A portable instrument incorporates an electro-optical assembly for reading indicia during a reading mode, and for projecting a bit-mapped image during a display mode. A manually operable switch on the instrument is disposed for selecting one of the modes. The image is formed by pulsing a laser at selected times on selected scan lines.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a portable instrument for electro-optically reading indicia, such as a bar code symbol, a signature, or an object image of any object, and for selectively projecting a bit-mapped display image on a viewing surface.
2 . Description of the Related Art
Various optical scanning systems and readers have been developed heretofore for reading indicia such as bar code symbols appearing on a label or on the surface of an article. The bar code symbol itself is a pattern of graphic indicia comprised of a series of bars of various widths spaced apart from one another to bound spaces of various widths, the bars and spaces having different light reflecting characteristics. The readers function by electro-optically transforming the spatial pattern represented by the graphic indicia into a time-varying electrical signal, which is, in turn, decoded into data which represent the information or characters encoded in the indicia that are intended to be descriptive of the article or some characteristic thereof. Such data is typically represented in digital form and utilized as an input to a data processing system for applications in point-of-sale processing, inventory control, distribution, transportation and logistics, and the like.
A variety of scanning devices is known. The scanner could be a wand type reader, such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,508,504, herein incorporated by reference, including an emitter and a detector fixedly mounted in the wand, in which case the user manually moves the wand across the symbol. As the wand passes over the bar code symbol, the emitter and associated optics produce a light spot which impacts on the symbol, and the detector senses the light reflected back from the light spot passing over each symbol. Alternatively, an optical moving spot scanner scans a light beam, such as a laser beam, across the symbol; and a detector senses reflected light from the beam spot scanned across the symbol. In each case, the detector produces an analog scan signal representing the encoded information.
Moving spot scanners of this general type have been disclosed for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,387,297; No. 4,409,470; No. 4,760,248; No. 4,896,026; No. 5,015,833; No. 5,262,627; No. 5,504,316 and No. 5,625,483, all of which have been assigned to the same assignee as the instant application and each of which is hereby incorporated by reference. As disclosed in some of the above patents, one embodiment of such a scanning system resides, inter alia, in a hand held, portable laser scanning device supported by a user, which is configured to allow the user to aim the scanning head of the device, and more particularly, a light beam, at a targeted symbol to be read.
The light source in a laser scanner bar code reader is typically a semiconductor laser. The use of semiconductor devices as the light source is especially desirable because of their small size, low cost and low voltage requirements. The laser beam is optically modified, typically by an optical assembly, to form a beam spot of a certain size at the target distance. It is often preferred that the cross section of the beam spot measured in the scanning direction at the target distance be approximately the same as the minimum width in the scanning direction between regions of different light reflectivity, i.e., the bars and spaces of the symbol. Although typical readers utilize a single laser source, other bar code readers have been proposed with two or more light sources of different characteristics, e.g., different frequencies.
In the laser beam scanning systems known in the art, a single laser light beam is directed by a lens or other optical components along the light path toward that includes a bar code symbol on the surface. The moving-beam scanner operates by repetitively scanning the light beam in a line or series of lines across the symbol by means of motion of a scanning component, such as the light source itself or a mirror disposed in the path of the light beam. The scanning component may either sweep the beam spot across the symbol and trace a scan line across the pattern of the symbol, or scan a field of view of a photodetector, or do both. The laser beam may be moved by optical or opto-mechanical means to produce a scanning light beam. Such action may be performed by either deflecting the beam (such as by a moving optical element, such as a mirror) or moving the light source itself. U.S. Pat. No. 5,486,944 describes a scanning module in which a mirror is mounted on a flex element for reciprocal oscillation by electromagnetic actuation. U.S. Pat. No. 5,144,120 to Krichever, et al., describes laser, optical and sensor components mounted on a drive for repetitive reciprocating motion either about an axis or in a plane to effect scanning of the laser beam.
Because of the size and optical and electronic complexity of scanning systems and bar code readers, they generally have heretofore not been combined with other devices in the same housing. The conventional use of a liquid crystal display (LCD) on such readers occupies a large viewing area and limits any proposed reduction in size for a handheld system.
Also known is a laser pointer which is a device that projects a spot of light on a target, such as a presentation being made by a lecturer to an audience. The pointer is essentially a flashlight-type device and is usually packaged in a tubular housing.

Portable instrument for electro-optically reading indicia and for projecting a bit-mapped image


A driver warning device which serves to warn the driver when a safety-critical condition of the vehicle is reached. A warning is issued only if such issuance is to take place in accordance with a user profile. This avoids unnecessary warnings from being issued to a driver, which could reduce the acceptance of the warning system on the part of the driver.

A method for warning a driver of a vehicle is described in German Patent Application No. DE 100 39 795 A1, where a critical situation is detected by vehicle sensors and the attentiveness of the driver is determined. A warning of the critical situation is issued as a function of the driver's attentiveness. This allows the driver to be warned in case of low attentiveness, whereas when he/she is highly attentive, he/she does not receive any warnings of dangers he/she has already perceived.


A window assembly includes an outer window panel, an inner window panel, a conductive layer disposed at an inner surface of the inner window panel, a spacer element, and a roller shade disposed within an interpane cavity established between the inner and outer window panels by the spacer element. The roller shade has an end fixedly attached at an anchor stop along a perimeter portion of the spacer element. A dielectric layer is disposed between the roller shade and the conductive layer. The roller shade is electrically deployable to coil and uncoil between a coiled light transmitting condition and an at least partially uncoiled light attenuating condition. The roller shade is electrically operable via applying a voltage at the transparent conductive layer and at the anchor stop to uncoil the roller shade from the coiled light transmitting condition to the at least partially uncoiled light attenuating condition.

It is known to provide a window assembly, such as for a vehicle, that includes a shade that is movable between an open position and a closed or shading position. Examples of such shades are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,645,977; 6,520,239; 7,083,226; 6,899,380; 6,513,864; and 6,520,239, which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.


A system, computer program product, and method for computing a correlation matrix with respect to massive of time-series is described where a threshold ε is specified. The correlations greater than ε do not need to be computed. A distance tree is constructed and used. The distance tree organizes the time-series by their correlation estimations. The correlation similarity is computed with MapReduce function by taking advantage of the distance tree. In an efficient MapReduce manner, there is a small I/O waste for overlapped partition. The load is balanced for uneven data distribution and there is early pruning for unnecessary computation. There is no reliance on dimensional reduction and no reliance on coordinates.

The present invention generally relates to computer analytics, and more specifically to computer analytics as applied to time-series similarity computation with large volumes of data.
The increasing instrumentation of physical and computing processes has given us unprecedented capabilities to collect massive volumes of time-series data. Examples of mass volumes of data being collected are data center management, environmental monitoring, financial engineering, scientific experiments, and mobile asset tracking.
Time-series correlation is one of the most important analytics job. For example, application performance management (APM) software monitors a cluster of servers typically computes the correlations of the metrics of computational resources (e.g. processor rate, memory usage) among all the servers.
Techniques used for massively time-series correlation similarity calculations include brute force techniques. This approach does not scale economically. It requires a large amount of computational resources for large datasets. Another technique is Fast Approximate Correlation. However, this technique does not work well in distributing computing environments. Still another technique is parallel top-K similarity join algorithms using MapReduce. However this technique finds only the top-k correlations.
Furthermore, challenges with current solutions for large time-series correlation similarity computation includes I/O (input/out) of a computing node being wasted for MapReduce functions that use overlapping partitions. Other current solutions rely on dimensional reduction. Many times the time-series dataset is not suitable for the dimensional reduction. Further, these depend on the Euclidean distance. This is a problem when the correlation metric only fulfills triangle inequality but is not based on the coordinates.

Massive time series correlation similarity computation

International Business Machines Corporation


A process and reactive prepolymer composition for producing a part made of a thermoplastic composite material by molding in a closed mold, where the material includes reinforcing fibers and a polyamide thermoplastic matrix impregnating the fibers having the steps of preparing the reactive prepolymer precursor, injecting the reactive prepolymer precursor in the molten state into the closed mold containing the fibers, thereby impregnating the fibers with the reactive precursor mixture, bulk polymerizing the reactive prepolymer precursor in situ, and demolding the molded part produced.

