A cathode having electron production and focusing grooves for an ion source of an ion implanter system, the ion source and a related method are disclosed. In one embodiment, the cathode includes a working surface having a plurality of electron production and focusing grooves positioned therein. A repeller of the ion source may be similarly structured.

1. Technical Field
The disclosure relates generally to ion implantation, and more particularly, to a cathode having electron production and focusing grooves for an ion source of an ion implanter, the ion source and a related method.
2. Background Art
A cathode and a repeller are positioned within an ion source of an ion implanter to generate an ion plasma by injecting electrons into a source gas. The repeller is at the same potential as the cathode but is not heated—its purpose is to prevent electrons escaping the plasma by reflecting them back into the plasma. When installed, the cathode and repeller both present a substantially planar working surface to the source gas. However, as the ion source is used, their working surfaces erode to have a concave surface, especially that of the cathode. The concave surface acts to increase the output of the ion source, particularly as the cathode approaches the end of its useful life. In particular, the concave surface of the cathode focuses the thermionic electrons in a central region of the plasma, which increases output. Unfortunately, the duration of the increased output is limited due to the cathode reaching the end of its useful life.
One approach to take advantage of the increased output is to build a cathode having a concave surface. This approach, however, is not tenable for a number of reasons. First, the concave surface cathode may reduce the lifetime of the cathode due to the thinner center. Typically, failure occurs at the center of the cathode. Furthermore, the concave surface cathode may require structure that presents a higher thermal mass, which is difficult to heat and control, e.g., if the edges of the cathode surface are thicker.

Cathode having electron production and focusing grooves, ion source and related method

Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates, Inc.


Herein is reported a cultivation system for cultivating a pool of ovine B-cells or single deposited ovine B-cells in the presence of phorbol myristate acetate (PMA).

It has been reported that isolated B-cells, plasmablasts and plasma cells from different species were difficult to culture in vitro. In practice this is normally overcome by the generation of immortal B-cell lines by fusing primary B-cells to a hybridoma partner or immortalization. For rabbits also a plasmacytoma fusion partner was developed (Spieker-Polet, H., et. al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 92 (1995) 9348-9352, but the hybridoma technique does not work well in rabbits. For sheep the hybridoma technology has also been described (see e.g. Osborne, J., et al., Hybridoma 18 (1999) 183-191) but also these hybridomas tend to be instable and have poor productivities. For sustained survival of B-cells in vitro it is necessary to provide essential activation stimuli and survival factors. A variety of compounds have been described such as IL-2, IL-4, IL-10 and others (see e.g. Zubler, R., et al., Eur. J. Immunol. 14 (1984) 357-363, and J. Exp. Med. 160 (1984) 1170-1183).
Physiologically, B-cells are activated upon encounter with a specific antigen plus additional activation e.g. via the CD40/CD40L pathway (reviewed in Néron, S., et al., Arch. Immunol. Ther. Exp. 59 (2011) 25-40) and/or via cytokines and/or growth factors derived from the natural context, e.g. by Dendritic cells or upon T-cell help.
In in vitro systems the CD40/CD40L interaction can be mimicked by co-culture with EL4-B5 thymoma cells or the addition of soluble or immobilized anti-CD40 antibodies or CD40L. The sole systems lack sufficient potency and are only described in combination with further required stimuli using either different feeder mixes (e.g. Zubler mix; IL-4, IL-10, etc.) (Zubler, R., supra) or thymocyte supernatant (TSN).
Weitkamp, J-H., et al., (J. Immunol. Meth. 275 (2003) 223-237) report the generation of recombinant human monoclonal antibodies to rotavirus from single antigen-specific B-cells selected with fluorescent virus-like particles. A method of producing a plurality of isolated antibodies to a plurality of cognate antigens is reported in US 2006/0051348. A culture method for obtaining a clonal population of antigen-specific B-cells is reported in US 2007/0269868. A method for preparing immunoglobulin libraries is reported in WO 2007/031550.
Griebel, P. J., et al. Report the cloning non-transformed sheep B cells (J. Immunol. Meth. 237 (2000) 19-28). CD40 signaling induces B cell responsiveness to multiple members of the gamma chain-common cytokine family is reported by Griebel, P., et al. (Int. Immunol. 11 (1999) 1139-1147). Miyasaka, M. and Dudler, L., report the Differentiation of ovine immature B cells upon exposure to phorbol myristate acetate (Int. Arch. Allergy Appl. Immunol. 74 (1984) 281-283). Differentiation of B lymphocytes in sheep: I. Phenotypic analysis of ileal Peyer's patch cells and the demonstration of a precursor population for slg+ cells in the ileal Peyer's patches is reported by Miyasaka, M., et al. (Immunol. 53 (1984) 515-523). Sedgmen, B. J., et al. report the optimization of an ovine antibody-secreting cell assay for detection of antigen-specific immunoglobulin production in peripheral blood leukocytes (Immunol. Cell Biol. 81 (2003) 305-310).

Method for producing antibodies using ovine B-cells and uses thereof


A drain grate system can be installed in a curbside or storm drain to block the passage of debris while allowing liquid to flow into the drain. The drain grate system can open in response to a high flow rate to allow liquid and debris to flow into the drain. A locking mechanism can maintain the drain grate system in a closed and locked position and can unlock in response to a predetermined amount of force of a fluid flow.

1. Field of the Invention
The application relates generally to the field of street drainage, more specifically to drain grates that are movable in response to water flow therethrough.
2. Description of the Related Art
Road drainage systems such as curb-integrated storm drains are common throughout urban and suburban areas. In these areas, litter, trash, and other debris such as plant trimmings, leaves, and bark may accumulate on the roadway and be blown or washed towards the drains. In dry seasons, when the precipitation is not sufficient to flush the drain systems regularly, the debris may accumulate in the drains.
In a subsequent rainy season, the accumulated debris may clog the drain, leading to greatly reduced drain capacity and ultimately road flooding at or near the drain opening. Additionally, the flow of water through a drain that is clogged or partially clogged with debris is likely to result in the release of some or all of the debris into the flow of water continuing downstream from the drain. Often this trash, plant material, and other debris flows into oceans, creeks, rivers, and streams. To reduce the incidence of flooding, municipalities often expend considerable resources and employee time cleaning accumulated debris out of drains and drain basins to reduce the risks of roadway flooding and pollution.
Drain grates, positioned at or in a drain opening, have been developed to block the entry of debris into the drain system. This allows the debris to be removed by a street sweeper or by other conventional roadway cleaning techniques. To block the entry of debris while maintaining optimum drainage capacity, the grate should be removable from the drain opening when the flow of water through the drain reaches and exceeds a predetermined rate.
In dry and low water flow situations, the drain grate would remain closed in the drain opening, permitting passage of water through the grate, but blocking debris too large to fit through the grate. In higher water flow situations, an actuator connected to the drain grate would cause the drain grate to move away from the drain opening, thus increasing the flow capacity through the drain. The actuator of these systems typically comprised a container having a drain opening. These movable drain grates, while desirably preventing debris accumulation during relatively dry weather and allowing higher flow capacity during high water flow periods, remain prone to flooding in certain high water flow periods. In certain instances, enough water accumulates in the basin portion of the drain that the actuator floats in the accumulated water. Since the actuator is operatively connected to the drain grate, the flotation of the actuator closes the drain grate, thereby reducing the flow capacity of the drain opening. Thus, flow through the drain is reduced during instances (high water flow) when increased flow capacity is most desired.
Furthermore, some of the attempted solutions require a relatively deep basin to operate effectively. The depth of a roadway drain can be dependent on its distance from a drainage system outlet such as a stream, river, lake, or ocean, such that the drainage system floor has a slope to provide gravity feed from all of the individual drains to the endpoint without pooling. Thus, actuators in some of the previous drain grate actuation systems could not be sized to fit a relatively shallow drain basin. Additionally, various cities and counties have drafted rules and regulations limiting the size of acceptable drain grate systems such that many of the previous designs are no longer acceptable.
In light of the shortcomings of the prior art noted above, there is a need for a drain grate system that prevents the accumulation of debris in the drainage system during dry weather, that opens the grate for increased capacity in response to relatively high water flow conditions, such as a storm water event, that remains open despite water accumulation in the drain, and that meets the needs of various city and county regulations.


A system for providing network access translation device traversal to facilitate communications is provided. The system includes a network access translation (NAT) device, a first Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) client located on the interior of the NAT device, a second SIP client located on the exterior of the NAT device, and a proxy server configured to maintain registration information relating to the first SIP client and the NAT device. The proxy server is further configured to allow the second SIP client to initiate contact with the first SIP client and establish a communication session using the registration information. The communication session is established by traversing the NAT device.

