A method of informing a network of a change of user equipment capability includes: receiving, by a network, a register request message carrying information of new user equipment capability to from a user equipment; analyzing, by the network, the register request message, and storing the information of new user equipment capability for reference by subsequent establishment of a session; stopping a current registration timer on the server side set for the user equipment; initiating a new registration timer on the server side for the user equipment; and sending a response message carrying information of the new registration timer on the server side to the user equipment so as to reset a registration timer on the user side based on information of the new registration timer on the server side in the response message. The capability change is informed to the network in time.

With development of broadband network, mobile communications are not only limited to traditional voice communication. Multimedia service, which combines a plurality of media types, such as audio, video, photo and text, etc, will be developed gradually, and through combination with Presence (presence service), SMS (short message service), WEB browsing, location information, PUSH (push service), file sharing and other data services, it can satisfy various requests of users, e.g.:
message services: instant message and chat room, multimedia short message;
video services: entertainment, multimedia information, daily communication;
electronic commerce: product catalog, search engine, cart, order form management, payment;
game: single game, group game;
location service: searching for people, guiding, alarming;
personal assistant: address book, calendar, bookmark management, file storage, event reminder, E-mail.
Under promotion of various applications, 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), 3GPP2 (3rd Generation Partnership Project 2) and other standard organizations all successively launch an IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) architecture, with a purpose to implement various multimedia applications using a standard open structure in a mobile network and provide more choices and wonderful feelings.
In 3GPP Release 5(R5) phase, an IMS is introduced, which is added to a packet domain network and includes such function entities as CSCF (Call Session Control Function), MGCF (Media Gateway Control Function), MRF (Multimedia Resource Function) and HSS (Home Subscriber Server), etc. The CSCF can also be divided into three logic entities, which are S-CSCF (Service CSCF), P-CSCF (Proxy CSCF) and I-CSCF (Inquiry CSCF), wherein S-CSCF, as a service switching center of IMS, executes session control, maintains session state, manages user information, and generates charging information, etc; P-CSCF, as an access point for a terminal user to access the IMS, finishes subscriber register, and is responsible for QoS (Quality of Service) control and security management etc; I-CSCF is responsible for intercommunications between IMS domains, manages S-CSCF allocation, hides network topology structure and configuration from the outside, and generates charging data, etc. MGCF controls gateways and implements intercommunication between IMS network and other networks; MRF provides media resources, such as receiving/broadcasting voices, coding/decoding, establishing multimedia conference bridge; HSS is a user database, which stores subscription data and configuration information of IMS users, etc.
Because IMS network structure has no relation with a lower-layer bearer network, the IMS network defined by 3GPP can be applied to other packet networks besides the packet domain network defined by 3GPP, such as the packet network defined by 3GPP2, WLAN network, and NGN network, etc, independent of user terminal type and access network type. Therefore here IMS is not limited to be used in networks and applications related to 3GPP, but can be used in services and applications of other types of access networks and bearer networks.
Session Initiation Protocol (SIP): SIP is an IP phone signaling protocol proposed by IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force). As is implicated by its name, SIP is used to initiate a session, can control establishment and termination of a multimedia session joined by many participants, and can dynamically adjust and modify session attributes, such as session bandwidth request, transmitted media types (voice, video and text, etc), media coding/decoding formats, support for multicast and unicast, etc. In an IMS, SIP protocol is used as a signaling control protocol of an IP multimedia session.
A new framework of AAA—Diameter protocol:
AAA, i.e. Authentication, Authorization and Accounting, up to today, is always a foundation based upon which network carriers run and manage networks. With development of AAA, a new framework Diameter technology has come into being.
Diameter protocol suite includes a base protocol (Diameter Base Protocol) and various application protocols. The base protocol provides the lowest requirements of the AAA protocol for functions that must be achieved by all of Diameter network nodes, including negotiation of ability between the nodes, receiving and forwarding of Diameter messages and real time transmission of charging information, etc. The application protocols adequately utilize a message transmission mechanism provided by the base protocol and standardize functions and special message contents of corresponding nodes to implement AAA of application services.
In the IMS, Diameter protocol is used to transmit corresponding information on a Cx interface between HSS and I-CSCF and between HSS and S-CSCF.
Home Subscriber Server (HSS): HSS, the most important database for each user, stores all information related to subscription and is used to support processes on a call or a session by each network entity, specifically including: user ID, number and addressing information, user security information, user location information and user profile information, etc. Home network can have one or several HSSs depending on the number of mobile subscribers, capacity of network devices and detailed networking situations. There are interfaces between HSS and several network entities, in which an interface between HSS and I-CSCF or between HSS and S-CSCF is a Cx interface.
In future multimedia applications, user equipments will be capable of supporting several media types, such as audio, video, text and image, etc, and each media type can support more than one coding/decoding format. Accordingly, user equipments may need to have various built-in or external devices. For a mobile phone, since its smaller size, Plug and Play devices are used more often, such as video camera, portable mobile store device, MP3, external keyboard, etc. Presence or absence of each of these devices means whether a terminal user can use a certain multimedia application, for example, the presence of video camera means that the user can initiate a video call. Even the device is not a Plug and Play device, it may need to be configured by users to be enabled or disabled, for example, a built-in recoding function, infrared function, etc. is enabled through special combination of keys on a keyboard.
Since these devices come into effect immediately once they are used, from the moment they take effect, the capability of the user equipment changes. A method of informing the network of the changed capability of the user equipment in time is needed, so that the network can know the capability of the user equipment immediately, and further determine whether to accept some service requests from the user equipment and whether to accept some service requests from other user equipments when the user equipment is called.
At present, in an IMS network, a negotiation on capability of a UE (user equipment) is implemented through a process of establishing and modifying an SIP session. When a UE (or mobile terminal) initiates to establish an SIP session, an INVITE message is used to bring the capabilities of a calling UE to the network and an opposite end UE. Each network node related to the session and the opposite end UE need to determine whether to accept the session establishment according to their respective support capabilities and support capability of the calling UE, for example, a P-CSCF (including a calling P-CSCF and a called P-CSCF) determines whether to allow establishment of the SIP session initiated by the calling UE or called UE according to a local strategy, and S-CSCF (including a calling S-CSCF and a called S-CSCF) determines whether to allow establishment of the SIP session initiated by the calling UE or called UE according to a local strategy or the subscriber profile downloaded from the HSS, while the called UE determines whether to accept the request of establishing the session according to its own capability. If the capability of the calling UE or called UE has changed before completion of the INVITE session, for example, a PnP device is plugged/unplugged or a built-in function is enabled/disabled etc, the related UE can modify the establishing SIP session by sending an UPDATE message bearing information of the changed capability of the UE and a network node and opposite end UE, after receiving the UPDATE message, will renegotiate the session establishment according to the changed capability of the UE and if the negotiation succeeds, the new capability of the UE is used to perform the session, or if the negotiation fails, the old capability of the UE is still used to establish the session. If the INVITE session has finished, an SIP session has been established successfully and a real service data transmission has been started between the calling UE and called UE or the calling UE and an AS (Application Server), and at this time the capability of the calling UE or called UE changes, for example, a PnP device is inserted or a certain built-in function is enabled to be used in the present service, a RE-INVITE message can be reinitiated, bearing information of the changed capability of the terminal, and the present session is renegotiated according to a re-negotiation process similar to the negotiation process of INVITE. After the re-negotiation succeeds, the new capability of the terminal is used to perform the service and the old negotiation result is deleted, or if the negotiation fails, the old negotiation result is still used to perform the service.
Besides the method of informing the network and opposite end UE of the user equipment capability during the session establishing and modifying process, when each UE establishes contact with the IMS network for the first time, that is, when it initiates an IMS register, the capability information of the user equipment can be encapsulated in a REGISTER message and sent to the network, and is stored in an S-CSCF for determining subsequent processes by the S-CSCF when the S-CSCF receives a request of establishing or modifying a SIP session subsequently.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method of informing a network of change of user equipment capability


LEDs near or surrounding a non-functional or sub-par LED are adjusted to compensate the sub-par LED. The compensation may include illumination (e.g., increased illumination of nearby LEDs to compensate for under illumination of a non-functional LED) or a shift in hue of the nearby LEDs to compensate for an opposite shift in hue of the sub-par LED.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to lighting, and particularly to the light of backlights used in displays.
2. Discussion of Background
Electronic displays are used in a wide range of applications. Some electronic displays have a series of spatial light modulators, for example, a backlight (or modulated backlight) and a front modulator.
Elements of the spatial light modulators may be controlled, for example, in response to image data to yield an image that can be observed by viewers. The elements of some spatial light modulators are backlight elements which have multiple states or levels of illumination. The levels of illumination may be, for example, utilized to produce a low resolution version of a desired image which may then be further modulated by an LCD panel to produce a desired image.
Arrays of backlight elements, front modulators, and processing to produce the desired image may be configured, for example, as described in Whitehead et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,891,672, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety for all purposes. Such arrangements comprise locally dimmed backlit displays, and may also be referred to as dual modulation displays.
In order to operate most efficiently, the backlight elements are calibrated, adjusted, or binned so as to have uniform qualities at a given illumination level. During a post-factory calibration phase, all LEDs in an array may be adjusted so that each LED has the same brightness when driven at the same PWM value. For backlights with RGB LEDs, the LEDs may be further calibrated to have the same hue.

