A clamping device for a protection casing of an electronic device serves to clamp a protection casing for receiving an electronic device. The protection casing includes an upper cover for covering an upper side of the electronic device and a lower cover for covering a lower side of the electronic device; and in assembly state, the upper cover is connected to the lower cover to enclose the electronic device. The clamping device comprises an upper clamping frame and a lower clamping frame for clamping the protection casing therein. A combining structure is arranged on lateral sides of the upper clamping frame and the lower clamping frame for combining the upper clamping frame and the lower clamping frame so that the upper clamping frame and the lower clamping frame clamp the protection casing tightly and thus the protection casing retains its function for a long time.

The protection casing of a prior art mainly includes an upper cover having an approximately rectangular shape for closing an upper side of a tablet electronic device, and a lower cover having a shape corresponding to that of the upper cover. The lower cover serves to close a lower side of the tablet electronic device. In assembly state, the upper cover buckles the lower cover directly and thus the tablet electronic device is enclosed therein. Therefore, the protection casing can protect the tablet electronic device.
However, in the conventional protection casing of the prior art, the upper cover buckles the lower cover directly so that the protection casing does not have enough tightness. When the protection casing is collided or moved by a user, the upper cover and the lower cover are easy to separate from each other so that the ability of anti-collision of the protection casing is reduced. Therefore, the tablet electronic device tends to expose out of the upper cover and the lower cover to cause the tablet electronic device collides the outer object and is damaged. Because the upper cover and the lower cover are easy to separate from each other, the function of waterproof will be destroyed. As a result, dusts or water is easy to enter into the protection casing.
Therefore, the inventor of the present invention desires to design a novel design, which can improve the defects as said above.

Clamping device for protection casing of electronic device


An asynchronous address interface circuit and method for converting unrestricted randomly scheduled address transitions of memory address signals into scheduled address events from which initiation of a sequence of memory access events can be based. The address interface circuit initiates a delay sequence based on a address transition detection pulse. In the event a new address transition detection pulse is received prior to completion of the delay sequence, the delay sequence is reset and restarted based on the new address transition detection pulse. The sequence of memory access events is initiated in response to the completion of the delay sequence.

A class of memory devices called pseudo-static memory are typically memory devices that are functionally equivalent to static random access memory (SRAM) devices, but include internal refresh circuitry, so that the devices appear to the use as not needing refresh operations. In general, these memory devices can be operated in the same manner one would operate a conventional SRAM, but have a memory core based on conventional dynamic random access memory (DRAM) cells. As is well known in the art, a major distinction between the two types of memory cells is that DRAM memory cells need to be periodically refreshed to maintain the stored data whereas SRAM memory cells do not.
There are advantages to employing a conventional DRAM memory core over a conventional SRAM memory core in a memory device. For example, memory density for a DRAM memory array can be much greater than that for a SRAM memory array. In the case of a DRAM memory cell, only one transfer gate and a storage device, typically a capacitor, is necessary to store one bit of data. Consequently, each DRAM memory cell is considerably smaller than a conventional SRAM memory cell, which may have as many as six transistors per memory cell. The simple structure and smaller size of the DRAM memory cell translates into a less complicated manufacturing process, and consequently, lower fabrication costs when compared to the SRAM memory cell.
In spite of the aforementioned advantages provided by a DRAM memory core, there are issues related to the design and operation of a conventional DRAM memory array that make its application undesirable. For example, as previously mentioned, DRAM memory cells need to be refreshed periodically or the data stored by the capacitors will be lost. As a result, additional circuitry must be included in the memory device to support the refresh operation. It is also generally the case that access times for DRAM memory cores are greater than the access times for SRAM memory cores.
Additionally, a memory access operation for a conventional DRAM memory core is such that once the operation has begun, the entire access cycle should be completed or the data will be lost. That is, a DRAM access cycle begins with a row of memory cells in the array being activated, and the respective charge state of the memory cells for the activated row are sensed and amplified. A column including a particular memory cell of the activated row is selected by coupling the column to an input/output line. At this time, data can be read from or written to the particular memory cell. Following the read or write operation, the row of memory cells is deactivated, thus, storing the charge state in the respective capacitors of the memory cells. As is generally known, the process of sensing the charge state of the memory cells is destructive, and unless the access cycle is completed with the charge state being amplified and the row being deactivated, the data stored by the memory cells of the activated row will be lost. In contrast, for a conventional asynchronous SRAM memory device, the SRAM sense operation is non-destructive and does not have the same type of access cycle as a conventional DRAM memory device. Consequently, random memory addresses may be asserted to the SRAM memory device without timing restriction, and data is always expected to be returned in a certain time thereafter. This time is typically referred to as the address access time tAA.
Therefore, it is desirable to have a circuit that can accommodate the asynchronous nature of an SRAM memory device and transform these actions to the scheduled events of a conventional DRAM memory access operation in order to provide an asynchronous pseudo-static memory device that employs a conventional DRAM memory core.

Asynchronous interface circuit and method for a pseudo-static memory device


An improved marsh craft construction uses spaced apart pontoons with endless belts (e.g.,. rubber) that encircle the pontoons and ride upon a rail system. Lugs are fastened to the belts for sliding against the rails. Drive wheels have cylindrical pins that intermesh with correspondingly shaped surfaces of the lugs. This improved construction eliminates any roller chain.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improved amphibious marsh craft and its track system, and more particularly to an improved track system that maximizes buoyancy by eliminating bogie wheels while eliminating prior art "roller chain" and its lubrication and wear problems.
2. General Background of the Invention
Various types of amphibious marsh crafts are known in the art. One commonly known and cited is U.S. Pat. No. 2,546,523 issued Mar. 27, 1951 to Reynolds which discloses a marsh buggy vehicle comprising a pair of spaced, elongated pontoons disposed and secured in a parallel relationship, two endless chains passing about each pontoon over sprockets mounted on transverse, driven shafts. The chains were joined together transversely by slats which form the threads for the craft.
Another example of an amphibious marsh vehicle is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,842,785 issued Oct. 22, 1974 to Rivet. The apparatus described by Rivet included two pontoons, with two endless drive chains carried in channels disposed on top and bottom of the pontoons. The cleats attached to the chains have plastic blocks which are secured to the web of the cleats and bear against the top and bottom of the pontoons.
These and other similar vehicles have a number of operating problems, one of the most common of which is roller chain wear. In operation the chain is exposed to the mud, sand and water, and to prolong the chain life it is a common practice to lubricate the elements of the chain in places of connection. But any lubricant applied to a chain has a tendency to catch and collect dirt and sand, which causes rapid wear of the chain elements, particularly between the carrier roller and pin.
To solve this problem some inventors have come up with the idea of using rubber belts instead of metal chains, as for example in U.S. Pat. No. 3,217,687 issued Nov. 16, 1965 to Erkelson et al., which describes an amphibious vehicle having endless belts provided for operation mainly in water when the belts are substantially submerged.
But such vehicles face another problem when traveling on the ground, this problem being commonly known as "chain" or "track throw," which arises from the inability of many such designs to provide efficient means for securing a chain or a belt in its place over the driving sprockets or wheels.
Additionally, many "marsh buggies" have had the problem of "track sag," which further adds to the problem of track throw.
These problems have been known in the art for a long period of time and, to prevent rapid wear of the elements, a number of solutions have been suggested. In some cases special pads are attached to the sides of a chain in order to reduce friction and thus to eliminate the problem. While these and other solutions have proven to be satisfactory to some extent, they still have not provided full reliability.
In my prior U.S. Pat. No. 4,433,634, there is provided a tracked, amphibious vehicle with a track securement and guide means. The invention shown and described in the '634 patent was designed to prevent "track throw" or loss. The vehicle shown and described in the '634 patent includes two spaced, parallel pontoons joined by a centrally located operator's platform structure, with each pontoon having a moveable track for propulsion, with the track supported on its pontoon by fore and aft sprocket wheel sets and a series of larger bogie wheels at its bottom and smaller guide wheels at its top. Each track comprises a parallel set of rubber, continuous, endless belts joined together by a series of laterally disposed cleats with drive lugs, which lugs are engaged by the teeth of the sprocket wheels. For track securement in the first embodiment (FIG. 5) every fifth cleat includes an inwardly projecting, polyethylene T-hanger retainer which matingly fits and rides in a beam guide attached to the bottom of the pontoon and extends from the initial bottom bogie wheel to the entry of the aft, drive sprocket. In a second embodiment (note FIG. 6), the securing parts are reversed with the T-retainer element being a continuous beam fixed to the bottom of the pontoon and with the mating receptive elements being on the cleats of the track. For track guidance every cleat includes a pair of outwardly facing, inwardly directed, vertical guide members which face the inward or interior sides of the upper and lower bogie wheels to prevent, any lateral forces from moving the track off its pontoon. U.S. Pat. No. 4,433,634 is incorporated herein by reference.
One of the compromises that accompany the use of bogie wheels such as those shown and described in the '634 patent (see for example FIG. 3), is that of reduced pontoon area especially in the lower end portion of the pontoon where the bogie wheels must be located. This necessarily limits the amount of load that can be carried.
Another problem that has long plagued marsh vehicles is the need for endless drive chains that encircle each pontoon, engaging sprockets mounted on the transverse driven shafts. Though chain driven type amphibious marsh crafts have been in use for a number or years, the chain has always been a source of high maintenance, breakage, and down time. The endless roller chains have very small bearings that are quickly worn away by sand, grit, and soil. In some soil conditions, chain wear is much faster than in others. However, the problem of track chain wear has long plagued the art.