The present invention generally relates to network communications and, more specifically, to a method and system for facilitating communications between devices where a network access translation device is used.
Fully functional telephony relies on the ability for any party to call any other party. NAT (Network Access Translation) devices represent a significant barrier to SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) calls. This is because NAT devices prevent SIP clients outside the NAT's domain (NAT-exterior) from calling or reaching a client located within the NAT's domain (NAT-interior). For clarification, a NAT device can be viewed as a dividing point between two networks. Devices behind the NAT device are protected from the devices installed on the network beyond, or outside, the NAT device. Devices connected behind the NAT device are on the interior network, hence they are NAT-interior devices. Those devices not connected behind the NAT device are on the exterior network, hence they are NAT-exterior devices.
By its nature, NAT devices block inbound communication streams, unless a NAT-interior client initiates the communication session. With a NAT device installed, it is practically impossible for a NAT-exterior device to originate a call to a NAT-interior device.
There are several methods presently posed by the industry in response to the foregoing issue including, for example, virtual private networks, STUN servers, SIP-aware NAT devices and proprietary client software/server. All of these solutions, though functional, are complex and require additional, dedicated hardware and/or proprietary software. The proprietary nature of these arrangements, however, hinder their usefulness, because clients are unable to communicate with other servers that do not employ their proprietary protocols. It may be possible for an enterprise (company) to install these types of solutions for their employees. However, these solutions hardly address the goal of ubiquitous communications via SIP.
Hence, it would be desirable to provide a system that is capable of resolving the foregoing problem, as well as others, including facilitating improved communications between devices where a NAT device is involved.

Method and system for providing registration-based SIP NAT traversal


The invention relates to a high-pressure chamber for preferably atomizing or injecting metered amounts of fluid, such as pharmaceutical preparations. The components of the high-pressure chamber determining the strength thereof are made of a sintered metal body having plastic regions directly attached thereto. The plastic regions allow corrosion resistance and material compatibility of the interior of the high-pressure chamber and fluids placed under pressure therein. The shape of the sintered metal body provides the entire system with the rigidity required for high-pressure operation and with directly molded connection elements prescribing the type of connection to other components. The components of the high-pressure chamber determining the strength thereof are thereby deformed or crimped to each other, so that inexpensive and quick overall assembly processes are available.

It is known that in most medical procedures in which liquids are administered to a patient's body or are conveyed inside technical medical equipment, very low pressures are used, for example when setting up infusions or in medical procedures in which blood or other physiological liquids are circulated. Conventional dispensing systems for cosmetics or medical pressurised gas atomisers also generally operate at below 7 bar of liquid pressure, very rarely up to 20 bar. High pressure pumping systems, on the other hand, are generally known from various industrial applications but are not really suitable for use in technical medical equipment as they are often made of materials that are not compatible with the particular medical active substances or may even release substances that are toxic to the patients. Often, with technical medical components, it is essential that they are sterilizable. Because of the hygiene requirements imposed, components for medical equipment are generally designed for brief periods of use or even single use, so that in this field the demands for mass production are significantly increased. Moreover, industrial pumping systems are often of a mechanically complex nature so that it is difficult to reduce them to the size of handheld medical equipment, in particular.
In the treatment of lung diseases, in the meantime, the use of portable handheld equipment has become indispensable. Using such equipment therapies can be given daily, even at a distance from the practice of the doctor providing the treatment, and in this way a patient can always have access to an essential emergency medication for inhalation.
When a liquid medicament formulation is nebulised a precisely metered amount of active substance is intended to be converted into an aerosol for inhalation. The aerosol should have a small average particle size with a small droplet size distribution. In order to achieve this using nozzle pump arrangements without the use of propellants, pressures of 100-1200 bar are required in the associated pump chambers, with high demands on the leak-tight construction of the system.
By the term "medicament formulation" is meant, in the present invention, apart from medicaments, therapeutic agents or the like, particularly every kind of agent for inhalation or other forms of administration.
However, the invention is not restricted to medical nebulisation but may be used across different sectors for dispensing all kinds of liquids under pressure, for example when dispensing measured amounts of liquid in injectors, spray systems and other dispensing systems and in systems in which jets of liquid under high pressure are used (e.g. in cutting systems), even though the description that follows is directed primarily to medical applications and the preferred nebulisation of a medicament formulation for inhalation. Moreover, high pressure chambers of this kind and the manufacturing techniques associated with them may be used in totally different industrial fields such as the motor industry, for example, although this invention relates primarily to pumping situations in which particularly clean handling of the liquid in question is essential, as for example in medical technology in the pharmaceutical industry or food technology.
WO 91/14468 A1 and WO 97/12687 A1 describe nebulisers or miniaturised high pressure nebulisers. These comprise as the reservoir for a medicament preparation that is to be nebulised an insertable rigid container with an inner bag and a manually operated pressure generator with a drive spring for conveying and nebulising the medicament preparation. A container of this kind, as disclosed in WO 96/06011 A1 and WO 00/49988 A2, holds a volume of about 2-10 ml. An alternative nebuliser to those mentioned above has become known from the prior art in the meantime and is shown by way of example in FIG. 1 and described in detail hereinafter. In this nebuliser, a multipart pumping chamber is used. The strength-determining components of this substantially circular cylindrical pumping chamber are a guide tube for the pumping piston which is guided in a longitudinally movable manner, at the reservoir end a support ring which is fixed by a screwed-on cap-like retaining element and, at the other end of the pumping chamber, a nozzle holder fixed by a similar screwed-on cap-like retaining element. Details of possible microstructures for the expulsion nozzle held by the nozzle holder are disclosed in the specifications WO 94/07607, WO 99/16530 and WO 2005/000476 A1.
The components used for the pump chamber are subject to particular requirements regarding the strength of the material. Often, they cannot be made of the comparatively cheap plastics that are otherwise conventional for mass produced components in medical technology. The retaining elements described are typically metal components manufactured on lathes.
US 2002/0176788 shows, inter alia, a high pressure pump body the wall of which consists of thin walled tubing and in which the strength-determining components are not screwed together but joined to connecting elements by means of a crimped sealing bead. An outlet valve with sealing elements is inserted in the thin walled tubing. The tubing is pressed into a suitable recess in the valve unit so as to engage in a positively locking manner. When the high pressure envisaged is reached in the high pressure pumping body the corresponding valve opens and allows the liquid to flow continuously to the pump outlet.
The problem on which the present invention is based is to provide a high pressure chamber with an integrated outlet nozzle, particularly for medical nebuliser or injector systems, which is suitable for industrial manufacture. Systems of this kind deliver a metered amount of liquid in short pulses. The liquid is sucked in without the use of pressure and within a short time is brought to a peak pressure in the high pressure chamber at which the liquid is dispensed (preferably directly) through a nozzle. The sealing requirements for a pulsed system of this kind have not only static but also dynamic aspects compared with continuous pumping, which means that the connecting technology, particularly between the high pressure chamber and the outlet nozzle, is subject to particular demands.
By the term high pressure chamber is meant here a chamber that is substantially circular cylindrical on the inside, in which a fluid is put under pressure and expelled by the advancing of a piston or plunger.


Systems and methods to determine demographic attributes of pedestrians in a retail environment are presented. In some examples, media content is selected for presentation to one or more pedestrians based on the determined demographic attributes. In a further example, the media content is interactive, and a response is received from the pedestrian indicating recognition of the interactive media content and an identity of the pedestrian. In some examples, the demographic attributes of a group of pedestrians passing a particular location are aggregated to determine a demographic profile of a pedestrian traffic flow. In some other examples, demographic attributes of pedestrians are derived from biometric responses to a media presentation. Based on the location and duration of visual attention to the media presentation, a demographic attribute of the pedestrian is determined.

Biometric recognition systems are typically employed to identify movement and visual characteristics of live subjects. Media displays are typically employed to deliver advertising content to viewers in a wide variety of settings. Simple, static media displays (e.g., printed or painted graphics and text) remain widely used. Typically, the content of a particular static media display is fixed for a lengthy period of time (e.g., weeks or months). In addition to static media displays, dynamic media displays have also been adopted. The content of dynamic media displays can be frequently refreshed. Traditionally, this ability has been utilized to display a series of advertisements so that a passerby may see more than one advertisement before the viewing opportunity ends.
Both static and dynamic media displays are typically located in highly visible areas based on the rationale that highly visible displays reach more potential customers. Moreover, specific advertising content is often displayed in a particular location based on a limited understanding of the demographic profile of viewers at that location. However, in many contexts the understanding of the demographic profile of pedestrians in a retail environment at any given time and the evolution of the demographic profile over time remains very limited. As a consequence, the effectiveness of displayed advertising content is limited. The uncertainty surrounding the effectiveness of display sign advertising generates resistance to capital investment to replace existing signs with more costly signs that provide the ability to display digital media. Improvements in the identification of a demographic profile of pedestrians in a retail environment, its evolution over time, and the selection of media content targeted to the identified demographic profile is desired.


