To ensure a LES issues address resolution responses when necessary, an association between a MAC/ATM address pair and an intersubnet shortcut virtual channel connection (VCC) is registered. When the LES receives a first data frame being sent from a first station to a second station, with the second station having a MAC address associated with a shortcut VCC, a second data frame is created. The second data frame has as a source address the MAC address. The second frame is sent to devices associated with the first station so that the devices may learn the origination point for the second station and can issue messaging necessary to establish an shortcut VCC. In addition, frame loss reduction in an ATM communications network is accomplished by registering an association between a MAC address of a router associated with a MAC/ATM address pair, and a shortcut VCC. After the association is registered, a data frame being sent from a first station to a second station is received. The second station has the same MAC address as the MAC/ATM address pair. The destination MAC address of the data frame is replaced with the MAC address of the router, wherein the data frame can now be delivered. Also, a first station is prevented from having to wait to send data to a second station over a newly created shortcut VCC by registering an association between a MAC/ATM address pair and a shortcut VCC. Next, a flush request message from an edge device on an ELAN is received. The flush request has a destination ATM address equal to the ATM address of the MAC/ATM address pair. A flush response message is sent to the edge device, where upon receiving the flush response message, the edge device will start sending data from the first station to the second station over the newly created shortcut VCC.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to transmitting data over asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) networks. More specifically, the present invention relates to preventing frame loss in route switched ATM networks.
2. Description of the Related Art
Route switched networks refer to networks where routing and forwarding decisions are distributed to the edge of a switched/bridged local area network (LAN) infrastructure. Network 100 shown in FIG. 1 is an example of a route switched network. In network 100, the edge devices (e.g., LAN switches 110 and 112) bridge traffic between legacy LAN ports and emulated LAN (ELAN) ports on ATM network 124. In addition, Next Hop Resolution Protocol (NHRP) Client functions are included in legacy LAN stations 102 and 104, with MAC addresses MAC.sub.-- a and MAC.sub.-- b, respectively. This arrangement of devices allows intersubnet shortcut data direct virtual channel connections (shortcut VCCs) to be established. Establishing a shortcut VCC allows the edge devices to utilize their bridging capabilities along with the high-speed switching characteristics of ATM network 124 to create efficient layer-2 connections between stations resident on different layer-3 subnets. Operating in this manner allows for routers in network 100 to be removed from the steady-state data paths and allows the maximum benefits of the switched ATM network to be realized.
When LAN station 102 wishes to establish a shortcut VCC to send information to LAN station 104, LAN station 102 issues a NHRP Resolution Request to determine the MAC address associated with the internet protocol (IP) address of LAN station 104. In network 100, the IP address of LAN station 104 is 220.127.116.11 (while the IP address of LAN station 102 is 126.96.36.199). LAN station 102 sends this NHRP Resolution Request along the routed path to NHRP server 116.
When NHRP server 116 receives the NHRP Resolution Request, NHRP server 116 forwards the Resolution Request to NHRP server 118. NHRP server 118 returns to NHRP server 116 a NHRP Resolution Reply that contains the MAC and ATM addresses associated with LAN station 104. NHRP server 116 then registers the MAC-to-ATM address mapping with LAN emulation server/broadcast and unknown server (LES/BUS) 114, and returns a NHRP Resolution Reply to LAN station 102. This Reply contains the MAC address associated with the IP address of LAN station 104.
LAN station 102 then uses the received MAC address of LAN station 104 as the destination MAC address of frames transmitted to LAN station 104. Information sent from LAN station 102 to LAN station 104 is then delivered via the normal layer 2 procedures. These procedures include LAN switch 110 issuing a LAN emulation address resolution protocol (LE.sub.-- ARP) Request for the ATM address associated with LAN station 104. In response to the LE.sub.-- ARP Request, LES/BUS 114 responds with a LE.sub.-- ARP.sub.-- RESPONSE containing the ATM address of LAN switch 112. LAN switch 110 then initiates signaling to set up a shortcut VCC to the ATM address of LAN switch 112. After the signaling process is finished, frames destined for the MAC address of LAN station 104 are delivered to LAN station 104 via LAN switch 112 over this shortcut VCC.
Route switched network 100 works well after the shortcut VCC is established. However, frames can be lost before the shortcut VCC has been established due to any one of several potential problems. First, some edge devices will not issue a LE.sub.-- ARP.sub.-- REQUEST for a given destination MAC address until a frame has been received from an ELAN with the destination MAC address as the source MAC address (i.e., until the bridge has learned that the MAC address resides on a particular ELAN). In network 100 LAN switch 110 may not issue a LE.sub.-- ARP.sub.-- REQUEST for LAN station 104 on ELAN 112 until it receives a frame from ELAN 112 with the source MAC address of LAN station 104. Not all edge devices behave in the manner described above, however, some have been programmed not to issue a LE.sub.-- ARP.sub.-- REQUEST in the above situation to avoid generating unnecessary traffic on the ATM network.
Another problem can occur during the interval after the destination MAC address has been returned to the NHRP client, but before the shortcut VCC has been established. During this interval, any frames transmitted by the source LAN station to the destination MAC address will be forwarded to the LAN emulation broadcast and unknown server (BUS) by the edge device. However, these frames will not be delivered to the correct destination. In network 100, frames transmitted to the MAC address MAC.sub.-- b by LAN station 102 will be forwarded to LES/BUS 114 by LAN switch 110 if the shortcut VCC has not yet been established. LES/BUS 114 will broadcast these frames to all stations on ELAN 112, but, LAN station 104 will not receive these frames.
Another problem arises when the shortcut VCC has been established and the edge device tries to implement the LAN emulation flush protocol when switching from the BUS data path to the shortcut VCC. The flush protocol will fail since the destination ATM device is not resident on the ELAN and therefore cannot respond to the LE.sub.-- FLUSH.sub.-- REQUEST. As a result, the edge device will wait for the Path Switching Delay period (which is a LAN emulation client configuration parameter that defaults to 6 seconds) before using the newly established shortcut VCC. Frames transmitted during this interim 6 second period may be discarded by the edge device. In network 100, when the shortcut VCC has been established, LAN switch 110 may send a LE.sub.-- FLUSH.sub.-- REQUEST to LES/BUS 114 with the ATM address of LAN switch 112 as the target ATM address. LES/BUS 114 will broadcast the LE.sub.-- FLUSH.sub.-- REQUEST message to ELAN 112, but no station on ELAN 112 will reply. Consequently, LAN switch 110 will not transmit any frames destined for MAC.sub.-- b for a period of time equal to the Path Switching Delay. Frames transmitted during this interval to MAC.sub.-- b by LAN station 102 may be discarded by LAN switch 110.
The first problem is more serious than the next two because it creates a situation where a shortcut VCC will never be established. The second and third problems are not as serious, since they are limited to the initial stages of the shortcut VCC establishment. However, these problems are undesirable and detract from the value of a route switched network.
Thus, it would be desirable to provide a route switch network which did not suffer from any of the three problems mentioned above. In such a network, edge devices would issue a LE.sub.-- ARP.sub.-- REQUEST for a given destination MAC address regardless of whether a frame has been received from an ELAN with that MAC address as the source MAC address. Also, the improved route switched network would ensure that frames were transmitted to the correct destination during the interval after the destination MAC address has been returned to the NHRP client, but before the shortcut VCC had been established. Finally, this network would not delay edge devices for the Path Switching Delay period before using a newly established shortcut VCC.

Apparatus and method for reducing frame loss in route switched networks

International Business Machines Corporation


By simultaneously recording EM wave reflections and acoustic speech information, the positions and velocities of the speech organs as speech is articulated can be defined for each acoustic speech unit. Well defined time frames and feature vectors describing the speech, to the degree required, can be formed. Such feature vectors can uniquely characterize the speech unit being articulated each time frame. The onset of speech, rejection of external noise, vocalized pitch periods, articulator conditions, accurate timing, the identification of the speaker, acoustic speech unit recognition, and organ mechanical parameters can be determined.

