Embodiments of the invention include a MIM capacitor having a high capacitance with improved manufacturability. Such a capacitor includes an upper electrode, a lower electrode, and a dielectric layer that is intermediate the upper and the lower electrodes. A first voltage can be applied to the upper electrode and a second voltage, which is different from the first voltage, can be applied to the lower electrode. A wire layer, through which the first voltage is applied to the upper electrode, is located in the same level as or in a lower level than the lower electrode.

Several types of integrated circuit capacitors exist, which are classified according to their junction structures, such as metal-oxide-silicon (MOS) capacitors, pn junction capacitors, polysilicon-insulator-polysilicon (PIP) capacitors, and metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitors. In all of the above-listed capacitors except for MIM capacitors, at least one electrode is formed of monocrystalline silicon or polycrystalline silicon. However, physical characteristics of monocrystalline and polycrystalline silicon limit minimizing the amount of resistance of a capacitor electrode. In addition, when a bias voltage is applied to a monocrystalline or polycrystalline silicon electrode, depletion may occur, which can cause the applied voltage to become unstable. When this occurs, the capacitance of the silicon electrode cannot be maintained at a certain level.
Using MIM capacitors has been proposed to address the varying capacitance problem, since capacitance of MIM capacitors does not depend on a bias voltage or temperature. MIM capacitors have a lower voltage coefficient of capacitance (VCC) and a lower temperature coefficient of capacitance (TCC) than other capacitor types. The VCC indicates variation of capacitance according to the changes in voltage and the TCC indicates variation of capacitance according to the changes in temperature. Because of having a low VCC and TCC, MIM capacitors have been particularly useful for fabricating analog products. More recently, MIM capacitors have been used to make mixed mode signal products and system-on-a-chip (SOC) products. For example, MIM capacitors have been widely employed in analog capacitors and filters for analog or mixed mode signal applications in wired or wireless communications, as decoupling capacitors for main processing unit boards, as high frequency radio-frequency (RF) capacitors, and in embedded DRAMs.
FIGS. 1 and 2 are cross-sectional diagrams of two conventional MIM capacitors as taught by R. Liu et al., Proc. IITC, 111 (2000) and M. Armacost et al., Proc. IEDM, 157 (2000), respectively. Reference numerals 10 and 12 indicate MIM capacitors, and reference numerals 20, 30, 40, and 50 indicate a lower electrode, a dielectric layer, an upper electrode, and a capping layer, respectively. In addition, reference numerals C/P_20, C/P_40, C/H, D/D_20, D/D_40, and D/R indicate a lower electrode contact plug, an upper electrode contact plug, contact holes, a dual damascene wiring layer contacting a lower electrode, a dual damascene wiring layer contacting an upper electrode, and damascene regions, respectively. Other parts of the MIM capacitors 10 and 12 correspond to interlayer or other dielectric layers.
In the MIM capacitor 10 shown in FIG. 1, the lower electrode 20 is electrically connected to a wiring layer (not shown) by the lower electrode contact plug C/P_20 and the upper electrode 40 is electrically connected to another wiring layer (not shown) by the upper electrode contact plug C/P_40. The lower electrode contact plug C/P_20 and the upper electrode contact plug C/P_40 are formed in their respective contact holes C/H having a high aspect ratio but different depths. Specifically, the C/H for the C/P_20 runs deeper than the C/H for the C/P_40, because the C/P 20 contacts the lower electrode 20. When forming the contact hole C/H, it is difficult to precisely control an etching process so as to stop the etching of C/H at the top surface of the upper electrode 40 and at the top surface of the lower electrode 20 simultaneously. Therefore, the upper electrode 40 must be formed to have a predetermined thickness so that it can endure an excessive etching process. However, as the thickness of the upper electrode 40 increases, the dielectric layer 30 under the upper electrode 40 is more likely to be exposed to an excessive etching process for patterning the upper electrode 40, and thus the lower electrode 20 may be exposed due to the dielectric layer 30, which is etched away. Therefore, the dielectric layer 30 must also be formed to have a predetermined thickness so that it can endure an excessive etching process, and this results in a decrease in the capacitance of the entire capacitor 10.
In the MIM capacitor 12 shown in FIG. 2, the dual damascene wiring layer D/D_20 and the dual damascene wiring layer D/D_40 are electrically connected to the lower electrode 20 and the upper electrode 40, respectively. They are formed in their respective damascene regions D/R having a high aspect ratio but different depths. In order to obtain a sufficient margin for an etching process for forming the dual damascene region D/R, in which the dual damascene wiring layer D/D_40 is supposed to be formed, the thickness of the upper electrode 40 and the thickness of the dielectric layer 30 must be increased, which accompanies the decrease in the capacitance of the entire capacitor 12.
In addition, there is a high probability of having a bad electrical contact occur due to byproducts, like polymer, generated during the formation of the contact holes C/H and the damascene regions D/R because they have a high aspect ratio. In other words, the manufacturing process of conventional MIM capacitors results in many disadvantages including limiting the capacitance of a capacitor.
Embodiments of the invention address this and other limitations in the prior art.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


The disclosure relates to methods and systems for joining at least two workpieces, including forming a weld joint by moving a machining beam, e.g., a laser beam, and the at least two workpieces relative to one another along a feed direction, wherein the movement of the machining beam and the two workpieces relative to one another is superimposed with a periodic movement in a movement path, e.g., a two-dimensional movement path, which extends in a transverse direction perpendicularly to the feed direction and, e.g., additionally in the feed direction. The movement path has, between two reversal points in the transverse direction, at least one stop point at which a speed component of the periodic movement in the transverse direction is zero. The invention also relates to computer program products and systems for carrying out the methods.

When joining two or more workpieces using a machining beam, for example a laser beam, hot cracks can occur when welding and full-penetration welding takes place at lap joints and/or at fillet joints, in particular in the case of materials which are susceptible to hot cracking or geometries of the weld joint which are susceptible to cracking. To prevent hot cracks and therefore to improve the welding result, it is known to superimpose a periodic oscillating movement in a one- or two-dimensional movement path on the feed movement along the weld joint.
For example, a method for lap welding metal parts has become known from EP 1 534 460 B2, in which a laser beam is moved in a first direction along a contact surface between a pair of metal parts and a swinging of the laser beam takes place in a second direction which deviates from the first direction. The laser beam is a circular laser beam spot, which can swing transversely to the first direction. The laser beam spot can swing in a linear path. The laser beam spot can also swing in a circular path or in an elliptical path.
In DE 10 2014 206 302 A1, a method for welding is described, in which an energy source is moved in intersecting, in particular fully arcuately progressing paths with respect to the surface of a substrate. The arcuately progressing paths can be in the form of loops, wherein an upper loop corresponds to the upper part of a figure eight-shaped path and a lower loop corresponds to the lower part of a figure eight-shaped path.
Optics with a movable inner housing for welding with oscillating beams and an associated welding method have become known from DE 10 2014 210 118 A1. By means of the optics, an oscillating movement of the laser beam on the surface can be achieved, wherein triangular weaving movements or loop-shaped weaving movements can be generated.
In DE 10 2013 219 220 A1, a method for laser remote machining of a workpiece at a fillet and an associated apparatus are described, in which a laser beam is directed onto and guided over the component by means of a scanner apparatus, wherein the working region of the laser beam is illuminated with illuminating radiation and wherein the illuminating radiation is directed onto the component at an angle of incidence which is adjusted depending on the fillet geometry of the component.
DE 10 2013 110 523 A1 describes an apparatus and a method for joining workpieces by means of a laser beam, wherein the laser beam carries out a first oscillating movement with a first oscillating frequency and a second oscillating movement, superimposed on the first oscillating movement, with a second, higher oscillating frequency.
DE 10 2014 015 094 A1 describes a method for laser beam welding partners to be joined, in which the machining laser beam moves along an optically detected tracking edge according to an intended weld joint progression. The optical joint tracking is superimposed with a high-frequency oscillating mirror oscillation of at least one oscillating mirror, which oscillating mirror oscillation is adapted to the component geometry and/or procedural conditions. The spatial oscillating mirror oscillation can be controlled in such a way that, in addition to the movement along the intended progression of the weld joint, the laser beam impingement point executes a superimposed oscillating transversal movement and/or a superimposed oscillating wobbling movement, in particular an oscillating circular movement.
In DE 10 2012 008 940 A1, a method and a device for joining workpieces are described, in which the movement of the laser beam in the feed direction is superimposed with a second movement having an oscillating movement component both in the feed direction and perpendicularly thereto.
In JPH1071480 A, a laser beam welding method at the lap joint is described, in which a scanner movement of an optical axis of the laser beam takes place along a two-dimensional locus. In the case of a scanner movement in a circular or elliptical pattern, the positional region of the overlap of the optical axis of the laser beam can be limited to a predetermined region.
The article "Laser Beam Welding with High-Frequency Beam Oscillation: Welding of Dissimilar Materials with Brilliant Fiber Lasers," M. Kraetzsch et al., Physics Procedia 12 (2011) 142-149, describes that a laser beam source can be used in combination with a high-frequency beam oscillation to weld metal material combinations which were hitherto not laser-weldable in a conventional manner, for example the material combination Al—Cu.
The dissertation "Prozessstrategien zur Vermeidung von Heißrissen beim Remote-Laserstrahlschweißen von AlMgSi 6016" [Process strategies for preventing hot cracks during remote laser beam welding of AlMgSi 6016] by Peter Stritt, describes approaches for laser beam welding of aluminum that are intended to prevent hot cracks close to the edges without the use of a filler metal. Welding using a modulated laser power is described as one option for reducing the tendency towards hot cracking. Another option consists in a step strategy in which short step joints are spatially superimposed with a time offset in such a way that the end region, which is susceptible to end crater cracks, is over-welded again.

