The lap shapes of a fixed scroll and an orbiting scroll are configured in an asymmetric tooth profile. In the bed plate of an orbiting scroll, a fluid effluence channel communicating with an external line side compression room of an orbiting scroll lap and another fluid effluence channel communicating with an internal line side compression room are formed, and the outlet side opening of each fluid effluence channel opens in the lap tooth bottom of the orbiting scroll, and inlet side openings are formed in a face of the bed plate that is in sliding contact with the bed plate face of the fixed scroll. In the face of the bed plate, a communicating section control groove that lets the inlet side openings of the two fluid effluence channels and the back pressure room intermittently communicate with each other.

Known scroll compressors of this kind include, for instance, what is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2010-203327 (Patent document 1). According to this Patent document 1, an oil inlet is formed in the upper face of at least either of an orbiting scroll lap or a fixed scroll lap; a first oil feed channel linking the opening of this oil inlet and a first compression room and a second oil feed channel linking the opening of the oil inlet and a second compression room are formed in the upper face of the lap where the oil inlet is formed; and outlets of the first oil feed channel and of the second oil feed channel are disposed in positions differing in involute angle from each other of the lap where the oil inlet is formed.
This scroll compressor disclosed in Patent document 1 is claimed to be able to uniformly supply sufficient quantities of oil to both the first compression room formed toward the outer wall of the orbiting scroll lap and the second compression room formed toward the inner wall of the same.
However, as the scroll compressor described in the above-cited Patent document 1 has the scroll lap oil inlet for letting fluid in a back pressure room flow out in the upper face (toward the tooth tip) of the scroll lap, a leak loss at the lap tooth tip increases. Furthermore, as oil feed channels for letting fluid in the back pressure room flow out need to be provided within the scroll lap, it involves another problem that the strength of the lap is adversely affected.
It is not impossible to dispense with oil feed channels or an oil inlet in a scroll lap and thereby to avoid a strength loss by providing a scroll compressor having an asymmetric tooth profile with an oil inlet, such as the one mentioned above, which opens toward a tooth bottom between scroll laps of a back pressure room to flow out into a compression room. However, if this configuration is adopted, in order to make the back pressure of the back pressure room communicate with the target pressure level in the compression room on the external line side and the compression room on the internal line side of the orbiting scroll lap will differ in orbiting angle, only one of the external line side compression room and the internal line side compression room can be enabled to communicate with the back pressure room, posing the problem that the compression room not communicating with the oil inlet cannot receive sufficient oil supply.
In order to address the problem noted above, the present invention is intended to provide a scroll compressor that can avoid oiling shortage without sacrificing the lap strength by supplying oil in a back pressure room to both a compression room on the external line side and a compression room on the internal line side of an orbiting scroll lap.

Scroll compressor with channels intermittently communicating internal and external compression chambers with back pressure chamber


A method of forming concrete integral box shaped modules provides dimensional accuracy and sustains closer tolerances thus permitting surfaces of adjacent modules to match. The method utilizes a standard fixed box frame with vertical walls that can be easily reset after forming a module. The method includes the steps of constructing a fixed box form with four vertical rectangular sides and a top horizontal surface, top trays extending out from top edges of the rectangular sides and bottom trays extending out from bottom edges. Corner fillers are placed in vertical corner spaces formed by the four vertical sides, steel mesh and rebar is laid on the vertical sides and in the trays, the trays are then filled with concrete and concrete is sprayed onto the vertical sides. The module is steamed to set the concrete, the trays are removed and the module is raised initially by jacking to release the module from the box form.

Building construction using box shaped modules made of concrete has certain advantages over more conventional building methods because the prefabrication of the modules can be formed in either a factory or on one specific location at a building site and thus tolerances can be more easily controlled. The concrete building modules, sometimes referred to as "tubes", generally consist of a ceiling surface, floor surface and two or three wall surfaces. In some cases the end wall is omitted providing an open tube module and in other cases the end wall is provided having a closed tube module. The concrete module has all the necessary structural elements such as joists, beams, posts, etc. integrally formed therein, and provides a cubic space suitable for a single room or multiple rooms. Dimension limits are defined by what can be manufactured in practice, what maximum weight can be handled and what dimensions can be transported.
Concrete building modules are formed on formwork. Reinforcing in the form of mesh is generally first applied around the formwork and then concrete is sprayed in a manner sometimes referred to under the trademark "SHOTCRETING" so that thin layers of dense concrete cover vertical surfaces. Horizontal concrete surfaces are formed in the conventional manner. When concrete is sprayed onto a smooth steel surface it produces one smooth dense concrete surface that needs minimal cosmetic treatment. This is an inner surface of the building module.
The formwork presently used for forming concrete boxes or modules has to either have tapered sides to permit the concrete box to be removed or, alternatively, the formwork must be collapsible. The formwork is not ideal with tapered sides, as the inside surfaces of the concrete module are not completely level or matched. The problems with a collapsible framework is the loss of accuracy that occurs between modules when matching surface edges. The collapsing and resetting of the framework results in dimension changes from cast module to cast module.

Apparatus and process for casting large concrete boxes


An image forming system has a plurality of image forming devices connected via a network. The system includes an image processor which processes an input image signal to produce a processed image signal. Respective additional information is superimposed on the processed image signal in a form that is not conspicuous to the human eye in preparation for transfer of the processed image signal to each of the plurality of image forming devices, with the respective additional information being different for each of the plurality of image forming devices. The processed image signal with the respective additional information superimposed thereon is transferred via the network to the respective ones of the image forming devices via the network.

This invention relates to an image forming system in which a plurality of image forming units are interconnected for forming images simultaneously.
A reader and a printer constituting a digital copier are capable of being utilized independently as an image reading device and an image output device, respectively. Accordingly, systems have been proposed in which the reader/printer is connected to an ordinary computer system using an external I/F interface so as to be utilized as an image input/output unit, or in which a plurality of sets of reader/printers are distributed and connected and a central control means for controlling them is provided to allow a high copy volume (CV) by using a plurality of printers simultaneously.
Further, with the recent improvements that have been made in the capabilities of color copiers and color printers, there is a greater possibility that these devices will be utilized unlawfully, as in counterfeiting. However, it has heretofore been impossible to specify, based upon the copy produced, the particular device used to make the copy or the individual who produced the copy. In order to prevent such unlawful copying, consideration has been given to registering data indicative of image patterns of specific originals in a color copier or color printer per se and forcibly inhibiting unlawful copying when the data is identified by an image recognition circuit.
However, the circuitry that discriminates specific originals is such that the number of image patterns capable of being registered is limited. This is disadvantageous in that it is impossible to register all types of specific originals. In addition, there are cases in which the circuitry for discriminating specific originals will not function in a color copier or color printer having an external interface.
For example, if the specifications of the image data in the external interface are such that data of the three primary colors red, green and blue are sent to the device simultaneously, the above-mentioned discriminating circuit will be capable of operating. However, if the data specifications have been made to conform to the individual characteristics of a printer, as in the case of data in the colors cyan, magenta, yellow and black, there will be a plurality of combinations capable of color reproduction. Consequently, a plurality of image patterns for discrimination are required and discrimination for detecting specific originals is very complicated. An additional drawback is a smaller number of images capable of being discriminated.
Furthermore, in a case where image data of each of the color components is sent to the device field-sequentially color by color, the image data must be accumulated in memory in order to discriminate an image. This leads to higher cost and necessitates a large expenditure for discriminating the specific images.
Even if the problem of the image signal from the external interface is solved and image recognition is performed by limiting the number of specific originals to the number capable of being recognized, erroneous recognition in which a picture quite similar to a registered specific original is discriminated as being the specific original or in which a soiled specific original is not discriminated as being the specific original cannot be avoided.
Accordingly, though it is important that the image forming device be provided with means for detecting specific originals, there is a limitation upon the number of specific originals that can be detected. Therefore, in a case where an original that is not supposed to be copied has been copied, specifying the copying machine or the individual that produced the copy is important.
With this as a background, a technique has been studied through which information capable of specifying the copying device or individual can be added on to a specific original. Specifically, this technique involves using an output color component (yellow, for example) that is least conspicuous to the human eye from among the output color components (magenta, cyan, yellow, black) of a copier, modulating the image signal of this color component (as by adding a constant value) and adding on a pattern representing the manufacturing serial number of the copying device.
Demand is great for the ability to output not only a reflective original but also images of a wide variety of kinds e.g., computer graphics (CG)!. Such a function is essential in modern digital copiers.
However, when system development in such a digital copier is considered, there is no correlation between the reader/printer actually used in copying and added-on information since the added-on information is not set appropriately. Such a copier makes it very difficult to specify, based upon the reproduced image, the copier that copied the image or the individual who performed the copying operation.
Further, when system development in such a digital copier is considered, one subject that arises is construction of a system in which high CV can be achieved by using a plurality of output devices simultaneously.
In a technique in which a plurality of reader/printer sets are connected and a central control unit is employed to control them, the number of sets of reader/printers capable of being connected must be determined when the constitution of the central control unit is considered. Limitations are encountered in terms of flexible system expansion according to need.

