A method and system for distribution of stand-by electric power via a network separate from the standard or ordinary electric power network is disclosed. Voltages are transformed/produced in voltage sources, TR and then branched off in control devices, S, to devices, A. The devices, A, distribute the voltages to loading equipment, for instance telecommunications devices, network equipment or medical equipment. Furthermore, surveillance devices, xc3x96, communicate with the voltage sources, the control devices, and the devices, A, to control electronic power drains, and to transfer control orders for execution.

The present invention relates to a method and a system for stand-by electric power distributed via network separated from the ordinary network for distribution of electric power.
There is a need to guarantee the electric power supply to important systems or devices during service interruptions whether they be short or long interruptions. Known solutions utilize batteries or stand-by electric power stations that are normally locally arranged at a respective system/plant. For, for instance, telecommunications operators this implies that stand-by electric power is arranged at each plant. For subscriber telecommunication terminals, the subscriber has, in each case, to arrange for the necessary stand-by electric power. Maintenance of batteries and/or standby electric power stations is burdensome both from an economical and a resource point of view. In the future, stand-by electric power, for telecommunication devices located at subscribers, will be required to guarantee the operation of the device at drop out of the ordinary electric power supply.
A general introduction of stand-by electric power is expensive and difficult, and the use of batteries on a large scale may result in unwanted environmental stress.
Example 1: Society is becoming more and more dependent on the supply of electric power and telecommunications. This increased vulnerability increases the importance of functioning telecommunications during drop outs of the ordinary electric power supply. Technical developments in the telecommunications field has resulted in an increased dependence on public electric power supply. This dependence should be reduced in order to satisfy the demands of the public on service and security.
Traditional telephone sets have electric power supply arranged via the telecommunication network. These telephone sets are operating via central battery systems, and can be utilized as a xe2x80x9clife-linexe2x80x9d function to call for aid in emergencies or in case of drop out of the public electric power supply. Telephony functions are utilized e.g., by electric power companies, to restore the electric power supply.
Modern and future subscriber devices are consuming electric power to such an extent that the ordinary lines of the telecommunication network can not be utilized, but electric power supply from the public electric power network is required. In order to avoid problems with telecommunications during drop out of electric power supply, it is necessary that the subscriber devices be equipped with stand-by electric power. In future telecommunication networks, fibre-optic connections will be arranged right up to the telecommunications device. As a result, the xe2x80x9clife-linexe2x80x9d function of traditional telephone systems will not exist.
Example 2: Technical devices which require electric power supply are used in more and more places for important functions, which should operate without interruption, in both homes and commercial and public facilities. Medical devices for care in the homes of seriously ill persons may may require stand-by electric power in order to guarantee a continuous life-sustaining process. Computer equipment for information services often requires continuous operation. Electric power demanding processes in connection with keeping of animals may be vital for the stock of animals.
In order to bridge these problems, the telecommunication network can be equipped with devices which provide stand-by electric power at a higher capacity than can be currently transmitted in the telecommunication network for internal needs and to subscriber devices. The power that can be supplied is small compared with the power capacities of the public electric networks. At electric power interruptions in the public electric networks, there consequently is a big need that stand-by electric power is available at the telecommunication subscribers. The electric power supplies at that must be restricted and strictly regulated. In order to avoid overloading, also control and power limiting systems must be introduced in order to utilize the stand-by electric power supply system optimally, and to achieve operation without problems at electric power interruptions in the ordinary electric power supply network.
The present invention has the intention to solve above mentioned problem.
It is previously known to provide systems and devices with stand-by electric power from batteries or stand-by electric power stations. Operation of conventional telephone equipment has been arranged by the output voltage from the telephone lines. Increased security in electric power supply also has been arranged by connection of a multiple of electric power distribution networks.
Device for surveillance and control of the electric power consumption according to plan in system or equipment is known from e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,625,236.
The present invention constitutes a method and a system for distribution of stand-by electric power characterized in the following patent claims.
The present invention relates to distribution of electric power which is controlled via a telecommunication network. Voltages are transformed/produced in voltage sources, TR. These voltages are branched off in control devices, S, to devices, A, which distribute the voltages to the subscribers"" systems/equipment, for instance telecommunications equipment, computer equipment and the like. Surveillance devices, xc3x96, communicate with the voltage sources, the control devices, and the respective the devices, A, concerning measurement of the current electric power drain, and the transferring of control orders for execution of changes in electric power drain, connection and disconnection.
The invention implies that electric power is distributed alternative routes in relation to ordinary electric power distribution. Further is offered that an alternative distribution of electric power is obtained in case of drop out of electric power from the electric power supplier. The provides, on one hand, to arrange a common electric power source which will function when ordinary electric power supply has dropped out, and on the other that, systems/equipment which require electric power from the electric power network will also function when distribution of electric power from the ordinary electric power supplier has dropped out. The control system further makes possible control of drained power, such that the utilization of available power can be optimized with regard to actual need. The invention further provides that the stand-by electric power system can be dimensioned optimally in relation to foreseen needs. In traditional electric power systems the system is dimensioned according to a maximal need to prevent overload. The present invention includes control functions which supervise the load in the different parts of the stand-by electric power network, and disconnect parts which give rise to overload. Further, the load in the different parts of the electric power network can be controlled at different occasions.

Method and system for distribution of stand-by electric power


An electronic device having a flexible display screen and a processing method thereof, where bending the electronic device may cause the electronic device to switch between a smartphone mode and a wearable mode. In the wearable mode, the electronic device displays content on a part of the flexible display screen.

Different from a flat-panel display, a flexible display screen is a display screen that is flexible, bendable, foldable, or can be rolled up without obvious damage, and the display screen is made of a thin flexible substrate. In recent years, with development of new material technologies, applying a flexible display screen to an electronic device has come true. The flexible display screen may be used in various application fields, for example, in e-paper, an e-book, a television, a computer, a personal digital assistant, an in-vehicle display, a tablet computer, a smartphone, and a wearable device.
As electronic devices are increasingly diversified, a user usually needs to carry multiple electronic devices to adapt to different application scenarios. For example, the user needs to carry both a smartphone and a smart watch sometimes. There are inconvenience and disadvantages in actual use, and therefore, improvements are required.

Electronic device having flexible display screen and processing method thereof


A system and method for configuring a user formset for display on a user interface of a client computer, the client computer coupled by a network to a formset server, the user formset for providing interaction with a network transaction, the user formset described in a structured definition language. The system and method comprise: requesting the user formset from the server according to at least one formset generation criterion; selecting a first overlay for application to a master formset, the first overlay including first components based on a role of the user; applying the first overlay to the content of the master formset for generating a role based version of the master formset; selecting a second overlay for application to the role based version, the second overlay including second components based on settings particular for the user functioning in the role; and applying the second overlay to the content of the role based version for generating the user formset; wherein the user formset is subsequently rendered on the user interface of the client computer.

Current forms implemented on a graphical user interface of a user computer have to be coded for operation by a variety of different users. The current implementation of the form variety is to have these different role-specific formsets all be coded by hand and named appropriately. One disadvantage for hard coded forms is maintenance, as any changes in one of the Formsets requires that all the other similar Formsets be examined and also changed if necessary.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a claims processing system to obviate or mitigate some of the above-presented disadvantages.

System and method for providing forms on a user interface


The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for measuring trace quantity of oxygen in a gas by reacting yellow phosphorus vapor and oxygen in a sample gas, and measuring the intensity of the light emitted by the reaction. Together with the sample gas, a constant amount of oxygen is continuously supplied to a reaction chamber so as to react with the yellow phosphorus vapor, and the intensity of the light emitted is measured. The oxygen concentration in the sample gas is determined from the difference between the value measured as above and the intensity of the light emitted by the reaction between the yellow phosphorus vapor and the added oxygen, or from the oxygen concentration obtained from the measured value and the concentration of the added oxygen. The constant amount of oxygen to be added is supplied by supplying a constant amount of a preliminarily prepared oxygen-containing gas together with the sample gas or by providing an oxygen permeating membrane in the yellow phosphorus vapor supplying system so as to supply the oxygen by the permeation of the oxygen in atmosphere. The small amount of oxygen with a concentration of several ppb in the sample gas can be continuously measured with high precision.