The invention relates generally to speech recognition and more particularly to the use of nonacoustic information in combination with acoustic information for speech recognition and related speech technologies.
Speech Recognition
The development history of speech recognition (SR) technology has spanned four decades of intensive research. In the '50s, SR research was focused on isolated digits, monosyllabic words, speaker dependence, and phonetic-based attributes. Feature descriptions included a set of attributes like formants, pitch, voiced/unvoiced, energy, nasality, and frication, associated with each distinct phoneme. The numerical attributes of a set of such phonetic descriptions is called a feature vector. In the '60s, researchers addressed the problem that time intervals spanned by units like phonemes, syllables, or words are not maintained at fixed proportions of utterance duration, from one speaker to another or from one speaking rate to another. No adequate solution was found for aligning the sounds in time in such a way that statistical analysis could be used. Variability in phonetic articulation due to changes in speaker vocal organ positioning was found to be a key problem in speech recognition. Variability was in part due to sounds running together (often causing incomplete articulation), or half-way organ positioning between two sounds (often called coarticulation). Variability due to speaker differences were also very difficult to deal with. By the early '70s, the phonetic based approach was virtually abandoned because of the limited ability to solve the above problems. A much more efficient way to extract and store acoustic feature vectors, and relate acoustic patterns to underlying phonemic units and words, was needed.
In the 1970s, workers in the field showed that short "frames" (e.g., 10 ms intervals) of the time waveform could be well approximated by an all poles (but no zeros) analytic representation, using numerical "linear predictive coding" (LPC) coefficients found by solving covariance equations. Specific procedures are described in B. S. Atal and S. L. Hanauer, "Speech analysis and synthesis by linear prediction of the speech wave," J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 50(2), 637 (1971) and L. Rabiner, U.S. Pat. No. 4,092,493. Better coefficients for achieving accurate speech recognition were shown to be the Cepstral coefficients, e.g., S. Furui, "Cepstral analysis technique for automatic speaker verification," IEEE Trans. on Acoust. Speech and Signal Processing, ASSP-29 (2), 254, (1981). They are Fourier coefficients of the expansion of the logarithm of the absolute value of the corresponding short time interval power spectrum. Cepstral coefficients effectively separate excitation effects of the vocal cords from resonant transfer functions of the vocal tract. They also capture the characteristic that human hearing responds to the logarithm of changes in the acoustic power, and not to linear changes. Cepstral coefficients are related directly to LPC coefficients. They provide a mathematically accurate method of approximation requiring only a small number of values. For example, 12 to 24 numbers are used as the component values of the feature vector for the measured speech time interval or "frame" of speech.
The extraction of acoustic feature vectors based on the LPC approach has been successful, but it has serious limitations. Its success relies on being able to simply find the best match of the unknown waveform feature vector to one stored in a library (also called a codebook) for a known sound or word. This process circumvented the need for a specific detailed description of phonetic attributes. The LPC-described waveform could represent a speech phoneme, where a phoneme is an elementary word-sound unit. There are 40 to 50 phonemes in American English, depending upon whose definition is used. However, the LPC information does not allow unambiguous determination of physiological conditions for vocal tract model constraints. For example it does not allow accurate, unambiguous vocal fold on/off period measurements or pitch. Alternatively, the LPC representation could represent longer time intervals such as the entire period over which a word was articulated. Vector "quantization" (VQ) techniques assisted in handling large variations in articulation of the same sound from a potentially large speaker population. This helped provide speaker independent recognition capability, but the speaker normalization problem was not completely solved, and remains an issue today. Automatic methods were developed to time align the same sound units when spoken at a different rate by the same or different speaker. One successful techniques was the Dynamic Time Warping algorithm which did a nonlinear time scaling of the feature coefficients. This provided a partial solution to the problem identified in the '60s as the nonuniform rate of speech.
For medium size vocabularies (e.g., about 500 words), it is acceptable to use the feature vectors for the several speech units in a single word as basic matching units. During the late 1970s, many commercial products became available on the market, permitting limited vocabulary recognition. However, word matching also required the knowledge of the beginning and the end of the word. Thus sophisticated end-point (and onset) detection algorithms were developed. In addition, purposeful insertion of pauses by the user between words simplified the problem for many applications. This approach is known as discrete speech. However, for a larger vocabulary (e.g., >1000 words), the matching library becomes large and unwieldy. In addition, discrete speech is unnatural for human communications, but continuous speech makes end-point detection difficult. Overcoming the difficulties of continuous speech with a large size vocabulary was a primary focus of speech recognition (SR) research in the '80s. To accomplish this, designers of SR systems found that the use of shorter sound units such as phonemes or PLUs (phone-like units) was preferable, because of the smaller number of units needed to describe human speech.
In the '80s, a statistical pattern matching technique known as the Hidden Markov Model (HMM) was applied successfully in solving the problems associated with continuous speech and large vocabulary size. HMMs were constructed to first recognize the 50 phonemes, and to then recognize the words and word phrases based upon the pattern of phonemes. For each phoneme, a probability model is built during a learning phase, indicating the likelihood that a particular acoustic feature vector represents each particular phoneme. The acoustic system measures the qualities of each speaker during each time frame (e.g. 10 ms), software corrects for speaker rates, and forms Cepstral coefficients. In specific systems, other values such as total acoustic energy, differential Cepstral coefficients, pitch, and zero crossings are measured and added as components with the Cepstral coefficients, to make a longer feature vector. By example, assume 10 Cepstral coefficients are extracted from a continuous speech utterance every 10 ms. Since phonemes last about 100 ms on average, the HMM phonemic model would contain 10 states (i.e., ten 10 ms segments) with 10 symbols (i.e., Cepstral values) per state. The value of each symbol changes from state to state for each phoneme because the acoustic signal in each 10 ms time frame is characterized by a different set of acoustic features captured by the Cepstral coefficients. The HMM approach is to compute the statistics of frequencies of occurrence of the symbols in one state related to those in the next state from a large training set of speakers saying the same phonemes in the same and differing word series. For example, a set of state transitional probabilities and the accompanying array of 10 symbols by 10 state array values that best describes each phoneme are obtained. To recognize an unknown phoneme, the user computes the 10 by 10 array and matches it to the pre-computed probabilistic phonemic model using the maximum likelihood detection approach. The HMM statistical approach makes use of the fact that the probability of observing a given set of 10 states in a time sequence is high for only one set of phonemes.
The best laboratory performance of a highly trained, single user HMM based recognizer today is about 99% correct recognition of words. In a normal work place with ambient office noise, with average training, on large vocabulary natural speech, the accuracy drops well below 90%. For almost all applications, this is not adequate; for high value applications, a >10% error rate is intolerable. A typical error performance specification of a reliable human communication system is usually in the range from 1 error in 1000 to as low as 1 error in 10,000, depending upon how much error correction communication between speaker and listener is used or allowed.
Thus, to reach this goal, factors of 100 to 1000 improvement in speech recognition accuracy are required. HMM based recognizers, or variants thereon, have been in intense development for more than 15 years, and are unlikely to deliver such a major breakthrough in accuracy. One major reason for this is that the acoustic signal contains insufficient information to accurately represent all of the sound units used in a given human language. In particular, variability of these speech units through incomplete articulation or through coarticulation makes for great difficulty in dealing with day to day variations in a given speaker's speech. Yet, even greater problems occur with different speakers and with the inability to do complete speaker normalization, and finally with the problems of human speakers who like to use large vocabularies with rapid, run together speech. Even as computer processors and memories drop in price and size, the complexity of processing to supply all of the missing acoustic information, to correct mistakes in articulation, and to deal with noise and speaker variability will be difficult or impossible to handle. They will not be able to supply real time recognition meeting the demands of the market place for accuracy, cost, and speed.
Present Example of Speech Recognition
J. L. Flanagan, "Technologies of Multimedia Communications", Proc. of IEEE 82, 590, April 1994 on p. 592 states: "The research frontier in speech recognition is large vocabularies and language models that are more representative of natural language . . . Systems for vocabularies greater than 1000 words are being demonstrated. But word error rate is typically around 5% or more, and hence sentence error rate is substantially higher."
A current speech signal processing model with the characteristics described by Flanagan uses a microphone to detect acoustic speech information. The acoustic signals are processed by LPC algorithms to produce a feature vector which is compared to a stored feature vector library and further processed for word and sentence assembly. The details of estimating the feature vector are that it uses an open loop, 10th order, short time stationary model for the vocal tract. The excitation signal X(t) is assumed to be random broadband white noise. A fast Linear Predictive Coding (LPC) algorithm is used to compute the model coefficients. A direct mapping of LPC coefficients to the Cepstral coefficients provides a robust and compact representation of the short time power spectrum which is the basis for statistical matching. FIG. 1 shows the essential processes of a modern prior art speech recognition system.
