A code reading device is equipped with a region extracting unit 2, which divides a photographed image of a bar code into a plurality of horizontal areas, and extracts readable regions from the horizontal areas respectively, and a region coupling unit 4, which couples the extracted regions to restore the whole bar code. Even if an unreadable portion occurs in a part of the bar code, a plurality of readable regions are extracted as parts of the barcode and those regions are coupled to restore a bar code the entirety of which can be read. Consequently, it is possible to accurately read a bar code having dirt or containment of illumination light partially.

Conventionally, a bar code representing various information by a striped pattern formed in a predefined combination of white lines and black lines with various thicknesses and a two-dimensional code capable of representing much information with a plurality of dots arranged vertically and horizontally are utilized in wide fields because reading and code recognition can easily be carried out.
For example, these barcodes and two-dimensional codes (which will be hereinafter referred to as codes collectively) are attached to packages of products and the like and are used for recognizing the products in a distribution process. In this case, the codes are read by means of a special code reader, camera or the like and are decoded into information configured from numerical values or letters. Recently, there is also provided the technology for displaying a code on a screen of a mobile terminal such as a portable telephone or a smartphone and reading the displayed code by a special code reader and decoding the displayed code.
In the case in which the code attached to the package of the product or the like is read by the camera, however, there is a problem in that the code cannot be read accurately if dirt sticks to the code itself or illumination light is contained in an image photographed by a camera in overlap with a code.
In the case in which a code displayed on a display screen of a mobile terminal is read, moreover, there is a problem in that the code cannot be read accurately if a scratch or dirt sticks to a display screen or the display screen partially causes mirror reflection by an incident angle of illumination light sent from a code reader.
In consideration of the latter problem, there is proposed the technology capable of accurately decoding a QR code (the registered trademark and so forth) displayed on a screen even if mirror reflection is caused on a screen of a mobile terminal or a scratch, dirt or the like sticks to the screen (for example, see Patent Document 1). In the technology described in the Patent Document 1, an image of the same QR code is displayed plural times on the screen at a time interval and the image to be displayed plural times is set to be displayed in a state in which it is rotated by 90 degrees at each time. Even if an unreadable portion occurs in a part of the QR code, thus, the portion which cannot be read in first display of the QR code can be read in second or succeeding display.
Moreover, the patent document 1 also describes that one QR code is divided into a plurality of parts and images of respective codes obtained by the division are displayed on the screen in order at a time interval. In this case, the respective codes thus divided are read by a code reader and are thus decoded and the data decoded from the respective codes are synthesized to obtain decode data on an original QR code.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2004-54581

Code reading device and code reading program


The invention relates to radiolabeled imaging of a mammalian body. The invention in particular provides for reagents labeled with technetium-99m for such imaging. The invention provides peptides which bind technetium-99m, rhenium-186, or rhenium-188 and which can be targeted to specific sites within a mammalian body.

A variety of radionuclides are known to be useful for radioimaging, including .sup.67 Ga, .sup.99m Tc (technetium-99m), .sup.111 In, .sup.123 I, .sup.125 I, .sup.169 Yb or .sup.186 Re. The use of chelating agents for radiolabeling large polypeptides such as proteins is known in the prior art. Methods for labeling peptides and polypeptides with technetium-99m have been disclosed in the prior art.
Byrne et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,434,151 describe homocysteine thiolactone bifunctional chelating agents that can couple radionuclides to terminal amino-containing compounds capable of localizing in an organ or tissue to be imaged.
Fritzberg, U.S. Pat. No. 4,444,690 describes a series of technetium-chelating agents based on 2,3-bis(mercaptoacetamido)propanoate.
Gansow et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,472,509 teach methods of manufacturing and purifying metal chelate-conjugated monoclonal antibodies.
Byrne et al., U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,571,430 and 4,575,556 describe novel homocysteine thiolactone bifunctional chelating agents for chelating radionuclides that can couple radionuclides to terminal amino-containing compounds capable of localizing in an organ or tissue to be imaged.
Nicolotti et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,861,869 describe bifunctional coupling agents useful in forming conjugates with biological molecules such as antibodies. This reference describes compounds such as S-benzoylmercaptoacetylglycylglycylglycine.
European Patent Application No. 84109831.2 describes technetium chelating complexes of bisamido-bisthiol-ligands and salts thereof, used primarily as renal function monitoring agents.
European Patent Application No. 86100360.6 describes dithiol, diamino, or diamidocarboxylic acids or amine complexes useful for making technetium imaging agents.
European Patent Application No. 88104755.9 describes various S-protected mercaptoacetylglycylglycine chelating groups bound to large proteins such as antibodies.
Albert et al., UK Patent Application No. 8927255.3 disclose radioimaging using somatostatin derivatives such as octreotide labeled with .sup.111 In via a chelating group bound to the amino terminus.
Flanagan et al., European Patent Application No. 90306428.5 disclose technetium-99m labeling synthetic peptide fragments via a set of organic chelating molecules.
Albert et al., European Patent Application No. WO 91/01144 disclose radioimaging using radiolabeled peptides related to growth factors, hormones, interferons and cytokines and comprised of a specific recognition peptide covalently linked to a radionuclide chelating group.
Davison et al., Inorg. Chem. 20: 1629-1632 (1981) disclose oxotechnetium chelate complexes.
Fritzberg et al., J. Nucl. Med. 23: 592-598 (1982) disclose a technetium chelating agent based on N,N'-bis(mercaptoacetyl)-2,3-diaminopropanoate.
Byrne and Tolman, J. Nucl. Med. 24: P126 (1983) disclose a bifunctional thiolactone chelating agent for coupling technetium-99m to biological molecules.
Bryson et al., Inorg. Chem. 27: 2154-2161 (1988) describe thiolate ligands for complexing with technetium.
Bryson et al., Inorg. Chem. 29: 2948-2951 (1990) describe thiolate ligands for complexing with technetium.
Kwekkeboom et al., J. Nucl. Med. 32: 981 (1991) Abstract #305 relates to radiolabeling somatostatin analogues with .sup.111 In.
Albert et al., Abstract LM10, 12th American Peptide Symposium (1991) describe uses for .sup.111 In-labeled diethylenetriaminopentaacetic acid-derivatized somatostatin analogues.
Dean, co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/653,012, now abandoned, teaches reagents and methods for preparing peptides comprising a technetium-99m chelating group having the general structure Cp(aa)Cp, wherein Cp is a protected cysteine and (aa) is an amino acid, the chelating group being covalently linked to a specific binding peptide for radioimaging in vivo, and is hereby incorporated by reference.
Reno and Bottino, European Patent Application No. 87300426.1 disclose radiolabeling antibodies with technetium-99m.
Bremer et al., EPC Application No. 87118142.6 disclose organ-specific radioimaging using technetium-99m radiolabeled proteins.
Pak et al., European Patent Application No. WO 88/07382 disclose a method for labeling antibodies with technetium-99m.
Goedemans et al., PCT Application No. WO 89/07456 describe radiolabeling proteins using cyclic thiol compounds, particularly on 2-iminothiolane and derivatives.
Schochat et al., PCT Application No. WO 89/09405 disclose direct radiolabeling of proteins comprised of at least one "pendent" sulfhydryl group.
Dean et al., PCT Application No. WO 89/12625 describe bifunctional coupling agents for technetium-99m labeling of proteins or peptides.
Thornback et al., EPC Application No. 90402206.8 describe preparation and use of radiolabeled proteins or peptides using thiol-containing compounds, particularly 2-iminothiolane.
Stuttle, PCT Application No. WO 90/15818 describes technetium-99m labeling of RGD-containing oligopeptides.
Rhodes, Sem. Nucl. Med. 4: 281-293 (1974) teaches the labeling of human serum albumin with technetium-99m.
Khaw et al., J. Nucl. Med. 23: 1011-1019 (1982) disclose methods for labeling biologically active macromolecules with technetium-99m.
Knight et al., Abstract #209, 37th Annual Meeting, Society for Nuclear Medicine (1990) describe thrombus imaging with technetium-99m labeled peptides.
Cox et al., Abstract, 7th International Symposium on Radiopharmacology, p. 16, 1991, disclose the use of .sup.131 I- and .sup.111 In-labeled somatostatin analogues in radiolocalization of endocrine tumors in vivo by scintigraphy.