EP 0 261 020 describes the use of reactive semicrystalline prepolymers based on PA 6, 11 and 12 for the production of a thermoplastic composite by a pultrusion process. The prepolymers of aliphatic structure as described exhibit low Tg values and insufficient mechanical performance qualities under hot conditions.
EP 550 314 describes, among its examples, (nonreactive) copolyamide compositions in a search for melting temperatures (Tm) of greater than 250° C. and limited Tg values, with the majority of the examples cited having an excessively low Tg (<80° C.) or an excessively high Tm (>300° C.).
EP 1 988 113 describes a molding composition based on a 10 T/6 T copolyamide with:                40 to 95 mol % of 10 T        5 to 40 mol % of 6 T.
Polyamides with a high melting temperature of greater than 270° C. are targeted in particular. The examples mentioned and FIG. 1 in this document teach that the melting temperature of these compositions is at least approximately 280° C.
WO 2011/003973 describes compositions comprising from 50 to 95 mol % of a unit based on a linear aliphatic diamine comprising from 9 to 12 carbon atoms and on terephthalic acid and from 5% to 50% of unit combining terephthalic acid with a mixture of 2,2,4- and 2,4,4-trimethyhexanediamine.
US 2011/306718 describes a process for the pultrusion of reactive aliphatic polyamides having low Tg values in combination with chain extenders of polymeric structure bearing several (and many more than 2) anhydride or epoxide functions.
WO 2013/060976 describes a composite material process based on a reactive precursor composition comprising a reactive prepolymer with identical reactive functions and a non-polymeric chain extender bearing functions that react with the functions of said prepolymer via polyaddition.
WO 2014/064375 describes a reactive composition of semicrystalline polyamide prepolymer but in all the examples with a reactive precursor composition, the extending is carried out by an extender of different nature relative to a polyamide prepolymer.

Method for producing a fibre-reinforced polyamide matrix composite material from a reactive prepolymer precursor composition


A front cover (1) is engaged with a plate-like slide mounting bracket (3b), a liquid crystal panel (2) is fixed to the front cover (1) by a panel contact portion (31) of the slide mounting bracket (3b), and a back cover (5) is fixed to the front cover (1) through the plate-like slide mounting bracket (3b) by screwing a screw into a tapped hole (33). As a result, it is possible to narrow a width (b) which is obtained by subtracting a width of an overlap portion of the liquid crystal display panel (2) from a width (B) of a frame portion of the front cover (1) because no fixing boss for mounting the back cover (5) is required for the front cover (1). Consequently, the frame of the front cover (1) can be narrowed.

1. Field
One embodiment of the invention relates to a liquid crystal display apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
A liquid crystal display apparatus in which a frame is narrowed by using a side-mount structure is known as the prior art in this technical field. This liquid crystal display apparatus, for example, is described in the Japanese Patent Kokai No. 2005-241964.
The liquid crystal display apparatus described in the Japanese Patent Kokai No. 2005-241964 includes a front cover having screw insertion holes in its side surface, a frame having screw holes in its side surface, a liquid crystal panel which is held in a space portion provided in the frame and is fitted into an inner side of the front cover to be fixed to the front cover, and fixing screws which are inserted through the respective screw insertion holes of the front cover to be screwed into the respective screw holes of the frame, thereby fixing the front cover and the frame to each other. The frame is constructed without disposing the space portion and the screw holes on the same plane. Also, none of lengths of the fixing screws exerts an influence on a frame width of the front cover. As a result, the frame of the front cover can be narrowed.
However, according to the conventional liquid crystal display apparatus described above, since the frame has a shape covering the side surface of the liquid crystal panel, the shape of the frame exerts an influence on the frame width of the front cover. Thus, there is a limit to the narrowing of the frame of the front cover. In addition, there is encountered a problem that a thickness of the liquid crystal display apparatus increases because the space portion and the screw holes are not disposed on the same plane.

Liquid crystal display apparatus comprising a slide mounting bracket


A touch panel of the present invention in which a piezoelectric substrate is fixed to a movable plate or a supporting substrate has a reduced weight, size, and thickness by providing simpler wiring. The touch panel comprises: a movable plate having an input manipulation surface; a supporting substrate, disposed with a slight insulation gap from the movable plate, for supporting the movable plate from a back surface thereof; conductive layers on the movable plate and the supporting substrate on their respective opposing surfaces; and a piezoelectric substrate fixed to the movable plate or the supporting substrate. A pair of driving electrodes on the piezoelectric substrate are fixed to respective opposing surfaces of the piezoelectric substrate. A conductive layer electrode of the movable plate, a conductive layer electrode of the supporting substrate, and the pair of driving electrodes of the piezoelectric substrate are withdrawn integrally using a single connector tail.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wiring structure of a touch panel used in a touch-panel input device that gives a feeling of input manipulation to a manipulator who presses a movable plate, since the movable plate being pressed or a supporting substrate supporting the movable plate is allowed to vibrate. In particular, the present invention relates to a wiring structure of a touch panel that allows the movable plate or the supporting substrate to vibrate using a piezoelectric substrate.
2. Description of the Related Art
A touch panel is used in a touch-panel input device. The touch-panel input device is a device in which a movable plate and a supporting substrate are deposited with a slight insulation gap between conductive layers formed on their respective opposing surfaces. When the movable plate is pressed, the touch-panel input device electrically detects that the opposing conductive layers come in contact with each other at the pressed position and outputs the pressed position data to each processing device.
The touch-panel input device of this kind has a lamination structure in which the movable plate and the supporting substrate are deposited with a slight insulation gap in between. Hence, the pressing stroke of the movable plate is in an extremely small range from tens to hundreds microns, which makes it difficult to give a feeling of input manipulation to the manipulator. To eliminate this inconvenience, a force feedback type touch panel is adopted, in which the movable plate or the supporting substrate is allowed to vibrate when the movable plate is pressed, so that the manipulator has a feeling of input manipulation at his or her fingertip when pressing the movable plate.
The applicant of the present application filed earlier another patent application (Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-312399) describing the invention as follows, which is related to a touch panel that allows the movable plate or the supporting substrate to vibrate in such a manner that the manipulator can detect the vibration, using a simple driving circuit.
That is, the patent application of the previous invention discloses a touch-panel input device arranged in such a manner that a pair of driving electrodes is fixed to the respective opposing surfaces of the piezoelectric substrate, and the piezoelectric substrate is fixed to the movable plate or the supporting substrate directly or through the driving electrodes. Thus, upon detection of pressing on the input manipulation surface, the movable plate or the supporting substrate is allowed to vibrate by the piezoelectric substrate that expands and contracts in association with application of a driving voltage to the pair of driving electrodes.
The present invention relates to an improvement of the wiring structure of the touch panel of the previous invention described in the above patent application.
A touch panel comprises the movable plate on the back surface of which is formed a conductive layer and a supporting substrate on the top surface of which is formed a conductive layer with a slight wiring gap in between, and the piezoelectric substrate is fixed to the movable plate or the supporting substrate. For a touch panel having such a structure, it is necessary to withdraw a wiring to the movable plate and the supporting substrate and a driving wiring for the piezoelectric substrate.
When these wirings are withdrawn separately and connected to connectors, for example, when two piezoelectric substrates are provided on either end of the supporting substrate, three connectors are necessary in total; moreover, the wiring becomes complicated.
Accordingly, the weight and the size of the touch panel cannot be reduced sufficiently.
Also, neither the structure of merely sandwiching the piezoelectric substrate between the movable plate and the supporting substrate nor the method of fixing the piezoelectric substrate to the back surface of the supporting substrate can reduce the thickness of the touch panel sufficiently.


An electrical fuse circuit of the present invention includes a plurality of electrical fuse cores (1) each of which has an electrical fuse element (3) and a switch transistor (4) connected in series with each other, and shift registers (2) connected to the plurality of electrical fuse cores (1) to program the electrical fuse elements (3). Program enable signals (Si) are sequentially generated and transferred by the shift registers (2), the switch transistors (4) are sequentially brought into conduct according to the program enable signals (Si) and the information of program data (Di), and the electrical fuse elements (3) are blown one by one.

