A weight-based kitchen assistant in the form of a voice-assisted electronic scale allows a user to quickly convert weight measurements to volumetric measurements, determine accurate nutritional information of a food item based on its weight, and follow the steps of a recipe hands-free while cooking or baking in the kitchen. When connected to peripheral storage vessels, the weight-based kitchen assistant allows the user to manage and locate where ingredients are stored. The weight-based kitchen assistant also provides the user with the ability to measure accurate serving sizes and perform personalized dietary tracking.

Many users enjoy making and exploring new recipes. They use scales and measuring cups to measure exact weights and volumetric quantities, while following along a recipe on their personal devices (e.g., smartphones or tablets). While these devices give the users access to many new recipes, the users must constantly access the touchscreen on these devices in order to follow the recipe. This interaction forces the users to constantly wash or clean their hands which makes the cooking process cumbersome and inconvenient.
Digital kitchen assistants with voice recognition services (e.g., Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri, Microsoft Cortana, Google Assistant, etc.) allow the users to follow recipes in a more natural manner-through conversational interfaces. This provides a more unique experience in the kitchen.


There is provided a composite plated product wherein a coating of a composite material containing carbon particles in a silver layer is formed on a substrate, the composite plated product having a large content of carbon and a large quantity of carbon particles on the surface thereof and having a low coefficient of friction and an excellent wear resistance. Carbon particles treated by an oxidation treatment and a silver matrix orientation adjusting agent are added to a silver plating solution for electroplating a substrate to adjust the orientation of a silver matrix to form a coating of a composite material, which contains the carbon particles in a silver layer, on the substrate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a composite plated product and a method for producing the same. More specifically, the invention relates to a composite plated product wherein a coating of a composite material containing carbon particles in a silver layer is formed on a substrate and which is used as a material of sliding contact parts such as switches and connectors.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventionally, as materials of sliding contact parts such as switches and connectors, there are used silver-plated products wherein a conductive material such as copper or a copper alloy is plated with silver in order to prevent oxidation of the conductive material due to heat in sliding processes.
However, there is a problem in that silver coatings are easily stripped by sliding since they are soft and easily wear and since they generally have a high coefficient of friction. In order to solve this problem, there is proposed a method for electroplating a conductive material with a composite material wherein graphite particles are dispersed in a silver matrix, in order to improve the wear resistance of the conductive material (see, e.g., Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-7445). There is also proposed a method for producing a silver coating, which contains graphite particles, by means of a plating bath to which a wetting agent suitable for the dispersion of graphite particles is added (see, e.g., Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 5-505853 (National Publication of Translated Version of PCT/DE91/00241)). Moreover, there is proposed a method for coating carbon particles with a metal oxide or the like by the sol-gel method to enhance the dispersibility of the carbon particles in a composite plating bath of silver and the carbon particles to increase the quantity of carbon particles in a composite coating (see, e.g., Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-253598).
However, composite plated products produced by the methods disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-7445, Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 5-505853 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-253598 have a relatively high coefficient of friction and a relatively low wear resistance, so that there is a problem in that the composite plated products can not used as the materials of long-life contacts and terminals. Therefore, it is desired to provide a composite plated product which has a larger content of carbon and a larger quantity of carbon particles on the surface thereof than those of the composite plated products produced by the conventional methods and which has a better wear resistance than that of the composite plated products produced by the conventional methods.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method for producing a composite plated product


An apparatus for assembling a swash plate with pistons in a swash plate compressor of the present invention can automatically assemble the swash plate with double or single head pistons and shoes thereby improving workability and productivity. In the assembling apparatus, each of the pistons includes a swash plate-receiving section for receiving a pair of opposed shoes therein and having an insert groove for receiving the swash plate mounted on a rotational shaft and a piston body to be inserted into a cylinder bore of a cylinder block so that the swash plate is inserted into the insert grooves of the pistons. The assembling apparatus comprises a base plate, piston-loading means, piston-shifting means and rotating means.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for assembling a swash plate with pistons in a swash plate compressor. In particular, the apparatus for assembling a swash plate with pistons in a swash plate compressor of the present invention can automatically assemble the swash plate with double or single head pistons and shoes thereby improving workability and productivity.
2. Background of the Related Art
In general, a compressor in a vehicle cooling system selectively receives power from an engine through a vehicle pulley in response to engagement/disengagment of an electronic clutch in order to suck in refrigerant which is heat exchanged in an evaporator, compress the refrigerant with a piston and discharge the compressed refrigerant to a condenser.
Compressors are divided into various forms such as reciprocating and rotary compressors according to their compression policy and structure. Reciprocating compressors are further divided into crank, swash plate and wobble plate compressors. Rotary compressors are further divided into vane rotary and scroll compressors.
In the above various compressors, the swash plate compressor can be generally divided into fixed and variable capacity compressors, in which the fixed capacity compressor uses double head pistons, and the variable capacity compressor uses single head pistons.
Hereinafter the fixed capacity compressor and the variable capacity compressor will be described briefly with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.
First, as shown in FIG. 1, a fixed capacity compressor includes a front housing 4 having a front cylinder 4a integrally formed within the front housing 4, a rear housing 5 coupled in face-contact with the front housing 4 and having a rear cylinder 5a integrally formed within the rear housing 5, a plurality of double head pistons 6 arranged in a linearly reciprocating fashion in bores 4b of the front cylinder 4a and bores 5b of the rear cylinder 5a, a drive shaft 7 arranged in a rotatable fashion through central portions of the front and rear cylinders 4a and 5a of the front and rear housings 4 and 5, a swash plate 8 mounted at an inclination on the drive shaft 7 so that it is turned in response to rotation of the drive shaft 7 to move the pistons 6 forward and backward and front and rear valve switches 9 arranged respectively between the front cylinder 4a and the front housing 4 and between the rear cylinder 5a and the rear housing 5.
The reference numeral 6a designates a shoe.
Then, as shown in FIG. 2, a variable capacity swash plate compressor includes a cylinder block 10, a front housing 20, a rear housing 30, single head pistons 40, a drive shaft 50, a rotor 60, a swash plate 70, a valve unit 80 and a control valve 90.
The cylinder block 10 has a central bore 11 and a plurality of cylinder bores 12 extended through the cylinder block 10. The cylinder bores 12 are formed radially around the central bore 11 at a uniform interval.
The front and rear housings 20 and 30 are arranged respectively in front and rear ends of the cylinder block 10 so that three components of the front and rear housings 20 and 30 and the cylinder bock 10 are coupled into one part via an elongate bolt 21.
Each of the single head pistons 40 is slidably arranged within each of the cylinder bores 12, and has a body 41 and a bridge portion 42.
The drive shaft 50 is extended rotatably through a central portion of a front wall of the front housing 20 and a crank chamber 22 formed within the front housing 20 so that a rear end of the drive shaft 50 being supported rotatably to a central portion of the cylinder block 10.
The cylinder block 10 together with the front housing 20 defines an internal space, which is in a hermetic state to be used as the crank chamber 20.
The rotor 60 is mounted around the drive shaft 50 in a front portion of the crank chamber 22 to be turned in response to rotation of the drive shaft 50.
The swash plate 70 is installed in a central portion of the crank chamber 22 in such a fashion that it can be adjusted in inclination around the drive shaft 50. In more detail, the swash plate 70 and the rotor 60 are connected via a hinge mechanism to be turned together with the same.
That is, a support arm 61 is projected from a surface portion of the rotor 60 outward along the drive shaft 50, and a swash plate arm 71 is projected from a surface portion of the swash plate 70 toward the support arm 61 of the rotor 60. The support arm 61 is connected with the swash plate arm 71 via a pin 62.
A portion of the outer periphery of the swash plate 70 is rotatably inserted into the bridge portion 42 of the single head piston 40.
As connected with the rotor 60 and the bridge portion 42 of the single head piston 40, the swash plate 70 can be turned not only along with the rotor 60 at rotation by the drive shaft 50 but also forward and backward around the pin 62 in response to the internal pressure of the crank chamber 22 so that the inclination of the swash plate 70 can be adjusted.
In the meantime, the valve unit 80 is arranged between the cylinder block 10 and the rear housing 30 to regulate intake and discharge of refrigerant.
A prior art for assembling the double head piston 6 or the single head piston 40 to the swash plate 8 or 70 as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 is disclosed in Korean Patent Application Publication No.1999-0064088.
According to the prior art, when the pair of shoes are mounted on notch of the pistons with spherical surfaces of the shoes being laid toward bottoms of the notch, and a slide table loaded with the pistons is moved toward the swash plate, the spherical surfaces of the shoes are vertically rotated through the right and left outside the notch while flat surfaces of the shoes are contacted with both sides of the periphery of the swash plate so that the pistons together with the shoes are mounted on the swash plate. As a result, there is a problem that an additional pressing member is used to ensure a space so that a peripheral portion of the swash plate is inserted between the shoes before the pistons are assembled to the swash plate.
Although the assembling process of the prior art is completed when the spherical surfaces of the shoes are vertically rotated through the right and left outside the notch and at the same time flat surfaces of the shoes are contacted with both sides of the periphery of the swash plate, there is a problem that the shoes are frequently shifted in positions during being pressed by the pressing member and erroneously assembled to the swash plate thereby lowering assembly rate.
Since the prior art tightens center bolts installed in a center stand to fix both ends of a rotational shaft or uses center pins provided in a support head in order to fix the swash plate at a predetermined angle, there is another problem that an apparatus is complicated.
Furthermore, according to the prior art, both heads of the pistons assembled to the swash plate are supported by two piston supports or piston supports of the two support heads. Then, there is also a problem that the apparatus is complicated.