Image forming system in which a plurality of image forming devices are connected via a network


A secure fiber optic communication system capable of tens of gigabits/second data transfer rates that utilizes a pair of single mode fiber optic cables in combination with one or more light sources, phase modulators, detectors and polarization scrambling elements to form a Sagnac interferometer. The phase modulator is driven so that counter propagating light beams in the Sagnac loop experience a different optical path as they pass through the loop. When the two beams are recombined on the central beamsplitter of the Sagnac loop, the two beams interfere with each other and the data impressed as phase modulation on the light beams by the phase modulator is recovered as amplitude modulation on the output detector of the Sagnac interferometer. The system can be configured to operate full duplex on two optical fibers by using light at different wavelengths or time division multiplexing data. The system can also be configured as a multi-node network. Alarms, intrusion control, random pathlength changes and the like can be included to make undetected, unauthorized access to the system even more difficult.

Currently, cryptographic techniques are used to secure data during transmission electronically where the entire communication system is not physically secure. These techniques often involve complex keys and key holders to assure security, driving up the overall operating cost of this type of system. The most secure of the cryptographic units that are affordable, are limited in speed, running at a maximum data throughput of approximately 50.times.10.sup.6 bits/sec. (50 MBPS). This limitation is brought on because of computer overhead required by cryptographic techniques. To circumvent some of these problems Hughes Aircraft Co. has developed a secure fiber optic communication system that is based on the protection afforded by a guard mode. The guard mode carries a large amount of optical energy protecting a data carrying mode that has a relatively small amount of optical energy. When an intrusion is attempted, the light from the guard mode leaks out, an alarm trips, and the system shuts down. The Hughes system uses a costly special optical fiber to preserve the integrity of the alarm and data carrying modes. It is currently limited to operation at 13 MBPS over a maximum distance of 1.5 km. Also because of difficulties associated with mode integrity, the Hughes system is very difficult to implement where connectors must be used.
More recently, the Sagnac interferometer has been suggested as a means to support data communications using Faraday rotation (A Pseudo-Reciprocal Fiber-Optic Faraday Rotation Sensor: Current Measurement and Data Communication Applications, by P. Akhavan Leilabady, A. P. Wayte, M. Berwick, J. D. C. Jones, and D. A. Jackson, Optics Communications, Volume 59, Number 3, page 173-176, Sep. 1, 1986). This system uses twisted single mode optical fiber to reduce birefringence effects. However, it relies on toroidal current to generate magnetic fields and can be expected to operate at very low speeds of less than 1 MBPS. This system may also be susceptible to noise induced by stray magnetic fields, as one of its primary purposes is to measure current via the magnetic field induced Faraday effect.
Secure data communication links are needed that operate at high speed for everyday business, as well as government use. Banks transfer huge amounts of money by electronic means, usually computer to computer. They need means to assure that someone cannot intercept the data stream to change the recipient of the funds, change the amount transferred, or gain knowledge of who is transferring money where and to whom. Lawyers, accountants and securities brokers have need for absolute security in their corporate merger, acquisition, buyout and investment work to assure that advance information cannot be acquired by others before public notice, since acquisition of such information by an unscrupulous individual can result in fortunes being made or lost and liability to the lawyer, accountant or broker. Many businesses have proprietary information, such as financial data, costs, advanced product data that must be transferred electronically, where access by unauthorized people could result in ruin. Few, if any, persons outside of government can afford the slow, computer intensive, dedicated secure communication systems heretofore available. Therefore, there has been a need to provide economical secure data communication systems that can use existing fiber optic cables for high rate data transfer without resorting to encryption.

Sagnac interferometer based secure communication system


The present invention is related to a heated garden hose that has a flexible hose with an inlet and an outlet. The garden hose has an inlet coupler and an outlet coupler. A heating cable coupler is connected between the inlet and the outlet of the flexible hose. A heating cable has a first end with an electrical plug and extends through the heating cable coupler into the interior of the flexible hose. The heating cable is free floating inside the flexible hose. A thermostat, attached to the exterior portion of the heating cable, controls the heating cable and is designed to turn the heating cable off just above the freezing temperature of water. A clip is inserted into the flexible hose near the outlet to hold the heating cable inside of the flexible hose.

In the winter garden hoses become clogged with ice and may break or break the faucet if left connected to a faucet. However, many people need to use a garden hose during the winter to fill up hot tubs, ornamental ponds, stock tanks and a variety of other uses. There have been attempts to provide a heated garden hose. For instance, there have been garden hoses with heating wires running inside the housing of the hose. This requires setting up a different production system and specialized machinery for garden hoses. Alternatively, there have been heated hoses with the heating element running on the outside of the rubberized hose with an insulating sleeve covering the hose and heating element the entire length of the hose. This also requires specialized machinery to produce. Because the prior designs require specialized machinery to produce they are difficult to manufacture and this cause the price of these heated hose to be well over one hundred dollars and therefore out of the reach of the average consumer.
Thus, there exists a need for garden hose that can be used in the winter without clogging up with ice or breaking and is inexpensive and relatively simple to manufacture.


A method for controlling a camera using an image compression algorithm. A motion region and a motionless region are determined with respect to an input image based on a motion vector of a macro block which is for the generation of compressed data from the input image. A center value and a size of a moving object is estimated from the motion region. According to the center value and the size of the moving object, the camera is controlled to track and photograph the moving object. Accordingly, a central processing unit of the moving object tracking system is relieved of substantial processing load, and the processing speed of the system is improved.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for photographing an object, and more particularly, to a method for controlling a camera with motion information of the object that is obtained during compression of input images.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Generally, digital photography systems use data compression techniques to reduce the volume of data, and thereby record a greater volume of image data during the shooting, facilitating transmission of the photographed information to a remote area. For example, a digital television transmission system compresses the image data obtained by the camera, and transmits the compressed image signals as broadcasting signals.
FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing the conventional image compression method for an image compression/recovery system. When the image information of the object photographed by the camera is input (step S11), the image compression/recovery system performs pre-processing of the input image (step S12). That is, signal processing is performed on the raw camera input to remove and prevent noise from the input images. Then, by comparing such processed images with the preceding frames, a motion vector of a macro block is calculated (step S13). Next, post-processing is performed to compress the input images (step S14). Digital encoding is performed (step S15), and finally compressed data of the input images is generated (step S16).
The 'motion vector' of the macro block, which is used to compress the image data, indicates a direction of an object moving among the image signals of the preceding and following frames. The motion vector is represented in two dimensions, i.e., in the horizontal and vertical directions. For example, if the motion vector of a particular macro block shows the values of (2, −3), it means the motion vector of the particular macro block has moved by two pixels in the horizontal direction, and by −3 pixels in the vertical direction.
Through the above-described compression of data, image data can be stored and transmitted to a remote area in greater volume and at a higher speed.
In certain applications, automatic tracking systems are advantageous. Automatic tracking systems are able to control a camera to track a moving object through signal processing of the input images.
FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a conventional camera controlling process. When the image is input (step S21), the system performs pre-processing with respect to the input image (step S22). Next, the input image is divided into a plurality of areas (step S23). The plurality of areas is categorized into a background region and a motion region, so that the moving object is extracted (step S24). Then, the size and the motion information of the extracted moving object are obtained (step S25). Based on the size and motion information of the extracted moving object, pan/tilt and zoom-in/zoom-out of the camera is controlled (step S26). Through the above-described processes, the moving object is automatically tracked, and thus, the photographing is performed.
Typically, automatic tracking systems use image compression algorithms, such as those described above, to reduce storage and transmission requirements. Research is currently underway to develop an image compression algorithm that would enable the transmission of the moving object being tracked to a remote location using the internet or a wireless communication network.
However, in conventional automatic moving object tracking systems as described above, the process of compressing the input image and the process of tracking the moving object are performed independently of each other. Because the process of compressing the input image and the process of processing the input image for camera control are currently performed separately, control units are subjected to considerable overload and unnecessary power consumption.

Apparatus and method for controlling a camera using a video compression algorithm


A method for production of mono-dispersed and crystalline titanium dioxide ultra fine powders comprises preparing an aqueous titanyl chloride solution, diluting the aqueous titanyl chloride solution to a concentration of between about 0.2 to 1.2 mole and heating the diluted aqueous titanyl chloride solution and maintaining the solution in a temperature range of between 15 to 155.degree. C. to precipitate titanium dioxide. The aqueous titanyl chloride solution is prepared by adding ice pieces of distilled water or icing distilled water to undiluted titanium tetrachloride.