Compensation for sub-par lighting in displays

Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation


Mild aqueous detergent, e.g., shampoo, compositions are disclosed based on a mixture comprising anionic surfactant and amphoteric surfactant, such as betaines, present in the composition at a level of from about 0.75 to 1.25 parts by weight per part by weight of anionic surfactant. The compositions also contain one or a mixture of therapeutic agents such as climbazole or a mixture of climbazole and one or more co-therapeutics such as salicylic acid. The combination of mild surfactant system and therapeutic agent serve to prevent or treat mild skin disorders such as scalp itch and scalp irritation when applied to the scalp as a shampoo. Shampoo compositions also preferably contain one or more conditioning agents and suitable suspending agents.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to skin care compositions which exhibit a therapeutic effect in the treatment of skin disorders such as itching, irritation and skin dryness.
2. Description of Related Art
There are a number of shampoo products on the market today which are specifically formulated as anti-dandruff shampoos. These products generally contain one or a mixture of surfactants, with the primary surfactant being an anionic surfactant such as an alkyl or aryl sulfate or sulfonate. One hypothesis is that dandruff problems are believed to be linked to the presence of a yeast-like fungus on the skin and an acceleration of the normal process of skin production. Conventional anti-dandruff shampoos generally contain effective amounts of an active agent which inhibits fungal growth and/or slows cell growth on the scalp. Examples of these agents include zinc pyrithione, selenium sulfide, salicylic acid, coal tar, sulfur, ketoconozole and climbazole. Examples of typical anti-dandruff shampoo formulations are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,089,945; 4,329,334; 4,329,335; 4,329,336 and 4,835,148.
However, experience has shown that excessive dandruff is largely a problem associated with cold, dry climates and it generally does not occur until after puberty. In more humid, tropical regions dandruff is a much less common disorder. However, inhabitants of these regions are generally more susceptible to mild forms of scalp dermatitis with such symptoms as excessive scalp itching, scalp irritation, inflammation, scalp dryness and scalp redness. These symptoms can also occur during the warm summer months in non-tropical regions. Although many of these symptoms ought to be relieved by the use of the anti-fungal agents present in some anti-dandruff shampoos, e.g., climbazole, zinc pyrithione or selenium sulfide, experience has demonstrated that these symptoms are not relieved and, in fact, are even worsened by regular use of many commercial anti-dandruff hair shampoos.
Accordingly it is a primary object of this invention to provide a mild, aqueous, skin care detergent composition, e.g., a scalp care shampoo or a shower cleansing composition, which exhibits a therapeutic effect on skin disorders, particularly, scalp disorders, particularly as encountered in warm weather and in tropical regions.

Scalp care products containing anti itching /anti irritant agents


Because a restricting plate 27 is disposed using a spacer 25, an upper plate 15 is allowed to expand upward when resin is injected, but unnecessary overexpansion is restricted by the restricting plate 27. Therefore the injection of a slightly larger amount of resin 37 does not cause a distortion or breakage of the upper plate 15 and a large amount resin 37 than the predetermined amount may be injected. As a result, damage to the upper plate 15 by the injection of the resin 37 and damage to the upper plate 15, the exfoliation of the radiation sensitive layer, and the like caused by the curing of the resin 37 may be prevented and damage to the flat panel radiation detector 1 may be prevented thereby.

The present invention relates to a flat panel radiation detector which is used for medical and industrial use and to a process for producing the same, wherein the flat panel radiation detector is composed: of a signal reading substrate on which a radiation sensitive layer that generates an electric charge with an incidence of radiation is mounted; an upper plate placed on top of the signal reading substrate facing the signal reading substrate across the radiation sensitive layer; and resin filling the space between the signal reading substrate and the upper plate.
Formerly, in the process for producing this kind of the flat panel radiation detector (also called "FPD"), resin mold, i.e., filling with a resin, has been practiced to prevent an electric discharge when a high voltage bias is applied to the radiation sensitive layer and to protect the radiation sensitive layer (for example, see Patent Reference 1). The filling is carried out into the space surrounded by a lower face of a glass plate, a spacer and the signal reading substrate/radiation sensitive layer, wherein a spacer is disposed around the signal reading substrate and a glass plate (for example, 0.5-1 mm of thickness) made from a radiation transmitting material is disposed on top of the spacer. The injection is carried out, for example, through an inlet disposed on the spacer, and the gas in the space is let out through an outlet together with the excess resin.
When the resin is injected in such a way, the pressure of the resin injection may cause an expansion of the center of the upper plate upward, and sometimes a severe deformation or damage to the upper plate may result. To avoid this happening, usually the injection is carried out after taking precautions for the upper plate expansion by placing a flat rigid glass plate, a thick metal plate, or the like.
[Patent reference 1] Japanese Laid Open Patent Publication No. 2002-311144
However, the conventional art with such a composition has following problems.
In the conventional process for the production, since almost the same volume of the resin as the volume of the space is injected, a deformation of the upper plate occurs, concaving toward the radiation sensitive layer (inside) in the area distant from the inlet or the outlet, when an epoxy resin, which has an especially high volume shrinkage, is employed. There is a problem in that in the worst case the deformation may result in damage to a part of the upper plate due to the increase in deformation of the upper plate caused by the contraction of the resin.
Further, when the injection pressure of the resin is low, the movement of the resin is reduced during contraction resulting in not enough resin being delivered to compensate the reduced volume due to curing. This leads to more contraction in the volume. Furthermore, after curing, there is residual upward stress as the upper plate attempts to restore its original, flat shape. If the adhesion between the upper plate and the resin (especially epoxy resin) is strong, this stress becomes a force that attempts to peel away the radiation sensitive layer from the signal reading substrate. Consequently, a part of the radiation sensitive layer, for example, the peripheral area where the thickness of the layer is thin, may be separated.

Process for producing a flat panel radiation detector and a flat panel radiation detector


A multi-protocol, multi-interface communications device testing system is disclosed. The system simultaneously control communication channels of a communications platform though multiple Interface Protocols, such as TDM, IP and Telephony Application Program Interfaces. The system also allows the creation of multi Interface Protocol Test Scenarios, and displays the results of executing The test results from all Protocols Interfaces and records and displays results.