For measuring the concentration of trace quantity of oxygen in an industrial gas such as nitrogen, hydrogen, argon or helium, the luminous reaction between oxygen and yellow phosphorus vapor is employed. The intensity of light generated by the reaction is measured by a photodetector such as a photomultiplier. The yellow phosphorus vapor is conventionally obtained by the sublimation of solid yellow phosphorus at room temperature (15.degree.-25.degree. C.).
A method and an apparatus for measuring trace quantity of oxygen in a gas using the yellow phosphorus vapor are described in, for example, Japanese Laid Open Patent Application (Kokai) No. 63-302348. These will now be described referring to FIGS. 7 and 8.
An apparatus for measuring trace quantity of oxygen in a gas shown in FIG. 7 comprises a reaction chamber 10, a sample gas supplying duct 11 for supplying the sample gas to the reaction chamber 10, a yellow phosphorus vapor supplying duct 13 for supplying the yellow phosphorus vapor to the reaction chamber 10, which is generated from solid phosphorus P contained in a yellow phosphorus container 12, a photodetector 14 such as a photomultiplier for measuring the intensity of the light generated by the reaction between the oxygen in the sample gas and the yellow phosphorus vapor in the sample gas in the reaction chamber 10.
The quantity of oxygen in the sample gas is detected by supplying the sample gas through the sample gas supplying pipe 11 to the reaction chamber 10 and simultaneously supplying yellow phosphorus vapor generated from the solid yellow phosphorus P to the reaction chamber 10 through the yellow phosphorus vapor supplying duct 13 so as to allow a reaction between the yellow phosphorus vapor and the oxygen in the sample gas, followed by measuring the intensity of the light generated by the reaction by a photodetector 14 so as to determine the oxygen concentration based on the output from the photodetector.
An apparatus for measuring trace quantity of oxygen in a gas shown in FIG. 8 comprises a reaction chamber 15, a sample gas supplying pipe 11 for supplying the sample gas to the reaction chamber 15, a container 16 provided in the reaction chamber 15 for harboring solid yellow phosphorus P, a photodetector 14 such as a photomultiplier for measuring the intensity of light emitted by the reaction between the yellow phosphorus vapor and the oxygen in the sample gas.
The quantity of oxygen in the sample gas is measured by reacting the yellow phosphorus vapor sublimated in the reaction chamber 15 and the oxygen in the sample gas so as to emit light, and by measuring the intensity of the light emitted by the reaction.
However, in the application fields of industrial gases, for example, in the field of semiconductor, it is demanded to accurately determine the oxygen level in a gas to be used in the order of ppb.
Although the trace quantity of oxygen may be determined in the order of 1 ppm or less by the above-described conventional method and apparatus by controlling the amount of the yellow phosphorus, it is difficult to detect the extremely small amount of oxygen with a level of several ppb or less with high precision by the conventional method and apparatus.

Method for measuring trace quantity of oxygen in gas


The present disclosure provides methods and an apparatuses for building a data identification model. One exemplary method for building a data identification model includes: performing logistic regression training using training samples to obtain a first model, the training samples comprising positive and negative samples; sampling the training samples proportionally to obtain a first training sample set; identifying the positive samples using the first model, and selecting a second training sample set from positive samples that have identification results after being identified using the first model; and performing Deep Neural Networks (DNN) training using the first training sample set and the second training sample set to obtain a final data identification model. The methods and the apparatuses of the present disclosure improve the stability of data identification models.

To determine a behavior pattern by using a machine learning model, common features are generally extracted from various specific behaviors belonging to a certain target behavior, and a machine learning model is constructed according to the common features. The constructed machine learning model determines whether a specific behavior belongs to the target behavior according to whether the specific behavior has the common features.

Methods and apparatuses for building data identification models


A clamping device is provided for holding an electronic device, such as a semiconductor carrier in the form of a leadframe, during processing thereof. It includes a main body for covering the electronic device and an opening in the main body for providing access to a part of the electronic device to be worked upon. A support structure is attachable for coupling it to a periphery of the opening whereby the support structure is extended across the opening for supporting the part of the electronic device that is accessible through the opening.

During semiconductor processing, it is necessary in the case of certain types of devices to attach a semiconductor die or IC chip onto a carrier such as a leadframe or other substrate. Wire connections must then be made between conductive pads on the die and the carrier respectively so that the die and the carrier are electrically connected. Commonly, an ultrasonic transducer including a capillary attached to the transducer is used to feed bonding wire through the tip of the capillary, such that ultrasonic energy can be transmitted to the tip of the capillary to initiate bonding or welding of the wire to the conductive pad.
During this process of ultrasonic bonding, the carrier must be held securely by a clamping device for high-precision wire-bonding. As the device gets smaller, the challenge of holding each component on the device more securely is increased. Generally, the clamping device should cover and exert pressure on most of the surface area of the carrier since the carrier is usually made of a flexible material that would tend to shift upon the application of forces during a bonding process. The clamping device includes a window over a portion of the carrier that is to be worked upon for access by the capillary of the ultrasonic transducer. Thus the clamping device is often referred to as a window clamp.
It is preferred that the size of the window corresponds as closely as possible to the size of a bonding unit comprising a die and surrounding conductive pads on the carrier so that the maximum area of the carrier is clamped without blocking access to the bonding unit by the capillary and the bonding unit can be held and supported more securely during wire-bonding. In the case of larger dice or if vacuum suction is applicable to assist in holding down the carrier, it is adequate to have a single relatively large window.
However, when the size of the die gets smaller or vacuum suction is not applicable, it is generally not desirable to have an array of bonding units exposed in the window because bonding units or portions thereof that are located away from the edges of the window cannot be clamped securely. Accordingly, the size of the window needs to be correspondingly reduced. Otherwise, the unclamped dice cannot be wire-bonded reliably. On the other hand, to design and manufacture a small window to fit just one small bonding unit would lead to inefficiency and increased cycle time because the window of the clamping device would need to be indexed afresh for each and every bonding unit in order to make wire connections.
One way to overcome this inefficiency is to fabricate a window that comprises many smaller openings divided by support structures so as to increase support for bonding units that are located away from the edge of the window. FIG. 1 is a plan view of a prior art clamping device 100 with multiple elongated slots 108 for access to a electronic device to be processed. The prior art clamping device 100 has a main body 104 and a window 106 located substantially centrally on the main body 104. Each elongated slot 108 corresponds to a position of a row of bonding units, and is separated from an adjacent elongated slot 108 by a rib 110. In this way, the ribs 110 support the bonding units located away from the edges of the window 106, and an array of bonding units may be bonded without having to repeatedly index the bonding units with respect to the clamping device 100.
Unfortunately, in modern high-density devices, the pitches between adjacent bonding units can be very small, such as 1 mm to 2 mm. Moreover, they may not allow for generation of a holding force by vacuum suction. Due to this spacing limitation, it is a formidable challenge to design a clamping device that would support multiple bonding units without adversely affecting the bonding process.
One approach would be to machine ribs 110 with smaller widths in order to match the pitches between adjacent bonding units. There would be various difficulties associated with such an approach. One problem is that there is usually a machining limitation in CNC (Computer Numerical Control) machines with respect to the length-to-width ratio of the ribs. For high-density devices with smaller pitches and a relatively large bonding area, ribs of a certain length have to be made slimmer. Machining is not practicable because as the ribs get slimmer, it is very difficult for them to maintain their linearity, or they may be easily broken because of their lack of rigidity. These factors have an impact on the feasibility and costs of manufacturing such a window clamp, as well as clamping reliability.
Another possible alternative to having to machine multiple elongated slots is to provide a clamping device with a window in the form of a single elongated slot that exposes a row or column of bonding units in the array. FIG. 2 is a plan view of a prior art clamping device 102 with a window 106 comprising a single elongated slot. A width of the slot corresponds to a width of a row or column of bonding units that are to be bonded. Nevertheless, the clamping device would have to be indexed after each row or column of dice are bonded, thereby reducing the bonding speed. The pattern recognition (PR) system of the bonding machine is also unable to look forward to the next row or column to be bonded to perform advance data processing, further resulting in lower output capacity for a given time. It would be desirable to reduce the indexing frequency during bonding and increase the output capacity for a given time.

Clamping device for processing electronic devices


Apparatus for conducting thermogravimetric analysis continuously when sample weights are measured automatically in the case of measurement of a plurality of samples. A plurality of empty sample containers are transferred individually in succession from a tray to a thermobalance, where each container is weighed and a representation of the weight of each empty container is stored in a first memory. Then, a sample is loaded into each container in the tray and the loaded sample containers are transferred individually in succession from the tray to the thermobalance where each loaded container is weighed and a representation of the weight of each container is stored in a second memory. The weight of each sample is then determined based on the difference between the representations stored in the first and second memories.

The present invention relates to an apparatus for thermogravimetry which automatically measures the weight changes of each of a plurality of samples, which weight changes depend on sample temperature when the operation of sample conveyance and the operation of thermogravimetry are alternately and automatically performed.
Thermogravimetric analysis in thermal analysis is a relatively old technique which began with the Honda type of thermobalance.
Even though the usefulness of thermogravimetric analysis is now widely known, thermogravimetry apparatus which can automatically measure a plurality of samples is relatively unknown. In conventional apparatus for thermogravimetry, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. 720331983, the following methods are used: the initial weight of a sample before thermal analysis is preliminarily measured by a worker with a chemical balance; or the weight output obtained when an empty sample container is set on an apparatus is used as a reference, and the variation of weight output obtained when a sample is loaded in the sample container is used as the weighed value.
When thermogravimetric analysis for a plurality of samples is automatically conducted, for example, samples are put in platinum sample containers in order to minimize staining of the apparatus which is caused when the samples are heated. Therefore, it is rather difficult to measure only the initial weight of samples. For example, in the case where about 50 samples are measured with a chemical balance, measurement with respect to one sample must be conducted once before and once after the sample is loaded in a sample container, and it is necessary to then determine the weight difference. Depending on the configuration of the samples, this can take about 2 hours in total. Since the samples must be manually loaded in the sample containers, it is impossible to measure a plurality of samples continuously and automatically.


