An e-commerce based transaction system on a network connected via the Internet to multiple remote computers and mobile phones providing the distribution of hotel room lodging reservations or other lodging sites for location and date of specific events. A central database is hosted on a server and transmitted to individual remote servers or users that can have a respective database of listings from individual brokers oration or other system participants. In the alternative, the blockchain can be a mode of information dissemination. E-commerce transactions are conducted by the system, which performs a number of transaction-related functions, such as posting available hotel room reservations or lodging site reservations for sale, and purchasing spaces for use, resale, brokerage or pure speculation online. The system and methodology accommodate location-based events where hotel rooms are listed by brokers or hotel operators or owners and sold to individual system users and marketed reflective of and in advance of specific time and location sensitive events.

Literally thousands of diverse, lucrative investment options exist outside of the stock market, currency trading, cattle and corn futures, collectables and memorabilia, and so on, if you are willing to research, understand, and go after them. As with all investments regardless of size, it always comes down to the inevitable trade-off between risk and reward, and the endless search to turn that maxim on its head by maximizing the reward while conversely reducing the risk, which until now was a financial paradox.
The process of booking a hotel room reservation or lodging site reservation (e.g., Airbnb) for a future date based upon when a particular popular event will occur in any global location, or the speculation of hotel accommodations, follows the present market conditions of supply and demand. For example, the Super Bowl generates hotel room or other lodging scarcity annually, and solar eclipses generate a path stretching thousands of miles long, and over 50 miles wide of hotels and lodging in sold-out conditions because of their paths.
Online e-commerce is enabling and empowering people to monetize an underutilized asset as never before, by the likes of Uber and Lyft for transportation, Airbnb for a rarely used spare room, and eBay for a surplus of goods, are all examples of e-commerce based income generation for individuals. In most cases, democratized platforms allow for users and purveyors (e.g., Uber drivers) to participate. By having a democratized platform, Uber enables its users to enjoy a ride or profit from being a driver, through the use of an automobile often owned by the driver.
More importantly, what we see coming again is the emergence of products and services being offered, that are directly tied into the phenomenon driving Airbnb, Uber, Lyft, and Ebay. Businesses such as the recently launched financial service called "loftium.com", which makes "down payment" loans to people shopping for homes, by having the home owner promise to set one room aside for use as an Airbnb room, and paying the lender a percentage of that rental income.
Loftium's technology predicts how much revenue an Airbnb will generate in the neighborhoods where a customer is house hunting. Using that data, Loftium's team determines how much down-payment assistance each customer is eligible for, thereby having ownership in ten separate rental incomes. A Loftium type secondary company could not exist without the primary Airbnb, or how an Ebay gave birth to PayPal, or in this case, an expedia.com or any of the other Online Travel Agents ("OTA") giving birth to the likes of a roomspeculator.com and an entirely new Industry created around hotel room reservations.
There are always going to be those that will take this opportunity to load up on as many positions as possible. Speculating on lodging scarcity could be done by an entity set up for that purpose to aggregate as many reservations as possible, much like the ticket scalper, and what if every lodging site within the path of a several thousand mile long, and 70 miles wide solar eclipse was "online" and available for speculation years in advance? Then and only then will the Hotel owner operator know the true value of their property, the hotel room and the true cost of a reservation. Indeed, the location and time and exact locations of the Total Solar event (a moving path over a land, or sea, mass) is so well known forever in advance, that its appearance is carved in Galactic Granite, so that speculators, agents (or even simply would be viewers) could plan well in advance to take part and invest in the event opportunity as either a purveyor, speculator, viewer, reseller, Agent, or any combination thereof.
Based on 4 years of subpoenaed data (NYAG 2010-'14) over 100 Airbnb users had 10 or more properties. So at least in New York City prior to recent legislation, major, million-dollar real estate businesses use Airbnb. It's possible that these apartments are pieces of larger real estate empires. But this data suggests that mostly small-scale investors use Airbnb, not real estate companies. Not at all democratized such as with Uber, likely because real estate carries with it a certain responsibility for securing a designated spot of land.
With approximately 137,000 hotels in the US, there are approximately 5,000,000 rooms available each night in locales with countless attractions, entertainment and sporting events flourishing throughout the year in just about every city in every state, and that's just in the US. Multiply those numbers by about five and this will give you some idea of the International opportunities. Long-term reservations have such high cancellation rates that hotels find themselves rushing around at the last minute to fill the gaps left by canceled bookings, which logically leads to price reductions, which in turn results in more people re-booking reservations, causing a vicious circle of cancelling and rebooking of reservations. What does not exist is a true "real time" exchange (like a commodities exchange) value of hotel rooms and lodging sites, independent of ownership or management, across all brands and modes of land control, from Airbnb to hotels to trailer parks and so on. Until now, and because of our system that can track and verify the true value of a given room, on a given day in a specific location. What does exist is an arbitrary room value, calculated and set in place based on the same arbitrary values used before, that are calculated months in advance, and booked on flawed data as to what the hotel owner operator "thinks" the room is worth. This information is then processed by the OTA's in their race to sell the room as quickly and for as cheaply as possible, having never let the "real-time" market dictate what the room's value is at its most valuable moment in time. What is proposed is a system that allows for the true value of a room's worth to be tracked, calibrated and compiled so the Hotel owner operator can better track his true margins and operating costs, proving to be as beneficial to the Hotel owner operator as Uber is to the world's ride-sharing public.
In 2015, a few of the major hotels began to extend the minimum notice of cancellation for guests to avoid fees. Some went from 6 p.m. on day of arrival to 24 hours or as much as "14 days notice required". Prior to that, hotels such as Marriott International, Hilton Worldwide and InterContinental Hotels Group, among others, adopted a strategy to offer nonrefundable room rates at a lower price point.
According to a recent Travel Weekly report, hoteliers have since found that offering the discounted, nonrefundable rates to guests that book earlier in the booking window is moving the needle much more than increased cancellation fees. The article cites the New York Marriott Marquis, which was offering prepaid, nonrefundable rooms for late-September weekend dates at about a 15% discount when the story published. One wrinkle in hotels requiring travelers to pay in advance for a nonrefundable rate is that it takes away an advantage that hoteliers had over OTAs (Online Travel Agencies), which are not often able to offer hotel rooms with favorable cancellation policies attached to them.
Lastly, the existing high percentage of reserved room cancellations will obfuscate to a considerable degree any additional room reservation increases our speculators are adding to the mix, thereby shielding us and the real-time information we have at our disposal from hotels really knowing the true value of the service we are providing for an unknown period of time, at which point the "buzz" sets in along with reality. It is a well-known fact that people often double or triple book hotels in or near a Super Bowl, either close by, an intermediate range away or even further away, for no discernible reason other than knowing that reservations "don't cost anything". The industry and the consumers end up both suffering in the end through higher hotel prices and being forced to endure less than optimal lodging situations, which is exactly one of the ills our system cures. The speculators book the rooms, list them on our site, and parcel them off a few at a time, maximizing the value of each, that which is then shared with the Hotel owner operator, who was not bothered or inconvenienced in any way during these transactions.

System and method for managing inventory and distribution of hotel rooms by multiple brokers using an online interface