Manufacturers of Communications devices (e.g., routers, PBX, communications servers, communications platforms) and application developers have adopted new open standards protocols such as TAPI, JTAPI, S.100 and CSTA, or developed their own proprietary protocols. As new products implementing these protocols are delivered to the marketplace, the need for device and software manufacturers to test for conformance to standards, performance and stability, as well as interoperability with applications, is increasingly critical. When testing complex communications and telephony systems, different types of tests must be performed to simulate all of the possible conditions and states the target system encounters during "live" operation. This variety of testing ensures that a telecommunications or computer telephony system is ready to provide a high-level of quality service. This testing also ensures that the target system continues to provide appropriate service during full operation. It is desirable for a testing system to be able to perform each of the following types of testing:
FUNCTIONALITY AND CONFORMANCE TESTING—The conformance testing refers to whether an application/system performs according to the related specifications. Manufacturers must ensure that their products are interoperable with applications that implement the same claimed standards. For example, a TAPI 3.X service provider should work with all the TAPI 3.X applications on the market and a TAPI 3.X application should work with all the TAPI 3.X service providers. In addition, interoperability between multiple applications sharing the same resources is critical. For example, with regard to application programming interfaces, it is important to ensure compatibility among applications from different vendors that perform distinct functions (e.g., call control, billing, etc) that share the same resources and which are integrated into a single solution. The service provider and the application need to be tested as mission critical software in order to offer the needed reliability and stability. To achieve this goal, testing must be done at both the service provider and application level.
LOAD AND STRESS TESTING—Telecommunications systems break down most frequently due to intensive usage or "load" situations. As a result, it is important to load the telecommunications system using real-world traffic, which simulates the actions, usage patterns, and media types (e.g. voice, fax, data, video) of real users during busy hours. Load tests should also analyze the responses that are returned from the target system to ensure that they are completely accurate. If system degradation or failure occurs, it must be determined why the problem occurred and it is necessary to pinpoint exactly what caused the problem in the target system.
ENDURANCE TESTING—Endurance testing measures the capability of the system under test to preserve its designed functionality when working in real world conditions over a long period of time.
REGRESSION TESTING—Hardware and software for telecommunications systems are upgraded periodically to add new system features or correct existing bugs. Whenever these types of changes are made to complex software systems, a tremendous risk exists because these changes or additions to the target system could corrupt its existing features. This problem requires the comprehensive testing of all the related features of the target system. Due to the amount of time required to manually perform these tests, it is critical to automate this regression testing process.
Various systems for performing communications testing are known in the art, such as the ChannelGauge system from G3 Nova Technologies, Inc. of West Lake Village, Calif., the "Hammer" line of testing systems from Emprix, Inc. of Waltham, Mass., and the Abacus and Abacus 2 testing systems from Zarak Systems of Sunnyvale, Calif. However, each of these systems has shortcomings that preclude the type of thorough and easy to use testing system of the present invention. For example, it is known to provide software to create Test Scenarios using a graphical user interface, in which different Test Functions are associated with different Communications Channels. However, this alone does not provide synchronization of Test Functions across multiple Communications Channels with different Interface Protocols, or the ability to incorporate new Interface Protocols, such as telephony applications programming Interface Protocols, into the scenario builder. Furthermore, it is known to scan a network to identify computers or agents that may be utilized in a testing scenario, but this does not provide an ability to itemize the Interface Protocols that may be used on each computer. Moreover prior systems do not provide for analysis profiles, cross analysis or layered result analysis of test results. It is also known to provide a communications system tester that uses telephony API function calls to control a communications platform via the communications server software that directly controls the communications hardware of the communications platform. Such functionality is present in the TAPI Capacity Tester from Genoa Technology, of Moorpark, Calif. 93021. However, many of the foregoing systems suffer from the deficiency of not being able to provide a testing system that can simultaneously test all of the Interface Protocols utilized by today's complex communications platforms. This, in part, is due to multitude of ways that Communications Channel endpoints are identified and controlled in a complex communications platform. For example, the information needed to control a Voice over IP (VoIP) Communications Channel endpoint might be a H323 endpoint, an IP address, and a unique phone number identifier. However, the information needed to control a T1 Communications Channel that terminates in a Dialogic board, for example, might be the Dialogic board name, the span, timeslot, and a unique phone number identifier. The information needed to control a CDR Communications Channel might be a CTM Server name and a computer name. Likewise, for the TAPI 2.x Interface Protocol, the information needed to identify and control a specific Communications Channel endpoint could include a Line ID, and address, and line information. Accordingly, as the number of Interface Protocols for a communications platform increase, the difficulty of providing a system that can simultaneously control and test different Communications Channels that use different Interface Protocols of the communication platform increases exponentially.
Many other problems relating to testing are caused by the increased complexity of communications platforms. For example, because newer communications platforms have greater capacity, it is necessary to utilize more test equipment (such an automated bulk call generators) to interface with a communications platform to test it. However, it is still important to have a central console from which the Test Scenario is controlled. Because the central console must be networked to the test equipment during the test, this means that there will be significant network traffic between the testing console and the test equipment. This network traffic devoted to executing the Test Scenario, and collecting the resulting data, can itself become a bottleneck, which prevents the test equipment from being utilized to its capacity for testing the communications platform. Accordingly, there is a need for a system that reduces network traffic associated with the testing console and test equipment.
This problem has been partially addressed by systems such as ChannelGauge of G3 Nova Technologies, Inc. of Westlake Village, Calif. This product uses Agents, or software, usually on remote computers, connected to test equipment, that can receive all or a portion of a Test Scenario and independently execute it and without the necessity of significant overhead network traffic from the testing console. In addition, Agents record command responses and status information from communications devices regarding a Communications Channel. However, the use of Agents creates additional problems. It is more difficult to define a Test Scenario on the testing console when there a multiple Agent computers. It is difficult to keep track of which computers are connected to which test equipment, and the communications resources of each test piece of test equipment connected to each Agent computer. In addition, as communications platforms increase in complexity by implementing more Interface Protocols, it will become even more difficult to keep track of which Agents are interfaced with test equipment that implements the various Interface Protocols. While all of this information can be "hard coded" into a Test Scenario, it makes the Test Scenarios more difficult to write and modify. Moreover, the use of Agents does not necessarily diminish the network traffic associated with transmitting test results to the testing console (or a separate database server).
Another problem resulting from the increased capacity of communications platforms having many Communications Channels is the difficulty of writing Test Scenarios to test all of the Communications Channels. Writing Test Scenarios is a tedious process, and it is made worse by communications platforms having hundreds or even thousands of Communications Channels. Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a system and method to increase the efficiency with which Test Scenarios can be written for platforms having large numbers of Communications Channels.
Another significant problem with newer communications platforms is that many are designed to interface with other pieces of expensive network equipment. Sometimes, the other expensive network equipment can cost over a million dollars or more. As a practical matter, many testing facilities do not have the resources to purchase all of the network equipment designed to interact with a communications platform. This can lead to instances where a new communications platform can not be adequately tested before being released to the public, which decreases the reliability of the communications platform. Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a method for emulating communications equipment that a communications platform is intended to interact with so that the platform can be tested without having to purchase expensive equipment.
Another problem with testing communications platforms is that they are increasingly provided by their manufacturers with communications services provider software having a telephony API that is not generally accepted in the marketplace, or even worse, proprietary. This makes it difficult to thoroughly test the communications services provider software, or other devices intended to connect to interact with it.
Another problem with communications platform test systems is the ability to test platforms that implement multiple Interface Protocols. Generally, some systems exist that allow, for example, testing of multiple telephony applications program interfaces, or which allow the testing of internet protocol communications or TDM Interface Protocol communications, but not in a simultaneous Test Scenario. These limits the "real world" testing that can be done, as it is desirable for a platform to be testing all Interface Protocols simultaneously. Moreover, to conduct Test Scenarios, it is often desirable to synchronize the Test Functions that take place across different Communications Channels. For example, it is often necessary to place a call on a first Communications Channel to a second Communications Channel, and the have the call answered on the second Communications Channel. While synchronization has been implemented in test systems in which both Communications Channels use the same Interface Protocol, synchronization has not been effectively implemented across different Interface Protocols, such as when a call is placed via a TDM Communications Channel to a voice of Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone.
A more fundamental problem with communications testing systems relates to their flexibility to keep up with the pace of new Interface Protocols for new communications platforms. It is very difficult and time-consuming to write a testing system for a specific Interface Protocol, yet new Interface Protocols are introduced on the market with increasing frequency. This has required significant rewriting of communications testing software systems, which is slow and expensive. Accordingly it is desirable to provide a communications testing system that allows new Interface Protocols to be "plugged in" so they can be used without significant rewriting of the core testing software.
Another problem with communications testing systems is the ability to provide meaningful results. It is possible to capture a great deal of information about each Test Function in a Test Scenario, such as the exact time the function began, the command used to implement the function, the result code, the Communications Channel status, etc. However, this can result in information overload when many iterations of tests comprised of numerous Test Functions are run across thousands of Communications Channels. At times, highly detailed information is necessary to pinpoint equipment design flaws and bottlenecks, but when testing only for capacity specifications, collecting too much information is undesirable, and as noted above, the excessive collection of information can actually impede the ability to perform the tests. Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a communications testing system with flexible information collection and analysis capabilities. In particular, it is desirable to generate information that provides various levels of detail, and allows visual display so that it may be easily understood. In addition, it is desirable to provide a system that allows pass/warning/fail criteria to be specified after a test is complete and the data has been gathered, so that the performance of a communications platform may be more completely assessed.
Another problem with communications test systems relates to the ability to obtain information regarding the status of a Communications Channel. For example, different telephony APIs (such as TAPI, JTAPI, S.100, S.410, CDR and WMI) provide different levels of information regarding the status of a Communications Channel. For example, a communications service provider for a communications platform can support multiple both S.100 and TAPI telephony API. The S.100 telephony API provides detailed information about a streaming media communication, such as a playing wave files or tone files, or bridging conversations. However, the TAPI telephony API provides more powerful call control processing. Accordingly, it would be desirable to have a communications test system that can use multiple protocols to obtain the maximum information about the Communications Channel of a communications platform.

