm to identify central nodes of the node clusters, retrieving from an annotator node labels for the central nodes, propagating the annotated node labels to other nodes of the graph and performing a training of the embedding model and the classifier with the annotated and the propagated node labels.

The present invention relates to a computer-implemented method for determining a set of target items to be annotated for training a machine learning application.
The present invention further relates to a corresponding system and a corresponding computer program product.
Current supervised machine learning algorithms may be very data-hungry, i.e. they may require a lot of annotated data in order to be trained successfully. This may be problematic for the application of such algorithms in an industrial setting as most industries do not maintain large annotated datasets and the cost of annotating large data sets is often substantial due to the need for qualified subject matter experts. Such annotated training data may also be referred to as ground truth.
Accordingly, there is a need for methods which facilitate to generate such ground truth in an efficient way, in particular to generate such ground truth from large datasets.

International Business Machines Corporation


The invention relates to a hinge for the constraining of a hatch or door from a support structure. The hinge is of the type constituted by a first part constrainable from the support structure and by a second part constrainable from the closing door of the support structure itself. The second part is pivoted about respective parallel axes arranged near the lower edge of the door. A lower arm is rigidly and movably connectable to a lower portion of the first part. The lever has an upper edge slidably in contact with an idler wheel supported by an upper portion of the first part. The lever exhibits a first substantially straight tract, a second curved tract with at least one center of curvature arranged above the lever, and a third tract, also curved with at least one center of curvature arranged above the lever and connected to the second tract by an arched projection with at least one center of curvature arranged below the lever.

The invention relates to a hinge for constraining doors or hatches from a support structure.
In particular, the present invention relates to a hinge advantageously usable to constrain oven doors from ovens.
Conventional hinges are usually constituted by a box structure associated with the door, a lever pivoted at one of its ends internally to the box structure and associated with its other end to a support structure and a rod movable longitudinally internally of the box structures. One of the rod's ends is at an intermediate point of the lever and subjected to the action of elastic means anchored to the box structure.
The elastic means, whether of a traction type or a compression type, maintain the lever in one of at least two stable configurations; one configuration corresponds to the open-door situation and the other to the closed-door situation.
The lever emerges from the box structure through a respective longitudinal slot by means of its end which is to be associated with the support structure. Usually, for technical reasons connected with greater functionality, the lever is arranged in proximity to an end of the box structure and the extreme transversal edges of the slot act as end-run stops for the lever. In particular, the longitudinal wall of the box structure having the slot acts as an end-run stop for the lever in its closed-door configuration. The near transversal wall, which usually defines the slot, acts as end-run stop for the lever in its open-door configuration. Frequently the open door is used as a leaning surface for the dishes taken out of the oven, for example for checking the progress of the food being cooked. Considering that the temperature of the oven is usually rather high, instinctively the dish will be placed in proximity with the extreme edge of the door itself so that the user will feel less of the intense heat of the oven. Distancing the dish from the support structure, however, means increasing the moment of the weight that the dish exerts on the door, and ultimately, on the door support coinciding with the hinges.
When the door is in its open position, the hinge is kept in the corresponding configuration only by the transversal wall of the box structure on which the lever exerts a flexing force.
At present, the hinge box structure is obtained by means of bending or pressing of a rather thick steel sheet. Consequently, the transversal wall is made from the same sheet which is not mechanically resistant enough to flexion to ensure a sufficient degree of safety with regard to the flexing load.
On the other hand, the existing safety norms envisage that, when the door is in its extreme open position and a load is placed on it, the hinge must stand a load which is normally superior to the maximum flexion resistance of the transversal wall structured in the above-mentioned manner.
The simplest solution would seem to be that of strengthening the wall or making the box structure by casting, but that would be too expensive for the manufacturing companies as well as for the ultimate buyer.
Furthermore, the same hinges must be, in their open-door configuration, not only able to support a determined weight, but also sure to give way, more or less, when weights of an unforeseen but excessive (with respect to the predetermined maximum admissible weight) entity suddenly load on to the door.
With the aim of eliminating the possibility of this dangerous situation occurring, it has been proposed that there should be introduced, in the kinematic mechanism of the hinge, a weakening element with a predetermined breaking load, so that a load greater than the said breaking load would cause a giving of the weakening element itself and a consequent free rotation of the door, avoiding thus the toppling of the whole structure. Obviously, however, such a solution would bring about, in the case of such a breaking of the weakening element, the necessity of repairing the hinge through the substitution of the weakening element itself, with a consequent temporary withdrawal of the oven from use, and incurring considerable costs.