Methods and systems for joining at least two workpieces


A supporting tool which can be easily mounted at a desired position on a wall surface or the like at a low cost to function as a supporting bar or a handrail includes a sucking pad. An adhesive agent layer is disposed on one main surface of the sucking pad and on a portion of the other main surface, opposed to a pedestal. One end of a shaft shaped connection member is fixed to the other main surface of the sucking pad, whereas the other end of the shaft-shaped connection member penetrates through the center of the pedestal. A horizontal shaft is inserted through the other end of the connection member which extends upward through the upper surface of the pedestal. Each end of the horizontal shaft is rotatably supported by shaft-receiving members. The horizontal shaft is fixed to a rotatable cam. The horizontal shaft is moved vertically by rotating the cam. As a result, the center of the sucking pad is moved vertically through the connection member. The periphery of the sucking pad is pressed against an installation surface by a pressing portion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a supporting tool and more particularly to a supporting tool which may preferably be used in a bathroom or other room as a supporting bar to be gripped by elderly people, handicapped people, and their care providers so as to support their bodies and also to be used as a handrail to help such people walk and move around the room safely; and a method of installing the supporting tool on a wall or other surface.
2. Description of the Prior Art
FIG. 15A is a sectional view showing an example of a conventional supporting tool. A supporting tool 1 is used as a supporting bar to be held in a person's hand to support his/her body in a bathroom or other room. Ordinarily, the supporting tool 1 is installed on a wall surface W of a bathroom when a house is built. The supporting tool 1 includes a base plate 2. A supporting bar body 3 projects from one main surface of the base plate 2. The supporting bar 3 comprises a supporting member 3a projecting from the base plate 2 at approximately a right angle therewith and a grasping member 3b formed at the leading end of the supporting member 3a and grasped in the person's hand. The supporting tool 1 can be used as a handrail by disposing the long grasping member 3b along a walking path. The base plate 2 of the supporting tool 1 is installed on the wall surface W of the bath room by means of an anchor bolt 4, with the base plate 2 in contact with the wall surface W. In this case, a joist S is mounted at the rear of the wall surface W. In the case of the supporting tool 1 shown in FIG. 15A, the joist S is made of a concrete block. Cement mortar is applied to the surface of the joist S, and the cement mortar is covered with a tile T.
One end of the anchor bolt 4 is fixed to the joist S by screwing it into the joist S through the base plate 2 of the supporting tool 1 and the tile T of the wall surface W. The base plate 2 is fixed to the wall surface W by tightening a nut 4a positioned at the other end of the anchor bolt 4 on the base plate 2. The one main surface of the base plate 2 is covered with a decorative flange 5 to cover the other end of the anchor bolt 4 and the nut 4a.
In the above example, instead of the anchor bolt, screws or nails may be used to fix supporting tools 1 to the wall surface W. The joist S shown in FIG. 15B is made of wood. A board which is commonly referred to as a composite panel is bonded to the surface of the joist S. Cement mortar is applied to the surface of the board. The cement mortar is covered with a tile T. The supporting tool 1 is fixed to the wall surface W by means of a wooden screw 6 tightened into the joist S.
FIG. 15C shows a case in which the supporting tool 1 is installed on a wall surface W of an FRP of a built-in bus (unit-bus). In this case, the joist S into which a bolt or the like is screwed is not mounted inside the wall surface W. Thus, in order to install the supporting tool 1 on the wall surface W, it is necessary to fasten the supporting tool 1 by means of a bolt and nut at both sides of the wall surface W through an iron plate or the like.
FIG. 16A is a sectional view showing another example of a conventional supporting tool. The supporting tool 6 is installed at a corner of a bath tub B without forming a hole in the bath tub B to avoid water leakage. The supporting tool 6 includes a base plate 7 having an approximately U-shaped cross section. The base plate 7 is installed on the corner of the bath tub B by fitting the corner of the bath tub B into the base plate 7. A screw 8 installed on the side wall of the base plate 7 is tightened through the base plate 7 and the wall of the bath tub B. In this manner, the wall of the bath tub B is sandwiched between the leading end of the screw 8 and the inner surface of the base plate 7 having the approximately U-shaped cross section.
When it is necessary to install a conventional supporting tool as shown in FIGS. 15A through 15C in a bathroom as a supporting bar or a handrail several years after a house is built, a hole must be formed in a wall of the bathroom with an expensive special drill. Because tiles are slippery and easily broken, professional skill is required to make the hole in the tile at a desired position. Thus, it is necessary to have a professional person do the supporting tool installation work, which makes the cost of the installation work high. There are occasions when even the professional person must make holes in order to check whether the joist S is mounted at a position where the supporting tool 1 is to be installed. Further, if the joist S is made of wood, it may have rotted. In this case, the supporting tool 1 cannot be installed with a desired stability even though the anchor bolt 4 is tightened on the joist S. Moreover, the supporting tools 1 as shown in FIGS. 15A through 15C require a hole to be formed on an installation surface. Therefore, it is impossible to install the supporting tool 1 on the bath tub B without causing water leakage. For the reason described above, it is difficult for a user to install the conventional supporting tools at a desired position. In addition, for the reasons described above, there is a possibility that the professional person will not accept a request for the installation of the supporting tool 1 if the request is made several years after a house is constructed because of the potential for excessive damage caused by the installation.
Moreover, the supporting tool 6 as shown in FIG. 16A cannot be installed on the corner of the bath tub B if the thickness of the wall at the corner is changed greatly. Furthermore, if a floor F is continuous with the upper surface of the bath tub B, as shown in FIG. 16B, the supporting tool 6 cannot be installed on the corner of the bath tub B because the thickness of the corner is too large.

Supporting tool and method of installing same

c/o Hokumei Co., Ltd. of 3-12, Shinimazato 1-chome, Ikuno-ku, Osaka-shi, Osaka-fu, JPX


According to an aspect, an elevator sensor calibration system includes one or more sensors operable to monitor an elevator system, an elevator sensor calibration device, and a computing system. The computing system includes a memory and a processor that collects a plurality of baseline sensor data from the one or more sensors during movement of an elevator component, collects a plurality of disturbance data from the one or more sensors while the elevator component is displaced responsive to contact with the elevator sensor calibration device during movement of the elevator component, and performs analytics model calibration to calibrate a trained model based on one or more response changes between the baseline sensor data and the disturbance data.

The subject matter disclosed herein generally relates to elevator systems and, more particularly, to an elevator sensor calibration system for elevator sensor analytics and calibration.
An elevator system can include various sensors to detect the current state of system components and fault conditions. To perform certain types of fault or degradation detection, precise sensor calibration may be needed. Sensor systems as manufactured and installed can have some degree of variation. Sensor system responses can vary compared to an ideal system due to these sensor system differences and installation differences, such as elevator component characteristic variations in weight, structural features, and other installation effects.


A non-volatile semiconductor cell structure and method comprises a trenched floating gate, a sidewall doping and a corner doping and further includes a sidewall doped region, a corner doped region, a channel region, and an inter-gate dielectric layer, and a control gate. The trenched floating gate is formed in a trench etched into the semiconductor substrate. In a preferred embodiment, the trenched floating gate has a top surface which is substantially planar with a top surface of the semiconductor substrate. The control gate and the inter-gate dielectric are formed on the top surface of the trenched floating gate. The sidewall doped region and the corner doped region are laterally separated by the trench in which the trenched floating gate is formed. The sidewall doped region has a depth which is greater than the depth of the trench, and the corner doped region has a depth which is less than the depth of the trench. The sidewall doping is a diffusion region formed in the sidewall doped region of the semiconductor substrate and is immediately contiguous to a vertical sidewall of the trench and immediately contiguous to the substrate surface. The corner doping is a diffusion region formed in the corner doped region of the semiconductor substrate and is immediately contiguous the upper vertical sidewall of the trench which is opposite the vertical sidewall along which the sidewall doping is formed and is immediately contiguous the substrate surface.

Conventional semiconductor non-volatile memories, such as read-only memories (ROMs), erasable-programmable ROMs (EPROMs), electrically erasable-programmable ROMs (EEPROMs), and flash EEPROMs are typically constructed using a double-poly structure. Referring now to FIG. 1, there is shown a cross-sectional view of the cell structure of a conventional nonvolatile memory device 100 including a substrate 102 of a semiconductor crystal such as silicon. The device 100 also includes a channel region 104, a source region 106, a drain region 108, a floating gate dielectric layer 110, a floating poly gate electrode 112, an inter-gate dielectric layer 114, and a control poly gate electrode 116. The floating gate dielectric layer 110 isolates the floating gate from the underlying substrate 102 while the inter-gate dielectric layer 114 isolates the control and floating gates. As shown in FIG. 1, the floating gate dielectric layer 110, the floating poly gate electrode 112, the inter-gate dielectric layer 114, and the control poly gate electrode 116 are all disposed on the surface of the substrate 102.
As semiconductor devices and integrated circuits are scaled down in size, demands for the efficient use of space have increased. Heretofore, conventional non-volatile devices have utilized a cell structure where the floating gate and control gate are formed on a top surface of the semiconductor substrate as shown in FIG. 1. However, this type of cell structure is limited to the degree to which the active devices can be made smaller in order to increase cell packing density and performance. Additionally, the stacked dual gate structure which is formed on the substrate surface is sensitive to the overlaps between the floating gate and the source and drain junctions.