Multi-protocol, multi-interface communications device testing system


Source devices, softwares and methods are provided for predicting at a transmitting source how well a specific encoded frame, relative to other frames in a stream, would be reconstructed if it were not available for eventual playout at a receiving destination. If poorly, then the specific encoded frame is packetized and transmitted advantageously with respect to other packets in a stream. The transmitted stream will have higher jitter. Predicting is performed at the source by synthesizing a replicated frame, which emulates how the specific frame would be reconstructed at the destination. Then the replicated frame is compared with the decoded specific frame. The eventual playout will have a higher fidelity to the original, since reconstructed from more critical frames. Receiving devices, softwares and methods are provided for receiving in a jitter buffer a stream of packets containing encoded data frames, determining that they have been packetized differently from each other, and setting a playout delay of the jitter buffer responsive to the determination, regardless of high jitter.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to the field of communications through networks, and more specifically to devices, softwares and methods for predicting at a source how well a specific encoded frame would be reconstructed at a destination, and devices, softwares and methods for adjusting a playout delay of a jitter buffer.
2. Description of the Related Art
Networks, such as the internet, were primarily made for data communication in an asynchronous mode. The data is encapsulated into packets, and each packet is transmitted individually. The packets are received at the destination, and the data is extracted.
Recently networks are being used increasingly for communications. Data is transmitted, received, and played out in real time. For voice communications, for example, a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is used to transmit real-time voice traffic over an Internet Protocol (IP) network. Other applications are being devised for other types of real time media.
Referring now to FIG. 1, a format for data transmission is described in more detail. The format of FIG. 1 is intended for real time transmission. It will be appreciated that FIG. 1 may apply to any type of such transmission, such as a two-way voice conversation, a one-way broadcast stream such as video or radio, etc.
A network 110 is used to facilitate a transmission from a source device 120 to a destination device 130. Network 110 may be any communications network, such as the internet, a Local Area Network (LAN), a Metropolitan Area Network (MAN), etc.
Source device 120 is also called merely source 120. It establishes a connection 122 with destination device 130. Then source 120 transmits data packets 125 through network 110 towards destination device 130. If the communication is two-way, then packets may be transmitted also in the opposite direction.
Destination device 130 is also called merely destination 130. Destination 130 includes a jitter buffer 132, a decoder 134, a packet loss reconstruction (PLC) module 136 and a playout module 138.
Jitter buffer 132 holds packets 125 as they are received from network 110. Decoder 134 decodes the packets stored in jitter buffer 132. PLC module 136 reconstructs the data of those packets that are not received. Then a stream of data frames (some decoded, some reconstructed) are input in playout module 138. The latter may include a speaker (for voice), a screen (for video or still images), etc.
The requirement of real time transmission has presented problems. The problems arise from the fact that networks were initially designed to be asynchronous. These problems are now described in more detail.
A first problem is that packets 125 are simply lost in network 110. This results in packet loss L1. This is not a problem for most non-real-time applications, which use a reliable transport protocol, because a lost packet will be discovered and retransmitted. But for a real time application, there will be no time for this type of recovery.
A second problem is that packets 125 do arrive at destination 130, but delayed. They may not arrive in time for playout, which is the same as if they had been lost. One possible reason for such a delay is congestion at a specific node of network 110, e.g. at one of its routers (not shown individually). This type of loss is characterized as a packet loss L2. Loss L2 is shown as happening within network 110, even though the actual discarding may take place farther in destination device 130.
A third problem is that sometimes jitter buffer 132 becomes full to capacity. Some of the received packets 125 are discarded to make more room, even though they were not lost and arrived in time. This discarding is equivalent to another source of packet loss L3.
Jitter buffer 132 may be adaptive. It has a playout delay that may be variable, depending on the exhibited jitter of packets 125. The higher jitter is ascribed to network congestion. Upon perceiving high jitter, the playout delay is adjusted to a higher value. This gives a higher opportunity for packets to arrive, thus not miss their deadlines, and thus minimizing losses L2 and L3 of FIG. 1. But lengthening the playout delay presents other problems, by increasing the total end-to-end delay.
Packets from jitter buffer 132 are decoded in decoder 134. Decoder 134 outputs the decoded data to PLC module 136, for use in concealment of subsequent frames.
PLC module 136 then reconstructs the data of those packets that have not been received. In other words, it tries to correct for losses L1, L2, L3. This way the system tolerates losses L1, L2, L3.
A fourth problem is that PLC module 136 does not reconstruct well the data of the missing packets. In other words, the effectiveness of packet loss reconstruction is not uniform for all packets. To the extent that the data of some packets is reconstructed poorly, this is represented as a loss L4, even though it is technically not a data loss, but a loss in Quality of Service (QoS). If in a voice application, loss L4 is that the voice is reconstructed poorly. If in an application that involves transmitting images (e.g. video), then loss L4 is that the images are reconstructed poorly.
Loss L4 may be for a number of reasons. For example, if too many packets are lost in a row (e.g. the losses L1, L2, L3 being "bursty"), then the reconstruction process has less data to work with. In some instances this is more of a problem than others. For example, if the data content repeats over many frames, then it is less critical, and thus less of a problem. But if it contains abrupt changes, then it is more critical. Another one may be the programming of PLC module 136 not being attuned to the nature of the data or the loss. Regardless, loss L4 is compounded to the portion of losses L1, L2, L3 that is not corrected for.
It is desirable to have playout with a high Quality of Service (QoS), even in the face of such losses, and without a long playout delay time.

Devices, softwares and methods for predicting reconstruction of encoded frames and for adjusting playout delay of jitter buffer


A method for charging a battery, including: determining a final state of charge and a final temperature of the battery; and calculating charging power and/or cooling power required to reach the two final values within a minimum amount of time.

The present invention relates to a method for charging a battery, particularly suited to the charging of a battery of an electric motor vehicle. It also relates to a charger and a battery recharging station using such a method.
Certain motor vehicles, such as electric or hybrid vehicles, comprise a battery for supplying power to an electric drive motor. Such a battery regularly requires charging since it discharges during its use.
A method for charging a battery is for example described in document US 2009/0309546. Such a method is however not very efficient. The total time of a battery-charging phase is a very important parameter for developing the practicality of the electric vehicle. Moreover, a battery-charging phase demands a particular installation fulfilling not only the charging function but also a cooling function because the battery heats up while it is being charged. Cooling makes it possible to optimize the service life of the battery and provide the customer with a battery at a temperature that is low enough for him to be able to obtain the maximum performance of the battery on his journey. The drawback of the existing charging methods arises from the fact that they are not optimized: notably, the management of the cooling of the battery is independent of the management of its charging, and situations arise in which the electric charging is ended but the charging phase continues only in order to finalized the cooling of the battery. In such a case, the charging time is lengthened solely for managing the cooling, and this is not optimal.

Method for charging a battery for supplying power to a drive motor of a motor vehicle


A new and distinct Prunus hybrid plant used as a rootstock for cherries that induces precocity and flat branching of the grafted plant.

The present invention comprises a new and distinct cultivar of Prunus hybrid used as a rootstock known by the varietal name 'Gi31817'. The new variety was discovered in Giessen, Germany in 1970. The new variety is the result of a planned breeding program between an unnamed Prunus canescens variety (female parent) and a mixture of pollen as the male parentage from several unnamed and presumably unpatented varieties of Prunus avium. The new variety has larger leaves, less leaf pubescence, stronger vigor, and induces stronger vigor of a grafted tree than its female parent. When compared to the varieties making up its male parentage, the new variety does not grow as upright and also induces less growth and higher precocity of a grafted tree. The purpose of the breeding program was to produce a series of size-controlling, productive, and precocious rootstocks for sweet cherries. The new variety has been trial and field tested and has been found to retain its distinctive characteristics and remain true to type through successive propagations.
The new variety is similar to prunus rootstock 'GI 148/2' (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 9,622) in its rootstock induction of precosity, rootstock induction of flat branching, and the absence of root suckers. The leaves of the new variety have a different appearance than those of 'GI 148/2'. Further, the vigor of a grafted tree on the new variety is much greater than on 'GI 148/2'.


A method, apparatus and computer program product for testing semiconductor products that combines multiple techniques. Depending on the requirements, different ones of the techniques are emphasized over the other techniques. The testing applies a technique to achieve a higher single defect acceleration parameter at the expense of a second parameter, thus enabling acceleration of defects that require higher voltage or higher temperature than a traditional “Burn In” can achieve, which defects would otherwise go unaccelerated. The method manages the adaptation of the different techniques, e.g., how it decides to favor one technique over the other, and how it carries out the favoring of one or more particular techniques in a given test situation. Thus, acceleration to defectivity (defect type and quantity) may be tailored in real time by uniquely leveraging the duration spent in a given section of a process flow based on the prevalence of unique defect types.

Technology advances and integration of a broad spectrum of IP continues to push the limits of power in all semiconductor applications. The diversity of defect types is compounding, driven by the pace of semiconductor processing complexity and IP integration. The plethora of defect types poses severe challenges to the mandate to enhance product quality and reliability with each new product release to the marketplace. Accelerating and detecting these defects at the plant of manufacture is paramount to achieving the demands of the marketplace.
Traditional semiconductor device manufacturing techniques, e.g., "burn-in" techniques, of applying a stress uses "combinational" stimuli (e.g., high voltage and high temperature applied simultaneously) and sustained for the stress duration. Defects accelerated primarily by voltage (i.e. electromigration) or primarily by thermal cycle (i.e. metal fatigue) are sub optimally stressed. An example of electromigration calculations highlights the need for maximum achievable voltage. Lower voltages require unachievable durations. Higher voltage accelerates this defect type most effectively, so reducing temperature to increase voltage enables users to accelerate defects that are "escapes" to stress at lower temperature.
Currently there exist no techniques that can be used to perform a specific optimization of stimulus, observe-ability, and/or acceleration of defects in general or specific defects. Nor are there specific techniques for integrated stimulus, observe-ability, and/or acceleration applied techniques towards an optimized defect specific process.
Accelerating this growing kaleidoscope of latent defects, against a backdrop of increasing power, circuit, and process complexity, demands a kaleidoscope of acceleration solutions.

