A sintered friction material includes a copper alloy base and hard particles. The copper alloy base includes copper and at least one of, and preferably both, Zn and Ni within a total range of 5 to 40 wt % of the copper alloy base. The hard particles are uniformly dispersed in a matrix formed by the original composite copper alloy powder constituting the base, in a content amount j within a range of 10 to 30 wt % of the friction material.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a copper alloy type sintered friction material, and more specifically, to an improvement of corrosion resistance and various mechanical properties such as wear resistance, seizure resistance, coefficient of friction, strength, toughness, hardness and so on of a sintered friction material preferably used for friction sliding parts such as a clutch or a brake or for mechanical sliding parts such as a synchronizing ring, of a vehicle (including a motorcycle).
2. Description of the Related Art
In a vehicle driving system, of which the performance has constantly been improved, a high torque is applied. Therefore, materials of parts used therein have been improved, designs have been studied and, in addition, a lubricant oil, which is one factor of the environment of use, has been improved. For example, an extreme pressure additive to oil based on phosphorus (P) or sulfur (S) has an effect of reducing damage due to wear of the friction sliding parts caused under severe sliding conditions. However, it is well known that products such as hydrogen sulfide (H.sub.2 S) generated by decomposition of the extreme pressure additive at a high temperature react with non-ferrous metal, causing corrosion of the material.
Concerning the problem of corrosion, brass (copper-zinc alloy) has superior resistance to corrosion due to sulfur. At present, brass is practically used for mechanical parts that are to be employed in such an environment susceptible to corrosion due to sulfur. However, wear resistance and seizure resistance of brass alloy are not superior, and the material has not been designed to have a high coefficient of friction in oil, and hence application of brass alloy as a friction sliding member has been is difficult.
With respect to this problem, Japanese Patent Publication No. 4-80105 discloses that a cast material provided by adding an intermetallic compound of nickel silicide and a metal component such as iron, aluminum, and manganese or the like to a copper-zinc-nickel type alloy realizes a coefficient of friction within the range of from about 0.1 to 0.13 in oil, and that the cast material can be utilized for a synchronizing ring.
While higher grade and higher performance of vehicles have been demanded, it has been found that the driver's shifting feel when he or she shifts the transmission gear can be much improved by improving the coefficient of friction of the synchronizing ring, which is a part of the transmission system. However, a conventional sliding member formed of a copper type alloy including the one disclosed in the aforementioned Japanese Patent Publication No. 4-80105 has the coefficient of friction in oil in the range about 0.1 to 0.15, and hence it cannot exhibit sufficient frictional effect to improve the shifting feel of the driver.
Now, a copper alloy type sintered friction material has been conventionally known as a friction material having relatively high coefficient of friction and, for example, has been disclosed in Japanese Patent Laying-Open Nos. 58-79073, 58-151444, 60-116751, 61-67737, 63-109131 and so on. In the sintered friction materials, in order to improve the coefficient of friction by causing friction resistance at the time of sliding, hard particles or a friction adjusting agent are simply mixed with the copper alloy powder, and the mixed powder is molded and sintered. Therefore, microscopically, even after sintering, the hard particles or the friction adjusting agent do not form a reaction layer with the base copper alloy, but exist with spaces left between the grain boundaries of the original copper alloy powder (especially at triple point of grain boundaries).
As a result, in the conventional copper alloy type sintered friction material, the hard particles or the friction adjusting agent become loose and fall out from the grain boundaries of the sintered material (especially from the triple point of grain boundaries) at the time of friction sliding, and thus form an abraded powder, which powder attacks the counterpart or the sintered friction material itself, causing seizure or damage due to wear. Further, in the conventional copper alloy type sintered friction material, the hard particles or the friction adjusting agent do not have an appropriate grain diameter, and are not dispersed uniformly. Therefore, it is difficult to realize a stable coefficient of friction of at least 0.2 under wet type sliding and at least 0.4 under dry type sliding, which values are required of the high performance friction material.
As described above, it has been desired to provide a copper alloy type sintered friction material having superior resistance to corrosion caused by sulfur, superior wear resistance and superior seizure resistance and stable, relatively high coefficient of friction in oil.

Sintered friction material, composite copper alloy powder used therefor and manufacturing method thereof


The image sensor 107 includes plural pixels each including a microlens and plural photoelectric conversion portions separated from one another with a separating zone thereamong and photoelectrically converting light fluxes passing through the microlens. The microlens includes a separating zone side lens portion overlapping the separating zone in an optical axis direction of the microlens. When the photoelectric conversion portions photoelectrically convert the light fluxes passing through mutually different areas of an exit pupil of an image capturing optical system, the separating zone side lens portion provides no power or a negative power for a light flux entering the separating zone side lens portion in the light fluxes entering the microlens.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image sensor to be used for image pickup apparatuses such as digital cameras, and particularly to an image sensor suitable for photoelectric conversion of light fluxes from plural areas of an exit pupil of an image capturing optical system.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image pickup apparatus using such an image sensor is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,410,804. The disclosed image pickup apparatus uses a two-dimensional image sensor that includes plural pixels each being constituted by one microlens and plural separated photoelectric conversion portions. The separated photoelectric conversion portions receive, through the one microlens, light fluxes from mutually different areas of an exit pupil of an image capturing optical system (the mutually different areas of the exit pupil are hereinafter referred to as "partial pupil areas"), that is, perform pupil division. The disclosed image pickup apparatus can produce, by using electric signals obtained through photoelectric conversion by the photoelectric conversion portions, parallax images corresponding to the partial pupil areas.
The produced parallax images are equivalent to Light Field (LF) data that is information on a spatial distribution and an angular distribution of light intensity. "Stanford Tech Report CTSR 2005-02, 1 (2005)" discloses a refocus technology that reconstructs, by using acquired LF data, an image at a virtual imaging surface different from an image sensor surface to produce a refocus image corresponding to an in-focus position different from that in an original captured image.
Moreover, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-083407 discloses an image pickup apparatus that produces a captured image by adding electric signals from all separated photoelectric conversion portions in each of pixels in an image sensor.
Each pixel of such an image sensor includes a separating zone formed among the separated photoelectric conversion portions to separate them from one another. However, the separating zone often has a lower photo sensitivity than those of the photoelectric conversion portions. Such a separating zone forms a low sensitivity zone corresponding to a shape of the separating zone (in other words, a shape of the separated photoelectric conversion portions) in a pupil intensity distribution (in other words, an incident angle distribution of a light-receiving ratio) of each pixel, which may cause unnatural blur in the captured image.

Image sensor comprising plural pixels including a microlens and plural photoelectric conversion portions and image pickup apparatus comprising same


Field Effect Transistors (FETs), Integrated Circuit (IC) chips including the FETs, and a method of forming the FETs and IC. FET locations and adjacent source/drain regions are defined on a semiconductor wafer, e.g., a silicon on insulator (SOI) wafer. Source/drains are formed in source/drains regions. A stopping layer is formed on source/drains. Contact spacers are formed above gates. Source/drain contacts are formed to the stopping layer, e.g., after converting the stopping layer to silicide. The contact spacers separate source/drain contacts from each other.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to semiconductor Field Effect Transistor (FET) manufacture and more particularly to improving yield and reliability in semiconductor chip manufacture.
2. Background Description
Integrated Circuits (ICs) are commonly made in the well-known complementary insulated gate Field Effect Transistor (FET) technology known as CMOS. Typical high performance ICs include CMOS devices (FETs) formed in a number of stacked layers (e.g., wiring, via, gate and gate dielectric) on a surface semiconductor (silicon) layer of a Silicon On Insulator (SOI) chip or wafer. CMOS technology and chip manufacturing advances have resulted in a steady decrease of chip feature size to increase on-chip circuit switching frequency (circuit performance) and the number of transistors (circuit density). In what is typically referred to as scaling, device or FET features are shrunk to shrink corresponding device minimum dimensions, including both horizontal dimensions (e.g., minimum channel length) and vertical dimensions, e.g., channel layer depth, gate dielectric thickness, junction depths and etc. Shrinking device size increases device density and improves circuit performance (both from increased device drive capability and decreased capacitive load).
With scaling, however, what had become small, insignificant and neglectable defects have become significant, to the point of causing chip failures and negatively impacting yield. Scaling has made forming electrical contacts to device source/drain regions, especially for what are known as raised source/drain devices, for example, a considerable challenge. Typically, contacts are formed after opening (smaller and smaller) contact openings or vias through an insulation layer to the device raised source/drains, e.g., using a reactive ion etch (RIE) self-aligned contact, and filling the openings with a conductive material. However, using conventional contact oxide RIE for self-aligned contacts erodes device sidewall spacers that causes gate to source/drain shorts. These shorts have caused a significant drop in chip yield.
Thus, there exists a need for improved self-aligned source/drain contact formation in semiconductor manufacturing, and more particularly; there exists a need for self-aligned source/drain contact formation that does not incur sidewall spacer loss at contact oxide while avoiding source/drain contact to device gate shorts to improve chip yield and reliability.