Radioactively labeled peptides comprising a single thiol moiety


A method of forming a dual damascene structure includes forming an oxide layer and a mask layer there on, which both have protuberances over the conductive layers. Then a chemical mechanical polishing is performed to remove the protuberances and to form openings. The protuberances are above the conductive layers.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a semiconductor process, and more particularly, to a method of fabricating a dual damascene structure.
2. Description of Related Art
As the integration of the integrated circuit (IC) increases, the number of interconnection is consequently increased. Therefore, more than two layers of metal layer become necessary design for most integrated circuit. As the integration of the integrated circuit continually increases, the difficulties of forming metal inter-connections with high yield and reliability increase as well. Dual damascene technique is therefore proposed. Dual damascene technique satisfies the requirement of high yield and reliability by the process steps, including etching metal interconnection trenches in the dielectric layer and then filling metal into the trenches. As a result, dual damascene technique becomes the best choice of sub-quarter micron interconnection fabrication.
FIG. 1A to FIG. 1C illustrates the fabrication process of a conventional dual damascene. Referring to FIG. 1A, on a substrate 10, a conductive layer 14 is formed. The conductive layer 14 is used for coupling the substrate 10 to other desired structures (not shown). An inter-metal-dielectric layer 12 is also formed to prevent undesired close or coupling of the conductive layer 14 and other desired structure at undesired points.
Next, an oxide layer 16 is formed to cover the conductive layer 14 by low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD). A mask layer 18 is then formed to cover the oxide layer 16 by LPCVD. The mask layer 18 is a silicon nitride layer usually. Using the same LPCVD, an oxide layer 20 is formed to cover the mask layer 18. Next, a photoresist layer 21 is coated to define the oxide layer 20 to expose a portion of the oxide layer 20. The exposed portion of the oxide layer 20 is corresponding to the conductive layer 14.
Referring to FIG. 1B, the exposed oxide layer 20 is etched, using conventional photolithography and etching. The etching process is continued until the mask layer 18 is etched through to form an opening 22 exposing the oxide layer 16. The photoresist layer 21 is then removed, by oxide plasma. Next, a second photoresist layer 24 is coated to further define the oxide layer 20 so that the opening 22 and a portion of the oxide layer 20, including the oxide layer at two sides of the opening 22, are exposed.
Referring to FIG. 1C, the exposed oxide layer 16 at the opening 22 is further etched, by conventional photolithography and etching, so that the mask layer 18 is further exposed. Also, a portion of the oxide layer 20 uncovered by the photoresist layer 24 and a portion of the oxide layer 20 at the periphery of the opening 22 are etched to form an opening 26 and an opening 28, respectively, exposing the mask layer 18. The opening 28 further includes the opening 22.
Next, the photoresist layer 24 is removed by oxide plasma. A conductive layer 30 is formed by sputtering or CVD to fill the opening 22 and the opening 28 to contact with the conductive layer 14 and also to fill the opening 26.
Then, several continuous processes are performed to accomplish the dual damascene structure.
However, the conventional dual damascene technique requires more than two steps of photoresist coating and photolithography so that the processes are more complicate and misalignment tends to occur.


A control system with a simplified control device (10) for direct selection of electronic media operations, and for programmed navigation through the content without using dedicated navigation functions of a media player. The simplified control device (10) includes a limited number of keys, comprising direct-select keys (20-26) and navigation keys (30-36), which transmit programmable number key signals rather than dedicated key signals. Direct-select keys (20-26) are visually associated with icons displayed by the medial player by shape, color, and/or the like. The icons are dynamically associated with portions of content and/or software instructions stored on a medium, such as a DVD. Activating a direct-select key (20-26) cause the media player to access the associated content and/or instructions. The simplified remote control device (10) also includes navigation keys (30-36) associated with software instructions stored on the DVD, so that navigation operations are consistent for any media player that reads from the DVD. Dedicated keys can also be included.

Remote control devices are commonly used to control electronic devices such as televisions (TVs), radios, video cassette recorders (VCRs), digital versatile disc (DVD) players, digital video recorders (DVRs), and the like. Remote control devices usually include arrow keys, a rocker switch, or a thumbstick for navigating through options or menus displayed on a screen. The options or menu are typically displayed with icons or text that has no relation to any of the keys on the remote control. Remote control devices also usually include some reserved navigation keys that enable a user to choose content. Conventional reserved navigation keys have predefined command signals. For example, if a user presses a "Back" key on a conventional remote control device, a predefined command signal is transmitted to the DVD-player. The DVD player recognizes the command signal and returns to a previous portion of the DVD content. However, not all DVD players use the command signal for the exact same function. Some DVD players interpret the signal as a command to return to the beginning of a current section of the content. Other DVD players interpret the signal as a command to return to the beginning of a prior section of the content.
Universal remote controls can be programmed to emulate one or more native remote controls of manufacturers' devices. For example, universal remote controls include command sets for TVs and DVD players, so that a user can control both devices with a single universal remote control. Such universal remote controls usually include command sets for a variety of TV and DVD player manufacturers. When a user programs a universal remote control, the user typically selects a command set corresponding to one manufacture's device, such as one manufacturer's DVD player. Some universal remote controls also enable a user to switch between multiple DVD players. In any case, each command set typically includes predefined command signals that are reserved for conventional navigation keys. The predefined navigation commands are typically assigned to corresponding, dedicated navigation keys. Dedicated keys increase the complexity of native remote controls and universal remote controls.
Also, a universal remote does not make navigation consistent between differing DVD players. For example, the Back key on a universal remote control will not cause differing DVD players to perform the same Back operation. For instance, use of a universal remote control will not cause all DVD players to return to the beginning of a current section of the media content. Thus, current universal remote controls may be able to control multiple devices, but current universal remote controls do not necessarily provide consistent control of differing devices. This may cause confusion for users with multiple devices, such as different models of DVD players in multiple rooms of a house, in one or more vehicles (e.g., minivan DVD players), and/or other uses.