International Business Machines Corporation


A rotational rheometer has an integrating motor (1), which rotates a measuring shaft (16) supporting a first measuring element (4), there being formed between this first measuring element (4) and a further, fixed measuring element (5) a measurement gap (S), into which is introduced the substance to be tested (12), in particular fluid, the depth of the measurement gap (S) being variable by the adjustment of the two measuring elements (4, 5) relative to each other, and a device being provided to determine the distance between the two measuring elements. At least one inductive or at least one magnetic position sensor (19, 21) is supported by one of the two measuring elements (4, 5). The first measuring element (4) or a device (18) disposed on this measuring element (4) can cause the position sensor (19, 21) disposed on the other measuring element (5) to respond, or can cause the output signal, e.g. impedance, resistance,or voltage, of this position sensor (19, 21) to be modified, and the output signals of the position sensor (19, 21) are supplied to an analyzing unit (22, 24, 17).

The invention relates to a rotational rheometer.
The basic structure of rotational rheometers is known from Austrian patent 404 192. A rotational rheometer of the type referred to above is known from DE-A-34 23 873. This document describes a rotational rheometer whose rotor is coupled to a test specimen and is suspended in a stator by a low-friction bearing system. A compensation arrangement which compensates for bearing torque on the rotor over the full range of rotation of the rotor is provided. Also provided are position transducers which are able to determine accurately the angular position of the rotor over the full 360xc2x0 range of rotation. Also provided is a transducer with which the longitudinal position of the rotor relative to the stator can be accurately detected. The disadvantage is that, with this rheometer, thermal expansion, the rigidity of the stand, and temperature drift in the stand affect the measurement process.
An object of the present invention is to avoid having indirectly to measure the distance between the measuring elements of rotational rheometers having these basic principles, i.e. to avoid having to take the circuitous route of measuring the distance between a point on the measuring shaft and a point on the stand or stator. Instead, the object is to be able directly to measure, and/or set, and/or keep constant the distance between the measuring elements forming the measurement gap S. This is important, since even minor fluctuations in the depth of the measurement gap S in the course of the measurement process, e.g. as a result of fluctuations in temperature, in particular of the stand and/or the measuring elements, have a considerable effect on the accuracy of measurement.
According to the invention, non-contact position sensors are therefore provided, or are supported by one of the two measuring elements bounding the measurement gap S, to establish or measure, and/or set, and/or keep constant the depth of the measurement gap S. The other respective measuring element supports the component which causes the position sensor to respond, or itself causes the position sensor to respond. The output signals of the position sensors are supplied to the analyzing unit; advantageously, the output signals of the analyzing unit, in dependence upon the output signals of the position sensor, control a device for modifying or setting the measurement gap by adjusting the height at least of one of the two measuring elements.
Preferred embodiments of the invention employ different embodiments or variants of position sensors which enable the depth of the measurement gap S to be measured very precisely in a non-contact manner, or which react very sensitively to fluctuations in the distance between the mutually opposite measuring elements.
The accuracy of the position sensors used according to the invention is sufficient to achieve the accuracy required in setting the depth of the measurement gap. The measurement errors hitherto caused by the lack of accuracy in setting the depth of the measurement gap are largely eliminated thereby.
Another aspect of the invention enables measurement errors caused by fluctuations in temperature to be largely eliminated and advantageously enables rapid analysis to take place.
In the analyzing unit, the measurement gap depth values measured with the position sensors are combined with the measurement values for the moment of the substance to be tested and, if need be, with the measurement values of a normal force measurement device; they are then used to calculate viscosity.
In a rotational viscometer where measurements are taken of a specimen or substance with the height h, which is generated by the depth of the measurement gap S between a fixed measuring element (plate) and a measuring element (plate) which rotates relative thereto and has a radius R, the following relationships apply to the shear rate D (1) and viscosity xcex7 (2):                               D                      (            R            )                          =                              ω            *            R                    h                                    (        1        )                                η        =                              τ                          D                              (                R                )                                              =                                                                      2                  *                  M                                                  π                  *                                      R                    3                                                              *                              1                                  D                                      (                    R                    )                                                                        =                                          2                *                M                *                h                                            π                *                                  R                  4                                *                ω                                                                        (        2        )
If, for example, a constant torque M is pre-selected, a change in the height h causes the angular velocity xcfx89 to fluctuate in the same proportion, as a result of which the calculated viscosity remains constant. If a height fluctuation is not allowed for in the calculation, however, the following error results for the viscosity xcex7.
If hxe2x80x2=k*h (error factor k) is used for the height, the result is equation (3) for the true angular velocity:                               ω          xe2x80x2                =                                            D                              (                R                )                                      *                          h              xe2x80x2                                R                                    (        3        )
and equation (4) for the viscosity established:                     η        =                                            2              *              M              *              h                                      π              *                              R                3                            *                              D                                  (                  R                  )                                            *                              h                xe2x80x2                                              =                                    C              *                              h                                  h                  xe2x80x2                                                      =                          C              *                              1                k                                                                        (        4        )
h=calculated specimen height [m]
hxe2x80x2=true specimen height [m]
D(R)=shear rate at the radius xe2x80x9cRxe2x80x9d [1/s]
xcfx89=calculated angular velocity [1/s]
xcfx89xe2x80x2=true angular velocity [1/s]
xcfx84=shear stress [Pa]
M=torque [Nm]
xcex7=viscosity [Paxc2x7s]  C  =                    2        *        M                    π        *                  R          3                *                        D              (        R        )
It is clear from the above derivation that, if there is a measurement error in the specimen height, viscosity fluctuates in inverse proportion to the height ratio, that is to say, a +1% height measurement error produces a 1% reduction in viscosity. The measurement gap is generally 1 to 2 mm; for a viscosity error of  less than 1%, the size of the gap therefore has to be determined with an accuracy better than 10 xcexcm or 20 xcexcm.
Advantageous embodiments of the invention will become clear from the following description, claims, and drawings.


Systems and methods for identifying and selecting personalized waypoints for presentation on a map are provided. In particular, a user's data can be analyzed to identify a plurality of candidate waypoints. The candidate waypoints can correspond to locations at which the user has a scheduled event, reservation, or appointment. When the user performs a search query in a mapping application or geographic information system, the plurality of candidate waypoints can be obtained and scored according to a scoring formula. One or more candidate waypoints can be selected based on the determined scores and presented on a personalized map in addition to the result of the search query. An exemplary scoring formula takes a candidate waypoint and a point of interest search result as inputs and analyzes a distance between the two locations and a likelihood that a user wants directions between the two locations.

A client device such as a smartphone or a desktop computer can operate a browser, mapping application, or a geographic information system to provide maps and/or other geographic imagery and data to a user. For example, a user can request a map or driving directions to a particular address. As another example, a map can be provided in response to a web search query that implicitly calls for geographic results, such as when the search includes the name of a business having a physical location. Generally, the client device can communicate with a host server over a network in order to obtain the appropriate geographic information to provide to the user.
One particular instance in which mapping applications or other means for obtaining geographic information are particularly useful is when a user is exploring an area with which the user is relatively unfamiliar. For example, the user can be on vacation, work travel, or simply in an unfamiliar location within their home city. As a result, the user can use a mapping application to navigate about the area of exploration and receive other useful geographic information.
However, for a user who has multiple events planned in the area of exploration (e.g. arrive at the airport, check into the hotel, attend a meeting a first location, meet with friends at a second location, attend a sporting event at a third location), navigating among such events can be a difficult task. In particular, traditional operation of a mapping application can require the user to determine the location of each expected event relative to the locations of the other expected events on an individualized basis.
For example, the user may land at the destination airport and perform a search for the location of the hotel. The user would then be required to perform a second search to determine the first location at which she is expecting to attend the meeting, perform a third search to determine the second location at which she is expecting to meet with friends, and so on. Thus, when a user is unfamiliar with a particular area, synthesizing the results of two or more searches can be a difficult task, causing the user to be unsure of where each of the locations is relative to the others.


The frequency and transient responses of a CMOS differential amplifier are improved by employing one or more compensating capacitors. A compensating capacitor coupled to a differential input of the CMOS differential amplifier is used to inject current into the differential input, such that the net current flow through the gate-to-drain capacitance of a MOS input transistor approaches zero. Thus, the Miller effect with respect to that MOS input transistor is substantially reduced or eliminated, resulting in increased frequency and transient responses for the CMOS differential amplifier. In one embodiment, the CMOS differential amplifier is a CMOS current mirror differential amplifier.

CMOS differential amplifiers are used in analog and digital circuits. A configuration of a CMOS operational amplifier includes a CMOS differential amplifier followed by an output stage. A CMOS differential amplifier without the output stage is usable, for example, in memory sense amplifiers. One example of a CMOS differential amplifier is a CMOS current mirror differential amplifier that includes a differential input circuit coupled to a current mirror load circuit.
The frequency and time responses of a CMOS amplifier are affected by the Miller effect. The gate-to-drain capacitance of an input transistor is amplified, by the voltage gain of the CMOS amplifier stage that the transistor is a part of, and is reflected back to the transistor input, i.e., the gate terminal of the input transistor. The frequency and time responses are determined by the amplified gate-to-drain capacitance, in addition to the gate-to-source capacitance, of the input transistor. The result significantly reduces frequency response and switching speed of the CMOS amplifier.
There is a need to improve the frequency and time responses of CMOS amplifiers.