Field effect transistor (FET) with self-aligned contacts, integrated circuit (IC) chip and method of manufacture


A tandem type color image forming apparatus has a plurality of image forming units. These units includes at least a plurality of spaced photosensitive drums, and a plurality of developing rollers for developing with toners electrostatic latent images formed on these photosensitive drums. The image forming units except the image forming unit for black color that may be highly frequently used are accommodated in the same first housing. The unit for black color is accommodated in another second housing. The first and second housings are made to be attachable to and detachable from the chassis of the apparatus main body independently of each other. Only an image forming unit with high frequency of inspection or maintenance can separately be detached, so that the work load for inspection or maintenance is reduced, and handling of the apparatus is easy.

The present invention relates to a color image forming apparatus for forming a composite image by superposing image information using electrophotographic technology or the like.
Conventionally, in an image forming apparatus using electrophotographic technology, an image is formed in the manner that an electrophotographic photosensitive body, serving as an image carrier, is charged with an electrifier, this photosensitive body is irradiated with light in accordance with image information to form a latent image, this latent image is developed with a developing device to be visible, and a toner image thus obtained is transferred onto a sheet material or the like.
On the other hand, with the coloring of image, many tandem type image forming apparatus have been proposed until now, in which a plurality of image carriers to each of which such a series of image forming processes is performed are provided, and a full color image is formed in the manner that a cyan image, a magenta image, a yellow image, and preferably a black image are formed on the respective image carriers, and those images are superposed and transferred onto a sheet material at the transfer positions of the respective image carriers. Such a tandem type color image forming apparatus is advantageous for high speed image formation because it has an image forming section for each color.
Such a tandem type color image forming apparatus, as described in, for instance, Japanese Patent Application Ser. No. 11-92598 (Laid-Open Publication No. 2000-284592) of the same assignee, comprises image forming units for forming toner images of the respective colors, i.e., yellow (Y), magenta (M), cyan (C), and black (K), an exposure unit for outputting an image signal to form an electrostatic latent image, an intermediate transfer belt formed into a closed loop and running, and a fixing unit, wherein toner images on the intermediate transfer belt are transferred onto a paper P fed from a paper cassette, and the toner images are fixed to the paper with the fixing unit.
The image forming units for yellow (Y), magenta (M), cyan (C), and black (K) have the same structure, and each unit is the combination of a photosensitive unit including a photosensitive drum on the circumferential surface of which an electrostatic latent image is formed with a laser beam from the exposure unit, an electrifying brush for charging the photosensitive drum with electricity, and a cleaning blade, and a developing unit including a toner supplying tank, a toner supplying roller, and a developing roller brought into contact with the photosensitive drum.
In the conventional tandem type color image forming apparatus, all the image forming units for yellow (Y) color, magenta (M) color, cyan (C) color, and black (K) color are incorporated together in one housing. Therefore, when inspection or maintenance of each image forming unit, the housing is drawn out from the chassis of the image forming apparatus and all the four image forming units are taken out.
On the other hand, a color image forming apparatus is used not only for color image formation using the toners of all colors but also for monochrome image formation using only black color. The frequency of this monochrome image formation using only black is relatively high. Therefore, the frequency of toner supply or inspection/maintenance of the image forming unit for black (K) color is apt to be higher as compared with any other image forming unit.
In the conventional tandem type color image forming apparatus, however, all the four image forming units are incorporated in one housing. Therefore, even when inspection or maintenance of the image forming unit of black (K) color only is to be performed, it is taken out and put in the chassis together with the other three image forming units. Consequently, the image forming units having no need of inspection or maintenance also must be treated, and the user""s handling efficiency is not always good. Besides, since the other image forming units must be taken out and put in every time when frequent inspection or maintenance of the image forming unit of black (K) color is performed, the work load becomes heavy.
It is an object of the present invention to provide color image forming apparatus in which only an image forming unit with high frequency of inspection, maintenance, or the like, can separately be treated, thereby reducing the work load upon inspection/maintenance and making the handling easy.
According to the invention, a color image forming apparatus comprises a chassis for attachment in an apparatus main body, a plurality of image forming units including at least a plurality of photosensitive drums disposed at intervals, and a plurality of developing rollers for developing with toners electrostatic latent images formed on the respective photosensitive drums, and a plurality of housings each provided with open upper ends for respectively accommodating the image forming units while dividing them into a plurality of groups, the housings being independently attachable to and detachable from the chassis, respectively.
According to the structure of the above-described color image forming apparatus, an image forming unit requiring inspection or maintenance is detached from the apparatus by taking out the corresponding housing from the chassis, and a necessary work can be done.
The image forming units are, e.g., four for yellow, magenta, cyan, and black. In this case, it is preferable that the image forming units for yellow, magenta, and cyan are accommodated in first one of the housings, and the image forming unit for black is accommodated in the second housing. With this configuration, since only the image forming unit of black that may be highly frequently used can be taken out from the apparatus, the handling efficiency is improved.
Adjacent ones of the plurality of housings are preferably provided on their opposite surfaces with concavo-convex engagement portions for guiding those housings in the directions of chassis attachment and detachment and for performing vertical positioning. Each housing can easily be performed detachment from and attachment to the chassis and vertical positioning through engagement between the engagement portion of the housing and that an adjacent housing in the chassis.
Each image forming unit may have a casing formed to be inserted in the corresponding housing from above, which has a portion in a shape covering the periphery of the electrifying brush of an adjacent image forming unit. With the provision of such a casing, toner adhering to the electrifying brush of the adjacent image forming unit can be prevented from scattering.

Color image forming apparatus with separate housings for image forming units

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A papermaking fabric is treated by applying a nanoparticle type coating to improve their resistance to contamination by foreign matter in the papermaking system. The coating is applied during fabric manufacture and cured during heat setting. Alternatively, the coating applied or renewed by utilizing an existing shower or locating a spray boom or other suitable coating application device in the dryer section to apply the coating to the fabric in a controlled, uniform manner. Prior to application of the coating, the fabric is first thoroughly cleaned such as by showering or spraying, and then dried. Following controlled application of the coating, any excess material is removed by a suitable means, such as by vacuum, and the remaining coating on the fabric is then cured, either by utilizing the ambient heat of the dryer section or by a portable bank of heaters. In this manner, the fabric does not have to be removed from the machine in order to apply or renew the contaminant resistant coating.