An image pickup apparatus including a lens barrel, a hollow shaft, a base, electric wiring, and a protection member. The lens barrel has a lens and an image pickup device embedded therein. The hollow shaft is rotatable about an axis intersecting with an optical axis of the lens. The axis serves as a central axis of the hollow shaft. The base supports the lens barrel in a rotatable manner by using the hollow shaft. The electric wiring extends through the inside of the hollow shaft to electrically transmit an image pickup signal of the image pickup device. The protection member is provided in the hollow shaft so as to prevent the electric wiring from coming into contact with the hollow shaft.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image pickup apparatus with a rotary lens barrel in which a lens barrel having a lens and an image pickup device embedded therein is rotatable. In particular, the present invention relates to a configuration capable of decreasing the length of electric wiring for electrically transmitting image pickup signals, reducing influence of noise applied to the image pickup signals, and markedly improving durability of the electric wiring.
2. Description of the Related Art
An example of an image pickup apparatus with a rotary lens barrel may be a video camera for video conferences and a video camera for surveillance. In such a video camera, a lens barrel may be rotated in a horizontal direction (hereinafter, referred to as "pan direction") and in a vertical direction (hereinafter, referred to as "tilt direction"). Image pickup signals from an image pickup device embedded in the lens barrel are electrically transmitted through electric wiring extending through a rotation portion. Thus, the important point is arrangement of the electric wiring at the rotation portion of the lens barrel.
For example, a configuration is known in which a rotation shaft of a lens barrel has a hollow portion, and electric wiring extends through the hollow portion of the rotation shaft. In particular, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-96518 discloses a configuration in which a rotation shaft of a pan motor that rotates a lens barrel in the pan direction has a hollow portion, and electric wiring extends through the hollow portion of the rotation shaft. Accordingly, electric signals can be transmitted between the stationary side and the rotary side.

Image pickup apparatus with rotary lens barrel


A check valve 10 for a fluid passageway 12 or 14 of a pressure balancer 16 or the like, and having a base plate 40 with an opening 62 therethrough connected in the passageway 12 or 14. The underside 42 of the base plate 40 disposed in the passageway 12 or 14 to face normal flow therein and the upperside 44 facing the opposite direction. A substantially "U" shaped frame member 79 is connected on the upperside 44 of the base plate 40. The frame member 79 carries two leg members 52 and 54 extending from the upperside 44 of the base plate 40 on opposite sides of the opening 62 with a bridge member 72 carried by the leg members 52 and 54 to span the opening 62. A closure member 92 is disposed on the upperside 44 of the base plate 40 adjacent the opening 62. A spring member 80 is connected between the frame member 79 and the closure member 92 normally to urge the closure member 92 to close the opening 62 whenever the flow in the passageway 12 or 14 is less than 5 psi.

The invention relates to a check valve; particularly, to a check valve for use in a pressure responsive device, such as a pressure balancer, wherein the check valve not only prevents backflow, but may also reduce or eliminate water hammer.
A conventional check valve will be made of many parts that required assembly and include a relatively expensive spring, such as one made of metal. Also, connecting a check valve in a passageway of the housing might require the use of an additional or special fastener.


A paper feeding apparatus includes a cassette main body that stacks a paper therein, a sidewall that moves in a width direction of the cassette main body, an end wall that moves in a longitudinal direction of the cassette main body, a first movable member that is connected at one end to the sidewall and rotates around a shaft axially fixed to the cassette main body in connection with the sidewall, a second movable member that is connected at one end to the end wall and rotates around a shaft axially fixed to the cassette main body in connection with the end wall, a first detection unit that has a plurality of detection members and detects the size of the paper in the width direction, and a second detection unit that has a plurality of detection members and detects the size of the paper in the longitudinal direction.

In the related art, an image forming apparatus or a paper feeding apparatus is provided with a mechanism for detecting the size of a paper stacked in a paper cassette. With the enhancement of functionality of the image forming apparatus, the image forming apparatus becomes complicated and has a lot of members. In terms of user's convenience, it is undesirable that the image forming apparatus is increased in height in a height direction. Therefore, it is necessary to reduce the height of the paper cassette in the paper feeding apparatus disposed at a lower end of the image forming apparatus.
With the enhancement of functionality of the image forming apparatus, in order to suppress an error when printing, it is necessary to accurately detect the size of the paper stacked in the paper cassette.
The paper cassette has a sidewall and an end wall that are movable along a width direction of the stacked paper and a longitudinal direction of the paper cassette. Two paper size sensors for detecting the size of the paper stacked in the paper cassette when the paper cassette is inserted into the paper feeding apparatus are provided at a position opposed to the paper cassette on the depth side of the paper feeding apparatus. Each of the paper size sensors detects the size in the paper width direction or the longitudinal direction of the paper cassette by combinations of presses. A control unit detects the paper size on the basis of a combination of the sizes in the paper width direction and the longitudinal direction of the paper cassette detected by the two paper size sensors.
The paper cassette is provided with a movable member that is movable in accordance with the movement of the sidewall, and a movable member that is movable in accordance with the movement of the end wall. The movable members correspondingly press the paper size sensors. At this time, the movable member connected to the sidewall and the movable member connected to the end wall are disposed in the paper cassette with the same rotation fulcrum.
FIGS. 47 and 48 show a related art example of a first movable member 205 and a second movable member 206 provided in a cassette main body 201. FIG. 47 is a diagram of a paper cassette 201 when viewed from its rear surface in a state where the paper cassette 201 is inserted into an image forming apparatus 1. FIG. 48 is a diagram of a first sensor 102 and a second sensor 103 when viewed from the depth side of the image forming apparatus 1.
As shown in FIG. 47, the first movable member 205 and the second movable member 206 are disposed on the rear surface of the cassette main body 201 on the same axis. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 48, the first sensor 102 and the second sensor 103 are arranged in the height direction on the same axis of the paper feeding apparatus 20 or the image forming apparatus 1. For this reason, the paper cassette 201 cannot be decreased in height (JP-A-2005-280994).
When the printing position of an image is misaligned with respect to the paper width direction, it is necessary to shift the paper position in the paper cassette so as to be aligned with the image to be printed (hereinafter, referred to as lateral misalignment correction). When a user executes lateral misalignment correction of a paper, the sidewall is also moved. For this reason, the paper size sensors may detect a size different from a paper size desired to be actually detected or may not specify any size. For this reason, when the user executes the lateral misalignment correction of the paper in the paper cassette, it is also necessary to move the paper size sensors, which leads to complexity.
Instead of the lateral misalignment correction of the paper, a method of correcting the position of an image when printing may be used. In this case, however, it is necessary to set a printable region in the image forming apparatus by an amount corresponding to the amount of lateral misalignment correction. For this reason, the image forming apparatus is increased in size, and manufacturing costs become high. In addition, according to this method, the position of the paper in the paper cassette is not corrected, and accordingly the paper is conveyed into the apparatus at a position different from a normal position. Then, the paper may collide against an unexpected place, and paper jam or bending may occur. When a lateral misalignment adjustment mechanism for the lateral misalignment correction is provided, it is necessary for the user to adjust the paper size sensors.
Accordingly, aspects of the invention provide a paper feeding apparatus that is capable of accurately detecting the size of a paper stacked in a paper cassette without increasing the size of the apparatus.

Paper feeding apparatus with paper size detectors


Methods of forming color images having excellent graininess and sharpness by simple heat development processing are disclosed.