Simplified control system for electronic media


The present invention provides for a system and method of performing efficient XML-RPC. Generally, the system comprises a client which generates XML-RPC requests in a compression format which encodes tags, attributes and attribute values as tokens rather than strings and transmits the request to a server. The server gets the requests from the client, invokes the corresponding method and sends a response encoded in the same format that the clients request was encoded in. In a further aspect of the present invention, the client receives a URL of a valid XML-RPC server. The client establishes a persistent connection with the server via a request utilizing the URL. The method to be called utilizing XM-RPC is passed to the client along with the associated parameters. The client generates and XML-RPC request which is transmitted in an encoding format which represents at least a portion of the tags (and attributes and attribute values if present) as tokens rather than strings. The server receives the requests, and after being parsed receives the method to be called and the associated parameters. The server attempts to locate the method and handler in a hash table, and if available, calls the method. When the return parameters of the method are returned to the server, it encodes the parameters in a XML-RPC response according to the tokenized format, and sends the response back to the client. The response is then parsed and the client obtains the parameters, which it then utilizes as appropriate.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of remote procedure calls. More specifically, the present invention is related to performing remote procedure calls utilizing a markup language which is encoded utilizing tokens as the marshalling format.
2. Discussion of Relevant Art
In computer processing systems, and distributed or parallel processing systems in particular, one of the issues which must be faced is interprocess communication and synchronization. Interprocess communication and synchronization concerns itself with how different processes, typically running in parallel, cooperate. For example, if a data item D is needed by a first process P1 and the data item D is the result of a second process P2, there must be a method of transferring the data D between the two processes. In addition, if process P2 has not been able to communicate the data D to process P1, then the first process P1 must be able to wait for the data D.
One of the ways in which interprocess communication is performed is via message passing. In message passing communication, as opposed to other methods such as data sharing, a sender process sends a message to or invokes a receiving process. As part of the message or invocation, parameters are provided to the receiving process. These parameters are items that the receiver process needs to perform its function.
The most elementary primitive for message passing communications is one-way, point-to-point passing of the message. However, most interactions between processes are essentially two way interactions. While this can be simulated using two point-to-point messages, having a single construct for two-way messaging is more efficient. One such construct is the remote procedure call (RPC). A remote procedure call is just like a normal procedure call except the caller and sender are different processes, such as processes running in two different applications, or on different machines. For an RPC, a first process A calls a remote procedure R of process B and sends the input parameters P to B. When B receives the invocation request, it executes the procedure R and returns the output parameters back to A. After A calls R, A is blocked until it receives back the output parameters.
The remote calls, such as those made by A, are marshalled into a format that is understood by both processes. Machines which are running the same software have no problem understanding the calls initiated by another machine, because the marshalled formats will be the same. For instance, two machines running Windows™ can be networked together and perform RPCs without any problems. However, difficulties exist when RPCs are to be made across platforms, as the processes may not be able to agree on the marshalled format.
This difficulty leads to the need for a standardized cross-platform approach for performing RPCs. With a cross-platform approach, a system running Windows™ and a system running Unix™ can easily perform RPCs. This need has lead to the development of a cross-platform RPC approach known as XML-RPC. For XML-RPC, XML is utilized as the marshalling format. XML-RPC leverages technologies, such as XML, which were designed to be platform independent. The XML-RPC protocol performs remote procedure calls over HTTP. The XML-RPC message is an HTTP-POST request. As is well known, the HTTP-POST method is used to send data which is to be processed in some way by the server. The body of an XML-RPC request is in XML. Based upon the request, a procedure executes on the server and the value returned by the procedure is formatted in XML and returned to the client. The procedure parameters can be scalars, numbers, strings, dates, etc., and can also be complex records and list structures. The drawback to XML-RPC is that it generates large HTTP messages over the network, utilizing a larger amount of the network bandwidth. There is a need to reduce the overabundant bandwidth usage when performing remote procedure calls utilizing XML-RPC.
One method of dealing with bandwidth problems in general has been the use of compression. A lot of work has already been done on lossless data compression (Mark Nelson, The Data Compression Book, M&T Books, 1992). Researchers have developed fast and powerful algorithms for data compression. Their principles are mostly based on Claude Shannon's Information Theory. A consequence of this theory is that a symbol that has a high probability has a low information content and will need fewer bits to encode. In order to compress data well, you need to select models that predict symbols with high probabilities. Huffman coding (Huffman, D. A., "A Method for the Construction of Minimum-redundancy Codes," Proceedings of the IRE, Vol. 40, No. 9, September 1952, pp. 1098–1101) achieves the minimum amount of redundancy possible in a fixed set of variable-length codes. It provides the best approximation for coding symbols when using fixed-width codes. Huffman coding uses a statistical model because it reads and encodes a single symbol at a time using the probability of that character's appearance. A dictionary-based compression scheme uses a different concept. It reads input data and looks for groups of symbols that appear in a dictionary. If a string match is found, a pointer or index into the dictionary can be output instead of the code for the symbol. The longer the match, the better the compression ratio. In LZ77 compression (Ziv et al., "A Universal Algorithm for Sequential Data Compression," IEEE Transaction on Information Theory, Vol. 23, No. 3, May 1997, pp. 337–343), for example, the dictionary consists of all the strings in a window into the previously read input stream. The deflate algorithm (P. Deutsch, "DEFLATE Compressed Data Format Specification version 1.3," RFC 1951, Aladdin Enterprises, May 1996) uses a combination of the LZ77 compression and the Huffman coding. It is used in popular compression programs like GZIP (P. Deutsch, "GZIP File Format Specification Version 4.3," RFC 1952, Aladdin Enterprises, May 1996) or ZLIB (Deutsch et al., "ZLIB Compressed Data Format Specification Version 3.3," RFC 1950, May 1996).
One drawback of these text compression algorithms is that they perform compression at the character level. If the algorithm is adaptive (as, for example, with LZ77), the algorithm slowly learns correlations between adjacent pairs of characters, then triples, quadruples and so on. The algorithm rarely has a chance to take advantage of longer range correlations before either the end of input is reached or the tables maintained by the algorithms are filled to capacity, especially with small files. To address this problem, R. Nigel Horspool and Gordon V. Cormack explore the use of words as basic units of the algorithm (Horspool et al., "Constructing Word-Based Text Compression algorithms," IEEE Transaction on Information Theory, 1992). In most implementations of dictionary-based compression, the encoder operates online, incrementally inferring its dictionary of available phrases from previous parts of the message. An alternative approach proposed by N. Jasper Larsson and Alistair Moffat (Larsson et al., "Offline Dictionary-Based Compression," IEEE Transaction on Information Theory, 1999) is to infer a complete dictionary offline to optimize the choice of phrases so as to maximize compression performance. An additional disadvantage of these algorithms is the fact that they are unable to retain the structure of an XML document.
The Wireless Application Protocol Forum has proposed an encoding format for XML based on a table (the code space) that matches tokens to XML tags and attribute names ("WAP Binary XML Content Format"). It takes advantage both of the offline approach (the code space can be built offline) and of the word-based compression (tags and attribute names are usually the most frequent words in an XML document). Moreover, unlike the previous compression algorithms, it retains the structure of XML documents. But it does not compress at all the character data content nor the attribute values which are not defined in the Document Type Definition (DTD). Moreover, it does not suggest any strategy to build the code space in an efficient way. The preferred encoding format utilized by the present invention addresses both of these drawbacks: it is designed to compress character data and defines a strategy to build code space. The present invention allows for remote procedure calls to be performed utilizing XML-RPC with a reduction in bandwidth utilization.

International Business Machines Corporation


In a device for stacking flat letters having a separating mechanism and a stacking mechanism between which the letters are stacked, the stacking mechanism capable of moving in the stacking direction along a stacking surface, and a transport path that is formed by endless vertical belts guided by way of rollers, between which belts the letters are conveyed from a loading station to the stacking mechanism, it is provided that the stacking surface has a horizontal concave curvature with respect to the side on which the transport path is located, and that the belts are deflected in the region of the transport path by a plurality of deflecting rollers that are disposed on a curve adapted to the curvature of the stacking surface in such a way that the transport path has a curvature adapted to that of the stacking surface, in the region of the transport path, the belts being disposed between the stacking surface and the deflecting rollers.

The invention relates to an apparatus for stacking flat letters.
In letter-processing systems, it is often necessary to store letters temporarily between two processing cycles. For example, for coupling asynchronously-working systems or parts, storage apparatus are used. One letter-storing technique involves temporarily stacking the letters.
Normally, a stacker comprises a stationary separating mechanism and a stacking mechanism that can move in the stacking direction, the letters being stacked therebetween. The base of the letter stack is formed by a stacking surface. Two endless belts that circulate around rollers form a transport path that conveys the individually-arriving letters to the end of the stack.
Between the stacking mechanism and the letter-loading loading station, the two belts form a straight section of the transport path on which the belts run freely, i.e., they are not guided by rollers in that section. The length of this partial section of the transport path is dependent on the momentary position of the stacker mechanism during the stacking process. As the letter stack grows, this partial section is shortened proportionally. It reaches its maximum length if there is no letter stack and the stacking mechanism is located directly at the separating mechanism.
Given a comparable engineering outlay, the storage capacity achievable with this design is, in fact, greater than that attainable with imbricated storage, where the letters are squeezed one on top of the other, in imbricated form, between belts. However, when working with the above-described type of apparatus, problems arise when the straight partial section of the transport path reaches its maximum length. In such a case, the situation may arise that a plurality of letters are located on the partial section at the same time. If this occurs in a manner such that a thin letter is situated between two thick letters on the straight section, the thin letter is not securely held by the belts. If a plurality of letters are situated between two thick letters, it can happen that the thin ones shift over on top of each other, causing a jam in the transport path and an interruption in the operation of the system. An additional problem is that the free-running belts hang increasingly lower as the length of the partial section in the transport path increases. Both problems may lead to a maximum stacker length of one meter for the type of stacker apparatus described above.


In a guts game variation, one or more players play against one another and a sole participant must beat two “dead man” hands to win. For example, each player bets the ante and is dealt a hand of two cards. Each player is then given the option to participate in the hand or withdraw. All participating hands are revealed by turning the cards face-up. The player with the highest hand collects the pot, and all other participating players must put into the pot an amount equal to the value of winner's pot. When only one participant has elected to remain in the hand, the participant must beat both “dead man” hands in order to win the pot. The game ends when a sole participant beats both “dead man” hands, whereupon the cards are reshuffled and re-dealt to commence a new round of play.

The present invention relates to gaming and to card games. In particular, the present invention pertains to a method of playing a new type of "guts" card game especially adapted for casino and card room gaming.
A wide variety of wagering games presently exist for casino and cardroom environments. Such games should be exciting and easy to learn so as to promote a stimulating gaming experience. Card games such as poker and blackjack have gained widespread popularity because of their established ranking of hands and well-known rules. Furthermore, each of these games usually involves numerous wagering opportunities for the players, thus increasing player participation and excitement. Lastly, the games move fairly quickly to maintain action and activity. All of these factors have created games that are widely accepted and widely known.
Gaming establishments also require innovative and exciting games to offer their clients. Distinctive new games are important in maintaining a casino's customer base as well as attracting new clients. Furthermore, casinos seek games that are easy to play and deal and that also maximize the amount of play, for example by increasing the number of hands per hour. Popular casino poker games such as "Let It Ride," "Texas Holdem," and "Red Dog" are examples of such games that are faster than the traditional poker room type game.
Guts is a genre of poker game that typically involves a greater potential for large pot sizes. Most guts games generally follow a similar pattern: after each player is dealt a hand, players decide if they are "in" or "out" of the hand. Those players that call "out" have no further stakes in the hand and are out of the game for that hand, while those players that called "in" continue playing. Of those players who called "in," the one who has the highest hand collects the pot. All other players who called "in" and did not beat the highest hand must match the amount of money in the pot. The result is an equal or greater amount of money in the pot for the next round of play. Play continues until only one player calls "in" and wins the pot. The size of the pot in a guts poker game can be much higher than typical poker games. For example, if three people call "in," the amount of money in the pot will double because one person will win the pot, while the other two must match the pot. For this reason, guts games are typically more expensive to play but are more exciting for players because of the greater potential for winnings.
Casinos also like guts games because of the greater potential for "rakes," in which the house takes a small amount of each pot won as a fee for providing the gaming service. Other variations of the basic guts game include Monte Carlo, Two And One, and Four Three.
In traditional guts poker, the player closest to the dealer normally has an advantage because that player can see how many players have opted to participate in the game. If no other player is willing to participate, the last player can remain in and win the pot even with a weak hand. In order to eliminate this advantage, a variation of guts called the "kitty" is used.
The kitty is a blind hand dealt face down that belongs to the pot and not revealed to the table until the hand is over. If the guts poker game involves two cards being dealt to each player, then a two-card kitty is dealt as well, kept near the dealer, and only turned up at the end of the hand. The purpose of the kitty is so that those players who go "in" must not only beat the other players who have gone "in," but they must also beat the kitty's hand. The feature that this adds to the guts game is that if the kitty has the best hand at the table, everybody who went "in" loses and matches the pot. The game ends only when one person goes "in" and also beats the kitty.
A drawback of the kitty is that the kitty comes into play every hand. This means that the cards must be reshuffled each hand. The same problem exists in each of the above listed popular guts poker games, where each game only deals one hand to a player and before requiring a shuffle. Players who are not "in" the hand get bored waiting for the constant shuffling before they get to see a new hand. Furthermore, the length of games before a single player wins the pot is often too short, in particular when fewer players are at the table. Finally, there is a constant need for the casino to increase a game's "hands per hour" to increase the casino rake.
As mentioned above, casinos have a need to offer new and exciting games to offer their players. While guts poker offers the opportunity for large pot sizes and exciting play, existing guts games do not offer speed of delivery to the players. Therefore, a new, more efficient, and more exciting method of playing guts is needed.
The game of "Double Dead Man Guts" addresses these problems by introducing the feature of two "dead man" hands that a player must beat before winning the pot. If no player wins the pot, new hands are dealt without a reshuffle, thus increasing the speed of the game. Time is saved by not having to shuffle as frequently. The players are happier because they get hands to them more quickly. Finally, more hands means more rakes per hour for casinos and card rooms.