Conventionally, electrical fuse devices (electrical fuse circuits) are configured using electrical fuse elements made of polysilicon or the like and are widely used for semiconductor integrated circuits (LSI) of trimming program devices of high-frequency semiconductor devices. In semiconductor integrated circuits including such electrical fuse devices, electrical fuse elements are blown by applying a large current of about 1 A with bipolar transistors, so that programming is performed.
In recent years, for semiconductor integrated circuits, a process has been developed in which a metallic material is formed as a gate material on polysilicon by silicification and the resistance of the gate material is reduced. Accordingly, a technique for electrical fuse elements has become available. The technique uses a mechanism for cutting a silicide layer on a top surface and increasing a resistance by passing current through a gate material. In the case of 130-nm and 90-nm process generations, when electrical fuse elements are fed with current and blown, blowing requires an instantaneous carrying current of 10 to 30 mA for each electrical fuse element.
When such an electrical fuse device is used for a trimming device or the like of a high-frequency device, the number of mounted electrical fuse elements is not more than four to eight for one chip of a system LSI. Thus, the electrical fuse elements can be blown at a time using a tester.
The following will describe such a conventional electrical fuse device (for example, National Publication of International Patent Application No. 11-512879, page 31, FIG. 3) used for a semiconductor integrated circuit.
FIG. 9 is a circuit diagram showing a structural example of an electrical fuse device conventionally used for a semiconductor integrated circuit. In FIG. 9, reference numeral 31 denotes an electrical fuse element, reference numeral 32 denotes a PMOS transistor connected in series with the electrical fuse element 31, and reference numeral 33 denotes an NAND circuit having its output connected to the gate of the PMOS transistor.
The blowing operation of the electrical fuse device will be discussed below.
A program signal is inputted to the NAND circuit 33. When the PMOS 32 is turned on by the program signal, current is passed through the electrical fuse element 31 which has been program selected. The electrical fuse element 31 is formed of a fine pattern of silicide, polysilicon, or metal. The electrical fuse element 31 is heated and blown by a predetermined current and thus has a break and a higher resistance. The initial resistance of the electrical fuse element having not been programmed is read and a resistance of the electrical fuse element having been programmed with a high resistance is read, so that a signal state 0/1 can be recognized. The electrical fuse device can be obtained thus.
In recent years, as system LSIs have become larger in size, the number of installed memories increases. The more memories are installed, the number of defective memory cells increases. Further, the number of defective memory cells has been further increased by finer design rules. In order to repair defective memories, metal fuses are conventionally used for redundancy repair of RAM such as DRAM and SRAM.
However, electrical fuse elements for cutting silicide on poly have recently become available. Since such electrical fuse elements can be blown with a small current, elements surrounding the fuse elements are less affected and damaged and the circuit configuration of an electrical fuse device can be equal to or smaller than that of a metal fuse. Thus, such an electrical fuse device can be used for RAM redundancy as well as a trimming device of a high-frequency device and are growing in demand.
The number of electrical fuse elements mounted for RAM redundancy repair in a system LSI is 500 to 1000 for one chip. In the case of 130 nm and 90 nm process generations, when electrical fuse elements are brought into conduction and blown, blowing requires an instantaneous carrying current of 10 to 30 mA for each electrical fuse element. Hence, when such an electrical fuse device is used for RAM redundancy repair, programming for 1000 electrical fuse elements at a time requires an instantaneous carrying current of about 10 A.
However, it is difficult for an existing general-purpose tester to supply a current of 10 A according to the program and supply a current of 10 A concentratedly to an electrical fuse device in an LSI chip, so that a special tester is necessary.
Even in the case where 1000 electrical fuse circuit blocks are separately provided as an electrical fuse device and electrical fuse elements are blown one by one, a number of control terminals are necessary (one electrical fuse circuit block with four control terminals requires 4000 control terminals). Thus, such an electrical fuse device cannot be mounted in a system LSI. For this reason, such an electrical fuse device cannot be mounted for RAM redundancy repair in a system LSI.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


It is an object of the present invention to ensure readily communication between subgroups with reduced trouble to the user in the group communication in terms of subgroup formation and so on. A group communication server according to an embodiment of the present invention provides terminals with an intercommunication function between a plurality of terminals belonging to the same group, specifically a group communication function. The group communication server comprises a group information database for storing subgroup information that specifies terminals belonging to subgroups comprising a plurality of terminals of the terminals belonging to the group, and timing information that indicates a timing for establishing connection for intercommunication between the terminals belonging to these subgroups, and a group management unit and connection control unit which constitute control means for executing a control to establish connection between the terminals belonging to the subgroups specified by the subgroup information at a timing specified by the timing information stored in the group information database.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a group communication server for providing a group communication function to a terminal.
2. Related Background Art
An IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) represents a solution for actualizing a communication service performed by a conventional fixed phone, mobile communications and broadcasting and so on utilizing an IP (Internet Protocol). This is described in, for example, 3GPP TS 23.228, Technical Specification Group Services and System Aspects; IP Multimedia Subsystem. Using an IMS, audio telephones and TV telephones can be provided in an IP network.
Utilizing the IMS allows for intercommunication (so-called group communication) in a group configured from a plurality of terminals of, for example, audio telephones, TV telephones and telephone conferencing systems. A system in which intercommunication is performed in a group such as this and that allows for intercommunication between subgroups configured from several terminals only of the plurality of terminals from which the group is configured has been previously proposed. The content thereof is described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. H11-196029.


A nickel-base casting alloy for use in gas turbine components consists essentially of the composition (in weight percent): carbon 0.02-0.15, chromium 14-18, cobalt 8-12, aluminum 0.5-1.5, titanium 2.0-3.5, niobium 3.5-6.0, tantalum 1.0-2.0, tungsten 1.0-3.0, molybdenum 3.0-6.0, boron 0.002-0.05, zirconium 0.01-0.1, balance nickel and incidental impurities. The alloy is characterized by a volume fraction of gamma prime of about 32%, an ultimate tensile strength in the range 990-1010 MPa over the temperature range 550.degree.-750.degree. C., and a mean coefficient of linear thermal expansion in the range 11.5-15.0 alpha(*E-06/.degree.C.).

Cast nickel-base alloys and in particular the so-called nickel-base superalloys have been widely used in applications where resistance to high temperatures is required. Such applications are largely found in the hotter parts of gas turbine engines, in particular vanes and blades in aircraft engines. Superalloy castings have also been favoured for lower temperature (c. 600.degree. C.) applications for static structural parts such as casings, compressor and turbine exit guide vanes and bearing housings. For such applications, in addition to good creep resistance, weldability, fatigue resistance and low thermal expansion properties are required.
The compositions of such superalloys are chosen to meet specific engine requirements, and it is generally recognized that improvement in one property of a superalloy is usually at the expense of one or more other properties. For instance, it is difficult to make a nickel-base superalloy possessing good casting and welding properties whilst at the same time exhibiting high tensile strength and creep resistance.
Alloying elements in nickel-base superalloys have various roles, which may be summarised as follows.
Typically, nickel-base superalloys consist of the following phases:
1) Gamma matrix phase. This is typically high in nickel, chromium, cobalt, tungsten, and molybdenum. Rhenium and ruthenium may also be present in some applications. Nickel, cobalt, chromium, tungsten, molybdenum, and rhenium all affect the properties of the superalloy matrix.
2) Gamma prime precipitate strengthening phase. This is typically high in nickel, aluminum, titanium, niobium, tantalum, and vanadium. Some chromium and cobalt will be present. Hafnium will be present in the gamma prime phase in alloys that contain hafnium. The properties of the gamma prime phase are affected by the presence of these elements.
The gamma matrix is hardened by large, heavy, refractory elements (e.g. tungsten, molybdenum, rhenium) which distort the crystal structure--i.e. solid solution strengthening. The limits of addition of these elements is indicated by the onset of phase instability, where embrittling phases occur. This limit is predicted by a phase computation procedure which is known in the prior art whereby freedom from formation of embrittling phases is predicted if the composition has a low calculated value of the average electron vacancy number (Nv) of the matrix. Such refractory elements also slow down chemical diffusion which is beneficial for weldability and in controlling creep.
The gamma prime precipitate is hardened by the elemental content. The important feature of the precipitate is that it imparts strength to the matrix. The strength of the structure is a function of the amount of precipitate present, its size and shape distribution, and the stability of the structure in service. All of these factors are affected by the chemical balance.
Grain boundaries are strengthened by the presence of carbon, boron, hafnium and zirconium, and carbides such as those of chromium, tungsten, molybdenum, titanium, tantalum, niobium, vanadium, and hafnium.
It is desirable for good castability of a superalloy that it has a moderate freezing range of about 80.degree. C. to give low porosity. Low boron, zirconium, and carbon content gives hot tear and weld fissure resistance. A low carbide content during solidification gives low porosity.
Good weldability of a superalloy is indicated by a low aluminum/titanium ratio and low aluminum plus titanium total contents since this gives a low gamma prime volume fraction producing a weaker, more ductile alloy which is better able to accomodate the stresses produced during the weld thermal cycle. However, alloys of this nature are often weak and not suitable for higher performance turbine engine components.
Another approach is to employ precipitate strengthening elements (such as niobium) which have a low diffusivity in a low diffusivity matrix (i.e. containing refractory elements). This has been done in an alloy known in the prior art, IN718. This alloy, which is described in British Patent 2148323, has for a number of years been notably successful as a casting alloy used for many components in gas turbine engines. However, in order to operate designs at higher temperatures it is desirable to provide an alloy with higher temperature capability (IN718 is limited to about 650.degree. C.), higher strength and good weldability.
The benefit in strength over IN718 can be achieved by selecting a balanced chemistry (as described above) but it is necessary also to optimise the gamma prime volume fraction of the alloy such that weldability can be maintained. It is also necessary to optimise the gamma/gamma prime mismatch by controlling the refractory element content of the matrix/precipitate.
A low gamma/gamma prime mismatch leads to good precipitate stability and resistance to creep at high temperatures (greater than 800.degree. C.). However, for lower temperature operation a larger mismatch is preferred as strengthening is gained by the presence of large. coherency strains.
It is also known that a high chromium content limits the upper working temperature of the alloy, and this effect is usually counteracted by cobalt (as in the alloy IN939 which has a chromium content of 22% and a cobalt content of about 19%). It should be possible to gain a benefit in upper working temperature for an alloy by limiting the chromium content to about 16%, whilst still maintaining an adequate level of corrosion resistance.