Aspects of the disclosure provide effective, efficient, scalable, and convenient technical solutions that address and overcome technical challenges associated with transferring data files in a distributed network having multiple data sources and multiple data destinations. In some examples, a computer system, device, platform, or the like is configured to control the data transfers between other computing systems, devices, platforms, or the like in a computing environment. Controlling the data transfer includes, in some examples, detecting the data transfer between a data source and a data destination, evaluating a data transfer condition associated with the data transfer, determining a data transfer instruction based, at least in part, on the data transfer condition, and providing the data transfer instruction to the data source. The data source then transfers the data to the data destination in accordance with the data transfer instruction.

Large enterprise organizations may deploy, operate, maintain, and use many different computing systems and computing devices which may continually exchange data in order to provide enterprise-focused and/or client-focused services. In order to improve the efficiency with which the computing systems and devices operate, organizations often seek out ways to make operation of those computing systems and devices more efficient, streamlined, and the like. However, individual computing systems/devices may operate without regard to the operations of other computing systems/devices in the computing environment. This is the case, for example, with respect to data transfer operations between computing systems/devices. A computing system/device might execute its data transfers without regard to other data transfers that are taking place or need to take place within the computing environment. As a result, conflicting data transfers, delayed data transfers, and failed data transfers are all challenges encountered when executing data transfers in an enterprise-wide computing environment.


Embodiments of the present invention relate to methods, devices, and systems to monitor activity. One system to monitor activity includes a remote device including a home/away sensor and a transmitter. The embodiment also includes a local interface that receives a wireless signal from the transmitter and a base station operably coupled to the local interface. The base station can include a receiver for receiving signals from a number of sensors and a logic component that institutes rules to determine whether to initiate an alert based on one or more activations of the home/away sensor.

Methods, devices, and systems have been developed in various fields of technology for the monitoring of the movement and/or health of an individual. In the field of remote health monitoring, for instance, systems have been developed to enable an individual to contact medical professionals from their dwelling regarding a medical emergency.
For example, in various systems, a system is equipped with an emergency call button on a base station that initiates a call or signal to an emergency call center from a user's home telephone. The concept of such a system is that if an individual has a health related problem, they can press the emergency call button and emergency medical providers will respond to assist them.
To aid in situations, such as where an individual has fallen and cannot reach an emergency call button on the base station, portable devices have been developed. The portable devices generally include an emergency call button that transmits a signal to the base station in the dwelling indicating an emergency. Once the signal is made, the base station alerts a remote assistance center that can contact emergency medical personnel or a designated third party. Such devices are typically usable only within the dwelling of the individual and within a short distance to the base station.
Systems have also been developed that use sensors within the home to monitor an individual within a dwelling. Typically, these systems include motion sensors, for example, that are connected to a base control system that monitors areas within the dwelling for movement. When a lack of movement is indicated, the system indicates the lack of movement to a remote assistance center that can contact a party to aid the individual.
However, not all inactivity indicates that an individual is in need of assistance. For example, an individual can be sitting in a chair for a prolonged period, or lying in bed. These periods may be sufficient to initiate an alert for third party response, but may not actually be an emergency. In some of these systems, the system is designed to allow a third party to intervene to aid the individual according to the analysis of the information received by the remote assistance center.
Further, emergency call button devices and systems that use a number of sensors to monitor an individual and do analysis on the information collected typically use the call button or a sensor of the sensing system in isolation. Additionally, such sensing systems also monitor the health of the system, and its sensors, based upon the individual sensor activations. That is, a sensor can be activated, but may not be correlated with any other sensors in the system. Accordingly, the certainties of the sensor activations of these systems and/or the determinations of whether to take an action by a system are based upon the reliability and reception of signals from individual sensors.


A surgical instrument is disclosed, the instrument including: a handle assembly; a jaw assembly including a staple cartridge containing a plurality of staples and an anvil to form the plurality of staples upon firing; a lockout mechanism configured to prevent reuse of the jaw assembly; a drive assembly at least partially located within the handle and connected to the jaw assembly; a motor operatively coupled to the drive assembly; and a controller operatively coupled to the motor, the controller configured to control supply of electrical current to the motor and to monitor a current draw of the motor, wherein the controller is further configured to terminate the supply of electrical current to the motor in response to a drop in the current draw.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to surgical apparatuses, devices and/or systems for performing endoscopic surgical procedures and methods of use thereof. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to electromechanical, hand-held surgical apparatus, devices and/or systems configured for use with removable disposable end effectors and/or single use end effectors for clamping, cutting and/or stapling tissue.
2. Background of the Related Art
A number of surgical device manufacturers have developed product lines with proprietary drive systems for operating and/or manipulating electromechanical surgical devices. In many instances the electromechanical surgical devices include a reusable handle assembly, and disposable or single use end effectors. The end effectors are selectively connected to the handle assembly prior to use and then disconnected from the handle assembly following use in order to be disposed of or in some instances sterilized for re-use.
Many of these electromechanical surgical devices include complex drive components that utilize a variety of user interfaces that accept user inputs (e.g., controls) for controlling the devices as well as provide feedback to the user. To prevent inadvertent activation, various lockout mechanisms exist. However, existing mechanisms only provide a single safety check.
Unlike purely mechanical systems, powered systems possess the ability to detect and react to some failures even after they have occurred. If this detection is completed in a rapid manner, corrective actions and emergency measures can be implemented to reduce and/or prevent patient and/or user harm. Accordingly, there is a need for systems and apparatuses having redundant safety mechanisms that can detect such failures.

Surgical instrument with rapid post event detection


A method of correlating data for multiple product configurations is provided comprising enhancing, by a processor, data set definition to accommodate data models of data sets describing multiple product configurations. The method also comprises comparing, by the processor, values of the data sets utilizing at least one matching algorithm and effectivity expressions identifying relevant rows for comparison in the data sets. The method also comprises enhancing, by the processor, the at least one matching algorithm to identify perfect and partial matches between the data sets wherein values of all data contained in the data sets are compared in one single operation comprising simultaneous validation of engineering data for the multiple product configurations.

1. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to comparison of data sets describing manufactured products, and more particularly, to the comparison of multiple data sets of unlike structure including maximum configuration data sets containing all configuration data for a product subject to comparisons.
2. Background
Manufacturers of complex products, for example commercial jet aircraft, may maintain multiple and varied data stores containing information about the products. Detailed records may be stored before, during, and after manufacture and sale of an aircraft. The data stores may contain detailed engineering information including product specifications, design diagrams, assembly and parts descriptions, software information, change order information, maintenance data, and compliance documentation. Extensive engineering and other product information may be used in manufacturing operations as well as to support post-sale tracking of changes to aircraft in customer use. Manufacturers may be required to maintain accurate data about their products under contractual relationships with their customers and others and to comply with regulatory requirements.
Such manufacturers may maintain a plurality of internal data stores containing product information. Marketing, product design, engineering, manufacturing, field support, and executive functions may store and access product information from separate data stores. Some products may be manufactured from many thousands or more of component hardware parts as well as software programs and modules. Manufacturers face challenges in maintaining consistency within and across various data stores used by internal functions. Conflicts between internal product data store records may result in errors in manufacturing, causing delays and increasing manufacturing cost. Post-sale data conflicts may cause customer relationship problems and result in liability under warranty and maintenance commitments.
While a manufacturer of complex products may operate various internal data stores and face challenges associated with assuring consistency and accuracy across internal data stores, parties outside the manufacturer may also maintain similar data stores of the manufacturer's product information. Customers, partners, suppliers, subcontractors, regulators, and distributors of the manufacturer as well as post-sale service providers and regulatory bodies operate data stores containing the product information to support their own business and other operations. In addition to facing challenges presented by multiple internal data stores, the manufacturer may be interested in maintaining consistency between its internal data stores and those of outside parties. Further, the manufacturer seeks consistency between data stores of outside parties, for example between data stores of customers and those of service providers, such as maintenance firms. Such consistency between records of outside parties may support the manufacturer's warranty enforcement and post-sale parts and services revenue efforts. Long after a sale has been completed, the manufacturer may have a stake in consistency of information across its constituent customer, supplier, partner, and other relationships.
Challenges associated with data store consistency may arise from different data structures used by data stores maintained by groups internal to the manufacturer. External parties may also use different data structures and use different data naming conventions. In addition, both internal and external groups may not maintain current information in their data stores or may have differing version control practices.
To address risks and challenges of data stores not matching, a producer of complex manufactured products may use software programs that compare records in data stores and identify discrepancies between records. However, a manufacturer seeking accurate comparisons may be subject to limitations. The manufacturer may discover that data models of the data sets under comparison are different. Differences in data models may cause comparison results to be incorrect, misleading, and difficult to interpret. Further, methods of comparison may be limited in capability such that comparisons may be possible only between like units of the same product model. Comparisons of unlike models of a product may not be possible or be so limited in scope as to have minimal value. In addition, methods may be inflexible and not facilitate comparisons of groups of units, particularly groups of unlike or dissimilar models of product. Unit to unit comparisons may be the only comparisons that produce results of value, but such one-to-one comparisons are costly and time consuming when many units are involved.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to have a method and apparatus that takes into account one or more of the issues discussed above, as well as possibly other issues.