Tracked, amphibious marsh vehicle with improved track and drive arrangement


A wind energy plant tower with a tower portion made of a concrete material and a steel-made tubular tower segment, which has on its foot a plurality of connection bores for the connection to the tower portion made of the concrete material, wherein the tower portion made of the concrete material has a head portion with a plurality of openings and a plurality of anchor bolts are provided, which can be fastened after the completion of the tower portion made of the concrete material each at a time in or on one of the connection bores on the foot of the steel-made tower segment and one of the openings in the head portion.

The present invention is related to a wind energy plant tower with a tower portion made of a concrete material and a steel-made tubular tower segment, which has on its foot a plurality of connection bores for the connection to the tower portion made of the concrete material.
Wind energy plant towers are frequently made completely from steel, with the exception of a foundation. However, with increasing size of the wind energy plant towers, a very large diameter of the tower is required for sufficient stability, in its lower region in particular. From on a certain diameter, significant difficulties in the manufacture and the transportation of the tower segments occur. This results in a high logistic expense and in high costs.
These difficulties can be avoided by making a lower tower portion from a concrete material. The same can consist of prefabricated parts and be composed at the construction site, or it can be completely made at the construction site by casting. On this tower portion made of a concrete material, an additional steel-made tower portion is set up, which may consist of one or several tubular tower segments. Particular attention has to be paid to the connection of the tower portion made of concrete with the lower end of the steel-made tower portion. Different solutions for this connection are known in the state of the art.
In the variant known from the document EP 1 654 460 B1, the entire contents of which is incorporated herein by reference, a lower portion of the tubular tower segment arranged on the lower end of the steel-made tower portion is cast in into an embedding region of the wall of the tower portion made from concrete when casting the tower portion made of concrete Special anchoring elements are fixedly connected with the steel-made tower segment and are intended to improve the stability of the connection between concrete and steel.
In the document DE 20 2006 009 554 U1, the entire contents of which is incorporated herein by reference, it is proposed to use a steel-made special adapter element, which is cast together with the concrete-made tower. In doing so, the adapter element is essentially annular and it encloses the upper end of the concrete-made tower portion. On the upper side of the adapter element, a tubular steel-made tower segment is fastened via a flange joint.
From the document DE 102 30 273 B3, the entire contents of which is incorporated herein by reference, the use of an adapter element is also known. The same is also annular and is connected on its upper end to a tubular steel-made tower segment via a flange joint. The tower portion arranged below the adapter consists of prestressed concrete, wherein prestressing elements run in the interior of the wall of the lower tower portion and are lead through connection bores of the adapter element. Above the adapter element, the prestressing elements are anchored, so that they pretension the adapter element stably with the concrete-made tower portion.
A similar solution is known from the document DE 101 26 912 A1, the entire contents of which is incorporated herein by reference, wherein here, either a separate steel-made adapter element or a suitably shaped lowermost steel-made tower segment is pretensioned with the prestressing elements of the concrete-made tower portion. As a peculiarity, the prestressing elements are arranged inside the tubular shaped concrete-made tower portion.
It is common to all the described realisations that the steel-made tower segment or a separate adapter element is cast together with the concrete-made tower portion or is prestressed with the prestressing elements for the concrete-made tower portion.
Based on this, it is the objective of the present invention to provide a wind energy plant tower which can be erected, serviced and as the case may be repaired more simply and with lower cost, as well as a method for the erection of such a tower.


The present disclosure includes apparatus, systems, digital logic circuitry and techniques relating to data encoding. A method performed by a system on a chip (SOC) includes receiving data to be output to a memory unit external to the SOC. Also a key for scrambling the received data is received. A proper subset of the key is identified and used to scramble the received data. The scrambled data is output to the memory unit external to the SOC.

The present disclosure describes systems, apparatus and techniques relating to data encryption technology.
In conventional system on a chip (SOC) implementations, the data seen on the external bus is the actual non-encrypted data from the data source, which data source is typically a processor that is present in the SOC. While the SOC may include an on-chip encryption engine to perform standard encryption algorithms, such as Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), Data Encryption Standard (DES), ElGamal encryption and Rivest, Shamir and Adleman (RSA) encryption, data transferred outside the chip boundary of the SOC is typically not encrypted because the standard encryption algorithms add latency for each data transfer. A hacker can potentially observe the non-encrypted data flowing on external pins of a processor or SOC and may be able to understand the inner workings of the security software or even steal valuable information.


Method and device for real-time separation of signals received by a predetermined number of sensors, the mixture being linear. The signals received are firstly decorrelated [s(t)], and they are then introduced into a rotator which calculates, through a succession of elementary rotations [Q.sup.(1), Q.sup.(2), . . . Q.sup.(m) ], the orthogonal matrix (Q) making it possible to recover the independent source-signals [x(t)] by multiplication (F) of this matrix (Q) by the decorrelated input signals [s(t)]. The identification of (Q) is based on the estimation of statistical magnitudes called "cumulants".