A hinge for the constraining of hatches or doors from a support structure


A simultaneous voice-call system for a cordless telephone where communication between a base unit and a plurality of portable units is established through the use of a radio communication channel. The base unit includes a transmitter/receiver which establishes a communication channel between base unit and plurality of portable units. The transmitter/receiver has a control channel and a plurality of talk channels. A portable-unit-identifying number memory stores portable-unit-identifying numbers preassigned to the plurality of portable units. A first simultaneous call controller responsive to a simultaneous call command from a user to establish a talk-channel between the plurality of portable units by transmitting through the control channel portable-unit-identifying numbers stored in the portable-unit-identifying number memory, a vacant-talk-channel number, and a simultaneous call code to the plurality of portable units. The talk-channel is a radio communication channel through which a message is transmitted from the base unit to the plurality of portable units. The simultaneous call code indicates that the message is transmitted to the portable units at the same time. Each of the plurality of portable units includes a portable-unit-identifying number assigned thereto and a second simultaneous call controller.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cordless telephone where the communication between a base unit and a portable unit or units is achieved through a radio, and more particularly to a simultaneous voice call system for a cordless telephone where a plurality of portable units are simultaneously called by the base unit and a voice message is sent to the portable units.
2. Prior Art
With conventional cordless telephone systems, an operator of a base unit dials to individually call portable units so as to send a voice message. The operator has to repeat as many dial operations as there are portable units the operator wants to call. This is a long time for the operator to complete all calls.

Simultaneous voice-call system for cordless telephone


The disclosed computer-implemented method for protecting website visitors may include (i) retrieving an instance of a website that was dynamically generated by aggregating multiple website subcomponents, (ii) decomposing the instance of the website into the multiple website subcomponents, (iii) checking whether a website subcomponent has been previously scanned by a security scanner, (iv) accelerating a review of the instance of the website by reusing results of a previous scan of the website subcomponent that was performed in response to retrieving a different instance of the website subcomponent rather than performing an original scan of the website subcomponent, and (v) protecting a visitor of the website by modifying a display of the instance of the website based on the accelerated review of the instance of the website that reused results of the previous scan of the website subcomponent. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.

In the modern web, each visit to a website results in the delivery of a unique application to the user. Real time changes to content, advertisement delivery, and tracking systems can cause each instance of the website to be unique. Attempts to judge the safety of a website or a web-based application result in an evaluation of that website at one point in time in one specific context. This assessment may or may not correspond to the actual content delivered to a different endpoint consuming that content at a different point in time. While some related systems can evaluate specific pieces of web content using signature matches, there is currently no way to evaluate a specific instance of a website or to block active content delivered from a website based on things such as a reputation or prevalence of that content. Also, because the content in the body of the website changes frequently (e.g., changes each time that a user visits the website) it is not reliable to assert that a particular website is safe by referencing a uniform resource locator or public key certificate. Instead, the entire page content must be inspected, and inspection is expensive and slows down the browsing experience. The instant disclosure, therefore, identifies and addresses a need for improved systems and methods for protecting website visitors.