An adjustable mounting unit for an optical element of a gas laser is provided. The typical gas laser for which the mounting unit will be used comprises a tube having a first end wall at one end and a second end wall at the other end, an optical axis extending longitudinally through the tube, and a port in the first end wall through which the optical axis passes. The mounting unit includes a rigid support structure having an aperture therein and an optical element mounted within the aperture. In addition, at least three adjustable mounting devices are used to attach the support structure to the laser tube. The mounting points are preferably selected so that they are displaced in an axial direction by substantially the same amount due to dimensional changes in the laser occurring during operation of the laser. When attached to the laser, the rigid support is spaced apart from the laser tube to allow for the adjustment of the angular positioning of the optical element. Furthermore, the aperture and optical element are disposed transverse to the optical axis and are aligned with the optical axis. Adjustment of the adjustable mounting devices changes the angular position of the optical element relative to the optical axis.

The invention relates to lasers, and more particularly to adjustable mounting units for the optical elements of gas lasers.
Lasers have recently been applied to a large variety of technical areas, such as optical measurement techniques, material processing, medicine, etc.
Due to the special chemical, ablative, spectroscopic or diffractive properties of UV light, there is a big demand for lasers that generate laser beams having a short wavelength in the UV range.
Excimer lasers, such as the ones disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,771,258 and 5,438,587, serve well as a laser for generating coherent, high intensity pulsed beams of light in the UV wavelength range.
The excimer lasers described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,771,258 and 5,438,587, are pulsed lasers. Pulsing is required in excimer lasers to allow sufficient time between pulses to replace the laser gas within the discharge region with fresh gas and allow the gas used for generating the previous pulse to recover before being used again for another gas discharge. In the discharge region (i.e., discharge gap), which in an excimer laser is typically defined between an elongated high voltage electrode and an elongated ground electrode which are spaced apart from each other, a pulsed high voltage occurs, thereby initializing emissions of photons which form the laser beam.
The laser beam is emitted along the extended ground electrode in a longitudinal direction of the laser tube. To achieve the desired amplification by stimulated emission of radiation, a resonator comprising a reflecting and a partially reflecting optical element disposed at opposite ends of the discharge gap is required. The laser beam leaves the tube through the latter.
If the reflective optical elements are provided outside the gas laser tube, a fully transparent window is provided in alignment with the discharge gap at each end of the tube to seal the tube, as can be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 5,438,587, for example. A mirror or other reflective optical element is then provided in axial alignment with one of the windows and its reflective side facing the window. A partially transparent, partially reflective mirror is positioned outside the tube so that it is aligned with and facing the other window. As a result, the faces of the two reflective optical elements are opposing one another and define a laser light resonator.
If the reflective optical elements are used to seal the tube, the mirror and the partially transparent, partially reflective mirror are integrated into the end walls of the tube at opposite ends of the discharge gap. As a result, no extra windows are required. For lasers emitting light in the ultraviolet range of the electromagnetic spectrum, extra windows have the disadvantage of significantly reducing the efficiency and increasing the operating costs, as the special window materials employed are expensive and deteriorate with use and time and need to be occasionally changed. In addition, the transparent windows closing the tube form extra optical elements resulting in extra losses and reflections on the surfaces. The latter can be removed by inclining the window at Brewster""s angle as taught by U.S. Pat. No. 4,746,201, but invariably the laser output is reduced. Deterioration of the optical elements also cannot be entirely avoided, reducing output and giving rise to the need to replace the rather expensive optical elements after a certain time.
The reflective optical elements that form the resonator must be precisely positioned relative to one another to ensure optimal laser light output power, laser efficiency, and the quality of the laser beam. This is especially true with respect to the angular alignment of the reflective optical elements, not only with respect to each other, but also with respect to the laser tube. However, maintaining the appropriate angular alignment of the reflective optical elements is difficult in view of changes in the operating conditions, such as pressure or temperature of the gas and the temperature of the tube, the optical elements, and their supporting units. In addition, mechanical vibrations or shock to the laser may also affect the angular alignment of the reflective optical elements forming the laser resonator.
When the reflective optical elements are provided outside the laser tube, a very complex outer supporting structure for supporting the reflective optical elements must be provided. Such a supporting structure is very expensive and susceptible to damage. Furthermore, the length of the resonating path between the two opposing mirrors is longer than what is actually necessary. This reduces the output power of the laser, which in turn reduces the efficiency of the laser. In addition, the supporting structure is susceptible to deformation due to outer forces or thermal expansion. Such distortions may distort the angular alignment of the reflective optical elements, particularly the parallelism between the two opposing laser optical elements.
These disadvantages, which are attendant to external supporting structures, have lead to a demand to provide the reflective optical elements as an integral part of the laser tube. However, trying to provide the reflective optical elements as an integral part of the laser tube has caused a different set of problems.
Inside the laser tube, high gas pressures occur, thereby increasing the danger of deformation and damage of the rather sensitive laser optical element. The gas pressure is further increased as a result of the increasing temperature of the gas inside the laser tube caused by the emission of energy. This obviously makes the problem even worse. In addition, thermal expansion of the laser tube can generate a further distortion of the parallel disposition of the laser optical elements with respect to each other.
A mechanism for permitting the reflective laser optical elements to be adjusted with respect to each other is crucial, because light inside the resonator is reflected by the reflective optical elements forming the resonator numerous times. As a result, even a slight divergence from the ideal adjustment may cause a malfunction of the laser or at least a reduction of the laser light output power, and thus reduction in the efficiency of the laser and its beam quality.
A number of patents, including DE 3130399 A1, DBGM 297 15 466.4, U.S. Pat. No. 4,744,091, JP 61-047008, and DE 3710525 C2, teach the use of spacer bars or frames that surround the laser tube and support the reflective optical elements that form the laser""s resonator. These spacer bars or frames also include adjustment mechanisms that permit the reflective optical elements to be adjusted relative to one another and the laser tube. Due to the spacing between the laser tube and these spacer bars or frames, these known mounting structures are not exposed to the operating conditions in the tube. Thus, the operating conditions of the laser do not tend to influence the position of the optical elements. However, such arrangements are difficult to manufacture and service. In addition, they are more prone to distortions resulting from external forces than a support structure for the resonator""s optical elements that are directly coupled to the tube itself.
Thus, a need exists for an improved adjustable mounting unit for mounting the optical elements of a laser.
The present invention may be used in conjunction with the inventions described in the patent applications identified below and which are being filed simultaneously with the present application:
All of the foregoing applications are incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein.
An object of the present invention is to provide an adjustable mounting unit for an optical element of a gas laser in which it is possible to achieve an improved ability to adjust the position of the optical element while at the same time be able to mount the optical element to the laser tube. The ability to adjust the position of reflective optical elements that define the laser resonator is particularly important to achieving optimal performance from a gas laser.
In order to achieve this first object of the invention, an adjustable mounting unit for an optical element of a gas laser comprising a tube having a first end wall at one end and a second end wall at the other end is provided. The mounting unit comprises a rigid support structure including an aperture, an optical element mounted within the aperture, and at least three adjustable mounting devices to attach the support structure to the laser tube. Preferably the mounting points are selected so that they are displaced in an axial direction by substantially the same amount due to dimensional changes in the laser that occur during operation of the laser. When the adjustable mounting unit is attached to the laser, the rigid support is spaced apart from the end wall of the laser to allow for the adjustment of the angular positioning of the optical element. Furthermore, the aperture and optical element are disposed transverse to the optical axis and are aligned with the optical axis. Adjustment of the adjustable mounting devices changes the angular position of the optical element relative to the optical axis.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the adjustable mounting unit further comprises a gas-tight flexible tube element which is used to form a gas-tight seal between the laser tube and the optical element disposed in the aperture of the rigid support structure. Preferably, the flexible tube comprises a base end, an optical element receiving end, an optical element receiving surface within said flexible tube element proximate to the receiving end, and a flexible section interposed between the base end and the receiving surface. The flexible section may comprise, for example, a bellows. The base end of the flexible tube is hermetically attached around the port to the first end wall so that the optical axis of the laser passes through the flexible tube element. The exterior surface of the optical element receiving end is engaged with the aperture wall in the rigid support. Further, the optical element is received by the optical element receiving surface within the flexible tube element and a hermetic seal is formed between the optical element and the optical element receiving surface.