A sense amplifier adapted for use with a cardiac pacer or the like includes a constant gain filter, a window comparator circuit and a programmable threshold reference generator circuit. The reference generator circuit generates a programmable window (reference) voltage used by the window comparator circuit to determine whether an input signal, amplified by the constant gain filter, exceeds the window voltage. The reference generator circuit is based on a bipolar junction device having an adjustable emitter area through which a constant current flows. The emitter area is adjusted in response to a control signal. As the emitter area changes as controlled by the control signal, the voltage across the device changes. In a preferred embodiment, a parallel combination or network of switched bipolar junction devices is used to realize the adjustable emitter area. The bipolar junction devices are switched into and out of operation in response to the control signal, thereby increasing or decreasing the net emitter area of the network. When the constant current flows through the network, a precisely controlled adjustable reference voltage is thus generated as a function of the net emitter area.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to cardiac event detection, and more particularly, to circuits and methods for accurately generating a programmable reference signal(s) that may be used by threshold detector circuits within a sensing channel of an implantable cardiac pacemaker.
The major pumping chambers in the human heart are the left and right ventricles. The simultaneous physical contraction of the myocardial tissue in these chambers expels blood into the aorta and the pulmonary artery. Blood enters the ventricles from smaller antechambers called the left and right atria which contract about 100 milliseconds (ms) before the ventricles. The physical contractions of the muscle tissue result from the depolarization of such tissue, which depolarization is induced by a wave of spontaneous electrical excitation which begins in the sinus node of the right atrium, spreads to the left atrium and then enters what is known as the AV node which delays its passage to the ventricles via the so-called bundle of His. The frequency of the waves of excitation is normally regulated metabolically by the sinus node. The atrial rate is thus referred to as the sinus rate or sinus rhythm of the heart.
Electrical signals corresponding to the depolarization of the myocardial muscle tissue appear in the patient's electrocardiogram. A brief low amplitude signal, known as the P-wave, accompanies atrial depolarization. A much larger amplitude signal, known as the QRS waveform complex, having a predominant R-wave, signifies ventricular depolarization. Repolarization prior to the next contraction is marked by a broad waveform in the electrocardiogram known as the T-wave.
A typical implanted cardiac pacer (or pacemaker) operates by supplying missing stimulation pulses through an electrode on a pacing lead in contact with the atrial or ventricular muscle tissue. The electrical stimulus independently initiates depolarization of the myocardial (atrial or ventricular) tissue, resulting in the desired contraction. Advantageously, electrical signals corresponding to the P-wave or R-wave can be sensed through the same lead, i.e., the pacing lead, and may thereafter be used as a timing signal to synchronize or inhibit stimulation pulses in relation to spontaneous (natural or intrinsic) cardiac activity. Such sensed signals are referred to as an atrial electrogram signal (corresponding to the P-wave) or a ventricular electrogram signal (corresponding to an R-wave).
Every modern-day implantable pacemaker includes a sensing or threshold circuit, whether the activity of one or both chambers of the heart are sensed. When the electrical signal of the atrial or ventricular electrogram is coupled from the heart into the pacemaker, the electrical signal is typically passed through a series or group of electrical circuits referred to as the sensing channel. One of the primary functions of the sensing channel is to detect the presence of particular waveforms within the electrogram signal, e.g., the QRS waveform complex, and to generate a trigger signal whenever such particular waveforms are present, and to not generate such trigger signal when such waveforms are not present. In this way, the sensing channel thus monitors the heart for the occurrence of particular cardiac events, e.g., atrial and/or ventricular depolarization.
Heretofore, the sensing channel has typically included the following electrical circuits: a programmable gain filter, a gain decoder, a window comparator and a constant reference voltage generator. Such circuits, in combination, are frequently referred to as the "sense amplifier." The programmable gain filter receives the electrogram signal and, in operation, filters and amplifies the electrogram signal by a prescribed amount before presenting a filtered, amplified electrogram signal to the window comparator. The gain of the programmable gain filter is controlled so that the amplitude of the filtered, amplified electrogram signal will be sufficient to trigger the window comparator whenever the particular waveform to be detected is present within the electrogram signal, and will be insufficient to trigger the window comparator whenever the particular waveform is not present within the electrogram signal. A threshold or window voltage, typically generated by the constant reference generator, is used to define when the filtered, amplified electrogram signal amplitude is of sufficient amplitude to trigger the window comparator. The presence or absence of the trigger signal generated by the window comparator is then used to control the other circuits within the cardiac pacer.
The gain decoder, coupled to the programmable gain filter, generates a gain signal that controls the gain of the programmable gain filter. The gain signal is set (generated) in response to a gain code received from the other circuits of the cardiac pacer. In order to produce the specified gain, the programmable gain filter includes a bank of switched capacitors that are programmably switched in and out, or substituted, for each other within the programmable gain filter's amplifier circuit. As these capacitors are switched in and out of the programmable gain filter circuit, the gain of the filter circuit changes, as is known in the art.
The internal circuits of an implantable cardiac pacer are typically integrated into a single integrated circuit or "chip." The use of such integrated circuit chip offers the advantage of providing a circuit that is much smaller than similar circuits constructed either partially or completely from discrete components.
A sense amplifier realized using an integrated circuit chip typically consists of a programmable gain filter. The gain of such filter is programmed by switching capacitors in and out of the circuit. The gain of any switched-capacitor filter depends primarily on the ratio of two capacitors (usually the ratio of an input capacitor to a feedback capacitor). The absolute values of capacitors used in integrated circuit chips may vary as much as .+-.20% from chip to chip, wafer to wafer, or run to run. Such variations, however, do not necessarily translate to a gain change of .+-.20%. That is, as explained below, the gain is set by the ratio of capacitors, and a variation of one capacitor, e.g., the input capacitor, is almost always accompanied by a corresponding variation in the other capacitors used on the same chip. Hence, even though the absolute values of capacitors used in integrated circuit chips may vary over a wide range, the ratio of two reasonably sized capacitors, e.g., 1-5 pf, may have a tolerance as low as .+-.0.2%. Hence, the use of a switched-capacitor filter has heretofore provided the basis for an accurate programmable gain within the sense amplifier of a pacemaker.
To illustrate, it is noted that the value of a rectangular integrated circuit capacitor is ##EQU1## where C is the capacitor value, E.sub.ox is the permittivity of silicon dioxide (a constant), t is the oxide thickness between the capacitor plates, W is the width of the capacitor edge, and L is the length of the capacitor edge. In a given integrated circuit chip, the capacitance value can thus vary as a function of variations in the width W, length L, or oxide thickness t. Since these parameters are poorly controlled during integrated circuit fabrication, the absolute value of the capacitor may change as much as .+-.20% from chip to chip, or wafer to wafer, or run to run.
Fortunately, for a parameter such as gain, the value of the parameter is a function of the ratio of two capacitors, e.g., an input capacitor C.sub.1 and a feedback capacitor C.sub.2. That is, the gain, G, of the filter may be expressed as ##EQU2## where k is a constant factor. The variation of gain, .DELTA.G, as a function of variations of capacitors may thus be expressed as ##EQU3## Thus, in a specific integrated circuit, where both C.sub.1 and C.sub.2 will almost always increase or decrease by the same amount (because both will normally experience the same variations in width W, length L, and/or oxide thickness t), any parameter such as gain (G) will theoretically not change at all. (The .+-.0.2% indicated above comes from other second order effects, such as randomness of capacitor edges within the integrated circuit.)
The above discussion and analysis is valid only when the values of the capacitors used in the switched-capacitor filter are reasonably high, e.g., on the order of 1-2 pf. That is, when reasonable value capacitors are used (1-2 pf), the variation of edges are insignificant compared to the size of the total capacitor value. Further, even though there are parasitic (unwanted) capacitors that are always present within an integrated circuit chip (due, e.g., to the conductive traces or layers that interconnect the various circuit elements within the chip), the value of such parasitic capacitors is usually small and therefore negligible (or at least tolerable) compared to the desired capacitance value. Typically, parasitic capacitors are in parallel with the desired capacitors, and they thus tend to increase the overall capacitance value. While it is possible to minimize parasitic capacitance by using intelligent routing of the traces used within the integrated circuit layout, it is impossible to completely eliminate them. Moreover, some parasitic capacitors are hard to predict or model. Thus, heretofore, the only effective way of dealing with parasitic capacitors in switched-capacitor filters, and other integrated circuit chips, has been to design the circuits with capacitor values that are significantly higher than the inherent parasitic capacitance.
Unfortunately, there is a drawback to designing high value capacitors (e.g., capacitors on the order of 1-2 pf or greater) into the programmable filter of a sense amplifier of a cardiac pacemaker when such programmable filter is part of an integrated circuit. When the capacitance value is relatively high, the capacitors (as they are switched into and out of the circuit, and as they perform their desired signal processing functions within the designed circuits) must be charged and discharged by the other pacemaker circuits (usually operational amplifiers). Such charging and discharging translates to a higher current consumption for the operational amplifiers (or other circuits). A high current consumption, of course, is not desirable within an implanted pacemaker, because such current consumption translates to a shorter battery life. Moreover, in order to realize a higher gain, the input capacitor value may have to become very large, which means the capacitor physically occupies a significant amount of space ("real estate") on the integrated circuit chip. In order to design of a programmable gain filter on a chip within an implanted pacemaker that has reduced current consumption, and that occupies an acceptable amount of space, it would be desirable to use capacitors having values on the order of 0.1 to 0.2 pf. Unfortunately, for these values of capacitors, the inherent parasitic capacitance on the chip is significant, and can disadvantageously corrupt the gain value of the programmable gain filter. Thus, there is a need in the art for a programmable gain filter design that allows small capacitance values to be used, thereby reducing current consumption and occupying less chip real estate, while still providing an accurate way to programmably control the gain of the filter.
As an example of the type of gain control that is needed within a sense amplifier (programmable gain filter) of an implantable pacemaker, consider a programmed change in the sensitivity level from 7.75 mV to 8 mV. Such a change may require that the gain of the filter change from 20.65 to 20.0, or about 3%. Such a precise gain change in a switched-capacitor programmable gain filter using small capacitance values (0.1 to 0.5 pf) has heretofore been impossible to realize.
The term "sensitivity" when referring to the sensing channel (or sense amplifier) of a pacemaker reflects the proneness of the sensing channel to generate a trigger signal. A more sensitive sense amplifier generates a trigger signal in response to lower amplitude electrogram signals than will a less sensitive sense amplifier. A related parameter to the sensitivity is the "sensitivity level" of the sense amplifier. The sensitivity level is the unamplified amplitude of the electrogram signal at which the amplified electrogram signal triggers the window comparator. Thus, as the sensitivity level of the sense amplifier decreases (i.e., as the minimum amplitude of electrogram signal needed to generate a trigger signal decreases), the sensitivity of the sense amplifier increases (i.e., the sense amplifier becomes more prone to generate a trigger signal). Unfortunately, because the typical window comparator generates its trigger signal based upon a comparison of the amplified filtered electrogram signal with a constant threshold or window voltage, the sensitivity level cannot be increased or decreased in uniform increments, e.g., of 0.25 mV, unless the steps in the gain of the gain filter are inversely adjusted. That is, if the sensitivity level is to increase (i.e., if the sensitivity is to decrease), the steps in gain, or gain steps, must become smaller; and if the sensitivity level is to decrease, the gain steps must become larger.
Problematically, when small capacitance values are used within a switched-capacitor programmable gain filter, as indicated above, it is not possible to achieve the type of gain precision that may be needed. That is, at high sensitivity levels, the programmable gain filter may not have sufficient precision to assure that the window comparator is triggered or not triggered when appropriate. For example, for an increase in sensitivity level from 0.25 mV to 0.5 mV (a 0.25 mV increase in sensitivity level), and assuming a constant threshold or window voltage of 160 mV above which the amplified filtered electrogram signal must reach before a trigger signal will be generated, the gain must decrease from 640 to 320, a decrease in gain of 320, or 100%. However, for an increase in sensitivity from 7.75 mV to 8.0 mV (also a 0.25 mV increase in the sensitivity level) the gain must decrease from 20.65 to 20.00, a decrease in gain of only 0.65, or roughly 3%. As mentioned above, gain changes on the order of 3% are, at best, difficult to achieve under the best of circumstances, but are essentially impossible to realize when small capacitors (0.1-0.5 pf) are used as part of the integrated circuit design.
Furthermore, as also mentioned above, the gain of the programmable gain filter is typically directly proportional to the capacitance of the capacitors that are substituted into the programmable gain filter circuit. Thus, at low sensitivity levels, and thus high gains, the capacitance needed is quite large relative to the capacitance needed at higher sensitivity levels. Such large capacitances are difficult to fabricate using integrated circuit technology and require large chip areas.
A further disadvantage of the existing programmable gain filter is that, in addition to being imprecise, its gain steps may be polytonic. That is, as the gain code is increased, the gain will generally increase, but because of the poor precision in the switched capacitors, some of the gain steps may be negative, causing an unpredictable decrease in the gain. To further complicate this problem, such "negative gain steps" may not appear uniformly in the fabrication of an integrated circuit chip. Thus, several sense amplifiers fabricated together may exhibit negative gain steps in response to different gain codes. The existence of such polytonic operation thus requires individual circuit testing, advanced programming and/or additional circuitry to correct.
It is therefore evident that improvements are needed in the sense amplifier circuits used within implantable cardiac pacers, and similar implantable medical devises.