Titanium dioxide, which is usually used as photocatalyst removing environmental pollutants, pigment materials, additives for plastic product or optical multi-coating reagent, has two phases of crystalline structure, that is anatase and rutile. Titanium dioxide with anatase phase has been used as a photocatalyst for photodecomposition of acetone, phenol or trichloro ethylene, oxidation system of nitric oxide such as nitrogen mono-oxide and nitrogen dioxide and conversion system of solar energy because of its high photo-activity. Titanium dioxide with rutile phase has been widely used for white pigment materials because of its good scattering effect that protects the ultraviolet light. It has also been used for optical coating, beam splitter and anti-reflection coating since it has a high dielectric constant and refractive index, a good oil adsorption ability and tinting power, and chemical stability, even under strongly acidic or basic conditions. Titanium dioxide shows different electrical characteristics according to oxygen partial pressure since it has wide chemical stability and non-stoichiometric phase region. Because of this, it can also be used for a humidity sensor and a high-temperature oxygen sensor, and the field of its use has become wide.
Generally, titanium dioxide powders are fabricated by a chloride process, which is a gas phase process, or by a sulfate process, which is a liquid phase process.
In the chloride process, which was industrialized by Du Pont in USA in 1956, titanium tetrachloride, vigorously reacting with moisture in the air and undergoing hydrolysis, is used as a starting material and the reaction temperature needs to be higher than 1,000.degree. C. Also, this method requires extra protection devices because of the corrosive HCl or Cl.sub.2 gas by-produced in the process, leading to higher production costs. Because titanium dioxide powders produced by the chloride process are fine but rough, additive equipment for giving external electric fields or controlling reactant mixing ratios are required to control the particle shape and the particle size of titanium dioxide powders.
In the sulfate process, which was industrialized by Titan company in Norway in 1916, titanium sulfate (TiSO.sub.4) is conventionally hydrolyzed at temperatures higher than 95.degree. C., calcined at 800-1,000.degree. C. and then pulverized to produce titanium dioxide powders. During these calcination and pulverization processes, impurities are introduced causing the quality of the final titanium dioxide powder to be low.
However, compared with gas phase process, the liquid phase process represented by the sulfate process needs a milder temperature condition and makes it possible to produce titanium dioxide in a large amount, thus there have been some other reports about an improved liquid phase process or new liquid phase process to fabricate crystalline titanium dioxide powder using titanium tetrachloride, the starting material in the chloride process.
Russia patent SU-1,398,321 shows a new liquid phase process, in which an adequate amount of anatase phase titaniferous seed was added into titanium tetrachloride solution, hydrolyzed to precipitate titanium dioxide powders by heating and the precipitated titanium dioxide was fabricated by an additional process such as a high temperature treatment. This process is simple but requires additive high temperature treatment of 600-650.degree. C. to obtain anatase phase titanium dioxide, and a much higher temperature treatment to obtain rutile phase titanium dioxide.
In addition, in JP 9-124,320, gel was formed by adding water to titanium tetrachloride dissolved in alcohol such as butanol, together with one of various kinds of acetate, carbonate, oxalate and citrate containing alkali metals or alkali earth metals. Then, the obtained gel was treated with high temperature and titanium dioxide was fabricated. The physical properties of titanium dioxide powders produced by this method are good, but the process requires expensive additives such as organic acids and needs a high temperature treatment to remove added organic acids after gel formation.
Another process like sol-gel method and hydrothermal synthesis has been developed to control the titanium dioxide powder characteristics such as particle shape, particle size and distribution of the particle size. Metal alkoxide is usually used to fabricate spherically shaped titanium dioxide powders with a uniform size on a laboratory scale and this sol-gel method using alkoxide produces fine spherically shaped powders with a uniform, size smaller than 1.0 .mu.m. However, tight control of the reaction conditions is required since alkoxide is intensely hydrolyzed in air. Furthermore, the high price of the alkoxide limits its commercialization. The hydrothermal synthesis using an autoclave under high temperature and pressure conditions produces high quality powders but a continuous process has been impossible up to now.
The present inventors have successfully developed a new titanium dioxide powder fabrication method. In the method, it is possible to prepare titanium dioxide powder with good characteristics such as particle shape, particle size and distribution of the particle size, reproducibly and continuously. In addition, it is easy to control the mixture ratio of rutile and anatase phase of the titanium dioxide crystalline.

Method for production of mono-dispersed and crystalline TiO.sub.2 ultrafine powders for aqueous TiOCl.sub.2 solution using homogeneous precipitation


Method for the detection and/or location of mutations or deletions in nucleotide sequences by creation of heteroduplexes between two types of double-stranded DNA able to form mismatches at the sites of said mutations or deletions. The heteroduplexes are detected as a result of the labeling of each type of strand by different fluorescent molecules or are screened by passage over a support which specifically retains them.

The majority of diseases linked to with genome modifications, either of the host organisms or of infectious organisms, are very often due to a simple change of one or more nucleotides. Considerable effort has therefore been devoted to develop methods for detecting not only already known mutations but also unknown mutations.
However, the methods available for searching for unknown point mutations in DNA regions of significant size have many disadvantages which render their use difficult.
For example, electrophoresis gels with a denaturation gradient require computer-assisted optimizations of the target region and electrophoresis conditions adapted to each DNA fragment (Myers et al. (1987), Methods Enzymol, 155, 501-527).
The technique of single strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) (Orita et al. (1989)--Genomics, 5, 874), despite its experimental simplicity, has shown a sensitivity for the detection of mutations in DNA fragments of around 150 base pairs.
However, neither of these methods gives precise information concerning the location of the mutation in the DNA fragment.
Although direct sequencing methods are becoming increasingly rapid, they remain costly and lengthy in searching for unknown mutations and are not reliable in the case of heterozygous point mutations.
Another method involving chemical cleavage at the site of the mismatches (CCM) such as described by Cotton et al. (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., USA (1988) 85, 4397-4401) is in principle well suited to the detection of mutations, independently of the length and the composition of the sequence of the region of interest. It has been used with success in a large number of studies (Cotton (1993) Mutation Research 285, 125-144).
This method has enabled the detection of mutations in fragments amplified by enzymatic routes and of a length of one kilobase.
No present method is likely to be used routinely for various reasons: lack of reliability (a significant number of false negatives) and also because the complexity of the methods which thus do not lend themselves to automated operation.
For example in the conventional CCM method, the heteroduplexes, in other words the double-stranded DNA, resulting from a matching between two heterologous DNA molecules, are formed between the patient's DNA amplified by the enzymatic route, and a DNA fragment representing the wild type sequence labeled at one end by use of a radioactive isotope. The heteroduplex DNA molecules are formed with the DNA corresponding to the sequence of the wild type labeled at the ends of each of its strands, coding or non-coding, and are then chemically treated in parallel reactions in order to reveal the mismatches.
In theory, all the mutations ought to be able to be detected by the use of two probes, after specific cleavage of the non-matched cytosines and thymines induced by hydroxylamine and osmium tetroxide respectively, since a non-matched cytosine or thymine should be present at the site of the mutation, either on the coding strand or on the non-coding strand of the probe labeled with a radioactive isotope.
In practice, cleavage at the site of some mismatches can occur incorrectly, because of the nature of the non-matched bases and the environment of these bases.
The probes used in the conventional CCM method thus do not allow for four types of heteroduplex existing simultaneously. For example, Cotton et al. (1993, cited above) describe only one or two types of heteroduplex.
A further disadvantage of this technique is the necessity for repeating the radioactive labeling of the primers for chain polymerization (PCR) and the size markers.
In addition, this technique requires the preparation of a double series of heteroduplexes, with terminal labeling of the sense strand and nonsense strand in order to detect separately the bases modified on one strand or the other.
Finally, the CCM method does not lead to the detection of all the heteroduplexes and thus does not allow the detection of some mutations.
A probe is defined as a labeled nucleotide sequence comprising a sufficient number of nucleotides to establish the specific complementarity between this sequence and the sequence present in the sample.
For example, a probe used according to the invention can consist of between 8 and 2 000 nucleotides.
A heteroduplex is defined as a DNA strand hybridized with a complementary strand containing at least one mismatch or one deletion or non-matched loop.
The applicants have thus endeavored to develop a more reliable, more rapid technique which can be automated, enabling an unambiguous determination of the base substitution, consisting of a smaller number of steps, and using non-radioactive labels.

Method for detecting molecules containing nucleotide mismatches and the location of these mismatches, and application to the detection of base substitutions or deletions in nucleotide sequences

Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale


In an environment where the transmission medium leading to the receiver is time-variant within a block of received signals, and where transmission medium has an finite impulse response extending over a number of symbols intervals, a receiver that includes a filter that, based on an estimate of the transmission channel, is controlled to have filter coefficients that minimize inter-carrier interference due to the intra-block time variations in the transmission medium. The estimate channel coefficients are determined from pilot signals and an interpolation process. When the receiver is an OFDM receiver, the pilot signals are advantageously selected to be in clusters that are equally spaced from each other in the time or the frequency domains. This approach applies to multiple antenna, as well as to single antenna arrangements, and to arrangements that do, or do not use space-time coding.