The present invention relates to methods for the in situ application of contaminant resistant coatings to papermaking fabrics, and papermaking fabrics so coated. In particular, the invention is directed to methods for the in situ application of nanoparticle coatings to papermaking fabrics that reduce machine down time.
Papermaking fabrics are used in connection with papermaking machines to both form an embryonic web of paper from a pulp slurry and to carry it through various dewatering and drying processes to form various types of paper products. The papermaking fabrics are generally in the form of a fine mesh, which can be of various configurations depending on the position in the papermaking machine, and may include additional layers of batt, for example in certain press and dryer fabrics.
Particles suspended in the primarily cellulose fiber stock used to form the paper may include pitches, adhesives, other glue-like substances as well as other materials that have a propensity to stick to the papermaking fabrics, reducing the fabric permeability and adversely effecting the performance of the papermaking fabric. Prior known solutions to address this problem have proposed coating the fabric with an anti-contaminant material in order to enhance the anti-sticking property of the fabric and maintain the fabric cleaner for a longer period of time after it is installed on a papermaking machine. However, the prior known coatings wear off through use, resulting in diminished performance of the papermaking fabric. Additionally, the thickness of the coating itself had to be very small so that the coating itself did not reduce the fabric permeability.
While initial coatings had a fairly short life, one prior known anti-contaminant coating was developed containing polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) that was applied to the fabric using a bath and then cured at a temperature of 200° F. to 400° F. prior to installing the fabric on the papermaking equipment. This anti-contaminant coating had a longer life, but was still subject to wear.
Nanoparticle coatings are also known, such as described in e.g.: WO 02/50191 Solvent-Poor Sol-Gel Systems; U.S. Pat. No. 6,482,525 Method for producing themoshaped substrates coated with a SOL-Gel Lacquer; U.S. Pat. No. 6,620,514 Nanostructured forms and layers and method for producing them; U.S. Pat. No. 6,607,994 Nanoparticle-Based permanent treatments for textiles; U.S. Pat. No. 6,649,266 Substrates produced with a microstructured surface; U.S. Pat. No. 6,629,070 Nanostructured moulded bodies; WO 03/014232A1 Material for producing abrasion proof hydrophobic and/or oleophobic coatings. The generally accepted definition of "nanoparticles" is particles with a size less than about 100 nm. Such coatings have been used in connection with various types of fabric, for example for contamination resistance or to increase wear life. However, they have not been specifically used in connection with papermaking fabrics
In use, it is also known to remove papermaking fabrics having a substantial remaining useful life from a papermaking machine for re-coating and subsequent re-installation in order to maintain the benefit of anti-contaminant coatings. However, this entails substantial additional cost and down time for the papermaking machine.
Thus, it would be desirable if a contamination resistant nanoparticle coated papermaking fabric were available which provided anti-sticking properties when installed in the environment for which it is intended. It would be further desirable if methods existed to allow such fabrics, as well as those not so treated, to be coated or recoated with a either or both a hydrophobic or oleophobic contamination resistant nanoparticle coating while installed in the environment for which they are intended (i.e.: in situ application of the coating). It would also be desirable if methods existed which would allow for in situ application of the contamination resistant hydrophobic and/or oleophobic nanoparticle coating to selected areas only of these fabrics.

Papermaking fabrics with contaminant resistant nanoparticle coating and method of in situ application


Methods and systems for implementing a microprocessor with a selective register file bypass network are disclosed. Late bypasses are removed from a register file bypass network of a microprocessor design. One or more late bypasses are then added back to the register file bypass network based at least in part upon the results of analyzing a plurality of instructions that are to be processed in an instruction pipeline of the microprocessor. An electronic design for at least the register file bypass network is then generated with these one or more late bypasses that are added to the register file bypass network. Without incurring additional hardware or cost for the microprocessor design, one or more bypasses in the register file bypass network may be optionally shared among multiple free-riders, and an entire port stage may also be optionally bypassed to another port stage based upon one or more criteria.

The instruction set architecture (ISA) of a microprocessor usually defines registers that correspond to entries in a register file and are used to stage data between various memory modules and functional modules of the microprocessor. Modern microprocessors may include a register bypass network that provides additional data paths to, for example, forward results that have not been committed or to eliminate data hazards in the pipelines. Some conventional microprocessor designs use a full bypass network such that a piece of data generated in a specific cycle from a register file write port becomes available at one or more register file read ports in the next cycle and thus may result in a reduced number of read-after-write stalls between instructions that write to a register and a subsequent instruction that reads the same register. Although a full bypass network may reduce the number of clock cycles when executing the same program, a full bypass network may exhibit several disadvantages when compared to a partial bypass network. Therefore, there exists a need for a method, system, and computer program product for implementing a microprocessor with a selective register file bypass network.

Method, system, and computer program product for implementing a microprocessor with a customizable register file bypass network


A method for charging a battery module including a plurality of parallel-connected battery core sets is provided. In the present method, a constant charging current is provided for charging the battery module first. Then, the voltage of each parallel-connected battery core set in the battery module is determined whether reaches a nominal voltage. If it reaches the nominal voltage, the charging current or charging voltage applied to the battery module is adjusted for charging the parallel-connected battery core set having the maximum voltage with a constant voltage. Finally, it is determined whether the electric power of the battery module is fulfilled. If not yet fulfilled, a constant voltage is continuously supplied to the battery module for charging until the electric power of the battery module is full. Accordingly, the present invention can charge the battery more quickly with taking the safety of the battery into account.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a charging method. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method for charging a battery module.
2. Description of Related Art
Along with increasing improvement of performance of processors, application programs, and drawing function, the electric power required by portable computers is gradually increased. In order to make the batteries reach the electric power requirement during the operation of the portable computers, usually the battery is designed to assemble a plurality of parallel-connected battery core sets in a battery module through serial connection, thereby gathering enough electric power for the portable computers.
With the increment of battery capacity, how to quickly and safely charge batteries has become an important issue for the manufacturers. Due to the special design of the battery module, the electric power varies at different time points or in different charging environments, so many corresponding charging methods are developed directed to the characteristics of the battery module.
In ROC patent No. 250,713, a power source management circuit is provided for controlling charging parameters supplied to a battery. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a conventional power source management circuit. As shown in the figure, the power management circuit 100 includes a power control circuit 110, a control signal generating circuit 120, and a current control circuit 130. The power control circuit 110 is used to supply a power control signal representing the output power level of the DC power source, and the control signal generating circuit 120 reduces the charging parameters supplied to the battery when the power output level exceeds a predetermined power threshold level. In addition, the current control circuit 130 supplies a current control signal representing the output level of the DC power source current. The control signal generating circuit 120 further compares the current control signal with the current threshold signal representing the current threshold level. When the current output level exceeds the current threshold level, the control signal generating circuit 120 further reduces the charging parameters supplied to the battery. It is known from the above that in the conventional art, when the electric power variation during the charging of the battery reaches a current threshold level, the electric power supplied to the battery charging is decreased.
FIG. 2 is a schematic view of a conventional battery charging state. Referring to FIG. 2, the charging method can be divided into two stages. In the first stage (t=0−t1), a constant current charging is adopted, and a charging curve 210 represents the variation of voltage VPC of the battery module. When the voltage VPC of the battery module reaches a voltage Vinc supplied by the charger, a second stage is entered (t=t1−t2), and a constant voltage charging is used instead until the battery module is full (t=t2). In the method, the overall voltage of the battery module is charged, and the charging voltage supplied to each of the parallel-connected battery core sets cannot be adjusted according to the charging state thereof, such that the battery module may still be charged even when the voltage of the parallel-connected battery core set exceeds a safety value. Thus, not only the life of the parallel-connected battery core set is reduced, but also the battery is in danger of being overcharged.
FIG. 3 is a schematic view of a conventional battery charging state. Referring to FIG. 3, the difference from the previous method is that in the charging method, the voltage of each parallel-connected battery core set in the battery module is respectively measured, and the charging type of the overall battery module is adjusted according to the maximum value of the measured voltage. More particularly, in the first stage (t=0−t1) of this method, a constant current charging is also adopted, in which a curve 310 represents the variation of the maximum voltage Vemax of each parallel-connected battery core set in the battery module, and a curve 320 represents the variation of the minimum voltage Vemin of each parallel-connected battery core set in the battery module. When the voltage Vemax of the parallel-connected battery core set reaches a nominal voltage Vcoff endured by the parallel-connected battery core set, the electric power supplied by the charger is turned off. Here, the voltage Vemax of the parallel-connected battery core set starts to decrease. Until the voltage Vemax of the parallel-connected battery core set decreases to a voltage lower limit Vcon of the parallel-connected battery core set, the electric power supplied by the charger is turned on to increase the voltage Vemax of the parallel-connected battery core set. When the voltage Vemax of the parallel-connected battery core set reaches a nominal voltage Vcoff, the power supply is turned off. The charger is opened and closed repeatedly until all the parallel-connected battery core sets of the battery module are full. In a second stage (t=t1−t2), the magnitude of the charging current is determined according to the variation of the minimum voltage Vemin of each parallel-connected battery core set in the battery module. When the minimum voltage Vemin of the parallel-connected battery core set exceeds a voltage Vincc supplied from the charger to the parallel-connected battery core set, the second stage is entered, and the magnitude of the charging current is reduced gradually. Similarly, with the variation of the voltage Vemax of the parallel-connected battery core set, the power is discontinuously supplied until the battery is full (t=t2). By adopting the above method, although a single parallel-connected battery core set can be prevented from being overcharged, it takes a long time to fulfill the electric power of the battery module with the discontinuous supply of the power source, and the frequent charging and discharging of the battery may shorten the service life of the battery, which is not the optimal charging method.