Programmable window reference generator for use in an implantable cardiac pacemaker


A microscopy system allows to superimpose a light optically generated microscopic image of an object with an electronically generated image. The electronically generated image is composed of two input images, one of which is independent of optical settings of an ocular tube, such as a rotational position and a magnification thereof, and the other input image is dependent of the optical setting.

From U.S. Pat. No. 6,327,079 B1 there is known a surgical microscope having separate ocular systems for two observers wherein respective oculars may be pivoted or rotated about an optical axis of an objective lens of the microscope.
There is an increasing demand for superimposing an electronically generated image with an image generated with the optical beam path of such microscopes. A problem encountered in some conventional applications is a lack of correct registration of the light optically generated microscopic image with respect to the superimposed electronically generated image.

Microscopy system and microscopy method for plural observers


A supporting node maintains a retransmission database that stores information about the historical retransmission rates of user terminals served by the network. The supporting network node provides the information about the retransmission rates of the user terminals to the base stations that are serving the user terminals. When a user terminal is being scheduled to receive a downlink transmission, the scheduler at the base station may use historical retransmission rates of the user terminal to select transmission parameters, e.g. modulation and coding scheme (MCS) and/or transport block size (TBS), for the downlink transmission.

In some wireless communication systems, such as, for example, the Long Term Evolution (LTE) system, the physical channels are shared among a plurality of users. Examples of shared channels in the LTE system are the Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) and the Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH). Fast scheduling is used to ensure efficient resource usage. A scheduler at the base station schedules users and assigns resources on the shared channel based on factors such as the amount of data to be transmitted, quality of service (QoS) requirements, and instantaneous channel conditions.
To facilitate scheduling on the PDSCH, user terminals send channel quality indication (CQI) reports to the base station. The CQI reports indicate the instantaneous channel conditions as seen by the receiver at the user terminals. The base station uses the CQI reports to determine which user terminals to schedule to receive downlink transmissions in a particular scheduling interval. The base station also uses the CQI reports to select the modulation and coding scheme (MCS) and transport block size (TBS) for the downlink transmissions to a user terminal.
The implementation of CQI reporting is not defined in the LTE standard and is therefore dependent on vendor implementation. It has been observed that some variation exists in the CQIs reported by different user terminals under similar conditions. Some vendors may choose to configure user terminals to report CQI values higher than the actual CQI so that the scheduler at the base station will assign a higher TBS to the user terminal and thus obtain higher throughput for that user terminal. However, reporting CQI values higher than actual CQI will result in higher retransmission rates and lower system throughput. Similarly, non-calibrated handsets, i.e., rogue handsets, may also report CQI values higher than actual CQI with the same result.

Selecting transmission parameters for downlink transmissions based on retransmission rates


The present invention is related to interactive training. In one embodiment, a training system presents a stored scenario to a user via a terminal. The user is provided with the ability to intervene and stop the pre-recorded scenario to identify an error in handling the situation presented in the scenario and/or an opportunity presented in the scenario. Once the user has intervened, the user can be presented with a question regarding the opportunity and/or error. The user is scored based in part on the number of errors and/or opportunities that the user identified and optionally on the user's response to the question.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to interactive training, and in particular, to methods and systems for computerized interactive training.
2. Description of the Related Art
In order to teach employees and others new skills, training systems have been developed. However, many conventional training systems are based on the premise that the most efficient way to train people is to have them observe or listen to a presentation of example scenarios of the correct way to perform a task. For example, the presentation can include a presentation of the correct way for a customer service representative to interact with a customer.
Disadvantageously, many of these conventional techniques fail to provide adequate training reinforcement and often fail to adequately engage the trainee. Further, many conventional training techniques fail to provide an adequate method of measuring a trainee's skill acquisition.
In addition, certain conventional training techniques necessitate an undesirable amount of manual interaction by a human trainer, thereby increasing training costs. Still further, certain conventional training techniques do not provide an adequate mechanism for measuring a trainee's progress.

Systems and methods for computerized interactive training


Pitch-synchronous speech processing invention involves two main steps: 1) divide the speech into pitch periods, or into pseudo pitch periods for unvoiced speech, where the breaks occur, for example, at the first zero-crossing preceding each glottal pulse for voiced speech and at any arbitrary point for unvoiced speech, and 2) compute the log-magnitude of the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) of each pitch-period waveform, and interpolate each log-magnitude spectrum to a common regular grid which can accommodate the spectrum of a waveform having the longest pitch period anticipated.

The present invention relates generally to synthetic speech systems and more specifically to a pitch synchronous method of transforming speech into vectors for speech processing.
Signal processing for speech, speaker, or language recognition, or for other speech applications, generally consists of a pre-processing step that reduces the speech to a series of vectors, on per time interval, where that interval is typically chosen to lie between five and twenty msec, and successive intervals may overlap. The most commonly used vector representation is the mel cepstrum, which is the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) of the logarithm of the non-uniformly low-pass filtered sampled magnitude of the spectrum of that speech segment. The non-uniform filtering and sampling provide roughly constant Q for each channel. A typical output vector might have twenty-eight scalar elements.
The task of processing speech into preprocessing vectors is alleviated, to some extent, by the systems disclosed in the following U.S. Patent, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference:                U.S. Pat. No. 5,008,941 issued to Sejnoha        U.S. Pat. No. 5,148,489 issued to Erell et al        U.S. Pat. No. 5,337,301 issued to Rosenberg et al        U.S. Pat. No. 5,469,529 issued to Bimbot et al        U.S. Pat. No. 5,598,505 issued to Austin et al        U.S. Pat. No. 5,727,124 issued to Lee et al        U.S. Pat. No. 5,745,872 issued to Sonmez et al        U.S. Pat. No. 5,768,474 issued to Neti        U.S. Pat. No. 5,924,065 issued to Eberman        U.S. Pat. No. 6,059,602 issued to Stadin
The Stadin is interesting as it is for a powered roller skating system using speech recognition sensors and synthesized speech data processing.
The best reference is the Eberman patent which shows a computerized speech processing system with speech signals stored in a vector codebook and processed to produce corrected vectors.
Generally, speech processing includes the following steps. In a first step, digitized speech signals are partitioned into time-aligned portions (frames) where acoustic features can generally be represented by linear predictive coefficient (LPC) "feature" vectors. In a second step, the vectors can be cleaned up using environmental acoustic data. That is, processes are applied to the vectors representing dirty speech signals so that a substantial amount of the noise and distortion is removed. The cleaned-up vectors, using statistical comparison methods, more closely resemble similar speech produced in a clean environment. Then in a third step, the cleaned feature vectors can be presented to a speech processing engine which determines how the speech is going to be used. Typically, the processing relies on the use of statistical models or neural networks to analyze and identify speech signal patterns.
In an alternative approach, the feature vectors remain dirty. Instead, the pre-stored statistical models or networks which will be used to process the speech are modified to resemble the characteristics of the feature vectors of dirty speech. This way a mismatch between clean and dirty speech, or their representative feature vectors can be reduced.
By applying the compensation on the processes (or speech processing engines) themselves, instead on the data, i.e., the feature vectors, the speech analysis can be configured to solve a generalized maximum likelihood problem where the maximization is over both the speech signals and the environmental parameters.
The present invention is an alternate method and means for performing this first step of transforming speech into a standard series of vectors where each vector represents the sampled magnitude of the spectrum of one pitch period for voiced speech or one pseudo pitch period for unvoiced speech. The subsequent speech processing steps can then be performed with these new vectors as inputs.