In a ball lapping machine in which balls are machined by lapping between two lapping plates, namely a stationary plate and a turn table, the structure is arranged with a central shaft having a common center line with a sleeve rotative around the center shaft, a housing supporting the sleeve rotatively, a stationary plate on which the aforesaid central shaft is mounted, and the turn table on which the aforesaid sleeve is mounted. With such structure, the aforesaid center line is made inclinable at appropriate angles to the vertical.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improved ball lapping machine which performs ball lap machining between two lapping plates, a turn table and a stationary plate.
2. Related Background Art
The conventional ball lapping machine is such that balls are placed between the two lapping plates, rotary and stationary, for lap machining, and is structured in such a manner that only the rotary lapping plate (hereinafter referred to as turn table) is rotatively supported by a shaft while the stationary lapping plate (hereinafter referred to as stationary plate) is connected to the rod of a hydraulic cylinder. As disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open Application No. 54-164189, for example, the structure is arranged by providing the turn table 6 and stationary plate 5 oppositely so that the center lines can be horizontal (FIG. 3). In another example, disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Application No. 47-8599, there each of the lapping plates is arranged oppositely so that the center lines can be vertical (FIG. 4).
In either case, the supply, discharge, and circulation of the balls 7 are performed by a normal method such as shown in FIG. 5.
However, in the conventional ball lapping machines shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4, the structures are all arranged to support the turn table 6 and stationary plate 5 from the reverse side of each of the two discs. As a result, these plates are affected by the heat generated in the rotating spindle 42 and the temperature rise of lapping liquid, thus causing the concentricity of the grooves of the respective discs to vary as well as the variation of its parallelism to take place. This creates problems in ball lap machining and reduces the machining precision which results in the degraded sphericity of the finished balls, roughness of finish and the like. Then, the machining load exerted between the discs will also produce similarly adverse effects.
Also, in the embodiment with the horizontal shaft arrangement as shown in FIG. 3, ball stocks 7 are put in the grooves 5a and 6a of both discs at the time of initial setting, but the operation is difficult due to the fine adjustment required for the provision of the space between the discs. In addition, the same difficulty is encountered when the finished balls are drawn after the lap machining is completed. On the other hand, in the embodiment with the vertical shaft arrangement as shown in FIG. 4, there is no operational difficulty such as mentioned above, but abrasive particles and the like are accumulated in the groove of the disc on the lower said to create a problem in that scratches occur on the balls being machined. There is also a problem that it is difficult to circulate the balls smoothly during the lap machining.


Polycrystalline materials containing crystallies of precursors to electrically conductive polymers and electrically conductive polymers are described which have an adjustable high degree of crystallinity. The intersticial regions between the crystallites contains amorphous material containing precursors to electrically conductive polymers and/or electrically conductive polymers. The degree of crystallinity is achieved by preparing the materials under conditions which provide a high degree of mobility to the polymer molecules permitting them to associate with one another to form a crystalline state. This is preferable achieved by including additives, such as plasticizers and diluents, to the solution from which the polycrystalline material is formed. The morphology of the polycrystalline material is adjustable to modify the properties of the material such as the degree of crystallinity, crystal grain size, glass transition temperature, thermal coefficient of expansion and degree of electrical conductivity. High levels of electrical conductivity are achieved in the electrically conductive polycrystalline materials without stretch orienting the material. The enhanced electrical conductivity is isotropic as compared to a stretch oriented film which has isotropic electrical conductivity.

Electrically conductive organic polymers emerged in the 1970's as a new class of electronic materials. These materials have the potential of combining the electronic and magnetic properties of metals with the light weight, processing advantages, and physical and mechanical properties characteristic of conventional organic polymers. Examples of electrically conducting polymers arc polyparaphenylene vinylenes, polyparaphenylenes, polyanilines, polythiophenes, polyazines, polyfuranes, polythianaphthenes polypyrroles, polyselenophenes, poly-p-phenylene sulfides, polyacetylenes formed from soluble precursors, combinations thereof and blends thereof with other polymers and copolymers of the monomers thereof.
These polymers are conjugated systems which are made electrically conducting by doping. The doping reaction can involve an oxidation, a reduction, a protonation, an alkylation, etc. The non-doped or non-conducting form of the polymer is referred to herein as the precursor to the electrically conducting polymer. The doped or conducting form of the polymer is referred to herein as the conducting polymer.
Conducting polymers have potential for a large number of applications in such areas such as electrostatic charge/discharge (ESC/ESD) protection, electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding, resists, electroplating, corrosion protection of metals, and ultimately metal replacements, i.e. wiring, plastic microcircuits, conducting pastes for various interconnection technologies (solder alternative), etc. Many of the above applications especially those requiring high current capacity have not yet been realized because the conductivity of the processible conducting polymers is not yet adequate for such applications.
To date, polyacetylene exhibits the highest conductivity of all the conducting polymers. The reason for this is that polyacetylene can be synthesized in a highly crystalline form (crystallinity as high as 90% has been achieved) (as reported in Macromolecules, 25, 4106, 1992). This highly crystalline polyacetylene has a conductivity on the order of 105 S/cm. Although this conductivity is comparable to that of copper, polyacetylene is not technologically applicable because it is a non-soluble, non-processible, and environmentally unstable polymer.
The polyaniline class of conducting polymers has been shown to be probably the most suited of such materials for commercial applications. Great strides have been made in making the material quite processable. It is environmentally stable and allows chemical flexibility which in turn allows tailoring of its properties. Polyaniline coatings have been developed and commercialized for numerous applications. Devices and batteries have also been constructed with this material. However, the conductivity of this class of polymers is generally on the low end of the metallic regime. The conductivity is on the order of 100 S/cm. Some of the other soluble conducting polymers such as the polythiophenes, poly-para-phenylenevinylenes exhibit conductivity on the order of 102 S/cm. It is therefore desirable to increase the conductivity of the soluble/processible conducting polymers, in particular the polyaniline materials.
The conductivity (σ)is dependent on the number of carriers (n) set by the doping level, the charge on the carriers (q) and on the interchain and intrachain mobility (μ)of the carriers.σ=n q μ
Generally, n (the number of carriers) in these systems is maximized and thus, the conductivity is dependent on the mobility of the carriers. To achieve higher conductivity, the mobility in these systems needs to be increased. The mobility, in turn, depends on the morphology of the polymer. The intrachain mobility depends on tile degree of conjugation along the chain, presence of defects, and on the chain conformation. The interchain mobility depends on the interchain interactions, the interchain distance, the degree of crystallinity, etc. Increasing the crystallinity results in increased conductivity as exemplified by polyacetylene. To date, it has proven quite difficult to attain polyaniline in a highly crystalline state. Some crystallinity has been achieved by stretch orientation or mechanical deformation (A.G. MacDiarmid et al in Synth. Met. 55-57, 753). In these stretch-oriented systems, conductivity enhancements have been observed. The conductivity enhancement was generally that measured parallel to tile stretch direction. Therefore, the conductivity in these systems is anisotropic. It is desirable to achieve a method of controlling and tuning the morphology of polyaniline. It is desirable to achieve a method of controlling and tuning the degree of crystallinity and the degree of amorphous regions in polyaniline, which in turn provides a method of tuning the physical, mechanical, and electrical properties of polyaniline. It is further desirable to achieve highly crystalline and crystalline polyaniline and to achieve this in a simple and useful manner in order to increase the mobility of the carriers and, therefore, the conductivity of the polymer. It is also further desirable to achieve isotropic conductivity, that is conductivity not dependent on direction as with stretch-oriented polyanilines.

Polycrystalline conducting polymers having adjustable morphology and properties


A system and method for wireless device synchronization is provided. A default connection is established between a first wireless device and a second wireless using default connection values. Unique address information is exchanged over the default connection. A unique connection is established between the first wireless device and the second wireless device.

Endoscopy is a medical field in which internal features of the body of a patient are viewed without the use of traditional, fully-invasive surgery. Endoscopy is now widely used to perform minimally-invasive surgical procedures, such as arthroscopy and laparoscopy. A basic endoscopy tool is the endoscopic camera system. An endoscopic camera system generally includes a scope that is inserted into the body of a patient, a camera that is optically and physically coupled to the scope, and a high intensity light source that is normally coupled to the scope by a fiber optic cable to introduce light into the body. Images acquired by the camera are typically displayed on a conventional video monitor.
The camera is normally coupled through a flexible transmission line to a camera control unit (CCU), which in turn is coupled to a base unit. The CCU processes video data provided by the camera head to generate images, which are coupled through the base unit and displayed on a video monitor. The base unit may also be coupled to various multimedia and surgical devices. Multimedia devices may include a printer, a video-cassette recorder (VCR) and an image capture device (ICD). Surgical devices may include, for example, insufflators and arthro-pumps, or other devices. Each of these devices must be monitored and controlled during a surgical procedure.
The equipment may be controlled, at least in part, and at the surgeon's direction, by a nurse or surgical assistant through the use of a wireless device that communicates with the base unit. However, a single operating room may have multiple base units and multiple wireless devices, either because there is more than one control system in operation, or for backup in case of equipment malfunction. To avoid signal interference and device contention between the wireless devices, it is desirable that each wireless device have a unique association with only one base unit at a time. Furthermore, it is desirable that the wireless devices have the ability to re-associate with a different base unit and that base units have the ability to re-associate with a different wireless device. Furthermore, it would be desirable if the association process were automatic, requiring no data input from the user.