Apparatus for assembling swash plate with pistons in a swash plate compressor


A plurality of local network groups of computers (102) are coupled together by a network (104). Independent processing systems that execute a single operating system are coupled together by a network (220) to form the local network groups. The independent processing systems may have more than one CPU (202). One or more of the independent processing systems may share power, cooling and a housing, thereby forming a common fault processor group (200). An application is written to execute across multiple independent processing systems and common fault processor groups. That is, the application runs in many instances that each run on independent processing systems. The multiple instances of the application provide some measure of high availability by using N+K sparing or the like. The application is for example, call processing or radio control. A processor notification list (304) keeps track of the independent processing systems that cooperatively provide an application. The independent processing systems monitor state information for independent processing systems on its processor notification lists. Also, the independent processing systems exchange messages periodically with independent processing systems on its processor notification list. The failure to receive a message is noted as a failure that requires recovery.

Fault-tolerant and high availability processing systems are known. These systems are used in applications requiring high reliability and extremely low downtime. Exemplary applications for fault-tolerant or high availability systems include telecommunications applications, such as switching technology used in wire line and wireless telephone switching applications.
Computer-based distributed client-server type systems that are consistent with the ITU network model are being deployed in high-availability processing systems, such as telecommunications applications. Network elements, such as base stations in a wireless application, manage the access network resources, such as radios, channels, etc. Application processors (APs) make request of the network elements in order to fulfill their functions. Exemplary APs perform functions such as call processing, signaling, data traffic processing or the like.
Computer-based high availability systems typically require a relatively large amount of space or real estate. It is desirable to reduce the space required for high availability systems. Also, the cost must be reduced. These constraints are pushing telecommunications service providers to distribute applications across diskless commercial processors. Diskless commercial processors provide the price and performance needed for high availability systems such as telecommunications switching systems, but provide some reliability challenges.
One exemplary commercial high availability system includes a network interconnecting cluster groups of processors. Each cluster group has processors, including at least one boot processor and at least one satellite CPU. Typically the satellite CPUs are diskless. The boot processor includes a disk. The processors in the cluster groups run an operating system, such as UNIX, with a network file sharing ("NFS") feature. The network file sharing feature permits the processors in the same NFS group to seamlessly share disk storage. The diskless processors are booted with NFS, even though the processors may not have a disk directly attached to the processor. Each cluster group, which, in the case of NFS, is called an NFS group, typically includes a power system, cooling system, housing, and other common support functions. The common support functions reduce cost by spreading overhead among multiple processors. However, the common support functions are a single point of failure, which in large configurations, i.e., many processors, creates undesirable, large failure groups. High availability common support functions, such as N+K sparing of power supplies, fans, etc., increase availability, but also increase cost.
Software-based application processors are arranged to take advantage of the N+K processing power. Within a single cluster group running the NFS feature, applications run multiple software instances on one or more clients. A failure in a client is not fatal. However, a failure in the common support functions or boot processor of the single cluster group is fatal. Cluster group networking, where two or more cluster groups or NFS groups are connected over a network, (i.e., spans multiple NFS groups) is used to prevent a single failure in a cluster group from being fatal by providing at least one backup cluster group, i.e., a different NFS group.
In cluster group networking, the network should not be a single point of failure. Therefore, multiple access points to the network and independent network connections should be maintained. Even where there are two or more physical network access points for a single processor, for example, multiple network cards and network mediums, some network software requires that a single software stack be maintained on the processor. TCP/IP, a defacto standard in network software for IP-based systems, is a network software application that permits only one software stack per processor. The single stack is a potential single-point of failure. In order to avoid this single point of failure, another processor is provided to, among other things, add another network connection with another network stack. The additional processor has a separate path to at least one other processor and preferably to a plurality of processors. That is, the additional processor has a separate path or interface connecting it to the processor(s) that have the single software stack, which processors are typically in the same networking group or NFS group. This separate path is preferably more tightly integrated to the processor(s) and additional processor. That is, less software overhead and protocol is required for monitoring and control between the additional processor and the processor(s) tightly coupled to the additional processor. The tightly coupled path preferably provides capability for monitoring a processor "healthy" signal in hardware and controlling a signal to reset or reboot the processor. The additional processor is often called and serves as an alarm card, maintenance card, an alarm and maintenance card, chassis management card or watchdog card. This arrangement permits the processors in the system to collectively determine when a processor or communication path has a fault. Detection methods and recovery algorithms to provide the highest reliability are necessary to exploit this arrangement. The present invention provides such novel detection and recovery algorithms to provide extremely high availability.

Method and apparatus for high availability distributed processing across independent networked computer fault groups

Abstract: Multiple high availability software systems are permitted to coexist under a single operating system by virtue of a new software layer that coordinates initialization and requires registration of all high availability software.


The present invention relates to a stepper with additional functions to strengthen the arms and the breast which includes a stepper and a pull rod both of which are fitted to a base. The stepper has two treads each of which has a front assembly pivotably connected to the base. The pull rod is pivotably connected to upright rods at front end of the base. Moreover, it is coupled with a movable handle at top thereof and a connecting rod at bottom thereof. The other end of the connecting rod is pivotably connected to the front assembly of the stepper. Accordingly, the pull rod, the connecting rod and the front assembly are coupled with one another. A position-limiting bar is inserted through the front end extending from the outer side of the upright rods.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a stepper with additional functions to strengthen the arms and the chest, and more particularly, to a device to combine the stepping device with the arm and chest strengthening trainer.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As illustrated in FIG. 1, the earlier conventional mini stepper 1 has no components for the operator to hold on so that it""s unsafe in using. Thereafter, an improved stepper 2, as shown in FIG. 2, is fitted with a handle 21 for the operator to hold on to keep body balance. However, the monotone stepping action can""t reach the whole body exercise. Moreover, it tends to become boring for the operator. Thus, the persistence to use the exerciser will gradually disappear.
It is a primary object of the present invention to provide a stepper with additional functions to strengthen the arms and the chest in which the stepper and the arm and chest strengthening components can be dependently or independently operated. Therefore, the effect to combine the stepping exercise with the arm and the chest strengthening training is achieved.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a stepper with additional functions to strengthen the arms and the chest through which a variety of exercises can be done so that a multifunctional device is attainable.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a stepper with additional functions to strengthen the arms and the chest through which the body weight of the user serves as load when the operator takes the arm and chest strengthening training. Moreover, the whole design has the advantages of not occupying space and of being easy to operate.

Stepper with additional functions to strengthen the arms and the breast


An ice axe which includes a handle/shaft having a gripping end and a working end, an axe head attached to the working end, and a grip attached to the gripping end. The working end of the handle/shaft is configured with a shorter cross-sectional dimension along an axis parallel to a plane in which the axe would be swung when used. The axe head includes a pick end and an oppositely disposed hammer end, with the hammer end including a sharp ridge protruding generally in the direction of the handle/shaft and transversely thereof so as to allow the hammer end to be used as a hook for ice pockets, rock ledges, etc.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to ice axes used for ice or mountain climbing, and more particularly, to an ice axe which facilitates better penetration and gripping of ice on which the ice axe is used.
2. State of the Art
Ice and mountain climbing entail the extensive use of ice axes for ascending and descending ice, snow and rock, for positioning and driving anchor screws, bolts and pins, and for clearing obstacles. In ice climbing, the strength and safety of given placement depends largely upon getting the tip of the pick portion of the ice axe securely driven into the ice. Bulges in the ice or rock, or other obstacles, can inhibit driving the pick tip securely into the ice.
Attempts to enable driving the pick of an ice axe farther into ice or rock than would normally be possible, has resulted in equipment designers putting an exaggerated bend in the ice axe handle near the pick. That is, some ice axe handles have an exaggerated bend in the direction away from that of the pick, ostensibly to accommodate bulges or other obstacles which might otherwise interfere with the handle and prevent the pick from being driven in sufficiently far. Problems with this approach, however, are that (1) mass (the bend) is placed away from the center axis of the ice axe resulting in a higher rotational moment of inertia and making the axe feel unbalanced and unwieldly, and (2) the rotational center axis typically does not run through the handle at the grip area so it is more difficult keeping the axe in proper alignment for swinging the pick into ice or rock. Of course, it would be desirable to provide an ice axe in which the distance between the extreme tip of the pick and the near surface of the handle is maximized while at the same time configuring the axe such that the center axis thereof extends through the hand grip area of the handle to thus provide greater stability and control in using the ice axe.
Ice axes typically have a hammer head opposite the pick on the axe's working end. This hammer is designed primarily for driving bolts or pins. On conventional ice axes the hammer portion of the axe head is shorter than the pick relative to the center of the axe handle, and typically has a bottom surface that is flat. Additionally, the hammer is often provided with rounded flat side edges surrounding the hitting surface. This configuration causes the hammer head to function poorly as a means of engaging rock or ice and inhibits use of the hammer head for support on small ledges or in small pockets. Because of these concerns, some ice axes have a shorter pick opposite the longer standard pick, instead of a hammer head. While this configuration is useful for shallow depth hooking applications, the utility of a hammer is sacrificed. Thus, the user must choose between the ability to hammer spikes, etc., and the ability to grip in shallow pockets or rock edges.