In a method known as conventional color photography, a color photosensitive material for photographing use (the so-called color negative) generally comprises a layer capable of recording blue light to form a yellow image, a layer capable of recording green light to form a magenta image and a layer capable of recording red light to form a cyan image. When such a material undergoes development-processing after exposure, the silver halide grains having latent images formed by the exposure are reduced to silver, while the developing agent is oxidized. The oxidized developing agent reacts with dye-providing couplers (that is, undergoes coupling reaction) to form dye images. From the resultant material, the undeveloped silver halide and the developed silver are removed in a bleach-fix step subsequent to the development step. The negative dye images thus obtained are projected onto a color photosensitive material for printing use, and the thus exposed printing material is subjected to development and bleach-fix steps similar to the above, thereby obtaining a color print.
The so-called color negative photosensitive material further contains colloidal silver and dyes having a filtering function for imparting spectral sensitivity differences to the three kinds of sensitive layers, and fine-grain silver or dyes for the anti-halation purpose. Of these additives, the metal silver, such as colloidal silver, is removed in a bleaching step.
Also, another method of forming color images in a reprinting material is known, wherein the image information present in a color negative as described above is read by a photoelectric means, subjected to image processing to be converted into image information for recording, and then recorded in a printing material.
In particular, the development of digital photoprinters has been advanced as an embodiment of the foregoing method. An example of such photoprinters is described in JP-A-7-015593 (The term "JP-A" as used herein means an "unexamined published Japanese patent application") In a digital photoprinter, the image information of a color negative is converted into digital signals, and recording light modulated in accordance with those digital signals is used for scanning exposure of photosensitive materials, such as color paper, to provide finished prints.
The methods cited above presuppose usual development, bleach and fixation steps, and so their processing steps are complex.
In the conversion of image information into digital signals, however, the image information as original is not required in principle to be dye images. For instance, EP 526,931 describes the method in which a multilayer photosensitive material constituted of a layer forming a silver image alone and a layer forming both silver and dye images is exposed and then developed, and the thus obtained image information is read. Further, JP-A-6-266066 describes the method in which all the three layers constituting a multilayer photosensitive material are free from dyes, and the information as to residual silver halide and developed silver is read.
Although the above-cited methods simplify photographic processing, they presuppose digitized image processing. Therefore, in contrast to conventional dye images, the images obtained by those methods cannot be used for the exposure by direct projection onto color paper and the like. Even when the digital processing is performed, however, the developed silver and the silver halide are lower in concentration than dyes. Thus, a smaller amount of information is derived therefrom; as a result, the image quality is lowered. In addition, as usual color couplers are used as coloring material, colors are gradually developed in the Dmin area unless any processing is given to the couplers after development. Therefore, a certain processing for fixation or stopping the development is carried out.
As other coloring materials used in a method of forming images, there are known nondiffusible compounds of the kind which release diffusible dyes responding positively or negatively to silver development. For instance, such compounds are described, e.g., in EP-A2-0220746, U.S. Pat. No. 4,783,396, Kokai Giho 87-6199, JP-A-64-13546, U.S. Pat. No. 4,500,626 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,639,408. Those compounds are mainly used for transferring diffusible dyes into an image-receiving material to form a print.
On the other hand, as a processing method of a photosensitive material using a silver halide, a simple rapid process using a heat development has been developed and as the examples, goods such as Dry silver (trade mark) by Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, PICTROGRAPHY (trade mark) by Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd, and PICTROSTAT (trade name) by Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd., have been known. However, they are black and white or color printing materials and photosensitive materials for photographing use by a conventional heat development have not been known.
Also, as a form of heat development, a process of heat-developing in the presence of a small amount of water and a base and/or a base precursor is known, for example, an example of the process is described in JP-B-2-51494 (the term "JP-B" as used herein means an "examined Japanese patent publication"). However, the image-forming method described in the above patent is a process that dye-providing substances, which are reductive to a light-sensitive silver halide and release hydrophilic dyes by causing a reaction when heated together with a light-sensitive silver halide, are used, the dyes released at the heat-development is transferred onto an image-receiving material, and the image-receiving material having thus transferred dyes is used as a color print.
As mentioned above, conventional methods for color photographic processing are complex, and so more simplified methods are desired to be developed. Further, disposal of processing solutions used in bleaching and fixing steps is required. The methods described in EP 526,931 and JP-A-6-266066, though they are simplified, presuppose digitalized image processing, and so the images obtained thereby cannot be used for the exposure performed by direct projection onto color paper or the like.


A method of eliminating a color cast of image in photographic device includes: obtaining a color cast image; determining a color temperature of the color cast image; analyzing a brightness ratio among a first primary color, a second primary color, and a third primary color of the color cast image; choosing one parameter group from a plurality of color cast calibration parameter groups according to the color temperature; calibrating the brightness ratio among the first primary color, the second primary color, and the third primary color of the color cast image via the chosen color cast calibration parameter group.

1. Field of the Invention
The disclosure relates to a method of eliminating a color cast of an image.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, agglutinate lenses can be used to a photographic device according, to different demands, the agglutinate lens is formed by adhering at least two lenses with glue. A thickness of the glue between the agglutinate lenses would increase the size of the photographic device. Consequently glue with high index of refraction may be used to decrease the size of the photographic device. However, the image captured by the photographic device easily has a color cast due to the high index of refraction, and the color distortion of the image is generated.

Method of eliminating color cast of image in photographic device


The present invention features a pill-dispensing system which has a number of standardized, or universal-type, modules. Each module has a rotating, helix-drive mechanism, which is rotationally controlled by a microprocessor. The helical-drive mechanism features several improvements, both in the drive mechanism and in the software control of the rotational drive system by the microprocessor that allows for the dispensing of pills of all shapes and sizes one at a time. The helix of the drive is securely mounted within a rotatable, hollow tube. A stationary collar is mounted adjacent the upper end of the rotating tube. The rotating helix extends into the stationary collar and forces pills from the hollow tube to the dispensing edge of the stationary collar. A hopper positioned at the input end, or mouth of the tube, feeds a batch quantity of pills to the drive mechanism. The tube is angled upwardly from the mouth portion, so that the pill-dispensing end is positioned above the input end. In this fashion, the pills that are fed through the tube move upwardly against gravity.

The field of pill-dispensing features many different mechanisms that are designed to recognize, sort and count tablets and capsules of all types and sizes. Many of these devices are problematical, due to their lack of reliability. In order for one apparatus to properly recognize and/or sort differently-sized pills, for instance, it has often been necessary to modify dispenser design, so as to accommodate tablets of particular shapes and sizes. Oftentimes, adjustments must be made to a machine during the operation thereof. Such changes greatly inhibit the use of such devices in facilities that are automated or are continuously run.
The present invention illustrates a new apparatus that is both reliable and able to handle a wide variety of tablets and capsules, without the basic design requiring adjustments or modification thereto.
The current invention is a standardized or universal-type module that can be easily loaded with a hopper having all types of tablets and capsules of varying size and shape. The module has a simple, screw-type feed and dispensing mechanism that can operate at different speeds to accommodate the different pills. A multiplicity of modules can be arrayed in a workstation that is computer-controlled. The speed of each dispensing mechanism is also computer-controlled, so that each module can be individualized for a specific pill. In this manner, the workstation can dispense a wide range of pills as needed in any sort of applicable prescription filling facility (e.g., retail pharmacy, hospital pharmacy, clinics, nursing home, mail-order concern).
This invention is more cost-effective and compact than existing dispensers. It is able to count accurately at a speed commensurate with a high-throughput pharmacy fulfillment system. Its design allows for its use in banks or arrays which are compact enough to allow a single operator to handle 200 or more dispensers from a single workstation. The form of the device also allows its use in a pre-existing, automated dispensing- or prepackaging facility, which can accommodate the invention quite affordably.
As aforementioned, this invention provides a basic design that can handle a complete range of tablet and capsule sizes and shapes, without requiring different mechanical operations or adjustments. The inventive, basic design is controlled electronically. A microprocessor is programmable so as to provide different drive voltages that adjust the timing and operation of the mechanism, which, in turn, set the device to operate specifically with respect to a particular pill or tablet.
The mechanism of the invention features a sloped tube containing a helical, interior ridge. The tube is set at an angle to the horizontal plane. With its helical ridge, the sloped tube is rotated, causing tablets fed to the mouth of the tube to move upwardly along the tube, against gravity, and thereby becoming separated, either individually or into smaller groups. As the pills reach the end of the tube, they are individually separated, and can be accurately dispensed from the end thereof. The falling pills are then detected individually by photodetector cells, and are thereby reliably counted. The computer controlling the dispensing operation is programmed to recognize a double-feed or a broken, fragmented tablet.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,213,232, issued to KRAFT et al, discloses an apparatus for dispensing single units such as pills. A generally circular, walled container has a bottom for holding the units and a discharge area located distally from the bottom for receiving the single units and for discharging them upon manual rotation. A helical spiraled rib member is located on the circular walled container for creating, during rotation, a continuously variable inclined surface along the helical spiraled rib member and the circular walls of the container. In addition to requiring the bottom (making it impossible to incorporate in a system with a hopper), the system is not adapted to be automatically advanced.
Screw-feed separation and photoelectric counting are known in the art. The invention features such significant improvements over the existing concept, however, that, while the basic simplicity and reliability are retained, both speed and accuracy are enhanced. The key to the maintenance-free reliability sought is in its basic simplicity. The incorporated improvements to the basic design provide significant changes in operational features, speed and accuracy. Therefore, while being sophisticated, the invention retains basic simplicity.
Providing accurate, pill-dispensing counts for differently-sized and -shaped tablets via a single mechanism is a complex problem sought by many, and accomplished by few. It is the purest form of invention which takes a complex problem and makes it simple, as has been done here.
The inventive mechanism improves the separation of the tablets within the screw-feed, a process often referred to in this art as singulation. The invention is an improvement over a basic, screw-feed mechanism, making certain that only single pills emerge from the dispensing end of the tube.
The inventors have discovered that several factors influence the singulation process in the screw-feed of the present invention, to wit: (a) the size and shape of the helical ridge, (b) the slope of the tube containing the helical ridge, (c) the pitch from one turn of the helical ridge to the next, and (d) certain other shapes interior to the device must be designed to cause some of the tablets to tumble backward over the helical ridge, thus stringing out the forward portion of the tablet mass into a single-file configuration within the helix. The design of this backward tumbling ensures singulation. The backward tumbling limits the number of tablets being carried forward by any one 360.degree. turn of the helix. This, in turn, causes the tablets to emerge from the dispensing end of the device only one at a time.
The screw-feed mechanism of the pill-dispensing apparatus of this invention rigidly connects a helical ridge, or a helix, to the inside wall of a rotating, hollow tube. The ridge is designed to extend beyond the upper end of the tube for approximately one turn. At this end, the helix is encased by, but is not connected to, a stationary collar having the same diameter as that of the rotating tube. As the helix advances within the stationary collar, it pushes tablets out of the collar. The pills typically exit only one at a time, and are then reliably counted by a photoelectric device. The shape of the helical ridge causes the tablets to lie essentially flat as they are pushed along this stationary collar. This further ensures that the pills will fall out of the collar only one at a time.
The helical ridge is bent slightly at its output end (towards the output end of the helix), which causes a further separation of the tablets as they fall from the dispensing end of the collar. The helix pitch is lengthened over a forward portion thereof, in order to effect better separation of the pills as they travel along the tube.
Two protrusions, or, nubs, are built into the inside of the rotating hollow tube, between two turns of the helix. These protrusions assist in causing excessively large tablets to tumble backwardly towards the input end of the helix. The leading edge of the helical ridge is angled downwardly and to the left, in order to urge the tablets backwardly toward the mouth of the hollow tube. Thus, large pills that were successful in moving towards the dispensing end are pushed backwards, and the forward pill mass achieves a greater separation from the main batch.
Two small protrusions are built into the face of the helical ridge, up against the inside of the rotating tube. These small protrusions are disposed on the output side of the ridge approximately one, and one-and-a-half turns, respectively, on the helix, from its output end. These protrusions assist in causing excessively small pills to tumble backwardly towards the input end of the helix. Thus, small pills that were successful in moving towards the dispensing end are pushed backwards, and the forward pill mass achieves a greater separation from the main batch.
Thus, the inventive protrusions provide a built-in, inherent compensation for both small- and large pill separation. Thus, the inventive apparatus does not require operational adjustments, which are so common in the devices of the prior art.
As the helix-tube combination turns, it picks up tablets from a hopper, bringing them into the tube. At the input end, or, mouth, of the helix-tube, a trough is disposed adjacent the bottom of the hopper that contains the supply of tablets. The trough is pivoted at one end away from the mouth of the helix-tube, and is bias-spring supported at a point adjacent the mouth thereof. This trough is thereby enabled to tilt downwardly at its end, adjacent the helix-tube mouth. In the event of a tablet jam at the input end (mouth portion), the force and the weight of the jam will cause the pivoted trough to tilt against its spring biasing, relieving the pressure of the jam, and thus allowing tablets to once again flow freely into the helix-tube.
The microprocessor controlling the dispensing mechanism stops the rotation of the tube when the number of tablets counted by the device approaches the number desired for a given dispensing count. Afterwards, the microprocessor intermittently rotates the tube in both a forward and reverse direction a fraction of a turn, waiting between successive, intermittent jogs for a signal from the photodetector that the final tablet in the count has dropped therethrough. This intermittent rotation at the end of the dispensing cycle reduces the tendency of multiple pills to drop from the end of the tube. In this fashion, the microprocessor control ensures that an accurate, final count of tablets will be obtained. The size of the small, incremental angle and the duration of the wait are adjusted in software to be optimal for the size of the pills being dispensed. In this way, the only adjustment required to accommodate the different sizes of pills is accomplished in software that affects the helix rotation only. No mechanical modifications or adjustments are required therefor.
As a result of maintaining the simple concept of a screw-feed drive, the device maintains its overall reliability, which is further enhanced by the improvements. The refinements in both hardware and software to the basic, helical, screw-feed drive achieve simplicity, reliability, low cost and compactness for this pill-dispensing system.