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and a device for real-time separation of mixed signals.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
The problem posed is the blind identification of a mixture of signals. Signals are received on a certain number of sensors, equal to p in number for example. These signals come from a mixture, which is by assumption linear but whose transfer function is unknown, of a number n less than or equal to p of "source" signals which are also unknown, and which, also by assumption, come from independent and non-Gaussian (except strictly for one of them alone) sources. It therefore involves at the same time separating, that is to say identifying, these source signals and determining the transfer function effecting the mixture of signal which are received on the p abovementioned sensors: it is therefore a problem of blind deconvolution.
Taking the simple example from the field of radar of sonar, the signals received by the sensors which together constitute the reception antenna, are generally processed to form channels in directions chosen a priori, this making it possible to spatially separate "sources" constituted by echoes or noise-makers. The problem posed here is to identify there channels directly.
Thus, to fix ideas, if two sources x.sub.1 (t) and x.sub.2 (t), where t is the time variable, and two sensors providing two signals e.sub.1 (t) and e.sub.2 (t) such that: EQU e.sub.1 (t)=x.sub.1 (t)+.beta.x.sub.2 (t) EQU e.sub.2 (t)=.alpha.x.sub.1 (t)+x.sub.2 (t)
are considered, if it is then possible to obtain .alpha. and .beta., that is to say to identify the transform matrix: ##EQU1## the two channels EQU e.sub.1 (t)-.beta.e.sub.2 (t) EQU and e.sub.2 (t)-.alpha.e.sub.1 (t)
are available which effect the desired separation of the source signals x.sub.1 (t) and x.sub.2 (t).
In this example, the source signals are taken at the same instant t: the mixture of signals is termed "instantaneous". In general, mixtures are not instantaneous but "convolutive". It is nevertheless possible to reduce a convolutive problem to an instantaneous problem by decomposing the signals into signals with pure frequencies by spectral analysis obtained by FOURIER Transformation. Denoting the frequency by f, each observed signal can then be written: ##EQU2## and each source signal can be written: ##EQU3## Finally, the blind deconvolution problem to be solved here can be stated thus:
p signals (p greater than or equal to 2) are observed, and for which it is known that they arise from n unknown source signals (n less than or equal to p) through an unknown linear, stationary transformation A(f) such that: ##EQU4## the signals e(t), x(t) and the transformation A possibly being complex data. Moreover, independent and, except strictly for one of them along, non-Gaussian sources are involved. Blind deconvolution then consists in the determination of the transfer function A and thereby of each of the source-signals.
A known solution for effecting a time separation of an instantaneous mixture A(f)=A of signals is proposed by Messrs. C. JUTTEN and J. HERAULT in several articles including the one published in the French journal "Traitement du Signal", volume 5, No. 6, 1988, pages 389 to 403. In involves a method of separation which uses a fully interconnected signal-layer array of linear neurons whose weights are supervised by an algorithm akin to that of stochastic iteration.
This known method nevertheless has some disadvantages:
the algorithm used does not always converge, and it may therefore provide erroneous outputs, which would diverge if there were no natural saturation; PA1 when there is convergence, the speed of convergence of this algorithm can be extremely slow; PA1 whether or not convergence occurs depends on the initialization, as well as on the speed of convergence and on the solution provided. PA1 a first step of obtaining, in a manner known per se, p decorrelated signals s(t) from these received signals e(t); and PA1 a second step of calculating an orthogonal matrix Q such that x(t)=Q s(t), x(t) being the required source-signals, this orthogonal matrix Q, which effects a linear transformation, being obtained from polynomial transformations of the data with the aid of polynomials of degree 3 or 4, and being determined, with the aid of a stochastic algorithm which stores average statistics called moments and cumulants, and which then uses these estimated moments and cumulants to effect the real-time determination of the matrix Q.

Method and device for real-time signal separation


There are provided a package bag capable of surely preventing stay of ambient air or the like in the package bag and intake thereinto even in the filling by handwork or the like of an operator as well as a method for filing and packing the liquid material to be packed into the package bag. A package bag is characterized by comprising a bag main body made of thin laminate films for packing, a fusion part formed at a position spaced from a bottom portion of the bag main body not forming a nozzle through fusion and extending in a widthwise direction of the bag main body, an insert port for a pipe-like filling nozzle provided in a middle portion of the fusion part, a filling part of one-way function formed between the fusion part and an opening end of the bag main body.

Patent Documents 1 to 3 disclose a flexible package bag provided with a liquid pouring nozzle having a self-sealing one-way function which can prevent penetration of ambient air into the package bag when a liquid material to be packed is poured from a package structure formed by filling and packing the liquid material into the package bag under evacuation. When the liquid material packed in the package bag is poured from the bag, a tip fused portion of the pouring nozzle is removed by tearing with fingers and the like to form a pouring port at the tip of the pouring nozzle, and then the package bag is tilted so as to form a downward posture of the nozzle pouring port. In this case, the tip pouring port of the pouring nozzle made of the flexible laminate films is separated away toward front and rear sides under the action of hydraulic head pressure of the packed liquid material to allow for the required pouring of the packed liquid material.
When the liquid material packed in the bag is poured in such a manner, the main body of the flexible package bag is subjected to shrinkage or collapse deformation by a quantity corresponding to the poured volume associated with the pouring of the packed material without intake of ambient air.
After the predetermined amount of the packed material is poured by tilting the package bag, the pouring is stopped by returning the package to the original standing posture. In the stop of the pouring, the inner surfaces of the nozzle wetted with the packed material are mutually adhered under the intervention of the thin film-like packed material through capillary action or the like over a whole area in a widthwise direction of the front and rear films of the pouring nozzle, namely in a vertical direction thereof at the same time of the pouring stop, whereby the tip pouring port of the nozzle is closed to surely inhibit the penetration of ambient air into the package bag.
In the package bag provided with the pouring nozzle, therefore, the packed material in the bag is sufficiently protected from contacting with ambient air before, during and after the pouring of the packed material, and hence oxidation, contamination and the like of the packed material in the bag can be prevented effectively.
The above-mentioned adhesion between the inner surfaces of the front and rear plastic films constituting the pouring nozzle is automatically carried out by returning the package bag to the standing posture to release the pouring nozzle from the action of hydraulic head pressure to thereby return to the original production form, and further by adsorbing the inner surfaces of the front and rear films wetted with the packed material to each other under an atmosphere of a reduced pressure generated when the packed material in the pouring nozzle flows back to the inside of the main body of the package bag. Such an adhesion is attained more surely when the main body of the package bag shrunk or collapse-deformed with the pouring of the packed material from the package bag acts to render the inside thereof into a reduced pressure based on the elastic restoring force inherent to the package bag.
Here, the tip pouring port of the package bag can be automatically closed and sealed with the returning of the package bag to the standing posture without special operation of the pouring nozzle or the like, and also the excellent self-sealing one-way function of the pouring nozzle can be developed.
On the other hand, the packed material can be poured again by tilting the package bag as described above, while the pouring can be stopped in the same manner as mentioned above. Even in this case, the pouring nozzle can develop the excellent one-way function against penetration of ambient air based on the automatic adhesion and sealing.

Package bag and method for filling and packing liquid material to be packed


A display input device comprises a display unit having a flexibility; and a first form change detection unit having a flexibility. The first form change detection unit is able to detect a deformation ascribed to the flexibility as a change in a electrical property. A display input system further comprises a display driving unit that supplies a display signal to the display unit and a signal judging unit that judges a input data based on the change in a electrical property in the first form change detection unit. The input of a first data can be performed by adding the deformation to the display input device.