Disclosed therein is an apparatus for producing a polycrystalline silicon ingot for a solar cell, which has uniform crystal grains formed by solidifying silicon melted in a crucible using a cooling plate. The polycrystalline silicon ingot producing apparatus includes: a crucible for melting silicon; conveying shafts for adjusting the height of the crucible; heaters for heating the crucible; and a cooling plate located below the crucible for cooling the crucible.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for producing a silicon ingot, and more particularly, to an apparatus for producing a polycrystalline silicon ingot used for a solar cell.
2. Background Art
Recently, according to an increase of the demand of solar cells of several tens percents or so yearly, the demand of polycrystalline silicon ingots for the solar cells is also increased greatly every year. In general, the polycrystalline silicon ingot for the solar cell is produced through the steps of charging a raw silicon material into a quartz or graphite crucible and melting it, followed by directional solidification.
FIG. 1 is a sectional view of an apparatus for producing a polycrystalline semiconductor ingot according to the prior art.
Referring to FIG. 1, the apparatus for producing the polycrystalline semiconductor ingot disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,136,091 will be described. The apparatus for producing the polycrystalline semiconductor ingot includes: a main body 140 having a chamber consisting of a hot zone therein; a quartz or graphite crucible 170 for containing a raw silicon material therein; supporting means (not shown) for supporting the quartz or graphite crucible 170; a sectional type rectangular heater 110 aligned around the crucible 170 to supply radiant heat energy for melting the raw silicon material; another crucible 170′ for intercepting heat emitted around the quartz or graphite crucible 170; an insulating member 190 aligned around the sectional type rectangular heater 110; and a cooling jacket 160 having a cooling water inlet line 150 and a cooling water outlet line 180 for controlling temperature of the apparatus. So, a crucible protective layer is coated on the inner surface of the quartz or the graphite crucible, the raw silicon material is charged into the crucible, and then, the crucible and the completed sectional type rectangular heater are assembled to a casting device.
After the crucible and the sectional type rectangular heater are assembled to the inside of the casting device, vacuum is applied to the device to remove the air inside the device, and then, argon gas is supplied into the device of a vacuum state to change the internal pressure of the device into atmospheric pressure. The above process is repeatedly performed three times. After that, cooling water is supplied to cool the wall surface of the device, and continuously, power source is supplied to the sectional type rectangular heater to heat the inside temperature of the crucible up to more than 1,450° C. The above state is kept for more than two hours. When silicon charged into the crucible is completely melted, the power source supplied to the sectional type rectangular heater is controlled such that the crucible is cooled to the upper portion thereof from the lower portion thereof.
However, since the cooling of the crucible proceeding from the lower portion thereof to the upper portion thereof is not uniform only by the control of the power source supplied to the heater, it is difficult to achieve a uniform crystal growth, and ununiformity of a physical property of the ingot may be caused.
Japanese Patent Nos. 11,092,284 and 11,116,386 disclose an improved production of silicon ingot having a polycrystal structure coagulated in one direction. In Japanese Patent Nos. 11,092,284 and 11,116,386, for more improved temperature control, provided are a vertically movable crucible 170 and a conveying shaft located at the central portion of a pedestal. However, such prior art arrangement exhibit a problem in that heat applied to the crucible 170 escapes to the outside through the conveying shaft to cause a loss of heat.
It follows that the efficiency of the prior art arrangements is poor.
DE-A-19855061 discloses a melting furnace that includes a heater fired beneath a crucible and a horizontally moveable cooking plate.

Manufacturing equipment for polysilicon ingot


There is provided an apparatus that detects a moving object which includes an interface unit to receive, from a radar, measurement data of a distance from the radar and a reception level signal reflected by an object located at the distance from the radar; a background data updating unit to detect the reception level signal that is greater than or equal to a first threshold from each of a plurality of the measurement data, a background value that indicates a generation frequency for levels of the reception level signal that become greater than or equal to the first threshold; a moving object detecting unit to detect the object as a moving object, the object having the background value that is less than a background value of a stationary object that is located in same distance of the object.

There is a known technology that detects a vehicle traveling on a road based on data measured by a radar in order to collect information regarding, for example, traffic volume. A system to detect a travelling vehicle needs to avoid erroneously detecting a stationary body as a travelling vehicle. Here a stationary body may include a fixed object such as, for example, a guardrail or an object that does not move for a given period of time such as, for example, a stopped vehicle. Therefore, a technology is proposed that acquires background data indicating the position of a stationary object and detects a travelling vehicle by excluding the position of the stationary object, which is indicated by the background data, from the data measured by a radar. See, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication Nos. 2000-172980 and 2002-99986.
For example, an obstacle detecting method disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2000-172980 performs processing to detect an obstacle candidate from a difference between scanning data obtained using a millimeter wave sensor installed by a road and background data that does not include an obstacle. The method then repeats the process and detects an obstacle when the obstacle candidate continues to be present. A traveling vehicle detecting method disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2002-99986 tracks a vehicle with every scan of a millimeter wave radar installed above the road and detects a travelling vehicle using the acquired tracking data. In the traveling vehicle detecting method, the data of a fixed object such as a guardrail is eliminated by subtracting the background data from the scanning data.
In particular, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication Nos. 2000-172980 and 2002-99986 disclose that the background data is updated by adding, to the background data, a value acquired by multiplying the gradation data prepared from the measurement data in each of the distances within a detection range of the radar by a forgetting coefficient.

Moving object detecting apparatus, moving object detecting method, and computer readable recording medium


A high-purity diphenyl carbonate, wherein the diphenyl carbonate is unsubstituted or substituted with a lower hydrocarbon, and has a halogen content of not more than 0.1 ppm, a content of an intermediate boiling point material of not more than 100 ppm, and a content of by-products having a higher boiling point than that of said diphenyl carbonate of not more than 100 ppm. A specific industrially useful process for the production of a high-purity diaryl carbonate in which a diaryl carbonate having low contents of intermediate boiling point and high boiling point impurities is produced is disclosed. As a starting material, a reaction mixture containing an alkyl aryl carbonate obtained through a transesterification reaction between a dialkyl carbonate and an aromatic monohydroxy compound is used. The process in which separation by distillation is carried out uses three distillation columns in a specified order.