The disclosed embodiments enable a Mobile Node to select from or prioritize two or more Foreign Agents using information dynamically provided to the Mobile Node. When a Foreign Agent detects a Mobile Node, it composes an agent advertisement having one or more fields including one or more parameter values. The Foreign Agent then sends the agent advertisement to the Mobile Node. The Mobile Node may then select one of the Foreign Agents, as well as prioritize the Foreign Agents, using the parameter values.

The present invention relates to Mobile IP network technology. More particularly, the present invention relates to dynamically providing link specific information to Mobile Nodes, enabling the Mobile Nodes to select the most appropriate Foreign Agent.
Mobile IP is a protocol which allows laptop computers or other mobile computer units (referred to as "Mobile Nodes" herein) to roam between various sub-networks at various locations—while maintaining internet and/or WAN connectivity. Without Mobile IP or a related protocol, a Mobile Node would be unable to stay connected while roaming through various sub-networks. This is because the IP address required for any node to communicate over the internet is location specific. Each IP address has a field that specifies the particular sub-network on which the node resides. If a user desires to take a computer which is normally attached to one sub-network and roam with it so that it passes through different sub-networks, it cannot use its home base IP address. As a result, a business person traveling across the country cannot merely roam with his or her computer across geographically disparate network segments or wireless nodes while remaining connected over the internet. This is not an acceptable state-of-affairs in the age of portable computational devices.
To address this problem, the Mobile IP protocol has been developed and implemented. An implementation of Mobile IP is described in RFC 3344 of the Network Working Group, C. Perkins, Ed., "IP Mobility Support for IPv4," August 2002. Mobile EP is also described in the text "Mobile IP Unplugged" by J. Solomon, Prentice Hall. Both of these references are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties and for all purposes.
The Mobile IP process in a Mobile IPv4 environment are illustrated in FIG. 1. As shown there, a Mobile IP environment 2 includes the internet (or a WAN) 4 over which a Mobile Node 6 can communicate remotely via mediation by a Home Agent 8 and may also include a Foreign Agent 10. In a Third Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2)/CDMA2000 network, the Foreign Agent is implemented in what is generally referred to as a Packet Data Serving Node (PDSN). In the absence of a Foreign Agent in a Mobile IPv4 environment, or in a Mobile IPv6 environment in which a Foreign Agent is not implemented, the Mobile Node 6 can obtain a topologically correct IP address (i.e., collocated IP address) and register this IP address with the Home Agent. (In a Mobile IPv6 environment, this is accomplished via an Access Router rather than a Foreign Agent.) Typically, the Home Agent and Foreign Agent are routers or other network connection devices performing appropriate Mobile IP functions as implemented by software, hardware, and/or firmware. A particular Mobile Node (e.g., a laptop computer) plugged into its home network segment connects with the internet through its designated Home Agent. When the Mobile Node roams, it communicates via the internet through an available Foreign Agent. Presumably, there are many Foreign Agents available at geographically disparate locations to allow wide spread internet connection via the Mobile IP protocol. Note that it is also possible for the Mobile Node to register directly with its Home Agent.
As shown in FIG. 1, Mobile Node 6 normally resides on (or is "based at") a network segment 12 which allows its network entities to communicate over the internet 4 through Home Agent 8 (an appropriately configured router denoted R2). Note that Home Agent 8 need not directly connect to the internet. For example, as shown in FIG. 1, it may be connected through another router (a router R1 in this case). Router R1 may, in turn, connect one or more other routers (e.g., a router R3) with the internet.
Now, suppose that Mobile Node 6 is removed from its home base network segment 12 and roams to a remote network segment 14. Network segment 14 may include various other nodes such as a PC 16. The nodes on network segment 14 communicate with the internet through a router which doubles as Foreign Agent 10. Mobile Node 6 may identify Foreign Agent 10 through various solicitations and advertisements which form part of the Mobile IP protocol. When Mobile Node 6 engages with network segment 14, Foreign Agent 10 relays a registration request to Home Agent 8 (as indicated by the dotted line "Registration"). The Home and Foreign Agents may then negotiate the conditions of the Mobile Node's attachment to Foreign Agent 10. For example, the attachment may be limited to a period of time, such as two hours. When the negotiation is successfully completed, Home Agent 8 updates an internal "mobility binding table" which specifies the care-of address (e.g., a collocated care-of address or the Foreign Agent's IP address) in association with the identity of Mobile Node 6. Further, the Foreign Agent 10 updates an internal "visitor table" which specifies the Mobile Node address, Home Agent address, etc. In effect, the Mobile Node's home base IP address (associated with segment 12) has been shifted to the Foreign Agent's IP address (associated with segment 14).
Now, suppose that Mobile Node 6 wishes to send a message to a Correspondent Node 18 from its new location. In Mobile IPv4, a message from the Mobile Node is then packetized and forwarded through Foreign Agent 10 over the internet 4 and to Correspondent Node 18 (as indicated by the dotted line "packet from MN") according to a standard internet protocol. If Correspondent Node 18 wishes to send a message to Mobile Node—whether in reply to a message from the Mobile Node or for any other reason—it addresses that message to the IP address of Mobile Node 6 on sub-network 12. The packets of that message are then forwarded over the internet 4 and to router R1 and ultimately to Home Agent 8 as indicated by the dotted line ("packet to MN(1)"). From its mobility binding table, Home Agent 8 recognizes that Mobile Node 6 is no longer attached to network segment 12. It then encapsulates the packets from Correspondent Node 18 (which are addressed to Mobile Node 6 on network segment 12) according to a Mobile IP protocol and forwards these encapsulated packets to a "care of" address for Mobile Node 6 as shown by the dotted line ("packet to MN(2)"). The care-of address may be, for example, the IP address of Foreign Agent 10. Foreign Agent 10 then strips the encapsulation and forwards the message to Mobile Node 6 on sub-network 14. The packet forwarding mechanism implemented by the Home and Foreign Agents is often referred to as "tunneling." In the absence of a Foreign Agent, packets are tunneled directly to the Mobile Node 6 collocated care-of address. Packets sent by the Mobile Node 6 to the Correspondent Node 18 may also be transmitted via "reverse tunneling." During "reverse tunneling," packets transmitted by the Mobile Node 6 are forwarded via the Home Agent, which forwards the packets to the Correspondent Node 18.
As described above, a Mobile Node may roam from one Foreign Agent to another. Specifically, the Mobile Node may roam to a variety of physical links, each of which may support one or more Foreign Agents. When multiple physical links are simultaneously available to a Mobile Node, the Mobile Node may select a physical link based upon the link state or link quality. Specifically, the link state indicates whether the link is up or down, while the link quality indicates the quality of the link. In order to ascertain the link state or link quality, the Mobile Node must examine each link to assess its desirability.
The Mobile Node also has access to static information associated with each link that enables the Mobile Node to intelligently select the most appropriate physical link. For instance, a Mobile Node may have access to static pricing information that is pre-configured for each physical link. This static pricing information is typically established via an agreement with the service provider.
While the Mobile Node may select a physical link, current Mobile IP standards do not address the selection of a Foreign Agent by a Mobile Node. Moreover, the information associated with a physical link that is typically provided to a Mobile Node is static, rather than dynamic. As a result, a Mobile Node cannot ascertain which Foreign Agent is the most appropriate (e.g., cost-effective) in a particular situation.
In view of the above, it would be beneficial if information could be conveyed dynamically to a Mobile Node. Moreover, it would be desirable if a Foreign Agent could be selected based upon such information.