This invention relates to a display input device and a display input system, and more particularly, to a display input device with which data input of not only digital information but also analog information or vector information become possible by combining a display unit which has a pliability to form change and an input part which can detect the form change, and to the data input system comprising the data input device.
As an input device which can be combined with a display, a "touch panel" can be mentioned, for example. Such a device has a matrix-like signal input mechanism on a display screen, for example, and enables a signal input by detecting the existence and its coordinate position of a signal input. That is, a user contacts an input part corresponding to a button displayed on the display. Corresponding to this, the device can detect the existence of an input and the position information.
By such an input method, although a coordinate position is detectable, the signal is substantially restricted to binary signals of ON/OFF. This is because it is not easy for the user to control the thrust precisely when contacting the input part. For this reason, in order to input multi-value information or analog information, it is necessary to combine techniques, such as a numerical selection type input and a ten-key input, separately, for example, to obtain an amount of signals corresponding to that button display position.
That is, in order to carry out a multi-value input or an analog value input, in view of a position by the side of a user, it is necessary to perform selection of an input item, and an input of an analog value separately. On the other hand, research and development of a display called electronic paper which combines the features of paper and an electronic display are performed in recent years (for example, JP2002-072257A etc.). Although electronic paper does not attain to commercial production yet, a device of an experimental production level is seen.
However, when it is apparatus for which portability is needed especially, it is desirable that various information can be inputted by the easiest possible operation from a viewpoint of the use form. As such a portable device, an "electronic book" to which development is advanced can be mentioned, for example. In reproducing contents, such as a novel, a magazine and a newspaper, using the electronic book, it becomes main operation to turn over pages or to scroll the display screen. It is also possible to use the touch-sensitive input method like the conventional example for this operation. However, in the case of contents like a magazine or a newspaper, the contents are various and discrete. For this reason, random access which jumps over several pages or tens pages will be needed, and a function to input multi-values or an analog value like the number of pages or the amount of scroll is needed. However, operationality and portability are restricted when the conventional ten-key input or a numerical selection type input is used.
On the other hand, when displaying information on a large area like map information, only the part is displayed on a screen from restrictions of area of a display, or the degree of minuteness in many cases. In such a case, in order to search a position which a user wishes to obtain, a scroll function etc. is used. In the case of apparatus having input devices, such as a mouse and a pointing device, the analog input of the scroll direction and the amount of movements can be carried out. However, since a touch panel is mainly adopted as an input device in the case of apparatus excellent in portability, it is necessary to input separately the scroll direction and its amount of movements of a screen.
Thus, there is no simple method of inputting the amount of signals as an analog value with a device which combines a conventional display and a conventional input device. For this reason, for example, in switching a display over tens pages, both hands will surely be needed in the case of an input, or many operations will be required of the user side, and a burden by the side of a user increases.

Display input device and display input system


Disclosed are an optical element holder and an optical communication module. The optical element holder comprises a pedestal having a pair of fixing sections, a pair of holding sections and a stress-suppressing section. The fixing sections are formed in opposing end portions of the pedestal for being welded to a carrier. The holding sections are formed to face the pedestal in an inner position than positions where the fixing sections are formed so as to hold the optical element by pinching it therebetween. The stress-suppressing section prevents a welding stress, which is generated when the fixing sections are welded to the carrier, from affecting the holding sections.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical element holder and an optical communication module to which an optical element is mounted using the optical element holder.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, high-speed and large-capacity optical communication systems have further been advanced. Therefore, optical communication modules such as semiconductor laser modules and light-receiving modules used for the optical communication systems are required to have a higher reliability. In order to achieve the high reliability, generally and widely used is a method in which the optical elements constituting the optical communication module, such as an optical lens and an optical fiber, are fixed by a laser welding (YAG welding).
As shown in FIG. 1, an optical communication module 80 disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 63-219186, comprises a laser element 81, a lens 82, a U-shape holder 90, an optical isolator 83, an element carrier 84, a Peltier element 85, a lens 86, a ferrule 87, an optical fiber 88, a package 89 and the like.
Inside the package 89, the element carrier 84 is mounted through the Peltier element 85. On the element carrier 84, the laser element 81, the lens 82 and the optical isolator 83 are mounted and laser light outputted from the laser element 81 is coupled to the optical fiber 88. The optical fiber 88 is held by the ferrule 87 and the lens 86 is attached on the input side of the optical fiber 88.
Signal light is outputted from the laser element 81 and the signal light is guided to the optical isolator 83 through the lens 82. The signal light permeated through the optical isolator 83 enters into the optical fiber 88 through the lens 86. In this case, the return light from the optical fiber 88 is hindered by the optical isolator 83.
In order to compose the optical module, first, weld parts 94a, 95a of the U-shape holder 90 are laser-welded to the element carrier 84. Then, weld parts 96a, 97a, which are provided in a frame of the lens 82, are laser-welded to the U-shape holder 90. At last, weld parts 98a, 99a of the optical isolator 83 are laser-welded to the element carrier 84.
Next, a specific example of the conventional U-shape holder 90 will be described. Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 08-5876 and the like disclose examples of the U-shape holder 90.
As shown in FIG. 2, in the conventional U-shape holder 90, a pair of opposing holding sections 92a, 92b are provided being projected on the surface side of a plate-type pedestal 91 so as to hold the lens 82 by the inner side of the two opposing holding sections 92a, 92b. At the same time, the weld parts 94a, 95a provided on the outer side of the holding sections 92a, 92b are laser-welded to the element carrier (element carrier 84 in FIG. 3A).
In this case, the U-shape holder 90 is mounted on the element carrier 84 while the lens 82 is being inserted between the opposing holding sections 92a, 92b of the holder 90 (FIG. 2). Then, in the state where the lens 82 is disposed in front of the laser element 81, the position of the holder 90 is adjusted in the X-axis direction as shown in FIG. 3A while making the laser element 81 emit the light so as to adjust the position of the lens 82 in the optimum position in the X direction. In this state, the weld parts 94a, 95a of the holder 90 are laser-welded to the element carrier 84 so as to fix the position of the lens 82 in the X direction.
Subsequently, as shown in FIG. 3A, the lens 82 is moved in the vertical direction (Y direction) between the opposing holding sections 92a, 92b so as to adjust the lens 82 to be in the optimum position in the Y direction. Further, as shown in FIG. 3B, the lens 82 is moved in the back-to-front direction (Z direction) along the optical axis direction of the lens 82 between the opposing holding sections 92a, 92b so as to adjust the lens 82 to be in the optimum position in the Z direction.
At the point where these adjustments of the positions are completed, the frame (not shown) supporting the lens 82 is laser-welded to the holder 90.
However, there are following shortcomings in the conventional U-shape holder 90. The shortcomings are emphasized in FIG. 4 and they are to be described by referring thereto.
As shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 4, the bottom ends of the holding sections 92a, 92b of the holder 90 are welded to the element carrier 84, thereby forming the weld parts 94a, 95a between the bottom ends of the holding sections 92a, 92b and the element carrier 84. In these weld parts 94a, 95a, a welding stress as shown by an arrow is generated when being shrunk after the welding. The welding stress is generated when the inner structures of the holder 90 and the element carrier 84 are pulled towards the weld parts 94a, 95a sides. In this case, the mass of the element carrier 84 is sufficiently large as compared to that of the holder 90 so that it is hard to be affected by the welding stress. On the other hand, the holder 90 is formed in a forked shape. Therefore, when there is the welding stress generated in the bottom ends of the holding sections 92a, 92b, as shown in FIG. 4, the opposing holding sections 92a, 92b are deformed curving towards the outer side being away from each other due to the welding stress.
When adjusting the lens 82 to be in the optimum position in the Y direction and Z direction as shown in FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B, the two holding sections 92a, 92b as the reference are deformed by the welding stress as shown in FIG. 4. Thus, it is impossible to adjust the lens 82 to be in the optimum position in the Y direction and Z direction.
Further, when the holding sections 92a, 92b are deformed by receiving the welding stress, the top ends of the two holding sections 92a, 92b are deformed in the expanding direction as shown in FIG. 4 since they are formed in a forked shape.
When a frame 82a for supporting the lens 82 is welded to the two holding sections 92a, 92b, a clearance 96 is formed between the frame 82a and the holding sections 92a, 92b. Due to the clearance 96, when welding the frame 82a for supporting the lens 82 to the holding sections 92a, 92b, weld part 97b for welding therewith is formed inside the clearances 96. Thus, the frame 82a cannot be successfully welded to the holding sections 92a, 92b, which causes a trouble when determining the position of the lens 82.
In Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 08-5876, the two holding sections 92a, 92b are curved to be in a convex shape towards the inner side, respectively. The frame of the lens is pinched between the two curved holding sections 92a, 92b to be welded. Further, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 08-5876, as shown by an alternate long and short dash line in FIG. 2, projection parts 100 are projected in the lateral direction being away from the holding sections 92a, 92b.
In Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 08-5876, the reason for projecting the projection parts 100, 100 in the lateral direction may be as follows. That is, weld parts 94a′, 95a′ for welding the projection parts 100 to the element carrier 84 are brought away from the holding sections 92a, 92b as much as possible by separating the projection parts 100, 100 away from the holding sections 92a, 92b so as to minimize the welding stress affected on the holding sections 92a, 92b, which is generated when welding the projection parts 100 to the element carrier 84. It is true that the affect of the welding stress is minimized through the configuration in which the above-described projection parts 100 are provided. However, in order to minimize the affect of the welding stress as much as possible, the forming positions of the projection parts 100 with respect to the holding sections 92a, 92b are required to be separated away as much as possible. With the configuration, the external dimension of the U-shape holder 90, especially the dimension in the lateral direction, is expanded so that the area occupied for disposing the holder 90 becomes large. Thus, it becomes impossible to meet the demand for reducing the dimension of the optical communication module using the holder 90.