A video data recording apparatus for recording video data using a tape-like recording medium accommodated in a cassette provided with a semiconductor memory by which it is possible to suitably determine the cuts and make effective use of the semiconductor memory to enable efficient editing. The user can mark the recorded video data with the desired starting position and ending position of the video data. The marked cuts are used to extract the index picture and, at the same time, the recording positions of the cuts and an index picture on the tape recording medium are recorded in the semiconductor memory.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a video data recording apparatus by which recorded video data can be edited with a good efficiency.
2. Description of the Related Art
The video data taken by a television camera or other camera apparatus is frequently edited and then assembled into a program, movie, etc. For example, a television broadcasting station extracts the required cuts (video data to be edited obtained by suitably recording a certain matter) from among the video data obtained through coverage and prepares the video data comprised of the desired cuts connected with each other. In order to carry out such editing with a good efficiency, it is important to suitably determine the cuts from among the filmed video data and be able to retrieve the cuts at a high speed.
As methods enabling the retrieval and editing of video data to be carried out at a high speed, there are the methods described in Japanese Patent Application Nos. 5-329841 and 5-329842 by the assignee of the present application. In these methods, when recording video data and audio data on a recording medium, compressed index information concerning the data is generated and the index information is continuously recorded on another recording medium or in a recording region of the original data of the same recording medium. By referring to that index information to prepare the edited data, it is possible to eliminate the processing on the original data and thereby to carry out the work with a good efficiency.
However, in the TV cameras and video camcorders (VTR apparatuses with built-in cameras) which have been used heretofore, when trying to shoot something which could not have been expected, it is necessary to continuously run the camera etc. and extract the cuts in which the matter is suitably recorded from among the recorded video data. Thus there arises a disadvantage of a reduction of the efficiency of the editing work.
Further, it has become possible to record a long period of video data by a recording medium such as a video tape, so the number of the cuts which can be recorded on one recording medium has naturally been increased and therefore a demand has arisen for enabling desired cuts to be retrieved with a higher efficiency.
Particularly, in a video cassette comprising a video tape accommodated in a cassette incorporating a semiconductor memory element such as a flash memory, there is a demand for enabling the editing of the recorded video data to be carried out with a good efficiency by effectively using the semiconductor memory.


A data processing apparatus for encoding data in which first information data from a first source of information data is supplied together with a reference timing value and subsequently a plurality of successive sources of information data of a predetermined processing unit are input when said first information data is finished being supplied. The data processing apparatus produces an encoding start point for the successive sources of data, as a function of a phase difference value between a predetermined reference timing value obtained before the successive sources of information data are input and a start point of the successive processing unit.

In a field of a digital audio data compression technique, a subband coding (Subband Coding: SBC) system, an adaptive transform coding (Adaptive Transform Coding: ATC) system and so on are generally employed in order to reduce a data amount. A digital equipment for recording audio data thus coded on a recording medium, transmitting them to a transmission line or signal-processing them may be increased in the future. In these coding systems, a digital audio data is divided into a block unit (audio frame unit) and then coded.
In the above subband coding system, an input audio signal is divided into signals of plural frequency bands and each of the divided signals of the plural frequency bands is independently coded by utilizing deviation of electric powers in each of the frequency bands. Specifically, the input audio signal is divided into the signals of plural subbands, which reduces deviation of a signal energy in each of the subbands, thereby a dynamic range being reduced. A bit corresponding to the signal energy of each of the subbands is allocated.
When the input audio signal is divided into the signals of the subbands, dichtomization of the frequency band is repeatedly carried out by using a plurality of orthogonal mirror filters (QMF), thereby the tree-structured subbands being obtained. Signal samples in the divided low frequency band and the divided high frequency band are each thinned out to 1/2, thereby sampling frequencies thereof becoming a half.
In a transform coding system, an input audio signal is subjected to linear transformation for increasing concentration of electric power and then quantized, thereby a coding efficiency being improved. A transform coding allocating adaptively a bit is particularly called the adaptive transform coding system. Fourier transform, cosine transform or the like, for example, is employed as the above linear transform.
When the subband coding system or the adaptive transform coding system is employed, if a signal is quantized after being subjected to some weighting by using a psycho-acoustic characteristic so that deterioration of the signal in a band which human being can perceive should be minimum, then it is possible to further improve a total coding quality.
Psycho-acoustic weighting (Psycho-acoustic Weighting) is a weighting method of sequentially calculating a temporal threshold value (Temporal Threshold) of an audible range by using an absolute threshold value (Absolute Threshold) thereof and a relative threshold value thereof determined by a masking effect. Bit allocation is carried out based on the above temporal threshold value.
A typical algorithm of an audio data coding system will be described in accordance with an algorithm of MPEG/Audio standard.
Initially, an input PCM audio data linearly quantized with 16 bits, for example, is converted from that of a time domain into signals of 32 frequency bands. A masking level for masking a quantization error based on the psycho-acoustic characteristic is calculated in order to allocate bits upon quantization.
The converted signals obtained as described above are quantized in accordance with the bit allocation based on the psycho-acoustic characteristic mode and then coded, thereafter being inserted into a frame together with a data which a user can arbitrarily define.
When the coded data is decoded, the data which a user can arbitrarily define is separated therefrom and the frame is deblocked and block data is decoded and inverse-quantized with reference to a supplied side information about the bit allocation. Then, the inverse-quantized signal is converted reversely to the coding processing, thereby the signal of the time domain being restored.
In the above MPEG/Audio standard, algorithms of three kinds, i.e., layer I, layer II and layer III are prescribed. In this case, while an algorithm becomes complicated in an order of the layer I, the layer II and the layer III, a sound quality is at the same time improved in the above order. The sound quality also depends upon a bit rate to be used. While bit rates of 14 kinds ranging from 32 kb/s to 448 kb/s, 384 kb/s and 320 kb/s are respectively prescribed for the layers I to III, bit rates which are main objects (target bit rates) of the respective layers are limited.
When, for example, the algorithm of the layer II is employed, as shown in FIG. 10B, an audio data is processed by an audio frame unit (one audio frame unit includes 1152 samples according to the layer II) by using an audio frame pulse shown in FIG. 10A and thereby converted into coded audio data, i.e, a bit stream.
As a digital signal processing technique is developed recently, a DVD video disk for storing data of one movie amount in an optical disk (whose diameter is 120 mm) is developed. This DVD video disk is manufactured by multiplexing coded video data, coded audio data an coded attached information such as a superimposed dialogue or the like to record the multiplexed data on one optical disk.
FIG. 11 shows an arrangement of a DVD video disk editing system (authoring system) employing an encoder for simultaneously encoding a video data and an audio data, by way of example. This authoring system has a digital VTR 101, an encoder 102, and a computer 103.
The digital VTR 101 has a video reproducing unit 101A for reproducing a digital video data from a video tape digitally recorded, and an audio reproducing unit 101B for reproducing a digital audio data from an audio tape TP digitally recorded.
The encoder 102 encodes a video data Dv and an audio data Da from the above digital VTR 101 under the control of the computer 103 and further multiplexes the encoded video data and the encoded audio data to output them as a series of bit streams.
Processings of encoding the above video data Dv and the above audio data Da are carried out in accordance with algorithms described in a video encoding program and an audio encoding program stored in a main memory device of the computer 103, respectively. Respective processings of multiplexing the encoded video data and the encoded audio data are carried out in accordance with an algorithm described in a multiplexing program stored in the main memory device of the computer 103.
The above authoring system encodes reproduced data from the digital VTR 101 and so on, i.e., the video data Dv and the audio data Da in the above example and converts the video data Dv and the audio data Da into data of respective predetermined data rates. Then, the authoring system rearranges both of the video data and the audio data in accordance with predetermined formats to record them on a recording medium such as an optical disk or the like.
When an audio data is encoded (Encoded) in a system for carrying out the authoring, if there is only one digital audio tape TP loaded onto an audio reproducing apparatus for reproducing an audio tape, then continuous processing of the audio tape from the head thereof makes encoded audio frames successive throughout.
If a plurality of digital audio tapes TP are loaded into the digital VTR 101, then when a digital audio tape TP loaded into the audio reproducing apparatus unit 101B of the digital VTR 101B of the digital VTR 101 is exchanged for another one, it is impossible to obtain a phase difference (offset) between an audio frame of an audio data da reproduced from the previously loaded digital audio tape TP and the latest reference timing (video frame) thereof. Therefore, an audio frame of an audio data to be reproduced from a newly loaded digital audio tape TP and the audio frame of the previously loaded digital audio tape TP are prevented from becoming continuous.
Specifically, when the audio data Da is encoded, a plurality of audio samples as one processing unit (an audio frame) are calculated. Since the number of the audio samples to be encoded as set forth is set to a value which is convenient to the coding calculation, a frame period of the audio frame inevitably has no relation with a period of a processing unit of video data Dv (a video frame).
Therefore, if the audio data is encoded with the audio and video frames being not synchronized with each other, then the audio samples having the same time code value may be inserted into different audio frames depending upon the coding processing (i.e., reproducibility may be lacked).
This lack of reproducibility will specifically be described with reference to FIG. 12. It is assumed that when there is a phase difference (offset) of time .tau.1 between a frame pulse at t1 of a video frame shown in FIG. 12A and an (N-1)th audio frame obtained when a first tape is reproduced as shown in FIGS. 12B and 12C, there is an offset of time .tau.2 between a frame pulse at t2 of the video frame and an (N)th audio frame, and there is an offset of time .tau.3 between the above time .tau.2 and an (N+l)th audio frame, after the (N)th audio frame is completely encoded, a second tape is inserted into the digital VTR 101 instead of the first tape and then reproduced.
In this case, when the second tape is reproduced, a frame period generally becomes different from a frame period obtained when the first tape is reproduced. It is usual that as shown in FIGS. 12D and 12E, an audio data from a frame prior to a target (N+1)th frame, e.g., an (N-2)th frame is recorded as a so-called "margin" on the second tape.
Therefore, when the audio data is transmitted to an encoding processing system of an encoder, the "margin" portion is skipped and the audio data from the target (N+1)th frame is transmitted. At this time, as described above, since a timing of a frame period with respect to the first tape is different from a timing of a frame period with respect to the second period, if at an edition timing at an edition point EP shown in FIG. 12F an audio data of the (N+1)th frame is derived in accordance with the frame period with respect to the second tape as it is, then an unnecessary audio sample of encoded data shown in FIG. 12G is added to a portion between the audio data of the (N)th frame from the first tape and the audio data of the (N+1) th frame from the second tape, which prevents the (N)th audio frame and the (N+1)th audio frame from being made continuous.
If the audio data is encoded under a state that the audio frames are discontinuous, then it prevents a decoder of a DVD player for reproducing a DVD video disk from correctly decoding the audio data, which provides problems for an authoring system.
In order to make audio frames of different tapes continuous, two methods can be considered: a first method of previously storing a plurality of audio data in some suitable means to thereafter edit them so that all the audio frames should be continuous; and a second method of dividing an audio data at a silent portion whose data may be encoded twice or removed if audio frames of different tapes are not aligned.
If the first method is employed, then a memory having a large capacity is required disadvantageously. If the second method is employed, then it is not practical because there is no ground that a silent portion is regularly produced on a tape.
In view of the above aspects, it is an object of the present invention to provide a data processing apparatus and a data processing method which, when information data supplied together with a reference timing while a plurality of sources are switched is divided into data of predetermined processing units and then encoded, can keep the processing units used for encoding continuous at a source switch point and allow the source to be divided at an optional point regardless of whether the point is a silent portion.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a data recording apparatus and a data recording method which, when a digital data formed by inserting another information data into a reference information data input together with a reference timing is divided into data of predetermined processing units and then encoded and the encoded data are recorded on a recording medium, can keep continuity of the processing units used for an encoding processing at an insertion point of the another data, and can make the encoded data of a reference information data and the encoded data of the another information data continuous at the above insertion point to record them on a recording medium.