Method to dynamically provide link specific information to mobile clients


The rear projection screen includes a laminated sheet having a multi-layered structure consisting of the n number (n is a natural number of three or above) of layers. In this laminated sheet, a difference in linear expansion coefficients is 5% or more between a layer having the maximum linear expansion coefficient and a layer having the minimum linear expansion coefficient. Further, a difference in elasticity is 10% or more between a layer having the maximum elasticity and a layer having the minimum elasticity. The curvature change rate ε (1/mm° C.) of the laminated sheet with respect to temperature satisfies −7.0×10−6≦ε≦7.0×10−6.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a laminated sheet and a method of designing the same, and a rear projection screen and a method of manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Rear projection screens are generally composed of a plurality of sheet-like members such as a lenticular lens sheet, Fresnel lens sheet, front panel, and so on. The screen market requires more light-weight, low-cost, and thin screens with fine pitch while having a wide display. Further, in order to offer more sophisticated features, the rear projection screens increasingly include a multi-layered structure in which Fresnel lenses, lenticular lenses, and front panels are each laminated together. Thus, thin screens having the multi-layered structure such as a double-layered lenticular lens, a double-layered Fresnel lens, and a front panel laminated with a film are currently dominant. A screen in which a front panel is laminated with a lenticular lens on an ambient light absorbing part (black stripe: BS) so as to reduce color shift to improve contrast is proposed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication 07-248537, for example. In addition, most lenticular lenses for a liquid crystal display or digital micromirror device (DMD) are used in combination with a front plate since they are too thin to be used in a single piece. For example, a lenticular lens for liquid crystal displays may be adhered, on a lenticular exit surface, to a front plate. The exit surface of a front plate may be coated with an antireflection film. Further, a multi-layered sheet may include a combination of two or more layers of which linear expansion coefficients are greatly different so as to previously curve the sheets, as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication 2001-133886, for example. The rear projection screens having various multi-layered structures have become widely used.
The rear projection screens including a combination of laminated films, however, have the following problems. When using a combination of films, lens sheets, and front panels made of different materials, the difference in the linear expansion coefficient of each material generates thermal stress as temperature changes. The thermal stress causes warpage to distort the lens. The focal point of the screen can thereby shift; in addition, the films can be separated. This leads to deterioration of image and picture quality of the rear projection screens. Though the focal point shifts to some extent when using a single-layer structure without combining different materials, the focal point shifts more greatly if using a multi-layered structure with combined materials, making the problem of image and picture quality deterioration more serious.
One way to prevent the laminated sheet of different materials from warpage deformation due to temperature changes is to adjust the ratio of the thickness of layers in such a way that layers other than the layer with highest rigidity are as thin as possible. If one layer is significantly thicker than the other layers, for example, deformation due to thermal stress can be reduced. Another way is to adjust the ratio of the elasticity of layers in such a way that there is a soft layer of which deformation force is negligible with respect to the layer with highest rigidity. Yet another way is to substantially equalize the linear expansion coefficients of layers. It is also possible to prevent the warpage due to the thermal stress by symmetrizing the structure of the laminated sheet in the thickness direction, though it imposes many restrictions on design, such as prohibition of use of different materials on two sides of the sheet. However, the above methods place strict conditions on thickness reduction or material selection and allow very low degree of design freedom, restricting the flexible change of composition, material, and thickness of layers. For example, changing the degree of elasticity involves changing the composition and material, which is undesirable since it causes a change in the optical characteristics or there is a limitation to the entire sheet thickness in some cases to make a thin screen.
Hence, conventional rear projection screens have the problem that deterioration of image and picture quality occurs with temperature changes.

Laminated sheet and method of designing the same, and rear projection screen and method of manufacturing the same


In the stage of winding a drive coil (17) on salient poles (114) in the assembling of a motor (1), the opening width of an armature core (11) is wide enough to allow easy and proper winding of the drive coil (17). After the winding of the drive coil (17), opening-width adjusting members (50A) are put within open slots (100), to thereby reduce the opening width of the armature core (11) at the flux gathering parts (54A) and (55A) of the opening-width adjusting member (50A). The opening-width adjusting member (50A) is positioned and fixed, by its elasticity, within each open slot.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a motor, and more particularly to an armature structure of the motor.
2. Related Art
The armature core of a conventional motor is illustrated in FIG. 11(a). As shown, the armature core includes a plural number of salient poles 114. Those poles are radially extended from the center of the armature core, and each of the salient poles includes an arm 116 and an arcuate head 117 extending to both sides at the extreme end of the arm. An open slot 100 is present between the adjacent salient poles 114. A coil is wound on the arms of the salient poles 114 through the open slots 100. Specifically, a conductive wire is wound on the arms 116 of the salient poles 114 in a manner that the armature core 11 is moved relatively to and around a nozzle which guides and feeds the conductive wire. In this case, the width W of the opening of each open slot 100 is sufficiently wide so as not to hinder a smooth movement of the nozzle by the arcuate heads 117.
However, if the opening width of each open slot 100 is too narrow as shown in FIG. 11(b), the nozzle is limited in its movement for winding the drive coil 17. The limited movement of the nozzle creates the following problems. The winding of the drive coil 17 around the arms 116 is not uniform. That is, the wound coil layer is thicker toward the extreme end of each arm 116, and forms dead spaces D near to the roots of the arms 116, as shown. The presence of the dead spaces D reduces the number of turns of the wound drive coil 17, and possibly gives rise to a problem that the resultant wound coil layer is easy to get out its shape and in turn to loosen the wound drive coil 17.
To secure the properly winding of the drive coil 17, it is desirable that the opening widths of the open slots 100 are enough wide. However, the wide opening width creates another problem of degradation of the output characteristic of the motor. In a case where the opening present between the adjacent arcuate heads 117 is large, a magnetic flux density is considerably reduced in the openings, and a reluctance of the magnetic circuit including the openings is remarkably increased. The result is that a large cogging occurs in the motor, and the motor loses its smooth continuous rotation.
The technique in this field has been unable to solve the following antinomic problem; when the end of properly winding the drive coil 17 is achieved, the end of smoothing the motor output is lost, and vice versa.

Motor with opening-width adjusting members for salient pole slots

Kabushiki Kaisha Sankyo Seiki Seisakusho


A cache sub-array arbitration circuit for receiving a plurality of address operands from a pending line of processor instructions in order to pre-fetch data needed in any memory access request in the pending instructions. The sub-array arbitration circuit compares at least two addresses corresponding to memory locations in the cache, and determines in which sub-arrays the memory locations reside. If the two memory locations reside in the same sub-array, the arbitration circuit sends the higher priority address to the sub-array. If a received address operand is the real address of a cache miss, the arbitration circuit sends the cache miss address to the sub-array before other pre-fetch memory access request.