The open loop speech processing model has many drawbacks. First, the unknown excitation signal is not really spectrally white, but it is a pattern of air bursts (for vocalized speech) that take place at a rate of 70 to 200 times per second. Second, the complexity of the vocal tract model changes as a function of voice patterns with the lips opening and closing, the nasal tract opening, the tongue touching the palate, and several other important organ configurations. Third, there is an inherent limitation in estimating both the tract model coefficients and the excitation source with an all pole LPC model from one acoustic signal. The reason is that zeros in the excitation function (i.e., zero air flow) and anti-resonances in the tract model (i.e., zeros in the transfer function) cannot be mathematically modeled with LPC, and their presence can not be measured unambiguously using a microphone. As a result, the presently estimated Cepstral (i.e., LPC derived) coefficients representing the transfer function which characterize the vocal system of a speaker are inaccurate and not uniquely correlated with only one specific articulator configuration. Such errors in the feature vector coefficients directly limit the statistical pattern matching performance. Thus searching for a better matching algorithm or using more computer processing power to enhance performance may be futile. In addition, artifacts associated with ambient noise, speaker articulation variations from day to day, and speaker to speaker variability add difficulty and also training expense. Finally, developing large vocabulary systems for multiple, natural speakers, in many languages, is very expensive, because automated techniques for this process can not be well defined. It has been estimated (Rabiner and Juang, "Fundamentals of Speech Recognition", p. 493, Prentice Hall, 1993) that using the best models, it will take 10 CRAY YMP-16 equivalents to do the highest desired quality speech recognition.
It has been long recognized by linguists and phoneticians that human speech organ motions and positions are associated with the speech sound. Olive et al. "Acoustics of American English Speech", Springer 1993, describe the vocal system for almost all singles, pairs, and triplets of phonemes in American English, and their associated sonograms. Many decades ago, workers at Bell Laboratories (see J. L. Flanagan "Speech Analysis, Synthesis, and Perception" Academic Press, 1965) used x-ray images of the vocal organs and detailed modeling to determine organ shapes for given sounds. These workers and others described how optical devices were used to measure the glottal area (i.e., vocal fold positions) vs. time for voiced speech, and published detailed models of the speech system based upon well understood acoustic principles.
All of these physical measurement techniques suffer from not being usable in real time, and the detailed models that connect the organ information into phoneme identification don't work because the primary organ measurements are not available in real time. Therefore the models can not be accurately or easily fit to the speaker's macroscopic characteristics such as vocal tract size, compliance, and speed of speech organs. In addition, very idiosyncratic physiological details of the vocal tract, such as sinus cavity structure, cross sectional pharynx areas, and similar details, are not possible to fit into present model structures. However, they are needed to quantify more exactly individual speech sounds. Nevertheless, the above studies all show that associated with any given speech phonetic unit (i.e., syllable, phoneme or PLU) the speech organ motions and positions are well defined. In contrast, however, these workers (e.g., J. Schroeter and M. M. Sondhi, IEEE ASSP, 2(1) 133 (1994) and references therein) also have shown that acoustic information alone is insufficient to do the inverse identification of the speech tract organ configuration used to produce a sound. It is this incapacity, using acoustic speech alone, that leads to many of the difficulties experienced with present speech recognizer systems.
Researchers have searched for methods to measure the positions and shapes of the vocal tract elements during speech, but have found no effective way of doing this in real time. Papcun of Los Alamos National Laboratory described a vocal-tract-constrained speech recognition system, in the Journal of the Acoustic Society of America, 22 (2) August 1992, pp. 688-700, "Inferring Articulation and Recognizing Gestures from Acoustics with a Neural Network Trained on X-Ray Microbeam Data" and in PCT/US91/00529 titled "Time Series Association Learning." He measured vocal organ motions and their constrained patterns and locations, by using low power x-ray images of gold balls glued to a subject speaker's tongue and other vocal organs. He used this information to improve recognition algorithms based upon conventional mathematical techniques, but with additional phoneme pattern constraints imposed by the measurements obtaining using x-ray data. His algorithms are based upon allowed vocal tract motions, but do not use the motions in real time to enhance the word recognition reliability. He also showed that vocal organ positions and sequences of positions were uniquely associated with many speech sounds. However, it is both dangerous and impractical to consider using small x-ray machines or real time speech recognition.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,769,845 by H. Nakamura, issued Sep. 6, 1988, describes a "Method of Recognizing Speech Using a Lip Image". Several such patents describe electro-mechanical-optical devices that measure speech organ motion simultaneously with acoustic speech, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,975,960. In this case, the formation of the lips helps define the identification of a phoneme in a given speech period, by the degree to which the acoustic identification agrees with the lip image shape. Such devices are helpful, but sufficiently expensive and limited in the information they provide, that they are not widely used for speech recognition. They have been proposed for the purpose of synchronization of lip motions to movie or video frames for the purpose of automatically synchronizing speech to images.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,783,803, 1988 "Speech Recognition Apparatus and Method" by Baker et al. assigned to Dragon Inc. (a prominent U.S. speech recognition company) lays out the details of a modern all acoustic speech recognition system, followed by six more patents, the latest being U.S. Pat. No. 5,428,707, 1995 "Apparatus and Method for Training Speech Recognition . . . " by Gould et al. Similarly Kurzweil Applied Intelligence, Inc. has patented several ideas. In particular, U.S. Pat. No. 5,280,563 by Ganong in 1994 describes a method of a composite speech recognition expert (system). This patent describes how to use two separate sets of constraining rules for enhancing speech recognition--an acoustic set of rules and a linguistic set of rules. The probabilities of accuracy (i.e., "scores") from each system are combined into a joint probability (i.e., "score") and a multi-word hypothesis is selected. This method of joining constraining rule sets is common in speech recognition.
EM SENSORS
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,345,471 and 5,361,070 by Thomas E. McEwan at LLNL describe a micropower impulse radar (MIR) receiver and motion sensor based on very simple, low cost electronic send-and-receive modules that have millimeter resolution over measuring distances of 10's of centimeters to meters. These devices can be used for wood or metal "stud-finders" in building walls (U.S. Pat. No. 5,457,394), for automobile collision or obstacle avoidance radars, and for many other applications. In addition, McEwan, and others, have shown that the EM waves emitted from these devices at frequencies near 2 GHz (and at other frequencies) can propagate through human body tissue. He has also shown, Ser. No. 08/287,746, that such a propagating wave experiences enough of a dielectric (or more complex) discontinuity between human tissue and blood (e.g., heart) or human tissue and air (e.g., lungs), that the time varying reflected signal from a beating heart or other body organ motion can be detected and has value.
Professor Neville Luhmann, Director of the Department of Applied Science of the University of California at Davis, has described how low cost, solid state millimeter wave generators similar to the designs of McEwan and others can be made using microelectronics fabrication techniques. These can be fabricated into transmit-receive modules which provide millimeter resolution, and which can be tuned to optimize body transmission and minimize body tissue heating, or body chemical resonances.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,030,956 and 5,227,797 to Murphy describe a radar tomography system for examining a patient for medical purposes. A radar transmitter capable of transmitting rf or microwave frequencies is used with multiple receivers and time of flight timing units. The locations of body organs are measured from multiple depths into the patient and from multiple directions using both a multiplicity of receiver units (multistatic system), and by moving the transmitting unit to view the patient from multiple directions. A reflection tomography device uses EM wave reflections to build up an image of the interior of a patient's body for medical imaging applications. There is no description of the importance of time varying organ interface information, nor of the value of single directional, non-imaging systems. Murphy provided no experimental data on image formation that show his ideas can be reduced to practice, and several of the proposed embodiments in the Murphy patent are not expected to be technically realizable in any commercially important imaging system.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,925,774 to Amlung and 4,027,303 to Neuwirth et al. describe small radar units generating frequencies that can pass through human body tissue. Amlung describes a printed circuit board sized radar device made from discrete components that project rf waves in a particular direction at a frequency of about 0.9 GHz. The principle of operation is that as long as there is no change in the reflected rf signal to the receiver unit from any objects in the line of sight of EM wave propagation within a defined time unit, appropriate filtering in the receiver provides a null signal to an alarm device. If an object moves into the field of the transmitting device at an appropriate rate, greater than the filter time, a signal is detected and an alarm can be made to drive a sounding unit. This device is called a field disturbance motion detection device. It and several other devices referenced by Amlung as prior art could have been used to detect vocal fold and other vocal organ motions as early or earlier than 1975 in a fashion similar to the present invention. Neuwirth et al. describe similar devices.
Although it has been recognized for many decades in the field of speech recognition that speech organ position and motion information could be useful, and radar units were available to do the measurements for several decades, no one has previously suggested a speech recognition system using transmitted and reflected EM waves to detect motions and locations of speech organs and to use the information in an algorithm to identify speech.