Apparatus and method for processing data to maintain continuity when subsequent data is added and an apparatus and method for recording said data


A method of fabricating a book from a stack of sheets and a hardcover assembly having first and second relatively rigid cover sections separated by a spine region. A layer of pressure sensitive adhesive is disposed over the inner surfaces of the cover sections, with there being a pair of release liners covering both the pressure sensitive adhesive layers. The first cover section is then secured to one side of the stack by sequentially removing the corresponding release liners so as to expose the underlying adhesive. The second cover section is then applied by folding the second cover section over the other side of the stack, removing the release liners and securing the cover section to the stack by way of the adhesive.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of bookbinding and, in particular, to a method of fabricating binding a hardcover book using a binder strip and a separate hardcover assembly and to the hardcover assembly itself.
2. Description of Related Art
Binding systems for binding stacks of sheets into a book using desktop equipment have increased in popularity. One popular system uses a binder strip having and adhesive surface, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,496,617. The binder strip is typically applied to a stack of sheets to be bound using a desktop binding machine such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,052,873. The binding machine carries out the binding operation by suitably positioning the binder strip relative to the stack to be bound and applying heat and pressure so that the edges of the stack are bound. The bound stack does not, however, have the same general appearance as books using commercial binding processes, particularly that of hardcover books.
Various approaches have been used to produce bound books using desktop equipment that closely resembles hardcover books. One example is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,155,763 that uses specialized covers having an adhesive layer for binding the stack as opposed to using a conventional binder strip. A company located in Finland and believed to be called Instant Cover Europe Ltd has developed another approach. The stack to be bound is first bound together using the above-described binder strips and binding machine. A hardcover is then applied using high tack adhesives. A positioning apparatus is used to assist in the application of the hardcover to the bound stack to ensure that the cover is accurately positioned over the stack. Unfortunately, the positioning apparatus is relatively complex and includes, for example, a mirror to assist in the assembly. A user having little training is likely to have some difficulty in carrying out the binding process.
There is a need for a binding process using desktop equipment that can be carried out by users having relatively little training and yet produces a hardcover book that compares favorably in appearance with commercially bound books.

Method of making a hardcover book and hardcover apparatus


A lens moving mechanism which includes a moving lens for zooming or focusing; a lens holder holding the moving lens in a lens-barrel, and being supported freely movably into an optical axis direction of the moving lens; a guide shaft guiding the lens holder into the optical axis direction of the moving lens when the lens holder moves; a drive magnet attached to the lens holder; a drive coil fixed to the lens-barrel with at least part of the drive coil opposed to the drive magnet and giving an impelling force into the optical axis direction to the lens holder by being electrified; and a magnetic body fixed to the lens-barrel and located to oppose to the drive magnet on an opposite side of the drive magnet with at least a part of the drive coil put between the magnetic body and the drive magnet, and attracting the drive magnet.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the technical fields of a lens moving mechanism and an imaging apparatus and more particular, to the technical field of achieving a reduction of power consumption and the prevention of backlash at the time of a movement of a lens holder by providing a magnetic body attracting a drive magnet attached to the lens holder.
2. Description of the Related Art
As disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication (KOKAI) No. 2002-169073, some imaging apparatuses, such as a video camera and a still camera severally have a moving lens for zooming or focusing in a lens-barrel that is held in a lens holder.
In the imaging apparatus described in the patent document JPA No. 2002-169073, a drive coil is attached to the lens holder freely movably supported by a couple of guide shafts extending in an optical axis direction, a yoke is fixed in the lens-barrel, and a drive magnet is fixed to oppose to the drive coil.
In such an imaging apparatus, when the drive coil is electrified, an impelling force into a direction according to the electrification direction is given to the lens holder by the drive magnet and the drive coil, and the lens holder and the moving lens are moved into the optical axis direction while being guided by guide shafts. Consequently, focusing adjustment or zooming adjustment is performed by the movement of the moving lens into the optical axis direction.
Now the imaging apparatus such as the video camera, the still camera frequently performs photographing in a state of being grasped by a user. The imaging apparatus is sometimes made so as to be inclined into a left, a right, an up or a down direction according to the grasping state of the user, or is a photographing angle. In some inclination direction of the imaging apparatus, the optical axis direction of the moving lens inclines to the horizontal direction. At this time, for example, if the optical axis is directed to be in the vertical direction or in a direction close to the vertical direction, the lens holder and the moving lens move into the optical axis direction (downward) owing to their self weights, and consequently the focusing adjustment and the zooming adjustment may be hindered.
Consequently, when an inclination in the optical axis direction as described above arises at the time of photographing, it is required to regulate the movement in the optical axis direction of the lens holder holding the moving lens to hold the lens holder. However, the conventional imaging apparatus performs the holding of the lens holder by constantly electrifying the drive coil. Consequently, the conventional imaging apparatus has a problem of large power consumption.
On the other hand, because a clearance for securing the smooth movement of the lens holder exists between the guide shafts and the bearing portion of the lens holder supported by the guide shafts freely slidably, the lens holder moves in the direction perpendicular to the optical axis by the clearance, and there is the possibility that a backlash of the lens holder occurs with regard to the guide shafts.
When the backlash of the lens holder occurs, the so-called image shaking phenomenon, in which a photographed image shakes, occurs. For example, a backlash quantity of several microns in the lens holder may possibly be an image shaking of a magnitude within a range of from 5 mm to 10 mm on a monitor of 21 inches.