Thus, by employing the flexible tube element as described above, a gas tight chamber may be formed between the end wall and the optical element. This in turn permits the laser to be designed without using a fully transparent lens in the end wall to seal the laser, thereby reducing the number of optical elements through which the laser light must pass.
Preferably the optical element is symmetrically disposed between an even number of the adjustable mounting devices. For example, if the even number of fixation points is two, the center of the optical element preferably falls on a line that bisects the line connecting the two fixation points at their midpoint, and more preferably it is positioned close to the center of the line connecting the two fixation points. The remaining fixation points can be used to tilt the support, and thereby adjust the optical element and the laser unit.
The rigid support structure may comprise a solid plate or an angular structure having a first arm and a second arm that enclose an angle. Preferably the enclosed angle is 90xc2x0.
With the adjustable mounting unit of the present invention, it is now possible to achieve very exact adjustments of the optical elements of a laser, even in a situation where the optical elements are used to provide a gas seal. Furthermore, the adjustable mounting unit of the present invention is very simple and thus cheap. As a result, with the adjustable mounting unit of the present invention, it is no longer necessary to provide a complex outer support mechanism to support a laser optical element outside the laser tube if adjustability is desired.
A second object of the invention is to provide a gas laser with an adjustable mounting unit for an optical element. In particular, it is desired to provide a gas laser with an adjustable mounting unit for an optical element that is capable of being adjusted with improved precision.
To this end, a gas laser is provided that comprises a tube having a first end wall at one end and a second end wall at the other end. The tube defines a cavity for containing a laser gas therein and includes a port in the first end wall. The laser further comprises an optical axis extending longitudinally through the tube and passing through the port. The optical axis is the axis along which the laser light resonates in the laser. A rigid support structure that includes an aperture is mounted to the laser tube so that the optical axis passes through the aperture. An optical element is mounted within the aperture. Preferably the optical element is either a fully reflective or partially reflective, partially transmissive mirror so that it comprises one of the mirrors of the laser resonator. At least three adjustable mounting devices are used to attach the support structure to the laser tube.
To ensure that the laser remains properly adjusted at all times, preferably the mounting points. are selected so that they are displaced in an axial direction by substantially the same amount due to dimensional changes in the laser occurring during the operation of the laser. When attached, the rigid support is spaced apart from the end wall of the laser to allow for the adjustment of the angular positioning of the optical element. Furthermore, the aperture and optical element are disposed transverse to the optical axis and are aligned with the optical axis. Adjustment of one of the three adjustable mounting devices changes the angular position of the optical element relative to the optical axis.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the laser further comprises a gas-tight flexible tube element that is used to form a gas-tight seal between the laser tube and the reflective optical element. Preferably, the flexible tube comprises a base end, an optical element receiving end, an optical element receiving surface within said flexible tube element proximate to the receiving end, and a flexible section interposed between the base end and the receiving surface. The flexible section may comprise, for example, a bellows. The base end of the flexible tube is hermetically attached to the first end wall around the port so that the optical axis of the laser passes through the flexible tube element. The exterior surface of the optical element receiving end is engaged with the aperture wall in the rigid support. Further, the optical element is received by the optical element receiving surface within the flexible tube element and a hermetic seal is formed between the optical element and the optical element receiving surface.
Thus, by employing the flexible tube element as described above, a gas tight chamber may be formed between the end wall of the laser and the optical element. This in turn permits the laser to be designed without using a fully transparent lens in the end wall to seal the laser, thereby reducing the number of optical elements through which the laser light must pass.
Preferably the optical element is symmetrically disposed between an even number of the adjustable mounting devices. For example, if the even number of fixation points is two, the center of the optical element preferably falls on a line that bisects the line connecting the two fixation points at their midpoint, and more preferably it is positioned close to the center of the line connecting the two fixation points. The remaining fixation points can be used to tilt the support, and thereby adjust the optical element and the laser unit.
The rigid support structure may comprise, for example, a solid plate or an angular structure having a first arm and a second arm that enclose an angle. If an angular structure is used, preferably the enclosed angle is 90xc2x0. The arms, i.e. the first arm and the second arm, may have different lengths. Preferably, however, the first arm of the rigid support structure is about twice as long as the second arm, and the aperture is formed in the first arm. In a further preferred embodiment of the invention, mounting devices are preferably arranged at the end portions of the arms.
The adjustable mounting devices employed in connection with the present invention preferably each comprise a stud bolt having a first threaded end, a second threaded end, and a body portion interposed between the first threaded end and the second threaded end. The first threaded end is slideably received in a hole in the support structure and extends through the hole. The second threaded end is used to attach the support structure to the laser. An adjusting nut is then threaded onto the first threaded end, and a biasing element is provided to bias the support structure away from the second threaded end of the stud bolt and toward the adjusting nut.
Therefore, with the gas laser of the present invention, it is now possible to achieve very exact adjustments of the optical elements of the laser, even in a situation where the optical elements are used to provide a gas seal. Furthermore, the adjustable mounting unit of the present invention is very simple and thus cheap. As a result, with the adjustable mounting unit of the present invention, it is no longer necessary to provide a complex outer support mechanism to support a laser optical element outside the laser tube if precision adjustability is desired. Furthermore, gas lasers according to the present invention are more efficient because they have a shorter resonance distance. In addition, manufacturing costs are less with gas lasers according to the present invention than a gas laser according to the prior art because the complex supporting mechanisms used in the typical prior art devices are not required with the present invention.
With the present invention it is now also possible to provide a stable support arrangement for the optical elements of a gas laser that is mounted to the laser tube itself and which keeps the optical elements in the appropriate alignment and position independent of the operating conditions of the laser.
The present invention is especially well suited for use in excimer lasers because excimer lasers operate under a very high pressures and temperatures. For example, excimer lasers typically operate at a pressure of about 6 bar and a temperature of up to 100xc2x0 C. or more. With the present invention, however, it is possible to cope with these demanding conditions and provide a precise adjustment of the optical elements of the laser. Furthermore, these adjustments will not become distorted during use of the laser as a result in variations in the operating conditions within the laser tube. Indeed, because the optical element is supported indirectly by the tube edge in the devices according to the present invention, any bending, curving and/or deflecting of the front portion of the laser tube, due to changes in temperature or pressure in the tube, for example, will not affect the alignment of the reflective optical elements mounted in the adjustable mounting structure.
Preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail in connection with the accompanying drawings.
Other objects, features and advantages of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following description of the preferred embodiment taken together with the drawings.

Adjustable mounting unit for an optical element of a gas laser


The described embodiments relate to systems, methods, and apparatuses for providing an adjustable amount of tension to various portions of a body of a user. The tension can be exhibited by cables that extend from the body mounted device. The cables can be routed through a pulley assembly located with cables guides of the body mounted device. A user can adjust the tension of the cables using knobs located at the ends of the cable guides. The cables can terminate at bands, which can be attached to appendages of the user during training. When the user is wearing the body mounted device, a mounting plate of the body mounted device can conform to the shoulders of the user, and a separate plate of the body mounted device can be depressed against a back side of the user.

Exercise devices typically encourage users to work out in a static environment to reduce the risk of injury. However, some professions may require that a person train in a variety of environments in order to prepare for unpredictable situations. Such professions can include the military, where trainees may be forced to exert themselves in a variety of environments. Therefore, by training with a device that is not meant to travel, or otherwise be used in different environments, such trainees may not be adequately prepared to maneuver under unpredictable conditions. Other professions where the combination of mobility and resistance can be beneficial include professional athletics, law enforcement, and function specific rehabilitation. Essentially, any profession or vocation where enhanced physical ability can equate to higher performance or lower incidence of injury. Furthermore, by only training under a limited number of conditions, risk of injury can increase because the trainee may not have the muscle memory or brain plasticity to adapt to unpredictable situations.