Optical element holder and optical communication module


A convenient, contamination-free dental floss dispenser assembly having a housing and at least one roll of dental floss mounted for rotation therein. The housing having a dental floss dispensing orifice and cut-off means for cutting off pieces of the dental floss. The floss being free from engagement with the housing and spaced away by at least one-half inch from the housing when the floss extends from the orifice to the cut-off means. Accordingly, the floss free of retaining means, may be gripped by the fingers without touching or contaminating any other part of the housing. The dispenser may also incorporate a means for securely holding the assembly against movement without engagement of the housing by either hand during the dispensing and cutting off of the floss.

The flossing of teeth is an integral part of dental hygiene. Whether applied by a dentist or one's self, flossing frequently results in bleeding of the gums. Proper treatment requires the utilization of multiple lengths of floss, thus requiring the practitioner to systematically remove floss from its dispenser. Such a systematic approach may lead to the contamination of the dispenser and the floss contained therein by infectious materials subsisting within the patient's body fluids (i.e. saliva and blood).
Recently the transmission of highly infectious communicable diseases, carried and transmitted through human blood and other body fluids, has received tremendous public attention. Although a myriad of dental floss dispensers are well known, only the present invention provides a practical, economical, and ecological means of preventing the transmission of such diseases through dental flossing.
Two prior art dental floss holders are illustrated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,554,526 to Dembenski, and 2,707,782 to Eby. Both of these prior inventions relate to dental floss holders characterized by a housing, encasing a spool of dental floss, from which a pair of fingers extend. The free end of the dental floss may be drawn from the spool and stretched between the free ends of the fingers. The floss is then manually locked into place by wrapping the floss around a post or the like on the housing. Both of these dispensers are operated by forcing the dental floss between adjacent teeth with the long arms of the dispenser extending into the mouth. The user must then manually unlock the floss, draw a new length of floss and lock it into place. This results in the contamination of the newly positioned floss. Further, both of these prior inventions taught an altogether different mode of operation, specifically, the insertion of the extending fingers and the floss running therebetween into the mouth. Such a device would require continued manipulation by the operator and would result in contamination of the housing and the floss therein. Further, neither of these units include arrangements for holding floss in place as floss is dispensed.
It is further noted that dental floss dispensers used by dentists include a variety of table top and hand-held dispensers with a housing, which may be constructed from a variety of materials, encasing the floss. These dispensers generally contained an orifice or slot in the housing permitting the passage of the floss. The user of these units was required to manipulate the floss over a raised cutter mounted in the housing, and the user's fingers would normally engage the housing, and could contaminate the housing and floss. The first slit caught the floss and the second cut it. Contamination is inevitable while operating these dispensers since the user was required to continuously handle the floss and its dispenser with his/her contaminated fingers.
Concerning the use of dental floss at home, the contaminated floss dispenser is normally placed in a drawer or in the medicine cabinet, where it is often forgotten, and not used as often as would be desirable. In addition the floss is not easily drawn out of the dispenser, as the floss lies close to the surface of the container.

Contamination-free dental floss dispenser


A DMA control system includes: a plurality of DMA control units that are controlled in a manner that, while one of the plurality of DMA control units use a transmission path, the other DMA control units other than the one of the plurality of DMA control unit are prevented from using the transmission path; and a transfer instruction unit that defines transfer amounts of DMA transfers for the respective DMA control units and gives transfer instructions thereto. The transfer instruction unit, when the transfer instruction unit gives a transfer instruction to a first DMA control unit of the plurality of the DMA control units, defines a transfer amount for the first DMA control unit and gives the transfer instruction thereto in accordance with a state of utilizing a second DMA control units of the plurality of the DMA control units.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a DMA control system, a printing apparatus, a transfer instruction method and a computer readable medium.
2. Related Art
a DMA controller for controlling the direct memory access (DMA) transfer in which various kinds devices and a memory can transfer data without intervening a central processing unit (CPU) is known.

DMA control system, printing apparatus, transfer instruction method and computer readable medium