Trenched gate non-volatile semiconductor device and method with corner doping and sidewall doping


An information processing device, while in a first input mode for receiving a touchless operation as an input, receives a touchless operation as an input, and starts processing that corresponds to the received touchless operation. If the information processing device detects a switch operation, which is made with a touch on the information processing device for switching from the first input mode to a second input mode that is a mode for receiving a touch operation as an input, within a predetermined time period after the reception of the touchless operation, the information processing device sets an output status obtained as a result of the started processing to an output status which has been obtained before the start of the processing.

There has been known an art for improving the user convenience by enabling a user to make an input to an operation target device via a touchless operation with no touch on the operation target device (Patent Literature 1, for example).
According to an art disclosed in the Patent Literature 1, a user (car driver) can select a desired operation menu item, by making, as a touchless operation, a predetermined sign with his hand while holding a wheel with the hand. Specifically, the user (car driver) is notified of respective names of operation menu items of an in-vehicle device (such as a car navigation system) via audio. When the user is notified of a name of a desired operation menu item, the user makes a touchless operation such as described above. Then, the device detects a sign made by the user with his hand based on images obtained by a camera, and performs processing that corresponds to the desired operation menu item.
By the way, in order to further improve the user convenience, it is desirable to enable the user to appropriately switch an input mode depending on the situation where the user operates an operation target device, between a mode for receiving, as an input, a touchless operation such as described above and an input mode for receiving, as an input, a touch operation made on a button, a touch panel, or the like included in the operation target device.

Information processing device, processing control method, program, and recording medium

PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.


A cesium-lithium borate crystal, of which the chemical composition is expressed by any of the following formulae: EQU Cs.sub.1-x Li.sub.1-y M.sub.x+y B.sub.6 O.sub.10,. and EQU Cs.sub.2(1-z) Li.sub.2 L.sub.z B.sub.12 O.sub.20. (where, M is an alkali metal element, and L is an alkali earth element), and in which an exotic element is doped or annealed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cesium-lithium borate crystal. More particularly, the present invention relates to a cesium-lithium borate crystal which is useful as wavelength converting nonlinear optical crystal or the like for a laser oscillator or an optical parametric oscillator used in ultraviolet-ray lithography, laser fine processing and laser fusion and permits improvement of uniformity of refractive index, improvement of mecahnical, chemical and optical properties, and prevention of occurrence of cracks.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a conventional laser oscillator used in ultraviolet-ray lithography, laser fine processing or laser fusion, it is necessary to obtain stable ultraviolet rays efficiently, and wherein the a method of efficiently obtaining ultraviolet rays through wavelength conversion of a light source using a nonlinear optical crystal is attracting the general attention as a method for this purpose.
In a pulse YAG laser oscillator as a laser oscillator, the wavelength of a light source is converted with the use of a nonlinear optical crystal to generate triploid harmonic (wavelength: 355 nm) or tetraploid harmonic (wavelength: 266 nm).
Many contrivances have been made regarding a wavelength converting nonlinear optical crystal indispensable for generating ultraviolet rays. For example, crystals of such borates as betabarium metaborate (.beta.-BaB.sub.2 O.sub.4), lithium triborate (LiB.sub.3 O.sub.5) and cesium triborate (CsB.sub.3 O.sub.5) are known. Such a wavelength converting nonlinear optical crystal for generating ultraviolet rays permits transmission of a light having a wavelength of up to 200 nm, and has a high nonlinear optical constant
However, in .beta.-BaB.sub.2 O.sub.4, one of such wavelength converting nonlinear optical crystals, easy occurrence of phase transition upon melt growth during the process of preparation makes it difficult for crystal growth to take place, and a narrow angular allowance leads to a low generality.
In LiB.sub.3 O.sub.5 or CsB.sub.3 O.sub.5, another of the wavelength converting nonlinear optical crystals, growing period is very long for flux growth during the process of manufacturing, and phase alignment is possible only for a light of a wavelength of up to about 555 nm. It is therefore applicable for the generation of triploid harmonic (wavelength: 355 nm) available by an Nd-YAG laser, for example, but is defective in that it is not applicable for the generation of tetraploid harmonic (wavelength: 266 nm).
Under these circumstances, the present inventors developed a novel cesium-lithium borate crystal, a high-performance wavelength converting nonlinear optical crystal, as a material capable of overcoming the defects in the conventional art, which permitted conversion of a light of a shorter wavelength through transmission, gave a high conversion efficiency, and had wide temperature allowance and angular allowance, and have proposed anew this crystal itself, a method of manufacturing the same and a method of utilizing the same (Japanese Provisional Patent Application JP-A-7-128698). This cesium-lithium borate crystal including composition-substituted crystals was clarified to be an epoch-making one, and is attracting the general attention as an optical material bringing about new developments.
As a result of studies carried out by the present inventors, in spite of its excellent properties, the cesium-lithium borate crystal is now known to have problems in that it tends to be deteriorated because of its hygroscopicity and water solubility, and in that residual processing distortion tends to cause cracks.
The present invention aims created to solve these problems and has an object to permit improvement of mechanical, chemical and optical properties of a cesium-lithium borate crystal, a high-performance wavelength converting nonlinear optical crystal, and composition-substituted crystals thereof, which can transmit a light of a shorter wavelength and convert the wavelength, have a high conversion efficiency and wide temperature allowance and angular allowance.

Japan Science and Technology Corporation


A liquid petroleum gas (LPG) gauge sensor unit fits between the units of an existing magnetically-coupled LPG gauge and includes a magnetic field sensing switch, a mechanism to variably position the switch and an intermediate magnet. The intermediate magnet is positioned upon an axle-like mechanism upon which it is free to rotate and magnetically couples to the existing gauge base magnet which is, in turn, connected to a float that measures the liquid level. The existing indicator magnet in the gauge assembly magnetically couples with the intermediate magnet so that the gauge unit visually indicates the level of LPG within the LPG tank, despite the increased distance between the base and indicator magnets caused by the sensor unit. The magnetic field sensing switch is used to sense the position of the base or intermediate magnet and thereby sense the liquid level.