Methods and apparatus for non-acoustic speech characterization and recognition

The Regents of the University of California


A shift indication system for a vehicle is provided. The shift indication system includes a haptic feedback device and a controller programmed to activate the haptic feedback device in response to an engine speed traversing a predetermined threshold. The haptic feedback device is activated with a first pattern if the speed is increasing to prompt a vehicle operator to perform an upshift and a second pattern if the speed is decreasing to prompt a vehicle operator to perform a downshift.

Visual notification features may be used in vehicles to notify drivers of current vehicle conditions or changes in the vehicle conditions. A visual notification may indicate some action that is required on the part of the driver. Visual notification features, however, may require drivers to take their eyes off the road. In addition, visual notification features may be missed when a driver is unable to divert their eyes from the road.


The present invention provides a composition comprising (i) a mixed metal compound containing at least one trivalent metal selected from iron (lll) and aluminum and at least one divalent metal selected from of magnesium, iron, zinc, calcium, lanthanum and cerium, (ii) xanthan gum (iii) at least one of (a) polyvinyl pyrrolidone (b) locust bean gum (c) methyl cellulose wherein the composition has been irradiated with ionizing radiation in an amount of at least 4 kGy.

Liquid Dosage Forms
Liquid dosage forms of insoluble compounds can provide a useful means of administration for subjects who have difficulty swallowing. In particular in the field of pharmaceuticals ease of administration may also help ensure optimal patient compliance. Additionally liquid form allows for a continuously variable dose quantity to be administered.
Many liquid doses forms of insoluble compounds are known from the art. For example, Altacite Plus Suspension (Peckforton Pharmaceuticals Limited) is sold as an antacid for the symptomatic relief of dyspepsia, flatulence and abdominal hyperacidity, gastritis, peptic ulceration, heartburn especially when associated with hiatus hernia, or heartburn during pregnancy. One of the active ingredients is 'hydrotalcite light', aluminium magnesium carbonate hydroxide hydrate. Altacite displays a yield stress of only 1 Pa and at this low yield stress would not be suitable for maintaining stable formulations wherein the active ingredient is of a hydrotalcite type comprising magnesium and iron or it is of insufficient yield stress to provide a stable formulation at a desirable particle size. and or dose level
Another product from Peckforton Pharmaceuticals Limited, Hydrotalcite Suspension, also contains hydrotalcite. The formulation also contains Veegum regular which is a magnesium aluminum silicate used to alter the rheology of liquid formulation. However, as this is an aluminium source this product is not considered suitable for kidney patients.
Talcid is intended for the symptomatic relief in cases of heartburn, stomach hyperacidity. The active ingredient is 'hydrotalcite light', aluminium magnesium carbonate hydroxide hydrate, which suffers from the same drawback of aluminium release and accumulation. Furthermore, the formulation contains bentonite which at higher concentrations can modify the rheological characteristics of the formulation. Bentonite is a calcium hydrated aluminosilicate which may also release aluminium. Carboxymethylcellulose sodium is used as a thickening agent. Talcid displays some yield stress but insufficient to provide a stable formulation at a desirable particle size.
The delivery of mixed metal compound is particularly problematic because mixed metal compounds typically have a high particulate density (such as a density of around 1.9 g/ml). Due to the large difference in density between such compounds and that of typical aqueous carrier fluids, mixed metal compounds have a propensity to settle out on storage. The rheology of the carrier fluid may be modified to increase the viscosity of the fluid and hence slow the settling rate of the suspended solids. However because of the atypical high particulate density this has the disadvantage that whilst the settling rate is reduced settling will still occur over a relatively short time frame. Furthermore, the high fluid viscosity makes it difficult to re-disperse any settled mixed metal compound.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,689,219 describes compositions comprising mixtures of xanthan gum and locust bean gum in a specified range of ratios. The formulation is packaged as a dry granule mix which is added to a drink immediately prior to consumption.
WO2007/135362 describes a formulation based on xanthan gum, PVP and glycerol containing a suspended non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug where PVP acts a dispersant and glycerol as a density increasing agent. The optimal PVP concentration disclosed is 0.5 to about 3.5% w/v. Further, the suspended non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug is present at a concentration of up to 5% w/v. This compares to required delivery levels of typically 10% w/v for mixed metal compounds.
IE153343 discloses an aqueous suspension concentrate composition of pendimethalin, a pesticide. More specifically, IE153343 discloses the use of a suspending agent, such as xanthan gum, at a concentration between 0.02 and 3.0% w/v, in combination with thickening agents such as polyvinyl-pyrrolidone (PVP). The proposed compositions also include surfactants, dispensing agents or wetting agents and an antifoaming agent to provide a stable suspension.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,300,302 discloses a pharmaceutical delivery system comprising a composition comprising an drug homogeneously distributed in a water-dispersible gel excipient containing either xanthan gum or a mixture of xanthan gum and methyl cellulose.
WO 03/013473 A1 teaches a colloidal silicon dioxide which may be combined with xanthan gum and a wetting agent in order to produce a suspension of drug particles that is substantially stable. It is stated that silicon dioxide has a synergistic effect with xanthan gum and produces a more stable suspension than otherwise possible
U.S. Pat. No. 5,112,604 discloses an aqueous formulation containing a drug substance; colloidal silicon dioxide; a hydrocolloid gum; a wetting agent; an antifoaming agent and a carbohydrate, which is stable for 90 days.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,300,670 discloses an aqueous pharmaceutical suspension for oral administration comprising at least one particulate drug with a density of from about 0.9 to about 1.6 g/ml and an average particle size less than about 20 micron; at least one suspending polymer exhibiting plastic flow with or without additional viscosity-building agents that provides a yield value to the final suspension of about 0.2 to about 15 Pa and an apparent viscosity at 100 sec−1 of at least about 50 cps; a liquid phase with an absolute density difference from each particulate drug of less than about 0.2 g/ml.
To provide sterile compositions, the prior art has taught that liquid compositions may be irradiated. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,273,767 discloses a modified, rapidly hydrating xanthan gum, prepared by irradiating non-irradiated xanthan gum with ionizing radiation, and furthermore a process for sterilizing a food product comprising non-irradiated xanthan gum as a gelling hydrocolloid.
Although irradiation may provide sterility, it presents a number of problems when applied to liquids containing insoluble products. For example, "Formulation of a Sterile Surgical Lubricant", Adams, I., S. S. Davis and R, Kenshaw. 1972, J. Pharm. Pharmacol., 24:178P describes the complete loss of gel structure in methyl celluloses following irradiation. Applied Radiation Chemistry By Robert James Woods and Alekse{hacek over (i)} Konstantinovich Pikaev teaches us that a standard irradiation doses of 25 kGy is used in many countries, and 35 kGy in Scandinavian countries, but that by control of the production environment microbial contamination can be reduced to levels down to 10 kGy. (Publisher Wiley-IEEE, 1994, ISBN 0471544523, 9780471544524). U.S. Pat. No. 7,259,192 describes the depolymerization by high energy electron beam irradiation of xanthan gum at a preferred dose of 10 to 150 kGy.

Composition comprising mixed metal compounds and xanthan gum


A seat air-conditioning system includes a plurality of seat air-conditioning devices respectively disposed for seats. Each of the seat air-conditioning devices achieves comfortable air conditioning in a vehicle interior by a controller controlling a refrigeration circuit, a blower, and a blowing switching portion in each seat air-conditioning device. A coordinating flow path is disposed to fluidly connect the blowing switching portion of one seat air-conditioning device to the blowing switching portion of the other seat air-conditioning device. The seat air-conditioning system performs the air conditioning for one seat by using the two seat air-conditioning devices by supplying conditioned air via the coordinating flow path under control of the controller.

Various seat air-conditioning devices have been developed in order to provide an environment with a comfortable temperature for an occupant sitting in a seat. For example, a seat air-conditioning device is disposed between a seat face of a seat and a floor and includes a vapor compression refrigeration circuit in a housing. The seat air-conditioning device is formed to blow out conditioned air, at a temperature adjusted by an operation of the refrigeration circuit, toward an occupant sitting in the seat. The conditioned air in this case is warmed or cooled by means of heat exchange in a condenser or an evaporator forming the refrigeration circuit.


The invention described herein relates to methods of treating emphysema and COPD with a GHK tripeptide. The invention further relates to methods of determining the state of the lungs using biomarkers described herein.

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a worldwide public health problem and is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States (Heron et al., National Vital Statistics Reports 2009 57:1-134). COPD is characterized by irreversible airflow limitation due to obstruction in the small conducting airways and emphysematous destruction of the gas exchanging surface of the lung. Tobacco smoke is the major risk factor for COPD as 10-20% of smokers develop this disease (Fletcher and Peto British Medical Journal 1977 1:1645-8). Current theories concerning pathogenesis of COPD include an imbalance between protease and anti-protease activity, induced apoptosis of alveolar wall cells through deregulation of pathways involved in oxidative stress, angiogenesis, and chronic inflammation, and aberrant tissue remodeling and repair processes that lead to the destruction of the extra cellular matrix (ECM) in the lung. However, the etiology of the initiation and progression of COPD remain poorly understood.
Several groups have profiled gene expression in lung tissue from patients with and without COPD or between patients with varying levels of airflow obstruction in order to understand differences in gene expression related to COPD (Golpon et al., Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol 2004 31:595-600; Ning et al., PNAS 2004 101:14895-14900; Bhattacharya et al., Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol 2009 40:359-367; Spira et al., Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol 2004 31:601-610; Wang et al., Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol 2008 177:402-411). Although these studies have provided an initial look into the COPD transcriptome, their results have limited value in diagnosing COPD because they primarily relied on the use of lung function testing to define the presence or degree of COPD. Lung function testing cannot distinguish between obstruction in the small airways and emphysematous destruction of the lung parenchyma nor provide information about regional differences in disease severity.
Accordingly, a need exists for novel therapies for the treatment of emphysema and COPD as well as improved diagnostics for the presence and severity of emphysema in a subject.