Systems and methods for protecting website visitors


A rotor with permanent magnet capable of fixing permanent magnets on the rotor iron core by a simple method. This rotor with permanent magnet comprises; a rotor iron core in which rotor iron plates provided with plural recessed portion in trapezoidal form at suitable intervals are formed in stacked manner on the outer circumference, fitting grooves comprised of continuity of the recessed portions on the outer circumferential surface thereof; a pair of end plates provided at respective end surfaces of the rotor iron core; fixing members formed by non-magnetic material, the fixing members being inserted into the respective fitting grooves to form a plurality of areas partitioned by the outer circumferential surface of the rotor iron core along with the end plates; and a plurality of permanent magnets fixed in the respective areas between these fixing members.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a rotor iron core of a permanent magnet type generator more particularly, the invention relates to a rotor with permanent magnets in which a plurality of permanent magnets are fixed on the outer circumference of the rotor iron core. A method of manufacturing such a rotor is also part of the invention.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hitherto, the rotors of a permanent magnet type generator, in which permanent magnets are disposed on the outer circumference, have required various methods to facilitate positioning, holding and fixing the permanent magnets. One fixing method is to bond the permanent magnets on the outer circumference of the rotor by winding over the outer circumference a glass tape or the like, impregnated with a semi-hardening resin. The glass tape has the same width as the width of the permanent magnet, and is wound several times in an overlapping manner. Another fixing method is to wind the outer circumference with a tape, such as a clothing tape, having a width narrower than the width of the permanent magnet. The tape may be wrapped with a half-wrap winding to fix the permanent magnets Similar methods have been carried out. Another method of disposing the permanent magnets is to mold the entirety in synthetic resin. This method has also been carried out.
However, in the field of electric rotating machines, rotating machines (such as electric motors and the like) are operated at a high speed in recent years. Accordingly, the centifugal force of the rotor becomes large. As a result, strength has become problem with respect to holding and fixing of the permanent magnet.
For example, in the Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-open No. 57055/1994 publication, there has been proposed a method in which iron plates of the same shape provided with projections at fixed intervals on the outer circumferential surface of the stacked iron core are stacked in the state where corresponding projections of respective iron plates are caused to be respectively in correspondence with each other to form projected stripe portions on the outer circumferential surface to dispose permanent magnets in circular arc form in the state where both side end surfaces are caused to be in parallel to each other between those projected stripe portions to weld the projected stripe portions and the permanent magnet surfaces to fix the permanent magnets on the outer circumference of the rotor iron plates. However, this method requires a complicated step to allow the both side end surfaces of the permanent magnets to be in contact with the projected stripe portions to dispose the permanent magnets between the respective projected stripe portions to fix them by welding, etc. Moreover, in the Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-open No. 21346/1944 publication, there has been proposed a method in which magnets are fitted between projections of fixed intervals formed on the core outer circumference of the rotor iron core to fix a cylindrical cover of resin over the outer circumferential surface thereof so that the entirety is covered.
For example, in the Japanese Patent Application Laid open No. 46757/1985 publication, there has been proposed a rotor in which the field magnetic core and the magnets forming the rotor are bonded and fixed by bond, etc. to wind the outer circumferential side with a bind tape to thermally harden the resin component of the bind tape to cut and grind the bind tape surface to coat varnish on the surface thereof to smooth it. However, it was necessary to carry out a step of forming the outer circumference of each end ring of the both end plates so that it is higher than the finishing surface at the beginning to grind or polish the surface thereof after undergone heating and fusing to implement cutting thereto to smooth it.
Moreover, in the Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-open No. 43751/1993 publication, there has been proposed a fixing method in which rotor plates are stacked to form a field iron core to dispose magnets on the outer circumferential surface side thereafter to dispose end plates on the both ends of the field iron core to fix, by plural caulking pins, the stacked field iron core by the end plates in order to allow it to be firmly put therebetween to wind a metallic bind wire on the outer circumferential surface thereof to clamp the terminating end of the bind wire by the caulking pins of the both side end plates.
In accordance with this method, it was necessary to wind the bind wire thereafter to adjust clamping degree of the field iron core by loosening caulking pins to secure, by winding, the front end of the bind wire to tighten the caulking pins for a second time.
Further, the invention described in the Japanese Patent Publication No. 87636/1994 is directed to a method of manufacturing a rotor with permanent magnet, in which bow-shaped permanent magnets are disposed on the outer circumferential surface of the field iron core to provide resin injection holes at both side end plates to form grooves at the boundary portion between the permanent magnets to wind adhesive tape so as to cover these grooves to cover the boundary grooves thereafter to wind a semi-hardening resin impregnated tape on the outside thereof, and to fill resin into the grooves through the resin injection holes of the end plates to heat the entirety thereof to fuse the resin thereafter to solidify it.
In addition, as for the performance, gap between the rotor and the stator is important. Particularly, the positional shift of the magnet in the rotational axis direction is the great problem that it affects power generating efficiency.
For example, a method described in the Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-open No. 172268/1987 publication is a method in which, in fixing permanent magnets on the rotor body, positioning ring is disposed at the outside of the shaft to hold and fix the permanent magnets on the rotors by the positioning ring to wind a reinforced wire on the outside thereof to further cover the outside thereof by resin, thus to fix the permanent magnets.
In the case of a conventional method of fixing permanent magnets on the outer circumference of the rotor iron core as described above, a plurality of projections are provided on the outer circumference of the rotor iron core to dispose permanent magnets between respective projections to weld projected stripes and the permanent magnets, to wind insulating tape such as glass tape, etc. on the outer circumferential surfaces of the permanent magnets, or to carryout resin molding to cover the outside thereof with resin thus to manufacture the rotor. However, since the permanent magnet is generally comprised of fragile ferrite, etc., when the permanent magnet is forced into the portion between projections on the outer circumferential surface of the rotor iron core, the corner portion of the permanent magnet may be broken because the projection is firm. If the permanent magnet is forcedly thrust thereinto, the permanent magnet may be broken during working. Accordingly, it was necessary to manufacture rotor in the state caused to have clearance between the permanent magnet and the projection in order that the permanent magnet is not caused to come into contact with the projection. For this reason, a method of winding a broad resin impregnated tape, etc. on the outer circumferential surface is carried out in order to prevent the permanent magnet from protruding by the centrifugal force of the permanent magnet. However, in such taping work, there may take place positional shift of the permanent magnet. As a result, it was difficult to manufacture rotor iron core stably rotating. Moreover, the manufacturing process was also complicated in order to guarantee that no positional shift takes place. In addition, a method of disposing permanent magnets thereafter to fit and cover a cylinder over the outer circumferential surface of the entirety of the rotor iron core is also carried out. In this case, however, a cylindrical cover or the like is required, resulting in high cost. The rotor cannot be manufactured at a low cost.
With these conventional fixing methods, there are problems as described below from a viewpoint of preference. Namely, projections of metal system are disposed between permanent magnets disposed on the outer circumference and the entirety is heated. Accordingly, there takes place beads, etc. formed on the surface by fusion owing to heating. For this reason, any gap is required between the stator and the rotor, resulting in magnetic leakage. This was not preferable from a viewpoint of the magnetic efficiency of the generator.
In addition, the conventional rotor iron core is fragile with respect to contact and/or impact. Accordingly, it was the great task to allow permanent magnets to undergo positioning on the field iron core to fix them thereonto in the state where they are not damaged.