LPG is stored in tanks located outside the buildings using this form of fuel. To ensure that an adequate supply of LPG is available to the building, each tank must be periodically refilled by a fuel delivery to the tank location. Fuel requests are placed with a central distributor who makes the deliveries utilizing tank trucks.
Automatic fuel reordering systems alleviate the consumer's inconvenience of periodically checking the fuel level. In addition, by utilizing these systems, distributors operate more efficiently and competitively. Such fuel reordering systems detect when the fuel reaches a particular level and, upon detection, transmit an informational message, via the building's telephone lines, to the distributor. By knowing when and in what quantity a consumer requires fuel, the distributor may more economically schedule fuel deliveries to his or her clients. In general, deliveries will be made only when a consumer requires a substantially full tank-load. An example of a fuel reordering system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,845,486.
To date, fuel reordering systems have been substantially limited to fuel oil systems. In one prior art example, the fuel level is directly sensed by a capacitive sensor. This type of sensor employs concentric cylinders that are inserted into the fuel tank. The fuel oil forms a portion of the dielectric between the concentric cylinders, and air within the tank forms the remainder. As the level of fuel oil decreases, the fuel oil comprises a lesser portion of the dielectric, thereby changing the resulting capacitance of the cylindrical capacitor. An electronic circuit compares the resulting capacitance with a reference capacitance corresponding to the particular level of fuel to be detected. (The particular fuel level to be detected is hereinafter referred to as a "watchpoint.") When the capacitances are relatively equal, the circuit conveys an informational message to the fuel reordering system, so that a fuel request can be made to the distributor. In fuel oil systems, directly sensing the fuel oil level by capacitive sensing, or other equally active and invasive methods, represents relatively little danger as fuel oil is non-explosive.
The prior art has employed indirect sensing of the fuel oil level under limited conditions. For example, in fuel oil systems utilizing a mechanical, sliding float gauge, the position of the mechanically sliding indicator element is sensed, rather than sensing the fuel level itself. A magnet is affixed to the indicator element, and a magnetic reed switch is attached to the fuel gauge in a position corresponding to the desired watchpoint. The reed switch detects when the magnet comes within a certain proximity, and upon detection, conveys an indicative signal to the fuel reordering system. This sensing method is limited to only certain types of mechanical fuel oil gauges and is substantially limited to fuel oil systems. Only certain gauge types allow the reed switch to be attached and also allow access to the gauge's indicator element so that the magnet can be affixed. This method of sensing, with its concomitant gauge modifications, is acceptable for fuel oil systems, as there is a negligible risk of explosion in such systems. See U.S. Pat. No. 4,845,486 for more discussion on prior art reordering systems and their sensing methods.
LPG systems have more demanding requirements than fuel oil systems. LPG tanks and LPG gauges, which are attached to the tanks, are located outside buildings. Consequently, LPG gauges must withstand extreme environmental conditions. In addition, because LPG is stored under pressure and is highly explosive, a LPG system must ensure that the gas does not leak or inadvertently flow into the building. A stuck valve or gauge can result in catastrophe. The LPG sensor must be able to meet these same stringent demands and not add any risk of leakage or explosion.
Capacitive sensing is unacceptably risky for LPG installations. First, the LPG could experience a capacitive discharge and explode. Second, because the sensors require openings in the LPG tank for the capacitor apparatus, leaks might result and cause an explosion.
Due to the constraints involved, currently known sensors are unacceptable. Most of the currently known sensors do not adequately address the safety concerns of a highly explosive fuel and extreme environmental conditions. Some require access to the gauge's internals, thereby increasing the cost and difficulty of installation. Others require the existing LPG gauge to be replaced, thereby significantly increasing the cost. For example, a sensor device for use with LPG systems is manufactured by Squibb-Taylor, 10807 Harry Hines Blvd., Dallas, Tex. 75220, under the name of the ATLAS Monitoring/Reporting System. The ATLAS system requires replacing the entire LPG gauge indicator element with the sensing apparatus. The sensing apparatus is therefore more complicated since it must include indicator element functionality. Further, the gauge's original indicator element is wasted. Lastly, most known sensors are incompatible with the predominant LPG gauge in the market, the Rochester 6200, manufactured by Rochester Gauges Inc. of Texas, located at P.O. BOX 29242, 11616 Harry Hines Blvd., Dallas, Tex. 75229.
The Rochester gauge shown in FIG. 6 is comprised of two self-contained, hermetic units: the base unit 157 and the indicator unit 150. The base unit 157 is attached to the LPG tank and includes a float mechanism 158 to be inserted into the tank. The float mechanism 158 is responsive to the level of liquified fuel within the tank. Attached to the float mechanism is a rod 600 and gear mechanism 602 that rotates responsively to the position of the float mechanism. A base magnet 604 is transversely attached to the distal end of the rod 600. Thus, the angular orientation of the base magnet 604 corresponds to the amount of fuel within the tank.
The indicator unit 150 visually indicates the fuel level. This unit is aligned with and secured to the base unit by screws 340. The indicator unit 150 includes an indicator magnet 606 that is connected to an indicator element 152. Much like a compass, the indicator magnet 606 couples with the base magnet 604. The indicator element 152, being attached to the indicator magnet 606, is thereby responsive to the fuel level.
As previously mentioned, the LPG system is potentially subject to extreme environmental conditions. The magnetic coupling between the base and indicator magnets (604, 606) allows each unit to be sealed. Sealing each unit minimizes the risk of water or moisture freezing within a unit and thereby freezing it. Separate hermetic units also minimize the likelihood of LPG leaks. For example, in the Rochester gauge, only the base unit 157 presents any risk of fuel leakage. (Hereinafter the Rochester gauge is referred to as the "LPG gauge.")
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a sensing unit capable of detecting when a LPG gauge indicates that a particular fuel level has been reached.
It is another object of the present invention to be compatible with existing LPG gauges and fuel reordering systems.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a LPG level sensing unit that is easy to install and safe.
It is a further object of the present invention to achieve a low component count by utilizing the functionality of the LPG gauge.


A mobile computing device, adapted to be held in the palm of a user's hand, includes an antenna for transmission of information from the mobile computing device. A first microphone, adapted to convert audible speech from the user into speech signals, is positioned at a distal end of the antenna. The antenna is rotatable, while the mobile computing device is held by the user, into a position which directs the first microphone toward the mouth of the user. A speech sensor outputs a sensor signal indicative of whether the user is speaking.

The present invention relates to personal mobile computing devices. More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus, system and method for enhancing speech recognition in mobile computing devices.
Mobile devices are small electronic computing devices sometimes referred to as personal digital assistants (PDAs). Many of such mobile devices are handheld devices, or palm-size devices, which comfortably fit within the hand. One commercially available mobile device is sold under the trade name HandHeld PC (or H/PC) having software provided by Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash.
Generally, the mobile device includes a processor, random access memory (RAM), and an input device such as a keyboard and a display, wherein the keyboard can be integrated with the display, such as a touch sensitive display. A communication interface is optionally provided and is commonly used to communicate with a desktop computer. A replaceable or rechargeable battery powers the mobile device. Optionally, the mobile device can receive power from an external power source that overrides or recharges the built-in battery, such as a suitable AC or DC adapter, or a powered docking cradle.
In one common application, the mobile device is used in conjunction with the desktop computer. For example, the user of the mobile device may also have access to, and use, a desktop computer at work or at home. The user typically runs the same types of applications on both the desktop computer and on the mobile device. Thus, it is quite advantageous for the mobile device to be designed to be coupled to the desktop computer to exchange information with, and share information with, the mobile device.
As the mobile computing device market continues to grow, new developments can be expected. For example, mobile devices can be integrated with cellular or digital wireless communication technology to provide a mobile computing device which also functions as a mobile telephone. Thus, cellular or digital wireless communication technology can provide the communication link between the mobile device and the desktop (or other) computer. Further, speech recognition can be used to record data or to control functions of one or both of the mobile computing device and the desktop computer, with the user speaking into a microphone on the mobile device and with signals being transmitted to the desktop computer based upon the speech detected by the microphone.
Several problems arise when attempting to perform speech recognition, at the desktop computer, of words spoken into a remote microphone such as a microphone positioned on a mobile device. First, the signal-to-noise ratio of the speech signals provided by the microphone drops as the distance between the microphone and the user's mouth increases. With a typical mobile device being held in a user's palm up to a foot from the user's mouth, the resulting signal-to-noise ratio drop may be a significant speech recognition obstacle. Also, internal noise within the mobile device lowers the signal-to-noise ratio of the speech signals due to the close proximity of the internal noise to the microphone which is typically positioned on a housing of the mobile device. Second, due to bandwidth limitations of digital and other wireless communication networks, the speech signals received at the desktop computer will be of lower quality, as compared to speech signals from a desktop microphone. Thus, with different desktop and telephony bandwidths, speech recognition results will vary when using a mobile computing device microphone instead of a desktop microphone.
The aforementioned problems are not limited to speech recognition performed at a desktop computer. In many different speech recognition applications, it is very important, and can be critical, to have a clear and consistent audio input representing the speech to be recognized provided to the automatic speech recognition system. Two categories of noise which tend to corrupt the audio input to the speech recognition system are ambient noise and noise generated from background speech. There has been extensive work done in developing noise cancellation techniques in order to cancel ambient noise from the audio input. Some techniques are already commercially available in audio processing software, or integrated in digital microphones, such as universal serial bus (USB) microphones.
Dealing with noise related to background speech has been more problematic. This can arise in a variety of different, noisy environments. For example, where the speaker of interest is talking in a crowd, or among other people, a conventional microphone often picks up the speech of speakers other than the speaker of interest. Basically, in any environment in which other persons are talking, the audio signal generated from the speaker of interest can be compromised.
One prior solution for dealing with background speech is to provide an on/off switch on the cord of a headset or on a handset. The on/off switch has been referred to as a "push-to-talk" button and the user is required to push the button prior to speaking. When the user pushes the button, it generates a button signal. The button signal indicates to the speech recognition system that the speaker of interest is speaking, or is about to speak. However, some usability studies have shown that this type of system is not satisfactory or desired by users. Thus, incorporating this type of feature in a mobile device may produce unsatisfactory results.
In addition, there has been work done in attempting to separate background speakers picked up by microphones from the speaker of interest (or foreground speaker). This has worked reasonably well in clean office environments, but has proven insufficient in highly noisy environments.
In yet another prior technique, a signal from a standard microphone has been combined with a signal from a throat microphone. The throat microphone registers laryngeal behavior indirectly by measuring the change in electrical impedance across the throat during speaking. The signal generated by the throat microphone was combined with the conventional microphone and models were generated that modeled the spectral content of the combined signals.
An algorithm was used to map the noisy, combined standard and throat microphone signal features to a clean standard microphone feature. This was estimated using probabilistic optimum filtering. However, while the throat microphone is quite immune to background noise, the spectral content of the throat microphone signal is quite limited. Therefore, using it to map to a clean estimated feature vector was not highly accurate. This technique is described in greater detail in Frankco et al., COMBINING HETEROGENEOUS SENSORS WITH STANDARD MICROPHONES FOR NOISY ROBUST RECOGNITION, Presentation at the DARPA ROAR Workshop, Orlando, Fla. (2001). In addition, wearing a throat microphone is an added inconvenience to the user.

Personal mobile computing device having antenna microphone and speech detection for improved speech recognition


A recessed lamp fixture having a minimal plaster frame and a lamp housing. The plaster frame comprising a mounting bracket is adapted to receive a variety of differently sized and shaped lamp housings. The housing comprises an integrated lamp and trim assembly that is retained within the housing by a biased retaining spring. The housing is designed with minimal openings for reduced heat loss and air flow. The frame further comprises an integrated junction box and hanger bar system adapted to mount the fixture behind a panel. The junction box and the lamp housing also comprise an electrical power line retaining means to securely fasten the line to the box and housing. The hanger bar is slideably attached to the frame with ends that are designed to engage ceiling and wall supporting structures without the need for additional fasteners. Another feature of the invention resulting from the design of the frame and housing is a unique method of manufacture, whereby a minimal number of steps is required to assemble the fixture.