A high-purity diphenyl carbonate is important as a raw material for the production of an aromatic polycarbonate, which is the most widely used engineering plastics, without using toxic phosgene. As a process for producing an aromatic carbonate, a process of reacting an aromatic monohydroxy compound with phosgene has been known from long ago, and has also been the subject of a variety of studies in recent years. However, this process has the problem of using phosgene, and in addition chlorinated impurities that are difficult to separate out are present in the aromatic carbonate produced using this process, and hence this aromatic carbonate cannot be used as a raw material for the production of the aromatic polycarbonate. Because such chlorinated impurities markedly inhibit the polymerization reaction in the transesterification method which is carried out in the presence of an extremely small amount of a basic catalyst; for example, even if such chlorinated impurities are present in an amount of only 1 ppm, the polymerization hardly proceeds at all. To make the aromatic carbonate capable of using as a raw material of a transesterification method polycarbonate, a troublesome multi-stage separation/purification processes such as enough washing with a dilute aqueous alkaline solution and hot water, oil/water separation, distillation and so on are thus required. Furthermore, the yield of aromatic carbonate decreases due to hydrolysis loss and distillation loss during this separation/purification processes. Therefore, there are many problems in carrying out this method economically on an industrial scale.
On the other hand, a process for producing aromatic carbonates through transesterification reactions between a dialkyl carbonate and an aromatic monohydroxy compound is also known. However, such transesterification reactions are all equilibrium reactions. The equilibrium is biased extremely toward the original system and the reaction rate is slow, and hence there are many difficulties in producing aromatic carbonates industrially using this method. Two types of proposals have been made to improve on the above difficulties. These are developments of a catalyst to increase the reaction rate, and attempts to devise a reaction system so as to shift the equilibrium toward the product system as much as possible and thus improve the aromatic carbonate yield. For example, for the reaction between dimethyl carbonate and phenol, there have been proposed a process in which methanol produced as a by-product is distilled off by azeotropy together with an azeotrope-forming agent, a process in which the methanol produced as a by-product is removed by being adsorbed onto a molecular sieve, and a process in which, using an apparatus in which a distillation column is provided on top of a reactor, an alcohol produced as a by-product in the reaction is separated off from the reaction mixture, and at the same time unreacted starting material that evaporates is separated off by distillation (see Patent Document 1: examples in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 56-123948 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4,182,726)).
However, these reaction systems have basically been batch system or switchover system. Because there are limitations in the improvement of the reaction rate through catalyst development for such transesterification reactions, and the reaction rates are still slow, and thus it has been thought that the batch system is preferable to a continuous system. Of these, a continuous stirring tank reactor (CSTR) system in which a distillation column is provided on the top of the reactor has been proposed as the continuous system, but there are problems such as the reaction rate being slow, and a gas-liquid interface in the reactor being small, based on the volume of the liquid. Hence it is not possible to make the conversion high.
The present inventors have developed reactive distillation methods in which such a transesterification reaction is carried out in a continuous multi-stage distillation column simultaneously with separation by distillation, and have been the first in the world to disclose that such a reactive distillation system is useful for such a transesterification reaction, for example, a reactive distillation method in which a dialkyl carbonate and an aromatic hydroxy compound are continuously fed into the multi-stage distillation column, and the reaction is carried out continuously inside the column in which a catalyst is present, while continuously withdrawing a low boiling point component containing an alcohol produced as a by-product by distillation and continuously withdrawing a component containing a produced alkyl aryl carbonate from a lower portion of the column (see Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 3-291257), a reactive distillation method in which an alkyl aryl carbonate is continuously fed into the multi-stage distillation column, and the reaction is carried out continuously inside the column in which a catalyst is present, while continuously withdrawing a low boiling point component containing a dialkyl carbonate produced as a by-product by distillation, and continuously withdrawing a component containing a produced diaryl carbonate from a lower portion of the column (see Patent document 3: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-9358), a reactive distillation method in which these reactions are carried out using two continuous multi-stage distillation columns, and hence a diaryl carbonate is produced continuously while efficiently recycling a dialkyl carbonate produced as a by-product (see Patent document 4: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-211038), and a reactive distillation method in which a dialkyl carbonate and an aromatic hydroxy compound or the like are continuously fed into the multi-stage distillation column, and a liquid that flows down through the column is withdrawn from a side outlet provided at an intermediate stage and/or a lowermost stage of the distillation column, and is introduced into a reactor provided outside the distillation column so as to bring about reaction, and is then introduced back through a circulating inlet provided at a stage above the stage where the outlet is provided, whereby reaction is carried out in both the reactor and the distillation column (see Patent Documents 5: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-224547; Patent Document 6: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-230242; Patent Document 7: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-235951).
These reactive distillation methods proposed by the present inventors are the first to enable aromatic carbonates to be produced continuously and efficiently, and many similar reactive distillation systems based on the above disclosures have been proposed thereafter (see Patent Document 8: International Publication No. 00/18720 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 5,362,901); Patent Document 9: Italian Patent No. 01255746; Patent Document 10: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-9506 (corresponding to European Patent No. 0560159, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,282,965); Patent Document 11: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-41022 (corresponding to European Patent No. 0572870, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,362,901); Patent Documents 12: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-157424 (corresponding to European Patent No. 0582931, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,334,742); Patent Document 13: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-184058 (corresponding to European Patent No. 0582930, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,344,954); Patent Document 14: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-304713; Patent Document 15: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-40616; Patent Document 16: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-59225; Patent Document 17: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-110805; Patent Document 18: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-165357; Patent Document 19: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-173819; Patent Document 20: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-176094; Patent Document 21: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-191596; Patent Document 22: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-191597; Patent Document 23: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-194436 (corresponding to European Patent No. 0785184, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,705,673); Patent Document 24: International Publication No. 00/18720 (corresponding to U.S. Patent No. 6,093,842); Patent Document 25: International Publication No. 01/042187 (corresponding to Published Japanese Translation of PCT Application No. 2003-516376); Patent Document 26: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-64234; Patent Document 27: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-64235; Patent Document 28: International Publication No. 02/40439 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,596,894, 6,596,895, and 6,600,061)).
Among the reactive distillation systems, the present applicants have further proposed, as a method that enables highly pure aromatic carbonates to be produced stably for a prolonged period of time without a large amount of a catalyst being required, a method in which a high boiling point material containing a catalyst component is reacted with an active substance and then separated off, and the catalyst component is recycled (see Patent Document 29: International Publication No. 97/11049 (corresponding to European Patent No. 0855384, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,872,275)), and a method carried out while keeping the weight ratio of a polyhydric aromatic hydroxy compound in the reaction system to a catalyst metal at not more than 2.0 (see Patent Document 30: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-92429 (corresponding to European Patent No. 1016648, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,262,210)). Furthermore, the present inventors have also proposed a method in which 70 to 99% by weight of phenol produced as a by-product in a polymerization process is used as a starting material, and diphenyl carbonate can be produced by means of the reactive distillation method. This diphenyl carbonate can be used as the raw material for polymerization to produce aromatic polycarbonates (see Patent Documents 31: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-255772 (corresponding to European Patent No. 0892001, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,747,609)).
As methods for separating a diaryl carbonate from the reaction mixture containing the diaryl carbonate that has been produced through transesterification reaction and the like between a dialkyl carbonate and an aromatic monohydroxy compound as a starting material as described above, and then purifying the diaryl carbonate, crystallization methods, distillation methods and the like have been proposed. With regard to the distillation methods, three methods have been proposed. One is a method in which the diaryl carbonate is obtained as a column top component from a distillation column; for example, there are:
I) a method in which the reaction mixture containing the catalyst is distilled as is in a batch type distillation column, and the diphenyl carbonate is obtained as the column top component (see Example 2 of Patent Document 10);
II) a method in which the reaction mixture containing the catalyst is subjected to flash evaporation, and thus separated into a high boiling point material containing most of the catalyst and a low boiling point material, and then the low boiling point material is distilled in a distillation column for starting material recovery, and a catalyst-containing diphenyl carbonate is obtained as a column bottom material, and then this column bottom material is distilled in a purifying column, whereby the diphenyl carbonate is obtained as a column top component (see Patent Document 33: Example 1 in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 4-100824; Patent Document 34: Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 9-169704); and
III) a method in which the reaction mixture containing the catalyst is distilled in a distillation column (or evaporator), and thus separated into a high boiling point material containing most of the catalyst and a low boiling point material, and then the low boiling point material is subjected to continuous sequential distillation using a distillation apparatus comprising three columns, i.e. a light fraction separating column, a methyl phenyl carbonate separating column, and a diphenyl carbonate separating column, whereby diphenyl carbonate is obtained as a column top component (see Patent Document 17).
Another is a method in which the diaryl carbonate is obtained as a column bottom component from a distillation column; for example, there is:
IV) a method in which the reaction mixture containing the catalyst is distilled in a distillation column, and thus separated into a high boiling point material containing most of the catalyst and a low boiling point material, and then the low boiling point material is distilled in a distillation column, and the diphenyl carbonate is obtained as a column bottom component (see Patent Document 26).
The other is a method in which the diaryl carbonate is obtained as a side cut component from a distillation column; for example, there are:
V) a method in which the reaction mixture containing the catalyst is introduced into a third reactive distillation column, and further reaction and distillation are carried out, whereby the diphenyl carbonate is obtained as a side cut component from the reactive distillation column (see Patent Documents 12 and 13);
VI) a method in which the reaction mixture containing the catalyst is subjected to flash evaporation, and thus separated into a high boiling point material containing most of the catalyst and a low boiling point material, and then the low boiling point material is introduced into a distillation column and distillation is carried out, whereby the diphenyl carbonate is obtained as a side cut component from the reactive distillation column (see Patent Documents 30 and 31; Patent Document 35: International Publication No. 92/18458 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 5,426,207);
VII) a method in which the reaction mixture containing the catalyst is distilled in a first purifying column, and thus separated into a high boiling point material containing most of the catalyst and a low boiling point material, and then the low boiling point material is introduced into a second purifying column and distillation is carried out, whereby the diphenyl carbonate is obtained as a side cut component from the second purifying column (see Patent Document 36: Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 11-49727); and
VIII) a method in which diphenyl carbonate containing phenyl salicylate is introduced into a distillation column having the number of theoretical stages being from 5 to 15, and distillation is carried out at a column bottom temperature of not less than 150° C., whereby the diphenyl carbonate is obtained as a side cut component from the distillation column (see Patent Document 32: Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 9-194437 (corresponding to European Patent No. 0784048)).
However, it has been shown that various problems remain with such diaryl carbonate separation/purification methods using these distillations. More specifically, the purity of the diphenyl carbonate obtained through the above I) is low, and moreover this is a batch process and hence is not suitable for mass production on an industrial scale. Regarding the above II), the method of Patent Document 33 is a batch method, and the diphenyl carbonate which was obtained through the method disclosed in Patent Document 34 contains a titanium catalyst, albeit in an amount of not more than 1 ppm, and hence is not suitable as a raw material for the production of a high-purity discolored polycarbonate. With the method of the above III), since the diphenyl carbonate is heated to a high temperature at the bottom of each of two of the distillation columns, i.e. the light fraction separating column and the methyl phenyl carbonate separating column, and is then subjected to a high temperature in the diphenyl carbonate separating column, the diphenyl carbonate is altered, bringing about a decrease in the purity and a decrease in the yield, which is undesirable. In actual fact, the diphenyl carbonate obtained in Example 1 in Patent Document 17 contains approximately 300 ppm of high boiling point by-products. The process of IV in which the diphenyl carbonate is obtained from the bottom of the column is unsuitable since the purity is low and hence a desired polycarbonate cannot be produced.
Since with the process of V, a reaction mixture containing all of the catalyst, unreacted starting material and impurities from the bottom of the second reactive distillation column is introduced into the third reactive distillation column from an upper portion thereof and the diphenyl carbonate is withdrawn from the side of the third reactive distillation column, vapor or mist of the starting material, the impurities, the catalyst or the like may thus be entrained, and hence the purity of the diphenyl carbonate obtained is low. The processes of VI and VII are preferable processes, but there is no mention of the presence of intermediate boiling point impurities having a boiling point between the alkyl aryl carbonate and the diaryl carbonate. Moreover, with the process of VIII, although it is stated that the content of phenyl salicylate is reduced from 3000 ppm to 50 ppm (Example 2 of Patent Document 32), nothing is mentioned whatsoever for other impurities. For example, even though the diphenyl carbonate is produced using the phosgene method in this example, and hence this is definitely a purification process for diphenyl carbonate containing chlorinated impurities, nothing is mentioned whatsoever with regard to the chlorinated impurities (which have an adverse effect on the polymerization to produce a polycarbonate and the properties of the polycarbonate even in an extremely small amount of only a few tens of ppb). With this process, such chlorinated impurities are not separated out sufficiently, and hence it is not be possible to use the diphenyl carbonate as a raw material for a polycarbonate. This is obvious from the fact that the chlorine content is 30 ppb in the diphenyl carbonate (in which after washing with alkaline hot water, and with hot water, and then water and the lower boiling point material is removed by distillation, the resulting diphenyl carbonate not containing water is purified by distillation) obtained in Comparative Example 1 of Patent Document 37 (Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 11-12230: this application was filed more than one year after Patent Document 32), which discloses the similar purifying method as the above process.
Furthermore, in Patent Document 32, the temperature and time at which phenol starts to be distilled off in the case that reaction is carried out with bisphenol A are given as a method of evaluating the purity of the diphenyl carbonate obtained through the distillation, but this test method cannot evaluate whether the diphenyl carbonate is suitable for polymerization. This is because even for diphenyl carbonate of low purity such that a polycarbonate of the required degree of polymerization cannot be produced, the initial reaction in which phenol is eliminated occurs sufficiently. Moreover, since with this evaluation method, a large amount of 2.3 ppm of NaOH based on the bisphenol A is used as a catalyst, even for diphenyl carbonate containing, for example, 1 ppm of chlorinated impurities, an incorrect evaluation that the diphenyl carbonate is of high purity and is suitable as a raw material for a polycarbonate would be obtained. As stated earlier, the diphenyl carbonate containing 1 ppm of chlorinated impurities cannot be used as the raw material for the polycarbonate at all. In ordinary polymerization, since such a large amount of an alkaline catalyst is not used, this evaluation method is not suitable for evaluating the purity of diphenyl carbonate to be used for producing polycarbonate. Further, in Patent Document 32, there is no specific description whatsoever of purification of diphenyl carbonate that has been obtained using the transesterification method. Since the types and contents of impurities differ between diphenyl carbonate obtained through the phosgene method and diphenyl carbonate obtained using the transesterification method, it cannot be said that diphenyl carbonate of the same purity will be obtained through the same purification method. It thus cannot be said at all that diphenyl carbonate having the required purity for the raw material of the polycarbonate would be obtained through the purification method of Patent Document 32.
A reaction mixture obtained as a column bottom component by taking as a starting material a reaction mixture containing an alkyl aryl carbonate obtained through a transesterification reaction between a dialkyl carbonate and an aromatic monohydroxy compound, continuously feeding this starting material into a reactive distillation column comprising a continuous multi-stage distillation column in which a homogeneous catalyst is present, and carrying out a transesterification reaction and distillation simultaneously in the column generally contains small amounts of various reaction by-products in addition to the diaryl carbonate, the starting material and the catalyst. Such by-products are known to include by-products having a lower boiling point than that of the aromatic monohydroxy compound used as a starting material such as an alkyl aryl ether (e.g. anisole), and by-products having a higher boiling point than that of the diaryl carbonate such as an aryloxycarbonyl-(hydroxy)-arene (e.g. phenyl salicylate) and an aryloxycarbonyl-(aryloxycarboxyl)-arene, and processes for separating these out have been proposed. For example, processes for separating out anisole (see Patent Documents 16, 17 and 20), and processes for separating out phenyl salicylate (see Patent Documents 32 and 36) have been proposed.
By carrying out more detailed studies on processes for the continuous production of the diary carbonate, the present inventors have discovered that in addition to these publicly known impurities, intermediate boiling point by-products having a boiling point between the alkyl aryl carbonate and the diaryl carbonate are also present. Hitherto, there have been no documents whatsoever disclosing the presence of such intermediate boiling point by-products or a process for removing the same. When a diaryl carbonate for which the amounts of such intermediate boiling point by-products and high boiling point by-products have not been reduced down to a sufficient level is used as the raw material of a transesterification method polycarbonate, it has been discovered that these intermediate boiling point by-products and high boiling point by-products cause discoloration and a deterioration in the properties of the polycarbonate produced. It is thus necessary to reduce the amounts of both intermediate boiling point by-products and high boiling point by-products as much as possible.