This invention relates to wireless communication and, more particularly, to wireless communication in an environment where transmission channel characteristics change relatively rapidly.
The explosive growth of wireless communications is creating a demand for high-speed, reliable, and spectrally efficient communications. There are several challenges to overcome in attempting to satisfy this growing demand, and one of them relates to the time variations in the transmission of multicarrier-modulated signals.
Multicarrier transmission for wireless channels has been well studied. The main advantage of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) transmission stems from the fact that the Fourier basis forms an eigenbasis for time-invariant channels. This simplifies the receiver, which leads to an inexpensive hardware implementations, since the equalizer is just a single-tap filter in the frequency domain—as long as the channel is time invariant within a transmission block. Combined with multiple antennas, OFDM arrangements are attractive for high data rate wireless communication, as shown, for example, in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/213,585, filed 17 Dec. 1998.
Time invariability within a transmission block cannot be guaranteed at all times, however, for example, with the receiving unit moves at a high speed, and that leads to impairments because the Fourier basis at such times no longer forms the eigenbasis, and the loss of orthogonality at the receiver results in inter-carrier interference (ICI). Depending on the Doppler spread in the channel, and the block length, ICI can potentially cause severe deterioration of quality of service

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Amelioration in inter-carrier interference in OFDM


The invention concerns a barking tool for barking machines of the type having a plurality of swinging arms, each being at an inner end pivotally mounted on an annular rotator which is rotatable about an axis of rotation, and each having at a free outer end a processing edge. The processing edge is defined between a front and a top surface, which is adapted, during barking, to make an acute angle with the circumferential surface of the log. The barking tool further has a bead, which is located on the top surface in an area adjacent to the end of the processing edge furthest down in the feeding direction. The bead is essentially arcuate in such a manner that its height above the top surface successively increases from an area adjacent to the processing edge perpendicularly backwards therefrom and, more specifically, the height is adapted such that the bead during normal barking is positioned between a certain minimum and a certain maximum, and preferably essentially uniform, distance from the barked circumferential surface of the log independently of its diameter.

Barking machines of the type mentioned by way of introduction have been known for a long time, and as an example reference is made to SE 463,660 which discloses a barking machine, in which the processing edges are formed on separate, exchangeable processing means which are supported at the outer free ends of the respective swinging arms. When a log arrives at the barking machine, the rotation of the rotator, in combination with climb-up edges formed on the swinging arms and designed especially for this purpose, results in the climbing up thereof on the front end surface of the log, such that the outer ends of the swinging arms are pivoted outwards until the edges of the processing means are applied against the circumferential surface of the log. During continued rotation of the rotator and feeding of the log, complete barking of the log is accomplished by the edges of the processing means being resiliently applied against the circumferential surface of the log and shearing off the bark helically along the circumferential surface.
To enable peeling off also of bark which is difficult to remove, such as frozen or dried bark, the force by which the processing edges are resiliently pressed against the log must be relatively great. This causes problems when practically the entire log has been fed through the barking machine and the processing edges are on the way to leave the log. With an unchanged spring load and a smaller and smaller part of the processing edges applied against the circumferential surface, the pressure in the contact surface between log and processing edge will successively increase, resulting in the processing edge cutting deeper and deeper into the log. This causes cuts in the end portion of the log and may in unfavorable cases also result in the log splitting or large pieces being cut away. Such cuts and splits must be cut away from the finished timber, implying that the earnings from the cutaway timber are lost. With optical scanning of the log, the deeper cutting in the end of the log can besides be perceived as a timber defect and result in the log being sawn in a manner which gives a lower timber yield.
The great spring load affecting the swinging arms also causes problems in other areas of a log than precisely adjacent to the rear end portion when the processing edges leave the log. In fact, most logs have knots along their length. When a processing edge hits a knot during the barking process, the swinging arm is thrown away from the circumferential surface, and it is not unusual for the processing edge to move about 5 cm or more away from the log surface. The spring load then provides for the processing edge being again pivoted to the circumferential surface at high speed and with great force. The timber is then damaged by the processing edge making pits which may have a depth of several centimeters. In unfavorable cases, such damage may cause the timber parts which are recovered from the outermost parts of the log cross-sectional area to be classified in a lower class or be rejected, resulting in a reduction of earnings. However, as a rule, the outermost segments of the cross-sectional area of a log are cut to chips for further refinement in the paper industry, but also the quality of the chips is detrimentally affected by all types of chip damage, and therefore many large pits in the circumferential surface may result in the chips being classified in a less paid class of quality. At the same time it is important that the spring load affecting the swinging arms is great such that the barking tools are pivoted back to the surface of the log as quickly as possible and as small areas as possible are left unbarked. The quality of the chips is, in fact, also affected detrimentally by an increasing amount of bark. Summing up, these demands placed on the effecting of the barking process will result in a compromise which is difficult to balance and which, in many cases, does not give a satisfactory result.


An electric inversion table includes a base, a bench and a driving device. The bench is disposed on the base and is rotated between a horizontal position and a vertical position. The driving device connects the bench to the base for driving the bench to rotate between the horizontal position and the vertical position. When power failure occurs or a motor of the driving device is out of order, users can release locked status by a clutch of the driving device so as to turn the bench from the vertical position back to the horizontal position safely by the body weight.

The present invention relates to an electric inversion table, especially to an electric inversion table in which a user can rotate from an inverted position to a horizontal position by body weight when the power is gone.
By flipping the body over, people inversion has a plurality of therapeutic benefits including increased blood circulation, improved body flexibility, enhanced immunity, reducing pain in scoliosis, stretch muscles, etc. For people doing exercise or rehabilitation patients, they can be in an inverted position with the help of an inversion table. However, negative effects and potential dangers are also associated with inversion therapy so that people are unable to hang upside down for a long period of time.
There are multiple kinds of inversion tables available on the market such as those revealed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,480,543 and U.S. Pat. No. 8,556,787. Users can hang upside down and turn back by their moving hands moving vertically to operate a board or a bench of the inversion table. The inversion table requires no external power source. Another kind of inversion table includes a power driving device for driving the board or the bench to move to an inverted position and turn back. This is an electric inversion table that is more convenient to use and power-saving. Yet while the electric inversion table is in use and tilted partially, the user together with the electric inversion table is in the inverted position and unable to come back to the upright position once a power supply is out of order such as power failure or the driver's disorder. Without help from others, the user is unable to get out of the inversion table safely by himself. Thus the risk of using the electric inversion table is increased and this causes less popularity of the electric inversion table.


A face authentication procedure is performed on a face detected in a visible light image of a scene, and correctness of an authentication determination of the face authentication procedure is verified by comparing the visible light image to an infrared light image of the same scene. The verification may be performed by comparing the luminance and/or the size of an eye region in the visible light image to the luminance and/or the size of the eye region in the infrared light image.

The present disclosure relates to an authentication apparatus, an authentication method, and a program, and particularly to an authentication apparatus, an authentication method, and a program which are capable of enhancing security by face authentication.
From the past, by image taking with the use of visible light and image taking with the use of infrared light, an object an image of which is to be taken is recognized.
For example, in gesture recognition in a car navigation apparatus, there has been proposed such a technology that, in addition to recognition by using a visible light camera, an infrared ray camera is used to obtain a reflection intensity of infrared light and determine a distance to an object to be recognized, thereby improving accuracy of the gesture recognition (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2009-104297).
Further, in a technology for recognizing road signs or the like with an in-vehicle camera, there has been proposed such a technology that information is extracted from a visible light image obtained by a visible light camera, and information is extracted from an infrared light image obtained by an infrared ray camera by emitting infrared light, thereby improving recognition accuracy (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2009-201064).
Further, there has been proposed such a technology that, by using a solid-state image pickup apparatus provided with a light reception unit in which visible light reception units and non-visible light reception units are alternately arranged for each pixel line in a horizontal direction, non-visible light is emitted when an image-taking target object is recognized to take the image thereof, with the result that the image-taking target object is highlighted, and thus recognition accuracy of white lines or the like on roads is increased (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2007-124676).
Further, there has been proposed such a technology that a visible light image and an infrared light image are obtained, thereby detecting positions of pupils of even a person who is wearing glasses with high accuracy (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2001-340300).
Further, there has been proposed such a technology that a visible light camera using a visible light source and an infrared light camera using an infrared light source are used to take images of blood vessel patterns, and the image taking results are compared with each other, thereby increasing accuracy of biometric authentication (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2006-148478).