CMOS amplifiers with frequency compensating capacitors


A method for extending the use and/or application of messaging systems is disclosed. The method includes embedding non-standard data within a first portion of a header of a message, transmitting the message via the messaging system, and identifying the embedded non-standard data in the first portion of the header of the message and processing the message differently to messages without the non-standard data.

Messaging systems such as the short messaging service (SMS) and the like are extremely popular types of text (or multimedia in the case of EMS and MMS) based communication provided by mobile telephone systems. However, by their very nature, their use is limited to their intended purpose.
The SMS communications protocol and implementation was designed to allow limited length alpha-numeric messages to be asynchronously transmitted relatively quickly between mobile telephones.
FIG. 1 illustrates a standard implementation of an SMS system. A Short Message Center (SMSC) stores and forwards messages to and from a mobile telephone (MS). A Short Message Entity (SME), which can be located in the fixed network or a mobile telephone, receives and sends SMS messages. A Mobile Switching Center (MSC) switches connections in a mobile telephone network between mobile telephones or between mobile telephones and the fixed network. The SMS gateway MSC (GWMS) is a gateway MSC that can also receive SMS messages. The gateway MSC is a mobile network's point of contact with other networks. On receiving the short message from the short message center, the GMSC typically uses an SS7 network to interrogate the current position of the mobile telephone from the home location register (HLR). The HLR is the main database in a mobile network. It holds information of the subscription profile of the mobile telephone and also about the routing information for the subscriber, i.e. the area (covered by a MSC) where the mobile telephone is currently situated. The GMSC is thus able to pass on the message to the correct MSC. A Visitor Location Register (VLR) corresponds to each MSC and contains temporary information about the mobile telephone, information like mobile telephone identification and the cell (or a group of cells) where the mobile telephone is currently situated. Using information form the VLR the MSC is able to switch the information (short message) to the corresponding Base Station System (BSS), which transmits the short message to the mobile telephone. The BSS consists of transceivers, which send and receive information over the air interface, to and from the mobile telephone. This information is passed over the signaling channels so the mobile telephone can receive messages even if a voice or data call is going on.
The SMS protocol used for encoding and transmission of SMS messages is described by GSM document 03.40. Whilst SMS messages are an extremely popular mechanism used for communication over mobile telephone networks, their use is limited by the implementation offered by the mobile telephone network provider. To date, most SMS systems offer basic text based communication for a fixed fee (dependent on the contract negotiated with the mobile telephone network provider).

Method and system for extending the use and/or application of messaging systems


In a method of communicating content over a wireless communication link between a base station set-top (BSS) and one or more hosts, where each of the one or more hosts have an interface protocol substantially complying with at least a subset of a copy protection standard, an encrypted signal is at least one of received and stored in the BSS, and the encrypted signal is turned into an encrypted data packet stream. The BSS wirelessly transmits the data packet stream to one or more wireless interface apparatuses (WIAs) which are interfaced with at least one host through the interface protocol. In addition, the WIA forwards the encrypted data packet stream to the one or more hosts through implementation of the interface protocol.

Cable, satellite, and terrestrial broadcast service is received into a house through a main cable (or fiber-optic) line supplied from the cable service provider or from an antenna configured to receive content from the satellite or terrestrial broadcast service providers. The main cable line is typically routed through the walls of the house and into set-top boxes arranged to pass content from the service providers to one or more television sets. The content supplied by the service providers is often conditional access (CA) encrypted to substantially prevent unauthorized reception of the content.
The CA encrypted content is typically decrypted by CableCARD devices, which comprise separate plug-in cards that are inserted into the set-top boxes, or directly into some newer television sets. The CableCARD devices are also typically configured to copy protection (CP) encrypt the content prior to delivery to the set-top box or the television set to substantially prevent unauthorized reception and the content from the CableCARD and the set-top box or television set. In these instances, the set-top box or the television set is configured to decrypt the CP encrypted content.
Oftentimes, the main cable line is supplied into the house at a relatively long distance away from the television set(s). In addition, many households have a number of different television sets located in different rooms, thereby requiring that the main cable line be split and supplied through a number of walls to the different rooms. As such, a relatively large amount of cabling is typically required in order to supply the television sets with the content supplied over the main cable line. For existing construction, as well as new construction houses, the costs and labor associated with running the cabling inside the walls are relatively high because running the cabling typically requires installers to drill holes through walls, ceilings, studs, and floors and to patch up the holes once the cabling has been run.
A less expensive option would be to run the cabling on the outside of the walls. This option, however, is undesirable because it is aesthetically unpleasant and poses a hazard to those walking past the cabling.

Content communication over a wireless communication link


Apparatus and methods for relaxing accommodation of an eye undergoing examination or other optical or medical procedures while concurrently permitting and facilitating positioning of the subject eye. A patch, cover, or other device designed to occlude and visually stimulate the eye opposite the subject eye includes multiple light sources facing the occluded eye. The practitioner illuminates a selected one (or ones) of the light sources within the patch and directs the patient to fixate on the source. As the occluded eye moves to fixate on the illuminated source, the subject eye follows the movement, thereby repositioning itself. Occluding the eye causes the image seen by it to appear to be at infinity, rather than nearby, causing the ocular muscles of both eyes to relax. The availability of multiple light sources within the patch allows the practitioner to reposition the illuminated source relative to the eye without physically moving a wand or otherwise engaging in trial-and-error techniques requiring interruption of the examination or procedure and consequent loss of concentration.

Accommodation, or the adjustment made by the eye for seeing at different distances, is often characterized by convergence and ocular muscle fatigue when a patient attempts to focus a sharp image--particularly one near to the eye--on the eye's retina for more than a minimal period of time. Such ocular fatigue typically may be uncomfortable for the patient, making examinations and procedures performed during the period less pleasant for the patient and, consequently, for the practitioner as well. Existence of accommodation and convergence also may corrupt measurements made during various ocular examinations, potentially rendering eyeglass lens prescriptions inaccurate. Because a patient may tend to reposition a subject eye (or allow it to wander) as the ocular muscles tire, accommodation also may affect ophthalmic and medical procedures, including modern laser surgeries and retinal photography, which require that the subject eye remain stationary for relatively long periods.
A variety of means to counteract accommodation of the eye have thus been developed or suggested. Paralytic drugs, for example, may be used to immobilize the muscles controlling the lens of an eye and render it motionless when necessary or desired. The technique of "fogging," or placing a predetermined sequence of lenses before a subject eye, additionally may be used to relax accommodation of the eye when using auto-refractometers or similar instruments to determine the appropriate corrective lenses for a particular patient. Cornsweet U.S. Pat. No. 3,843,240, incorporated herein in its entirety by this reference, discloses an alternative method for relaxing accommodation of an eye. As described in the Cornsweet patent, relaxation of accommodation may be produced by presenting a defocused flashing light source to an eye through a pin-hole aperture positioned a selected distance from the eye's lens. Trachtman U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,533,221 and 4,660,945, also incorporated herein in their entireties by this reference, discuss other techniques for performing accommodation training.
Among the equipment frequently used by practitioners for eye examinations is the optical slit lamp. Commercially available slit lamps usually include a Galilean binocular microscope connected to optional accessories such as photographic systems (if, e.g., retinal photography is to be performed or recorded measurements are desired), Pachometers (for measuring corneal thickness), or Goldmann applanation tonometers (for assessing eyeball tension). Such slit lamps also may be integrated with laser transmission or other systems for performing ophthalmic surgery or used by neurologists in evaluating, for example, ocular muscle paralysis or the existence of ocular tumors.
One commercial slit lamp, the Topcon Photo Slit Lamp SL-5D available from the Topcon Instrument Company of America, 65 West Century Road, Paramus, N.J. 07652, includes an annular fixation wand or target having a luminous fiber optic tip. The target is connected to the end of an extendable arm and may be positioned by the practitioner near a patient's eyes to attract the patient's attention. The patient is directed to focus both eyes--including the subject eye--on the illuminated target, thereby positioning the subject eye as necessary to perform the optical examination or procedure.
During the examination the practitioner may reposition the subject eye simply by moving the illuminated target. Repositioning the target, however, typically requires that the practitioner interrupt the examination, peer away from the binocular microscope to the extendable arm, and physically adjust the arm until the target is appropriately located. Because trial-and-error techniques must be used to reposition the target, time consuming delays often exist when frequent repositioning occurs. Moreover, accommodation and convergence result when the patient attempts to focus on the nearby target, causing ocular muscle strain and fatigue strain and their consequent examination-related problems.