This invention relates to an apparatus for a recessed lamp fixture.
Recessed lamp fixtures are widely used in residential, commercial and institutional settings to provide light in a selective decorative manner.
Most recessed lamp fixtures are made with a full "plaster frame" for mounting the fixture behind a ceiling or wall panel, with a lamp housing permanently affixed to the frame in a non-selectable manner. The traditional construction of recessed lamp fixtures, however, fails to satisfy the more recent need for efficiently constructed and performing fixtures.
Mandatory building codes and standards require recessed light fixtures to be more efficient and result in reduced weight, size, airflow allowances, power consumption, and cost of operation. To meet this need the entire fixture, including the plaster frame and lamp housing, must have more integrated assemblies, reduced parts, size, weight and cost. In order to reduce airflow through the fixture, seams and openings for fasteners must be sealed or eliminated. These fixtures must also be rapidly adaptable for installation, in various locations, with minimal preparation and fastener requirements.
In addition, there is a clear economic benefit to having a recessed fixture that provides interchangeability of parts, particularly with regard to lamp housings, reflectors and trim rings of various shapes and sizes. This demand is addressed by the present invention by providing a common mounting frame with interchangeable lamp housings and other components.


A golf putter having a head designed to function effectively, both on the green, on the fringe thereof as well as in the higher grass areas, which comprises a rectangular body with a flat base which helps prevent "heel high-toe high" formed with comb-like longitudinal ridges or runners which serve to part grass blades during forward and backward movement and provided with a horizontal upwardly positioned ball striking surface and a downwardly tapered top surface having a ball pick-up socket at its rear edge.

The present invention relates to a novel golf putter which is distinguished by the design of a putting head which is particularly useful in the fringe or longer grass area which usually surrounds the putting surface of the green. In addition it is equally useful upon the normal putting surface itself.
In the past, very little attention has been directed toward the solution to the above mentioned problem which exists with respect to putting from the fringe area. One attempt at such a solution is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,529,202 in which a putter is designed with an elevated putting face raised from the putting surface, and supported between a pair of circular or semi-circular discs. The only contact with the putting surface is by means of these discs. While such a design may have some efficiency in avoiding problems with the higher grass height of fringe areas it has the disadvantage that the disc members fail to provide a suitable contact surface with the green or fringe requiring an exact angular position of the club head during the putting stroke. Because of the curved surface paralleled to the green such a position is difficult if not impossible to attain, resulting in failure to properly engage the golf ball when stroked.
The problems encountered in attempting to putt from the fringe or higher grass areas surrounding a green are correctly set forth in the specification of the above patent. As described further below applicant has designed a novel putter head which effectively resolves these problems. At the same time the putter head described herein is fully effective upon the normal putting green surface.


An inner motor is structured to increase the discharge rate of an internal gear pump by making it possible to freely adjust the eccentricity e between the inner and outer rotors. Each tooth of the inner rotor includes a tooth bottom defined by hypocycloidal curves, an engaging portion to be brought into engagement with the outer rotor and defined by involute curves, and a tooth top defined by a predetermined curve such as a part of a circle or an oval or an epicycloidal curve.

The following patent documents 1 and 2 show conventional internal gear pumps.    Patent document 1: JP utility model publication 6-39109    Patent document 2: U.S. Pat. No. 6,244,843 B1
The internal gear pump disclosed in Patent document 1 includes trochoidal internal gear rotors generated based on the diameter A of a base circle, the diameter B of a rolling circle, the diameter C of a locus circle and eccentricity e.
The internal gear pump disclosed in Patent document 2 comprises an inner rotor including epicycloidal tooth tops and hypocycloidal tooth spaces, and an outer rotor including hypocycloidal tooth tops and epicycloidal tooth spaces.

Internal gear pump and an inner rotor of such a pump


A light guide is disclosed. The light guide includes an incident surface, an exit surface, and a light guide section. Light emitted from a plurality of light emitting devices disposed in line enters from the incident surface. The exit surface is formed in a shape causing light to be concentrated. The light which has entered from the incident surface exits from the exit surface. The light guide section is bent. The volume of the light guide gradually increases in a direction from the incident surface to the exit surface.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a light guide that guides light emitted from a light emitting device and causes the light to linearly exit. The present invention also relates to a light source apparatus and an electronic apparatus that use the light guide.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a light source used for a scanner, a multi-function machine, and so forth that read an image and so forth, a CCFL (Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lighting) lamp has been used. In recent years, to thin or miniaturize the main body of an apparatus, a CIS (Contact Image Sensor) has been used in an image reading section (as disclosed in for example paragraph "0026", FIG. 1, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-72152). The CIS has an LED (Light Emitting Diode) as a light source to miniaturize the apparatus. The use of the LED instead of the CCFL allows the startup time and the power consumption to decrease. In addition, since the LED is mercury free, it can contribute to prevention of environmental contamination.

Light guide, light source apparatus, and electronic apparatus


A three-level detector is used to detect the state of a level input pertaining to a relatively-high level, a relatively-low level, or floating. The three-level detector comprises a first inverter, a second inverter, a decision logic circuit, a switching circuit, and a latch. The first inverter and the second inverter, whose inputs are connected to the level input, have a relatively-high threshold voltage and a relatively-low threshold voltage, respectively. The decision logic circuit generates a detected signal representing the state of the level input in response to outputs of the first and second inverters. Moreover, the switching circuit is connected between the level input and a reference level. The latch generates one control signal to regulate the state of the switching circuit. When the state of the level input pertains to either the relatively-high level or a relatively-low level, the switching circuit is turned off. The switching circuit is turned on when the state of the level input is floating.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to level detection technologies. In particular, the present invention relates to a three-level detector for differentiating the state of an input level pertaining to high level, low level, or floating but having no standby current.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Generally speaking, in the design of semiconductor integrated circuits some pins may be reserved testing or mode control applications. Some of those reserved pins are utilized to control test modes. While product costs are taken into account, three-level detectors are generally provided to differentiate the state of high level, low level, or floating at the reserved pins. Therefore, the number of the reserved pins provided for controlling test modes can be fewer than that of the desired test modes.
Referring to FIG. 1, the circuit diagram of a conventional three-level detector is schematically illustrated. Resistors R1 and R2 are connected between a power level V.sub.DD and a ground level GND in series. In the drawing, the node between the resistors R1 and R2 is designated as a node voltage V1. A level input 1 is used to receive a level signal, and electrically connected to the node between the resistors R1 and R1. Accordingly, the node voltage V1 is determined by the level signal, the power level V.sub.DD and the ground level GND as well.
Usually, the resistance of the resistor R1 is approximately equal to that of the resistor R2; therefore the node voltage V1 is half of the power level V.sub.DD when the level input 1 is floating. However, because of the limitation of the driving capacity as to the level input 1, the resistance of the resistors R1 and R2 should be cautiously chosen. If the resistance is too large, the circuit will be susceptible to noise interference. To the contrary, power consumption will be the problem while the chosen resistance is too small. Therefore, the resistance of the resistors R1 and R2 may range from about 10K to about 100K, preferably.
In FIG. 1, a pair of inverters N1 and N2 is provided to being configured with respective inputs connected to the node voltage V1, both outputs of which are connected to a decision logic circuit 10. Then, a detected result 2 is outputted by the decision logic circuit 10. Note that the threshold voltages of the inverters N1 and N2 are adjusted to be relatively-high and relatively-low, respectively. For instance, the inverter N1 has a threshold voltage between a level slightly lower than a high level voltage (e.g., the power level V.sub.DD) and half of the power level V.sub.DD. The inverter N2 has a threshold voltage between a level slightly higher than a low level voltage (e.g., the ground level GND) and half of the power level V.sub.DD. A detected result 2 standing for the state of the level input 1 is generated by the decision logic circuit 10. For example, the detected result 2 is comprised of two bits while three levels such as high, low, and floating are used to differentiation.
The operation of the level detector as shown in FIG. 1 will be described in the following. When a high level (e.g., 5V) is applied to the level input 1, the node voltage V1 will be powered to the same voltage as the high level. The node voltage V1 applies such a high level to the inputs of the inverters N1 and N2. Because the high level is greater than the relatively-high and relatively-low threshold voltages, both inverters N1 and N2 transmit low levels to the decision logic circuit 10, which generates the detected result 2 which indicates that the state of the level input 1 is high level. To the contrary, when a low level (e.g., 0V) is applied to the level input 1, the node voltage V1 will be powered to the same voltage as the low level. Therefore, the node voltage V1 applies such a low level to the inputs of the inverters N1 and N2. Because the low level is smaller than the relatively-high and relatively-low threshold voltages, both inverters N1 and N2 transmit high levels to the decision logic circuit 10, which generates the detected result 2 which indicates that the state of the level input 1 is low level. Moreover, if the level input 1 is floating, the node voltage V1 will be half of the power level V.sub.DD, and applied to the inputs of the inverters N1 and N2. Under these circumstances, inverters N1 and N2 transmit respectively a low level and a high level to the decision logic circuit 10, because the node voltage V1 is greater than the relatively-low threshold voltage but smaller than the relatively-high voltage. The detected result 2 indicating that the level input 1 is floating is thereafter generated by the decision logic circuit 10.
For decreasing the layout area required for the level detector, those resistors can be replaced by active devices. Referring to FIG. 2, the circuit diagram of another conventional level detector is schematically illustrated. In the drawing, two metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) M1 and M2 substitute for the resistors R1 and R2 as shown in FIG. 1, respectively. The P-type MOSFET M1 is configured with both its gate and drain tied to the node voltage V1, and its source connected to the power level V.sub.DD. However, the N-type MOSFET M2 is configured with both its gate and drain tied to the node voltage V1, and its source connected to the ground level GND.
In line with the trend of pursuing low power and portability, the quantity of power dissipated by each device within electronic products should be carefully taken into account. Nevertheless, there is a current flowing through the aforementioned level detectors no matter whether the state of the level input pertains to high level, low level, or floating. For the foregoing reason, there is a need for a level detector that can differentiate between input levels where the possible levels are high, low, or floating but having no standby current.