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Air Force


A tuner has an intermediate-frequency amplifier and an automatic gain control which are connected to form a loop. A detector is connected to an input side of the intermediate-frequency amplifier so as to be applied with a signal to be applied to the intermediate-frequency amplifier. A logarithmic amplifier is provided for producing an output for logarithmic display on a signal meter.

The present invention relates to a signal meter circuit for an automatic tuner of a radio receiver.
FIG. 4 shows a conventional AM tuner having a signal meter circuit. An output of an AM front end 2 connected to an antenna 1 is connected to an intermediate-frequency amplifier 3. The output of the intermediate-frequency amplifier 3 is demodulated by a detector 4, which is outputted from an output terminal 9. An automatic gain control (AGC) 7 is provided between the output of the detector 4 and the intermediate-frequency amplifier 3 through one of low pass filters 5 and 6, which are alternatively selected by a switch 8. The low pass filters are provided for producing direct current components from the output of the detector 4. A signal meter 10 is connected to the output of the intermediate-frequency amplifier 3 in the loop of the AGC 7.
Namely, the output signal to the signal meter 10 is controlled by the AGC 7 to an approximately constant level. Consequently, the output signal does not linearly change with respect to the level of received energy. In other words, the output signal does not change largely with the change of the electric field strength, which causes error in tuning operation.
On the other hand, the low pass filter 5 has a time constant T.sub.1 having a longer time as several tens msec. for receiving waves for stabilizing the level of the output of the AGC loop. To the contrary, the low pass filter 6 has a shorter time constant T.sub.2 as several msec. for scanning the frequency band for the tuning. As a result, the switch 8 must be provided for selecting one of the LPFs 5 and 6. Accordingly, the circuit becomes complicated in construction.

Signal strength meter circuit for radio receiver


The present disclosure presents embodiments of a system and method for improved uplink transmission management in a network that includes one or more machine-type communication (MTC) devices. For example, in an aspect, the present disclosure presents a method of cluster head selection for a MTC device cluster, the method comprising transmitting a polling message from an eNodeB to one or more MTC devices of the MTC cluster, receiving one or more polling responses at the eNodeB from the one or more MTC devices, and determining the set of cluster heads based on the one or more polling responses; and transmitting cluster head information associated with each cluster head of the set of cluster heads to the one or more MTC devices.

Existing communications networks are increasingly integrating low-cost, low-power, low-capability machine-type communications devices to perform services independent of direct human interaction. MTC devices are typically configured to communicate with an existing wireless network, and may be configured to communicate with network access points and other MTC devices via cellular and WiFi communications standards. MTC devices, however, often exhibit poor uplink communication integrity due to the low-power and relatively limited overall capability of MTC devices. Nevertheless, this uplink communication capability is a required component of MTC devices. Thus, there is a need for improved uplink communication capability in MTC devices.

Method and apparatus for autonomous cluster head selection for machine-type-communications (MTC)


A method and system of deskewing an image. The method and system includes capturing a first image, forming a number of regions within the first image, generating a bounding rectangles for each region, calculating an area for each bounding rectangle, rotating each region by an angle within a predefined range, finding the angle that minimizes the area of each bounding rectangle, and rotating each region by the angle found.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to image capture devices such as scanners and copy machines. More specifically, embodiments of the invention relate to methods and systems to align or deskew an image that has been misaligned or skewed during an image capture process.
2. Description of the Related Art
Scanners are commonplace and used for a variety of reasons, including creating an electronic version of a photographic film based image. Scanning such images and other items requires that the original be aligned with physical features of the scanner, such as a home position. If improperly aligned, the scanned image can be skewed. Misalignment problems often occur when a large numbers of items are scanned, such as in a copy machine, or when a user is rushed or inattentive. In some instances, it is not possible to correct the skew by rescanning the image. For example, there may be time constraints that prevent rescanning or the original may not be available at the time the misalignment is noticed. Thus, there have been some efforts to correct skew and alignment problems through image processing techniques.

Method and system of deskewing an image using monochrome conversion to separate foreground from background


A medical device is disclosed. The medical device comprises a bipolar forceps including a jaw assembly. The jaw assembly comprises a first jaw body; a second jaw body; and a sealing plate. A therapy current can be passed between the sealing plate and the first jaw body. The therapy current can be restricted from passing between the first jaw body and the second jaw body. The therapy current can be restricted from passing between the sealing plate and the second jaw body.

A forceps is a plier-like device that includes a jaw assembly for effecting azo anatomical feature. For example, a forceps can be used to grip, capture, grasp, manipulate, pull, constrict, cut, and/or dissect an anatomical feature such as a vessel or tissue. Some forceps also include electrosurgical capabilities so that anatomical feature can be cut and/or coagulated with one or more therapy currents.
Some forceps can be used to cut or dissect an anatomical feature via one or more blunt dissection techniques. One blunt dissection technique is sweep dissection. In sweep dissection, the jaw assembly, or a portion of the jaw assembly, such as an edge, is moved or "swept" across the anatomical feature thereby cutting or dissecting the anatomical feature.
Opportunities exist for improving such devices. For example, it may be desirable to have a medical device for effectively coagulating, cutting, and/or dissecting an object or anatomical feature between the jaws, and also for effectively cutting or dissecting an anatomical feature via sweep dissection. Some examples of known medical devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,262,655, 8,273,085, and 6,676,660; U.S. Patent Application Publication Numbers 2014/0276794, 2014/0100568, and 2008/0045947; and in WO 2015/047611, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.

Advanced energy device with bipolar dissection capability


A dish-receiving unit for a household dishwasher includes a lattice-like base, an intensive washing zone, and a manually operable on/off valve configured to switch the intensive washing zone optionally from a deactivated state to an activated state and vice versa, said on/off valve being operable through the base.

The present invention relates to a dish-receiving unit, in particular dish rack, for a household dishwasher, and a household dishwasher having at least one such dish-receiving unit.
A dishwasher has a dishwasher cavity and dish-receiving units arranged in the dishwasher cavity for receiving items to be washed. The items to be washed may be supplied with washing liquor and/or fresh water for the cleaning thereof, for example by means of a rotatably mounted spray arm. Moreover, so-called intensive washing zones may be provided, said intensive washing zones being able to be switched on in order to clean, for example, items to be washed which are particularly heavily soiled.
EP 1 708 608 B1 discloses a dish rack for a dishwasher having a supply pipe for a spray arm which is rotatably mounted below the dish rack, wherein a branch pipe is arranged in the region of the supply pipe for an intensive washing zone which is provided in the region of the dish rack and which consists of rod-shaped guiding elements which are provided with outlet nozzles and wherein the guiding elements are fastened to the bars of the dish rack.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,596,976 B2 discloses a dish rack having an intensive washing zone which is able to be switched on, wherein a valve for switching on the intensive washing zone is provided inside the dish rack.

Dish-receiving unit and domestic dishwasher


Tortilla chips having improved flavor, sweetness and textural characteristics, as well as enhanced nutritional values, are provided using a combination of whole kernel dried corn and germinated grain such as corn to produce a masa dough. Germinated grain contributes a "sweet" flavor as a consequence of the high concentration of natural sugars in the sprouted material. The sprouted corn also contributes substantial fiber and nutritional values to tortilla chips. Specialized methods and systems for producing and processing masa dough having a germinated fraction are required as a consequence of the unique consistency and higher fiber content of the masa dough mixture.

Numerous processed grain products, including breads, crackers, snack foods, and the like are available. Grain products comprising principally corn, including corn chips, tortilla chips, tortillas, and other snack foods have been successfully marketed. Tortilla chips are distinguished from corn chips in that tortilla chips are baked and then fried, while corn chips are fried and have a higher oil content. Tortilla chips may be produced by cooking and steeping whole kernel, raw corn in water, then grinding it to produce masa dough having a relatively high moisture content, and rolling or pressing the masa dough to form desired shapes. The processed corn is finally baked and/or fried and seasoned to provide a crunchy tortilla chip. Many commercial producers use premade masa flour and mix it with a liquid to form masa dough rather than cooking and grinding whole kernel corn to produce masa dough directly from whole grains.
Although existing tortilla chips are commercially successful, they lack substantial nutritional value. The corn flavor of some corn chip products is disguised by heavy application of seasonings. Moreover, many commercial corn chips lack substantial texture.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide tortilla chips having improved, intensified flavor and natural sweetness without resorting to added seasonings, and enhanced nutritional values.

Methods for making tortilla chips and tortilla chips produced thereby


An embodiment of an electric meter socket testing system features a plurality of tester line terminals adapted to connect with line terminals of an electric meter socket; a plurality of tester load terminals adapted to connect with load terminals of the electric meter socket; and a test module adapted to control input of voltage from the line terminals to the load terminals; and an indication interface configured to output whether the electric meter socket is determined to be safe for connecting an electric meter. Accordingly, the test module may further be adapted to check for a short circuit in an electrical distribution wiring network coupled to the line terminals in at least one diagnostic procedure.