Correlation of maximum configuration data sets


A method for extracting partial run-length data comprises the steps of: reading out total run-length data from a first memory in order of scanning; generating index data which indicates the relationship between the address of the first memory assigned to run-length data representing a first run of each scanning line and the subscanning coordinate of each scanning line; extracting partial run-length data representing the specified partial image out of the total run-length data from the first memory while referring to the index data corresponding to a range of the subscanning coordinate of the partial image; and executing image processing on the partial run-length data extracted.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of and an apparatus for extracting image data representing a desired part of a whole image out of total image data representing the whole image.
2. Description of the Related Art
Image processors these days have a function to electronically perform various types of image processings. In some cases, only a part of an image (hereinafter referred to as partial image) is subjected to image processing such as image combining. Such partial image processing will be executed by the steps of: extracting partial image data representing the partial image out of total image data of the whole image, and performing the desired image processing on the partial image data.
When the total image data is of run-length data type, the partial image data is extracted from the total run-length data of the whole image as follows: FIG. 1 is a conceptive view illustrating an example of an image IM including a partial image PI to be extracted. The image IM is represented by run-length data, whose structure is shown in FIG. 2. The image IM of FIG. 1 is represented by run-length length data Dr1, Dr2, . . . , and Dri, as shown in FIG. 2, of respective scanning lines L1, L2, . . . , and Li in a main scanning direction Y.
As shown in FIG. 2, run-length data on a certain scanning line usually consists of plural units of run-length data. For example, first run-length data Dr1 includes three run-length data units Dr1(1), Dr1(2), and Dr1(3). These plural run-length data units Dr1(1), Dr1(2), and Dr1(3) respectively represent run lengths of the different colors of an image fragment on the scanning line L1, for example, white/black/white. In this specification, "black" and "white" are dealt with as different colors.
Extraction of run-length data representing the partial image PI shown in FIG. 1 will be performed by the steps of: successively reading out run-length data units from the first unit Dr1(1) to retrieve a particular data unit representing a first pixel Pi of the partial image PI; and extracting run-length data units covering the first pixel Pi to a last pixel Pe of the partial image PI.
The conventional image processing system, which reads out run-length data in sequences from the beginning of the total run-length image data, consumes rather a long time to find the run-length data representing the partial image. Any image processing on the partial image therefore requires the preceding data retrieval, which increases the total processing time undesirably.

Method and apparatus for extracting image data


The disclosure relates to an initialization method for the smart home and the device thereof. The method includes receiving an initialization audio signal played by a target device, wherein the initialization audio signal is an audio signal of target characters obtained by encoding source data of initialization data for the smart home; decoding the initialization audio signal based on pre-stored correspondences between pre-set characters and source data of the pre-set characters so as to obtain the source data of the initialization data, wherein the pre-set characters include at least the target characters; and initializing the smart home based on the source data of the initialization data.

In the related technology, smart home cannot be connected to the network before its initialization is completed. So, to complete the initialization of the smart home, it is typical to send initialization data to the smart home by means of short-range communication, such as Bluetooth, etc. However, the short-range communication has strict requirements for the version of hardware supporting the short-range communication, such as Bluetooth, etc., as well as for the transmission distance. In practical applications, these requirements cannot be satisfied in most circumstances, which may result in low efficiency of initialization data input. For example, if the version of the hardware is too low, then the initialization data cannot be sent to the smart home by means of short-range communication, or the distance is too far to send the initialization data.

Initialization method and device for smart home

Beijing Xiaomi Mobile Software Co., Ltd.


An apparatus, system, and method for all-optical wavelength add-drop switching are provided. A number of optical ports, including at least one input port and at least one output port, are each optically coupled to a respective dispersive element. When a multichannel optical signal is input through an input port, an optical beam of each channel emerges from the dispersive element at an angle depending upon its wavelength. The beams emerging from the dispersive element pass through a bulk optical element which redirects each beam toward a respective one of a number of routing or switching elements, each of which has been set to redirect the respective beam through the bulk optical element towards a selected dispersive element coupled to a selected output port.

The advent of DWDM fibre optics telecommunications systems in the early 1990s have enabled a dramatic increase in the transmission capacity over point-to-point communication links. This was achieved through multiplexing of a large number of individually modulated light beams of different wavelengths onto the same optical fibre. Typical systems installed today would have 64 or more independent channels precisely aligned onto an ITU-T standardized grid at 100 GHz, 50 GHz or even narrower channel spacing. With modulation speeds of routinely 10 Gb/s and attaining 40 Gb/s in laboratory experiments, it is not unusual to obtain aggregated capacities in the order of several terabits per second of information being transmitted onto a single optical fibre (S. Bigo, Optical Fibre Communication conference, WX 3, Anaheim, 2002). At the same time, electrical switching capacities have been growing at a much slower rate, with current largest electrical matrices limited to typically 640 Gb/s in a single stage. Furthermore, in most of the switching nodes, a large fraction—typically 70%—of the traffic is distant traffic that just travels through the node. It is therefore advantageous to have optical devices with large pass-through capacity and local tuneable drop capability. This device is referred to in the literature as a Reconfigurable Optical Add-Drop Module or ROADM (J. Lacey, Optical Fiber Communication conference, WT, Anaheim, 2002).
A ROADM usually includes an input port for receiving a DWDM signal, an output port for the express traffic and at least one add or drop port(s) for adding or dropping wavelength channels for local processing. This is usually realized through the subsequent steps of demultiplexing the incoming DWDM input, providing an array of switching means to route the individual channels to either the output express port or the add/drop port, and multiplexing the express channels onto a single output port. Some ROADM have multiplexed add/drop ports, some provide fully demultiplexed add/drop ports.
It is known to one skilled in the art that multiplexing/demultiplexing technologies can be done in many different ways. Serial filter embodiments (Fibre Bragg Grating, Thin Film Filters, fibre Mach Zehnder cascade, birefringent filters, etc.) are usually limited in number of wavelength channels due to insertion loss impairments. Therefore, the two solutions of choice currently being developed for ROADM applications with a large number of wavelength channels are based on parallel wavelength filtering: either free-space embodiments using bulk diffraction gratings or waveguide embodiments using AWG (Arrayed Waveguide Gratings).
Free-space optics implementations usually comprise optical fibre ports, lens elements, one bulk diffraction grating and an array of switching means. For example, Corning Inc. from Corning, N.Y., supplies such a device based on a liquid-crystal switching element. Although showing superior optical performances, free-space optics solutions are typically expensive, due to extremely tight alignment tolerances of multiple high precision optical elements. Furthermore, the relative positioning of these elements must be maintained over a wide range of environmental conditions requiring elaborate opto-mechanical designs.
Paper PD FB 7 presented at OFC'02 in March 2002 in Anaheim, Calif. provides a wavelength selective switch such as shown by way of example in FIG. 11. The switch includes input coupling optics 1200, switching elements 1202, a main lens 1204, and a single diffraction grating 1206. Disadvantageously, in this embodiment, only a small part of the service of the diffraction grating 1206 lies in the focal plane of the main lens 1204. This prevents light beams from all ports to stay in focus. Integrated optics solutions on the other hand have the potential to maintain the relative positioning of the different elements put onto the same substrate. There are two main ways of performing parallel wavelength demultiplexing in waveguides: either using AWG or using Echelle grating, the former being by far the more popular device due to the difficulty of manufacturing high precision diffraction gratings in waveguide substrates. Bragg gratings have also been employed for this purpose.
The AWG was invented by Dragone (C. Dragone, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, Vol. 3, No. 9, pp. 812–815, September 1991) by combining a dispersive array of waveguides (M. K. Smit, Electronics Letters, Vol. 24, pp. 385–386, 1988) with input and output "star couplers" (C. Dragone, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, Vol. 1, No. 8, pp. 241–243, August 1989). The AWG can work both as a DWDM demultiplexer and as a DWDM multiplexer, as taught by Dragone in U.S. Pat. No. 5,002,350 (March 1991).
An integrated optics ROADM would therefore consist of an input AWG to demultiplex the input DWDM stream, an array of switching means to route the demultiplexed channels to either an express path or the drop ports, and an output AWG to multiplex the output express DWDM stream. Due to the cyclic nature of the AWG's filtering function, it is possible to use only one AWG to perform the ROADM function with some loop back (O. Ishida et al., IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, Vol. 6, No. 10, pp. 1219–1221, October 1994). Typically, interconnects in an integrated optics ROADM are done primarily using guided way optics, for example using waveguides.
The switching elements can either be integrated onto the same substrate as the AWG or can be hybridized. All-integrated embodiments typically make use of thermo-optical switches (see for example C. R. Doerr et al., IEEE Photonics Technology Letters Volume 15, No. 1, January 2003, p 138 to 140), taking up a lot of substrate area and requiring careful heat management, eventually limiting its scalability. Integrated MEMS-waveguide solutions have also been proposed in the past, but the switching element is usually limited to 1×2 or 2×2, therefore also limiting scalability (M. Katayama et al., Optical Fibre Communication conference, WX4-1, Anaheim, 2001). It is known to a man skilled in the art that hybrid embodiments are possible in which AWG output waveguides are coupled to MEMS switching elements through a micro-lens array. However, this usually leads to poor spectral performance, i.e. no wide flat channel shape passband (R. Ryf et al., European Conference on Optical Communications, PD B.1.5, Amsterdam, 2001).