Method of manufacturing a rotors with permanent magnet


Method and arrangement for providing a compressed air system in a vehicle that includes a connection (6, 10) for delivering compressed air from a compressor (2) to the rest of the compressed air system (1). An oxidation catalytic converter (9) is included that is designed to clean the compressed air and which is located along the connection (6, 10). The connection (6, 10) includes a line (10) that forms a connection between the oxidation catalytic converter (9) and the rest of the compressed air system. The invention also includes a valve (11) that is arranged upstream of the rest of the compressed air system (1) and that can be adjusted so that in a first position it will allow and in a second position will prevent the delivery of air to the rest of the compressed air system (1), depending on the operating condition of the compressor (2). The invention provides an improved system in which the risk of contaminated air being delivered to the compressed air system is minimized.

Certain vehicles, and particularly commercial type vehicles, are known to be provided with a compressed air systems for generating, storing and distributing compressed air to air suspension systems and brake systems, for example. Such systems include, in a known manner, pressurized tanks, compressed air lines and various types of valves, and the supplied systems are typically supplied with compressed air from a compressed air compressor. These types of compressors are usually driven in a known manner by means of the vehicle internal combustion engine. Conventionally, lubricating oil from the lubricating oil system of the internal combustion engine is used to lubricate the compressor.
The compressed air can be delivered from the compressor to the vehicle compressed air system. One problem that arises in such known compressed air systems stems from the fact that the compressed air that is generated in the compressor is often contaminated by lubricating oil in aerosol and gaseous form. When the compressor is in operation, a very high temperature occurs, which can result in oxidation of the lubricating oil mixed in with the compressed air, which can lead to polymerization of the oil and to the formation of aggressive oxidation products. Should these impurities be allowed to reach the rest of the vehicle compressed air system, deposits may be formed in components of the systems. These deposits can cause clogging and degrading of material in the components, which can in turn result in their malfunction.
According to known systems, the compressed air generated in the compressed air compressor can be cleaned by means of a mechanical filter combined with cooling. A disadvantage of this solution, however, is that it is not very efficient.
According to one solution which is demonstrated in the patent specification PCT/SE00/00638, use is made of a system having an oxidation catalytic converter designed for cleaning compressed air from a compressed air compressor. This oxidation catalytic converter is located along a connection between the compressor and the rest of the compressed air system of the vehicle. This permits an effective cleaning of the compressed air that is delivered by the compressor. This function is facilitated by the fact that the compressed air generated in the compressor normally reaches a very high temperature, at least in excess of approximately 200° C.; that is to say, a temperature that exceeds the temperature limit of the oxidation catalytic converter at which it is capable of functioning with satisfactory cleaning capacity.
It may be noted that a conventional compressed air compressor in a vehicle is used to generate a suitable system pressure, which is achieved in that it is activated when the pressure falls below a lower permitted system pressure limit. Furthermore, the system goes over to a relief phase when a certain upper limit for the system pressure is exceeded. As the system pressure fluctuates in line with the consumption of compressed air by various components in the compressed air system, the compressor will alternate between the active phase and the relief phase.
Although the system according to PCT/SE00/00638 in principle functions satisfactorily, it may be noted that a problem occurs when an oxidation catalytic converter is used to clean air from a compressed air compressor that is driven in such a way that it is allowed to pump air during the relief phase. This can in fact mean that it pumps air with a relatively low temperature, even below the ignition temperature of the catalytic converter. When the temperature of the catalytic converter falls below its ignition temperature it can no longer function with a satisfactory cleaning effect. This means that contaminated air can then reach the vehicle compressed air system and cause impaired operation and malfunctioning, as has been described above. The contaminated air may also mean that the surface of the catalytic converter becomes coated with oil, which reduces the cleaning capacity until such oil has been burned off.
When the compressor returns to its active phase again after the relief phase, it will therefore initially deliver contaminated air from the oxidation catalytic converter, which is naturally a disadvantage. This will continue until the temperature in the oxidation catalytic converter has risen to the point where this exceeds its ignition temperature in a manner that the deposited oil is burnt off from the oxidation catalytic converter and the air delivered to the compressed air system can again be cleaned.

Arrangement and method for compressed air systems in vehicles


A locking device for a cover and the like which is locked by a first push and unlocked by a second push includes a case (1) which has at a work face (8), an elastic leg (7) provided with a follower (14); and a sliding member (2) which has, parallel to the work face (8), a planar cam surface (24) from which projects a central island (27) about which is formed a cam track for the follower (14). On the first push, the follower (14) passes from its free position (R) to its captive position (V) by a first path on the cam track and, on the second push, the follower (14) passes from its captive position (V) to its free position (R) by a second path distinct from the first path.

This type of locking device enables opening and closing, for example of a cover, without having to provide a knob or any other device on the cover for grasping.
To that end the cover is provided with a projecting tooth to cooperate with the locking device, closing being achieved by pushing the cover against the locking device, the latter retaining the projecting tooth; and opening being achieved by exerting a second push on the cover, this second push leading the locking device to release the projecting tooth.
Such locking devices are known, in particular from the document FR 2 585 757. This document describes an assembly formed from a case, a sliding member, a spring and a rocking striker. A rotatably mounted cam is furthermore provided on the sliding member so as to cooperate with the case to enable the locking device to prevent movement of a part, joined to the cover that is to be locked, between the sliding member and the striker.
Document FR 2 622 244 also describes a locking device comprising a case, a sliding member, a spring and a cam comprising an arm pivotably mounted on the case.
A further document FR 2 568 617 also describes such a locking device which comprises a case, a sliding member, a spring and a movable part termed cam plate.
These devices of the prior art are satisfactory in terms of their function of locking and unlocking.