Therapeutic agent for emphysema and COPD


An impedance matching circuit for a multi-band power amplifier has an input port for receiving RF signals from an amplifier, a first path for communicating RF signals in a first frequency band to a first output port, and at least one second path for communicating RF signals in a second frequency band to a second output port. The first path includes impedance matching circuitry for matching the impedance of the first output port and the input port in the first frequency band, and the second path includes impedance matching circuitry for matching the impedance of the second output port and the input port in the second frequency band. The first path contains circuitry which blocks RF signals in the second frequency band, and the second path contains circuitry which blocks RF signals in the first frequency band. A multiband power amplifier includes a multi-band amplifier coupled with an impedance matching circuit for a multiband power amplifier.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to impedance matching circuits for power amplifiers. More specifically, the present invention relates to an impedance matching circuit for multiple band power amplifiers.
2. Description of Related Art
In the United States, cellular operating licenses have been awarded by the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) pursuant to a licensing scheme which divides the country into geographic service markets. Two cellular licenses were awarded for operating systems in each market. These two systems were initially allocated two different radio frequency (RF) blocks in the 800 MHz range. To meet the needs of a growing number of mobile subscribers, the FCC subsequently released additional blocks of spectrum in the 800 MHz range.
Despite the increase in available spectrum, demand for cellular services has continued to outpace supply. Moreover, the use of analog technology limited the capacity gains that could be achieved by conventional techniques such as cell-splitting. In response, a number of digital air interface standards were developed for providing efficient digital communication of voice, data, fax and text messages under the umbrella of "personal communications services" or PCS.
The FCC recently auctioned spectrum in the 1900 MHz range for use by PCS systems. Six frequency bands have been specified within the 1900 MHz range, with each band divided into duplex channels spaced by 30 KHz in a manner similar to the channel allocation for the 800 MHz range used by cellular systems.
Operational PCS systems are now beginning to appear in the United States. Meanwhile, existing cellular systems are continuing to operate. Thus, in many markets, there are now cellular systems operating in the 800 MHz range and PCS systems operating in the 1900 MHz range. Mobile subscribers who desire to receive services from both types of systems must either use two different mobile transceivers capable of operating within the cellular band and the PCS band, respectively, or, preferably, use a single "dual band" mobile transceiver which can operate in both bands. Moreover, with the advent of personal satellite communications, it is likely that in the future a mobile subscriber will wish to receive services from three or more systems using different frequency bands.
One approach to designing a multi-band mobile transceiver, such as a dual band transceiver, is to use completely separate radio hardware for the cellular band and the PCS band, respectively. However, this approach would increase the size and cost of the mobile transceiver. To minimize the size and cost of a dual band mobile transceiver, as much of the hardware used for operation in the cellular band should be reused for operation in the PCS band.
In particular, it is desirable to include only one amplifier in the dual band transceiver for amplification of RF signals in both the cellular band and the PCS band. Otherwise, two separate amplifier chains are required, which may be both expensive and inefficient.
There is a problem if only one amplifier is used, however. For the amplifier to act as an efficient power amplifier, the impedance at the output of the amplifier must be power matched to the impedance of the antenna prior to transmission. One possible solution to this problem is to provide the amplifier with separate, switched high-pass and low-pass matching networks at its output. However, the switch must be capable of handling high power, which tends to require a large, costly switch.
Another solution is to provide a broadband power matching circuit covering both desired frequency bands and having peaks at the transmit bands. Such a configuration would tend to waste bandwidth, however, when the desired match frequencies differ by an octave or more and the desired bandwidth in each band is relatively narrow. The well known Fano's Limit shows that there is a physical limitation on broadband matching when a reactive element (such as the drain-source capacitance of a transistor) is present.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for an improved matching circuit for providing a power match for a multi-band power amplifier.

Impedance matching circuit for power amplifier


An electromagnetic relay has a normally-open contact tongue (2) with at least one finger (24a) which, during mounting, is first slidably engaged in a drawer-cavity-forming element (25). After adjusting a normally-open contact (3) relative to a movable switch-contact (4a) the position of the at least one finger is affixed in the drawer-cavity-forming element so that the position of the normally-open contact is fixed. The relay of this invention is characterized by having a particularly uncomplicated structure and by allowing a particularly uncomplicated, cost-effective, and fully-automated adjustment of the normally-open contact.

This invention concerns an electromagnetic relay having a base plate through which a plurality of terminal tongues extend, with one of the terminal tongues being a normally-open contact tongue supporting a normally-open contact, with the normally-open contact tongue having a substantially L-shaped bend therein.
Particularly in modern motor vehicles which have a multiplicity of electronic apparatus, among other electrical components, many relays are employed. In this regard, small-size relays, so-called microrelays, which need very little mounting space and which, therefore, lend themselves particularly well to being integrated into complex electronic circuits, are increasingly preferred.
Naturally, when microrelays are employed, reliable operation and long life are demanded. At the same time, production costs of such relays should remain low. These requirements cause the following problems during manufacture of microrelays:
With the manufacture of large-size, or large structure, relays, generally manufacturing processes are preferred in which an adjustment of assembled relay components can be avoided because process steps necessary for such adjustments represent a substantial cost factor.
Particularly small-structure relays demand, contrary to large relays, a particularly exact fabrication method. Individual relay components can, therefore, because of their small sizes, have only small manufacturing tolerances so that the manufacture of such microrelays is disproportionately expensive. Experience has shown that it is more convenient, when manufacturing such microrelays, to allow larger manufacturing tolerances during manufacture of individual relay components and then to carry out adjustments when the components are assembled, that is, particularly adjusting the positions of the components relative to one another.
This method proves to be particularly cost-effective if the adjustments can be fully automatic during relay assembly.
To accomplish this it is necessary to design relays to be assembled so that components thereof can be mounted in a particularly uncomplicated and cost-effective manner and so that, preferably, during the mounting, simple, cost-effective, and fully automatic adjustments, particularly of spaces between relay components, are possible.
An important distance or space for the proper function of a relay is represented by a contact space between a normally-open contact and a movable switch contact arranged on a switch contact spring for a relay that has not been activated.
An electromagnetic relay is known from German Offenlegungsschrift DE-OS 34 23 271 in which an L-shaped beam on a coil frame forms a measuring level. For adjustment of a normally-open contact, this known relay is first placed on a measuring device. Thereafter, by means of a sensing device, various spacings between relay components and the reference level are determined. In a further step, by using these measured spacings, the normally-open contact of the relay is adjusted.
This known relay is thereby constructed in a relatively expensive manner. Also, the measuring and adjusting procedure is relatively complex, since it is carried out by a plurality of series process steps.
A relay with a base plate is already known from German Offenlegungsschrift OS-DE 27 05 961 in which L-shaped fixed contacts are held and with their free ends supported.
It is disadvantageous that the supports are at fixed engagement points with relay components, in particular with an electromagnetic coil frame. Because of this, an exactness of contact spacing is, in turn, dependent upon tolerances of relay components which, as already explained, particularly for microrelays, causes problems. A later adjustment of contact spacing is not provided here.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a particularly uncomplicated constructed relay for which an adjustment of contact spacing between switching and normally-open contacts, which adjustment is particularly uncomplicated, cost-effective, and fully automatic, is possible.

Electromagnetic relay and method of adjusting same


A torque limiter for transmitting motion from a drive shaft to a driven member, and for selectively disconnecting the driven member from the drive shaft when a predetermined transmitted twisting torque value is exceeded. The torque limiter has a hub fitted to the drive shaft; a rotary first flange fixed to an axial end of the hub; a second flange fixed to the driven member; and a number of modules fitted to the first flange. The first flange is fixed to the hub. The modules are equally spaced along the annular portion of the first flange, and one appendage is located between each two adjacent modules.

A torque limiter is installed between a rotary drive member and a rotary driven member, acts as a joint and, in addition to transmitting twisting torque, determines a maximum twisting torque transmittable by the rotary drive member to the rotary driven member, so as to disconnect the two members when the maximum twisting torque is exceeded.
As shown in FIG. 3, currently used torque limiters comprise
a hub A fitted to a rotary drive shaft B;
a first flange C fixed to the hub by a number of screws D;
a second flange (not shown) fitted to a rotary driven shaft (not shown); and
a number of modules E for transmitting motion between the two flanges, and for disconnecting the flanges when a maximum transmitted twisting torque is exceeded.
At present, screws D fastening the first flange C to hub A are located along an annular portion smaller in diameter than that along which modules E are located. So, to connect the rotary driven member to a rotary drive member with a rotary shaft of a different, e.g. larger, diameter, the entire torque limiter, including the second flange fitted to the rotary driven shaft, must be changed. And, since torque limiters of this type are used in very large structures, changing the torque limiter means moving one of the two structures, with all the problems the size of the structures poses.


An image reading device to read an image carried on a document, including: an image reading section to read an image carried on a document; a polygonal member, mounted to face the image reading section, and spaced from the image reading section at a predetermined distance, the polygonal member includes a document feeding flat surface which faces the image reading section when the document is fed thereon, a white flat surface, and a black flat surface; a light source to emit light rays onto the image carried on the document, and onto the polygonal member when the document is not fed; and a control section to control an amount of the light rays emitted from the light source; wherein the control section corrects an amount of light rays concerning the white color and the black color, based on the amount of the light rays read by the image reading section.

In the past, in image reading devices used for image forming apparatuses, such as copy machines, printers, and facsimile devices, original documents are sequentially fed from a document placing section by a document conveyance section.
When a xenon lamp is used as an illuminating lamp to illuminate an original document, the amount of light is initially decreased during continuous lighting due to its self generated heating, after which the amount of light emitted from the xenon lamp becomes stable. Said decrease of the amount of light can result in reading errors, such as non-reading of lines structuring a letter, so that continuous correction is necessary to keep stable light amount.
In the conventional art, a standard white plate is mounted adjacent to the image reading section, as a means for said correction. The amount of light, emitted from a light source and reflected by the standard white plate, is measured by an image pickup device, carrying an image reading function and a light amount measuring function, whereby said measured light amount is compared with a reflected light reference value which was previously obtained by the experiment. If any difference exists between them, the amount of light, measured by the image pickup device, is corrected to be equal to the standard reflected light amount by a control section, which uses a shading correction method.
Further, in the shading correction during image reading, various methods for mounting a correcting member, coated with a standard color for the standard white plate, are provided. Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 5-14,717 discloses a rotatable roller whose outer circumferential surface has a portion coated with standard white color and a portion coated with standard black color, and said roller is mounted to face the image pickup device, whereby either portion can be selected.
Still further, Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2003-134,301 discloses a rotatable and white roller, serving as a guide member, which faces the image pickup device and is separated from the image pickup device at a predetermined distance. Said guide member includes a home position surface for the stand-by of the apparatus, an original document guide surface for reading the original document, and a shading correction surface for the shading correction.
However, in both Patent Applications, each member coated with the standard color is a roller. Since the roller has a curved surface to face the image pickup device, if an image reading line shifts slightly toward a document conveyance direction, the amount of light reflected by the standard white color after having been emitted from the light source, tends to vary, which tends to result in a less-accurate shading correction.

Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.


A selective review and electronic corroboration of invention disclosure documents within a distributed data processing system. A selected document is identified and a document profile is created, including at least an identification of the technical or functional area disclosed within that document. Thereafter, the document and document profile are transmitted to an evaluation facility where a unique identifier is assigned to the document and the document is then automatically distributed to a preselected list of users, in accordance with the technical or administrative area information contained within the document profile. Each recipient of the document is then prompted to enter an indication of having read and understood the document at his or her computer terminal. Positive responses to this prompt are then stored in association with the uniquely identified document so that the document may be electronically corroborated at a subsequent time by a reference thereto. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, this method and apparatus may be utilized to electronically "witness" an invention disclosure document to corroborate the date of conception of an invention.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to an improved data processing system and in particular to a method and system for corroborating a document within a data processing system. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a method for automated electronic corroboration of an electronic document within a data processing system.
2. Description of the Related Art
The modern electronic office is rapidly supplanting and replacing many aspects of the traditional paper office. Modern office systems utilize electronic mail, voice mail, centralized databases and other forms of electronic communication to decrease the amount of so-called "float" encountered in a traditional paper society. By utilizing electronic mail it is possible for a document to be simultaneously transmitted to multiple recipients at various points around the world. Despite the advent of widespread electronic communication, selected activities within the traditional paper office have been difficult to implement in an electronic society.
For example, the signature of an individual, long recognized as the best evidence of the originality of a document, or the fact that the individual in question has indeed reviewed a document, is difficult to implement in an electronic office system. While it is true that a hard copy of a document may be created, signed, and subsequently scanned into electronic memory, such procedures are awkward, time consuming and expensive.
While for the most part electronic documents have been widely accepted as the equivalent of their paper counterparts, certain documents which are commonly utilized in the modern office still require some form of corroboration that the document does exist, or did exist as of a selected date. For example, invention disclosure forms utilized to document the conception of an invention are commonly submitted in hard copy form throughout large corporations and almost always include a portion of that document which is intended to be dated and signed by a witness, as evidence of corroboration of the existence of that document. Such corroboration is utilized in case the need ever arises to prove a date of conception of the invention. The processing of an invention disclosure document or other similar document in an electronic office has rendered the corroboration of that document difficult to obtain without creating a hard copy of such a document and filing signed copies.
It should therefore be apparent that a need exists for a method and system whereby electronic documents stored within a data processing system may be readily and efficiently corroborated as a normal course of activity with regard to the processing of such documents. The maintenance of an electronic corroboration of such a document as a normal and ordinary business record should be sufficient to overcome any objection to the electronic nature of the corroboration.

System for selecting document recipients as determined by technical content of document and for electronically corroborating receipt of document


Embodiments of the present disclosure include systems, device, and methods of providing optical sensing. Various embodiment include an optical transmitting and receiving apparatus that can include an optical fiber bundle having an end located proximate to a lens and an aperture through which optical energy is received by the optical fiber bundle, and a sensor array, where the optical fiber bundle receives optical energy and passes the optical energy through the bundle to the sensor array, and where the sensor array is located remotely from the lens.

Optical sensing is used in a variety of applications. For example, optical sensing is often utilized in surveillance applications in vehicles such as aircraft, spacecraft, landcraft, and watercraft.
In such applications, it is often beneficial that an optical sensing apparatus or system produce high quality images. Additionally, an optical sensing apparatus or system that provides flexibility in the type of images that can be produced in the field and the ability to utilize a large field of view where imaging can take place can be useful features, in some instances.
In aircraft, for example, optical sensing can be used as part of the aircraft's imaging system and also can be used to produce viewable photo or video type images of the ground and/or the activities in the air and/or on the ground. Such optical sensing systems can, therefore, be multi-functional.
Such optical sensing systems can provide imaging through a broad spectrum of frequencies including wavelengths across the human visible and/or infrared spectrum, among other ranges. This allows for flexibility in the type of images that can be produced by the optical sensing system.
However, in order to provide such functionality, all or most of the imaging components are moved as the target of imaging is changed. In some applications, a vehicle may have space constraints or weight distribution issues that may make such movements difficult, undesirable, or impossible. Further, such components may be too large to provide a suitable operational cross-section field of view, in some applications.


A call through a telecommunications network (10) that is dialed by a caller (12) to a lifetime number of a subscriber (14) that may be in common with the lifetime number of at least one other subscriber is routed in accordance with the past call history of one of the calling party and the subscribers with lifetime numbers common to the dialed number. The call from the caller is routed to that lifetime number subscriber to whom the caller has previously called on the basis that the caller is more likely to want a connection with someone who the caller had previously called.

Within most of North America, telephone subscribers possess ten-digit telephone numbers of the form AAA-XXX-YYYY. The first three digits (AAA) represent an area code, designating the region in which the subscriber resides. The second three digits (XXX) represent an exchange, i.e., the local central office serving the subscriber. Finally, the last four digits (YYYY) represent a line number associated with the subscriber. For out-of-area code calls, the calling party dials the called party's ten-digit number. The calling party's call is received at the caller's Local Exchange Carrier (LEC) that, in turn, routes the call to an Inter-Exchange Carrier, such as AT&T. The IXC in turn, routes the call to the called party's LEC. A local call within the same exchange, or to a nearby exchange in the same Local Access and Transport Area (LATA), may not require dialing of the full ten-digits. Rather, for such calls, a caller simply dials the last seven digits of the called party's ten-digit number, hereinafter referred to as a "POTS" number. The manner in which ten-digit and seven digit calls are routed is well known.
Today, a person's telephone POTS number is often that person's most ubiquitous identifier. For that reason, individuals that move want to retain their prior seven-digit POTS number because others often identify them by their previous phone number. The ideal solution would be for subscribers to retain their originally assigned seven-digit POTS number for life, regardless of their present residence and the exchange providing service to that residence. However, this approach would require a data base inquiry for each call to perform any necessary translation for POTS numbers that might not correspond to a particular geographical area.
A present day solution to the problem of providing subscribers with lifetime numbers is to designate a Service Access Code (SAC), such as 500 or 700, to accommodate such numbers. Unfortunately, the lifetime numbers assigned to subscribers usually have no relationship to their present or past seven-digit POTS numbers. If subscribers were assigned lifetime numbers corresponding to their seven-digit POTS numbers, then conflicts would arise between subscribers in different areas having the same seven-digit POTS numbers. The inability of a subscriber to receive a lifetime number that corresponds to that subscriber's seven-digit POTS number has been an impediment to widespread adoption of this service.
One possible solution to this problem would be to assign different SACs to subscribers having the same seven-digit POTS number. Thus, for example two subscribers having the same seven-digit POTS number XXX-YYYY might be assigned a SAC of 400 and 500 respectively, to differentiate between them. The use of multiple SACs avoids ambiguity but destroys the correspondence relating a POTS number to a single lifetime number.
Thus, there is a need for a technique for routing calls to lifetime numbers that comprise a single SAC and the subscriber's seven-digit POTS number while avoiding a conflict between in routing calls to different subscribers having the same lifetime number (i.e., the same SAC and seven-digit POTS number).

Call routing based on prior telephone calls


A bifocal contact lens is formed from a material having a uniform index of refraction and includes a concave posterior surface shaped in conformity with a patient's cornea and defining a lens optical axis. The bifocal contact lens includes two separate vision correction surfaces on the anterior side of the lens. A convex distance correction surface has a distance correction radius of curvature with its center of curvature at a point on a line extending parallel to, or coinciding with, the optical axis of the lens. A convex near correction anterior surface has a near correction radius of curvature with its center of curvature at a point also on the line extending parallel to, or coinciding with, the lens optical axis. The junction between the distance correction surface and the near correction surface has an upwardly opening crescent shape and comprises a step or ledge out from the distance correction surface. A method of producing the anterior surfaces for the bifocal contact lens comprises fixing a lens blank on a lathe spindle with the lens blank axis intersecting and forming an acute angle to the lathe spindle rotational axis, rotating the lens blank about the spindle rotational axis, and then cutting both the convex distance correction surface and the convex near correction surface.