Reconfigurable optical add-drop module, system and method


A lighting system (10) has: a fixture (12) with an axis of orientation (14); and a light source (16) mounted within the fixture (12). A ballast (20), usually positioned on the side of the fixture away from the light source, is associated with the light source (16), the ballast (20) having a first end (22) attached to the light source (16) via appropriate wires and a second end (24) attached to an electrical power source (26), also by appropriate wires. The connector (28) is composed of inline electrical connector halves (30, 32) having proximal mating ends (34, 36), an axis of attachment (38) and distal ends (40, 42) provided with strain relief mounting means (44). One of the electrical connector halves, for example, (30), has a locking tongue (46) extending along the axis of attachment (38) and the other half, (32) in this instance, has a locking tongue receptor (48) for receiving the locking tongue (46), the tongue and receptor functioning to maintain the connector halves in a joined and locked position.

The fluorescent lighting used in many office buildings and similar structures usually comprises long (for example, four to eight feet in length, fixtures that mount one or more fluorescent tubes. Because the lamps operate from a gaseous discharge, a ballast is required. The ballast provides circuitry that controls the electrical current through the lamp during its startup and subsequent operation. For many years it has been the practice to "hardwire" the ballast into the system. Thus, while it is possible to replace a lamp or lamps without shutting off the main power supply, because the ballasts were hardwired into the system replacement necessitated deactivating the complete power supply, usually at the mains, which causes a good deal of unnecessary disruption.

Inline quick disconnect system with strain relief


A method and apparatus for analyzing failures in integrated circuits. A first image is obtained using an emission or electron microscope while an integrated circuit is operating under a first set of conditions. The image is integrated for improved resolution with a camera in front of the microscope screen or with a digitizer coupled to receive video signals from the microscope. The first image is digitized and stored in a first channel of an RGB digitizer board and displayed on a display screen. A second image is obtained in the same way and is digitized and stored in a second channel of the RGB digitizer board and displayed on the display screen. The remaining channel of the RGB digitizer board is coupled to receive live images. The resulting combined image appears as a black and white image so long as the images are aligned. Any differences between the three images will appear conspicuously in color. The input logic levels to the integrated circuit are changed. Nodes having changed logic levels will appear in color in the display because they will only affect the third channel. In addition, the displayed image will simultaneously show nodes which have not changed states in different shades of grey depending upon the unchanged logic level. The displayed image may then be compared to a previously obtained reference image from an integrated circuit known to not have any defects. Any differences between the two images will indicate the exact location of a failure or defect.

It is well known that in integrated circuit operation, fault conditions or failures can cause extremely faint photon emissions. These photon emissions can be detected by an emission microscope such as the one described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,680,635 to Khurana. Co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/555,186 discloses a workstation for analyzing IC fault conditions. Images obtained which show faults or failures based upon the resulting emissions are referred to as fault contrast images.
It is also well known that during integrated circuit operation, an electron microscope can detect differing logic levels of a node in an integrated circuit. For example, a node which is at +5 volts will tend to absorb electrons emitted from an electron microscope (appearing dark in a black and white image), whereas, a node which is at 0 volts will tend to reflect electrons emitted from the electron microscope (appearing light in a black and white image). Therefore, an image obtained will depend upon the voltage levels at the various nodes of the integrated circuit. This is referred to as voltage contrast imaging. U.S. Pat. No. 4,772,846 to Reeds discloses an apparatus for chip testing by voltage contrast electron microscopy.
A method of failure analysis using voltage contrast imaging utilizes image subtraction. Image subtraction involves obtaining a first voltage contrast image of an integrated circuit operating under a first set of input conditions, then obtaining a second voltage contrast image of the integrated circuit operating under a second set of input conditions. Then, one image is subtracted from the other image. The subtraction operation may be performed by storing each image in digital form and then using software to perform the subtraction operation on corresponding pixels from each image. The resulting image is representative of nodes of the integrated circuit that changed logic levels when the first set of inputs changed to the second set of inputs; any part of the integrated circuit which did not change logic levels will be removed from the resulting image by the subtract operation. The resulting image, however, suffers from a drawback in that only one direction of logic change is represented. For example, if the node is at a high logic level (absorbs electrons) in the first image and is at a low logic level in the second image (reflects electrons) and the first image is subtracted from the second image, the node will appear to have changed states. However, if a node is at a low logic level (reflects electrons) in the first image and is at a high logic level in the second image (absorbs electrons) and the first image is subtracted from the second image, the node will not appear to have changed states. This is because subtracting the image representing the reflected electrons (a light area in the black and white image) will not affect the appearance of the already dark node in the resulting image.
Alternately, the first image and the second image may be combined using the exclusive OR operation. The resulting image will then show logic changes in both directions. However, both of these methods suffer from the drawback that the resulting image does not show the logic states of unchanged nodes. When tracking failures such as a saturated transistor resulting from a logic short somewhere else, all logic states, both static and transitional, need to be represented simultaneously in order to perform an expedient analysis.
Therefore, what is needed is a method and apparatus for failure tracking and analysis that does not suffer from the above described drawbacks.

Integrated circuit failure analysis using color voltage contrast


A protocol converter includes a processor configured to receive a request for content from a client system. The processor is further configured to determine if the protocol converter is currently receiving the content through the multicast session, and join the multicast session if the protocol converter is not currently receiving the content. Additionally, the processor is configured to receive the content as an end point of the multicast session, format the content for communication to the client system, and provide content to the client system in a communication separate from the multicast session. Receiving the content as an end point of the multicast session can include terminating the application layer protocol used by the multicast session. Additionally, formatting the content can include re-encapsulating the content as hypertext transport protocol (HTTP) with an appropriate content-type.

Packet-switched networks, such as networks based on the TCP/IP protocol suite, can distribute a rich array of digital content to a variety of client applications. One popular application is a personal computer browser for retrieving documents over the Internet written in the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). Frequently, these documents include embedded content. Where once the digital content consisted primarily of text and static images, digital content has grown to include audio and video content as well as dynamic content customized for an individual user. Additionally, digital content can include updates such as software and programming updates.
Unicast protocols offer point-to-point communication between a server and a single client that can be used for delivering content. Multicast protocols can allow substantially simultaneous distribution of digital content to a large number of clients without creating multiple point-to-point connections. The server can provide the content to a multicast group with each member of the multicast group receiving a copy of the content at substantially the same time.
The use of the same reference symbols in different drawings indicates similar or identical items.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A method is provided that performs, based on a schedule, the printing of a plurality of images and the print head maintenance on the first face and the second face of a continuous sheet. The method includes: sensing a unique portion unsuitable for image printing that exists on the continuous sheet; and setting a printing schedule, when the unique portion is sensed in the first face or the second face, such that an image is prevented to be printed on the unique portion and a maintenance operation of the print head is performed at a region corresponding to the unique portion on the back face of the first or second face that has the unique portion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique to perform the double-sided printing of a plurality of images on a continuous sheet.
2. Description of the Related Art
A continuous sheet for a printing application may include a unique portion. The unique portion is a region that is unintentionally caused in a sheet manufacture process and that is a region in which the sheet partially has a different characteristic. If an image is printed on a region including the unique portion as described above, the resultant image does not have a high quality.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2011-240493 discloses a method according to which, when a continuous sheet including a unique portion region not suitable for printing is subjected to a double-sided printing, the unique portion regions of the top face and the back face of the sheet are both intentionally prevented from being subjected to a printing process. According to this method, when a unique portion of a continuous sheet is sensed during the printing of the first face, then a prohibited region is set in the first face printing schedule and a print-prohibited region is also set in the second face printing schedule at a position corresponding to the unique portion of the first face to subsequently continue the printing process.
In the case of the apparatus according to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2011-240493, a maintenance (head maintenance) schedule for a preliminary ejection required for an inkjet printing is not optimized, thus failing to provide a further improvement.