In modern microprocessor systems, processor cycle time continues to decrease as technology continues to improve. Also, design techniques of speculative execution, deeper pipelines, more execution elements and the like, continue to improve the performance of processing systems. The improved performance puts a heavier burden on the memory interface since the processor demands data and instructions more rapidly from memory. To increase the performance of processing systems, cache memory systems are often implemented.
Processing systems employing cache memories are well known in the art. Cache memories are very high-speed memory devices that increase the speed of a data processing system by making current programs and data available to a processor (also referred to herein as a "CPU") with a minimal amount of latency. Large on-chip caches (L1, or primary, caches) are implemented to help reduce the memory latency, and they are often augmented by larger off-chip caches (L2, or secondary, caches).
The primary advantage behind cache memory systems is that by keeping the most frequently accessed instructions and data in the fast cache memory, the average memory access time of the overall processing system will approach the access time of the cache. Although cache memory is only a small fraction of the size of main memory, a large fraction of memory requests are successfully found in the fast cache memory because of the "locality of reference" property of programs. This property holds that memory references during any given time interval tend to be confined to a few localized areas of memory.
The basic operation of cache memories is well-known. When the CPU needs to access memory, the cache is examined. If the word addressed by the CPU is found in the cache, it is read from the fast memory. If the word addressed by the CPU is not found in the cache, the main memory is accessed to read the word. A block of words containing the word being accessed is then transferred from main memory to cache memory. In this manner, additional data is transferred to cache (pre-fetched) so that future references to memory will likely find the required words in the fast cache memory.
The average memory access time of the computer system can be improved considerably by use of a cache. The performance of cache memory is frequently measured in terms of a quantity called "hit ratio." When the CPU accesses memory and finds the word in cache, a cache "hit" results. If the word is found not in cache memory but in main memory, a cache "miss" results. If the CPU finds the word in cache most of the time, instead of main memory, a high hit ratio results and the average access time is close to the access time of the fast cache memory.
Pre-fetching techniques are often implemented to try to supply memory data to the on-chip L1 cache ahead of time to reduce latency. Ideally, data and instructions are pre-fetched far enough in advance so that a copy of the instructions and data is always in the L1 cache when the processor needs it. Pre-fetching of instructions and/or data is well-known in the art. However, existing pre-fetching techniques often pre-fetch instructions and/or data prematurely. The problem with pre-fetching and then not using the pre-fetched instructions and/or data is two-fold. First, the pre-fetched data may have displaced data needed by the processor. Second, the pre-fetch memory accesses may have caused subsequent processor cache reloads to wait for the pre-fetch accesses, thus increasing the latency of needed data. Both of these effects lower the efficiency of the CPU.
Furthermore, when aggressively pre-fetching data to an L1 cache, speculatively pre-fetched data can displace lines in the L2 cache that may be needed in the near future. This may occur even when the pre-fetched line may not be frequently used, may not be modified with a store operation, or may not be used at all by the program (in the case of a bad guess pre-fetch). Also, data pre-fetched to the L1 cache in an aggressive pre-fetch scheme can thrash with (displace) data in the L2 cache.
In state-of-the-art cache memories, more than one memory access is usually performed in a single cycle. This is accomplished by implementing the cache memory in multiple arrays or "sub-arrays". If multiple addresses arrive at the cache memory together, the address originating from the highest priority source is selected for each sub-array. If only one address is destined for a sub-array, no priority determination is needed.
Some impediments to aggressive fetching are related to the method of address generation. In many architectures, addresses are generated for a memory access by operating on address operands arithmetically. For example, a load operation may require that two operands be added together to form the effective address of the memory data to be fetched. One address operand may be one read from General Purpose Register (GPR) A and the other from GPR B. The add operation must be performed in order to obtain the effective address (EA) in memory.
The address generation, however, is a cycle limiter in an aggressive implementation. If two such load operations are attempted together, two separate addition operations (EA0=GPR A+GPR B and EA1=GPR C+GPR D) have to be performed to obtain the two EAs and then the EAs must be examined to determine if the same sub-array in the cache is being accessed by each EA. If the same sub-array is being accessed, then the EAs must be arbitrated to determine which receives priority. It is advantageous to minimize the amount of time it takes to arbitrate between cache sub-arrays.

International Business Machines Corporation


An imaging system includes a wavelength dependent aperture stop, which transmits light with different ranges of wavelengths through apertures of different diameters. Thus, different colored light will have different F-stops, which can be selected based on the power transfer and image quality requirements for the different colored light. For example, a smaller F-stop may be used with a weaker light source to produce a higher throughput for a specific range of wavelengths. Accordingly, the optical system's design and optimization is wavelength and F-stop dependent.

In imaging system design, such as for a projection system, it is necessary to correct for aberrations to improve image quality while maximizing the light throughput of the system to increase brightness. Conventionally, in a chromatic coaxial optical system, i.e., where all wavelengths of light are transmitted along a common optical system, the imaging optics are designed and optimized based on common optical elements for all wavelengths. In other words, conventional optical systems are designed with all wavelengths of light passing through the same lenses and aperture stops.
Difficulty arises in the design and optimization of optical systems because different wavelengths of light have different optical path lengths through the optical system based on their wavelength. Thus, an optical system transfer function could be different for any specific wavelength causing the system modulation transfer functions (MTF) to be wavelength dependent as well. The optimization of the MTF for one color in an optical system generally results in the degradation of the MTF for other colors, same as the optimization of one field point generally results in the degradation of the MTF for the other field points. Accordingly, compromise is generally necessary in the design and optimization of an imaging system, among different wavelengths as well as different field points.
The design of optical systems is further complicated where independent color light sources, such as light emitting diodes (LEDs) are used. The throughput of an optical system is defined by the extent of the aperture stop without any vignetting, i.e., no ray in the optical system is cut off along the optical train. Because some color light sources may be brighter than others, and because the throughput of the system is conventionally designed to be equal for all wavelengths, weaker light sources stay relatively weak at the output of the optical system. Accordingly, the optical design in imaging systems using multiple light sources is typically limited to a choice of optical elements and transmitting apertures that will provide adequate throughput for all wavelengths.

Imaging optics with wavelength dependent aperture stop


A blood vessel in a patient is severed by inserting a shaft through an incision in the patient, the shaft carrying first and second clamps. The first and second clamps are closed against the vessel in closely adjacent relationship to one another. Thereafter, the clamps are moved in generally opposing directions to sever the vessel at a location between the clamps. Each clamp carries a cauterizing pad for cauterizing the severed ends of the vessel.

The present invention relates to coronary revascularization and in particular to methods and apparatus for harvesting sections of vascular vessels, such as saphenous veins.
For certain surgical procedures, such as coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), a section of a vascular vessel such as a saphenous vein in a patient's leg is harvested and attached elsewhere to form a bypass between an arterial blood source and a coronary artery that is to be bypassed.
In an effort to reduce trauma to the patent, less-invasive vessel harvesting techniques have been developed which involve the use of an endoscope. In particular, a small incision is made in the patient's leg to enable the endoscope and surgical instruments to be inserted. For example, it is necessary to sever and cauterize side branches of the vessel section being harvested, and then sever and cauterize the ends of that vessel section. That procedure traditionally involves the withdrawal of one instrument and the insertion of another, which intensifies the trauma to the vessel and the surrounding tissue.
It would be desirable to enable vessel harvesting procedures to be carried out in a minimally invasive manner that further reduces trauma to the patient by minimizing the number of insertions/removals of surgical instruments.