This invention relates to bifocal contact lenses and particularly to a bifocal contact lens structure that eliminates any vision jump between lens powers. The invention also encompasses a method and apparatus for manufacturing bifocal contact lenses, particularly, bifocal contact lenses with no vision jump between lens powers.
Bifocal lenses provide vision correction for both distance vision and up-close or near vision. As the name bifocal suggests, bifocal lenses provide the two different types of vision correction with two separate lens sections, each having a different focal length. In bifocal contact lenses, each lens must remain properly oriented on the wearer's cornea in use with the distance vision section at the top of the cornea and the near vision section at the bottom of the cornea.
There are two general categories of bifocal contact lens designs. In one bifocal contact lens design the lens has a non-uniform index of refraction. A lens of this design type is commonly referred to as a fused or two-piece lens. U.S. Pat. No. 3,662,040 to Urbach shows a two-piece or fused bifocal contact lens comprising two materials with different indices of refraction. The Urbach bifocal contact lens structure includes a lens base formed from one lens material. A lens material having a different index of refraction is fused to the lens base material in an opening formed in the lens base. The two types of material produce the desired two different vision correction powers.
The other general bifocal contact lens design, the one-piece design, is produced from a single material with a uniform index of refraction and produces the different correction powers with a non-uniform curvature on the outer or anterior surface of the lens. U.S. Pat. No. 5,074,082 to Cappelli and U.S. Pat. No. 4,938,583 to Miller show one-piece bifocal contact lens designs. In both the Cappelli and Miller lens designs, the anterior surface of the lens includes two separate sections, each with a different radius of curvature with respect to the curvature of the lens inner or posterior surface. The two sections with dissimilar curvature produce the desired two lens powers.
Both the fused and prior one-piece bifocal lens designs had drawbacks that prevented their wide spread acceptance and use. Both designs relied only upon asymmetry built into the lens shape or weight distribution to maintain proper orientation of the lens on the patient's cornea. The two-piece or fused bifocal contact lenses were relatively expensive to manufacture and were also thicker and, therefore, less comfortable to wear. Also, the two-piece design limited the types of materials that could be employed in the lens. Furthermore, there was the risk that the fused portion of the two-piece design could detach from the base portion of the lens.
The one-piece bifocal contact lenses were thinner and generally less expensive to manufacture. However, the prior one-piece lens designs produced a vision jump or vision distortion at the junction between the two different lens powers. The vision jump or distortion between the lens powers was distracting to the wearer and limited the acceptance of such designs.


A light emitting device includes a conductive support layer, a light emitting structure layer on the conductive support layer, a first transparent conductive layer and a second transparent conductive layer disposed between the conductive support layer and the light emitting structure layer, and an electrode on the light emitting structure layer.

1. Field
One or more embodiments described herein relate to emission of light.
2. Background
A light emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that converts current into light. The wavelength of emitted light varies based on the semiconductor material used, and more specifically based on the band-gap of the semiconductor material. LEDs are commonly used as light sources for displays, vehicles, and other illumination applications. However, improvements are needed in their design, performance, and manufacture.
The above references are incorporated by reference herein where appropriate for appropriate teachings of additional or alternative details, features and/or technical background.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Light emitting device and method of manufacture


A system for simulating human performance of a predefined procedure for operating equipment uses operator characteristics defining how human operator performance will be simulated. The operator characteristics include at least one among decision making rules, execution accuracy rules and rules defining operator response speed. The rules are weighted by a probability function having a randomized factor to produce a specified result a given percentage of the time when the simulation is repeated using the same operator characteristics. The results of the simulation are recorded and analyzed to evaluate performance of a human operator having the defined operator characteristics.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a computer simulation of human performance of a procedure and, more particularly, to the simulation of a procedure for operating equipment, such as an electrical power plant.
2. Description of the Related Art
Software for monitoring the execution of complex plant operating procedures has been available for several years. One example of such software is COMPRO available from Westinghouse Electric Corporation. The principles used in COMPRO and similar software products are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,803,039 and 4,815,014 and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/307,831, all incorporated herein by reference. The man-machine interface for such software is designed to minimize potential errors in execution of the procedure. Both errors of omission and commission common in following printed procedures are addressed in the design of such software.
Due to the design of the man-machine interface, errors are less likely to occur when a human operator uses such software, rather than conventional printed operational procedures. If not for this fact, such software could be used for evaluating the quality of the procedure itself.
Some versions of such software are used in only a small percentage of the plants which could benefit from the use of such software. In many cases, operating procedures at plants not using such software are virtually identical to the procedures for plants using such software. As a result, the plants not using such software could benefit from the evaluation of the procedure itself, which is difficult with a human operator due to the difference between the man-machine interface of the software and the way in which the printed procedures are used. If such software could be used for evaluation of the procedures, the results of the evaluation would be helpful at all locations where the procedures are used, whether the procedures are available in a computer based monitoring system or only in printed form.

Simulation of human performance of a process operation procedure


An imaging device accommodating package includes an insulating base body and an imaging device connecting pad. The insulating base body includes a lower surface, a through-hole and a bonding area on the bottom surface of the recess. The lower surface includes a recess. The through-hole is formed in a bottom surface of the recess in a perspective plan view. The bonding area is used for an imaging device. The imaging device connecting pad is formed on an upper surface of the insulating base body or on an inner surface of the through-hole.

An imaging apparatus applied to a digital camera in which an imaging device, such as a CCD or a CMOS imaging device, is mounted on a base body, an optical sensor, or the like is known in the prior art. As this type of imaging apparatus, an imaging apparatus is known that has a base body in which a through-hole is formed at the center and a recess is formed in the lower surface so that the through-hole is positioned inside and also has an imaging device that is flip-chip mounted on the bottom surface of the recess in the base body (see PTL 1, for example). The base body has connection electrodes around the through-hole in the lower surface and external terminals on the outer circumference. This type of imaging apparatus converts, for example, light (image) input to a light-receiving part of the imaging device through the through-hole to an electric signal by the imaging device and transfers the electric signal to the connection electrode of the base body.

Image pickup element housing package, and image pickup device


A sheet feeder is provided with a sheet accommodating portion, an elevating plate and an inclining mechanism. The sheet accommodating portion includes a bottom plate and a plurality of side plates provided perpendicular to the bottom plate, and can accommodate a plurality of sheets. The sheets accommodated in the sheet accommodating portion are successively fed to the outside from the uppermost one. The elevating plate is movable upward and downward and used to stack the sheets in the sheet accommodating portion. The inclining mechanism inclines the elevating plate such that the front ends of the sheets with respect to a sheet feeding direction are inclined downward during sheet feeding.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sheet feeder for feeding sheets, and an image forming apparatus such as a copier, a facsimile machine or a printer equipped with such a sheet feeder.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a sheet feeder for feeding sheets has been used in an image forming apparatus. Generally, a sheet feeder is equipped in an image forming apparatus and feeds sheets stacked therein to the image forming apparatus while separating the sheets one by one from the uppermost sheet using a pickup roller. For examples, large-capacity sheet feeders externally attached to image forming apparatuses, sheet cassettes provided in main bodies of image forming apparatuses and the like exist as modes of sheet feeders.
In these sheet feeders, there are cases where an elevating plate movable upward and downward is disposed in a sheet accommodating portion. In a sheet feeder accommodating a relatively large amount of sheets, the elevating plate is frequently used. Sheets are stacked on this elevating plate. The elevating plate is elevated little by little so as to bring the uppermost one of the stacked sheets into contact with a pickup portion such as a pickup roller during a sheet feeding operation.
On the other hand, the elevating plate is lowered upon replenishing sheets. Some elevating plates are lowered straight to a lower limit position, and some elevating plates are gradually lowered every time sheets are replenished so that the elevating plate or the uppermost position of the stacked sheets is located at such a height as to enable easy sheet replenishment for users. After the completion of the sheet replenishment, the elevating plate is elevated to bring the uppermost sheet into contact with the pickup portion.
Japanese Patent No. 2931086 (D1) proposes an example of such a sheet feeder. D1 discloses that, in a large-capacity sheet feeder for feeding sheets stacked on a bottom plate of a tray movable upward and downward from the uppermost one by means of a sheet feeding mechanism, an inclined portion inclined upward in a sheet feeding direction is provided at a leading end portion of the tray bottom plate. By such a construction, compatibility between the large-capacity sheet feeder and a sheet cassette is improved, and an attempt is made to avoid a sheet jam and the like by enabling a sheet to be brought at a suitable angle to a feed roller present downstream of a pickup roller in the sheet feeding direction.
It has been a conventional and general practice to stack sheets in a sheet feeder such that the leading ends of the sheets in a sheet feeding direction are inclined upward or at least held horizontal. This is because, as disclosed in D1, the sheets are thought to be more stably fed with the leading ends of the sheets extending upward in view of the multiple feed of sheets and the like.
However, if the leading ends of the sheets are lifted up, sheets in an uppermost part of the sheet stack might be displaced backward. Then, it is no longer possible to reliably bring the uppermost sheet into contact with the pickup portion, thereby presenting a problem of being unable to precisely feed the sheets. This problem causes a sheet jam and the like.
Further, in order to precisely move the elevating plate provided in the sheet feeder capable of accommodating a large amount of sheets upward and downward, it is necessary to accurately detect the position of the uppermost part of the sheet stack. However, if the sheets in the uppermost part of the sheet stack are displaced backward, there is an addition problem of being unable to make an accurate detection in some cases.
Specifically, in the case of elevating the elevating plate to bring the uppermost one of the stacked sheets into contact with the pickup portion, the position of the uppermost sheet might be erroneously detected if the sheets are displaced backward. Such an error detection causes problems that a sheet other than the uppermost one is brought into contact with the pickup portion with the uppermost sheet left displaced backward and the elevating plate is excessively elevated. These problems cause a pickup error, a delay in feed timing, a sheet jam and the like.
On the other hand, upon gradually lowering the elevating plate such that the uppermost one of the already stacked sheets is at such a height enabling easy replenishment for a user during a sheet replenishing operation, the elevating plate might be stopped without being sufficiently lowered before reaching an originally determined amount of downward movement. This troubles the sheet replenishing operation of the user.
Since the upward inclined portion in the sheet feeding direction is provided at the leading end portion of the tray bottom plate in the sheet feeder of D1, sheets in the uppermost part of the sheet stack might be displaced backward. Further, the invention according to D1 aims to improve the compatibility between the large-capacity sheet feeder and the sheet cassette and to enable the sheet to be brought at a suitable angle to the feed roller, and does not consider the above problems at all.