Lens moving mechanism and imaging apparatus


A flexible, self-supporting, anti-adhesive, and cellular membrane defining a mold or a cavity plate for preparing food products, particularly bakery, viennoiserie, pastry, and biscuit products, and in particular for molding, fermenting, and baking bread dough, and which includes a composite structure including a silicone rubber mold (10) consisting of at least one elastomer or at least one silicon resin, and reinforced by a textile-structure framework (11) made of a mixture of inorganic and organic threads (12, 13) and/or fibers. The membrane is characterized in that the inorganic and organic threads (12, 13) and/or fibers represent more than 50 wt % of the textile structure of the framework (11).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a flexible, self-supporting, anti-adhesive and cellular membrane, defining a mould or cavity plate for preparing food products, in particular, but not exclusively, bakery, viennoiserie, pastry and biscuit products, and in particular for moulding, fermenting and baking bread dough.
The invention relates more particularly to improvements made to the membranes of the above-mentioned type that are the subject of the Applicant's patents EP 0 235 037 B1 and FR 2 658 034, and as also described in patent applications FR 2 774 554 and WO 03/066328.
2. Description of the Related Art
EP 0 235 037 B1 discloses an anti-adhesive former or membrane, intended to support pieces of bread dough or similar throughout the process of fermenting and baking the dough, this membrane being constituted by at least one silicone elastomer or a silicone resin associated with a reinforcing web, said membrane being self-supporting, having a general configuration and predetermined dimensions such that it can rest detachably and interchangeably on a single supporting tray, and being preformed so as to have at least one hollow cavity independent of the support and having any desirable shape corresponding to the individual shapes for breadmaking or similar to be subjected to the fermenting and baking process.
Such a membrane, which can support dough pieces not only during the stages of fermenting and baking dough, but also throughout the intermediate handling and storing stages, can either be aerated or not aerated, and can include a woven, knitted or non-woven web, constituted by glass yarns and/or carbon fibres and/or ceramic threads impregnated and/or coated with at least one elastomer or a silicone resin, conferring the desired anti-adhesive properties. Preforming of the membrane is obtained by moulding and/or forming then stiffening by vulcanization of the elastomer(s) or by curing the silicone resin(s).
Thus, a moulded membrane can have an undulating profile in the form of quasi semi-cylindrical depressions that are more or less broad with a more or less flattened base, these depressions being optionally separated by gaps embodied by a flat surface situated at the top of the depressions and providing an improved heat circulation, or having a succession of flat-bottomed rectangular or square spans, separated by a fold in the shape of an inverted V, for receiving pieces of bakery or viennoiserie dough.
In the case of a pressed membrane, the membrane can have, longitudinally and transversally, successions of hollow cavities, having a rectangular or square shape with a clearance allowing the baked pieces to be removed, and separated by narrow strips, or the membrane can be pressed so as to create oblong-shaped oval cradles with a clearance for allowing the pieces to be removed, these cradles succeeding each other in an adjacent fashion, in order to receive pieces such as rolls or croissants, or also the membrane can be pressed so as to create successive lines of round, hollow dishes, having flat bottoms and a variable diameter, depth and clearance, according to the nature of the pieces to be baked, such as round rolls, rolls for hamburgers, muffins, currant buns, or also the membrane can be pressed so as to create a succession of hollow semi-cylinders of varying width and length, for receiving pieces such as hot-dog rolls or fancy shaped baguettes.
In order to support the food products to be processed, at least one membrane as presented above can rest, detachably and interchangeably, on a supporting tray, to which the membrane can optionally be detachably connected, the tray having the shape of a rectangular or square container, with a flat bottom, preferably open-worked, also within side walls serving to keep the preformed membrane in place, these side walls allowing the trays to be piled or stacked, preferably made of metal, or also of a non-dielectric material that can be used in a microwave oven, the tray moreover being capable of being adapted to the sliding fittings of an oven or to a trolley on which the tray is mounted or incorporated, and intended to enter successively into proving cabinets then ventilated ovens, optionally rotating, or tunnel ovens, for example.
The multi-purpose equipment comprising several membranes having varying numbers and/or shapes of cavities and at least one, but preferably several, associated support trays, allows, in particular, intermediate handling to be dispensed with in the case of peel ovens or tunnel ovens, can be used for all types of products prepared, in particular by the baker/confectioner, with the minimum of bulk and immobilization, both in the peel oven and in the ventilated oven, or even in the tunnel ovens of industrial bakeries, whilst any damaged membrane can be easily replaced, without the need for intervention on the other components of this multi-purpose equipment or system.
In fact, this multi-purpose system offers the possibility of using a set of new membranes that are flexible, interchangeable owing to their fully detachable character with respect to the support in the shape of a tray with side walls intended to receive them, preformed according to the dimensions and shapes of all the varieties of breadmaking products, and which therefore has a very high degree of flexibility in use for the traditional or industrial baker, (for all breads and all ovens), and is very economical, owing to the reduced costs and storage requirements, the field of use of this multi-purpose system not being limited to baking and/or confectionery, but extending to related fields such as biscuit products and cold meat products, and any kind of food products, such as quiches, tarts, pies etc., capable of being prepared by private individuals, industry professionals, the restaurant trade, in a traditional manner, on a production line or industrially.
Patent FR 2 658 034 relates to improvements made to the multi-purpose equipment according to EP 0 235 037 B1 and as shown above and intended to be used for deep-freezing and/or baking of viennoiserie, pastries, fermented or not, egg-yolk dough, biscuits, creams or baked custards, or even some small breadmaking items. More particularly, FR 2 658 034 relates, on the one hand, to an anti-adhesive and self-supporting membrane having the shape of a mould or a cavity plate, which is continuous, the surface of which in contact with the items of viennoiserie, pastries, biscuit products, is smooth and anti-adhesive, and which is flexible and resilient, i.e. is capable of deformation for the requirements of removing said items from the mould, and, on the other hand, a method for producing such a membrane.
According to the desired shape, this membrane is obtained by pressing and/or moulding a knitted fabric, preferably a double knitted fabric, i.e. a textile formed from two interlaced knitted fabrics, of glass or ceramic threads or similar materials, previously impregnated with an anti-adhesive silicone elastomer hardened by vulcanization. The membrane, which has thus acquired its final shape, is then treated on its inner surface by spraying with a silicone elastomer or dipping into a silicone solution, resulting in a flexible coating, having very strong anti-adhesive properties, and a smooth contact surface.
Preferably, the method for producing such a membrane comprises the following steps:                thorough impregnation of a knitted fabric of threads as stated above with a silicone suitable for contact with food and ensuring the self-supporting structure of the whole after vulcanization;        removal of the excess silicone so as to obtain an even, uniform and preferably aerated structure;        shaping or moulding of the silicone-impregnated knitted fabric by pressing so as to obtain the desired mould or plate with the desired cavities;        vulcanizing the preformed silicone-impregnated knitted fabric; and        spraying the face turned towards the desired cavity or cavities of the full membrane thus obtained, with a silicone solution of lesser hardness, having high covering and anti-adhesive properties, or        dipping the thus-obtained membrane into a bath of silicone in order to obtain a smooth silicone surface on the side of the knitted mesh that is turned towards the cavity or cavities.
Generally, at least two silicone coatings of the knitted web are always carried out, the first coating being carried out with a silicone ensuring the rigidity of the material so that it is self-supporting, the last being carried out with a flexible silicone, having very high anti-adhesive properties and, preferably, with a very high elongation coefficient.
A thus-produced membrane can be formed so as to constitute a single cylindrical mould, having a round, square or rectangular cross section, which can be used domestically or professionally for freezing or baking by heat or microwaves of pastries or culinary preparations, however varied these may be, the membrane also being capable of forming several round, square, rectangular or truncated moulds, with or without channels, and then being called a "cavity plate".
A further subject of FR 2 774 554 is a flexible and self-supporting mould or cavity plate, having an anti-adhesive inner surface suitable for contact with food, for the moulding and baking of bread dough or similar, and comprising a cloth defining a support impregnated with at least one resin of the crosslinked polysiloxane type, said cloth being thermoformed and provided with at least one suitable anti-adhesive coating layer, in particular based on a rubber or silicone elastomer suitable for contact with food, at least on its surface that is intended for contact with food.
As an intermediate product for the production of thermoformed articles, in particular moulds or cavity plates as defined above, a subject of this patent document is also a pre-impregnated cloth, constituted by a cloth impregnated with at least one polysiloxane resin that is potentially hot-polymerizable and thermoformable, the term "cloth" being used as a generic term encompassing all textile surfaces or textile constructions and felts, the cloths being capable of being constituted by any textile fibre or textile thread, and comprising flexible woven fabrics, whether woven, knitted, felted (or cloths produced of non-woven fabrics), needle-punched, stitched or produced by another production method. With respect to the fibres, these can be glass fibres, carbon fibres, aromatic polyamide fibres, ceramic fibres, or also a mixture thereof; other fibres can be envisaged insofar as they can withstand a temperature of the order of 300° C. WO 03/066328 relates to composite articles for cooking, comprising a thermoplastic organic polymer cloth impregnated or coated with a heat-resistant polymer and polymerized or crosslinked, and more particularly dough moulds that can be used for containing dough pieces during both the fermenting and the baking phases, the composite structure of the articles having sufficient rigidity for it to be self-supporting and being dimensionally stable up to a temperature of at least approximately 195° C. Preferably, the thermoplastic organic polymer is polyester and the heat-resistant crosslinked polymer is a silicone rubber. Generally, in addition to polyesters, suitable thermoplastic polymers comprise polyamides and polyimides, in particular in the form of fibres, and the textile cloth or structure constituting the supporting framework of the composite article can be a woven fabric, a non-woven or a knitted fabric, a knitted structure of polyester fibres or textured filaments or threads being preferred.
Such a composite structure has sufficient rigidity to be self-supporting and is dimensionally stable up to temperatures of the order of 175 to 195° C.
Composite articles according to the preferred form described in WO 03/066328 have been produced and marketed.
As mentioned in WO 03/066328, these composite articles have the main drawback of not withstanding baking temperatures higher than approximately 175° C. or 195° C., which severely limits their field of use, and therefore their benefit for industrial, semi-industrial and traditional use and even use by the general public.
By contrast, the composite membranes defining cavity moulds produced according to EP 0 235 037 and FR 2 658 034, with mainly glass fibre frameworks, allow baking up to temperatures of the order of 300° C., while providing users with the expected services in terms of anti-adhesivity, easy removal from the mould, flexibility and ease of use, with no return of the mould to the manufacturer due to destruction of the bond between the silicone of the matrix and the glass fibres of the reinforcing framework of the composite membrane.
However, the glass fibre framework of these membranes can exhibit, under intensive use, phenomena of fibres breaking at the locations where the mechanical stresses are greatest, as a result of shearing of the glass fibre threads or filaments, constituting, for example, the mesh of a reinforcing knitted fabric, especially if these moulds are also used in phases of freezing or deep-freezing of the food products contained in the moulds, as the glass fibres become brittle at temperatures of −30° C. to −40° C. As a result, tearing of the membrane can occur, making the mould unusable. Moreover, the more complex the shape of the cellular membrane, the greater the stress undergone by the glass fibre framework on shaping this membrane, owing to the number and/or the shapes of the cells that are themselves complex. Finally, the variation in the quality and/or the sizing characteristics of the glass fibres provided for the production of the cavity moulds can result in limitations in the performance of such moulds.
As far as the Applicant is aware, no flexible mould according to the specific teaching of FR 2 774 554 has been produced and marketed, in particular with a framework constituted by a mixture of glass, carbon, aromatic polyamide and ceramic fibres.