A method of manufacturing a CMOS image sensor. The present invention enables forming micro-lenses having a uniform shape throughout a semiconductor substrate. The method of manufacturing a CMOS image sensor includes: coating a color filter layer and a semiconductor substrate with a first photoresist; selectively exposing the first photoresist to light to define a planarization layer; coating the first photoresist with a second photoresist; selectively exposing the second photoresist to define a plurality of micro-lens bodies; and baking the plurality of micro-lens bodies to form a plurality of micro-lenses.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a CMOS image sensor, and more particularly to a method of manufacturing a CMOS image sensor making it possible to form micro-lenses having a uniform shape throughout a semiconductor substrate.
2. Description of the Related Art
As generally known in the art, an "image sensor" is a semiconductor device, such as a CCD (Charge Coupled Device), a CMOS image sensor, etc., which converts optical image signals into electrical signals. The CCD has respective MOS capacitors positioned very close to each other for storing and delivering electrical charge carriers. The CMOS image sensor has adapted a switching mode by making MOS transistors as many as pixels with a CMOS technology, which uses control circuits and signal-processing circuits as peripheral circuits, and by detecting outputs in turn with the MOS transistors. In making such an image sensor, in the mean time, efforts are being made to improve the photosensitivity of the image sensor.
In general, the CMOS image sensor is composed of a photo-sensing means for sensing light and a CMOS logic circuit for processing sensed light into electrical signals to make them as data. For better photosensitivity, a Fill Factor, which is a ratio between the area of the photo-sensing means and the whole area of the image sensor, should be increased.
In the case of the CMOS image sensor, however, any attempt to increase the area of the photo-sensing means, under the restricted whole area of the sensor, has its limit because of a basic reason that the CMOS logic circuit cannot be eliminated.
As an alternative to overcome such problems, a photo-gathering technology has been widely studied that changes the path of light incident on an area other than that over the photo-sensing means and gathers the light into the photo-sensing means for better photosensitivity. An example of the photo-gathering technology is to make convex micro-lenses on top of the photo-sensing means using a material with good photo-transmittance and refract the path of incident light so that more light is transmitted to the photo-sensing means.
The structure of a CMOS image sensor using micro-lenses according to the related art will now be explained with reference to FIG. 1. The CMOS image sensor includes: a photo-sensing sensor 1 composed of photo-gates or photo-diodes, etc., to sense light and output electrical signals; a photo-shielding layer 2 made of a metallic layer to prevent any incidence of light on an area other than the photo-sensing area of the photo-sensing sensor 1; an inter-layer insulating film 3 formed on the photo-shielding layer 2; a color filter layer 4 made of dyed photoresist to transmit and deliver light with a specific wavelength to the photo-sensing sensor 1; a planarization layer 5 formed on the color filter layer 4 to overcome faults, steps or surface irregularities in the color filter layer 4; and micro-lenses 6 of polymer-based resin formed on the planarization layer 5 to gather light.
In the case of the CMOS image sensor using micro-lenses as configured above, any light parallel to the optical axes of the micro-lenses is refracted by them and focused at a location on the optical axes. Since one image sensor has tens of thousands of micro-lenses, a clear image is obtained only when the characteristics of respective micro-lenses have the same effect. Accordingly, the performance of the micro-lenses play a crucial role in the quality of image sensors.
Processes for manufacturing micro-lenses in the case of the CMOS image sensor of FIG. 1 will now be described with reference to FIGS. 2A to 2F.
First, as shown in FIG. 2A, a color filter layer 12 is formed on a substrate 11 provided with photo-sensing elements (not shown), such as photo-diodes, of an image sensor. Then, a photoresist 13 for forming the planarization layer is formed on the color filter layer 12. The photoresist for forming the planarization layer has the characteristics of low-sensitivity and high-transmittance in relation to a light source used in an exposure process during photolithography. Specifically, a negative-type photoresist is used.
Next, a reticle 15 is used to expose a predetermined area of the photoresist 13 to light for forming the planarization layer, as shown in FIG. 2B. The area exposed to light corresponds to the area where micro-lenses arc to be formed in subsequent process steps (a cell area) and the area not exposed to light corresponds to the area where pads arc to be formed in subsequent process steps (a peri, or peripheral, area). The photoresist in the area not exposed to light is then developed and removed to complete the planarization layer 14.
Thereafter, a photoresist layer 16 for forming micro-lenses is applied on the whole surface of the substrate, including the planarization layer 14, as shown in FIGS. 2D and 2E. A reticle 18 is then used to expose the photoresist 16 for forming micro-lenses to light selectively. A positive-type photoresist is used as the photoresist for forming micro-lenses. The area not exposed to light corresponds to the area where micro-lenses are to be formed.
In this state, the areas of the photoresist 16 exposed to light are developed and removed, as shown in FIG. 2F. Next, although not shown in the drawings, a baking process may be performed at a temperature of about 150° C. In this process, cuboid-shaped bodies of photoresist 17 melt to form convex micro-lenses that maintain their convex shape upon subsequent cooling.
According to the related method of manufacturing a CMOS image sensor, the planarization layer to be formed on the color filter layer cannot be formed on the peri area but on the cell area only. This causes a topographical fault, or step, between the peri area and the cell area. As a result, the photoresist for forming micro-lenses on the planarization layer generally does not have a uniform thickness over the entire surface of the substrate. A fault (believed to be caused by poor step coverage of the photoresist) then occurs at the interface between the peri area and the cell area.
Consequently, the final micro-lenses do not necessarily all have the same shape. In other words, uniform characteristics of all the micro-lenses cannot be guaranteed. The area where such irregularly shaped micro-lenses are formed is the interface between the cell area and the peri area, as mentioned above.

Method of manufacturing a CMOS image sensor


A magnetic hoop apparatus includes a hollow tube, at least one magnet, a coupling, at least one counterweight, an ornamental tape, and a protective tape. A first end and a second end of the hollow tube are either attached or connected to each other by the coupling creating a circular shape hoop. The at least one magnet and the at least one counterweight are positioned within the hoop, where radial movement of the magnet and the counterweight are restricted by at least one rivet. The ornamental tape is wrapped around the hoop, and the protective tape is wrapped around the ornamental tape adjacent to the at least one magnet. The magnets within multiple magnetic hoops attach with each other in order to create a system of hoop while the counterweights within the multiple magnetic hoops balance the system of hoop.

Hoops are often used as a prop in performances such as dance and magic tricks. The range of tricks and motions which can be performed with a regular plastic hoop is limited. Magnetic hoops have a wider range of performance ability than regular hoops but are still limited as the polarity of each magnetic hoop must be paired. It is therefore an object of the present invention to introduce a magnetic hoop which can attach together through magnetic attraction to create a "floating-like" illusion, where the magnets can swivel and turn inside the tubing to allow a number of ways in which hoops can be combined.


Disclosed is a wick for a wet bulb, wherein the bulb is elongated with a free end and a supported end. An absorbent fabric has a portion configured as a folded over sleeve to at least partially closely surround the bulb. The sleeve has two ends, one of which is open and the other of which is closed to permit the open end of the sleeve to be slipped over the free end of the bulb and passed to the supported end until the closed end of the sleeve approaches the free end of the bulb. A plastic film lining inside the sleeve is resistant to corrosive materials to protect the bulb from corrosive materials and has a lower coefficient of friction than the fabric to ease installation over the bulb. A tail contacts a water supply to pick up water and transport it to the sleeve to wet the bulb.

The present invention relates to improvements in wicks for wet bulb boxes of humidity sensing devices such as hygrometers, RTD sensors and vapor tension sensors, particularly for use in corrosive environments.
In the art of drying lumber, the lumber is dried in a kiln to remove water vapor. The process is monitored using a wet bulb and dry bulb temperature sensors to indicate the conditions of the atmosphere in the kiln. Typically, the humidity and temperature are carefully monitored and controlled to dry the lumber at a selected rate to avoid damaging the lumber. For example, too-rapid drying can cause the lumber to crack or split, but drying too slow is, of course, inefficient.
Wet bulb sensors are well-known. One type is a hygrometer consisting of two temperature sensors for measuring the temperature of an ambient atmosphere. One directly measures the temperature, while the other is kept wet by a wick, so that the cooling effects of evaporating water will cause a temperature difference between the wet and dry sensors. The lower the humidity of the atmosphere, the greater the drying rate and temperature difference. A particularly common device for controlling the rate of lumber drying is a vapor tension controller. In such a controller the wet bulb is provided in the form of a chamber filled with a preselected, pure gas. The chamber is connected via a capillary to controller, so that as the gas in the chamber contrasts or expands with temperature fluctuations, this is communicated to the controller through the capillary. One known controller of this type is made by The Coe Manufacturing Company, Paynesville, Ohio.
However, in drying lumber, the vapors emanating from the lumber include not only water vapor, but also acids. The acids dissolve in the water of the wick of the wet bulb sensor. This problem has been known a long time. Attempts to solve it have taken the form of providing protective coatings on the temperature sensors, but these have not proven to provide sufficiently long-lasting protection. When the corrosion eats through the wet bulb, changes in the gas pressure are no longer accurately communicated to the controller. Repair requires not only replacing the bulb, but also fully evacuating the chamber and some controller components and replacing the pure gas, all of which is quite expensive.
The wicks which are placed on the wet bulb sensors are replaced rather frequently so they can adequately maintain the wet bulb condition. If the wicks become crusty, slimy, torn or otherwise perforated, they lose their effectiveness and transmit a false signal to the wet bulb. The rate of replacement of wicks varies, depending on a number of conditions. For example, in a setting where the water supply is hard, mineral deposits build up quickly on the wick, requiring rapid replacement. Similarly, it is believed that the acids in the atmosphere attack the wick itself, causing its early failure. Because of this and the fact that wicks are inexpensive, they are considered to be short-term, disposable commodities.
Replacement of the worn-out wick in a hot kiln is not a pleasant job. This is particularly so if the temperature sensor has a bit of age, so that corrosion pits and roughens its surface, snagging the wicks.
As a result, those of ordinary skill in the art have a need for an improved wet bulb wick to reduce corrosion of the wet bulb sensor, permit easy installation of a new wick and lengthen the lifetime of wicks.