A probe apparatus 1 includes displacement detection means 6 disposed on a surface 4a of a probe card 4 from which probing needles 41 of the probe card 4 protrude, and control means 5 for receiving a signal of a positional change of the probe card 4 from the displacement detection means or a positional change on the stage side, or signals of positional changes of both of them and moving a stage 2 in a Z axis direction. The displacement detection means detects on the real time basis the positional change of the probe card due to influences of heat, etc, moves the stage to correct the positional change and keeps the contact condition between probing needles of the probe card and electrode pads of a wafer 10 always constant.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a probe apparatus for inspecting electric characteristics of a plurality of semiconductor devices formed on a wafer. More particularly, the invention relates to a probe apparatus that can correct, on a real time basis, a positional change of a probe card, a positional change of a stage on which the wafer is put or the positional changes of both probe card and stage (contact position change) due to the influence of heat in case of inspecting in an environment such as high or low temperatures.
2. Description of the Related Art
A large number of semiconductor devices having the same electric element circuit formed therein are formed on a surface of a wafer. To inspect the electric characteristics of each electric element circuit before these electric element circuits are diced into individual semiconductor devices (chips), approval or rejection is judged by using a probe apparatus. The probe apparatus generally includes probing needles corresponding to each semiconductor device of the wafer and a probe card connected to a tester, and conducts electric measurement by bringing each probing needle into contact with each electrode pad of the semiconductor device while the probing needles are serially allowed to correspond to each semiconductor device of the wafer.
To conduct precise electric measurement, the probing needle of the probe card must be correctly brought into contact with the electrode pad of the semiconductor device. It is therefore necessary to control, very precisely, a stage on which the wafer is put and to correctly align the electrode pads to the probing needles before measurement is made. According to the prior art technology, a CCD camera is installed on the side of the stage on which the wafer is put, an alignment optical device is arranged at a position spaced apart from a test head to which the probe card having the probing needles is removably fixed, the distal end position of each needle is imaged and detected by the CCD camera while the wafer position and the chip pattern on the wafer are recognized by the alignment optical device and positioning between the electrode pad of a specific semiconductor device on the wafer and the probing needle is conducted by image processing, or the like.
It has been necessary in recent years to test the durability of the semiconductor devices and to test them in accordance with a use condition. Therefore, the test measurement of the semiconductor devices has been made in various measurement environments ranging from a high temperature environment of about 200° C. to a low temperature environment of about −55° C. In a probe apparatus in which a test measurement is made under a high temperature condition while a chuck mechanism of a wafer is heated, for example, a probe card so arranged in the proximity of the chuck mechanism as to oppose the chuck mechanism undergoes thermal expansion due to radiated heat from the chuck mechanism. However, because the probe card of the prior art is fixed at its periphery by a card retaining member, the probe card undergoes deformation in such a manner as to warp, as a whole, when thermal expansion occurs. When a measurement is repeated, deformation occurs in the probe card due to the contact pressure between the probing needle and the electrode pad. When the chuck (stage) portion is heated or cooled, the position of the chuck (stage) upper surface changes, too. Therefore, the contact position between the probing needle of the probe card and the electrode pad of the semiconductor pad deviates from the position of positioning before the measurement and their contact becomes insufficient. In consequence, the test measure cannot be made with high accuracy or the electrode pad is damaged due to an excessively strong contact.
FIG. 3 shows a change with time of the probe card from its normal temperature condition to its high temperature stable condition, that is, a typical example of the contact position change between the probing needle and the electrode pad with the passage of time. In other words, even when the contact position under the normal temperature condition is set to the reference position (zero position), the probe card, etc, undergoes thermal expansion due to the thermal influences under the measurement environment, the error of the contact position becomes drastically greater and the contact position change thereafter settles gradually to a stable condition.
To solve the problem of the contact position change due to heat, etc, counter-measures have been taken in the past by changing the material of a card holder of the probe card to the one that is not easily affected by heat under the measurement environment, or by measuring the probe position during the measurement to measure the positional change of the probe card (contact position change), or by starting the measurement after the probe card becomes thermally stable from the normal temperature condition to the temperature (high or low temperature) of the measuring environment.
However, the change of the material of the card holder to the material that is not easily affected by the influences of heat involves the problem that the material cost and the production cost increase.
When the distal end position of each probing needle is measured during the measurement and the contact position is corrected, the probing needle position must be confirmed by the CCD camera on the stage side. Therefore, as the probing needle is measured while being spaced apart from the heat source (stage), the measurement is conducted at a lower temperature than the temperature of the contact condition between the probing needle and the electrode pad, so that an accurate measurement result cannot be obtained. Because the distal end position of the probing needle must be re-measured while the probing needle is separated from the electrode pad every time, correction of the contact position is time-consuming.
Furthermore, when the measurement is started after the probe card is thermally stabilized, the through-put of the test measurement of the semiconductor devices drops and work efficiency becomes lower.
To detect the contact condition of the probing needle, the following technologies are known. The first technology detects variance of the tips of the probing needles by means of a laser beam and sets an optimum over-drive amount in accordance with this variance so that each probing needle can come into contact with the electrode pad at a suitable pressure (for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 7-161783). The second technology brings the probing needle into contact with the electrode pad, measures the capacitance between the electrodes so as to judge approval/rejection of the contact and controls the UP/DOWN distance of the wafer (for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-68338). The third technology detects the contact condition between the probing needle and the electrode pad and corrects the fitting position of the probe card by means of a tilt/height adjustment mechanism (for example, Japanese Unexamined patent Publication No. 7-66249).
However, the technology of Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 7-161783 does not detect, on a real time basis, the positional change of the probe card due to heat but detects the tip position of the probing needle while the probing needle is separated from the heat source (stage) in the same way as the technology described above that confirms the probing needle position by the CCD camera on the stage side. Therefore, a correct position measurement result cannot be obtained in a contact condition between the probing needle and the electrode pad. The technologies of Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-68338 and No. 7-66249 use the probe itself as the detection means. Therefore, the apparatus is likely to become complicated in construction and large in scale when hundreds or thousands of probing needles exist as in the case of a collective contact for measuring a single wafer by a single contact that has become the target in recent years.