A filter device has a filter housing having two separable housing parts (1 and 11) that can receive at least one filter element (21). The housing parts can be connected to one another by a coupling device (7). The filter element (21), or an adapter that can be connected to it, forms a functionally essential component of the coupling device (7). Only when the filter element (21) has been placed in its functional position within at least one of the housing parts (1, 11), can the housing parts (1, 11) be connected to form the filter housing of a functional filter device.

Filter devices of this type are prior art and are used in a wide variety of fields. In the prior art, such devices are especially widely used in applications for cleaning operating fluids such as hydraulic fluids, fuels or lubricants, coolants and the like. Since the filter devices form important system components, proper functioning and filter performance are a prerequisite for the smooth operation of the respective systems. Taking into consideration the fact that malfunctions, which may include damages and failures, may result in very high costs, the functional reliability of the filter devices represents a significant economic factor.


A mail piece verification system for processing mail pieces having associated therewith respective mail piece data. The system includes a plurality of postage metering systems for preparing mail pieces, a plurality of mail processing centers for receiving mail pieces and obtaining the respective mail piece data and a data center means in operative communication with the plurality of postage metering systems and the plurality of mail processing centers, the data center means including a plurality of account files corresponding to the plurality of postage metering systems. The data center means stores reset data in each of the plurality of account files representative of reset activity associated with the plurality of postage metering systems, respectively, receives respective mail piece data corresponding to the mail pieces from the plurality of mail processing centers, uses the respective mail piece data, storing empirical data in each of the plurality of account files representative of mailing activity associated with the plurality of postage metering systems, respectively, and conducts a forensic accounting analysis of the empirical data and the reset data associated with a selected postage metering system.

Generally, postage metering systems are well known in the art. Typically, the traditional mechanical and electronic postage meters have employed physical security and specialized inks to prevent fraud. The registers that maintain an accounting of postal funds have been located within a secure housing along with a dedicated printer. As a further measure, the dedicated printers have used fluorescent ink to provide an extra aid in the detection of an authentic postage meter indicium.
More recently, postal authorities have promulgated regulations that allow postage meter manufacturers to utilized digital printing technology (laser, ink jet, thermal transfer, etc.), either embedded as part of a mail handling system or as a general purpose office printer. As an example, the United States Postal Service (USPS) has enabled the decoupling of the postage meter and the printer and allowed the use of digital printers by establishing an Information-Based Indicia Program (IBIP). The IBIP is a distributed trusted system established by the USPS to retrofit and augment existing postage meters using new technology known as information-based indicia. The IBIP relies on digital signature techniques to produce for each mail piece an indicium whose origin cannot be repudiated. Thus, in contrast to traditional postage metering systems employing mechanical printing technology and physical security, the IBIP supports new methods of securely applying postage to mail pieces. Generally, the IBIP requires printing a high-density two-dimensional (2D) bar code on a mail piece. The 2D barcode encodes various information associated with the mail piece and is subsequently signed with a digital signature.
The USPS has published detailed specifications for the IBIP. Generally, the IBIP is directed to two types of postage metering systems. The first type is referred to as a closed system and is defined in the INFORMATION BASED INDICIA PROGRAM—PERFORMANCE CRITERIA FOR INFORMATION-BASED INDICIA AND SECURITY ARCHITECTURE FOR CLOSED IBI POSTAGE METERINGS SYSTEMS, dated Jan. 12, 1999, ("IBIP Closed System Specification"). The second type is referred to as an open system and is defined in the INFORMATION BASED INDICIA PROGRAM—PERFORMANCE CRITERIA FOR INFORMATION-BASED INDICIA AND SECURITY ARCHITECTURE FOR OPEN IBI POSTAGE EVIDENCING SYSTEMS, dated Feb. 23, 2000, ("IBIP Open System Specification"). Together, the IBIP Closed System Specification and the IBIP Open System Specification define the requirements for next generation postage metering systems.
Although the transition to digital printing provides many advantages, the postal authorities recognize that digital printing spawns potential new forms of fraud. As an example, an individual seeking to commit a fraud upon the postal authority need only utilize their computer, image scanner and printer to generate multiple copies of a single postal indicium. Thus, a valid indicium may be replicated perfectly. This technique is referred to as fraud by duplication.
As a result, measures have been developed to detect such attempts to defraud the postal authorities. Typically, these measures involve verifying the authenticity of the postal indicium on a mail piece as the mail piece is being processed by the postal authority. This verification activity seeks to ensure that the postage amount shown in the postal indicium has been properly accounted for. For instance, the postal authority may validate the digital signature discussed above to determine the authenticity of the postal indicium. However, this will not necessarily expose a second mail piece with a duplicated postal indicium representing an exact copy of a valid indicium. Thus, detection of these types of duplicates, and other issues, present problems for the postal authorities.
Another problem faced by the postal authorities is the intensive data processing required of a distributed mail processing system employing a plurality of remotely located processing centers. Typically, the processing center must scan each postal indicium to obtain its data, conduct database lookups, perform cryptographic calculations and determine whether or not the postal indicium is valid. If a mail piece cannot be validated, it is diverted to an out sort bin for further investigation and/or return to the sender. Complicating this situation is the fact that such verification processing is conducted by a single mail piece processing system. This necessitates that the verification processing is completed during the interval between mail piece scanning and the diversion location to the out sort bin. Given the rate at which the processing machines operate (up to 12 mail pieces per second), there is very little time to perform verification checks.
Still further complications exist. If the cryptographic computations are to be performed locally (on individual processing machines), then large amounts of data must be distributed to all of the processing machines (e.g. cryptographic keys for each postage meter, data to enable detection of duplicate indicia) and kept updated to reflect changes in the meter population. On the other hand, if the computations are performed remotely, then the postal indicium data for each mail piece must be transmitted in real time to a central location, validated and the results returned to the processing machine before the mail piece reaches the diversion point. Both of these arrangements require significant real time processing and rapid database access.
Yet another problem is the risk that the digital signatures and cryptography underlying the security of the postal system could be compromised. This could occur because of a successful attack or the release/use of information necessary to generate valid postal indicia by someone (a postal authority employee) having access to the security system. Once compromised in this manner, someone could print "valid" postal indicia that would pass verification by the postal authority. Thus, the postal authority would suffer losses from a fraudulent actor submitting postal indicia into the postal system that to all appearances would be beyond reproach.
Therefore, there is a need for a mail piece verification system that provides operational advantages over those described above. Furthermore, there is a need for a mail piece verification system that includes a forensic accounting capability for improving upon the detection of apparently valid postal indicia.

Mail piece verification system having forensic accounting capability


A method for compensating for failed nozzles in multi-pass printing using an inkjet printer having at least one printhead containing a plurality of nozzles to print an input image having a plurality of raster lines on a receiver media.