Wet bulb wicks for corrosive atmospheres


Disclosed herein are methods and compositions related to probiotic formulas. These formulas comprise the bacterial strain Lactobacillus crispatus WZ-12 or a derivative thereof. Other strains which can be included in the composition include, but are not limited to, Lactobacillus salivarius 1-14, or Lactobacillus reuteri 2-2, and derivatives thereof. These compositions can be used in a variety of methods to treat and/or ameliorate diseases, such as colonization of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the host organism. Also disclosed herein are methods of treating those subjects in need thereof by administering the compositions disclosed herein.

The impact of antibiotics on the gastrointestinal (GI) tract is complicated partially due to the complexity of GI microbiota and the lack of appropriate markers to monitor. While pathogens have been the focus of antibiotic resistance studies for decades, pathogenic bacteria in particular constitute a very small percentage in GI microbiota (Laxminarayan et al., 2013). Targeting certain groups of commensal bacteria and tracking their dynamics during antibiotic treatment is a more promising strategy to explore antibiotic-GI tract interactions.
The rapid emergence and dissemination of antibiotic resistance (AR) is a critical threat to public health. Unnecessary use of antibiotics should be limited, particularly antibiotic growth-promoters in food-producing animal farming. Probiotics are an alternative to antibiotic use. The antimicrobial and microbiota-modulation activity of probiotics can hinder colonization of pathogenic bacteria, improve overall gut health, and potentially reduce the applied dosage of antibiotic (Vuotto et al., 2014). While the mainstream probiotics are primarily intended to modulate gut microbiota for controlling infections by pathogens and growth promotion, certain probiotic strains are also able to reduce the colonization of ART bacteria. For example, probiotic E. coli Nissle 1917 was observed to prevent the colonization of multidrug-resistant E. coli in human gut (Tannock et al., 2011). Other observed AR reduction activities include increasing strain susceptibility, inhibiting resistant gene transfer and performing antagonistic activity against AR strains (Moubareck et al., 2007; Ditu et al., 2011; Naderi et al., 2014). However, the mechanisms of mitigating AR by probiotics are not fully understood.
During early development of chickens hatched in a teaching farm, ampicillin resistance encoded by the blaCMY-2 gene has low abundance. However, the composition of GI microbiota is dynamic, affected not only by antibiotics but also by microorganisms ingested through oral routes (such as food, feed, water, etc.), as well as other host factors. Since antibiotic resistant (AR) bacteria are found in poultry gut microbiota with or without direct exposure to antibiotics, the large quantity of feces containing AR bacteria from poultry production represents an important contamination source impacting the environmental AR gene pool. Thus, targeted strategies to minimize the prevalence of AR in food-producing animal GI microbiota are essential for effective mitigation of AR in the poultry production system.
Probiotic development can include identifying novel probiotic candidates from commensal bacteria in gut microbiota, which may have better colonization capabilities and individual-specific benefits (Hill et al., 2014). The GI microbiota, including the pool of AR bacteria (sometimes referred to as resistome), are established at very early stage of life, which may be a desirable stage for effective probiotic intervention.
The compositions and methods disclosed herein address these and other needs.

Methods and compositions to modulate antibiotic resistance and gastrointestinal microbiota


A device which utilizes low intensity extracorporeal shock therapy for purposes of treating soft tissue damage, cellulite reduction, or erectile dysfunction, to permit a simple, inexpensive, robust, home use solution which permits self-applied treatment for various parts of the user's body with a form factor, display, information, guidance, tutorials and training, marketing communication and purchase opportunities, viewing angle, timers, annunciators, sound attenuation, and payment options which provide an untrained amateur user with all tools and guidance necessary to properly, effectively, safely and affordably self-administer treatments.

Low intensity extracorporeal shock wave treatments are well known in the art and have been widely known and used in the professional medical community for several decades. The treatment methodology has been demonstrated to be effective in treating soft tissue injuries or damage, reducing fatty deposits commonly known as cellulite, and most recently for the treatment of male erectile dysfunction.
Conventional devices are intended to be utilized by a trained, skilled professional applying the treatment to a third-party patient or subject. Such devices require specific knowledge about human anatomy, treatment protocol and regimen, rate of travel of device, pressure to be applied by device, duration of treatment, and frequency of treatment. Further, the controls and displays of such devices are so positioned as to be visible and accessible to a third-party professional treatment specialist, not to a self-user. Further the cost of such devices may be prohibitively high, rendering the purchase or use of such devices beyond the means of the average user.

Personal use extracorporeal low intensity shock wave device enhanced user features and functions