Overall network throughput may be increased in a wireless network through coordinated transmission between wireless network stations. A wireless network station selects beamforming information based at least in part on interference to other wireless network stations.

Data throughput in many existing wireless local area networks (WLANs) is limited by interference caused by neighboring stations in the network. For example, signals transmitted by one wireless station may interfere with the ability of a neighboring wireless station to communicate. In attempts to maximize data throughput, individual wireless network stations typically select transmit schemes that maximize their own data rate (or throughput). In these circumstances, network-wide data throughput might suffer, in part because conditions that provide network-wide increases in throughput do not necessarily coincide with conditions that prevail when every wireless network station attempts to maximize its own throughput.

Coordinated transmissions in wireless networks


A film storage unit is disposed vertically above a film transfer cylinder, and an unwinder device and a rewinder device are disposed vertically above the film storage unit. The unwinder device and rewinder device are vertically aligned with each other. With this arrangement, a large-diameter unwinding reel and a rewinding reel can be mounted in the unwinder device and rewinder device, respectively, from above a foil transfer unit. Also, given operation spaces can be ensured on the front and rear sides of the unwinder device and rewinder device.

The present invention relates to a film transfer apparatus which processes a sheet using a film.
Some types of film transfer apparatuses employ a cast curing technique called Cast & Cure or a technique called cold foiling. These techniques produce a good aesthetic effect on sheets. In the Cast & Cure technique, a film having undergone hologram embossing is cured while being in press contact with the surface of a sheet coated with a UV (ultraviolet) curing resin, thereby producing, for example, a hologram effect by casting. Also, in the cold foiling technique, a film having foil deposited on it is brought into press contact with the surface of a sheet having an adhesive printed on it, thereby transferring the foil onto the sheet. An improvement in performance of such a film transfer apparatus which produces a good aesthetic effect on a print product is actively in progress.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2008-296448 (patent literature 1), for example, proposes an apparatus capable of performing cold foiling (cold foil transfer) on a sheet and embossing while printing on the sheet.
Also, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-315229 (patent literature 2) proposes an apparatus capable of printing on a sheet, and performing, for example, LC coating or hologram embossing called TRANS TUVC using the Cast & Cure technique of transferring the pattern of a film on a varnished surface.
In winding a film to finish an unwinding reel used in the film transfer apparatus, and further storing and transporting the unwinding reel in the physical distribution process, the unwinding reel may have a non-circular shape due to an eccentricity or deformation with respect to a perfect circle. Therefore, even when such an unwinding reel is set in an unwinder device (unwinding device) in the film transfer apparatus, and rotated at a speed corresponding to the sheet conveyance speed, the feed speed of the film unwound from the unwinding reel varies, so an error occurs as the film feed speed is not always equal to the sheet conveyance speed.
When a low-inertia unwinding reel is rotated at low speed to unreel a film, the error between the film feed speed and the sheet conveyance speed can be controlled small. However, if an unwinding reel has a larger diameter or width, its inertia has a considerable influence on the error, so rotation control by the unwinder device weakens due to a flywheel effect, thus making it difficult to reduce the error by this control. Furthermore, as the feed speed at which the unwinder device unreels a film rises, the performance limit of weak rotation control by the unwinder device has a more considerable influence on the error.
At the point of application (nip) of pressing upon transfer between a film transfer cylinder and impression cylinder in the film transfer apparatus, the film feed speed and sheet conveyance speed must be equal as the sheet and film are superposed on the impression cylinder. However, as described earlier, rotation control by the unwinder device is insufficient to make the film feed speed and the sheet conveyance speed exactly equal. For this reason, making the film feed speed and the sheet conveyance speed exactly equal requires a film storage device for temporarily storing a film unreeled from the unwinding reel, and supplying the film to the nip portion at the same speed as the sheet conveyance speed.
The film storage device practically uses a method of forming a U-shaped portion in a film inside and storing the film, thereby reducing and absorbing the difference between the length of the film unreeled from the unwinding reel and that of the film which passes through the nip portion. The U-shaped portion is formed by a flat portion serving as one side surface, a flat portion serving as the other side surface opposed to one side surface, and a semicircular, arcuated portion serving as the bottom surface between the two side surfaces. The U-shaped portion is formed so that one side surface, the bottom surface, and the other side surface are continuous with each other without bending of the bottom surface.
As a scheme of forming such a U-shaped portion, a scheme which uses a dancer roller disclosed in patent literature 1, or a scheme which uses an aerodynamic device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,230,616B1 (patent literature 3) is available.
The film used in the film transfer apparatus is a highly stretchable soft material formed using, as a base material, a high-polymer film having a very small thickness that falls within the range of 12 to 20 micrometers. The smaller the width of the film, the lower the tension to be applied to the film must become. When the film is unreeled from the unwinding reel at a higher speed, a fluctuation in tension inevitably occurs due to the above-mentioned factor. As the width of the film reduces, a fluctuation in tension must be absorbed so as to keep it smaller. However, in the scheme which uses a dancer roller, the force of inertia of the dancer roller has a considerable influence on the error, so a limit is imposed in combating this problem. Under the circumstances, the scheme which uses an aerodynamic device is becoming the current mainstream.
From the viewpoint of improving the productivity as well, it is desired to provide a high-speed sheet-fed offset rotary film transfer apparatus which can be equipped with an unwinding reel having a larger diameter and smaller width. When the film transfer apparatus is equipped with a large-diameter unwinding reel, a film length sufficient for film transfer can be ensured, thus saving the temporary stop time taken to refill a new unwinding reel. Also, when the film transfer apparatus is capable of a high-speed operation, film transfer can be completed in a shorter period of time than in the related art techniques.
Unfortunately, a set of upstream and downstream film transfer units sandwich a unit which performs a different type of processing. This makes it difficult to ensure a space to arrange a large-diameter unwinding reel, and an operation space for the arrangement.