Electric meters, such as watt-hour meters, are commonly used in the electric utility industry, where they are generally utilized to measure the amount of electrical power used at a residential or commercial building location. To secure the electric meter, a meter box or cabinet is generally mounted outside the building, such as on one of the sidewalls of the building. The meter box often contains a meter socket in which the electric meter plugs into during use. The meter socket comprises line terminals that connect to the electric power line conductors extending from a utility power source and load terminals that connect to the residential or commercial building consuming the incoming line power.
In one common design, the line and load terminals of the meter socket are designed to receive blade terminals extending outward from the base of the electric meter. Once plugged into the meter socket, the electric meter completes an electric circuit between the line and load terminals of the meter socket. As electricity is transferred from the line terminals to the load terminals (e.g., from the utility line power source to the building), the electric meter measures the amount of electricity provided.
Typically, when electrical service to a particular site or building is desired to be disconnected, a utility service person is dispatched to the particular building and removes the electric meter. To reconnect the electrical service, the same or another service person must be sent out to reinstall the electric meter. However, circumstances, such as theft and vandalism, may cause electrical circuitry of the building to become unsafe before the electric meter is reconnected. Thus, the service person reconnecting the electric meter may be in danger in reconnecting the meter unless the hazardous condition is identified.

Diagnostic testing of an electric meter socket


A process and apparatus for separating the components of a gas mixture by PSA in a four-vessel adsorption system operated as two pairs of adsorption vessels. The vessels of each pair are operated 180.degree. out of phase, such that one vessel of a pair is in the adsorption mode while the other vessel of the pair is undergoing adsorbent regeneration. The apparatus includes the two pairs of adsorption vessels, an intermediate gas storage reservoir which is used to temporarily store gas removed from the nonadsorbed gas outlet end of the adsorption vessels for use in various steps of the process, one gas blower and a pair of vacuum pumps. The adsorption cycle is such that the pairs of adsorption vessels are operated out of phase relative to each other and the blower and both vacuum pumps are in continuous operation throughout the process. The process and system are particularly well adapted to the separation of nitrogen from oxygen by vacuum swing adsorption.

PSA processes are commonly used for the production of oxygen when small to intermediate quantities, i. e., up to 100 TPD (tons per day) of oxygen is required. Typical small to intermediate size plants use two-bed or three-bed adsorption systems.
However, when quantities greater than 100 TPD are to be produced by PSA, it is generally necessary to use systems comprised of four or more beds, because very large two-bed or three-bed systems are too costly to construct, ship and operate. Typically, power consumption of small bed units is currently between about 0.35 and 0.45 Kwh/NmO.sub.2 (kilowatt hours per normal cubic meter of oxygen produced). In order for large volume PSA systems to compete with cryogenic air separation units of the same capacity, they must have low power consumption demand. To be competitive, it is generally considered that large scale PSA plant power demand should not significantly exceed about 0.45 Kwh/NmO.sub.2.
Efforts to reduce the operating cost of large scale PSA plants are constantly made. U.S. Pat. No. 5,656,068 discloses a four bed PSA plant in which the beds are operated as two pairs of 2-bed systems, which is referred to as a 2.times.2 cycle/system. Each pair of beds of the disclosed system is operated 180.degree. out of phase and the two pairs of beds are operated out of phase by one-half of a half-cycle. A stated advantage of the process of this patent is that it uses a combination of positive displacement and centrifugal pumps to perform the various gas pumping operations. The system requires two air compressors, one of which periodically is in the idle or vent mode, and two vacuum pumps.
The operating costs of a four-bed PSA plant could be considerably reduced if the plant could be operated in such a manner that fewer than four pumps were required. The present invention provides a system and operating cycle that possesses this advantage.

Pressure swing adsorption process and apparatus


In an example embodiment, an online advertising management platform maintains an account that includes data relating to an order for advertising provided by an ad network affiliated with the platform. When the platform receives a login that identifies a user as having access rights to the account, the platform displays a view that includes a window displaying data relating to the order and a toolbar in a standardized location relative to the window. The toolbar includes a tab. When the user clicks on the tab, the platform displays a tabbed window that includes a list of the informational messages, regardless of whether an informational message on the list has been read or dismissed by another user allowed access to the account. The platform locates the window contiguous to the toolbar over some but not all of the view displaying the data relating to the order.

Collaboration platforms are an emerging category of computer software. Typically, such platforms offer a set of software components and services that enable individuals to find each other and the information that they need to be able to communicate and work together to achieve a common business goal. In some implementations, the elements of a collaboration platform which are domain-agnostic might include messaging (e.g., emails, calendaring and scheduling, and contacts), team collaboration (e.g., file synchronization, task/project management, and full-text search), social computing tools (e.g., wiki, blog, tagging, RSS, and shared bookmarks), and real-time communication (e.g., presence, instant messaging, application/desktop sharing, and audio/video/web conferencing). Online implementations of collaboration platforms might be colloquially referred to as Enterprise 2.0, by analogy to Web 2.0.
A portal has designed an online collaboration platform in the advertising domain. The platform is called an advertising management platform and it can include an ad network, an ad server, an ad exchange, enterprise CRM functionality (e.g., for target marketing and account management), and enterprise DSS (decision support system) functionality (e.g., a digital dashboard), among other components. An ad network is a group of sites that a portal or a media company can sell collectively to an advertiser. An ad network might sell text ads, display ads, video ads, ads in video, or other advertising inventory. Publishers use an ad server to decide which ads to show and to help manage their advertising inventory, while advertisers and agencies use an ad server to simplify the ad-reporting process. In an ad exchange, buyers and sellers trade advertising inventory in an online central market in real time, like in a stock exchange. Networks put advertising inventory into the ad exchange to be bought, most often by another seller, who needs the impressions to fulfill an advertiser request. Through the ad exchange, buyers can gain access to a pool of inventory that might not have been available through any one vendor.
The workflows in such a platform tend to be complex, since they require a large amount of human-computer interaction from users assuming myriad roles with varying access rights to the data maintained by the platform. Consequently, there is a need for a graphical user interface (e.g., a model-view-controller) that employs personalization and/or contextualization to facilitate the efficient and effective use of the platform.

Window overlay for online collaboration platform


A pick for use with stringed musical instruments is disclosed. In some embodiments the pick is characterized by a roughened texture on the front and back substantially planar surfaces of the narrowed bottom portion of a substantially teardrop shaped body for the purpose of altering the tonal properties produced as it moves against strings that are strummed or picked. In further embodiments the roughened textured picking portion is combined with a separate second picking portion that is substantially smooth and useable to produce a conventional sound.

Musicians use a pick to pluck or strum the strings of a stringed musical instrument thereby causing them to vibrate and produce musical sounds and tones. A typical instrument pick is a small substantially teardrop shaped object having a broadened top finger grip portion and a narrowed bottom picking portion. In use, a musician holds the broadened top portion between the thumb and forefinger to guide the narrowed picking portion across the strings.
Picks of the prior art are substantially smooth on the front and back planar surfaces of the narrowed bottom portion so that they are nearly frictionless and soundless as they slide across the strings during strumming or plucking. Some picks of the prior art have a roughened textured on the broadened top finger grip portion to increase the gripping friction between the pick, thumb, and forefinger thereby making it less likely for the pick to be dropped unintentionally during use.
Frequently it is desirable for musicians to produce a number of differentiated tonal sounds in a single performance. By way of example, a musician may prefer to have a quiet subdued tone while playing behind a vocalist and a louder or more distorted tone during an instrument solo. The final perceived tonal sound is typically the summation of several tone altering apparatuses or selected features. Some examples include but are not limited to: engaging or disengaging electronic circuitry designed to distort or otherwise modify the electric signal of a stringed instrument's pickups, the type of amplifier used, the dimensions and material of the instrument body and strings, and the dimensions and material of the instrument pick.
In view of the foregoing there is a need for an improved design for a stringed musical instrument pick. For example it may be desirable for an improved pick to impart gritty or distorted tonal properties by nature of its design. It would be further desirable to be able to change the tonal properties imparted by the pick during a performance. Further still it would be desirable to include a means of changing the tonal properties quickly so as to not interrupt or delay the performance.


The metrics matrix may include at least one particular layer including at least one particular column having several metrics cues, respectively, situated in different rows. For the particular layer, the updating of the channel cue is associated with the particular column involving at each iteration one updated metric cue selected from all the metrics cues of the particular column. The row of the selected metric cues may change at each iteration.