Inkjet printing is a non-impact method for producing images by the deposition of ink droplets in a pixel-by-pixel manner onto an image-recording element in response to digital signals. There are various methods that may be utilized to control the deposition of ink droplets on the receiver member to yield the desired image. In one process, known as drop-on-demand inkjet printing, individual droplets are ejected as needed onto the recording medium to form the desired image. Common methods of controlling the ejection of ink droplets in drop-on-demand printing include piezoelectric transducers and thermal bubble formation using heated actuators. With regard to heated actuators, a heater placed at a convenient location within the nozzle or at the nozzle opening heatsink in the nozzle to form a vapor bubble that causes a drop to be ejected to the recording medium in accordance with image data. With respect to piezoelectric actuators, piezoelectric material is used in conjunction with each nozzle and this material possesses the property such that an electrical field when applied thereto induces mechanical stresses therein causing a drop to be selectively ejected from the nozzle selected for actuation. The image data provides signals to the printhead determining which of the nozzles are to be selected for ejecting an ink drop, such that each nozzle ejects an ink drop at a specific pixel location on a receiver sheet.
In another process, known as continuous inkjet printing, a continuous stream of droplets is discharged from each nozzle and deflected in an image-wise controlled manner onto respective pixel locations on the surface of the recording member, while some droplets are selectively caught and prevented from reaching the recording member. Inkjet printers have found broad applications across markets ranging from the desktop document and pictorial imaging to short run printing and industrial labeling.
A typical inkjet printer produces an image by ejecting small drops of ink from the printhead containing a spatial array of nozzles, and the ink drops land on a receiver medium (typically paper, coated paper, etc. and referred to generically here as paper or page or media) at selected pixel locations to form round ink dots. Normally, the drops are deposited with their respective dot centers determined by a rectilinear grid, i.e. a raster, with equal spacing in the horizontal and vertical directions. The inkjet printers may have the capability to either produce dots of the same size or of variable size. Inkjet printers with the latter capability are referred to as multitone or gray scale inkjet printers because they can produce multiple density tones at each selected pixel location on the page.
Inkjet printers may also be distinguished as being either pagewidth printers or swath printers. Examples of pagewidth printers are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,364,451 B1 and 6,454,378 B1. As noted in these patents, the term "pagewidth printhead" refers to a printhead having a printing zone that prints one line at a time on a page, the line being parallel either to a longer edge or a shorter edge of the page. The line is printed as a whole as the page moves past the printhead and the printhead is typically stationary, i.e. it does not transverse the page. These printheads are characterized by having a very large number of nozzles. The referenced U.S. patents disclose that should any of the nozzles of one printhead be defective the printer may include a second printhead that is provided so that selected nozzles of the second printhead substitute for defective nozzles of the primary printhead.
A swath printer uses a printhead having a plurality of nozzles disposed in an array in one or more rows, such that the length of the array is somewhat less than the height of the page. The multiple rows can be nozzles for ejecting different ink colors or different droplet sizes. Multiple rows are also used to increase the effective nozzle resolution for printing by staggering the rows of nozzles along the length of the array. Because the array length is less than the height of a page, printing is done in swaths (sometimes referred to as "passes" or "print passes") having a height, which is equal to or less than the array length. A swath is printed as the printhead traverses across a page to be printed in a traversal direction, which is substantially perpendicular to the array length. The printhead traversal direction is also referred to as the fast scan direction. After the swath is completed, the paper is advanced along a paper movement axis, which is perpendicular to the printhead traversal direction. The paper movement axis is also called the slow scan direction. The distance of paper advance is set to be less than or equal to the swath height in order to allow every pixel location on the page to be printed in successive swaths. For fastest printing throughput, all pixels to be printed in the region traversed by the printhead are printed during a single pass, and the page advance is set to the swath height. However, in many applications it is found that print quality is improved if a subset of pixels is printed in each pass, and multiple passes are used to print each region. In multi-pass printing, the page advance distance is set to be less than the swath height.
There are many techniques present in the prior art that describe methods of controlling the printer including "print masking." The term "print masking" generally refers to printing subsets of the image pixels in multiple passes of the printhead relative to a receiver medium. The print mask indicates which pixels have permission to be printed during a given pass of the printhead. See for example U.S. Pat. No. 6,454,389.
When printing on a cut-sheet inkjet printer, the paper is held by (at least) two sets of rollers. The first set is made up of a long main roller below the paper and one or more rollers above. The upper rollers are tensioned against the lower roller and are free turning. The lower roller is driven to advance the paper. The second set of rollers has a long main roller below the paper and one or more star wheels above the paper. The star wheels are tensioned against the lower roller and are free turning. The second upper set are star shaped to minimize contact with the freshly printed paper surface and to avoid smearing the ink.
As the paper is fed through the printer, it starts out held by only the first roller set. In this portion of the printing process, the paper may curl up or down, changing the head/paper spacing which changes dot alignment. Part way into the print, the paper will start being held by the star wheel rollers also. This middle area of the print is the most stable for paper advance and head/paper spacing since the paper is held by both sets of rollers. Then, at the end of the print, the paper comes out of the first roller and is only held by the star wheel rollers. At this point, paper curl could change the head/paper spacing. Also, the paper advance distances may not be as accurate when the paper is only held by the star wheel rollers. Thus, the area near the edges or borders are not effectively printed. Techniques are known in the art to provide for improved quality in borderless printing regions (near the beginning and/or end of the page) where the paper is not held by both sets of rollers. See for example U.S. Pat. No. 6,930,696. It is also known in inkjet printing that individual nozzles can fail to eject drops when commanded, due to a variety of reasons including electrical failure, clogging with fibers or contaminants in the ink, drying out, and others. When a nozzle fails, an unprinted streak appears in the image, causing an undesirable image artifact. Multipass printing in which the page is advanced by less than the swath height provides a means for allowing more than one nozzle to print a given line, thereby minimizing the appearance of the failed nozzle since not all dots in the given line will be missing. Additionally, it is known in the art to redirect the printing duty of the failed nozzle to another nozzle that prints along the same line, so that the unprinted locations are minimized or eliminated, thereby "correcting" for the failed nozzle. See for example U.S. Pat. No. 5,124,720. However the prior art techniques for failed nozzle correction do not sufficiently address the problem of providing for failed nozzle correction in the borderless regions of the print, where the paper is not engaged by both sets of rollers.