Authentication apparatus, authentication method, and program


A method including contacting a toner including:                a binder resin including an unsaturated carboxylic acid derivative monomer;        a vinyl polymerizing monomer; and        a colorant;        to a supercritical fluid or a sub-critical fluid to remove the unsaturated carboxylic acid derivative monomer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of preparing a toner for use in electrophotographic methods, electrostatic recording methods and electrostatic printing methods.
2. Discussion of the Background
The electrophotographic image forming method typically includes forming an electrostatic latent image on a photoreceptor (an electrostatic latent image bearer); developing the electrostatic latent image with a developer including a toner to form a visible image (a toner image); and transferring and fixing the visible image onto an image support (transfer material) such as a paper. A heat roller fixing method directly contacting a heating roller to the toner image upon application of pressure and fixing the toner image on the transfer material is widely used because the method has good heat efficiency and the heating roller can be downsized.
However, the heat roller fixing method consumes a large amount of electric power, and various methods of reducing the electric power consumption in terms of saving energy. For instance, it is suggested that a layer of the heating roller, contacting the toner image transferred onto the transfer material, should be as thin as possible to increase the heat energy efficiency and largely shorten a warm-up time thereof. However, in this case, the heating roller has a smaller specific heat capacity, and a difference of temperature between a part the transfer material passes and a part the transfer material does not pass thereof becomes large. Therefore, a melted toner adheres thereto, and after the heating roller makes one revolution, the melted toner adheres to a part of the transfer material, having no image, i.e., the hot offset problem tends to occur. On the other hand, controlling a heat characteristic of a binder resin in the toner is also studied to increase the heat energy efficiency. However, when a glass transition temperature (Tg) of the binder resin is reduced, thermostability of the resultant toner possibly deteriorates. When a molecular weight thereof is reduced, the offset phenomenon tends to occur. Therefore, a toner having good low-temperature fixability and less hot offset problem is not provided yet.
A technology procurement project of copiers for the next generation is present in DSM (Demand-side-Management) programs of International Energy Agency (IEA) in 1999, wherein copiers producing 30 cpm or more are required to have the standby period not greater than 10 sec and electricity consumption of from 10 to 30 W (dependent on copy speed), which will infinitely save more energy than conventional copiers, and saving energy is quite an important subject.
Various suggestions have been made for saving energy, e.g., Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publications Nos. 60-90344, 64-15755, 2-82267, 3-229264, 3-41470 and 11-305486 disclose a method of replacing a styrene-acrylic resin frequently used as a binder resin with a polyester resin having good low-temperature fixability and comparatively good thermostability for the purpose of reducing the fixable temperature of a toner. Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 62-63940 discloses a method of including a specific non-olefin crystalline polymer in a binder resin for the purpose of improving the low-temperature fixability of a toner. Japanese Patent No. 2931899 discloses a method of using a crystalline polyester as a binder resin.
However, these methods wherein a molecular structure and a molecular weight are not optimized have difficulty in achieving the required specification in the DSM (Demand-side-Management) programs of International Energy Agency (IEA).
By the way, methods of preparing a toner are broadly classified into a pulverization method and a suspension polymerization method.
The pulverization method includes kneading a colorant, a charge controlling agent and the like in a binder resin upon application of heat, uniformly dispersing them therein to prepare toner constituents, and pulverizing and classifying the toner constituents to prepare a toner. However, the pulverization method needs a pulverizer pulverizing the toner constituents, which is costly and inefficient. In addition, the pulverized toner tends to have a wide particle diameter distribution, and for example, fine particles having a diameter not greater than 5 μm and coarse particles having a diameter not less than 20 μm have to be removed to produce images having good image resolution and tone reproduction, and therefore a yield extremely decreases. In addition, it is difficult to uniformly disperse the colorant, charge controlling agent and the like in the thermoplastic resin by the pulverization method. Nonuniform dispersion thereof adversely affects fluidity, developability and durability of the resultant toner and image quality produced thereby.
The suspension polymerization method prepares a toner by suspending and polymerizing the toner constituents in water. Although the suspension polymerization method solves the problems of the pulverization method, the suspension polymerization method has the following problems. Namely, an unsaturated carboxylic acid derivative monomer is included in the toner constituents for the purpose of improving chargeability and controlling glass transition temperature of the resultant toner. However, practically, the monomer cannot completely be reacted in the process of polymerization, and a small amount thereof remains in the resultant toner. Having a high polarity, the unsaturated carboxylic acid derivative monomer cannot completely be removed from the toner under reduced pressure or with a solvent which does not dissolve the toner. When the unsaturated carboxylic acid derivative monomer remains in a toner, the charged stability of the resultant toner deteriorates and charge quantity thereof widens because the unsaturated carboxylic acid derivative monomer has a high hygroscopicity. The toner produces images having background fouling, and contaminates a photoreceptor, a charging roller and a developing roller.
Japanese Patent No. 2537503 and Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2001-22117 disclose an emulsification polymerization method of preparing amorphous toner particles by assembling a particulate resin. The particulate resin includes a carboxylic acid group for the purpose of controlling the assembly. The unsaturated carboxylic acid derivative monomer is included in the process of polymerizing the particulate resin to include a carboxylic acid group therein. Similarly to the suspension polymerization method, a small amount of the unsaturated carboxylic acid derivative monomer remains in a toner, and the charged stability of the resultant toner deteriorates and charge quantity thereof widens. Further, the toner produces images having background fouling, and contaminates a photoreceptor, a charging roller and a developing roller.
Because of these reasons, a need exists for a method of preparing a toner having good chargeability, fluidity and transferability without being influenced by the environment, which produces high quality images.

Method of preparing a toner, developer including the toner, container containing the toner, and image forming method and process cartridge using the toner


Example embodiments of an apparatus to reduce power consumed by a processor include a timing signal block configured to be coupled to measure the magnitude of an alternating current voltage signal supplied to a processor and to assert a timing signal when the magnitude of the alternating current voltage signal is about equal to zero volts and a throttling block configured to be coupled to the processor, to receive the timing signal and to assert a throttling signal that causes processor speed to be reduced so that processor power consumption is reduced in phase with the alternating current voltage signal and harmonic distortion of a current waveform supplied to the processor is reduced.

Switched Mode Power Supplies (SMPSs), such as those used in computer systems, receive an alternating current (AC) voltage signal that has a sinusoidal waveform at a fundamental frequency. Generally, for reasons described more fully below, SMPSs supply an AC load current signal that does not have a sinusoidal waveform. These non-sinusoidal waveforms include harmonics at multiples of the fundamental frequency and cause harmonic distortion to occur. A harmonic at twice the fundamental frequency is called a second harmonic and a harmonic at three times the fundamental frequency is called a third harmonic.
When the current waveform is not sinusoidal the power factor of a power supply is less than 100%. A typical SMPD has a power factor of around 60%, therefore having considerable odd-order harmonic distortion (sometimes with the magnitude of the third harmonic as large as the magnitude of the fundamental).
The presence of third harmonic distortion causes an increase in operating temperature of the generation facility, which reduces the life of equipment including rotating machines, cables, transformers, capacitors, fuses, switching contacts, and surge suppressors. Third harmonic distortion also causes additional losses and dielectric stresses in capacitors and cables, increasing currents in windings of rotating machinery and transformers and noise emissions in many products, and bring about early failure of fuses and other safety components.
Power factor correction devices may be provided with active or passive components. Typically these devices use a bulk capacitor to supply current when the value of a sinusoidal voltage waveform is low to provide a nearly constant level of power at a fixed direct current (DC) voltage level.

Platform power management for building wide control of power factor and harmonics


The present subject matter relates to a protecting agent composition for high/ultra-high permeability reservoirs, consisting of a protecting agent and a filler, wherein, the filler comprises calcium carbonate of 600-1,000 mesh, calcium carbonate of 300-590 mesh, and calcium carbonate of 50-200 mesh at 1:(1-30):(0-40) weight ratio, and the protecting agent comprises structural units denoted by the following formulae (1), (2), and (3). The present subject matter further provides a drilling fluid containing the above-mentioned composition. The present subject matter further provides a use of the drilling fluid for drilling in high/ultra-high permeability reservoirs. The drilling fluid provided in the present subject matter has advantages including easy use, high environmental friendliness, and outstanding reservoir protection, greatly reduces the damages of drilling fluid to high/ultra-high permeability reservoirs, and brings substantial economic benefits.