Method for controlling first and second resources in a system including first and second components managing the first and second resources, respectively and at least one host hosting the second resource in a cloud environment, one of the first and second components comprises a compute component and the other comprises a storage component, one of the first and second resources is a compute resource and the other is a storage resource, the method comprising: causing the first component to send an inquiry request including an inquiry relating to the second resource, to the second component; causing the second component to send an inquiry response including information on the at least one host, to the first component; causing the co-location of the first and second resources on a single host that is either the at least one host or a further host hosting the first resource, based on the inquiry response.

By cloud computing reference is made to a type of computing which abstracts from physical compute, network, and storage resources and provides shared access to virtual compute, network and storage resources in a datacenter. The components thereof are (typically) connected by means of a network. Using other words, cloud computing can be said to refer to a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable resources (including any or a combination of servers, networks, storage, applications, services), that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal efforts or service producer interaction.
A part of a cloud infrastructure is storage. Most of the virtual machines require storage in order to execute. Storage space can be provided by mainly two different ways: from a centralized storage array or distributed across all the compute blades that have some storage capacity. Virtualization provides abstracted access to compute resources (CPU, main memory), networking, and storage. In the following, with virtual machine reference is made to the (virtualized) compute resources; thus, creating a virtual machine refers to deploying or allocating the compute resource(s), to which storage and networking resources can be added (or associated or connected) on demand.
One common deployment offers a solution in between: each host with storage capacity (storage disks) will provide that storage to any virtual machine in the cloud infrastructure. However, each host is independent of the rest and therefore one should think about this architecture as multiple centralized storage solutions and not as distributed storage (e.g. parts of the same file will not be distributed across the hosts).
An example of a storage architecture of the hosts is depicted in FIG. 8. An abstraction layer (e.g. LVM 840) logically merges all the physical storage capacity of the different local disks 850, 855 into one logical pool. From this logical pool, logical volumes (e.g. 820 in FIG. 8) can be created. These volumes are offered to other hosts (or to VM(s) running on the local compute host) via an iSCSI server. Therefore, an iSCSI server and an iSCSI client always run inside the host. iSCSI is a protocol that enables clients (initiators) to communicate with storage devices (targets) over a network. It encapsulates standard SCSI commands in network packets, thereby making remote storage devices appear as local block storage devices at the clients To orchestrate and manage the cloud infrastructure, OpenStack can be used. OpenStack is a cloud operating system or architecture that controls large pools of compute, storage, and networking resources throughout a datacenter. It comprises multiple components which manage specific system components or system areas. In particular, Nova manages the compute resources whereas Cinder manages the storage resources.
More specifically, the Nova component of Openstack is responsible for managing the life cycle of virtual machines. It includes several subcomponents like: nova-api, nova-scheduler, and nova-compute.
The Cinder component of Openstack is responsible for managing the life cycle of block storage volumes. It consists of several subcomponents including: cinder-api, cinder-scheduler, cinder-volume.
FIG. 7 shows an illustrative architecture of these two components. Generally, nova-API 710, nova-scheduler 720, cinder-API 750, and cinder-scheduler 760 can run in a centralized controller-type machine. Nova-compute 730, 735 runs as an agent in each of the hosts, and cinder-volume 770, 775, when taking into account the described storage solution, runs as an agent in each of the hosts with a storage capacity (a back-end). When deploying a virtual machine, the tenant would use the Nova API 710 to request computer resources (CPUs, memory, etc.), and the Cinder API 750 to request storage resources. The nova-scheduler 720 selects the best host and deploys the virtual machine using the respective nova-compute agent. The cinder-scheduler 760 selects the best back-end and, using the cinder-volume agent, creates the storage volume and connects it to the virtual machine using iSCSI.