Device and method for positioning and relaxing accommodation of the eye


A method of recording an exposure pattern in a recording layer of a holographic mask, using an original reticle that has the exposure pattern formed therein, the recording method comprising: illuminating a first recording light and a first reference light to the recording layer simultaneously, the first recording light being illuminated through an original reticle placed opposite to the holographic mask with a first gap therebetween, the first reference light being illuminated to the recording layer at a first incident angle; and illuminating a second recording light and a second reference light to the recording layer simultaneously, the second recording light being illuminated through the original reticle placed opposite to the holographic mask with a second gap therebetween, the second gap being different from the first gap, the second reference light being illuminated to the recording layer at a second incident angle.

1. Technical Field
Several aspects of the present invention relate to a recording method for recording a desired exposure pattern in a holographic mask having a recording layer, a holographic exposure method for exposing a photosensitive material film on a substrate to light by using the holographic mask so that a desired exposure pattern is printed on the photosensitive material film, a method for manufacturing a semiconductor device and a method for manufacturing an electro-optic device.
2. Related Art
In photolithography technologies to form an electric circuit or element on a substrate such as a wafer for use in a semiconductor device and the like, attention has been focused on a holographic exposure method that allows a fine pattern to be printed.
The holographic exposure method is a method in which a recording layer of a holographic mask is illuminated with a light beam for reconstruction and the diffracted light is caused by an interference pattern that has been recorded in advance as a hologram in the recording layer.
A photosensitive material film on a substrate is exposed to the diffracted light so that a desired exposure pattern is printed onto the film.
The method is described in "0.05 μm Enabling Lithography for Low-Temperature Polysilicon Displays" SID 2003 Digest, pages 350-353.
The foregoing holographic exposure method has higher resolution than general exposure methods that use lens optical systems.
On the other hand, the foregoing method has such characteristics that the numerical aperture is less adjustable and the focal depth is smaller than the lens optical systems.
Therefore, the method has a problem in that if a device such as a semiconductor device is formed on a surface of a substrate, exposure need be performed a plurality of times (multiple exposure) with the gap between a holographic mask and the substrate being changed to be adapted for unevenness of the surface, that is unevenness of a photosensitive material film.
In order to solve this problem, various devices have been known in related art.
These devices include an exposure device including a light source that irradiates a film to be exposed on a substrate with exposure light, a positioning mechanism that positions an exposure master plate in the optical path of the exposure light, a driving mechanism that controls the distance between the exposure master plate and the film to be exposed, and a scanning mechanism that changes the position of the exposure light relative to the film to be exposed (WO03/010803, pages 4 and 13, FIG. 8).
In the foregoing exposure device, a distance measurement device that measures the distance between the exposure master plane and the film to be exposed is included, and based on the measured result by this distance measurement device, the driving mechanism controls the distance between the exposure master plane and the film to be exposed.
More specifically, in the exposure process, the exposure light is emitted so as to scan the film to be exposed through the exposure master plate.
In synchronization with this scan, the driving mechanism controls the gap between the exposure master plate and the film to be exposed to have a desired distance by moving a stage with a substrate mounted thereon in the Z-axis direction.
Therefore, exposure is performed with the focal position of exposure light being periodically changed in accordance with changes of the height of the surface of the film to be exposed.
This is intended to overcome the small focal depth, one of the problems in the holographic exposure method.
In methods using the foregoing exposure device of related art, if the substrate to be exposed is made larger in size, the stage is also required to be larger in size.
With the size increasing, the inertial mass of the stage increases.
As a result, errors are likely to be greater in periodically controlling the focal point of exposure light by the foregoing driving mechanism.
Thus, there exists a problem in that the focal position of the exposure light does not follow unevenness of the surface of the film to be exposed and undulations of the substrate, so that part of the substrate to be exposed might remain unexposed to light.
Further, regarding the case where relatively high resolution is not required but a large focal depth is desired, a technique of easily adjusting the focal depth has not been developed in the holographic exposure method using a holographic mask.

Method of recording an exposure pattern in a recording layer of a holographic mask, method of forming an exposure pattern in a photosensitive material film, method of manufacturing a semiconductor device and method of manufacturing an electro-optic device


Disclosed is a method for detecting the degree of malignancy in tumors noninvasively, which comprises the steps of: using a Power Doppler ultrasound unit to scan a tumor and capture sequential color imagines in a complete heartbeat cycle, and choosing an area of interest (AREA_ROI) from the images; labeling pixels reflecting signals of bloodflow in the imagines during one heartbeat cycle to contour an area of tumor blood vessels (AREA_vessel); calculating a difference of PDVI between maximal systolic pressure and diastolic pressure during the heartbeat cycle to obtain tumor differential vascularity index (TDVI), in which PDVI is the ratio obtained by dividing pixels of AREA_vessel by a total area in the section of AREA_ROI; and determining the degree of malignancy by the TDVI. The method of the present invention can be applied to monitor the response of tumor to clinical treatment.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for assessment of tumors, especially relates to a novel method of non-invasive measurement of tumor hemodynamic parameters to detect the degree of malignancy in tumors.
2. The Prior Arts
Tumor blood flow plays an important role for tumor growth and metastasis from the view of tumor metabolism. It's also crucial to the selection of optimal therapy and a marker for response to therapy. Jain reviewed the current knowledge of physical parameters for normal, benign and malignant neoplastic tissues in Cancer Research, volume 48(10): 2641-58, 1988. Non-invasive techniques for assessment of tumors like magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), ultrasound B-Mode Image are known for imaging tumor sizes, structures of blood vessels in tumors, vascular network of tumor, integrity of tumor surface, resistance indices such as pulsed index (PI) and resistance index (RI), and so on. The outcomes of aforementioned detection are limited to suitability when compared with the results of invasive tumor sampling with blood vessel staining or with those of cell culture. This is due to many insufficient assumptions on detection of images and lack of precise quantification indexes, which results not enough credibility.
The degree of angiogenesis in tumors is closely related to the malignancy of tumors, even to the survival rate of therapy. During angiogenesis, microvascular endothelial cells proliferate rapidly which cause only single layer of endothelial cells in the neovascular wall. Consequently, the blood flow of neovasculature is significantly different from that of normal blood vessel under the action of pulsatile blood pressure. Therefore, detection of macroscopic or microscopic blood flow on the artery vessel wall for tumor growth and its hemodynamics are of important values.
Owing to the broad clinical applications of color Doppler ultrasound, one of the inventors of the present invention, Dr. Hsieh, Fon-Jou, published a paper: "Incremental angiogenesis assessed by color Doppler ultrasound in the tumorigenesis of ovarian neoplasms" in Cancer (1994, volume 73(4):1251-6). The crucial role of angiogenesis in malignancy of ovarian neoplasms was confirmed with hemodynamic parameters of PI and RI by color Doppler ultrasound analysis. The following publications related to the clinical applications of color Doppler ultrasound analysis also proved the significance of hemodynamics between the development of cervical cancer and the effects of chemotherapy. U.S. Pat. No. 6,112,108 disclosed a method using Doppler technique to evaluate the nature of diastolic flow within tumors (the time-decay constant of a post-systolic tumor blood-flow waveform) as a means of inferring the vascular resistance, and thus the likelihood of malignancy.
People skilled in the art understand that arterial vessels in tumors are either difficult to locate or many vessels are found all at once. And the differences among vessels are quite significant which result in problems for carrying out the abovementioned method. There is therefore a need for an easy-to-diagnose method with more physical meanings for reliably and accurately assessing the likelihood of malignancy of tumors. Hsieh et al. first used vascularity index (VI) as a novel parameter for the in vivo assessment of angiogenesis in tumors with power Doppler imaging technique ("Usefulness of Doppler spectral analysis and power Doppler sonography in the differentiation of cervical lymphadenopathies." AJR Am J Roentgenol. 1998, Vol. 171(2):503-9). The concepts of PI and RI indices were extended to vascularity index (VI). VI is of great clinical value in classification of the stages in cervical carcinoma. The color Doppler vascularity index (CDVI) can represent the known quantitative vascular signals of color Doppler sonography. The CDVI is defined as the ratio of the number of the colored pixels (area for blood vessels on which blood stream can be detected by color Doppler ultrasound units) within a tumor section (Region of Interest, ROI) to the number of total pixels (area for tumor) in that specific tumor section during systolic stage. In other words, the CDVI reflects the ratio of running blood vessels inside the tumor. The value of CDVI is higher in the patients with malignant tumors or metastatic cancers. The CDVI can be defined by the following formula:CDVI=the measure of color area in ROI/the measure of ROI areaAnd Power Doppler ultrasound (US) is superior to conventional color Doppler imaging in the detection of blood flow because of its high sensitivity to low flow rates in small vessels.
In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 5,860,929 described a method for quantitatively estimating the amount of tissue that contains moving blood in tissue for a region of interest using power Doppler ultrasound. The power Doppler image of the soft tissue blood volume is scanned in fixed time interval from a frozen image (Frozen ROI). When a pixel value with a power level is greater than the particular intensity threshold, the Doppler power level of said pixel will be summed to the total power level. The fractional moving blood volume (FMBV) is calculated by dividing the total power by the number of Reference Doppler Power Level and total pixels in the region of interest pixels (the measure of ROI area).
Even though the abovementioned methods provide a preliminary quantitative tool for tumor classification, tumors containing soft tissue and blood vessels are highly versatile which makes the representative frozen image difficult to take. In addition, no standardized threshold causes the range of CDVI parameter being limited to the function of scanner hardware or affected by the scanning parameters. People have suggested an addition of ultrasonic Contrast Agent to raise the resolution of blood stream in power Doppler. U.S. Pat. No. 6,315,730 even revealed an effective amount of an ultrasound contrast agent which is designed to be particularly sensitive to disruption by the initial ultrasound pulse(s), thereby limiting the intensity required for the initial ultrasound irradiation to obtain a more accurate vascularity ratio. However, the improvement is still limited. Moreover, prior arts did not consider the interaction timing mechanism within tumor vascularity biomedical physics, which caused the goals of scientific and automatic diagnosis difficult to reach.
Although traditional vascularity index (VI) can be used to classify the tumor stage, the assessment of angiogenesis in tumors is preferred to be a better parameter for tumor development, malignancy and metastasis. Since the blood supply in tumor varies with the contents of arterial vessels and venous vessels in vivo, using only total VI of tumor to classify the tumor stage is not accurate enough physiologically.
In addition, the CDVI parameter determined by the known techniques is easily affected by scanning range (ROI). When the borderline of tumor is not significant clear, the measure errors due to sampling of section will affect seriously in the value of CDVI. And the known method used to choose the single image is fixed in the maximal systole. The image chosen may not be representative, and the total blood vessel areas measured are not necessarily right. Because the blood stream is continuously flowing, the area of Doppler images during the whole heartbeat cycle should be considered.