Drilling fluids are reputed as the blood for bore wells. Good drilling fluid techniques are one of the important guarantees for safe, high-quality, efficient, and quick well drilling production. Drilling fluids are required in the development of oil fields.
Effective reservoir protection is an effective guarantee for improving the rate of oil and gas recovery, so that the skin factor can be an optimal negative value. If the drilling fluid is designed or used inappropriately in the well drilling process, the liquid and solid in the drilling fluid may intrude into the oil reservoir and have physical and chemical reactions with clay and other minerals in the oil and gas layer. Consequently, the permeability in the oil layer in the immediate vicinity of the well may be decreased severely, and the resistance against air and gas flow towards the bottom of the well may be increased, resulting in reduced oil yield. The injuries to the reservoir have critical impacts on low-permeability reservoirs and unnegligible damages to high-permeability reservoirs.
Usually, the permeability of high/ultra-high permeability reservoirs is 500 mD (milli Darcy) or above. For high permeability reservoirs, the permeability can be 500-2,000 mD; for ultra-high permeability reservoirs, the permeability can be 2,000 mD or above. For high/ultra-high permeability reservoirs, since the permeability is high, the solid particles in the drilling fluid may enter into the pores and pore throats in the reservoir more easily, resulting in severely decreased permeability; in addition, the drilling fluid may intrude into the reservoir more deeply owing to the high permeability, resulting in damages such as clay expanding, dispersion and migration, and water blocking, and having impacts on the accuracy of well logging; especially, it will be more difficult to drain off the drilling fluid if the foreign fluid in the drilling fluid has physical and chemical reactions with the reservoir fluid or reservoir rock; consequently, the oil and gas resources in the reservoir may be contaminated.
In the drilling process, the drilling fluid may intrude the high/ultra-high permeability reservoir easily and thereby cause damages to the reservoirs and it is difficult to recover from such damages. Such damages to the reservoir have drawn attention widely in the petroleum industry in worldwide. As the exploration is developed further, the problem becomes more and more prominent.
It is proven in field tests that the above problem can't be solved by conventional drilling fluid systems. Hence, it is especially important to develop new drilling fluid additives and reservoir protective drilling fluid techniques to meet the current challenge of complex geological conditions. Up to now, though long-time researches on reservoir protective drilling fluid techniques have been made in worldwide, and techniques such as shielded temporary plugging technique, fractal geometry-based temporary plugging technique, D90 ideal temporary plugging technique, broad-spectrum temporary plugging technique, Alkali soluble micrometer-level cellulose temporary plugging technique, D50 temporary plugging technique, filming technique, oil film technique, etc., have been developed, the protective effect of these techniques is not ideal for high/ultra-high permeability reservoirs. Hence, it is urgent task to develop a novel drilling fluid system that has enhanced plugging performance and is suitable for high/ultra-high permeability reservoirs.
The existing drilling fluids have properties that can essentially meet the requirement for cuttings carrying and well wall stability, but don't provide an ideal reservoir protection effect, and the core permeability recovery value of the reservoir is low. Though temporary plugging agents are added in these drilling fluids, the plugging performance is not high because the structural characteristics of high/ultra-high permeability reservoirs are not taken into consideration fully. Consequently, the filtrate may intrude into the reservoir and thereby results in damages such as water sensitivity and water blocking, etc. Therefore, a novel drilling fluid system that can protect high/ultra-high permeability reservoirs should be developed. The reservoir protection problem in the drilling progress of high/ultra-high permeability reservoirs has been a focus in the oil exploration and development work.

Protecting agent composition for high/ultra-high permeability reservoirs and drilling fluid and use thereof


An improved easily attachable and easily removable pick to be worn over the end of a finger for the purpose of plucking the strings of a stringed musical instrument. The pick comprises a picking element or artificial nail worn over the natural nail and conforming closely to the size, shape and contour of the natural nail. The artificial nail is held in place over the natural nail by a closely fitting, thin, flexible securement sleeve which extends from the fingertip almost to the first joint of the finger. The close conformity of the artificial nail to the natural nail imparts optimal sensitivity and natural feel to the player of the instrument.

Musical instruments having strings which are plucked with the fingertips or fingernails have been in use since ancient times. When the fingertips are used for plucking, severe discomfort to the player often results in that the fingers become sore and tender, and sometimes blisters even occur. Similarly, when the fingernails are employed for plucking, they wear down quickly and frequently crack, chip, split or break, all of which requires a considerable length of time for regeneration for the average player. The advent of steel strings has aggravated these problems. Because of these troubles associated with use of the natural fingertips or fingernails for plucking, picks to serve as substitutes for the human fingertips and fingernails were long ago devised.
Two principal kinds of picks evolved. One is a type which is grasped between the player's fingers, and the other is a type which is worn directly on the end of a player's fingers. It is this latter type with which the present invention is concerned.
Many varieties of finger-worn picks have been devised, and a large number have been patented. In fact, inventors have been patenting finger-worn picks in the United States for well over one hundred years in an attempt to achieve a pick which will retain the basic sound and natural feel of the human fingertip or fingernail. However, in all that time no completely satisfactory finger-worn pick has been developed.
There are numerous requirements which must be met to achieve a completely satisfactory finger-worn pick. In particular, such pick must have good sensitivity and natural feel, must be easy for the player to attach to the finger and equally easy to remove, must have positive and facile lengthwise alignment and positioning on the finger, must stay in place even under conditions of forceful play, and must be capable of allowing both upstroke and downstroke picking. In addition, the pick must be durable, composed of few parts, comfortable to the wearer and cause minimal distraction to the player.
Although, as mentioned previously, many designs and varieties of finger-worn picks exist in the prior art, none has fulfilled all of the above-mentioned requirements. Indeed, judging by the models currently on the market, no finger-worn pick exists which comes close to meeting those requirements. Hence, there has been a long-felt need to attain a finger-worn pick for plucking the strings of stringed musical instruments which meets all of the foregoing requirements and at the same time is economical both from a manufacturing standpoint and a purchasing standpoint.

Pick for plucking stringed musical instruments


A method of transferring video data for storage at a remote location includes storing the video data recorded at a site to a local storage device at the site. The local storage device is coupled to a remote storage device by way of a network connection. Available bandwidth of the network connection between the local storage device and the remote storage device is automatically monitored. Upon one or more predetermined criteria being met for available bandwidth, video data from the local storage device is transferred to the remote storage device over the network connection. The time of initiation of transfer of the video data or the rate of transfer of the video data over the network connection may be based on the available bandwidth of the network connection at one or more times.

Network Video Recorders (NVRs) are a recording solution used in the security industry. Network video recorders can be used to store video from security cameras (such as closed circuit television ("CCTV") cameras) acquired at a location such as a business, school, retail facility, data center, or other location, on a storage device such as a hard disk drive. A typical network video recorder may store video for a limited time period, such as 7 days. When additional storage capacity is required to meet regulatory standards, additional memory may need to be added by acquiring additional hard disk drives. This approach can be expensive because of the cost of hard disk drives. In addition, the scalability of the systems is limited, for example, because of finite rack space available at a site that can be dedicated to a security system. In addition, spinning hard disk drives have a limited service life, which may be around 3 years before failure.
A remote storage system, such as may be available in a cloud computing environment, can provide large amounts of storage capacity. To transfer video data from the site at which video is acquired to the cloud over a network, however, large amounts of network bandwidth may be required. In addition, the bandwidth available to transfer data over a network connection can vary dramatically from moment to moment traffic as traffic on the network ebbs and flows. Excessive loads on a network connection can result in a complete failure of the connection.
Compression can be used to reduce the storage requirements for video data. NVR and camera manufacturers have implemented some standards for compression, including H.264 and MPEG-4. Even with such compression, however, the demands on a network connection at peak times can result in failure of a network connection.
While embodiments are described herein by way of example for several embodiments and illustrative drawings, those skilled in the art will recognize that embodiments are not limited to the embodiments or drawings described. It should be understood, that the drawings and detailed description thereto are not intended to limit embodiments to the particular form disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope as defined by the appended claims. The headings used herein are for organizational purposes only and are not meant to be used to limit the scope of the description or the claims. As used throughout this application, the word "may" is used in a permissive sense (i.e., meaning having the potential to), rather than the mandatory sense (i.e., meaning must). Similarly, the words "include," "including," and "includes" mean including, but not limited to.

Methods and system for transferring data for remote storage


An antenna assembly is formed as a thin, unitary element with parallel leads laminated to an insulator. The unitary antenna element includes an integral attachment portion for connection to a printed circuit board. The antenna assembly is usable in electronic devices, such as a cordless telephone radio transceiver. A molded cover, which is directly attached to the electronic device rather than the antenna assembly, is provided to encase and protect the antenna.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention is directed to an antenna assembly for use in an electronic apparatus. More particularly, this invention is directed to a thin antenna for use with a portable electronic apparatus, such as a cordless telephone, and its method of manufacture.
2. Description of Related Art
Antenna elements in cordless telephones are typically either a heavy wire coiled like a spring or a small wire that is wrapped around a separate wire core. Other known antenna assemblies can be constructed as a braided cable or a center conductor of a coaxial cable.
A protective cover is generally provided over the antenna assembly. The cover is typically made of plastic and either molded over the antenna lead or attached to the antenna lead by separate fasteners, crimping or gluing. However, such covers do not adequately protect the antenna lead since these covers are directly attached to the antenna. For example, when a force is applied to the prior art covers of an antenna assembly, that force will be directly transmitted to the antenna assembly and/or internal circuitry of an electronic apparatus.
The prior art antenna assemblies discussed above have further drawbacks including additional required parts that make assembly more complicated and expensive. For example, conventional antenna assemblies cannot be connected directly to circuitry of a printed circuit board of an associated electronic apparatus. Conventional antenna assemblies require additional connection parts and/or supplemental connection parts, such as stamped or die cast brackets, wires and supports. These must be soldered, screwed or otherwise connected to a printed circuit board of the electronic apparatus. Further, they usually require at least one additional connection part to attach them to an actual antenna lead. Of course, this increases the cost of the antenna assembly, requires more manufacturing steps to assemble the antenna to the electronic device and complicates the overall antenna assembly. Further, the additional parts and connections introduce additional failure locations in the antenna assembly and associated electronic apparatus.
Another drawback in conventional antenna assemblies is that a separate ground lead must be provided when the physical length of the antenna is longer than its electrical length. Attempts to overcome this and other disadvantages have included covering a part of the antenna with a braided sheath, such as the outer conductor of a coaxial cable. However, supplemental parts are then required to connect this ground to the printed circuit board. Further, an insulator is required to separate the ground from the driven lead of the antenna assembly. This, of course, also increases the cost of the antenna assembly, adds steps to the manufacturing process and provides additional failure points in the antenna assembly.
A further drawback in conventional antenna assemblies is that these assemblies and covers rely on the antenna lead itself for mechanical strength. Since the antenna cover is attached to the antenna lead, any force, stress or strain applied to the cover is transferred directly to the antenna lead. In turn, the force is transferred directly to the printed circuit board of the associated electrical apparatus. This, of course, leads to breakage of the antenna leads and printed circuit board of the associated electrical apparatus and/or deterioration of the operation of the electrical apparatus.