The subject invention provides a system and/or method that facilitates encoding a source image associated with a motion vector by employing at least one step image, wherein such step image provides a reduction in the amount of stored video. A step image component determines the maximum step image size and appropriate number of step images to simulate a smooth motion based upon an input component receiving data such as, but not limited to, a motion parameter and a computer environment parameter. Moreover, the step image component can utilize a motion controller component that facilitates the visual perception of smooth video during a zoom motion. Additionally, the step image component can utilize an encoder component providing specialized techniques in encoding with step images.

There is an increasing use of digital photography based upon the decrease in size and cost of digital cameras as well as concurrent increases in availability, usability, and resolution capabilities. Manufacturers and the like have continuously strived to provide smaller electronics in order to satisfy consumer demand, associated with carrying, storing, and using electronic devices. Thus, digital photography has demonstrated growth and has proven to be a profitable market for both electronics and software.
A user first experiences the overwhelming benefits of digital photography upon capturing a digital image. While conventional print photography forces the photographer to wait until development of expensive film to view a print, a digital image in digital photography can be viewed within seconds by utilizing a thumbnail image and/or viewing port on a digital camera. Additionally, images can be deleted or saved based upon user preference, thereby allowing economical use of limited image storage space. In general, digital photography provides a more efficient experience in photography.
Furthermore, editing techniques available for a digital image are vast and numerous with limitations being only the editor's imagination. For example, a digital image can be edited using techniques such as crop, resize, blur, sharpen, contrast, brightness, gamma, transparency, rotate, emboss, texture, draw tools (e.g., fill or pen, add circles, boxes), insert text, etc. In contrast, conventional print photography merely enables the developer to control developing variables such as exposure time, light strength, type of light-sensitive paper, and various light filters. Moreover, such conventional print photography techniques are expensive whereas digital photography software is becoming more common on computers.
In addition to advantages relating to digital photography with respect to image capturing and developing, digital photography facilitates sharing of the taken images. Once captured, images being shared with another can accompany a story (e.g., a verbal narration) and/or physical presentation of such images. Regarding conventional print photographs, sharing options are limited to picture albums, which entail a variety of complications involving organization, storage, and accessibility. Moreover, physical presence of the album is necessary to share print photographs with another.
In view of the above benefits associated with digital photography and traditional deficiencies of print photography, digital images and digital albums correcting such deficiencies have increasingly replaced conventional print photographs and albums. In particular, image-based video provides a convenient and efficient technique for sharing digital images. Image-based video is a slide show of images with motion (e.g., panning, zooming, cross-fading, . . . ) applied to still images. An effect of utilizing image-based video is an enhanced motion video experience that enables details of high-resolution images to be better viewed on a TV screen and/or computer monitor. For example, resolution of a picture taken by a typical 3 MegaPixel digital still camera is about 2000×1500 pixels whereas resolution of a typical computer monitor is 1024×768 pixels. However, with the growing demand of consumers, high-end digital still cameras can provide pictures with much higher resolutions.
Information regarding the image-based video must be saved (e.g., during a creation process and/or at a conclusion) to a file for future playback. In one storage technique, each frame of the video is saved as a picture. However, this technique requires a substantial amount of storage space and CPU (e.g., processor) time in which information relating to the motion can be lost. In yet another more efficient storage technique, a source image and motion vectors associated with an image are encoded (e.g., the source images are encoded to provide better compression). Next, at rendering (e.g., playback) time, each encoded source image and its encoded motion vectors are decoded, allowing the generation of the output video frames.
When creating image-based video, substantial motions (e.g., panning, zooming, cross-fading, etc.) can create various problems in areas such as presentation, resolution, resolution, memory and/or processor capabilities. In any computing environment, hardware and associated components are limited; therefore efficient use is crucial to overall user experience. Substantial panning and/or zooming require a substantial portion of a source image to be encoded in video to enable display of source image content with high fidelity. For example, the size of a high-resolution source image can be m×n in pixels and a motion can be a zoom that alters a view of the source image from the entire image (m×n) to an m/8×n/8 area of such source image. Thereafter, a resulting video can be produced in p×q pixels resolution where m>p>m/8 and n>q>n/8. When fully zoomed, the picture portion of the size m/8×n/8 pixels is displayed, ideally, in the highest fidelity. In order to maintain fidelity, the entire image m×n pixels must be stored.
Based on the previous example, several problems arise during image-based video. Encoding of such a high-resolution source image requires decoding of the source image, which is time consuming to both a user and processor. Once decoded, an uncompressed image requires a substantial amount of memory to adequately store such image. In addition, each frame generated from the source image needs resizing-increasing the processor usage during resizing and rendering. The larger the source image, the higher is the CPU usage during resizing. Furthermore, a typical video system displays at a rate of 30 frames per second, allowing approximately 33 milliseconds for decoding a source image, resizing and rendering each frame to be displayed. If a system does not generate and render a frame within the allotted 33 milliseconds, motion of the video becomes choppy and viewing pleasure is deteriorated. Although processor speeds continue to increase, typical consumer processors and computing environments easily consume over 33 milliseconds when the source image is of high resolution.
In view of the above, there is a need to improve upon and/or provide systems and/or methods relating to image-based video that facilitates encoding a source image associated with a motion vector.

Creation of image based video using step-images


A method, system, computer medium, and other embodiments for integrating unrelated web services with stand-alone media-based devices are provided. Users can access and control the media-based device conveniently with a web-browser through various portals on the Internet. In an embodiment directed to a single web session, users program the media-based device by clicking on one or more hyperlinks or hypertexts in the form of advertisements of upcoming broadcasts. The advertisements may be web-hosted or sponsored by web portals.