Method for printing and printing sheet used for the method


An arrangement includes an A/D converter and a processing circuit. The A/D converter is configured to generate digital samples of voltage and current waveforms in a polyphase electrical system. The processing circuit is operably coupled to receive the digital samples from the A/D converter. The processing circuit configured is to obtain contemporaneous phase current and voltage samples IA, IB, IC and/or IN, and VA, VB, VC. The processing circuit is further configured to determine at least ICB sample values based on three of the current samples of IA, IB, IC, and IN, and determine a VA value based at least in part on ICB. The processing circuit is further configured to provide information representative of the VA calculation to one of a group consisting of a display, a communication circuit, a memory and a billing calculation unit.

One of the goals of electricity metering is to accurately measure the use or consumption of electrical energy resources. With such measurements, the cost of generating and delivering electricity may be allocated among consumers in relatively logical manner. Another goal of electricity metering is help identify electrical energy generation and delivery needs. For example, cumulative electricity consumption measurements for a service area can help determine the appropriate sizing of transformers and other equipment.
Electricity metering often involves the measurement of consumed power or energy in the form of watts or watt-hours. Real energy or active energy measurements (expressed in watt-hours or wh) relate directly to the actual energy that the load requires. However, the amount of watts supplied to a load does not necessarily reflect the amount of power that must be produced by the source. In particular, the amount of load watts, or load watt-hours, does not necessarily accurately relate to the size of the service (transformers size, size of power lines, etc.) needed to supply the load. This is due in part to loads that have significant capacitive and/or inductive components. In such loads, the actual energy consumption in watt-hours can be significantly less than the apparent energy (expressed as "VA-hours" or "VAh") that must be produced by the energy source.
For example, consider two loads: a first load consuming 240 watts at 120 volts and which is completely resistive, and a second load consuming 240 watts at 120 volts and having a phase difference between voltage and current of 30°. Using the basic AC power consumption equationWatts=VrmsIrms cos θ,  (1), where θ is the phase angle between voltage and current, it can be seen that the first load requires 2 amps of current because I=240/(120*cos 0°), while the second load requires 2.31 amps of current because I=240/(120*cos 30°). While the actual watt-hour consumption of the second load is the same as the first load, the second load requires more current, which can affect sizing of power lines, transformers, etc. Consequently, it can be desirable to measure VA or VAh to help in determining the size of the source, i.e. transformers size, size of the power lines, etc., needed to supply the load.
Moreover, in a case of a customer that consumes significantly more VA than watts, the metering of only watt-hours will not accurately identify the customer's proportional cost of the power delivery equipment. For this reason a more complex rate structure involving VA or VA-hours is often used to recover the investment costs for such items as transformers and power lines etc. providing energy to the load. As a consequence, many electricity meters, particularly for larger non-residential loads, have at least some capability to measure VA or VA-hours.
The calculation of VA or VA-hours in single phase systems is relatively straight forward when the signals are pure sine waves. However, if harmonics are present in the power line signal, then the calculations of VA and the practical significance of the calculated VA becomes more complex.
One common method of calculating VA involves multiplying the RMS voltage by the RMS current, or in other words VA=VRMS*IRMS. Converting VA to VA-hours, as is well known in the art, merely involves integrating the VA values over time. For example, the VA value may be calculated at 0.333 second intervals, with each calculation considered to be the VA consumption over that 0.333 second, or approximately 1/10,800th of an hour. These values are then accumulated to provide a running meter of consumed VA-hours. Because such calculations are routine, the terms VA and VA-hours may be used somewhat interchangeably herein, with the understanding that VA-hours may always be calculated from VA values.
In any event, a second common method of calculating VA involves first determining the value of the reactive power, also known as VAR (Volt Amp Reactive), and the real or active power in watts. The VAR value may be calculated using the equation VAR=VRMS*IRMS*sin θ, or by sampling voltage and current and multiplying samples of voltage and current that are 90° phase separated in the AC line cycle. The method then involves deriving VA using the formula VA=√{square root over (Watt2+VAR2)}. If harmonics are present in the power line signal, then the use of the formula VA=√{square root over (Watt2+VAR2)} to calculate VA will yield a result that is less than that calculated from the RMS values of voltage and current, VA=VRMS*IRMS. Because of this inaccuracy, sometimes a 3rd quantity, distortion power (DP) is sometimes added as follows:VA=√{square root over (Watt2+VAR2+DP2)}.  (2)
The above equations relate generally to single phase systems. In a polyphase system, the calculation of VA is more complex and the practical significance of what is calculated goes beyond that of single phase systems. In particular, the two methods of calculating VA (or VAh) described above for single phase systems do not necessarily yield the same results if applied to polyphase systems even under conditions of pure sine wave signals.
In one method, VA is calculated from the RMS values of the individual phase voltages and currents for each of a polyphase system, and then the VA value for the different phases is totaled. In other words, the VA of each phase is determined using VA=VRMS*IRMS and then the total VA is calculated by simply adding the individual VA of each phase. This method of calculating VA is sometimes referred to as "RMS VA" (VARMS) or "arithmetic VA". Arithmetic VA is identified as being most accurate with respect to the source or service side of the electrical system, and not the load side.
In another method, the VA is calculated using watts and VAR. In this method, the total amount of watts for all three phases is determined, and the amount of VAR for all three phases is determined. The total VA is then calculated using the formula VA=√{square root over (Watt2+VAR2)} where Watt and VAR represent the total load watt and VAR respectively. This method of calculating VA is sometimes referred to as "vector VA" (VAV). Vector VA is considered to be more accurate with the load side of the electrical system.
Further detail regarding the calculation of arithmetic or source VA and the calculation of vector or load VA for many types of electrical service is provided in U.S. Pat. No. 7,747,400, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. In U.S. Pat. No. 7,747,400, a meter is disclosed that includes various methods of calculating that can be selected by a technician.
While the meter disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,747,400 provides many useful metered VA values, it does not provide a source or arithmetic VA calculation for four-wire delta electrical services. Accordingly, there is a need for a meter that can calculate, among other things, VA in four-wire delta electrical services. Other known methods are inaccurate, particularly for unbalanced loads.
A particular need is for a method of measuring VA that accurately estimates or represents the VA at the source, which can provide better information for the sizing of transformers and other equipment.

VA metering in delta-wired electrical service


An active matrix substrate of a Pixel on Passivation structure includes TFTs and pixel electrodes on an interlayer insulating film over bus lines. The interlayer insulating film is formed of an organic insulating film, and the contact layer of the TFT has a double layer structure of a fine crystal silicon (n.sup.+) layer and an amorphous silicon (n.sup.+) layer the crystal silicon (n.sup.+) layer being placed on the side closer to the source electrode and the drain electrode, and the amorphous silicon (n.sup.+) layer being placed on the opposite side. This improves both the ON characteristics and the OFF characteristics of the TFT are improved, and the stable operative region of the active matrix substrate and the margin to accommodate to variations in threshold value due to aging are expanded, without substantial additional production costs and a decrease in productivity.