More specifically, separating the management of compute and storage resources in different components of the OpenStack framework (Nova and Cinder) results in a separation of management operations and scheduling decisions. In particular, creating a virtual machine is independent from allocating the block storage volumes needed by this virtual machine—both in terms of the required front-end tools (Nova client and Cinder client) and the backend processing and scheduling operations (nova-scheduler/nova-compute and cinder-scheduler/cinder-volume).
Due to the independent management and scheduling operations of Nova and Cinder, virtual machines are likely to end up on different hosts than the allocated block storage. As a result, block storage must be exported via a network protocol to the remote virtual machines
As an example, in order to provide an existing virtual machine with persistent block storage, three independent operations are necessary: boot the virtual machine using Nova ("nova boot"); allocate a block storage volume using Cinder ("cinder create"); attach the Cinder block storage volume to the virtual machine using Nova ("nova volume-attach"). In the second step, Cinder is not aware of the target virtual machine. Hence cinder-scheduler cannot determine the compute host of the target virtual machine and allocate the block storage on this host.
As a further example, in order to boot a virtual machine from a Cinder volume, two independent operations are necessary: create a Cinder volume from a glance image using Cinder ("cinder create"); boot the virtual machine from the created Cinder volume using a block device mapping using Nova ("nova boot"). The nova-scheduler does not and currently cannot take into account the compute host on which the block storage volume has been allocated in step 1.
In summary, a high percentage of cloud deployments use a very simple yet cost efficient storage back-end architecture: instead of a dedicated and expensive storage array, local disks in the compute hosts are used. As a result, each compute host acts as a small-scale storage back-end, typically comprising just two or three disks each.
This local storage is exported by means of a protocol, e.g., typically iSCSI, in order to enable remote hosts and virtual machines to consume the storage provided by a storage host. This intermediate protocol decouples the placement of virtual machines from the location of the storage hosts and enables virtual machine migration. Despite its flexibility, this architecture has two major drawbacks or problems as herein recognized.
First, all storage I/O operations are always encapsulated in a protocol and sent through the network stack, even if the physical storage and the consuming virtual machines are located on the same compute/storage host. This encapsulation increases the performance overhead in comparison to a direct exposure of local storage to a virtual machine through the hypervisor.
Second, compute and storage resources are handled independently in virtualized infrastructures. As a consequence of this inherent separation, the corresponding resource schedulers of the virtual infrastructure do not interact and hence do no optimize the placement of storage space and virtual machines with respect to each other. In particular, in the virtual infrastructure framework Openstack, placing a virtual machine on a compute host and allocating a block storage volume for this virtual machine are two completely independent resource scheduling operations. As a result, virtual machines and the corresponding allocated block storage volume are likely to end up on separate compute hosts, thereby increasing the performance overhead due to additional network traffic.
It is therefore desirable to provide an improved method, entity, and system, which overcome, or at least mitigate, the above-mentioned problems.


An engine system includes an engine having an intake manifold and a turbocharger that supplies compressed air to the intake manifold. An engine control module calculates a desired pre-throttle pressure of air before the throttle and calculates a desired manifold air flow into the engine. The engine control module determines a desired pre throttle pressure area based on the desired air per cylinder, desired manifold pressure and RPM and generates control signals to control the engine with the turbocharger.

Internal combustion engines combust an air and fuel mixture within cylinders to drive pistons, which produces drive torque. Air flow into the engine is regulated via a throttle. More specifically, the throttle adjusts a throttle area, which increases or decreases air flow into the engine, As the throttle area increases, the air flow into the engine increases. A fuel control system adjusts a fuel injection system to provide a desired air/fuel mixture to the cylinders. As can be appreciated, increasing the air and fuel per unit volume in the cylinders increases the torque output of the engine. Some engines include a turbocharger that is driven by engine exhaust and that compresses air flowing into the engine. By compressing the air, a greater air and fuel per unit area within the cylinder can be increased. Therefore, greater torque output can be achieved.
Engine control systems have been developed to accurately control engine torque output to achieve a desired torque. Traditional engine control systems however, do not control the engine torque output as accurately as desired. Further, traditional engine control systems do not provide as rapid of a response to control signals as is desired.