Conventional techniques provide for control input of a media-based device or appliance either directly or with a short-ranged remote controller. For example, typically the media-based device may be directly programmed using the control panel disposed on the device itself or with a remote controller (i.e., typically handheld) in communication with the media-based device. The hand-held remote controller provides control input from short-ranged distances about the device usually by direct hardwired extension cable, or by some wireless medium, such as for example, infrared and radio frequency. While these conventional techniques work well for those situations where the user is physically located within the vicinity (e.g., typically in the same room as the media-based) of the device, they do not address the situation where the user is at a different physical location and is thereby unable to access the device at such short-ranges. Recent developments have been made to overcome the drawbacks associated with these conventional approaches by enabling the programming and control of media-based devices or appliances over a network, like the Internet. Access to the media-based devices and appliances over the Internet is beneficial because it is convenient and can scale easily to large numbers of media-based devices. However, the technology remains mutually exclusive with respect to those value-added services provided by ancillary parties to promote the content received by the media-based device. For example, one type of value-added service comprises television and cable programming advertisement for upcoming programs to be aired. The broadcast of such advertisements (ads) have traditionally remained under the control of the broadcasters of the content (e.g., cable programming broadcasters, television broadcasters). Advertisers would benefit if they could operate outside of the confines of the broadcasters, such as on the Internet, thereby generating increased reach to targeted audiences.
Advertisers have conventionally strived to ensure that the targeted audience is watching their advertisements. Television advertisers spend large amounts of money airing advertisements for upcoming television and cable broadcasts. With the popularity of the Internet increasing, advertisers have pursued the Internet as a medium in which to target their ads for the promotion of upcoming to-be-aired broadcasts, thereby expanding the traditional mediums of advertisement beyond paper program guides and on-air advertising. With the Internet, for example, when viewing a web page, a user enters a URL of the web page or clicks on a link to the web page. The web page itself is fetched from the web server, and the ad appears as content on the web page announcing the upcoming programming to be broadcast. To be effective, consumers who see these ads must take note and watch the upcoming broadcast. Those consumers who want to record the upcoming broadcast must either manually program their media-based device like a digital video recorder (i.e., personal video recorders) either directly or remotely online. The logistics of doing so are problematic because it is cumbersome for the consumer to have to recall the ad for the upcoming program to be aired and then take several steps to program the digital video recorder. It would be desirable if the ad on the website were associated with the consumer's digital video recorder, so that the user could automatically program the digital video recorder at the same time as of viewing the ad on the Internet.
Furthermore, the parties associated with facilitating the online advertisements of television programming and the online access and control of a digital video recorders are typically separate entities having revenue deriving models that conventionally are not well-integrated with each other. Television advertisers derive revenue from the subscriptions for advertisements promoting the upcoming programs to be broadcast. On the other hand, providers of services for accessing and controlling a digital video recorder on the Internet derive revenue through business models that measure the use of the online access or that apply a fixed fee for using the online services. It would be ideal if the two service providers could partner together to leverage revenue from Internet advertisements of television and cable programming and the online access to controlling a digital video recorder. It would be desirable if such partnering could generate ancillary revenue streams.


A graphical profile map for integrated circuits on a substrate. The graphical profile map includes a depiction of die placement boundaries and shot placement boundaries for the integrated circuits on the substrate. Also included are integrated circuit property information contours, where the contours are not limited to either of the die placement boundaries or the shot placement boundaries. In this manner, three key pieces of information for the integrated circuits are presented, including integrated circuit property information, die placement, and shot placement. Because these three pieces of information are presented in a graphical form, it is much easier to interpret the information. For example, it is much easier to determine which shot and die placements have properties that are at risk, and which shot and die placements have adequate property profiles.

The processes by which integrated circuit are fabricated are extremely complex. For the present purposes, integrated circuits include devices such as those formed on monolithic semiconducting substrates, such as group IV materials like silicon or germanium or mixtures of such, or group III-V compounds such as gallium arsenide. Because the processes are so complex, there are an extreme number of variables that can effect the final outcome of a process, even when measured against a criterion as generalized as "pass" or "fail."
For this reason, engineers attempt to limit the variability of as many processing parameters as possible, and then attempt to strictly monitor and control the dramatically fewer in number parameters which may need to be modified from time to time. Typically, the various dependent parameters that change in value with a given process are carefully monitored, and may even be charted, such as on a statistical process control chart, so that the engineer can more readily determine whether one or more of the myriad independent parameters on which the process depends has shifted or otherwise gone out of control.
Semiconductor manufactures make integrated circuits by placing repeated patterns of devices on the substrates. The patterned devices are typically rectangular, and are generally disposed in a rectilinear array on a circular substrate. How the device array is placed on the substrate tends to effect the number of whole devices that can fit on the substrate, which in turn effects the total possible number of devices that can be obtained from that substrate. Thus, obtaining a maximum number of whole devices on a substrate is one consideration in deciding how to place the device array on the substrate. However, there are often other things to be considered when deciding how to place the device array on the substrate, such as the number of exposure fields that are required to produce the device array, which in turn effects lithography cell throughput, and what portions of the substrate tend to produce a higher yield or other properties than other portions, which also effects the total device yield of the substrate.
There are at least two problems inherent in the process described above. The first problem is to determine the placement of the devices so as to optimize a given integrated circuit property. The second problem is to determine an overall optimum layout that considers the tradeoffs between the various competing properties that may be dependent on the layout of the devices, but which typically do not have the same optimum layout.
What is needed, therefore, is a system for calculating and displaying an optimum device layout when multiple optimization factors are considered.


A folding game board is provided which consists of a unitary thin plastic member divided into segments by at least one pair of parallel grooves having nadirs separated by a zenith. Each folding segment has one or more ridges on its face, preferably at least two of them in non-parallel planes perpendicular to the face, and a main body or segment of the board having corresponding ridges defining surfaces in non-parallel planes perpendicular to the face, non-parallel planes being aligned so that the mating ridge surfaces provide a frictional interface therebetween when the segments are folded at the nadirs into juxtaposition with the main body of the board. Preferably, one of the nadirs will be shallower than the other of the nadirs so as to increase the force exerted by the folding junction to maximize the frictional normal force. In its preferred embodiment, the game board will be square and the folds will define equal right isosceles corners about the square which symmetrically fold toward the center of the square.

This invention relates generally to board games and more particularly concerns game boards which fold from a playing configuration to a smaller storage configuration.
Presently known folding game boards typically consist of a plurality of cardboard panels which fold along paper seams connecting the panels together. Particularly with respect to games played by younger children, the forces exerted on the panels eventually result in the separation of the seaming material from the board or the tearing of the material along the seam. Even in the exercise of careful use of a board, repetitive folding and unfolding causes the seaming material to crease and eventually to split a process which, once begun, results in rapid deterioration across the entire seam.
The use of a non-folding board is not a satisfactory solution to this problem since the box containing the game must then be two and even four times its otherwise necessary size in order to accommodate the board. This increases the cost of the game to the consumer as well as shelf space to both the consumer and the retailer.
It is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide a folding game board in which the folding edges of the board will not deteriorate as a result of repetitive folding and unfolding. A similar object of this invention is to provide a game board having folding edges which will not deteriorate or separate despite external forces applied to the board which reasonably exceed the forces normally anticipated in its use. Another object of this invention is to provide a folding game board which is of unitary or integral construction. A further object of this invention is to provide a folding game board made of a single piece of plastic. And it is an object of this invention to provide a folding game board which friction locks in its folded condition.


A system for dynamically adjusting an operation of a magnetostrictive position sensor is provided. The system includes a controller configured to receive an electrical signal from the magnetostrictive position sensor that includes a response pulse, identify factory calibration data that correlates initial recorded values of amplitudes of response pulses received from the magnetostrictive position sensor at different locations of a position magnet along a length of the magnetostrictive position sensor, identify an initial amplitude of the response pulse based on the factory calibration data, calculate a difference between the initial amplitude and an amplitude of the response pulse, determine if the difference is greater than a threshold value, and generate an alert in response to determining that the difference is greater than the threshold value.