Sheet feeder and image forming apparatus


A reception unit for a magnetic resonance tomography apparatus has an RF preamplifier connected at its signal input to a local coil with a PIN diode connected in parallel with the signal input and a supply voltage connection of the RF preamplifier being connected to a direct voltage source. The reception unit has a supply node that is connected with the supply voltage connection, the PIN diode and a cross-over switch for alternating connection of the supply node to the direct voltage source or a direct current source.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns a reception unit for a magnetic resonance tomography apparatus.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In magnetic resonance tomography apparatus, subjects to be examined (for example body tissue of a patient) are excited to resonate on an atomic level by an excitation unit during a transmission phase. For this purpose, electromagnetic fields of extremely high field strengths are used. In a reception phase subsequent to the transmission phase, the excited regions of the subject to be examined radiate magnetic resonance signals that have field strengths smaller by many orders of magnitude than the excitation signals. The resonance signals are acquired by a reception unit of the magnetic resonance tomography apparatus and converted into image information.
Various local coils receive signals that are amplified by RF preamplifiers and conducted to an evaluation unit to acquire the extremely weak signals during the reception phase. The RF preamplifiers are designed for the extremely small voltages coming from the local coil.
During the transmission phase, instead of the resonance field a local coil is exposed to the electromagnetic excitation field (which as noted above is larger by many orders of magnitude thus the MR field), causing voltages that are higher by orders of magnitude occur at the local coil output. In order to protect the sensitive RF preamplifiers from these voltages, protective diodes (usually PIN diodes) are connected at the amplifier input. During the transmission phase, the PIN diode is fed with current and acts as a short circuit in terms of RF in order to protect the preamplifier from damage and simultaneously to prevent an impermissibly high resonance current from forming in the local coil. Such a resonance current could lead to severe burns to the patient or to unwanted resonance splitting in the magnetic resonance tomography apparatus, i.e. detuning of the individual resonances of the excitation and local coils.
During the reception phase, the PIN diode is supplied with a blocking voltage so that it is non-conductive for the RF signals to be acquired.
The diode current and the diode blocking voltage conventionally have been conducted via separate lines or separate coaxial cable from the external region (field-free region) into the inner region, thus from the site of the local coil or PIN diode into the strong field region of the magnetic resonance tomography apparatus. A problem is that dangerous sheath waves can propagate along all lines that lead from the inside of the magnetic resonance tomography apparatus to the outside. Sheath waves likewise endanger the patient due to skin burns or disrupt the functioning of the preamplifiers due to uncontrolled feedback though the local coil. Therefore, complex sheath wave barriers that prevent the propagation of sheath waves are arranged along all lines leading from the inside of the magnetic resonance tomography apparatus.

Reception unit for a magnetic resonance tomography apparatus


A method for producing a part made of a composite material, including a skin and at least one stiffener made of strips, which are in turn made of one or more plies of fibers impregnated with a non-polymerized resin. The method includes the steps of: producing a preform of the part by pulling the strips through a die for shaping and positioning the skin and the stiffeners, a polymerization core being provided between a first strip and a second strip prior to the passage thereof through the die; and pressing the resulting preform in a hot press for a duration dt while applying a pressure P and at a temperature T for polymerizing the resin of the strips in the hot press over a pressing length L that is shorter than the length of the panel.

The present invention belongs to the field of the production of structures.
More particularly, the invention relates to the production of thin and stiffened panels made of composite material.
In the field of structures, and more particularly of aeronautical structures, the use of structures that are strong and as light as possible is appreciated.
In particular, the structures such as airplane fuselages, or the shell structures in general, are constructed, among other things, from panels in which a skin that is relatively thin compared to the other dimensions of the panel is stabilized by stiffeners (also called stringers) fixed to the skin which increases the strength of the skin and above all which increases its rigidity and gives it an acceptable resistance to buckling.
Such stiffened panels can be made of metallic materials or, as is becoming more generally commonplace, in particular in the aeronautical field, of composite materials.
The type of composite materials used for these applications generally consists of a stack of plies comprising fibers, often long fibers, held in a hard organic matrix.
The fibers are oriented in directions that can be different according to the ply concerned in order to confer on each part made of composite material mechanical properties suited to the directions of the forces introduced into the part.
The parts made of composite material are shaped, to obtain the geometry that the parts need to have in the planned application, in a step during which the organic matrix, generally an organic polymer resin, is not hard, either the resin is a resin that hardens in a subsequent baking process, so-called thermosetting resins, or the resin is a resin in a plastic state when the temperature is raised to a sufficient value, so-called thermoplastic resins.
To produce a stiffened panel made of composite material, in particular of thermosetting composite material, it is necessary for the stiffeners to be strongly attached to the skin of the panel, and, for this, there are a number of techniques which are implemented these days.
A first technique consists in independently producing the skin and each of the stiffeners made of composite material and in joining the stiffeners to the skin in a hard state. The joining is then done by means that are also used with metallic materials such as bonding or riveting.
A drawback with this first technique lies in the fact that it is lengthy to implement and that each of the elements to be joined has to be produced with sufficient accuracy to ensure that the joining will be correct. In practice, to achieve the necessary accuracy, said accuracy demands the use of molds which are both costly and specific to each part to be produced.
A second known technique consists in producing the stiffeners made of composite material in a first step and then, in a second step, producing the skin made of composite material directly on the prepositioned stiffeners, and finally, in a third step, proceeding with the hardening of the skin at the same time as said skin adheres to the stiffeners.
This technique makes it possible to guarantee that the skin will be applied very accurately to the stiffeners, but it requires the stiffeners to be perfectly held in position in a mold during the production of the skin and it is difficult in this case to obtain the accuracy and the surface finish expected of the finished panels.
In a variant of this technique, the skin is produced first and the stiffeners are produced on the skin in a second step, but, while in this case it is generally easier to obtain the surface finish sought on the face of the panel opposite that to which the stiffeners are fixed, it is more difficult on the other hand to obtain a satisfactory accuracy in the positioning of the stiffeners.
This second technique and its variant further require the interposition of a film of glue at the skin/stiffeners interface and therefore an additional step in the production of the panels.
A third technique consists in simultaneously molding the skin and the stiffeners in a non-hardened state and in carrying out the simultaneous hardening of the skin and of the stiffeners during a baking step during which the stiffeners are joined to the skin in a phase of polymerization of the resin.
This technique, called cocuring, allows for a very efficient joining of the stiffeners and of the skin but is demanding in terms of molds which have to be of dimensions similar to the panel to be produced and it has proven difficult to control the dimensions of the part when the tolerances to be observed are tight.

Method for producing an extruded stiffened panel, and device for implementing same


Provided is a method for user communications with an information dialog system, which may be used for organizing user interactions with the information dialog system based on a natural language. The method may include activating a user input subsystem in response to a user entering a request; receiving and converting the request of the user into text by the user input subsystem; sending the text obtained as a result of the conversion of the request to a dialog module; processing, by the dialog module, the text; forming, by the dialog module, the response to the request; sending the response to the user; and displaying and/or reproducing the formed response, where, after the displaying and/or the reproducing of the formed response, the user input subsystem is automatically activated upon entering a further request or a clarification request by the user.

Information dialogue systems have gained widespread use in various fields of life (for example, for organizing automatic knowledge tests, automated customer support service, disease diagnostics, and so forth). However, existing information dialogue systems target solving narrowly defined tasks. Therefore, the existing information dialogue systems can only support a dialogue related to a certain topic. In addition, most of the existing information dialogue systems are unable to form a response in a natural language, impart emotional overtone to a generated response, or perform any additional operations, including interacting with other information systems and subsystems. Existence of such possibilities can allow for not only performing a two-way exchange of information, instructions, and commands between a user and the system, but also conducting a meaningful dialogue, thereby creating an impression, for the user, of communicating with a live interlocutor. Thus, much more effective solutions to the problems set by the user may be provided. This is why methods for user communications with the information dialogue system that can expand the possibilities of the user interaction with the information dialogue system remain important.
Conventional adaptive natural language interfaces and methods for receiving, interpreting, and executing of user input in a natural language are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 7,216,080, published on Mar. 8, 2007. The method described in the above-mentioned patent includes entering a request by a user, receiving and converting the request into text, processing the text and forming a response in a form of an output command, converting the output command to an execution command, and outputting the execution command to an additional system and/or subsystems for execution. However, the disadvantages of the described solution include the possibility for the user to enter the request only in the natural language. Thus, the user cannot enter text using peripheral devices, such as a keyboard, for example. In addition, a voice cue formed in response to the request of the user cannot connote an emotional overtone and, therefore, cannot indicate an emotional state of the information dialogue system.

Method for user communication with information dialogue system