Die-cut antenna for cordless telephone radio transceiver


The present invention relates to a manual vegetable cutter, for selectively varied cutting. Furthermore, the cutter of the present invention does not expose the user to risks of serious cuts. The cutter includes a frame fitted with at least one cutting blade mounted transversely facing a slot through which the cut vegetables pass and also two side rails providing guidance in to and fro translational motion for a guide chamber equipped with a loading volume for the vegetables to be cut up and acting in conjunction with a press-down cap which the user grips in order to move the guide chamber to and fro along the guide rails while constantly exerting pressure on the vegetables contained in the loading volume so that they are pressed against the cutting blade or blades fitted to the frame and can be cut up by the blade or blades.

There are currently different types of manual vegetable cutters on the market, none of them very practical and all of them exposing their users to serious risks of cuts.
At the same time, there are also numerous electric vegetable slicers or food processors for household use or designed for use in industry or collectives, these being multi-purpose machines. However, they are generally sophisticated appliances which, apart from their high cost, often have the disadvantage of being inconvenient to use and also difficult to assemble and clean.
So far, users have never been offered simple, practical and inexpensive manual vegetable cutters, allowing the cutting characteristics to be varied selectively and also not exposing the user to risks of serious cuts.
The invention is intended to fill this gap.


A rechargeable battery includes: a case; an electrode assembly housed in the case and including a first electrode, a second electrode, and a separator between the first electrode and the second electrode, the first electrode having a coated portion coated with a first active material and an uncoated portion absent the first active material; a safety assembly including a first electric conductive plate and a first supporting protrusion extending from the first electric conductive plate and physically coupled to the uncoated portion; a current collecting tab electrically coupling the electrode assembly with the terminal and physically coupled to the uncoated portion; and a first auxiliary plate physically coupled to the uncoated portion at a surface of the uncoated portion opposite to where the first supporting protrusion is physically coupled to the uncoated portion.

1. Field
One or more embodiments of the present invention relate to a rechargeable battery. More particularly, one or more embodiments of the present invention relate to a rechargeable battery with a safety device having an improved structure.
2. Description of the Related Art
A rechargeable battery is a battery that can be charged and discharged, which is different from a primary battery, which is not rechargeable. A rechargeable battery with low capacity can be used for small portable electronic devices such as mobile phones, laptop computers, and camcorders. On the other hand, a rechargeable battery with high capacity can be used as a power source for driving a motor of a hybrid electric automobile and the like, or as a large-capacity power storage device.
A high power rechargeable battery using a non-aqueous electrolyte of high energy density has been recently developed. A plurality of these rechargeable batteries can be coupled in series to form a large capacity battery module so that the high power rechargeable battery may be used to drive a device requiring high power (e.g., a motor in an electric vehicle). The rechargeable battery can be formed in a cylindrical or rectangular shape.
If a conductive foreign object, such as a nail or a screw, enters the rechargeable battery from the outside, a short circuit may occur in the rechargeable battery. In the event of a short circuit, the internal temperature of the rechargeable battery may sharply rise and the rechargeable battery may ignite or explode.
Moreover, a positive or negative electrode uncoated portion of the rechargeable battery is generally made of a very thin sheet metal, and this may cause the positive or negative electrode uncoated portion to be torn or to stick to a current collecting tab during the process of welding the current collecting tab having a large thickness (or a thick current collecting tab) to the positive or negative electrode uncoated portion.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.


Effective bandwidth of a communication link is determined in a heterogeneous, packet switched network between a source and a destination, where effective bandwidth is defined as actual available bandwidth between the server and the client, minus the overhead of the various network protocols used to transmit the data. The method includes measuring transmission times between the source and a destination for a plurality data segments having different characteristics, such as different sized files or subfiles of data; processing the transmission times to cancel effects of transmission latencies other than the different characteristics of the data segments; and indicating a bandwidth based on said processing. The processing is done in parallel with the return of user resources to the destination, and using a bandwidth detection engine associated with a proxy server.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to data communication networks, and to techniques for determining bandwidth of communication links between a source and a destination in such data communication networks. More particularly, the present invention relates to the detection of the bandwidth of links between an Internet server and a client computer.
2. Description of Related Art
Networks are utilized extensively to transmit data from one computer system to another. There are many types of networks which are heterogeneous, in that the network has many different types of devices and different types of communication media executing multiple layers of network protocols arranged in stacks for interconnecting the various devices using the diverse media. One example of such a network is the Internet. However, a continuing problem when transmitting data over such networks is the bandwidth of the network. The problem is particularly relevant in connection with the Internet and the World Wide Web, as the Internet becomes a vehicle for delivering a wide variety of resources between servers and clients.
As mentioned above, the Internet is highly heterogeneous. Some devices are connected to the Internet over a standard telephone network modem or a wireless network, with limited bandwidth. Other devices are connected over a high-speed links and have much higher bandwidth capabilities. Users who download graphically rich multimedia objects embedded within Web pages over a lower bandwidth link frequently must wait a significant amount of time for delivery of multimedia objects. This frustrates users of the Internet and results in less use.
For a variety of reasons, it is desirable to detect the bandwidth of a communication link between a server and a client in the Internet, and in other heterogeneous networks. However, the heterogeneity of the network prevents straightforward solutions to this problem. Previous approaches to bandwidth detection in a heterogeneous network include pathchar and bing. (See, "Pathchar-Tool written by Van Jacobson of LBL's Network Research Group." http://www.caida.org/Pathchar; and "Bing 1.04" http://spengler.econ.duke.edu/˜ferizs/bing.txt.) These previous approaches have several deficiencies. In pathchar, the algorithm attempts to establish bandwidth detection on a link by link basis for a communication channel through the network. This process is impractical because it can take several hours to accurately compute the bandwidth of the channel. Both pathchar and bing are deficient because they do not function if there are firewalls between the server and the client, and return grossly inaccurate measurements if there are proxies between the server and the client.
Accordingly, it is desirable to detect the effective bandwidth between a server and a client quickly and efficiently. Furthermore, it is desirable to provide such detection in widely used heterogeneous networks, such as the Internet.