The field of the disclosure relates to sensors, and more particularly, to magnetostriction sensors.
When a ferromagnetic material (e.g., iron, nickel, cobalt etc.) is subjected to an external magnetic field, the magnetic domains within the material align, creating internal stress that causes the shape or the dimension of the materials to change. This phenomenon is referred to as magnetostriction. Conversely, when a magnetostrictive material is subjected to a stress, it's magnetic properties will change. This is known as the Villari effect.
Another manifestation of magnetostriction is the Wiedemann effect. When a wire is subjected to a magnetic field orientation parallel to its length, and a current is passed through the wire, then the wire experiences torsion strain at the location where the magnetic field occurs. In magnetostriction sensors, the wire may be referred to as a waveguide.
FIG. 1 is simplified diagram of a magnetostriction sensor 100 as known in the art. Sensor 100 includes a sensor element head 102, a waveguide 104, and a position magnet 106. Waveguide 104 is protected by a sensing element protective tube 108. A magnetic field 110 is provided by position magnet 106. Position magnet 106 is attached to a moving portion of sensor 100 that is measured. Short pulses (e.g., 1-3 microseconds) of current are applied to waveguide 104, which may be referred to as interrogation pulses 112, which generate a moving magnetic field 114 that travels along waveguide 104. Due to the Wiedemann effect, torsion strain 116 (twist) is induced in waveguide 104 due to the interaction of magnetic field 114 cause by interrogation pulse 112 and magnetic field 110 caused by position magnet 106. Because the current is applied as a pulse, the twist travels along the wire at a known rate. The twist, or mechanical pulse, is detected by sensor head element 102, which may rely on the Villari effect to create a voltage pulse indicating receipt of the mechanical strain wave or in some cases, may rely on a piezo sensor attached to waveguide 104 to create the voltage pulse indicating receipt of the mechanical strain wave.
The time between the interrogation pulse and the detection of the mechanical pulse indicates the location of position magnet 106 along waveguide 104, and therefore, the position of the moving part being measured by sensor 100. The moving part being measured by sensor 100 may include a float position in a tank, an orientation of a valve, etc.
Magnetostrictive sensors provide absolute position information and, unlike incremental encoders, do not need to be re-homed when there is a loss of power. They can also use multiple position magnets with one waveguide, making them well-suited for applications that require position information for multiple components along the same axis, such as level sensors that measure the position of fluids that have different densities in the same tank.
Problems can arise, however, when magnetic field 110 generated by position magnet 106 degrades over time, which reduces the twist in waveguide 104 generated in response to interrogation pulse 112. Another problem can arise when the connection between waveguide 104 and sensor element head 102 (e.g., glue) degrades over time. Both these degrading effects reduce the signal returned to sensor element head 102, which ultimately renders sensor 100 unable to accurately detect the position of position magnet 106. The result is that sensor 100 may fail unexpectedly, which is undesirable. Thus, it is desirable to mitigate the risks associated with unexpected failures that may occur for magnetostrictive sensors and to dynamically compensate for changes in sensor 100 that may occur over time.

Dynamic compensation for magnetostrictive sensors


An elastic knitted fabric having a multilayer structure, made by binding separate front and back two-layer ground knitted fabrics together, wherein the above described two-layer ground knitted fabrics are bound together with only a bare string(s) of polyurethane based elastic fibers of 17 to 3000 decitexes.

Traditionally, usual yarns (yarns commonly used, such as a filament, false twist yarn or spun yarn) are often used as jointing yarns (binding yarns) for binding front and back faces together for three-dimensional structure knitted fabrics made using many types of weft knitting machines and warp knitting machines that have been proposed. These are mainly used for linings and the like of general materials and cloths, and have an effect of adding appropriate thermal insulation characteristics, but are poor in compressibility and compression recoverability.
Furthermore, a three-dimensional structure knitted fabric using a heat seal yarn as a binding yarn is known in the art, and examples of the three-dimensional structure knitted fabrics include a knitted fabric described in JP-A-4-240252. This knitted fabric is a mold product utilizing formability of the heat seal yarn, and is suitable for pressure forming such as heat press adequate for the formability, but has almost no compressibility and compression recoverability, and flattening resistance or the like under repeated loads is not considered.
Furthermore, for the example of a knitted fabric described in JP-A-7-316959, a circular corrugated knit using a connecting yarn in combination with a heat seal yarn and a highly crimped yarn is proposed. Use of polyurethane and the like in the connecting yarn is described in this publication. Furthermore, a three-dimensional knitted fabric using a binding yarn in combination with a heat seal yarn and a stretchable yarn (polyurethane based elastic fibers, etc.) is described in JP-A-2001-164444. They are to provide a cushioning property with the highly crimped yarn and the stretchable yarn and reduce flattening under repeated loads, but has a problem such that when the heat seal yarn is used in the connecting yarn, the low softening point of the heat seal yarn causes creases to occur in a substrate during dyeing processing and the like, the creases are not eliminated after finishing, and the heat seal yarn as a connecting yarn is heat-sealed to fix the front and back knitted fabrics, so that the knitted fabric as a whole has almost no stretchability, exhibits neither cushioning property nor flattening resistance by the effects of the highly crimped yarn and the stretchable yarn, is poor in compressibility and compression recoverability, and is flattened under repeated loads. Further, non-elastic fibers used in the connecting yarn and the ground knitted fabric are heat-sealed, so that the knitted fabric as a whole becomes rigid, and although finding some application for industrial materials, it is not suitable at all as a general material or sub-material worn by a person or used at a location close to a skin, and cannot be practically used in this field.
On the other hand, as a similar product, a three-layer structure knitted fabric manufactured by a double raschel machine, which is one type of warp knitted fabric, is commercially available. This knitted fabric uses a monofilament as a binding yarn. Use of the monofilament is intended for improving the cushioning property by means of its high degree of elasticity. However, this three-dimensional structure knitted fabric is rigid as a whole due to stiffness of the monofilament, and is therefore unsuitable as a fabric worn by a person as in the case described above.
JP-A-5-106146 describes a process of connecting one knitted fabric and the other knitted fabric with an elastic yarn, and using methods such as the increasing/decreasing of knitting courses achievable only by a flatbed knitting machine and partial knitting to knit a highly rugged and firm knitted fabric. However, the flatbed knitting machine has a rough gage, and therefore requires that several strings of yarn having a large size, for example bulky wool yarn or highly crimped thick synthetic fiber long finished yarn should be arranged for knitting, and the knitted fabric thus formed is a sweater or the like having rough stitches, and a dense and light knitted fabric desired in the present invention cannot be obtained. Furthermore, a stable shape cannot be retained even when the thickness of the binding yarn is increased because of the rough gage, and the warp and weft elongation balance of the knitted fabric is not satisfactory. Furthermore, the prior art has technological ideology of a method of three-dimensionally knitting a fabric along a silhouette of a human body, but has no concept of providing the knitted fabric itself with a three-dimensional structure having an air gap. Further, the flatbed knitting machine has a fatal problem such that a yarn feeding port travels to and fro along with a carriage, and a yarn is fed from the yarn feeding port and a knitting motion is repeated, but when an elastic yarn is knitted, the draw ratio varies along the width direction if using a bare string, thus making it impossible to obtain uniform stitches. Thus, it is common sense among those skilled in the art that no bare string is used, but so called a covering finished yarn with non-elastic fibers previously wound around a bare string of elastic yarn is used.
Furthermore, EP Patent Publication No. 431984 describes a knitted fabric for cloths allowing water in the body to be easily transpired to outside, having two knitted fabrics connected together with an elastic yarn, with the back face constituted by water repellent fibers alone and the front face constituted by water absorptive fibers and a platting-knitted elastic yarn. The purpose of using an elastic yarn for the front knitted fabric is to make stitches of the front knitted fabric denser to prevent the entrance of the outside air into the knitted fabric, and the technique is different from the present invention in both technological challenge and purpose. In the knitted fabric having this configuration, curling tends to occur because the front face and the back face have different degrees of stretchability, but use of an elastic yarn for the back face to add stretchability is not acceptable in view of its purpose. Specifically, if the elastic yarn is used for the back face to make the stitches denser in this knitted fabric, water in the body cannot be transferred through the knitted fabric, thus making it impossible to transpire water to the outside. Therefore, in the knitted fabric having this configuration, occurrence of curling cannot be inhibited, and a trouble arises in forming the knitted fabric into a cloth.
Furthermore, traditionally, when a bare string of polyurethane based elastic fibers is knitted by a circular knitting machine, all spandex based elastic fibers on the knitting machine can be fed to the knitting machine only at a same rate due to machine-related restriction, and if different weaves are to be knitted with polyurethane based elastic fibers, they can be knitted only at the, feed speeds relatively close to each other. As a result, polyurethane based elastic fibers suffer yarn breakage due to excessive drawing and fault drawing from a package of fibers due to insufficient drawing when the fibers are knitted. Consequently, weave-related restriction is significant, and knitting conditions are limited, so that the knitted fabric becomes too dense, and adequate stretchability cannot be obtained.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Elastic knitting fabric having multilayer structure