Process for production of high-purity diaryl carbonate


Substituted benzoimidazole compounds useful as anti-infectives that decrease resistance, virulence, or growth of microbes are provided. Methods of making and using substituted benzoimidazole compounds, as well as pharmaceutical preparations thereof, in, e.g., reducing antibiotic resistance and inhibiting biofilms.

Most antibiotics currently used and in development to treat bacterial infections impose selective pressure on microorganisms and have led to the development of widespread antibiotic resistance. Therefore, the development of an alternative approach to treating microbial infections would be of great benefit.
Multidrug resistance in bacteria is generally attributed to the acquisition of multiple transposons and plasmids bearing genetic determinants for different mechanisms of resistance (Gold et al. 1996. N. Engl. J. Med. 335:1445). However, descriptions of intrinsic mechanisms that confer multidrug resistance have begun to emerge. The first of these was a chromosomally encoded multiple antibiotic resistance (mar) locus in Escherichia coli (George and Levy, 1983. J. Bacteriol. 155:531; George and Levy 1983 J. Bacteriol. 155:541). Mar mutants of E. coli arose at a frequency of 10−6 to 10−7 and were selected by growth on subinhibitory levels of tetracycline or chloramphenicol (George and Levy, supra). These mutants exhibited resistance to tetracyclines, chloranphenicol, penicillins, cephalosporins, puromycin, nalidixic acid, and rifampin (George and Levy, supra). Later, the resistance phenotype was extended to include fluoroquinolones (Cohen et al. 1989. Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 33:1318), oxidative stress agents (Ariza et al. 1994. J. Bacteriol. 176:143; Greenberg et al. 1991. J. Bacteriol. 73:4433), and more recently, organic solvents (White et al. 1997. J. of Bacteriology 179:6122; Asako, et al. 1997. J. Bacteriol. 176:143) and household disinfectants, e.g., pine oil and/or TRICLOSAN® (McMurry et al. 1998. FEMS Microbiology Letters 166:305; Moken et al. 1997. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy 41:2770).
The mar locus consists of two divergently positioned transcriptional units that flank a common promoter/operator region in E. coli, Salmonella typhimurium, and other Entrobacteriacae (Alekshun and Levy. 1997, Antimicrobial Agents and Chemother. 41: 2067). One operon encodes MarC, a putative integral inner membrane protein without any yet apparent function, but which appears to contribute to the Mar phenotype in some strains. The other operon comprises marRAB, encoding the Mar repressor (MarR), which binds marO and negatively regulates expression of marRAB (Cohen et al. 1994. J. Bacteriol. 175:1484; Martin and Rosner 1995. PNAS 92:5456; Seoane and Levy. 1995 J. Bacteriol. 177:530), an activator (MarA), which controls expression of other genes on the chromosome, e.g., the mar regulon (Cohen et al. 1994 J. Bacteriol. 175:1484; Gambino et. al. 1993. J. Bacteriol. 175:2888; Seoane and Levy, 1995 J. Bacteriol. 177:530), and a putative small protein (MarB) of unknown function.
Exposure of E. coli to several chemicals, including tetracycline and chloramphenicol (Hachler et al. 1991 J Bacteriol 173(17):5532-8; Ariza, 1994, J Bacteriol; 176(1):143-8), sodium salicylate and its derivatives (Cohen, 1993, J Bacteriol; 175(24):7856-62) and oxidative stress agents (Seoane et al. 1995. J Bacteriol; 177(12):3414-9) induces the Mar phenotype. Some of these chemicals act directly at the level of MarR by interacting with the repressor and inactivating its function (Alekshun. 1999. J. Bacteriol. 181:3303-3306) while others (antibiotics such as tetracycline and chloramphenicol) appear to induce mar expression by an alternative mechanism (Alekshun. 1999. J. Bacteriol. 181:3303-3306) e.g., through a signal transduction pathway.
Once expressed, MarA activates the transcription of several genes that constitute the E. coli mar regulon (Alekshun, 1997, Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 41:2067-2075; Alekshun, 1999, J. Bacteriol. 181:3303-3306). With respect to decreased antibiotic susceptibility, the increased expression of the AcrAB/TolC multidrug efflux system (Fralick, 1996, J Bacteriol. 178(19):5803-5; Okusu, 1996 J Bacteriol; 178(1):306-8) and decreased synthesis of OmpF (Cohen, 1988, J Bacteriol.; 170(12):5416-22) an outer membrane protein, play major roles. Organic solvent tolerance, however, is attributed to MarA mediating increased expression of AcrAB, TolC, OmpX, and a 77 kDa protein (Aono, 1998, Extremophiles; 2(3):239-48; Aono, 1998 J Bacteriol; 180(4):938-44.) but is independent of OmpF levels (Asako, 1999, Appl Environ Microbiol; 65(1):294-6).
MarA is a member of the XylS/AraC family of transcriptional activators (Gallegos et al. 1993. Nucleic Acids Res. 21:807). There are more than 100 proteins within the XylS/AraC family and a defining characteristic of this group of proteins is the presence of two helix-turn-helix (HTH) DNA binding motifs. Proteins within this family activate many different genes, some of which produce antibiotic and oxidative stress resistance or control microbial metabolism and virulence (Gallegos et al. supra).