Conventionally, a liquid crystal display device forms a display pattern on a screen by driving pixel electrodes disposed in matrix form. Specifically, voltage is applied across selected pixel elements and opposite electrodes opposing the selected pixel elements to optically modulate the liquid crystal layer inserted between these two kinds of electrodes, and the optical modulation is viewed as a display pattern.
A popular method for driving pixels is active matrix driving method according to which independently disposed electrodes are connected to, and driven by, respective switching elements. Examples of switching elements include thin film transistors (TFTs), metal-insulator-metal (MIM) elements, MOS transistor elements, and diodes.
FIG. 5 shows an example of conventional active matrix substrates using TFTs as switching elements. FIG. 5 shows a structure of a pixel segment of an active matrix substrate.
The active matrix substrate has on an insulating substrate 41 scanning lines 42 disposed parallel to one another and signal lines 43 disposed crossing over the scanning lines 42 at right angles. The substrate 41 will be later described in detail (see FIG. 6).
Pixel electrodes 44 are disposed in the rectangular regions bordered by the scanning lines 42 and the signal lines 43. TFTs 45 are formed in proximity to the cross points of the scanning lines 42 and the signal lines 43. In addition, between neighboring pairs of the scanning lines 42 beneath the pixel electrodes 44 are formed supplemental capacitance (Cs) lines 46 disposed parallel to the scanning lines 42. The Cs lines 46 are provided commonly to all the pixels. A supplemental capacitance is formed where the pixel electrode 44 overlaps the Cs line 46 with a gate insulating film 52 therebetween.
A brief overview of a manufacturing process of such an active matrix substrate is given below with reference to FIG. 6 which is a cross-sectional view taken along line 6--6 in FIG. 5. First, the scanning lines 42, the Cs lines 46, and gate electrodes 51 for TFTs 45 are formed on the substrate 41 in a single process. Next, the gate insulating film 52 is formed to cover all these, and a semiconductor layer 53, an etching stopper layer 54, and a contact layer 55 are formed in this order on the gate insulating film 52.
Finally, a transparent conductive film T and a metal thin film M are formed thereon and patterned, so as to form source electrodes 56, the signal lines 43, drain electrodes 57, and the pixel electrodes 44, which complete the manufacture of the active matrix substrate. The source electrode 56, the signal line 43, and the drain electrode 57 are composed of two layers, i.e. the transparent conductive film T and the metal thin film M, whereas the pixel electrode 44 is composed of a single layer, i.e. the transparent conductive film T.
When such an active matrix substrate is applied to a liquid crystal display device, the opening of the liquid crystal display element is the combined areas of the pixel electrodes 44 less the pasting accuracy of the opposite substrate (not shown) with a black matrix of opposite substrate. The light transmitivity of the liquid crystal display element largely depends on the aperture ratio, and is one of the factors that determine the display quality of the liquid crystal display element.
Hence, various methods have been proposed to increase the aperture ratio, one of which is the so-called Pixel on Passivation structure in which pixel electrodes are disposed on an interlayer insulating film covering TFTs as active elements and bus lines (scanning lines and signal lines).
FIG. 7 shows an example of an active matrix substrate of this structure. FIG. 7 shows a structure of a pixel segment of an active matrix substrate. FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view taken along line 8--8 in FIG. 7. FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view taken along line 9--9 in FIG. 7.
As shown in FIG. 7, the active matrix substrate includes on the insulating substrate 41 scanning lines 42, signal lines 43, and Cs lines 46 similarly to the active matrix substrate in FIG. 5. TFTs 45 are also formed in the same manner as described above (FIG. 8), and have the same layer structure.
The difference lies in that an interlayer insulating film 58 is formed so as to cover the substrate 41 on which the TFTs 45 are already formed and that the pixel electrodes 44 are formed on the interlayer insulating film 58. As the pixel electrode 44 is disposed on the interlayer insulating film 58, the edges of the pixel electrode 44 can be placed to overlapping the scanning lines 42 and the signal lines 43, increasing the area of the pixel electrode 44 and achieving a high aperture ratio.
As shown in FIGS. 7 and 9, the pixel electrode 44 is connected to the drain electrode 57 of the TFT 45 by the contact of the pixel electrode 44 to a supplemental capacitance electrode (Cs electrode) 61 via a through hole 62 in the interlayer insulating film 58 above the Cs line 46. The Cs electrode 61 is composed of a transparent conductive film T that is the lower layer of the drain electrode 57 of a double-layered structure, and connected to the drain electrode 57 via a connecting electrode 60 also composed of a transparent conductive film T. A supplemental capacitance is formed where the Cs electrode 61 overlaps the Cs line 46 provided to the lower layer with the gate insulating film 52 disposed between the Cs electrode 61 and the Cs line 46.
The Pixel on Passivation structure is disclosed, for example, by Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 172685/1983 (Tokukaisho 58-172685). It is known that the structure improves the aperture ratio and restrains defective orientation of the liquid crystal by shielding the electric field generated by the signal lines.
However, a simple adoption of the Pixel on Passivation structure to the liquid crystal display element for better display quality brings the opposite result. The Pixel on Passivation structure generates a larger parasitic capacitance between the scanning line 42 and the pixel electrode 44 than does the conventional structure shown in FIG. 5, and consequently the pixel voltage applied to the pixel electrode 44 is affected by the source signal in the scanning line 42 and causes crosstalk, degrading the display quality.
A suggested method for a reduced parasitic capacitance is to use as the interlayer insulating film 58 an organic insulating film that has a relatively low dielectric constant and can be easily made into a thick film.
As the active matrix substrate has increasingly fine and delicate structure, a reduction in the ON resistance of the TFT 45 as a switching element is desired. A proposed solution to this is to use a fine crystal silicon (n.sup.+) film in place of a conventionally used amorphous silicon (n.sup.+) film as the contact layer 55 which is a doped semiconductor layer.
However, when a TFT 45, as the switching element, having a fine crystal silicon (n.sup.+) film as the contact layer 55 is used in combination with the interlayer insulating film 58 as the organic insulating film, an increase in OFF current is observed in an area where gate voltage is negative, especially in an area where a deep voltage not more than --10 V is applied, due to hole current between the grains of the fine crystal silicon (n.sup.+) film. Such an increase in OFF current limits the voltage at which the TFT 45 as a switching element can be driven, reduces the margin of threshold shift caused by aging, and offers less freedom in designing active matrix substrates.
In order to circumvent the reduction in OFF current, it has been suggested that an inorganic insulating film such as SiNx should be formed beneath the organic insulating film. This method, however, requires a process covering the formation of the inorganic insulating film to the photo-etching thereof, inevitably resulting in an increased number of processes. Consequently, another method with no additional process is desired.

Actived matrix substrate having a transistor with multi-layered ohmic contact


A system and method are disclosed for displaying video on a computing device for navigation and other purposes. Video data is collected by traveling along roads in a geographic area and storing the video data along with data indicating the positions at which the video data had been captured. This captured video data is then used in navigation systems and other devices that provide navigation, routing, or other features. A video is presented to a user on the display of a navigation system (or other device). An application associated with the navigation system uses the previously captured video data to create the video shown to the user. The application selects that video data that shows the end user's position from a vantage point. The application further superimposes an indication on the video at a location that corresponds to the position of the end user.

The present invention relates to displaying video image information on a computing device used for navigation and other purposes.
Various kinds of systems and applications are available that provide individuals with useful information for traveling. For example, navigation systems installed in vehicles provide useful information to vehicle drivers and passengers, including information for finding desired destinations, as well as guidance for following routes to desired destinations. Similar features are available on portable (e.g., handheld) devices, such as personal navigation systems, personal digital assistants with navigation functions and mobile phones. Useful navigation, routing, and map information is also available from various web sites.
Meaningful routing or navigation guidance includes helping a user ascertain his/her location and orientation relative to his/her surroundings. Helping a user ascertain his/her location and orientation relative to his/her surroundings is useful in order to indicate to a user which way to embark on a route, direct a user through an upcoming maneuver, show a user a landmark or useful location along a route, or show a user a desired destination.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,161,886 discloses a method for showing a perspective, or 3D, view of a vehicle's position on a map generated from two dimensional data. This type of view can be useful for helping a user determine his/her position relative to the road network and guiding the user to a desired destination.
Although the method disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,161,886 is helpful, there exists room for improvement.
Accordingly, there is a need to provide additional features on navigation systems and other computing systems to help guide a user. Further, there is a need to provide ways to help a user know his/her position or orientation relative to his/her surroundings. There is a further need to provide information to a user to help locate or orient a user in his/her surroundings in a manner that efficiently uses computing resources. There exists an additional need to help inform a user about how to make an upcoming maneuver and to inform a user about locations along a route.

Street level video simulation display system and method


A computer-implemented method and computer-readable medium for providing object-oriented communication between isolates is described. A request is received from a requesting Xlet for a remote reference to an exported object in a first isolate, the exported object having been exported by an exporting Xlet. A plurality of object registries are searched for the remote reference, each of the object registries being in a respective isolate. The remote reference is retrieved from one of the object registries and the remote reference is forwarded to the requesting Xlet.