The LDPC code is a block-based code. The encoder processes blocks of K bits and delivers blocks of N bits. Thus, N-K redundancy bits are added. These N-K bits are called "parity bits". The coding rate or code rate is defined by the ratio K/N. The lower the coding rate, the higher the number of redundancy bits, and hence, the greater the protection against noise in a transmission channel.
These N-K bits are calculated with the help of a parity matrix H. Therefore, the LDPC code is also a code based on a matrix. This matrix has N-K rows and N columns and comprises "1s" and of "0s"1, with a small number of "1s"; relative to the number of "0s". This is the reason why codes of this type, based on such a matrix, are called low-density codes (LDPC codes). The encoded block BLC, of N bits, is calculated by solving the equation HBLCT=0, where H denotes the parity matrix and T the "transpose" function.
On the decoder side, the erroneous bits are corrected on the basis of the relationships between the coded cues of the block. These relationships are given by the parity matrix H. The decoder uses internal metrics corresponding to the "1s" of the matrix H. The matrix H corresponds to the Tanner graph of the LDPC code comprising so-called check nodes and bit nodes, interlinked by the path of the graphs that represent the messages exchanged iteratively between the nodes thus linked. These metrics are updated row-wise (updating of the check nodes) by taking account of the internal metrics of one and the same row. Thereafter, the decoder updates these metrics column-wise (updating of the bit nodes) by taking account of the internal metrics in one and the same column and also of the corresponding cue at the input of the decoder that originates from the transmission channel. An iteration corresponds to the updating of the check nodes for all the internal metrics, followed by the updating of the bit nodes for all the internal metrics.
The decoding of a block uses several iterations. The values of the decoded bits, also called "hard decisions", are obtained by adding together the internal metrics column-wise with the cues received and by taking the sign of the result. Stated otherwise, the sign of the result provides the value "0" or "1" of the bit while the absolute value of the result gives a confidence (probability) indication for this "0" or "1" logic value.
The LDPC-type codes are of interest since they make it possible to obtain very low bit error rates (BER) on account of the iterative nature of the decoding algorithm. Several iterative decoding algorithms exist for decoding LDPC codes, for example, a "belief propagation" (BP) classical algorithm as is well known to the person skilled in the art. That being the case, another algorithm, a "Layered Belief Propagation" algorithm or "Layered BP" is of particular interest because it uses fewer iterations than the classical BP algorithm for the same result.
More precisely, the matrix H is subdivided into layers, each formed of groups of rows. Whereas in the classical BP algorithm, the channel cues, initially equal to the cues of the received block to be decoded, are updated per column of the metrics matrix at the end of each iteration, these channel cues are, in the case of a layered decoding algorithm, updated layer by layer, and the cues updated for a current layer are used for the subsequent layer. Stated otherwise, in such a decoding algorithm of the "layered BP", type, the updating of the check nodes is performed on a layer, then the bit nodes are updated column-wise, then the check nodes are updated on the subsequent layer before the bit nodes are updated again column-wise, and so on, and so forth.
While the implementation of such an algorithm is relatively simple to achieve when each column of a layer comprises at most a single "1", the hardware embodiment becomes relatively complex and uses, in particular, multiplexers to perform operations several times on a previous result, when several "1s" are distributed within one and the same column of a layer. Specifically, the step of updating the check nodes will calculate, for the specific column, all the updated metrics that will thereafter be taken into account in updating the corresponding channel cue.

Method and device for layered decoding of a succession of blocks encoded with an LDPC code


A system for training a computational neural network to recognise objects and/or actions from images, the system comprising: a training unit, comprising: an input interface configured to receive: a plurality of images captured from one or more cameras, each image having an associated timestamp indicating the time the image was captured; a data stream containing a plurality of timestamps each associated with an object and/or action; the data stream being generated by a system in an operative field of view of the one or more cameras; an image identification unit configured to identify from the plurality of images a set of images that each have a timestamp that correlates to a timestamp associated with an object and/or action from the data stream; a data-labelling unit configured to determine, for each image of the set of images, an image label that indicates the probability the image depicts: (i) an object of each of a set of one or more specified object classes; and/or (ii) a specified human action in dependence on the correlation between the timestamp for the image and the timestamp associated with the object and/or action from the data stream; and an output interface configured to output the image labels for use in training a computational neural network to identify from images objects of the object classes and/or the specified actions.

Computer vision is a disciplinary field that addresses how computational methods can be employed to gain an understanding of information depicted in images, or videos. To do this, image data (e.g. in the form of single images, image sequences forming a video stream, images captured by a camera etc.) can be processed and analysed to extract information and/or data that can be used to make certain conclusions on what is depicted by those images. This information may then be used to classify the image into a (specified) class. For example, the image may be classified as depicting a certain type of object. Alternatively, the information may be used to generate a regression value indicating the value of a variable. For instance, the regression value may indicate the probability that the image depicts a certain specified action.
Image classification or regression may be performed computationally using a computational neural network. A neural network is a computational model that calculates and/or approximates one or more functions based on one or more inputs. The basic unit of computation in a neural network is a neuron. A neuron may also be referred to as a node. A neuron receives input(s) from other neurons in the network, or from an external source. Each input may be associated with a weight, and (depending on the type of neuron) the neuron then calculates an output by applying a function to the weighted sum of its inputs. The function applied by the neuron may be non-linear.
A neural network may contain multiple neurons arranged in layers. The layers are arranged so that neurons in a given layer do not communicate with each other. The neural network may comprise three distinct types of layers: an input layer, a hidden layer, and an output layer. The input layer is formed of neurons that provide inputs to the network. The input nodes may themselves not perform any computation. The hidden layer is formed of neurons that have no direct connection to the outside system. The neurons of the hidden layer perform computations to provide an output from one or more inputs. A neural network may be formed of one or more hidden layers. The output layer is formed of neurons that perform computations to provide outputs from the network. Arrangements are also possible in which the output layer additionally serves as an input layer for another network, and thus the output layer can be viewed as a hidden layer of a larger network. Such arrangements may be referred to as stacked arrangements.
Neural networks may be classed as recurrent networks, or non-recurrent networks. Non-recurrent networks are feed-forward networks in which each layer of the network is connected to every other layer in a feed-forward fashion (i.e. data propagates through the network in a single direction from the input layer to the output layer). In a non-recurrent network, each input is processed independently of all other inputs (and outputs) of the network. An example of a non-recurrent neural network is a convolutional neural network. Recurrent networks are a class of neural networks in which an input may be processed in dependence (at least in part) on previously computed outputs of the network. An example of a recurrent neural network is a long-short term memory (LSTM) network.
The output of a neural network may be in the form of an N-element vector or N-dimensional matrix, where each element of the vector/matrix indicates a probability of a certain classification of the input data. For example, in the case of image classification, an input image may be classified into one or more of N classes, where an image of each class may be said to depict a certain class of object, e.g. a cat, a dog, an item of food etc. The value of an element in the output vector then indicates a probability that the image belongs to that corresponding class. In the case the neural network is used for regression, output will be value that indicates a magnitude of regression. This value may be referred to as a regression value. The regression value may be a continuous variable capable of taking a range of values within a specified range. For instance, if the network is arranged so that the value indicates a probability that an image depicts a specified human action, the regression value may take a value from 0 to 1, where '1' indicates a probabilistic certainty that the image depicts the specified action.
In order to effectively use a computational neural network to classify input data, the neural network may be 'trained'. Training may refer to the process of configuring the parameters of the network (e.g. the weights used by each neuron) to enable the network to effectively classify input data not previously seen by the network.
One way to train a neural network is to use training data. The training data may be labelled—that is to say, for a given set of input data, the desired output vector or matrix is known. This known output may be referred to as the label for the input data. The input data can be fed into the neural network, which may have an initialised set of parameters. The output from the neural network is then compared to the known label for the input data to generate an error. The error may be back-propagated through the network and used to adjust the network parameters. The input data is then fed back into the neural network and new outputs calculated. These new outputs are again compared to the label to generate a new error (which should be smaller than the previous error). This new error is then back-propagated into the network to re-adjust the network parameters. This process may be repeated until a pre-defined threshold is reached (e.g. the error is below a predetermined threshold; the number of iterations has reached a threshold value or the process may be repeated until a threshold amount of time has elapsed). This process may also be repeated for multiple inputs to better train the network.
Whilst the use of labelled training data is effective in training computational neural networks, sufficient labelled training data is not always readily available. For instance, for image classification of security footage (e.g. CCTV footage), well-labelled data is not always readily available due to data protection and privacy requirements. Whilst it is possible to label data manually (e.g. by having a person watch the footage and label it accordingly), this is time consuming and expensive.

Generating labeled training images for use in training a computational neural network for object or action recognition


The invention relates to translucent antiperspirants based on finely-divided, sprayable microemulsions. The invention also relates to microemulsion concentrates and a method for the production of antiperspirants from such concentrates. The stable microemulsions according to the invention thereby have a droplet diameter of substantially less than 100 nm.

Field of the Invention
This invention relates to translucent antiperspirants/deodorants based on fine-droplet sprayable microemulsions. The invention also relates to microemulsion concentrates and to a process for the production of translucent antiperspirants/deodorants from such concentrates. The stable microemulsions according to the invention essentially have a droplet diameter of less than 100 nm.


Techniques for the determination of mechanical properties of homogenous or functionally-graded materials from indentation testing are presented. The technique is applicable to indentation on the nano-scale through the macro-scale including the geological scale. The technique involves creating a predictive load/depth relationship for a sample, providing an experimental load/depth relationship, comparing the experimental data to the predictive data, and determining a physical characteristic from the comparison.