Transcription factor modulating compounds and methods of use thereof


The present invention discloses a resonator gyroscope comprising a resonator including two bodies, each with a center of mass and transverse inertia symmetry about an axis that are substantially coincident and each supported by one or more elastic elements and wherein the bodies together forming two differential rocking modes of vibration transverse to the axis with substantially equal frequencies and wherein the two bodies transfer substantially no net momentum to the baseplate when the resonator is excited. The gyroscope further includes a baseplate affixed to the resonator by the one or more elastic elements.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to gyroscopes, and in particular to improved resonator microgyroscopes and their manufacture.
2. Description of the Related Art
Gyroscopes are used to determine direction based upon the sensed inertial reaction of a moving mass. In various forms they are often employed as a critical sensor for vehicles such as aircraft and spacecraft. They are generally useful for navigation or whenever it is necessary to determine the orientation of a free object.
Older conventional gyroscopes were very heavy mechanisms, employing relatively large spinning masses by current standards. A number of recent technologies have brought new forms of gyroscopes, including optical gyroscopes such as laser gyroscopes and fiberoptic gyroscopes as well as vibratory gyroscopes.
Spacecraft often depend on inertial rate sensing gyroscopic systems to supplement attitude control. Typical systems employ conventional spinning mass gyroscopes or conventionally-machined hemispherical resonator gyroscopes to provide the high pointing stability required for spacecraft payloads operating high above the earth. However, both of these types of gyroscopes are expensive, large and heavy.
Some prior symmetric vibratory gyroscopes have been produced, however, their vibratory momentum is transfered directly to their baseplates or packages. This transfer or coupling admits external disturbances and energy loss indistinguishable from inertial rate input and hence leads to sensing errors and drift. One example of such a vibratory gyroscope may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,894,090 to Tang et al. which describes a symmetric cloverleaf vibratory gyroscope design and is hereby incorporated by reference herein. Other planar tuning fork gyroscopes may achieve a degree of isolation of the vibration from the baseplate, however these gyroscopes lack the vibrational symmetry desirable for tuned operation. In addition, shell mode gyroscopes, such as the hemispherical resonator gyroscope and vibrating ring gyroscope, which can have desirable isolation and vibrational symmetry attributes, are not suitable for thin planar silicon implementation with sensitive electrostatic sensors and actuators that take advantage of the large planar areas of the device
The scale of previous silicon microgyroscopes (e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,894,090) has not been optimized for navigation grade performance resulting in higher noise and drift than desired. This problem stems from use of thin eptiaxially grown silicon flexures to define critical vibration frequencies that are limited to 0.1% thickness accuracy and limit device sizes to a few millimeters. The former results in high drift due to vibrational asymmetry or unbalance and the latter results in high rate noise due to lower mass increasing thermal mechanical noise and lower area increasing capacitance sensor electronics noise. Scaling up of non-isolated silicon microgyros is also problematic because external energy losses will increase with no improvement in resonator Q and no reduction in case-sensitive drift. An isolated, cm scale resonator with many orders of magnitude in 3D manufacturing precision is required for navigation grade performance. Conventionally machined navigation grade resonators such as in hemispherical or shell gyros have the optimum scale, e.g. 30 mm and 3D manufacturing precision and hence desirable drift and noise performance, however are expensive and slow to make. Conventional laser trimming of mechanical resonators can further improve manufacturing precision to some degree, however it is not suitable for microgyros with narrow mechanical gaps and has limited resolution necessitating larger electrostatic bias adjustments in the final tuning process.
There is a need in the art for small microgyros with greatly improved performance for navigation and spacecraft payload pointing. There is also a need for such gyros to be cheaper and more easily manufactured with greater 3D mechanical precision. Finally, there is a need for such gyros to have desirable isolation and vibrational symmetry attributes while being compatible with planar silicon manufacturing. The present invention satisfies all these needs.


In a redox battery including an electrolytic cell which has a circulating type electrolytic solution and an intermittent circulating type electrolytic solution which has a membrane and which employs an electrolytic solution permeable porous electrode, a solution of vanadium (II/III) dissolved in sulfuric acid is used as an active material on the negative electrode of a redox couple, and an oxidizing substance in a gas (such as oxygen) or in electrolytic solution is used as an active material on the positive electrode of the redox couple. The redox battery of the invention shows high energy density, and has a small size and a high output, thus it can be used for an electric vehicle or as a portable battery.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a redox battery and, more particularly to a redox type secondary battery (hereinafter called redox battery) using a vanadium solution of reduction state and an oxidizing substance as a redox couple.
2. Description of the Invention
A redox flow type battery has active materials in electrolytic solution form and charging and discharging are carried out by the redox reaction, by circulating the active materials on positive and negative electrodes in a circulating type electrolytic cell and an intermittent circulating type solution having a membrane, and employing a solution permeable porous electrode. Compared to a conventional secondary battery, a redox flow type battery has the following advantages.
1) In order to increase the storage capacity, only the volume of the storing vessel needs to be increased. The amount of active materials, and, the electrolytic cell itself does not need to be changed unless it is desired to increase the output.
2) Since the active materials on the negative and positive electrodes can be completely separated and stored in each tank, the possibility of self-discharging is less than in those batteries where the active material is contacted with the electrode.
3) With the solution permeating type carbon porous electrode used in this battery the charging/discharging reaction of the active material ions (electrode reaction) is carried out only by exchanging the electrons on the electrode surface, and material is not deposited on the electrode, unlike zinc ions, thus the reaction of the battery is simple.
A redox flow type battery considered to be at a practical level of development at the moment, uses chromium (II, III) and iron (II, III) as a redox couple, and shows excellent performance depending on its use. In long term use, however, the battery has certain defects in that the iron and the chromium cannot be kept from mixing with each other through the membrane of the electrolytic cell resulting in both of the active materials becoming mixtures of iron and chromium. They are thus subject to the limitations of solubility and the concentration of each material cannot be maintained at a high level. Also, in the case of a chromium/iron type battery, the output voltage is around 0.9-1 volt per electric cell, the energy density of the cells (obtained by dividing the amount of energy which can be taken out by discharging, with the cell volume) becomes only around 30 watt hour/liter.
In order to mitigate these shortcomings, a redox flow type battery using chromium chlorine type redox couples, etc. has been suggested (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 61-24172), however, an electrolytic solution for a battery composed of an optimal redox couple has not yet been found as shown below.
With chromium, chlorine type redox couples, high concentrations of chloride ion are required since the chlorine is used as the active material. Also, a high concentration of hydrochloric acid is used in order to reduce the electric resistance of an ion exchange membrane used as the membrane, since a cation exchange membrane is chosen for migrating hydrogen ions. However, as the redox potentials of divalent and trivalent chromium ions are close to that of the hydrogen generating potential, the higher the acid concentration becomes, the more the side reaction of hydrogen gas generation is increased, resulting in a lowering of efficiency. Due to the coexistence of high concentration chloride ions, the solubility of chromium ions is decreased as well.
Use of halide acid solutions of iron, copper, tin, nickel and halogen, etc. as an active material to improve the electrode reaction at the positive and negative electrodes, has been suggested (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 60-207258), however, none of the combinations are quite satisfactory due to their low electromotive force per electric cell, or complex cell reaction of depositing a metal on the electrode.
Furthermore, an all-vanadium redox flow type battery (J. Electrochem. Soc., 133 1057 (1986), U.S. Pat. No. 4,786,567, using a redox ion couple of vanadium (IV, V) and vanadium (III, II) dissolved in sulforic acid solution as positive and negative electrolytes (J. Power Sources, 15 179, and 16 85 (1985)) has been proposed. However, since it uses expensive vanadyl sulfate, a means to provide inexpensive vanadium is required for the practical use of the technique.
In this context, a redox battery using vanadium ions (III, II) for the negative electrode and halogen or iron ions for the positive electrode has been invented (Japanese Patent Application No. 2-121764). Although the battery had an electromotive force which was comparable to that of an all-vanadium system, since halogen was used as the active material on the positive electrode, it has a problem of requiring a system for storing the active material.
According to U.S. Pat. No. 4,786,567, the electrolytic solution of vanadium is produced from vanadyl sulfate (VOSO.sub.4), by dissolving it in sulfuric acid of 0.1-5 mol/liter (M) and the resulting solution having a vanadium concentration of 0.01-2.5M is used as the battery electrolyte. Since vanadyl sulfate is very expensive as already mentioned it is not suitable for a battery electrolyte to be used in large amounts.
The authors have already proposed a technique to produce a relatively inexpensive vanadium type electrolyte from a vanadium resource in petroleum combustion soot (U.S. Ser. No. 772,794), which is aimed at finding an inexpensive vanadium resource and utilizing a by-product from a Flue gas treatment process. It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a redox battery having a small size, an improved energy density, and a high output, which can be used for an electric vehicle or as a portable battery, based on the above mentioned finding.