Three-level detector without standby current


A strut assembly for a vibration isolation device is disclosed, comprising a piston spindle; a first elastomeric member and a second elastomeric member bonded to the piston spindle and in contact with an upper housing and a lower housing, respectively; a first strut support and a second strut support attached to or integral with the upper housing and the lower housing, respectively; a first strut spindle and the second strut support configured to be placed in the first strut support and the second strut support, respectively; and one or more removable struts configured to be engaged to the first strut spindle and to the second strut spindle, wherein at least one of the first or second strut spindles is removable such that the one or more struts can be replaced without breaking a bonding of the first elastomeric member, the second elastomeric member, or both.

Without limiting the scope of the invention, its background is described in connection with vibration isolation devices for aircraft.
One example is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 8,672,262, issued to Griffin, entitled "Mechanically Optimized Liquid Inertia Vibration Eliminator and Aircraft Pylon System", which describes a vibration isolator including an upper housing and a lower housing; an upper reservoir housing defining a upper fluid chamber; a lower reservoir housing defining a lower fluid chamber; a piston spindle resiliently coupled to the upper housing with an upper elastomer member, the piston spindle being resiliently coupled to the lower housing with a lower elastomer member; an elongated portion having a tuning passage; and a tuning fluid disposed there within. The vibration isolator cancels vibratory forces at an isolation frequency. The vibration isolator is utilized in a pylon system for mounting a transmission in an aircraft. The vibration isolator is located between a pylon structure and a roof structure. The isolator includes a spherical bearing assembly that is located near a waterline location of a rotational axis of a drive shaft.
Another example is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 9,279,741, issued to Lee et al., entitled "Mechanically Optimized Liquid Inertia Vibration Eliminator and Aircraft Pylon System", which describes a vibration isolation device including an upper housing and a lower housing; an upper reservoir housing defining an upper fluid chamber; a lower reservoir housing defining a lower fluid chamber; a piston spindle resiliently coupled to the upper housing with an upper elastomer member, the piston spindle being resiliently coupled to the lower housing with a lower elastomer member; an elongated portion having a tuning passage; and a tuning fluid disposed there within. The vibration isolation device cancels vibratory forces at an isolation frequency. The vibration isolation device is utilized in a pylon system for mounting a transmission in an aircraft. The vibration isolation device is located between a pylon structure and a roof structure. The isolator includes a spherical bearing assembly that is located near a waterline location of a rotational axis of a drive shaft.
Another example is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 9,777,788, issued to Lee et al., entitled "Rotorcraft Vibration Suppression System in a Four Corner Pylon Mount Configuration", in which the vibration suppression system includes a vibration isolation device located in each corner in a four corner pylon mount structural assembly. The combination of four vibration isolation devices, two being forward of the transmission, and two being aft of the transmission, collectively are effective at isolating main rotor vertical shear, pitch moment, as well as roll moment induced vibrations. Each opposing pair of vibration isolation devices can efficiently react against the moment oscillations because the moment can be decomposed into two antagonistic vertical oscillations at each vibration isolation device. A pylon structure extends between a pair of vibration isolation devices thereby allowing the vibration isolation devices to be spaced away from a vibrating body to provide increased control.
Another example is taught in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2018/0038439 A1, by Lee, et al., entitled "Rotorcraft Vibration Suppression System in a Four Corner Pylon Mount Configuration," in which the vibration suppression system includes a vibration isolator located in each corner in a four corner pylon mount structural assembly. The combination of four vibration isolators, two being forward of the transmission, and two being aft of the transmission, collectively are effective at isolating main rotor vertical shear, pitch moment, as well as roll moment induced vibrations. Each opposing pair of vibration isolators can efficiently react against the moment oscillations because the moment can be decomposed into two antagonistic vertical oscillations at each vibration isolator. A pylon structure extends between a pair of vibration isolators thereby allowing the vibration isolators to be spaced away from a vibrating body to provide increased control.

Removable struts for vibration isolation device mounting system


The application is directed to implants that are adjustable between collapsed and expanded orientations. The collapsed orientation includes a smaller height to facilitate insertion into the patient. The expanded orientation includes a larger height for spacing and/or supporting the vertebral members. The implants generally include three or more separate sections that are nested together in the collapsed orientation. The sections move outward away from each other in the expanded orientation. An expansion means may be operatively connected to one or more of the sections to move the implants between the orientations. Methods of use are also included for moving the implants between the collapsed and expanded orientations.

The present application is directed to vertebral implants and methods of use, and more particularly, to implants that are adjustable between a first reduced size to ease insertion into the patient, and a second enlarged size to space vertebral members.
The spine is divided into four regions comprising the cervical, thoracic, lumbar, and sacrococcygeal regions. The cervical region includes the top seven vertebral members identified as C1-C7. The thoracic region includes the next twelve vertebral members identified as T1-T12. The lumbar region includes five vertebral members L1-L5. The sacrococcygeal region includes nine fused vertebral members that form the sacrum and the coccyx. The vertebral members of the spine are aligned in a curved configuration that includes a cervical curve, thoracic curve, and lumbosacral curve. Intervertebral discs are positioned between the vertebral members and permit flexion, extension, lateral bending, and rotation.
Various conditions may lead to damage of the intervertebral discs and/or the vertebral members. The damage may result from a variety of causes including a specific event such as trauma, a degenerative condition, a tumor, or infection. Damage to the intervertebral discs and vertebral members can lead to pain, neurological deficit, and/or loss of motion.
Various procedures include replacing the entirety or a section of a vertebral member, the entirety or a section of an intervertebral disc, or both. One or more replacement implants may be inserted to replace the damaged vertebral members and/or discs. The implants reduce or eliminate the pain and neurological deficit, and increase the range of motion.
The implants may be adjustable between a first, reduced size that facilitates insertion into the patient in a minimally invasive manner. Once inserted, the implant may be expanded to a larger second size.

Implant with nested members and methods of use


Symbologies suitable for use marking codes on rodent tails are disclosed, for both machine-readable and human-readable codes, and those codes combined. Codes comprising both a human-readable and a machine-readable portion may associate with an animal ID within one study, and a study ID within a vivarium, respectively. A human-readable code uses a subset of an alphanumeric symbol set. A machine-readable code uses a vine-code with a visible spine aligned with the rodent's tail. Both symbologies support a system for deleting symbols and correcting codes marked in error. Both symbologies use symbol sets comprising only horizontal and vertical line segments. Both symbologies include a sparse mapping table for mapping marking codes to animal and study ID, and for error detection and for code re-use.

Vivariums house a number of animals, typically test animals, such as mice, in a number of cages, often a large number. The test animals are frequently used to test drugs, genetics, animal strains, husbandry experiments, methods of treatment, procedures, diagnostics, and the like. We refer to all such uses of a vivarium as a study.
The animals in a vivarium must be observed, either manually by humans or by automated means, such as by the use of video cameras and video analytics software. Comparisons of animals are the basis of any study result.
There are a large number of animal characteristics, attributes, or behavior that may be of interest in a study. We refer to all such observable aspects of animals as "behaviors," including blood, saliva, feces, urine, breath, and fur attributes. Observations of behaviors may be manual or automated and may be invasive or non-invasive. They may occur in the animal's home cage; or in a separate observation or test cage or apparatus; or via pathology or other chemical, biological or analytical analysis. Observations and results may use statistics or aggregated behaviors.
For observing all such behaviors, it is critical that the observed behaviors be reliably, easily, and quickly linked to one particular animal. It is also necessary that marking the animals be consistent, fast, reliable and low cost. Prior art uses a variety of animal identification systems, including one animal per cage, ear notches, ear tags, foot and toe pad tattooing, embedded RFID, attached RFID, body tattoos, and tail tattoos. Some prior art uses human-readable markings, such as ear notches or ID numbers tattooed on a tail. Some prior art uses machine-readable markings, such as RFIDs, ear-tag barcodes, and tail barcodes.
In an ideal world, each animal might receive a globally unique ID that is never re-used. However, that requires a large code space, which in return requires complex markings. In prior art practice, markings are often in a very small code space and other systems are used to uniquely identify an animal. One such prior art method is a marking that is unique only within a single cage. For example, colored ear tags may be used, with only five colors available. Alternatively, ear notches may be used providing a code space size of less than 100. Another prior art method uses unique markings within a single study. Animals in one study are generally kept well apart from animals in another study; thus, unique marking within one study may be sufficient.
All such prior art has significant weaknesses. For machine-readable markings weaknesses include:                not human-readable'        slow reading        requires specialized equipment        expensive equipment and expensive to read        computer required to read and map animal ID        may have single-vendor lock-in        two hands often required to use equipment        accuracy and reliability may not be computable or traceable        slow and expensive to mark animals        limited through rate for marking new animals        animals may have to be a minimum age to mark        may work only in-cage or may work only out-of-cage        either applying marks or reading marks may not be sterile        animal may have to anesthetized to be marked.
For human-readable markings weaknesses include:                often not machine-readable        may not be readable in the dark—the animals' natural activity period        reading may be unreliable        typically has a small code space        requires manual data entry to link animal ID to stored data        likely not suitable for machine marking        high labor cost for marking        accuracy and reliability may not be computable or traceable        limited through rate for marking new animals        slow through rate for marking new animals.
Embodiments of this invention overcome many of the weaknesses of prior art.