Computer systems for connected devices such as cell phones, personal data assistants (PDAs) and set top boxes for televisions are becoming more flexible. Newer systems allow software to be downloaded and executed. The downloaded software may not be entirely trustworthy and yet may share resources with existing, trusted software. Various techniques have been proposed and implemented to therefore restrict the access of untrusted software to prevent it from disrupting the operation of the system. However, the purpose of these systems is at odds with another goal of allowing software components to communicate with one another.
One known mechanism for allowing software components to communicate with one another is the Remote Procedure Call (RPC). This mechanism allows a computer program running on one host to cause code to be executed on another host and return the results to the first program. Typically, RPC protocols are used to implement a client-server model of distributed computing.
Various editions of the JAVA™ Platform provide a mechanism known as Remote Method Invocation (RMI) for performing an RPC to communicate between objects. In RMI, the methods of remote JAVA™ objects can be invoked from another Java virtual machine, possibly on a different host. As depicted in FIG. 1, RMI 100 essentially allows communication between JAVA™ Virtual Machine (JVM) A 102, and JVM B 104. JVM A 102 and JVM B 104 may be running on the same physical machine, or may be running on different machines and connected over a local area network (LAN) or an Internet Protocol (IP) network connection or other communication medium. The application program interface (API) that implements RMI 100 handles the details of the communication between virtual machines.
Because RMI includes all the necessary components and security measures for communicating between different machines over different protocols, RMI is complex and can be unwieldy for small devices, as RMI provides many features that are simply not needed in most connected devices. Therefore, the RMI API is not included in the Personal Basis Profile (PBP) for JAVA™ 2 Platform Micro Edition (J2ME).
The conventional model for JAVA™ applications assumes that only one application is executing in a given virtual machine, and this application is in complete control of its lifecycle, which can include killing the virtual machine it is running in. To accommodate the limited processing and memory resources available in the typical connected device and yet allow multiple programs to run concurrently, the JAVA™ Community Process (JCP) has proposed the use of a programming model referred to as Xlets.
Xlets are similar to applets, which can be run by an Internet web browser, or servelets, which can be run by a web server, in that a plurality of Xlets can run at the same time in a single JVM, and their lifecycle can be controlled by another program. In the case of applets, the other program is generally a web browser. Running multiple programs in a single instance of a JVM can improve overall system performance and scalability by sharing some of the virtual machine's internal data structures. Xlets may be managed by a stand-alone application manager.
Since a plurality of Xlets may be operated by a single JVM, a mechanism was deemed necessary to protect sets of Xlets that may be harmed by a malicious downloaded Xlet. Thus, the concept of a Logical Virtual Machine (LVM) was developed. The LVM is a resource context structure that provides a mechanism for referencing the code from one or more programs that share the same resource or object. Associating related threads with a particular LVM allows the related threads to be terminated together when they start to misbehave, e.g., by causing a denial of service attack.
However, protecting Xlets by separating them into different LVMs meant placing them out of communication with each other, which is undesirable. Therefore, some mechanism was required to permit Xlets to communicate to each other from between different LVMs or, more generically, resource domains. U.S. Pat. No. 6,829,772, issued Dec. 7, 2004 and hereby incorporated by reference, presents a method now referred to as Inter-Xlet Communication (IXC) that allows Xlets to communicate with each other from different LVMs. It should be noted that, when that patent was filed, the term "Xlet" had yet to be coined and so Xlets are referred to therein by the term "applets," which was used generically.
The IXC API is now part of the J2ME PBP. FIG. 2 represents IXC 110 between two Xlets, Xlet A 112 and Xlet B 114, which each reside in different LVMs. However, this IXC implementation is limited to what is referred to as a single-process, multi-virtual machine (MVM) paradigm. In this paradigm, each LVM 116, 118 is executed in a single process JVM 120 and shares a common address space. The IXC implementation (not shown) takes advantage of the common address space for sharing instances between each LVM.
An isolation context for executing Xlets is now termed "isolate." In one realization of isolate, each isolate runs in its own process and therefore has its own address space. This may be referred to as the "multiple process, MVM" paradigm. The JAVA™ Application Isolate API is defined in JAVA™ Specification Request 121 (JSR-121) which is incorporated herein by reference. Because the previous mechanism for IXC relied on a common address space among Xlets, it is not structurally possible to implement in this new paradigm.
Thus, a new IXC mechanism is needed that will provide required security measures to prevent denial of service attack, while at the same time permit RPCs between Xlets located in different isolates on a common JVM. The new mechanism should also provide reliable garbage collection and efficient type checking. Furthermore, the IXC implementation should be optimized for an isolate implementation wherein isolates exist on the same machine, but in separate address spaces.

Object oriented communication between isolates


An implantable bone conduction transducer arrangement includes a transducer housing having an outer surface with a side wall and opposing ends. A pair of fixation projections are connected to the transducer housing at one end. Each fixation projection includes a bone screw opening configured for insertion of a bone fixation screw to engage underlying skull bone. At least one fixation projection is configured to be independently moveable relative to the transducer housing to form an adjustable relative position between the fixation projections.

A normal ear transmits sounds as shown in FIG. 1 through the outer ear 101 to the tympanic membrane (eardrum) 102, which moves the ossicles of the middle ear 103 (malleus, incus, and stapes) that vibrate the oval window 106 and round window 107 membranes of the cochlea 104. The cochlea 104 is a long narrow duct wound spirally about its axis for approximately two and a half turns. It includes an upper channel known as the scala vestibuli and a lower channel known as the scala tympani, which are connected by the cochlear duct. The cochlea 104 forms an upright spiraling cone with a center called the modiolar where the spiral ganglion cells of the cochlear nerve 105 reside. In response to received sounds transmitted by the middle ear 103, the fluid-filled cochlea 104 functions as a transducer to generate electric pulses which are transmitted to the cochlear nerve 105, and ultimately to the brain.
Hearing is impaired when there are problems in the ability to transduce external sounds into meaningful action potentials along the neural substrate of the cochlea 104. To improve impaired hearing, hearing prostheses have been developed. For example, when the impairment is related to operation of the middle ear 103, a conventional hearing aid or middle ear implant may be used to provide acoustic-mechanical stimulation to the auditory system in the form of amplified sound. Or when the impairment is associated with the cochlea 104, a cochlear implant with an implanted stimulation electrode can electrically stimulate auditory nerve tissue with small currents delivered by multiple electrode contacts distributed along the electrode.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,246,532 (incorporated herein by reference in its entirety) described a type of implantable hearing prosthesis system which uses bone conduction to deliver an audio signal to the cochlea for sound perception in persons with conductive or mixed conductive/sensorineural hearing loss. An implanted floating mass transducer (FMT) is affixed to the temporal bone. A body worn audio processor, typically behind the ear, receives via microphones the audio signals and transforms it into an electrical audio signal. In response to an externally generated electrical audio signal, the FMT couples a mechanical stimulation signal to the temporal bone for delivery by bone conduction to the cochlea for perception as a sound signal. A certain amount of electronic circuitry must also be implanted with the FMT to provide power to the implanted device and at least some signal processing which is needed for converting the external electrical signal into the mechanical stimulation signal and mechanically driving the FMT.
To generate the mechanical vibration forces needed in a bone conduction transducer, an oscillating mass is used, which also has corresponding space requirements. In addition, the connection of a bone conduction transducer to the cranial bone must be very stable, since relatively large forces must be transferred to the skull bone. Typically this involves osseointegration of certain implant features.
Most existing bone conduction implants use two standard bone screws to attach the transducer to the patient's skull bone. This screw fixation arrangement requires sufficient space, additional parts, and sometimes can involve additional bone drilling (needing a longer surgical procedure). In addition, it is important that the geometry of the screw holes be correct, and that the structure and geometry of skull bone be appropriate.
A proper site for the implanted transducer has to be provided on the cranial bone during the implant surgery. On the outward-facing side of the implant, tension created on the skin by protruding structures is the limiting factor. On the inward-facing side of the implant are anatomical structures within the skull bone (blood vessels, nerves, etc.) and the dura mater of the brain. Each surgery involves a balancing between the burden to the skin over the transducer together with the desire to drill out as little as possible of the underlying skull bone.
The choice of placement location for the transducer and the corresponding drilling depth is limited. Current commercial products do not provide for a variable/adjustable implant means of fixation. For example, fixation of the Bonebridge transducers sold by Vibrant Med-El are designed so that the screw connection to the skull bones of the entire transducer must be opposite each other. These require a comprehensive pre-operative examination and sometimes intra-operative surgical adjustments are necessary. In addition, the depth and positioning of the bone connection screws in the skull bone depends upon specific patient anatomical factors as well as the designated screw receptacle holes provided on the body of the implant housing. The BCI lifts provided with the Bonebridge transducer allow partial sinking of the device into the skull bone, which reduces the depth of bone removal that is needed.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,241,201 describes various bone conduction transducer arrangements including an embodiment with a non-screw fixation mechanism where an adaptor made of biocompatible material is placed between the bottom of the transducer housing and the underlying bone. WO 2014138149 describes various different fixation features on the outer perimeter of a cochlear implant housing. U.S. Pat. No. 8,909,348 also shows a cochlear implant with stabilizing projections on its outer perimeter. U.S. Pat. No. 7,937,156 shows another cochlear implant housing with various osseointegrating projections.