The testing of mechanical properties of materials, such as small articles or macro-scale samples such as soil, is a well-studied art. For relatively small-scale articles, standard tests exist for measuring mechanical properties such as Young's modulus, strain hardening exponent, yield strength, hardness, and the like, and the mechanical properties of many materials have been carefully characterized.
One set of techniques for determining mechanical properties in materials involve tests in the macro regime in which, for example, a sample of material is stretched and its overall mechanical response inferred in terms of stress and deformation. These techniques, however, typically are destructive of those samples.
Accordingly, essentially non-destructive techniques for analysis of small-scale samples such as miniaturized semiconductor articles, thin coatings for optical, electronic, magnetic, and mechanical devices, and the like have been developed. Some of these techniques involve in situ testing of mechanical properties in small-scale structures. Properties of individual phases, grain boundaries, and interfaces between phases and properties of novel materials such as nanocrystalline materials, or laminated or fibrous composites have been probed.
Indentation testing is a well-accepted technique for such testing that can be essentially non-destructive, and can be applied at a variety of scales, from nano- to macro-scale. The technique typically involves placing a sample to be tested on a stage and applying a load to a surface of the sample via an indenter so as to slightly deform or penetrate the surface, followed by removal of the load. Several techniques can be employed to derive certain properties of the material from characteristics of the interaction of the indenter with the material. One set of techniques involves measuring an area of indentation during or after indentation, for example, optically, refractively, via surface profilometry, etc. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,627,096 (Grattoni, et al.), 4,945,490 (Biddle, Jr. et al.), 5,284,049 (Fukumoto), 5,355,721 (Las Navas Garcia), 5,483,621 (Mazzoleni), 5,486,924 (Lacey), 4,852,397 (Haggag), 5,490,416 (Adler), 3,822,946 (Rynkowski), and others follow this procedure. For example, the measured area of indentation can be used to determine a simple "flow" or hardness value for the material, which is defined as the load applied divided by the projected area of the indentation. Or, the dimension of any cracks formed in the sample surface can be measured to determine the toughness of the material. Alternatively, the depth of penetration of the indenter as a function of applied load can be measured, and calculations performed to estimate roughly some mechanical properties.
Various shapes of indenters, for example spherical, cone-shaped, and pyramidal geometries can be used in indentation testing. Sharp indenters (e.g., cone-shaped and pyramidal) can be used in conventional tests to apply a load to a sample surface to form an imprint, or until the surface cracks, followed by measurement of the area of imprint or determination of the crack length to measure hardness or toughness, respectively. One piece of indentation testing equipment utilizing a sharp indenter at ultra low loads is sold by Nano Instruments, Inc. as the Nanoindenter.TM. indentation tester. The Nanoindenter.TM. indentation tester is a relatively complex, self-contained unit including an indenter system, a sharp indenter, a light optical microscope, a moveable x-y table, and a computer. Analysis of load/depth curves with loads of less than one Newton and displacement of less than one .mu.m using a three-sided pyramidal indenter is most typically performed.
Blunt indenters, for example those having a surface contacting the sample surface that is spherical, are advantageous for use in indentation testing under certain circumstances for several reasons. First, less sample-destructive analyses often can be carried out. However, with blunt (spherical) indenters, sensitivity problems are maximized since displacement of the sensor into the sample surface, at a particular applied load, is less than displacement with a sharp indenter. This is especially problematic in measuring very soft materials. Spherical indenters have, therefore, found most use in techniques in which load is applied to a sample surface and the diameter of the indentation formed thereby is measured using, for example, optical means.
A variety of U.S. Patents, including U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,820,051 (Yanagisawa, et al.); 4,627,096 (Gattoni, et al.); 4,699,000 (Lashmore, et al.); 5,133,210 (Lesko, et al.); 5,490,416 (Adler); and 4,852,397 (Haggag) describe techniques that involve indenting a sample and determining, in a variety of ways, load, depth of penetration, and/or area of contact between the indenter and the sample during the test. In some cases an optical mechanism determines the penetration depth of the indenter and/or the area of contact between indenter and sample. In some cases, during determination of area of contact, it is assumed for simplicity that no pile-up or sinking-in of the material at the contact perimeter occurs (which is known to be a factor that must be taken into account for accurate measurement). Typically, in these techniques, the area of the indentation formed while load is applied either is not made precisely, or requires relatively complicated apparatus. In some cases, relatively time-consuming and labor-intensive processes are carried out involving multiple indentation tests made where the profile of the indentation is traced after each test with a surface analyzer to determine the depth and diameter of the indentation.
Accurate determination of the area of an indentation formed during indentation testing, especially during loading, can be critical to accurate determination of several mechanical properties of a sample. Most of these techniques also cannot accurately determine properties of a sample in the elastic and plastic regimes within a single test.
Co-pending, commonly-owned, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/632,665, of Suresh, Alcala, and Giannakopoulos, filed Apr. 15, 1996 and entitled, "DEPTH SENSING INDENTATION MECHANISM AND METHODOLOGY FOR MECHANICAL PROPERTY MEASUREMENTS, describes an improved technique allowing simple, reproducible, relatively uncomplicated, inexpensive, and accurate measurement of a variety of mechanical properties in a single test or series of tests on homogeneous materials. The technique involves deriving, from a load/depth relationship from an indentation test, an area of contact between the indenter and the sample during penetration without observing the area of contact during or after penetration. The area determined takes into account the area of contact due to pile-up of sample material around the indenter or sinking-in of the material. In situ load/displacement measurement, using a variety of indenter shapes and sizes, is possible in this technique.
The above techniques provide useful data for a variety of purposes, for homogeneous materials but not for functionally graded materials. Yet simplification of testing of a variety of materials at a variety of size scales would be advantageous. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a simplified technique for indentation testing that is accurate, and is applicable to a wide variety of materials, over a variety of size scales.

Method and apparatus for determination of mechanical properties of functionally-graded materials


A method and apparatus to be used for videoconferencing when the presentation is to include displays of documents or other visuals. A camera is focused on the document and detects when the document is being handled by the presenter. It automatically determines when to initially display the document, as well as when to update frames of data representing the document.

Technical advances in recent years have made video videoconferencing a cost effective and increasingly widespread alternative to physical face-to-face meetings. In a typical long-distance video conference, the participants at each station transmit and receive audio and video signals that allow the participants to see and hear each other. In a general sense, a videoconference may also be at a single site, such as a lecture hall, where the audience views a display.
Some videoconferencing stations include a document stand for providing a video signal of a document to be displayed on a monitor as part of the videoconference. A single image of a document is captured for transmission from video provided by the document stand's camera. More technically speaking, a video frame is converted to a frame of data and transmitted as a "slide".
A video conference may include supporting materials other than documents. For example, it may be desirable to present a computer screen display by transmitting the image data from which the display is generated to a larger on-site monitor for audience viewing or to an off-site monitor. Or, it may be desired to present material written on a whiteboard. This could be accomplished with video from a camera viewing the whiteboard, with the video being converted to a frame of data that is transmitted as a slide.
As indicated by the above examples, although the source material may vary, most video videoconferencing systems have at least one means for presenting supporting materials. A general term for such presentations is "still frame images". The slide of the document or other supporting material is a motionless image, and is typically displayed with higher resolution than the video images.
Most videoconferencing systems have a "preview" mode as well as a "slide" mode. In the preview mode, the presenter and perhaps his audience can view a video image of the item being presented as it is being positioned, annotated, or otherwise prepared for discussion.
In the past, both the slide presentation mode and the preview mode have required action on the part of the presenter. The presenter must remember to send the slide at the appropriate time, such as when he or she has finished positioning or annotating the document. If there is a preview mode, the presenter must remember to switch to preview and back to himself when the preview is over and the formal presentation is to begin.