Flexible, self-supporting, anti-adhesive, and cellular membrane defining a mould or cavity plate for preparing food products


An apparatus for reading from and/or writing to transmission type holographic storage media is proposed, and more specifically a coaxial type apparatus for reading from and/or writing to transmission type holographic storage media with two or more reference beams, which has an improved Signal to Noise Ratio. The apparatus has a coaxial arrangement of two or more reference beams and an object beam or a reconstructed object beam. The reference beams are arranged on a circle around the object beam or the reconstructed object beam in a Fourier plane of the apparatus behind the holographic storage medium. A mirror is located in or close to this Fourier plane, which is designed such that it reflects the object beam or the reconstructed object beam without reflecting the reference beams.

In holographic data storage digital data are stored by recording the interference pattern produced by the superposition of two coherent laser beams, where one beam, the so-called 'object beam', is modulated by a spatial light modulator and carries the information to be recorded. The second beam serves as a reference beam. The interference pattern leads to modifications of specific properties of the storage material, which depend on the local intensity of the interference pattern. Reading of a recorded hologram is performed by illuminating the hologram with the reference beam using the same conditions as during recording. This results in the reconstruction of the recorded object beam.
One advantage of holographic data storage is an increased data capacity. Contrary to conventional optical storage media, the volume of the holographic storage medium is used for storing information, not just a few layers. One further advantage of holographic data storage is the possibility to store multiple data in the same volume, e.g. by changing the angle between the two beams or by using shift multiplexing, etc. Furthermore, instead of storing single bits, data are stored as data pages. Typically a data page consists of a matrix of light-dark-patterns, i.e. a two dimensional binary array or an array of grey values, which code multiple bits. This allows to achieve increased data rates in addition to the increased storage density. The data page is imprinted onto the object beam by the spatial light modulator (SLM) and detected with a detector array.
In WO2006/003077 a 12f reflection type coaxial holographic storage arrangement with three confocally arranged Fourier planes is shown. In this arrangement the object beam and the reference beams are coupled in and out at the first and third Fourier planes, respectively. The reference beams are small spots in these planes. More precisely, they form diffraction patterns, similar to the Airy pattern. This arrangement is a so-called common aperture arrangement, because at the object plane and the image plane the object beam and the reference beams fill out the same area of the aperture. The beams fill out the entire aperture of the objectives. The disclosed arrangement allows to apply shift multiplexing, reference scanning multiplexing, phase coded multiplexing, or a combination of these multiplexing schemes. The reference beams are a pair (or pairs of) half cone shaped beams. The tips of the pair or pairs of half cone shaped reference beams form two lines along a diameter at the Fourier planes of the object beam.
Theoretically, for infinite holograms the shift selectivity curve is a sinc(x) like function. See, for example, G. Barbastathis et al.: "Shift multiplexing with spherical reference waves", Appl. Opt. 35, pp 2403-2417. At the so-called Bragg distances the diffraction efficiencies of the shifted hologram are zero. In WO2006/003077 the distances between the tips of the reference beams along the two lines correspond to these Bragg distances. The interhologram crosstalk between the multiplexed holograms in theory is negligible at the Bragg distances. Assuming infinite diameter holograms there are selective and non-selective directions for the shift multiplexing. See again the article of G. Barbastathis et al. The selective direction is the direction of the line formed by the tips of the reference beams. In the so-called non-selective direction, which is orthogonal to the selective direction in the plane of the holograms, the shift distance is infinite. However, in a real storage system the volume of the hologram is finite. Practically, the order of magnitude of the hologram volume is about (0.4-0.6)×(0.4-0.6)×(0.2-0.6) mm3. Detailed investigations have shown that there are large discrepancies between the shift selectivity curves of infinite and finite holograms. There are no Bragg distances in case of finite volume holograms. See Z. Karpati et al.: "Shift Selectivity Calculation for Finite Volume Holograms with Half-Cone Reference Beams", Jap. J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 45 (2006), pp 1288-1289. Using finite volume holograms the order of magnitude of the selectivity is similar in both directions. See, for example, Z. Karpati et al.: "Selectivity and tolerance calculations with half-cone reference beam in volume holographic storage", J. Mod. Opt., Vol. 53 (2006), pp 2067-2088. The presence of selectivity in both directions allows two-dimensional multiplexing. A problem is that the interhologram cross-talk is too high in the non-selective direction. This limits the achievable number of multiplexed holograms in this direction, and as a consequence limits the total capacity of the holographic storage medium.
In order to obtain an improved selectivity, in the not yet published European Patent Application EP 06122233.7 an apparatus for reading from and/or writing to a reflection-type holographic storage medium with a coaxial arrangement of three or more reference beams and an object beam or a reconstructed object beam is described. In this apparatus the reference beams are arranged on a circle or an ellipse around the object beam in a Fourier plane of the apparatus. In order to separate a reconstructed object beam from the reflected reference beams an outcoupling filter is used, which blocks the reflected reference beams and passes the reconstructed object beam through a central aperture.
The main advantage of the various coaxial holographic storage systems is their insensitivity against environmental disturbances, because the object and reference beams propagate along the same optical path. Use of a reflection type holographic storage medium allows to reduce the size of the system compared to the size of a system for a transmission type holographic storage medium, as all optical elements are arranged on the same side of the holographic storage medium. Furthermore, no additional hardware is necessary for shift multiplexing. A precise movement of the holographic storage medium is sufficient, which can easily be realized by rotating the holographic storage medium.
However, a big challenge for the reflection type coaxial systems is to increase the Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) by attenuation of the different noises propagating on the same axis as the reconstructed object beam. Because of the small diffraction efficiency of the multiplexed holograms, the order of magnitude of the required attenuation is about 10−4 or 10−5.

Holographic storage system with reduced noise


A superconducting conductor fabricated from a plurality of wires, e.g., fine silver wires, coated with a superconducting powder. A process of applying superconducting powders to such wires, to the resulting coated wires and superconductors produced therefrom.

Certain ceramic materials are known to superconduct at liquid nitrogen temperatures and, as a result, such materials have been used in the preparation of superconducting conductors. Conductors can be formed from silver tubes (sheaths) packed with the superconducting ceramic. At the interface between the tube and the superconductor core, grain growth and orientation of the ceramic is in a direction favoring conductivity. As a result, the superconducting properties in this region are enhanced.
The present invention capitalizes on the favorable grain orientation and enhanced properties which the silver/superconductor interface provides. More specifically, the present invention provides wires coated with superconducting powders (including ceramics) and a superconductor that incorporates such wires. The superconductors of the invention, comprising aggregates of fine, coated wires, have an increased silver/superconductor interfacial area.


Disclosed are an image sensor and a method for manufacturing the same. The image sensor includes a first pixel having a first photodiode and a first readout circuit and a second pixel having a second photodiode and a second readout circuit. The second pixel is aligned at one side of the first pixel, and a light receiving area of the first photodiode is different from a light receiving area of the second photodiode.

A CIS (CMOS image sensor) according to the related art includes a photodiode area that receives a light signal to convert the light signal into an electric signal, and a transistor area that processes the electric signal.
The CIS according to the related art reproduces colors by obtaining green, blue, and red (G/B/R) color signals from four pixels having the same size.
However, outputs of the G/R/B color signals may vary depending on a junction profile of a photodiode, a wavelength of light, and a structure of the CIS. If a color pixel has a low-level output, more gain is needed to increase the output of the color signal, so that variable amplification must be performed for each color pixel. In this case, noise components are also amplified, so that image quality of the CIS may be degraded.

Image sensor and method for manufacturing the same