Bandwidth detection in a heterogeneous network with parallel and proxy modes


A color image processing apparatus includes: a minimum value selection unit that selects a minimum value of an input gray level values; a first calculation unit that calculates a generation amount of black; a second calculation unit that calculates an UCR amount which is a value relevant to the minimum value; a third calculation unit that outputs a correction coefficient value which is a value relevant to the minimum value; a subtraction unit that subtracts the UCR amount from each of the input gray level values to generate output; a multiplication unit that multiply the output of the subtraction unit by the correction coefficient value; a significant bit selection unit that selects a significant bit of a multiplication result; and a gray level correction unit that makes a gray level correction to the generation amount of black and the output of the multiplication unit.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a color image processing apparatus and a color printer system and in particular to a color image processing apparatus and a color printer system for generating image signals of four colors of cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y), and black (K) from red (R), green (G), and blue (B) image signals.
2. Description of the Related Art
Although the basic primary colors in color print are three colors of cyan (C), magenta (M), and yellow (Y), a printer with four colors of C, M, Y and black (K) as the basic primary colors is often used from the viewpoint of the quality of frequently used black font, the print cost, or the advantage in a clear natural image.
On the other hand, input image data of a business printer, etc., used in an office generally is provided by three-color data of red (R), green (G), and blue (B) and therefore four-color separation of a process of generating CMYK data from RGB data is required.
Usually the four-color separation is implemented as processing of calculating the complement of RGB data (r, g, b), generating CMY data (c, m, y), and partially replacing CMY common element min {c, m, y} with K component data (k) where min {c, m, y} is the minimum value of the CMY data (c, m, y), as disclosed on page 476 of "PostScript Language Reference third edition" (Adobe Systems Incorporated, February 1999).
The K component generated by performing the processing as described above is called BG (Black Generation) and the CMY component removed as the CMY data is replaced with K is called UCR (Under Color Removal).
The effect of decreasing the maximum color material amount per unit print area is shown as one of the large merits of such BG processing and UCR processing. In the Specification, the maximum color material amount per unit print area will be hereinafter called simply the maximum color material amount or if the printer is a laser printer, the maximum toner amount.
For example, a method called 100% UCR is available as a method capable of most decreasing the maximum color material amount. This is a method of subtracting k found as k=min {c, m, y} from CMY data (c, m, y) to obtain CMY data (c′, m′, y′) after undergoing the UCR processing as in expression (1):
                                                                                c                                                                                ′                                                                                =                                                                                c                                                                                -                                                                                k                                                                                m                                                                                ′                                                                                =                                                                                m                                                                                -                                                                                k                                                                                y                                                                                ′                                                                                =                                                                                y                                                                                -                                                                                k                                                                    }                            (        1        )
The maximum color material amount of four-color print of CMYK in the 100% UCR becomes 200% of the maximum color material amount per color. Since the maximum color material amount to print in four colors of CMYK without performing UCR processing is 400%, it is seen that the maximum color material amount can be adjusted in the range of 200% to 400% by performing BG processing and UCR processing.
On the other hand, generally as for printers for printing in multiple colors, it is known that the more excessive the maximum color material amount, the larger the apparatus load, resulting in a tendency toward the instability of reproducibility of overlaid colors.
For example, in a laser printer, as the toner layer is thicker, the transfer performance becomes more easily unstable and in an ink jet printer, as the ink amount is larger, ink bleeding to paper becomes easier to occur. In a laser printer for fusing toner, if an attempt is made to cover the maximum toner amount, the heat energy to be input in a unit time becomes large and thus problems of upsizing of a fuser and shortening of the fuser life are introduced.
Thus, to develop a printer engine, requirement for cutting down the maximum color material amount as long as the image quality is allowed occurs. However, from the viewpoint of the image quality, if extreme UCR processing like 100% UCR is performed, an extremely hard and dark image low in saturation on the whole is produced and the contrast is degraded because the color material amount is small.
From the contrary demands, the value to provide the best balance between the engine performance and the image quality is selected for design in the range of about 300% to 350% per color for commercial print or in the range of about 200% to 300% in a popularly priced laser printer, etc., for limitation of the maximum color material amount.
On the other hand, an art of attaching a density sensor to a printer and making gray level correction using a detection signal from the sensor, thereby controlling the color material amount is also already known.
For example, JP-A-10-39555 discloses an art of optimizing a look-up table (LUT) to convert the density data for each gray level into an output signal by performing first gray level control and controlling the toner replenishment amount for stabilizing the image density by performing second gray level control to keep the gray level characteristic constant against environment fluctuation. However, this example concerns stabilization of the single-color gray level characteristic and does not provide means for circumventing image instability caused by excess of the total toner amount in color print as described above.
JP-A-5-328131 discloses an art of managing the toner deposition amount for adjusting the density constant so that the density of the whole output image does not change if the user adjusts the gray level characteristic.
Further, JP-A-2001-255711 proposes an art of calculating the toner deposition amount of an image based on the gray level data subjected to gray level correction and measurement data of a temperature-humidity sensor and alerting the user by notification means if the calculation result is equal to or greater than the upper limit value of the toner deposition amount determined by the fixing performance of a fuser.
The arts in JP-A-5-328131 and JP-A-2001-255711 assume that hardware feedback is executed in response to user's adjustment. Thus, in a printer shared among computers, a sequence for feedback occurs each time a print request is made, resulting in extra load on the apparatus and an increase in the operation cost.
JP-A-2003-312061 discloses a method of directly limiting the sum total of color components using a multi-dimensional LUT. In such a method, however, if the number of lattice points is five in a LUT corresponding to four-dimensional input/output of CMYK, as many as 54×4=2500 pieces of data are required.
Use of such a large-scaled multi-dimensional LUT leads to an increase in cost because a large memory space is consumed when the LUT is installed in hardware. If an LUT needs to be again set from the beginning, for example, as the image processing mode is switched between print pages, etc., the time required for transferring the LUT data increases and thus an obstacle to speeding up is presented. A similar problem also occurs in JP-A-2000-25274 and JP-A-2000-343761 because a multi-dimensional LUT is used.
To use a multi-dimensional LUT, calculation (or signal processing) load of interpolation calculation also occurs. For example, if interpolation calculation of comparatively simple multiple linear interpolation is performed for finding, when the interpolation value is calculated from the vertices of eight peripheral grids as in FIG. 3 in JP-A-2000-343761, as many multiplications as (number of input channels)×(number of vertices)×(number of output channels) become necessary.
In this case, the number of input channels is four for CMYK, the number of vertices is eight (interpolation using eight peripheral vertices in black point 11 in FIG. 3 in JP-A-2000-343761), and the number of output channels is four (CMYK) and therefore the necessary number of multiplications becomes 128. Thus, in hardware implementation, the logic scale grows and in software implementation, the computation amount becomes an obstacle to speeding up.
JP-A-2003-125225 discloses a method of feeding back so that the total amount becomes a preset value or less for each input of each color signal. In this method, iteration of processing caused by feeding back occurs for each pixel and thus the method is disadvantageous to speeding up of real-time image processing. In contrast, the saturation and contrast of an image would be able to be improved by performing processing of increasing the total amount in the range in which the total amount does not exceed the preset value, but the method in JP-A-2003-125225 cannot be applied to the processing of increasing the total amount.
JP-A-2005-33348 discloses a method of increasing the toner total amount within the range of a preset value for improving the image quality under a special condition to perform 100% UCR in gray in such a meaning. Such processing has the advantage that the gray balance does not change if subtle balance change occurs in the gray level characteristic of C, M and Y.
In JP-A-2005-33348, however, as seen in FIG. 7, correction coefficient f (k) is used in the range of f (k)>1 and thus if it is also used for limiting the toner total amount in usual four-color separation to mainly use the range of f (k)<1, the f (k) range and resolution and memory and circuit scale saving become difficult to be compatible.
In JP-A-2005-33348, for gray scale correction (γ correction) provided at the later stage of four-color separation as seen in FIG. 1, if it is released to the user directly as a density (or brightness) adjustment parameter, it becomes necessary to provide change caused by user adjustment as a margin in addition to the fluctuation of the engine for the limitation value of the toner total amount. Thus, only the color material less the margin than the essential capability of the printer engine can be used and the color reproduction range is narrowed.

Color image processing apparatus and color printer system


A sheet manufacturing apparatus includes comprises a screening unit configured to screen a defibrated material obtained by defibration treatment, and a sheet forming unit configured to form a sheet with the defibrated material screened with the screening unit. The screening unit has a first screening unit to which a plurality of first openings are provided and a second screening unit to which a plurality of second openings larger than the first openings are provided, and the defibrated material is screened by the first screening unit and the second screening unit. The defibrated material is screened at one of either the first screening unit or the second screening unit and thereafter screened at the other, and the sheet forming unit forms the sheet with the defibrated material that does not pass through the first openings and does pass through the second openings.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a sheet manufacturing apparatus and a method for manufacturing a sheet.
2. Related Art
In sheet manufacturing apparatuses, a so-called wet format has been employed, where a stock material comprising fiber is poured into water, defibration is performed primarily by a mechanical action, and defibrated material are spread and dried to make a sheet again. A sheet manufacturing apparatus of such a wet form requires large amounts of water, and the apparatus is quite large. In addition, considerable time is spent in the maintenance of keeping water treatment facilities in good condition, and the process of drying also takes a large amount of energy.
Sheet manufacturing apparatuses using a dry approach, where water is not utilized to the greatest extent possible, have therefore been proposed in order to reduce scale and conserve energy (see, for example, Japanese laid-open patent publication No. 2012-144819).
Japanese laid-open patent publication No. 2012-144819 discloses defibrating a piece of paper into fibers in a dry defibrating machine, deinking the fibers in a cyclone, passing the deinked fibers through a small-hole screen of a forming drum surface and depositing same onto a mesh belt, to form paper.
When the piece of paper is defibrated in a dry defibrating machine such as is described above, then in some instances a defibrated material having a variety of fiber lengths is produced. When, for example, a defibrated material of short fiber length is admixed into a material for manufacturing paper, then in some instances binding with the other fibers is more difficult, the binding strength of the defibrated material is decreased, and the strength of the paper thus manufactured is decreased.
Also, in some instances it is impossible to completely defibrate the pieces of paper in the dry defibration machine. When undefibrated pieces that have not been defibrated into fibers are admixed into the material for manufacturing the paper, then sometimes the texture of the paper thus manufactured is deteriorated. Sometimes, also, such undefibrated pieces bind less readily with the other fibers and therefore the strength of the paper thus manufactured is decreased.

Sheet manufacturing apparatus and method for manufacturing sheet