A water aerating and dirt collecting device for an aquarium includes a pumping device having a paddle device for pumping and circulating the water contained within the aquarium, a receptacle having an entrance coupled to the pumping device for receiving the water from the pumping device and for agitating the water and for generating an eddy current, and a casing having an inlet port coupled to the receptacle for receiving a filtered dirt from the receptacle and having a mouth coupled to the pumping device for allowing an air in the casing to be drawn into the pumping device. The receptacle includes a tubular member for collecting the filtered dirt.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a water aerating and dirt collecting assembly for an aquarium, and more particularly to a water aerating and dirt collecting assembly for attaching to an aquarium and for suitably agitating the water and the carbon dioxide and for suitably supplying the carbon dioxide into the water contained within the container and for suitably filtering and collecting the dirt contained within the water of the container.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Typical aquarium facilities comprise a pump disposed in a chamber of a container for circulating the water contained within the container and for pumping fresh air or carbon dioxide into the container and thus for airing or aerating purposes.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,857,392 to Shyu discloses one of the typical aquarium pumping and airing apparatuses comprising a pump including a paddle device coupled to a rotor for being operated to pump and to circulate the water contained within the container.
However, the typical aquarium pumping and airing apparatus has no water aerating and dirt collecting assemblies for suitably separating and collecting the dirt contained within the container and the dirt may remain or may still be contained within the container and may not be removed from the container.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,011,748 to Tsai discloses another typical aerating and dirt collecting assembly for an aquarium and also comprising a paddle wheel for agitating the water and/or the air and for pumping the air and/or the carbon dioxide into the water of the container and for generating bubbles to collect the dirt or the protein or the like contained in the bubbles.
However, the carbon dioxide may not be suitably agitated and may not be suitably supplied into the water contained within the container.
The present invention has arisen to mitigate and/or obviate the afore-described disadvantages of the conventional water aerating and dirt collecting assemblies for aquarium facilities.

Water aerating and dirt collecting assembly for aquarium


The present invention relates to an automotive cable holding system for securing a vehicle body to a cable which is connected at one end to a locking mechanism for a rear seat backrest and at the other end to a releasing mechanism. The automotive cable holding system includes a bracket for holding an end of the cable and an insertion opening in the vehicle body into which the bracket is inserted, wherein the bracket has provided thereon abutment surfaces which abut the inner circumferential surfaces of the insertion opening, an engagement portion extending further outwards than the abutment surfaces at a position lying further inwards than the insertion opening inside the vehicle body and a clip portion disposed on the opposite side to the engagement portion inside the vehicle body.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an automotive cable holding system for holding a cable of a vehicle on to a vehicle body, and more particularly to an automotive cable holding system for holding a cable provided between a locking mechanism for a backrest of a rear seat and a manipulator unit for manipulating the locking mechanism to release the locking by the locking mechanism.
2. Related Art
As a conventional cable holding system, there is known a cable holding system in which a manipulator unit provided at one end portion of a cable is mounted on a vehicle body by pins (for example, see JP-A-10-86716).
In the cable holding system referred to above, however, the positioning of the manipulator unit relative to the vehicle body becomes necessary when mounting the manipulator unit on the vehicle body by the pins. When attempting to mount the manipulator unit on a lower side of a rear parcel shelf, for example, the fastening work using pins was difficult. In addition, the manipulator unit needs to be mounted strongly and firmly enough to resist a force with which the cable is pulled, and this tended to easily increase the number of man hours for mounting.
Therefore, the invention was made to provide an automotive cable holding system which can facilitate the mounting of the manipulator unit on the vehicle body and sufficiently bears the force with which the cable is pulled.


In a system for controlling an automatic transmission, at the time of ultra-low temperature start with the oil temperature of −20° C. or less, control is carried out such that when the state that the actual line pressure is equal to or greater than an ultra-low set value continues for a period longer than a line-pressure low-pressure control command set time, it is determined that the line pressure is under regulation, maximizing an indicated value of the line pressure.

The present invention relates to a control system for an automatic transmission, which is suitable, particularly, for start control of a V-belt type continuously variable transmission (CVT) at an ultra-low temperature.
In motor vehicles including an automatic transmission, a hydraulic system for transmission forms a drive load on a starter motor at engine start. At an ultra-low temperature of −20to −40° C., particularly, the oil viscosity is higher to increase the resistance of the whole hydraulic system, decreasing cranking rotational speed, leading to degradation of the engine start-ability.
In order to prevent such inconvenience, a typical control system for automatic transmission sets provisionally an indicated value of the line pressure at a minimum when a detected oil temperature is low at engine start, reducing a drive load on an oil pump, thus enhancing the engine start-ability. And when selecting a drive range during the minimum line-pressure control, the indicated value of the line pressure is set at a maximum as soon as the engine speed reaches a predetermined value, increasing the line pressure in a stroke, supplying the hydraulic pressure to engagement elements.
The maximum value of the line pressure is created by draining or reducing the source pressure of the oil pump to a "design maximum value" through a pressure regulating valve. The typical control system, which aims to enhance only the engine start-ability at the time of ultra-low temperature start, sets an indicated value of the line pressure at a maximum as soon as the engine speed reaches a predetermined value, having possible occurrence that the indicated value reaches a maximum before regulating the line pressure.
In that case, since the pressure regulating valve has a drain port closed before regulating the line pressure, and is not supplied with the hydraulic pressure enough to reduce the source pressure to the "design maximum value", the engagement elements of the transmission undergo a greater pressure than the "design maximum value". That is, an overshoot of the line pressure becomes greater with respect to the "design maximum value".
Typically, the strength of the engagement elements of the transmission, particularly, pulleys of the V-belt type transmission, is designed to have the "design maximum value" as an upper limit. Thus, when undergoing a greater pressure than the "design maximum value", the pulleys suffer deterioration of the durability.

System and method of controlling automatic transmission


A method and system for performing streaming of character-based data is disclosed. The method and system include fetching a block of data and converting at least a portion of the block of the data into at least a part of a character. The character-based data includes the block of the data. The method and system also include retaining a remaining part of the block, if any. The remaining part corresponds to at least a portion of a character. The method and system also include converting the remaining part into at least the portion of the character in a next conversion if the next conversion includes the character.

Data streaming allows data to be obtained from storage on an as needed basis. In data streaming, data is requested from the storage system, for example a file or database system. Chunks of data are obtained sequentially until the request is fulfilled. Typically, each chunk of data in the sequence includes a specified number of bytes. Thus, conventional data streaming typically fetches equal-sized chunks of data in order until sufficient data has been obtained to fulfill the request.
Character-based data includes encoded data used to represent characters. For example, the character-based data may be stored in mixed-byte encoding. Mixed byte encoding utilizes a varying number of bytes to encode each character. However, other encoding schemes may be used. Such encoding schemes may vary the number of bytes use to encode a character or may used a fixed number of bytes to encode a character. Character-based data can be converted into characters, for example text.
Data streaming may be desired for character-based data. FIG. 1 depicts a conventional method 10 for performing streaming of character-based data that may be encoded using an encoding having a variable number of bytes per character, such as in mixed-byte encoding. FIG. 2 depicts a conventional system 30 for performing streaming of character-based data. The system 30 includes an input stream reader 32, a client 34, and a storage system 40 used to store the data. Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, a request for character-based data is provided to the input stream reader 32 from the client 34, via step 12. The request is from a user and is, therefore, typically for a fixed number of characters. Thus, for mixed-byte encoding, requests for the same number of characters may vary in length based upon the number of bytes used to represent the characters.
The input stream reader 32 fetches from the storage system 40 a sufficient amount of character-based data to satisfy the request, via step 14. The input stream reader 32 converts the character-based data that has been fetched into characters, via step 16. The number of characters sufficient to fulfill the request is provided to the client 34, via step 18. Thus, the fixed number of characters is output in step 18. Any remaining data is discarded, via step 20.
Although the conventional method 10 and system 30 function, one of ordinary skill in the art will readily recognize that the method 10 and system 30 are inefficient. As discussed above, the request is for a fixed number of characters. However, for encoding schemes such as mixed-byte encoding, the same number of characters may correspond to differing numbers of bytes of character-based data. The exact amount of character-based data for the fixed number of characters in a particular request is unknown. As a result, the sufficient amount of data to satisfy any request, not just the request at hand, is fetched in step 14. Thus, a large amount of data, for example an entire document, is typically fetched in step 14. However, the request may be only for a small portion of the document. Consequently, a large amount of data may be unnecessarily fetched, converted, and then discarded. The method 10 and system 30 are, therefore, inefficient.
Other conventional methods for performing character-based data streaming may function as conventional data streaming. In such conventional methods, a request is made and a fixed number of bytes is fetched and converted using the converter (input stream reader) 32. This process is repeated, fetching and converting sequential chunks of data, until the request is fulfilled. However, such a conventional method may not be capable of handling encoding schemes in which the number of bytes per character varies, such as mixed-byte encoding. This is because a chunk of the character-based data may not correspond to a whole number of characters.
Accordingly, what is needed is a method and system for performing streaming of character-based data that is more efficient and capable of utilizing encoding schemes having a variable number of bytes per character. The present invention addresses such a need.