Director-General, Agency of Industrial Science and Technology


The elevator alert includes an elevator pit can (10) and a float switch (240) disposed therein. The float switch (240) produces an alarm-activating signal when the pit can (10) is nearly full and overflow of oil into the pit is imminent. An alarm control unit (200) takes alarm-activating signals from one or more float switch-equipped pit cans (10) to operate a relay (405a, 405b) to drive various kinds of alarms and/or elevator controls. A loudspeaker (210) on the pit can (10) emits an audible alarm when the float switch (240) is closed. Optionally, a remote alarm (300) is provided, the remote alarm (300) being activated when the remote alarm float switch (250) is closed. Users of the elevator, such as passenger or building occupants, would hear the audible alarm and call maintenance to thereby prevent an oil spill. The device can be retrofit to existing elevator pit cans.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to maintenance and safety devices for hydraulic elevators, and particularly to an elevator alert that emits an audible alarm when too much hydraulic fluid from leakage collects in an elevator pit.
2. Background Art
It is commonplace to utilize hydraulic cylinders for passenger or cargo raising and lowering within an elevator environment. The elevator car is raised and lowered by the below located hydraulic piston and cylinder assembly, which is typically located below grade or ground level in an elevator pit. Usually, with this type of elevator system, the hydraulic cylinder has a seal to retain the hydraulic fluid within it when the piston is raised and lowered. When the seal becomes faulty and leaks, unwanted amounts of hydraulic fluid escape the system. The fluid leakage is a potential environmental hazard if it flows into the environment.
Currently, the hydraulic fluid leakage is retained within a channeled annular ring just below the seal to catch the escaped fluid. The annular ring has a drainage hole to displace the collected, escaped fluid so that it does not flow over the ring. The drainage hole is connected to tubing or other conduit whose free end is typically placed in a large bucket to collect the fluid, which is gravity fed into the bucket. The bucket is simply placed on the ground of the elevator pit. Service technicians attend to the bucket from time to time to dispose of the displaced fluid in an environmentally appropriate manner.
However, this system of collecting displaced hydraulic fluid in an elevator pit has the drawback that the technician must remember to periodically check the bucket to ensure that the bucket contents do not overflow. If there is an abnormally large amount of escaping hydraulic fluid from the elevator mechanism, the bucket may overflow before the technician's scheduled maintenance check.
It would be desirable to have a signaling device to automatically warn elevator passengers and maintenance personnel when too much hydraulic fluid accumulates in the elevator pit.
Thus an elevator alert solving the aforementioned problems is desired.

Elevator alert for fluid overflow into elevator pit


An apparatus for weed control includes a processing unit that receives at least one image of an environment. The processing unit analyses the at least one image to determine at least one vegetation control technology from a plurality of vegetation control technologies to be used for weed control for at least a first part of the environment. An output unit outputs information that is useable to activate the at least one vegetation control technology.

The general background of this invention is weed control. Certain industrial areas and areas around railway tracks need to have the vegetation controlled. For railways, such control improves visibility from the perspective of people on the train such as the driver and improves visibility from the perspective of people working on the tracks. Such control can lead to improved safety. Additionally, vegetation can disrupt or damage tracks and associated signaling and communication lines. Control of the vegetation is then required to mitigate this. Vegetation control, also called weed control, can be very time and resource consuming, especially if carried out manually. A weed sprayer train, with a herbicide contained in chemical tanks on the train can be sprayed onto the track and surrounding area to control the vegetation. However, such weed control can be expensive, and the general public increasingly wishes to see a reduction in environmental impact. It would be advantageous to have improved apparatus for weed control.


An image scanning apparatus has a conveyer, a first scanning device configured to scan an image on one surface of an original sheet at a first scanning position, a second scanning device configured to scan an image on an other surface of the original sheet at a second scanning position. A controller is configured to execute a first adjustment process to adjust light amount adjustment of the first scanning device before scanning the original sheet subject to the received scanning instruction, start scanning after the first adjustment process, execute a determination process to determine, after starting conveying the original sheet, whether a light adjustment of the second scanning device is to be executed, execute a second adjustment process, when it is determined to start the light adjustment of the second scanning device, and stop conveying the original sheet when no original sheet is located at the first scanning position.

Technical Field
The present disclosures relate to an image scanning apparatus provided with a plurality of scanning devices. Specifically, the present disclosures relate to a preparation operation for scanning of each of the plurality of image scanning devices.
Related Art
Conventionally, in image scanning apparatuses, adjustment of amount of light of image sensors are performed as preparation operations before starting scanning operations. For example, in response to receipt of a scanning instruction, an image sensor of such an image scanning apparatus is moved to a position where the image sensor faces a standard white plate. Then, a light source of the image sensor is caused to emit light. Then, the light reflected by the standard white plate is received by the image sensor, and based on the amount of light (hereinafter, referred to as "light amount") of the received light, light amount of the light emitted by the light source is adjusted.

Image scanning apparatus and image reading method using a first reading head for a first scanning position and second reading head for a second scanning position


An apparatus, method and program for user to contract a total ownership value by calculating premium (booking fee and buy back fee) both in monetary terms or premium. Calculation of booking fee and buy back fee for a motor vehicle is disclosed allowing the user to purchase and/or sell a vehicle at the both prices of his own choosing within a future period whereby premium in consideration provides a right but not an obligation.

1. Technical Field
The present invention generally relates to a business method and more particularly, to an apparatus, method, program and system for securing the total ownership cost of motor vehicles or vehicles used for transporting of goods, services or passengers. After securing the total ownership cost, the user may then solicit others to share in the ownership of the asset using time sharing partnership which are offered through an auction routine. The invention uses financial modelling to determine the risk associated with sell and buy price to lock in the total ownership cost and more particular financial option models.
2. Background
Motor vehicle price, particularly in the luxury category is constantly changing as well as rising, with availability subject to present economic situation. More consumers would like to be able to lock in this price while they are still able or at least to lock in the future price to provide some certainty to their funding requirements to purchase the vehicle. Consumers would also like to be certain of a particular delivery date guaranteed by the manufacturer or dealer as the case may be. The current situation is not acceptable because upon payment of a deposit (generally 10 percent of the final price), the consumer is forced to accept whatever delivery date suitable to the manufacturer or dealer with no manner to track the delivery status of the vehicle. In addition, the final price might change and is passed to the consumer as extra cost. This invention calculates a booking fee as a premium according to heuristic rules corresponding with a pre-set delivery date, cost of funds and historical volatility of the prices. Therefore, the system allows the user to set this delivery date and further assigns a queuing number upon paying the calculated booking fee. Given that by paying the booking fee, a contract guarantying the final vehicle price is completed. The potential buyer will have more time to shop for the necessary financing knowing that the amount payable is fixed. The said contract however provides the buyer with the right to purchase at the fixed price but not the obligation in consideration for payment of the booking fee.
Just as equally important is for the motor vehicle owner to sell the motor vehicle in the future at a price agreeable now. In the same manner as a booking fee above, the motor vehicle owner in this case will pay a potential purchaser a buy-back fee in consideration to bind the purchaser in a contract that gives the vehicle owner the rights but not obligation to sell at a pre-agreed price in predetermined time period. The purchaser in this case can be the manufacturer of the motor vehicle or a dealer or a private individual organisation. In the event of a trade in, the pre-agreed price may represent the economic value of the trade in value. While this invention is intended for motor vehicle, one skilled in the art can be reasonably adapt it for aircraft, ships, motor bikes, trucks or any means of transportation. By paying a buy-back fee and a booking fee, the motor vehicle owner will be guaranteed the purchase price and selling price (subject to specifics in the contract), which means complete certainty to the total ownership cost of the vehicle as calculated by purchasing price plus booking fee plus buy-back fee less selling price. Therefore, it is a stated object of the invention to provide a motor vehicle purchaser with a certain purchasing price of a motor vehicle in the future, a certain selling price of the same vehicle in the future. It is also another stated object of the invention to provide certainty to the total ownership cost of the vehicle in accordance to the period as determined by the purchaser. By design, it is also another stated object of this invention to provide predictable capacity planning to the manufacturer by considering the number of vehicle option sold.

Method, apparatus and program for user to determine the ownership cost of a motor vehicle


A grout injecting/structure anchoring system has a support bracket with a horizontal portion and a pair of threaded recesses and a sleeve there between. A grout tube has a plurality of apertures along its length. A lower cross brace is positioned above the sleeve and guide tube and grout tube with unthreaded holes axially aligned with the threaded recesses of the support bracket. The lower cross brace has associated there with threaded cylinders with lower ends coupled to the threaded recesses and upper ends extending through the unthreaded holes. Nuts are received by the upper ends of the threaded cylinders above the lower cross brace. The nuts are adapted to be rotated for raising the support bracket.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a grout injecting/structure anchoring system and more particularly pertains to solidifying a structure by supporting it from bedrock and filling any subterranean voids which would otherwise cause structural instability.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of structural supports and stabilizers is known in the prior art. More specifically, structural supports and stabilizers previously devised and utilized for the purpose of supporting and stabilizing structures through known methods and apparatuses are known to consist basically of familiar, expected, and obvious structural configurations, notwithstanding the myriad of designs encompassed by the crowded prior art which has been developed for the fulfillment of countless objectives and requirements.
U.S. Pat. No.Issue DateInventorTitle4,507,069Mar. 26, 1985Murray etAPPARATUS FORal.POSITIONING ANDSTABILIZING ACONCRETE SLAB4,695,203Sep. 22, 1987GregoryMETHOD ANDAPPARATUS FORSHORING ANDSUPPORTING ABUILDINGFOUNDATION4,673,315Jun. 16, 1987Shaw etAPPARATUS FORal.RAISING ANDSUPPORTING ABUILDING5,018,905May 28, 1991KinderFOUNDATION SHORINGMETHOD AND MEANS6,468,002Oct. 22, 2002Gregory etFOUNDATIONal.SUPPORTING ANDLIFTING SYSTEMAND METHOD6,514,012Feb. 4, 2003Gregory etSYSTEM AND METHODal.FOR RAISING ANDSUPPORTING ABUILDING ANDCONNECTINGELONGATEDFILING SECTIONS4,591,466May 27, 1986Murray etMETHOD FORal.POSITIONING ANDSTABILIZING ACONCRETE SLAB
While these devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives and requirements, the aforementioned patents do not describe a grout injecting/structure anchoring system that allows solidifying a structure by supporting it from bedrock and filling any subterranean voids which would otherwise cause structural instability.
In this respect, the grout injecting/structure anchoring system according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in doing so provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of solidifying a structure by supporting it from bedrock and filling any subterranean voids which would otherwise cause structural instability.
Therefore, it can be appreciated that there exists a continuing need for a new and improved grout injecting/structure anchoring system which can be used for solidifying a structure by supporting it from bedrock and filling any subterranean voids which would otherwise cause structural instability. In this regard, the present invention substantially fulfills this need.