Automatic display update of still frame images for videoconferencing


A biodegradation apparatus comprising an enclosed vessel for holding a large volume of soil contaminated with hydrocarbons. Air diffusers uniformly within the vessel force moistened air through the vessel thereby removing volatile hydrocarbons from the contaminated soil. Outgoing air is supplied to vapor phase bioreactor for the removal of hydrocarbon contaminants from outgoing air. The outgoing air is next supplied to a granular activated carbon filter system which absorbs remaining hydrocarbons and then expels non-polluted air into the atmosphere concluding phase one treatment of the hydrocarbon contaminated soil. Phase two treatment of the hydrocarbon contaminated soil is initiated by utilizing high pressure injection nozzles to force water with surfactant additives through the soil thereby forming at the upper portion of the enclosed vessel a supernatant which includes hydrocarbon contaminants. The supernatant is next provided to a settling tank that collects oily sludge at the bottom thereof and then to a treatment tank where nutrients are added to promote biological growth for biodegradation of the remaining hydrocarbon contaminants.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to biodegrading contaminated soils and, in particular, to a method and apparatus for the removal of volatile hydrocarbons and the like from contaminated soils.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Recent environmental legislation such as the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980 and the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986 have identified certain hazardous waste sites as requiring cleanup utilizing treatment technologies that will permanently and significantly reduce the volume, toxicity, or mobility of hazardous substances at these waste sites. This legislation further directs that permanent remedies be chosen for the cleanup of these hazardous waste sites and that offsite disposal of contaminants should be the least favored alternative for disposal of hazardous waste.
In complying with this environmental legislation the military has identified a significant number of their facilities as being hazardous waste sites requiring cleanup. Typically, the soils at these sites are contaminated with highly volatile hydrocarbon compounds such as gasolines and chlorinated solvents as well as hydrocarbon compounds having moderate to low volatility such as jet fuel, diesel fuel, engine oil and lubricants.
These hazardous waste sites also have underground storage tanks which are regulated by this environmental legislation and which are being used to store diesel fuel, gasoline and jet fuels. A significant portion of these underground storage tanks are over twenty years old or are fabricated from concrete which is permeable to most organic liquids. Thus, there is a high probability, with some estimates exceeding fifty percent, that these underground storage tanks are leaking and thus contaminating the soils surrounding the underground storage tanks.
Biodegradation has long been recognized as a process for the removal of toxic chemicals from the environment. In the past, for example, wastewater treatment plants have used biological processes to remove toxic chemicals and other contaminants from wastewater.
Bioremediation, which is the controlled use of biodegradation to remove toxic contaminants from soil, water and the like has also been used to remove petroleum hydrocarbons from contaminated surface soils and water. Bioremediation generally relies on the hydrocarbon degrading abilities of biological materials such as bacteria, fungi, bacterial enzymes, or fungal enzymes to degrade hydrocarbon contaminated soil. The hydrocarbon degrading biological materials are often naturally present in contaminated soil and given sufficient time can naturally degrade the hydrocarbon contaminants. In addition, this natural degradation process can often be promoted by directly adding biological materials such as hydrocarbon degrading microorganisms to soil in an amount sufficient to degrade the hydrocarbon contaminants or by encouraging the proliferation of hydrocarbon degrading organisms either naturally present in soil or present as a result of inoculation.
Bioremediation of hydrocarbon contaminated soils is favored over soil removal or chemical treatment of soil because of lower cost, proven effectiveness and ability for reduction of hydrocarbon contamination. While satisfactory for their intended purpose of removing contaminants such as hydrocarbons from soil, prior art bioremediation processes ordinarily leave something to be desired in that even under optimum conditions, months or years may be required to decrease the levels of hydrocarbon contamination to the desired levels. This disadvantage has greatly limited the potential use of bioremediation to reduce hydrocarbon contamination in soils.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide an apparatus and method for accelerated biodegradation of hazardous organic substances in soils.
It is a further object of the present invention to significantly reduce the levels of hydrocarbon contamination of soils within a relatively short period of time after arrival at the hazardous substance contaminated site.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus which permits continual, effective and highly efficient treatment of hydrocarbon contaminated soils.
Various other objects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent to those skilled in the art as a more detailed description of the invention is set forth below.

Process for biodegradatioon of soil contaminants that contain volatile/semivolatile components

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy


An apparatus and methods for unloading panels. One example method includes receiving the panel on a table top. The panel is positioned on the table top to allow a worker to make an external surface inspection. The method further includes rotating a table flap extending from the table top from a first position to a second position to allow a worker access to a panel fixture in a stowed position. The method further includes moving the panel fixture from the stowed position to a load position and receiving the panel on the panel fixture. The panel is positioned on the panel fixture to engage a load sensor. In response to the load sensor sensing the panel on the panel fixture, the method further includes rotating the panel fixture from the load position to an unload position.

The manufacturing and assembly process for automotive vehicles requires workers to both inspect and handle various parts. Some sheet metal parts, including door panels, roof panels, fenders, decklids, and other body panels can be heavy, large, or unwieldy, making the body panels difficult to position on unload tables in a manner that is both suitable for inspection and ergonomically acceptable for storage and installation handling of the body panels.

Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc.


A method for controlling a sensor may be performed by a mobile device including a processor and a memory. The method may include receiving raw data from the sensor, classifying the raw data into a context value, interpreting the context value into a higher-level context, receiving a predicted context based on the higher-level context, and controlling the sensor based on the predicted context. Controlling the sensor may include controlling a frequency at which raw data is received from the sensor, or an on/off state of the sensor. Control of the sensor may also be based on both the higher-level context and the predicted context.

Mobile devices such as smart phones are rapidly evolving and maturing as a platform that serves the computational and communication needs of people in their everyday lives. A growing number of smart phones have embedded sensors which can sense the user's environment. For example, many smart phones come with built in accelerometers, GPS, light sensors, microphones, proximity sensors, cameras, compasses, and gyroscopes. Additionally, there are many sensors available that can communicate over low power RF communication and push data to phones.
These sensors, along with the local computational power of the smart phone and the communication capability built into the phone, enable various proactive applications to be provided in fields such as location-based tracking, healthcare, remote monitoring, and environmental monitoring. Conventional proactive applications continuously read and process the sensor data to generate higher-level contexts. The conventional proactive applications may take actions based on the higher-level contexts derived from the sensor data. However, in conventional proactive applications, the communication between the sensors and the phone is only one way: the sensors output the data, and the phone reads the data. Also, conventional proactive applications do not generate or consider future context when taking the prescribed action.
Providing proactive services and applications involves continuous monitoring of the user context, which requires reading the sensor data stream and deriving higher-level contexts from the data. The continuous reading and processing of data from the sensors can be very resource-intensive on the device. In a sensor-rich environment where multiple applications are operating concurrently on the device, the quality, quantity, and timeliness of the proactive applications may be limited by the limited resources of the mobile.
For example, continuous sampling of the sensor data may drain the battery in a relatively short period of time. Also, the processing of the sensor data from the many sensors is limited by the relatively small computational power of a mobile device. Thus, using conventional systems and methods, it is difficult to provide a rich variety of proactive services that are delivered in a sustained manner.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide systems and methods for adaptive sensor data selection and sampling based on current and future context, where there is two-way communication between the sensors and the mobile device, allowing the selection and sampling frequency of the sensors to be controlled. It is also desirable to provide systems and methods for adaptive sensor data selection and sampling based on current and future context, where a mobile device acts as a gateway for transmitting data between sensors and a server. It is further desirable to provide systems and methods for adaptive sensor data selection and sampling based on current and future context, where an additional action is taken based on the future context.
Accordingly, systems, methods and computer programs embodied on non-transitory computer-readable media are provided for adaptive sensor data selection and sampling based on current and future context, as disclosed herein.

Adaptive sensor data selection and sampling based on current and future context


Between an X-ray source and a rotating stage 13, a marker member including a flat plate 21 formed with markers M and a support part 22 supporting the flat plate 21 is arranged. The formation positions of the markers M on the flat plate 21 are set to positions that allow the distance between the markers M to be most separated in an area in which both of the markers M are not superimposed on a projection image of a subject within the detection range of an X-ray detector 12 and that is constantly included within the detection range even when an X-ray focal point is moved. Also, the length of the support part 22 is adjusted to a length resulting in a side end of the detection range of the X-ray detector where the flat plate 21 and the markers M are not superimposed on the subject W on a projection image.

An industrial X-ray CT device is one that three-dimensionally observes the internal structure of a subject such as an industrial product by, between an X-ray source and an X-ray detector that are mutually oppositely arranged, arranging a rotating stage on which the subject is placed, and collecting pieces of X-ray projection data from respective directions around the subject to reconstruct a tomographic image (see Patent Literature 1). The X-ray CT device is characterized by being able to capture such a three-dimensional structure of the subject, and therefore, in recent years, has been used not only for observation but for three-dimensional shape measurement.
A tomographic image is reconstructed by back projecting projection images on the basis of geometric information on an X-ray focal point, a subject, and a detector at the time of a CT scan. For this reason, in an X-ray CT device for three-dimensional shape measurement, an error occurring in the geometric information causes spatial distortion in the reconstructed image, causing a reduction in dimensional measurement accuracy. In particular, the X-ray focal point is constantly varied due to some causes such as thermal expansion of an X-ray tube and deterioration of a target during X-ray irradiation. For example, if the X-ray focal point is varied by 10 μm, an error of 1 mm appears in a 100-times enlarged projection image detected by the X-ray detector. In order to reconstruct a tomographic image of a subject without spatial distortion in such a manner as to be able to achieve the dimensional measurement accuracy to be satisfied by the X-ray CT device as one for three-dimensional shape measurement, it is necessary to three-dimensionally detect the position of an X-ray focal point during a CT scan to correct information necessary to reconstruct a tomographic image or suppress a variation in X-ray focal point.
Patent Literatures 2 and 3, and Non-Patent Literature 1 describe techniques for obtaining a two-dimensional focal point movement amount from projection images of a marker as a method for detecting the position of an X-ray focal point during a CT scan. Also, Patent Literature 4 describes a structure for, in order to suppress a reduction in detection accuracy due to the effect of a change in the temperature of a device, containing an X-ray source in a housing and supplying temperature-controlled gas into the housing to thereby cool the heat of the housing including the X-ray source.


Optical readers are disclosed in examples herein. An example optical reader including a light source to emit a light beam; and a spot pattern generator to receive the light beam and to generate a two-dimensional spot array from the light beam, the two-dimensional spot array to be directed toward a substrate having nanostructures, the two-dimensional spot array to be sensed to detect a presence or an absence of a substance of interest on the substrate.

Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) may be used in various industries to detect the presence of an analyte. For example, SERS may be used in the security industry to detect and/or scan for explosives (e.g., detecting and/or scanning baggage at airports for explosives and/or other hazardous materials). In another example, SERS may be used in the food industry to detect toxins or contaminates in foods or drinks.
The figures are not to scale. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawing(s) and accompanying written description to refer to the same or like parts.

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.