Quantitative non-invasive method for detecting degree of malignancy in tumors and application thereof

Industrial Technology Research Institute


A process for hydrogenating carbon-carbon double bonds of a water-soluble olefinically unsaturated carboxylic acid salt which comprises. (a) combining an aqueous solution of an olefinically unsaturated carboxylic acid salt with PA1 (b) heating the mixture to a temperature from 0.degree. C. to the reflux temperature of the reaction mixture; and PA1 (c) neutralizing the pH of the reaction mixture.. (1) an oxidant selected from the group consisting of oxygen, air and hydroperoxides; PA2 (2) a reducing agent selected from hydrazine and hydrates thereof; and PA2 (3) a metal ion activator;

Olefinically unsaturated carboxylic acids include rosin acids and fatty acids. These acids are a common additive to rubber compounds. When converted to a more saturated form, the more saturated fatty acids are easier to handle and the more saturated rosin acids render the rubber to which they are added more tacky. One way to reduce the level of unsaturation in an unsaturated carboxylic acid is to heat the unsaturated acid to a high temperature and high pressure in the presence of hydrogen. Obviously, the use of such high reaction conditions significantly contribute to increasing the cost of producing such acids with reduced unsaturation.

Process for hydrogenation of carbon-carbon double bonds of a water-soluble olefinically unsaturated carboxylic acid salt


An image processing apparatus which can increase processing speed, reduce memory access load, and enhance ease of control in image processing. Coordinate computations through different geometric deformations are performed on respective pixels of an input image, thus calculating post-geometric deformation coordinates and coordinate moving vectors. Geometric deformation parameters for geometric deformations are output to a plurality of coordinate computation units connected in series. The coordinate moving vectors are collectively combined together to generate combined coordinate moving vectors, based on which coordinates of pixels in an image to be output are converted into coordinates of the pixels of the input image. The coordinate computations are performed based on the coordinates of the pixels of the input image and the geometric deformation parameters. The post-geometric deformation coordinates output from the preceding coordinate computation units are input as coordinates of the pixels of the image to the second and subsequent coordinate computation units.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, an image processing method, and a computer-readable storage medium storing a program for implementing the image processing method, and in particular to an image processing technique of geometrically deforming a taken image.
2. Description of the Related Art
As digital cameras have been becoming widespread, camera bodies have been increasingly downsized and angles of views have been widening. Under such circumstances, there has been a demand for evolution of shooting-assist functions in order to obtain satisfactory taken images in various scenes. For example, exemplary shooting-assist functions of geometrically deforming images include camera shake correction, electronic zooming, lens distortion correction, and correction for distortions caused by a rolling shutter of a sensor (hereafter referred to as "rolling shutter distortions"). It should be noted that in the following description, a "lens distortion correction" and a "rolling shutter distortion correction" will be referred to as "distortion corrections". It is preferred that the plurality of corrections and zooming are used in orders compliant with geometric roles so as to obtain desired effects.
A plurality of deformation elements which are geometrical (hereafter referred to as "geometric deformation elements"), however, needs to be collectively computed so as to enhance ease of use by increasing image processing speed and realize real-time processing (a taken image is checked on the spot, for example) of digital cameras. Accordingly, a computation method that combines amounts of deformations caused by a plurality of geometric elements is required.
As an exemplary method to collectively compute a plurality of geometric elements, there has been proposed a method that obtains an enlargement-reduction rate of an image based on chromatic aberration so as to correct for chromatic aberration and distortion of a lens (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2004-336106). Also, as an exemplary method to correct for rolling shutter distortion and lens distortion at the same time, there has also been proposed a method that divides an image, measures rolling shutter distortions of the respective split images, and adds them and lens distortion correction amounts together (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2006-186884).
Processing capabilities of a processing circuit which can be mounted on a digital camera are limited, and it is uneasy to obtain high-quality images by carrying out the above geometric deformations without making users to wait.
For example, according to the method described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2004-336106, two elements consisting of a chromatic aberration and a lens distortion are geometric deformation elements, and both of them are used to correct for a deviation from an ideal state of a formed image due to lens refraction. Accordingly, by using a special method that increases and decreases the amount of change caused by distortion obtained in a preceding stage according to a difference in refractive index between colors by taking advantage of similar properties of color aberration and lens distortion, problems arising from a plurality of image processes being combined are circumvented. Therefore, this method cannot be applied to an object of efficiently processing geometric deformation elements having different properties, i.e. lens distortion and camera shake.
On the other hand, according to the method described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2006-186884, geometric deformation elements with different properties, a rolling shutter distortion and a lens distortion are targeted for correction. According to this method, however, the amounts of change relating to a plurality of geometric deformation elements which should originally be calculated in succession are calculated at a time based on pre-transformation coordinates, and hence processing accuracy (image quality) is compromised instead of processing speed. On the other hand, when an arrangement in which the amounts of change relating to a plurality of geometric deformation elements are not calculated at a time, but processing circuits for a plurality of geometric deformation elements are simply connected together based on geometric rules, and images output from the respective processing circuits are input to processing circuits in succeeding stages is adopted, expensive computation circuits are required so as to realize high processing accuracy and high-speed processing.

Image processing apparatus with function of geometrically deforming image, image processing method therefor, and storage medium


A method for mitigating interference from a switched-mode power supply begins by comparing a channel of interest of a plurality of channels with a switching rate of a switch-mode power supply. The method continues when the channel of interest compares unfavorably to the switching rate by adjusting the switching rate of the switch-mode power supply until the channel of interest compares favorably to the switching rate.

1. Technical Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to radio receivers and more particularly to reducing receiver interference.
2. Description of Related Art
As is known, the general architecture of a radio includes a radio receiver and a processor. The radio receiver receives a radio frequency (RF) signal and converts it into a baseband signal. The processor recovers embedded data of the RF signal from the baseband signal.
To manufacture a commercially viable radio, the radio receiver should be designed to mitigate the adverse affects of interfering signals external to the radio (e.g., adjacent channel interference) and to mitigate the adverse affects of interference from within the radio. To reduce adjacent channel interference, the bandwidth of the radio receiver is relatively narrow such that signals outside of a frequency band of interest (i.e., adjacent channels) are substantially attenuated while signals within the frequency band of interest (i.e., the desired channel) are not attenuated. In addition, radio receivers include a plurality of techniques to reduce internal interference. For instance, radio receivers utilize component matching, synchronization, calibration, temperature compensation, etc.
One internal source of potential interference that has not been addressed is harmonics of the switching rate of a switch mode power supply falling within the frequency band of interest. In some applications, this is not an issue since the frequency band of interest is significantly greater than the switching frequency such that the harmonics that may fall within the frequency band of interest are of negligible magnitude and/or because the switch mode power supply is physically, and thus, electromagnetically isolated from the radio receiver (e.g., the power supply is implemented on a different integrated circuit than the radio receiver). However, as the frequency of switch mode power supplies increase and/or as integration of the switch mode power supply and radio receiver occurs, the harmonics of the switching rate of the switch mode power supply may adversely affect the performance of the radio receiver.
Therefore, a need exists for a method and apparatus to mitigate interference from a switch-mode power supply.

Adjust switching rate of a power supply to mitigate interference