Minimal invasive endoscopic methods and apparatus for harvesting blood vessels


An optical pickup actuator includes a lens holder on which tracking and focusing coils are attached, at least one of the coils being a polygon coil having at least two sides that are different in a length from each other, magnets disposed facing the coils, and a rotation preventing unit formed on the lens holder. The rotation preventing unit surface-contacts an inner surface of the polygon coil to prevent the polygon coil from being twisted.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a coil rotation preventing structure installed on a side portion of a lens holder for an optical pick-up actuator.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, an optical pick-up actuator functions to constantly maintain a relative distance between an object lens and an optical medium (i.e., a disk) by moving structural elements (a lens holder, a bobbin, a coil, and the like) including the object lens. In addition, the optical pick-up actuator runs along a track formed on the optical medium to write/read the information on/from the optical medium.
FIG. 1 shows a prior optical pick-up actuator.
Referring to FIG. 1, a prior optical pick-up actuator 200 includes a lens holder 202, on a center of which an object lens 201 is movably mounted and magnetic circuit assemblies disposed around the lens holder 202.
The magnetic circuit assembly includes tracking and focusing coils 205 and 206, a tilt coil 217, a yoke 203 and multi-polar magnet assemblies 204 disposed facing opposite surfaces of the lens holder 202.
The focusing coils 205 are disposed on left and right sides of the opposite surfaces of the lens holder 202, opposing a vertical border of the magnet polarity. The tracking coils 206 are disposed between the focusing coils 205 on the both surfaces of the lens holder 202, opposing a horizontal border of the magnet polarity. A damper (wire suspensions) 207 functioning as a current transmission unit and a tilt coil 217 are installed around the lens holder 202.
As shown in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3, each of the magnet assemblies 204 includes two -shaped magnets 204a and 204b that are symmetrically disposed each other and magnets 204c and 204d disposed on bottoms of the -shaped magnets 204a, the magnets 204c and 204d having a polarity opposite to the respective -shaped magnets 204a and 204b.
The number of magnets and the polarities of the magnets may be varied.
The magnet assemblies 204 are fixed on an inner surface of the U-shaped yoke 203 formed of a ferromagnetic body.
First ends of the parallel wire suspensions 207 are fixed on a fixing portion 208 formed on the lens holder 202 and second ends of the parallel wire suspensions 207 are fixed on a main board (not shown) via a frame 209 spaced away from the lens holder 202.
The wire suspensions 207 functions to suspend the lens holder 102 and supply the current.
The operation of the prior optical pickup actuator will be described hereinafter.
Referring to FIGS. 1, 2 and 3, when the current is applied to the focusing coils 205, vertical magnetic flux is created, thereby performing the focusing drive of the lens holder.
At this point, the magnetic flux of the multi-polar magnet assemblies 204 facing the focusing coils 205 acts electro-magnetically to move the focusing coils 205 and the lens holder 202 in the focusing direction (in the vertical direction).
When the current is applied to the tracking coils 206, the multi-polar magnet assemblies 204 and the tracking coil 206 and the lens holder 202 are driven in the tracking direction (in the horizontal direction).
When the current is applied to the tilt coil 217 wound around the lens holder 202, as shown in FIG. 2, left and right sides of the lens holder 202 pivots in an opposite direction to each other by the opposite polarity between the magnets 204a and 204b opposing the tilt coil 217 according to Lorentz force.
The lens holder 202 should be designed to move in focusing and tracking directions perpendicular to each other without any vibration, rotation and twisting.
However, when the lens holder 202 is driven in the tracking direction, as shown in FIG. 3, since the weight center of the lens holder 202 does not accord with the tracking force center of the tracking coil 206, the lens holder 202 operates in a rolling mode at a high frequency range. As a result, the phase of the lens holder 202 is deformed.
That is, since the weight center in the vertical direction is a center of the lens holder while the weight center of the tracking direction is a center of the tracking, when the lens holder is driven in the tracking direction, the weight center in the tracking direction is varied due to the imbalance of the magnetic force.
In addition, the weight center may be offset upward from the center by the magnetic flux distribution formed by the multi-polar magnet assemblies. In order to solve this problem, a dummy mass (220 in FIG. 1) may be provided on a side portion of the top of the lens holder to heighten the weight center.
A tracking coil structure for solving the above-described problem will be described hereinafter with reference to FIGS. 4 through 6. The description of the same or like parts depicted in FIG. 1 will be omitted herein.
As shown in FIGS. 4A and 4B, the tracking coils 306 attached on the opposite surfaces of the lens holder 302 are formed in a trapezoid shape where the upper winding width is lesser than the lower winding width. That is, each of the tracking coils 306 has a triangular weight center.
In the operation, since the trapezoid tracking coils 306 are wound in a proper direction on the opposite surfaces of the lens holder 302 to generate attraction and repulsion by the electromagnetic force generated by the combination of the multi-polar magnet assemblies 304.
By the attraction and repulsion, the lens holder 302 is driven in the tracking direction (in the horizontal direction).
At this point, when the lens holder 302 is moved in the tracking direction by the tracking force TF in the rolling mode, the lens holder 302 horizontally pivots in the tracking direction by a reverse direction compensating torque TFc generated together with the tracking force TF by the tracking coil. That is, the trapezoid shape of the tracking coils 306 functions to lower the tracking center.
FIG. 5 shows a vector graph of the trapezoid tracking coils. As shown in the drawing, when the current is applied to the trapezoid tracking coils, the force F in the tracking direction is generated in a direction perpendicular to both inclined sides of the trapezoid tracking coils. That is, as the vector F is force (vector Fx+vector Fy, where the vector Fx is force in a direction of an X-axis and Fy is force in a direction a Y-axis) in the tracking direction.
Here, a torque causing vibration that causes the occurrence of the rolling by the vector Fx is Fx*bo where the bo is a difference between the tracking center TC and the weight center WC.
Generally, the Fx is greater than the Fy, it is possible to eliminate the occurrence of the rolling using the Fy.
At this point, the compensation torque (TFc) is 2*d1*Fy. Here, 2*d1 is a distance between the both sides of the tracking coil at a tracking force center line. The torque causing vibration, which causes the rolling is generated by the vector Fx and the reverse compensating torque is generated by the vector Fy. At this point, since the vector Fx is greater than Fy, the tracking sensitivity is not deteriorated and the rolling can be eliminated without increasing the mass of the lens holder.
Accordingly, the trapezoid tracking coils 306 are located on center portions of the opposite surfaces of the lens holder to drive the lens holder in the tracking direction by the force F (Fx+Fy) in the tracking direction and the compensation torque TFc(Fy). As a result, the tracking sensitivity is not deteriorated and the rolling can be eliminated without increasing the mass of the lens holder.
As a result, the rolling problem caused by the ascending of the tracking center of the tracking coils facing the 4-polar magnet assemblies from the weight center of the lens holder can be solved.
FIGS. 6A and 6B show driving states in the tracking direction and frequency properties of the rectangular tracking coil and the trapezoid tracking coil.
As shown in the drawings, by varying a shape of the tracking coil from the rectangular shape (206) to the trapezoid shape (306), the reverse torque TFc is generated by the offset between the tracking center TC and the weight center to eliminate residual torque, thereby preventing the rolling causing the vibration.
However, since the trapezoid coils have an asymmetrical structure, it cannot be wound around a bobbin. Therefore, the coils is first wound in the rectangular shape using a machine and then directly attached on the opposite surfaces of the lens holder.
To solve the above problem, as shown in FIG. 7a, the focusing coils are fixed on the lens holder 302 by bobbins 315 and the tracking coils 306 are hooked and fixed on upper and lower projections 318 and 319 that are integrally formed on the lens holder 302.
The upper projection 318 for the trapezoid tracking coil 306 is formed in an egg shape to minimize the contacting surface with the inner surface of the trapezoid tracking coil 306. In addition, the lower projection is formed in a circular shape to point-contact the inner surface of the trapezoid tracking coil 306. That is, the upper and lower projections 318 and 319 support the tracking coil 306 only in a vertical direction.
However, as shown in FIG. 7b, the tracking coil 306 is twisted in a direction as its attached location.
That is, since the lower projection 319 supports the tracking coil 306 through the point-contact, when the lower portion of the tracking coil 306 rotates, the upper portion of the tracking coil 306 also rotates, thereby twisting the tracking coil. As a result, there may be many problems in manufacturing the products.
In addition, when the tracking coil 306 is twisted from its normal position, abnormal electromagnetic force is generated between the tracking coil 306 and the magnet assembly, thereby making it difficult to obtain the normal tracking servo.

Coil rotation preventing structure for optical pick-up actuator


A method of manufacturing a semiconductor light emitting device is performed on a light emitting structure including a sequential stack of a first conductivity-type semiconductor layer, an active layer, and a second conductivity-type semiconductor layer. The second conductivity-type semiconductor layer and the active layer are mesa-etched to expose a portion of the first conductivity-type semiconductor layer therethrough. A conductive layer is formed on the second conductivity-type semiconductor layer and the portion of the first conductivity-type semiconductor layer exposed by mesa-etching. In turn, the conductive layer is dry etched such that an upper surface of the first conductivity-type semiconductor layer is partially etched to have uneven portions formed thereon. The resulting semiconductor light emitting device has improved external light extraction efficiency while being easily manufactured.

The present disclosure relates to a method of manufacturing a semiconductor light emitting device.
In general, a light emitting diode (LED), a type of semiconductor light emitting device, is a semiconductor device capable of generating light of various colors due to the recombination of electrons and holes therein. A demand for such semiconductor light emitting devices has been continuously increasing, since they have various advantages such as a relatively long lifespan, low power consumption, superior initial driving characteristics, and the like, as compared to filament-based light emitting devices. Accordingly, various attempts at improving characteristics of semiconductor light emitting devices have been made. In particular, a device structure capable of easily, externally emitting light generated in the light emitting device has been developed, and a method of efficiently manufacturing the same has also been developed.

Method of manufacturing semiconductor light emitting device


The new blueberry plant variety ‘C15-270’ is provided. ‘C15-270’ is a commercial variety intended for the fresh market. The variety is produced from a cross of unpatented parents ‘FL12-082’ and ‘FL12-069’.

The new variety 'C15-270' was selected from a population of seedlings derived from crossing the blueberry varieties known as 'FL12-082' (unpatented seed parent) and the variety known as 'FL12-069' (unpatented pollen parent). The cross was made in 2012 in Florida, USA and the seed was sown and grown in Corindi Beach, New South Wales, Australia. The new variety was selected in 2015 from among plants located on land at Corindi Beach and assigned the breeding code 'C15-270'. Plants of 'C15-270' were propagated by cuttings for further evaluation and resulted to be uniform and stable. The new variety showed distinctive traits such as evergreen, with fruit of good flavor, large fruit size, and firmness.