Grout injecting/structure anchoring system


A thin film transistor array substrate and the manufacturing method thereof are disclosed herein. A first patterned metal layer, an insulating layer, a patterned layer, and a second patterned metal layer are sequentially formed on a substrate. Then, a number of scan lines and a number of source lines are disposed on the substrate and define a number of pixel regions. A number of the storage capacitance lines are disposed on the substrate in a direction extending along the scan lines and across the pixel regions, wherein each of the storage capacitance lines is essentially perpendicular to each of the source lines and to form a cross portion. A number of patterned thin films are disposed on the storage capacitance lines and above the cross portion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a liquid crystal display device, and more particularly relates to a thin film transistor (TFT) array substrate for the liquid crystal display device and the manufacturing method thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
FIG. 1 is illustrated a plane view of the liquid crystal display according to the prior art. Referring to FIG. 1, scan lines 102 and source lines 109 are disposed to cross to define a plurality of pixel regions. The storage capacitance line (Cs line) 104 is extended over the pixel region to cross the source line 109. An omhic contact thin film 106, a source electrode 110 and a drain electrode 111 are disposed on the scan line 102. Besides, a pixel electrode 114 is disposed in the pixel region. Wherein, scan lines 102 and the Cs lines 104 are simultaneously formed and there is an insulating layer, not shown in the figure, covered thereon. The Cs line 104 is electrically isolated by the insulating layer and is under crossing the source line 109.
Due to the fact that the complex metal is used, it is difficult to control a good profile of the taper angle because of the etching rate of different materials so as to easily cause the undercut effect. Such as shown in FIG. 2, it is the sectional view of the A-A′ cross-section of FIG. 1 at the cross portion of the source line 109 and the storage capacitance line 104, the undercut effect presents at the Cs line 104 of the first metal layer arranged on a substrate 100. An insulating layer 103 is formed on the Cs line 104 of the first metal layer and then a source line 109 of a second metal layer is formed on the Cs line 104 of the first metal layer. Because of the undercut effect of the first metal layer, it easily causes the rip of the insulating layer 103 so as to occur the short of the source line 109 and the Cs line 104. This defect will cause the light line of the liquid crystal display device while turning on the panel and this panel must perform the array test to find the defect and perform the laser repair. Further, the panel is scrapping. Hence, how to overcome the mentioned problem is important for enhancing the yield of the LCD panel.

Manufacturing method of thin film transistor array substrate


Molding optical components from a mold that is produced using the same type of optical fibers that will be interconnected by the optical components. The outer diameter of a silica optical fiber varies only by approximately .+-.1 micron and the outer surface of a silica optical fiber has an optical finish. Thus by using optical fiber to fabricate molds, molds can be produced which have the required accuracy and finish for the production of optical components. The outer coating of the optical fibers used to fabricate the mold is only removed within and in close proximity to a combination region in a splitter/combiner resulting in the capability to pigtail optical fibers attached to a splitter/combiner molded from the resulting mold.

Molding is an extremely powerful process because of the ability to transfer small details and surface finish from a mold to molded parts. U.S. Pat. No. 5,166,993, discloses molded optical components. However, techniques used in this patent application are limited to producing optical components that interconnect relatively large optical fibers having very thin optical cladding in comparison to the diameter of the optical core.
Molding has not been used to produce optical components for interconnecting optical fibers when the cladding and core have a small overall diameter such as 125 microns. For interconnecting these smaller optical fibers, a fusing technique has been used to physically fuse the optical fibers using heat and tension. Also etching and ablation techniques have been used to individually produce each optical component. Both of these techniques suffer from high costs. Further, these two techniques do not provide a direct mechanism for physically securing the optical fibers to the optical component which is often called pigtailing.

Molding of optical components using optical fibers to form a mold


A polarization imaging apparatus measures the Stokes image of a sample. The apparatus consists of an optical lens set 11, a linear polarizer 14 with its optical axis 18, a first variable phase retarder 12 with its optical axis 16 aligned 22.5° to axis 18, a second variable phase retarder 13 with its optical axis 17 aligned 45° to axis 18, a imaging sensor 15 for sensing the intensity images of the sample, a controller 101 and a computer 102. Two variable phase retarders 12 and 13 were controlled independently by a computer 102 through a controller unit 101 which generates a sequential of voltages to control the phase retardations of VPRs 12 and 13. A set of four intensity images, I0, I1, I2 and I3 of the sample were captured by imaging sensor 15 when the phase retardations of VPRs 12 and 13 were set at (0,0), (π,0), (π,π) and (π/2,π), respectively Then four Stokes components of a Stokes image, S0, S1, S2 and S3 were calculated using the four intensity images.

1. Technical Field
The invention relates to optical imaging apparatus, particularly related to polarization imaging apparatus, more specifically related to a high speed polarization imaging system that can measure Stokes components from a sample at different optical wavelengths.
2. Technical Background
The light scattered by a tissue has interacted with the ultrastructure of the tissue, which imprinted some intrinsic properties of the tissue. Tissue ultrastructure extends from membranes to membrane aggregates to collagen fibers to nuclei to cells. Photons are most strongly scattered by those structures whose size matches the photon wavelength. It has been demonstrated that light scattering can provide structural and functional information about the tissue. One important biomedical application of optical imaging and spectroscopy is non-invasive or minimally invasive detection of pre-cancerous and early cancerous changes in human epithelium, such as dysplasia or carcinoma in situ.
In recent years there has been an increasing interest in the propagation of polarized light in randomly scattering media. The investigation of backscattered light is of particular interest since most medical applications aimed at the in-vivo characterization of biological tissue rely on backscattered light. By recording the spatially dependent response of a medium to a polarized point source, one may obtain information about the scattering particles that are not accessible to mere intensity measurements. A diagnostic imaging modality based on near-infrared (NIR) radiation offers several potential advantages over existing radiological techniques. First, the radiation is non-ionizing, and therefore reasonable doses can be repeatedly employed without harm to the patient. Second, optical methods offer the potential to differentiate between soft tissues, due to their different absorption or scatter at NIR wavelengths that are indistinguishable using other modalities. And third, specific absorption by natural chromophores (such as oxy-haemoglobin) allows functional information to be obtained. NIR imaging research has focused on a variety of possible clinical applications.
The fact that the polarization state of the light contains useful information has been shown in many literatures, for example. Rahmann and Canterakis in "Reconstruction of specular surfaces using polarization imaging," IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, vol. 1, pp. 149-155, 2001, describe how the polarization state of light can be used for the reconstruction of specular surfaces to determine the shape of 3-D objects. They use the fact that light reflected by dielectrics and metals becomes partially linearly polarized and that the direction of polarization depends on the orientation of the reflecting surface. Demos and Alfano in "Deep subsurface imaging in tissues using spectral and polarization filtering," Optics Express, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 23-28, 2000, demonstrate a technique based on polarization imaging that allows for optical imaging of the surface as well as structures beneath the surface.
There have been several polarization imaging schemes published. In U.S. Pat. No. 6,437,856, inventor Steven Louis Jacques, which issued Aug. 20, 2002, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,847,394, inventors Robert R. Alfano, et al., which issued Dec. 8, 1998, a set of measurements at different polarization orientations are taken to render a new image that is independent of the light reflected from the surface of a tissue sample and that is dependent of the light scattered from deep tissue layers. Especially, a linearly parallel polarized light is used for illumination and two images are acquired, one image selecting linearly parallel (Par) polarized light (i.e., parallel to the light source-tissue-camera plane) and one image selecting linearly perpendicular (Per) polarized light (i.e., perpendicular to the light source-tissue-camera plane). A new image is obtained by (Par−Per) or (Par−Per)/(Par+Per).
Many polarimetric sensing technologies have been developed to capture the Stokes polarization information. People use rotating retarder, rotating polarizer to obtain Stokes parameters from several successive frames of image. In these mechanically-rotation approaches, however, the exact spatial registration between various frames is difficult due to changes of viewing angle and the polarization properties during the period of between successive frames in most target detection applications.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,798,514, inventor James Maurice Daniels, which issued Sep. 28, 2004, the light passes through two liquid crystal waveplates and a polarizing filter before falling on a light sensitive element device to measure intensity of light in four different polarizations. However, the same difficulty also applied to the approach using liquid crystal for electro-optic polarization modulation, which usually has response time in the order of 100 ms. Another drawback for the liquid crystal approach is that polarization-rotating liquid crystals are not commercially available in many important IR bands.

Boston Applied Technologies Incorporated