A cryptographic system includes a memory device and a processor. The memory device has at least two sections, including a first section and a second section. The processor is configured to determine a mode of operation, receive a signal, and selectively zeroize at least one section of the memory device based at least in part on the received signal and the determined mode of operation.

Electronically stored data can be accessed by unauthorized individuals if the data is not securely stored. Various techniques exist for securely storing data. For example, encryption includes coding data so that only persons with devices that have the correct key can decrypt and view the data. The Data Encryption Standard (DES), triple-DES, and the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) are some examples of encryption standards. Another time data becomes susceptible to unauthorized access is when the data is "deleted." Deleting data does not necessarily remove the data from the device memory. Although hidden, sometimes the "deleted" data will remain on the memory device until new data is written to the portions of the memory device where the "deleted" data resides. Thus, deleting sensitive data is not always enough to prevent sensitive data from access by unauthorized individuals.


A video signal processing apparatus includes circuitry which generates a motion vector which represents the amount and direction of motion which occurs between consecutive frames of a video signal and for determining if the vector indicates that an image sensing device is undergoing undesirable motion. The circuitry is further arranged to produce a correction signal based on the motion vector and delay the video signal in accordance with the same. A memory is provided in which video information relating to a peripheral portion of the effective picture area of the image sensing device, is stored and operatively connected with a selector which selects one of the delayed video signal and peripheral portion data stored in the memory in accordance with the correction signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a video signal processing apparatus applicable to a manually induced vibration correction device for video data such as an output produced by a hand-held type video camera.
2. Description of the Prior Art
When a picture is taken using a portable hand-held or so called "handy" type video camera, there is a problem that the reproduced picture jumps about or vibrates due to vibration caused by manual manipulation of the device. To solve this problem, a technique where a motion vector is detected and video data stored in a picture memory is then corrected based on this motion vector, has been proposed (for example, Japanese Patent Disclosure Sho 63-166370). The detection of the motion vector is achieved using block matching, for instance. With this technique, a picture is divided into many areas (called "blocks"), an absolute value of a frame difference between a representative point of a previous frame lying at a central portion of each block and picture element data within a block of the present frame is calculated, an absolute value of a frame difference is accumulated with respect to one picture, and the motion vector is detected from the position of a minimum value of accumulated frame difference data. Also, as described in this publication, picture enlargement to the extent of 15%, for example, is carried out by read-out control of the picture memory, interpolation circuit is used to prevent video data from being lost when the motion correction is made. For such a manually induced vibration correction device, accurate detection of the manually induced vibration is required.
Enlargement of a picture is executed by a process which delays the read-out speed of a picture memory as compared with its write-in speed and which interpolates deficient picture element data. The picture enlargement consequently causes deterioration such as blurring as compared with the original picture.

Electronic image stabilization apparatus


A power converter includes a controller for driving a power switch in one phase of a plurality of phases of the power converter. The controller may have a first terminal for receiving an input switch driving signal which is used to drive a power switch in another phase of the power converter, and a second terminal for providing an output switch driving signal to drive the power switch in the one phase. The controller draws power from the input switch driving signal received at the first terminal, and is configured to provide the output switch driving signal based on the input switch driving signal.

Multiphase power converters are widely used in various applications. However, existing multiphase power converters such as interleaving boost power factor correction ("PFC") converter and interleaving flyback converter need complex controller/controllers to drive master phase and slave phases of the multiphase power converters. Moreover, different controllers need to be specifically designed for different multiphase power converters of different topologies. In addition, simple and cost effective solutions to power the controllers of the slave phases and to realize communications between driving signal(s) of the master phase and driving signals of the slave phases of a multiphase power converter are desired.

Controller for driving a power switch in slave phase of a multiphase power converter and power converter comprising the same


A rotary apparatus (20) for rotary forming of a web workpiece (12) and having a rotatable first roll unit (32) and corresponding rotatable second roll unit (34), a first die support (46) carried by the first roll unit (32), having a leading edge (51) and a trailing edge (52) respective to rotation of the first roll unit (32), a second die support (46) carried by the second roll unit (34), having a leading edge (51) and a trailing edge (52) respective to rotation of the second roll unit (34), the first and second roll units (32, 34) receiving a web workpiece (12) in a forming plane between the first and second roll units (32, 34), and in which each die support (46) includes a first part (46a) carried by the respective roll unit and including the leading and trailing edge and a second part (46b) having a platen surface for mounting a die, the second part (46b) being mounted on the first part (46a) for reciprocal motion transverse to the leading and trailing edges (51, 52).

Rotary apparatus for performing a variety of functions on continuous strip material such as strip steel, have been proposed over the last at least fifty years. However, a need has remained for a rotary apparatus to satisfactorily perform precise functions on a moving strip. There are necessarily upper and lower rotary devices which register with one another and they carry respective upper and lower rotary dies. It is well known in all die forming operations that the two dies must register precisely with one another on opposite sides of the workpiece before they close. It is for this that most of the earlier proposals have not been successful. No way was known to achieve a satisfactory form of precise registration of each pair of dies.
However, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,040,397 of Ernest R. Bodnar, Rotary Apparatus granted Aug. 20, 1991, there is shown a form of rotary apparatus, in which upper and lower rotary devices carried semi-rotary die carriers. The die carriers were themselves guided by guide pins. The guide pins rode in cam tracks. The guide pins were located in pairs, one at each end, of each of the semi-rotary devices, and the guide cams were located at opposite ends of the rotary devices.
By offsetting one of the guide pins at one end relative to the guide pin at the other end, and also by precisely profiling the guide cams at each end of each of the rotary devices, it was possible to bring the semi-rotary die supports into precise registration just prior to closing, and during closing, and just after closing on the workpiece. This proposal has proved to be satisfactory for many applications. An improvement to the above described apparatus of U.S. Pat. No. 5,040,397 is described in Canadian Patent Application No. 2,066,803. In that patent application, the inventor, Ernest R. Bodnar, describes the provision of guide pins on each of the semi-rotary die supports. By offsetting respective forward and rearward guide pins on respective guide supports, and by providing two separate guide cams at each end of the rotary apparatus, it then became possible to provide for all four pins to engage respective guide cams just prior to closing, during closing, and just after closing. This proposal may produce a much improved degree of registration between the respective dies carried on the die support. This is particularly important in heavier duty applications, or in applications where the line speed was desired to be increased. Even in this system however there were limitations. For example, it will be understood from a simple geometrical analysis that whereas two dies may register with one another just prior to closing, and during closing and after closing, they are in fact traversing arcs of a circle, as the rotary supports rotate.
This means that the linear speed of the die was greatest at the point where the two dies closed, and was somewhat reduced just prior to closing and just after closing.
On the other hand, since the dies are required to perform operations on a flat workpiece, whether a continuous strip, or discontinuous strip pieces, it will be apparent that there is a very slight degree of "mismatch" in speed of forward movement as between the pair of dies, and the workpiece between them just before closing and just after closing. Precise speed matching is achieved only at the point where the dies are fully closed on the workpiece and the planes of the two dies are precisely tangential to each other.
In operations where relatively thin workpieces were being treated, or where relatively shallow formations were being formed, this slight degree of mismatch in speed did not produce any serious consequences. However, it is desirable to apply this technology to a wider range of products. It is desirable to apply this technology to products having a greater physical thickness than relatively thin sheet metal workpieces, and it is also desirable to apply this technology to the drawing of deeper formations in the workpiece.
In both of these cases, it is apparent that the contact time period during which the two dies are in contact with the workpiece will be somewhat increased as compared to working on thin sheet workpieces such as thin sheet metal and/or drawing relatively shallow formations. In these cases, any degree of mismatch in linear speed between the workpiece itself, and the two dies becomes much more significant.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide in the first place a method of accommodating the mismatch in speed occurring between the dies moving around a rotary arc, and the workpiece moving along a linear path.
A further problem however relates to the design of the rotary apparatus itself.
In the above noted U.S. patent, and the development thereof described above, herein termed the "two pin rotary", and the "four pin rotary" respectively, the circumferential path around which the die itself could pass was determined by the circumferential path around which the semi-rotary die supports themselves could pass. This meant that if it was desired to increase the size and particularly the depth, of the dies, the entire design of the rotary apparatus had to be redesigned to accommodate these variations.
This clearly either limited the degree of application of the rotary apparatus or meant that considerable engineering costs were incurred each time the rotary apparatus was designed to handle a particular size and depth of die.
Clearly, it is desirable for a more or less standard size of rotary apparatus to be arranged so as to accommodate dies which are themselves of different sizes and in particular in which the dies are of different depths, without being obliged to re-engineer the entire rotary apparatus itself desirably, all that will be required is to place the rotary support devices on centres which are further apart for deeper dies or closer together for shallower dies, and of course, to alter the size and pitch of the gears which interconnect them to ensure that they rotate in unison. This itself is a relatively much simpler task than re-engineering the whole of each pair of the rotary devices themselves.
For the purposes of this application, the term "forming" is deemed to incorporate by reference any die operation which may be performed on a workpiece, whether it may be termed in the trade as "embossing" "forming" "drawing" "blanking" "cutting", or any other operation on a workpiece which is performed by a pair of dies, and wherever used herein the term forming is deemed to incorporate any and all such operations, including those not specifically mentioned above.