Failed nozzle correction system and method for borderless printing


A system and method for assigning virtual machines to network interfaces. A first virtual machine is assigned to a network interface according to a first rule and a second virtual machine is assigned to a network interface according to a second rule. The assignment rules are dependent on network conditions as determined through at least one of the network interfaces. The first rule and the second rule may specify assignments differently, such that the same network conditions may result in different assignments for the first and second virtual machines.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to computer virtualization and, in particular, to a method and system for assigning virtual machines to network interfaces.
2. Description of Related Art
The advantages of virtual machine technology have become widely recognized. Among these advantages is the ability to run multiple virtual machines on a single host platform. This makes better use of the capacity of the hardware, while still ensuring that each user enjoys the features of a "complete" computer. Depending on how it is implemented, virtualization also provides greater security, since the virtualization can isolate potentially unstable or unsafe software so that it cannot adversely affect the hardware state or system files required for running the physical (as opposed to virtual) hardware.
As is well known in the field of computer science, a virtual machine (VM) is a software abstraction—a "virtualization"—of an actual physical computer system. FIG. 1 shows one possible arrangement of a computer system 700 that implements virtualization. A VM 200 or "guest," is installed on a "host platform," or simply "host," which will include system hardware 100, that is, a hardware platform, and one or more layers or co-resident components comprising system-level software, such as an operating system (OS) or similar software layer responsible for coordinating and mediating access to hardware resources.
As software, the code defining the VM will ultimately execute on the actual system hardware 100. As in almost all computers, this hardware will include one or more CPUs 110, some form of memory 130 (volatile or non-volatile), one or more storage devices such as one or more disks 140, and one or more devices 170, which may be integral or separate and removable.
In many existing virtualized systems, the hardware processor(s) 110 are the same as in a non-virtualized computer with the same platform, for example, the Intel x-86 platform. Because of the advantages of virtualization, however, some hardware processors have also been developed to include specific hardware support for virtualization.
Each VM 200 will typically mimic the general structure of a physical computer and as such will usually have both virtual system hardware 201 and guest system software 202. The virtual system hardware typically includes at least one virtual CPU 210, virtual memory 230, at least one virtual disk 240 or similar virtualized mass storage device, and one or more virtual devices 270. Note that a disk—virtual 240 or physical 140—is also a "device," but is usually considered separately because of the important role it plays. All of the virtual hardware components of the VM may be implemented in software to emulate corresponding physical components. The guest system software includes a guest operating system (OS) 220 and drivers 224 as needed, for example, for the various virtual devices 270.
To permit computer systems to scale to larger numbers of concurrent threads, systems with multiple CPUs—physical or logical, or a combination—have been developed. One example is a symmetric multi-processor (SMP) system, which is available as an extension of the PC platform and from other vendors. Essentially, an SMP system is a hardware platform that connects multiple processors to a shared main memory and shared I/O devices. Yet another configuration is found in a so-called "multi-core" architecture, in which more than one physical CPU is fabricated on a single chip, with its own set of functional units (such as a floating-point unit and an arithmetic/logic unit ALU), and can execute threads independently; multi-core processors typically share only very limited resources, such as at least some cache. Still another technique that provides for simultaneous execution of multiple threads is referred to as "simultaneous multi-threading," in which more than one logical CPU (hardware thread) operates simultaneously on a single chip, but in which the logical CPUs flexibly share not only one or more caches, but also some functional unit(s) and sometimes also the translation lookaside buffer (TLB).
Similarly, a single VM may (but need not) be configured with more than one virtualized physical and/or logical processor. By way of example, FIG. 1 illustrates multiple virtual processors 210, 211, . . . , 21m (VCPU0, VCPU1, . . . , VCPUm) within the VM 200. Each virtualized processor in a VM may also be multi-core, or multi-threaded, or both, depending on the virtualization. This invention may be used to advantage regardless of the number of processors the VMs are configured to have.
If the VM 200 is properly designed, applications 260 running on the VM will function essentially as they would if run on a "real" computer, even though the applications are running at least partially indirectly, that is via the guest OS 220 and virtual processor(s). Executable files will be accessed by the guest OS from the virtual disk 240 or virtual memory 230, which will be portions of the actual physical disk 140 or memory 130 allocated to that VM. Once an application is installed within the VM, the guest OS retrieves files from the virtual disk just as if the files had been pre-stored as the result of a conventional installation of the application. The design and operation of virtual machines in general are known in the field of computer science.
Some interface is generally required between the guest software within a VM and the various hardware components and devices in the underlying hardware platform. This interface—which may be referred to generally as "virtualization software"—may include one or more software components and/or layers, possibly including one or more of the software components known in the field of virtual machine technology as "virtual machine monitors" (VMMs), "hypervisors," or virtualization "kernels." Because virtualization terminology has evolved over time and has not yet become fully standardized, these terms do not always provide clear distinctions between the software layers and components to which they refer. For example, "hypervisor" is often used to describe both a VMM and a kernel together, either as separate but cooperating components or with one or more VMMs incorporated wholly or partially into the kernel itself; however, "hypervisor" is sometimes used instead to mean some variant of a VMM alone, which interfaces with some other software layer(s) or component(s) to support the virtualization. Moreover, in some systems, some virtualization code is included in at least one "superior" VM to facilitate the operations of other VMs. Furthermore, specific software support for VMs is sometimes included in the host OS itself.
Unless otherwise indicated, the invention described below may be used in virtualized computer systems having any type or configuration of virtualization software. Moreover, the invention is described and illustrated below primarily as including one or more virtual machine monitors that appear as separate entities from other components of the virtualization software. This is only for the sake of simplicity and clarity and by way of illustration—as mentioned above, the distinctions are not always so clear-cut. Again, unless otherwise indicated or apparent from the description, it is to be assumed that the invention can be implemented anywhere within the overall structure of the virtualization software.
By way of illustration and example only, the figures show each VM running on a corresponding virtual machine monitor. The description's reference to VMMs is also merely by way of common example. A VMM is usually a software component that virtualizes at least one hardware resource of some physical platform, so as to export a hardware interface to the VM corresponding to the hardware the VM "thinks" it is running on. As FIG. 1 illustrates, a virtualized computer system may (and usually will) have more than one VM, each of which may be running on its own VMM.
The various virtualized hardware components in the VM, such as the virtual CPU(s) 210, etc., the virtual memory 230, the virtual disk 240, and the virtual device(s) 270, are shown as being part of the VM 200 for the sake of conceptual simplicity. In actuality, these "components" are often implemented as software emulations included in some part of the virtualization software, such as the VMM. One advantage of such an arrangement is that the virtualization software may (but need not) be set up to expose "generic" devices, which facilitate, for example, migration of VM from one hardware platform to another.
Different systems may implement virtualization to different degrees—"virtualization" generally relates to a spectrum of definitions rather than to a bright line, and often reflects a design choice in respect to a trade-off between speed and efficiency on the one hand and isolation and universality on the other hand. For example, "full virtualization" is sometimes used to denote a system in which no software components of any form are included in the guest other than those that would be found in a non-virtualized computer; thus, the guest OS could be an off-the-shelf, commercially available OS with no components included specifically to support use in a virtualized environment.
In contrast, another concept, which has yet to achieve a universally accepted definition, is that of "para-virtualization." As the name implies, a "para-virtualized" system is not "fully" virtualized, but rather the guest is configured in some way to provide certain features that facilitate virtualization. For example, the guest in some para-virtualized systems is designed to avoid hard-to-virtualize operations and configurations, such as by avoiding certain privileged instructions, certain memory address ranges, etc. As another example, many para-virtualized systems include an interface within the guest that enables explicit calls to other components of the virtualization software. For some, para-virtualization implies that the guest OS (in particular, its kernel) is specifically designed to support such an interface. According to this view, having, for example, an off-the-shelf version of Microsoft Windows XP as the guest OS would not be consistent with the notion of para-virtualization. Others define para-virtualization more broadly to include any guest OS with any code that is specifically intended to provide information directly to the other virtualization software. According to this view, loading a module such as a driver designed to communicate with other virtualization components renders the system para-virtualized, even if the guest OS as such is an off-the-shelf, commercially available OS not specifically designed to support a virtualized computer system.
Unless otherwise indicated or apparent, this invention is not restricted to use in systems with any particular "degree" of virtualization and is not to be limited to any particular notion of full or partial ("para-") virtualization.
In addition to the distinction between full and partial (para-) virtualization, two arrangements of intermediate system-level software layer(s) are in general use as, or as part of, the virtualization software—a "hosted" configuration (illustrated in FIG. 2) and a non-hosted configuration (illustrated in FIG. 1). In a hosted virtualized computer system, an existing, general-purpose operating system forms a "host" OS that is used to perform certain input/output (I/O) operations, alongside and sometimes at the request and direction of a virtualization software component such as the VMM 300. The host OS 420, which usually includes drivers 424 and supports applications 460 of its own, and the VMM (or similar component) are usually both able to directly access at least some of the same hardware resources, with conflicts being avoided by a context-switching mechanism. The Workstation product of VMware, Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif., is an example of a hosted, virtualized computer system, which is also explained in U.S. Pat. No. 6,496,847 (Bugnion, et al., "System and Method for Virtualizing Computer Systems," 17 Dec. 2002).
In addition to device emulators 370, FIG. 2 also illustrates some of the other components that may also be included in the VMM of a hosted virtualization system; many of these components are found in the VMM of a non-hosted system as well. For example, exception handlers 330 may be included to help context-switching (see again U.S. Pat. No. 6,496,847), and a direct execution engine 310 and/or a binary translator 320 (if translation is implemented), often with an associated translation cache 325, may be included to provide execution speed while still preventing the VM from directly executing certain privileged instructions in systems that do not otherwise provide such protection (see U.S. Pat. No. 6,397,242, Devine, et al., "Virtualization System Including a Virtual Machine Monitor for a Computer with a Segmented Architecture," 28 May 2002).
In many cases, it may be beneficial to deploy VMMs on top of a software layer—a kernel 600—constructed specifically to provide efficient support for the VMs. This configuration is frequently referred to as being "non-hosted" and is illustrated in FIG. 1. Compared with a system in which VMMs (or other software components or layers with similar functionality) run directly on the hardware platform (such as shown in FIG. 2), use of a kernel typically offers greater modularity and facilitates provision of services (for example, resource management) that extend across multiple virtual machines. Compared with a hosted deployment, a kernel may offer greater performance because it can be co-developed with the VMM and be optimized for the characteristics of a workload consisting primarily of VMs/VMMs. The kernel 600 also handles any other applications running on it that can be separately scheduled, as well as any temporary "console" operating system 420 that, in some systems, is included for such operations as boot the system as a whole or enabling certain user interactions with the kernel. The console OS in FIG. 1 may be of the same type as the host OS in FIG. 2, which is why they are identically numbered—the main difference is the role they play (or are allowed to play, if any) once the virtualized computer system is loaded and running. One example of a non-hosted, virtualized computer system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,961,941 (Nelson, et al., "Computer Configuration for Resource Management in Systems Including a Virtual Machine," 1 Nov. 2005.
One of the devices which may be implemented in either the virtual system hardware 201 or the device emulators 370 is a virtual network device, such as a virtual network interface card (virtual NIC). A virtual NIC allows the guest system 202 to operate with network functionality similar to the network functionality commonly available in a non-virtualized machine. To facilitate the operation of the virtual NIC, the system hardware 100 may includes a physical network device, such as a physical network interface card (physical NIC).
However, as there may be a plurality of virtual NICs and a plurality of physical NICs, managing the connections between the virtual and physical NICs presents several challenges. The various virtual machines may have different requirements for the bandwidth, latency, and reliability of their connections to the network. Furthermore, the network traffic of some virtual machines may be more important than others. Meeting the network connection requirements of the virtual machines is further complicated due to the possibility of changing network conditions. A high-bandwidth connection adequately serving a virtual machine at one moment could slow considerably in the next moment, potentially to a degree such that the connection is no longer adequate for that virtual machine. Therefore, what is needed is a system and method for managing connections between the virtual machines and a plurality of network interfaces.

System and method for multiple virtual teams


A refrigerator with weighing scale includes a refrigerator and a weighing scale. The refrigerator includes a chamber with top, bottom, front, rear, side surfaces, and a control board, and the weighing scale is attached to the bottom surface of the refrigerator. The weighing scale is retractable from under the bottom surface of the refrigerator. The weighing scale includes a digital scale. The digital scale includes a stepping pad and a display for showing the weight. The display of the digital scale is disposed on the control board of the refrigerator, and the display is electronically connected to the remaining portion of the digital scale. The display on the control board of the refrigerator is turned on by stepping on the stepping pad of the weighing scale, by a control switch provided on the control board, or by being pulled out from under the bottom surface of the refrigerator.

The present invention relates to a refrigerator with a weighing scale. More particularly, this invention relates to a refrigerator that provides a weighing scale at a close reach from where most people want to weigh themselves.
A refrigerator can be defined as a device that isolates a certain volume of space from the vast environmental space and cools down the temperature in the isolated volume of space lower than the environmental space by means of a well-known heat pump.
The cooled down or temperature-controlled space has been used to store all kinds of food. It is believed that the drastic extension of life expectancy of modern people is mainly thanks to the availability of fresh food and clean water enabled by the introduction of the refrigerator and the running water system.
Also, the place around the refrigerator became where people want to weigh themselves most in the era of health and fitness. As the demand for physical activity keeps diminishing and the amount of calorie intake keeps increasing, the fitness has become an indispensable part of life of people who are interested in health and physical beauty.
Accordingly, a need for a refrigerator with weighing scale has been present for a long time considering the usage of refrigerators everywhere and the growing interest on health and fitness of general people. This invention is directed to satisfy the long-felt need and to solve some related problems.