Method and system for performing character-based streaming of mixed-byte encoded data

International Business Machines Corporation


A computing system includes a processor, a memory, and a wireless communication interface. At least one gas sensor is electrically coupled to the computing system and is configured to detect gas in an atmosphere. At least one temperature sensor is electrically coupled to the computing system and is configured to detect a level of temperature within the atmosphere. At least one motion sensor is electrically coupled to the computing system. The processor activates the at least one motion sensor when at least one of the at least one gas sensor detects a gas in the atmosphere and the at least one temperature sensor detects a temperature higher than a threshold temperature. The processor sends a notification to a remote computer via the wireless communication interface if the at least one motion sensor fails to detect a motion within a threshold period of time.

The present invention relates to stoves and, more particularly, to a notification device for gas leaks and unintentionally leaving a stove burner on.
Fuels such as propane and natural gas are commonly used in a variety of appliances such as e.g., stoves, ovens, dryers, and water heaters. Typically, such appliances are connected to a gas supply that may have hook-ups available at one or more locations within a dwelling or other structure. To enhance safety, it is desirable to determine whether any such appliance is leaking gas.
One of the most common ways fires start in residential homes is when the occupant leaves the building and forgets to turn off the stove. When left unattended, the heat generated by the burners melt the stove top and subsequently implode. In so doing, the areas surrounding the stove, such as wooden cabinets and kitchen utensils, catch fire and spread the conflagration.
As can be seen, there is a need for a notification device for gas leaks and unintentionally leaving a stone burner on.


The ability to levitate, to separate, and to detect changes in density using diamagnetic particles suspended in solutions containing paramagnetic cations using an inhomogeneous magnetic field is described. The major advantages of this separation device are that: i) it is a simple apparatus that does not require electric power (a set of permanent magnets and gravity are sufficient for the diamagnetic separation and collection system to work); ii) it is compatible with simple optical detection (provided that transparent materials are used to fabricate the containers/channels where separation occurs; iii) it is simple to collect the separated particles for further processing; iv) it does not require magnetic labeling of the particles/materials; and v) it is small, portable. The method and kits provided provide for separation and collection of materials of different densities, diagnostics for detection of analytes of interest, monitoring of solid-supported chemical reactions and determination of densities of solid and liquid mixtures.

Magnetic labels facilitate the separation and purification of chemical and biological samples. These labels are often superparamagnetic nano- or microspheres (e.g., Invitrogen's Dynabeads™), which can be covalently attached to most chemical and biological samples. For example, immunomagnetic separation employs antibodies—often monoclonal—bound to magnetic particles for the removal of prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells from suspension. Many techniques—including cell separation, free flow magnetophoresis, and immunoassays—have been developed for use in microfluidic devices for lab-on-a-chip technology. These magnetic labeling techniques have several limitations: i) the separations are binary: magnetic particles are separated from diamagnetic particles; ii) the labeling of a diamagnetic material requires a chemical reaction; iii) the presence of a magnetic particle attached to a diamagnetic material—specifically a cell, antibody, or protein—alters the functionality and properties of the surface of the material; and iv) the magnetic label must be removed after separation to obtain a pure diamagnetic sample.
In the last decade, the magnetic levitation of diamagnetic materials has become more accessible to standard laboratory facilities as the early experimental setup consisting of superconducting magnets (>10 T) and a pressurized oxygen atmosphere has been replaced by small rare-earth magnets and aqueous paramagnetic salt solutions. One of the characteristics of magnetic levitation is that there is only one position in a magnetic field in which an object is stably levitated. When a levitating object in magnetic fields is moved away from a position of equilibrium, a restoration force on the object returns it to equilibrium position. This stable point is determined by its volume magnetic susceptibility and density. Therefore, different substances levitated in the same magnetic field have different equilibrium positions of levitation and can thus be separated.
As an extension of levitation, diamagnetic traps have been developed to control, manipulate, and direct the positioning of cells and polymer microspheres suspended in solution. Magnetic field maxima can exist only at the source of the field and therefore stable trapping of materials having greater magnetic susceptibility than their environments occurs at the source of the field. Magnetic field minima can be achieved outside or spaced a distance from a magnetic field source. The magnetic minima have been used to levitate and confine biological materials and other diamagnetic materials. For example, in microfluidic systems, diamagnetic particles suspended in ferrofluid or an aqueous paramagnetic solution have been trapped and their trajectory manipulated while traversing the inhomogeneous magnetic fields.
Magnetic separations are used extensively in biomedicine, and other areas, usually in systems that separate magnetic particles (or magnetically-labeled particles) from diamagnetic media. Magnetic media has also been used to separate diamagnetic particles, with ferrofluids providing the largest magnetic response.
A variety of sensors are available for measuring densities of liquids and solids.
For liquids, floating bulb hydrometers estimate density values with accuracies of ±0.01 g/cm3. This method is simple, portable, and does not require electricity for measuring densities of large volumes of fluids (>10 mL). Pycnometers are more accurate (ρ=±0.001-0.0001 g/cm3), but lack portability. Pycnometers require accurate measurements of both mass and volume of the sample and, therefore, are highly dependent on the availability and accuracy of an analytical balance. It also requires milliliter volumes of fluid to obtain an accurate measurement of volume. Density measurements with accuracies of ±0.00001 g/cm3 can be obtained using oscillating-tube density meters. This technology uses a resonating glass or metal tube of fixed volume; the density of the liquid filling the tube can be determined through its relationship to the resonant frequency of the tube. These instruments cost several thousand dollars, but offer the desirable characteristics of portability (by using batteries as the source of energy), automation, high-throughput, and the ability to process volumes of 1-5 mL. Recently, Sparks and co-workers have developed a lab-on-a-chip version of this device that is capable of measuring density values of liquids using volumes as small as 0.5 μL.
Hydrostatic weighing is a common technique for measuring densities of solids. It relies on the Archimedes principle and requires an accurate measurement of both the mass of the solid and the volume of the liquid that it displaces on the hydrostatic balance. This technique is useful for relatively large solids that produce detectable changes in volume upon submersion. Pycnometers also can be used for measuring densities of solids. The weight of the solid is obtained using an analytical balance and the volume is carefully measured by the amount of liquid that the solid displaces within the pycnometer. Density-gradient columns are a standard and accurate method for measuring densities of solids—usually plastics—with non-uniform shapes and with sensitivities of ±0.0001 g/cm3. This method operates on observations of the level to which a sample sinks in a column of liquid containing a density gradient. The mass and volume of the sample does not need to be measured accurately. The method, however, is time consuming (several hours per measurement) and requires the use of expensive standards with known densities.

Density-based methods for separation of materials, monitoring of solid supported reactions and measuring densities of small liquid volumes and solids

President and Fellows of Harvard College