A hydraulic damper including a tube filled with working liquid which contains a slidable piston assembly attached to a piston rod. The piston assembly includes a piston having a compression valve arrangement to control the flow of working liquid passing through the piston during the compression stroke of the damper. The compression valve arrangement includes a stack of resilient deflectable disks placed on one axial side of the piston and covering compression flow passages in the piston, a spring, spring seat guide and a spring retainer, the spring mounted between the spring seat and the spring retainer. The spring biases the axially slidable spring seat against the stack of disks to normally close the compression flow passages, and the stack of disks is held by the spring seat. The spring seat guide may also be provided with rebound flow passages linked with flow passages in the piston.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hydraulic damper, in particular to a hydraulic damper for the suspension system of a motor vehicle.
2. Background Art
Hydraulic suspension dampers typically include a tube filled with working liquid, inside of which a slidable piston assembly is placed. The piston assembly is attached to a piston rod led outside the tube through the piston rod guide, and includes a piston with rebound valve arrangement having a number of flow passages disposed around the piston at radially inner side thereof and compression valve arrangement having a number of flow passages disposed around the piston at radially outer side thereof. The valve arrangements control the flow of working liquid passing through the piston assembly during the rebound and the compression stroke of the damper.
Each valve arrangement usually includes a stack of resilient disks covering the flow passages of the piston and acting as one-way valve deflecting or moving under, the pressure of the working liquid to allow flow of fluid. Disks of the compression valve arrangement are typically of larger diameter than disks of the rebound stroke arrangement. Number shape, diameter and thickness of each disk provide an adjustable compression and rebound damping forces.
To achieve a blow-off characteristic of the damper during the rebound stroke (i.e., high digressivity of the damping force for high piston velocities), the arrangements disclosed by GB 2,314,602 and GB 2,376,514 have the deflectable disks of the rebound stroke valve are biased to a closed position by a coil spring which engages a nut which is screw threaded to the piston rod and a spring seat which is axially slidable relative to the nut and which engages the deflectable disks.


A mobile terminal for remotely controlling and a method of remotely controlling the same that enable remote control operation of the mobile terminal by connecting a remote control device and the mobile terminal are provided. The method of remotely controlling a mobile terminal includes transmitting a key code from a remote control device by user request; receiving and recognizing the key code in the mobile terminal; converting the key code to an operation code of the mobile terminal; and controlling data output operation according to the operation code.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mobile terminal, and in particular, to a mobile terminal for remotely controlling and a method of remotely controlling the same that enable remote control of operation of the mobile terminal by connecting a remote control device and the mobile terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
Due to development of communication technology and semiconductor technology, various types of mobile terminals are now widely used. Today, these mobile terminals have various functions such as wireless Internet, wireless local area communication, and mobile broadcasting reception as well as a conventional communication function such as a voice communication service or a character messaging service, and has developed in a size, design, resolution, and user interface.
The mobile terminal further has a multimedia function such as image or moving picture reproduction, MP3 reproduction, digital broadcasting reception and reproduction, and photography. In order to efficiently embody such a multimedia function, a display unit of the mobile terminal has been improved, and a stereo effect is provided in a speaker of the mobile terminal.
However, because the mobile terminal performs communication while moving, the display unit and the speaker for embodying a multimedia function have a limited size. That is, the mobile terminal outputs multimedia data through a display unit and speaker provided inside the mobile terminal, however the display unit and speaker have a limited size due to problems such as portability, a manufacturing cost, and consumption power of the mobile terminal.
Thereby, the mobile terminal has a limitation in providing multimedia data. In order to overcome this limitation, the mobile terminal outputs multimedia data of the mobile terminal to an external device.
For example, a TV-OUT function is added to the mobile terminal. A mobile terminal for outputting broadcasting data output from the mobile terminal by the TV-OUT function through a display unit of the external device is provided.
However, the mobile terminal is used only to output broadcasting data of the mobile terminal by connecting to the external device. Furthermore, when the mobile terminal is connected to the external device by the TV-OUT function, the output control of data is performed by key manipulation of either the mobile terminal or the external device. Therefore, when data of the mobile terminal connected to the external device are output by a TV-OUT function, it is inconvenient to perform the output control of the data from a remote location.
Further, when the mobile terminal connected to the external device outputs data, a display unit of the mobile terminal is turned off after a predetermined time duration elapses. Therefore, in order to manipulate a key, the user should turn oil the display unit and perform key manipulation for controlling operations such as volume adjustment of the data and channel conversion.
In the related art, the operation control of volume adjustment, channel conversion, suspension, fast-forward winding, and reverse winding of the broadcasting data output through the external device is performed by only key manipulation of the mobile terminal. In the related art, when the mobile terminal is connected to the external device, in order to control operation of the mobile terminal, the mobile terminal should be used. Accordingly, when viewing broadcasting data at a location remote from the mobile terminal, the user moves to the mobile terminal in order to control the operation of the mobile terminal.
In the related art, data being reproduced in the mobile terminal can be output using the external device, and the external device can be controlled by the mobile terminal; however, the mobile terminal cannot be controlled from a remote location.

Mobile terminal for remotely controlling and method of remotely controlling the same


An objective of this invention is to provide a three-dimensional(3D) simulator apparatus that can form a sub-screen on a main screen, wherein the formation of the sub-screen does not greatly affect the formation of the main screen. A virtual three-dimensional(3D) space computation section (100) performs computations for forming first and second virtual three-dimensional(3D) spaces in which are placed display objects having different numbers of polygons but the same position or position and orientation. An image synthesis section (200) synthesizes a field-of-view image as seen from any desired viewpoint in these first and second virtual 3D spaces, on the basis of computation results from the virtual 3D space computation section (100). The field-of-view image of the first virtual 3D space is displayed as a main screen on a CRT (10), and a field-of-view image of the second virtual 3D space displayed as a sub-screen (rear-view mirror) that is formed on the main screen. Texture information for forming the main and sub-screens is used in common.

Various types of 3D simulator apparatus that are used in applications such as 3D games or piloting simulators for aircraft or other moving bodies are known in the art. With such a 3D simulator apparatus, image information relating to a 3D object 300 shown in FIG. 25A his previously stored within the apparatus. In this case, the 3D object 300 depicts an element such as part of scenery that can be seen by a player 302 as if through a screen 306. The image information for the 3D object 300 that depicts this scenery element is displayed as a pseudo-3D image 308 on the screen 306, by perspective projection conversion on the screen 306. The player 302 specifies operations such as rotation or translation through a control Panel 304, and this apparatus performs predetermined 3D computation processing on the basis of the resultant operating signals. More specifically, computations are first performed to determine whether a change has occurred, such as a change in the viewpoint position or direction of gaze of the player 302 or a change in the position or orientation of a moving body in which the player 302 is sitting, as specified by these operating signals. Computations are then performed to determine how the image of the 3D object 300 can be seen on the screen 306, in accordance with this change such as a change in viewpoint position or direction of gaze. The above computations are performed in real time, following the actions of the player 302. This makes it possible for the player 302 to see any change in the scenery due to a change in the player's own viewpoint position or direction of gaze or a change in the position or orientation of the moving body in which the player is sitting as a pseudo-3D image in real time, to simulate the experience of a virtual 3D space.
An example of a display screen formed by a 3D simulator apparatus as described above is shown in FIG. 25B.
In such a driving game or simulator, the realism of the game or simulation can be enhanced by forming a sub-screen depicting an element such as a rear-view mirror or a side mirror on a display screen (main screen) as shown in FIG. 25B.
To further enhance the feeling of realism in the game or other simulation in this case, it is preferable that a pseudo-3D image with a degree of realism that is similar to that of the main screen is displayed on the sub-screen, such as the rear-view mirror.
However, if the pseudo-3D image is displayed on the sub-screen with the same degree of realism as on the main screen, computations for forming this sub-screen will also be necessary. Unfortunately, a simulator apparatus of this type has a limitation in that the computations for synthesizing the images should be completed within one frame, which could take 1/60 second. Therefore, if it is thought necessary to synthesize a pseudo-3D image for the sub-screen as well, as described above, problems arise in that the computations cannot be completed in time, phenomena such as drop-outs occur in the data to be displayed on the main screen, and thus the quality of the image deteriorates.
This invention was devised in order to solve the above technical problems and has as its objective the provision of a 3D simulator apparatus and an image synthesis method that can not only create an extremely realistic sub-screen on a main screen, but also ensures that the formation of this sub-screen hardly affects the image synthesis processing for the main screen.

Three-dimensional image synthesis which represents images differently in multiple three dimensional spaces