A data form converter allowing parallel-to-serial or serial-to-parallel conversion at various conversion ratios is disclosed. A frequency divider divides an input clock in frequency at a variable frequency division ratio to produce a single frequency-divided clock. A data shift circuit shifts serial input data according to the input clock to output n-bit parallel data, where n is determined depending on the variable frequency division ratio. A retiring section synchronizes the n-bit parallel data with the single frequency-divided clock to output parallel output data.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data form converter, which converts data form from serial to parallel or from parallel to serial.
2. Description of the Related Art
LSI (Large Scale Integration) technology has been remarkably developed, so that an operating clock in an LSI has been increased to several hundred megahertz (MHz) and a signal transmission rate between LSIs has been increased to several gigabits per second (Gbps). However, a difference between an operating speed in an LSI and the signal transmission rate between LSIs is large. In order to allow an LSI to output/input data to/from outside, a parallel-to-serial (hereinafter, denoted by "parallel-serial") converter may be provided at an output stage of the LSI so as to convert low-speed parallel data in the LSI into high-speed serial data, allowing the high-speed serial data to be output from the LSI to the outside. Moreover, by providing a serial-to-parallel (hereinafter, denoted by "serial-parallel") converter at an input stage of the LSI, high-speed serial data can be input from the outside to the inside of the LSI.
In order to meet demands regarding data input and output between the LSI and the outside of the LSI, several serial-parallel converters for converting serial data into parallel data and several parallel-serial converters for converting parallel data into serial data have been proposed.
Japanese patent application Unexamined Publication No. 11-98101 discloses a serial-parallel converter having a plurality of 1:2 demultiplexer (DEMUX) modules connected in a multistage tree structure (see paragraphs [0016] and [00171], and FIGS. 4 and 5). In each stage, serial data is converted into parallel data at a specific conversion ratio such as 1:2, 1:4, 1:8, or 1:16. Thus, it is possible to perform serial-parallel conversion at a conversion ratio of 2 to the n-th power, wherein n is an integer greater than 0. Such a conventional serial-parallel converter, however, cannot convert serial data to parallel data at a ratio other than the ratio of 1:2n.
Japanese Patent application Unexamined Publication No. 2002-217742 discloses a serial-parallel converter having a first-stage 1:2 serial-parallel converter, two second-stage conversion sections, and a retiming circuit. The first-stage 1:2 serial-parallel converter divides an input serial data signal into an odd-number channel data signal and an even-number channel data signal, which are supplied to respective ones of the second-stage conversion sections. Each of the second-stage conversion sections includes two 1:2 serial-parallel converters and a flip-flop circuit, which are each supplied with different-phase clocks generated by a frequency divider (see paragraphs [0013]–[0015] and FIG. 1). The output data signals of the second-stage conversion sections enter theretiming circuit to produce a parallel data signal.
In addition, the frequency divider is connected to an on/off switch, by which the frequency divider is allowed to divide an input clock at a selected one of two frequency-division ratios. In other words, the serial-parallel converter can selectively-set two frequency-division ratios by turning the on/off switch on or off. Accordingly, this conventional serial-parallel converter has such an advantage that serial-parallel conversion can be performed at two different ratios only by designing a single converter. Please note that the number of conversion ratios corresponds to the number of states provided by the on/off switch.
In this conventional serial-parallel converter, however, plural frequency-divided clocks are generated by the frequency divider. Accordingly, it is necessary to pay attention to skews between these frequency-divided clocks. For example, at a position where data transfer occurs over different frequency-divided clocks, setup and hold time of the first and second flip-flop circuits may become severe. Thus, it is necessary to ensure that the setup time and hold time have a sufficient margin. This makes it more difficult to design the serial-parallel converter.
As for a parallel-serial converter, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 8-65173 discloses a parallel-serial converter having an elastic memory and a frequency divider, allowing parallel-serial conversion without the need of using an outside timing signal. More specifically, the frequency divider generates a read clock by dividing a high-speed clock by a fixed number (4), that is, frequency-frequency-division ratio=1/4. Four-bit input parallel data is written into the elastic memory according to an outside timing clock and read from the elastic memory according to the read clock. A parallel-serial conversion timing pulse is generated by using the high-speed clock and the read clock. A parallel-serial converter uses the parallel-serial conversion timing pulse and the high-speed clock to convert the read 4-bit parallel data into high-speed serial data (see paragraphs [0016]–[0019] and FIG. 1).
In this conventional parallel-serial converter, the frequency divider divides the high-speed clock at the predetermined frequency-frequency-division ratio. Thus, this parallel-serial converter also has a problem that the number of bits of low-speed parallel data to be converted into serial data is uniquely determined by the frequency-frequency-division ratio of the frequency divider. As a result, in order to perform parallel-serial conversion at two different ratios, for example, 4:1 and 5:1, two kinds of parallel-serial converters corresponding to those ratios, respectively, have to be designed, thus increasing design workload.

Data form converter between serial and parallel


A method of operating a vehicle having variable opacity windows that includes customer convenience functions such as transitioning a window to transparent when the vehicle is in use as a ride-sharing vehicle and detects picking up a new passenger; or transitioning the window to transparent when a signal is received from an emergency vehicle.

The present invention relates to vehicles and more particularly to controlling the opacity of vehicle windows based on various internal and external parameters of the vehicle operating environment.
Electrochromic glass is used for vehicle windows, and allows the windows to shift from translucent to transparent or opaque when an electric voltage is applied. The reduction of light transmission may vary from as little as twenty percent up to ninety-five percent. Such uses of electrochromic glass may include car rear view mirrors, aircraft windows, buildings, etc., and may have manual controls or even automatic control based on, for example, detected sun load.


A request to send a message from a first component, located on a first processor, to a second component, located on a second processor, is received. It is determined that the second processor can be communicated with via a first bidirectional communication path. It is determined that bandwidth is available on the first bidirectional communication path. It is determined that bandwidth is available on a second bidirectional communication path. In response to a determination that bandwidth is available on the second bidirectional communication path, a data path is created between the first component and the second bidirectional communication path and the request to send the message to the second component is granted. In response to a determination that bandwidth is not available on the first bidirectional communication path or on the second bidirectional communication path, the grant of the request to send the message to the second component is delayed.

Embodiments of the inventive subject matter generally relate to the field of computing systems, and, more particularly, to data communication between computing system components.
A large percentage of today's computing systems include multiple processors. In fact, even many cellphones include processors with multiple cores, which frequently function similarly to multiple processors. Larger, enterprise computing systems can include multiple nodes, such as blade servers, each of which includes multiple multi-core processors. Computing tasks can be divided among the various nodes, processors, and cores of a system. Often, when computing tasks are divided among computing system components, data is communicated between the various subtasks. Further, various components within a processor communicate as well. As the communication traffic increases and computing systems become more complex, coordinating use of the limited resources becomes more complex as well.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Intercomponent data communication between different processors

International Business Machines Corporation


The present invention provides a method for Voice Handling via Dynamic Home Agents in a Network employing All-IP Architecture, and a system for handling voice call by using this method. The method comprises the following steps: when a first RCU is about to initiate voice call with a second RCU, a first agent address FA will be assigned to a corresponding mobile RCU by the RNC in which the mobile RCU resides; when the RCUs perform the voice call, corresponding Media Gateway (MG) assigns second agent address HA1 and HA2 to the first and second RCUs, respectively. Wherein both HA1 and HA2 are only valid during this call, and when the call is terminated or dropped, HA1 and HA2 will be released back to the pool of the IP addresses of the corresponding MG. The first and second RCUs implement the voice call based on the assigned first and second agent addresses. This method handles voice calls services via Dynamic Home Agents technique in MobileIP, so as to reduce the number of propagation of the IP header in communication channel in a wireless environment, and enhance system resources utilization efficiency.

In the current 3GPP release 4 architecture, both core-network (CN) and the interfaces connecting radio network controllers (RNC) and CN are IP-based, and during handling of the voice calls traffic, for example, fixed IP technique has been employed, that is, an exclusive IP-address is assigned respectively to each wireless communication unit (RCU) requesting a voice call such as a PSTN network phone and a mobile subscriber UE (User Equipment), subsequently leading to deterioration of system resources utilization efficiency. As is known, IP address resources are quite scare in the wireless communication system employing the all-IP architecture, therefore a new technique differing from conventional fixed-IP of assigning to each RCU that requestes a voice call is necessary.
In addition thereto, the system architecture in the prior art is disadvantaged by adopting different protocols for different services such as CS and PS, for example, the Megaco-protocol-based CS service transmission method and GTP-protocol-based PS transmission method in current 3GPP Release 4 architecture. This will make the system architectures and the type of the service not uniform, thus leading to reduction in utilization efficiency of communication resources and service efficiency.

Method and system for voice handling via dynamic home agents in a network employing all-IP architecture


A method for exchanging voice messages that may be employed in an answering machine, in wired or wireless telephone, or in an voice messaging system. An incoming voice message from a message source is received and recorded, parsed into segments, and the parsed message is played back to a listener, pausing between each of the parsed segments to accept and record a spoken response from the listener. A reply message is returned to the original message source that includes each such spoken response along with a snippet extracted from the particular segment responded to in the original message. The listener may also interrupt the playback of the voice message at any time to record a response.

The most common and expressive setting for the use of language is face-to-face conversation. It is something that most everyone in the world has some experience doing and requires little training. Conversation is both an individual and social process. It is a joint action that requires common ground for the coordination of meaning and understanding.
Many ways have been developed to establish common ground in face-to-face conversation. Because the exchange is in real time, people engaged in a face-to-face conversation can show understanding with back-channel feedback; by pointing, gesturing or gazing, and by their choice of words, timing, and turn-taking. Importantly, those engaged in a conversation can also interrupt if they wish to speak before it is their turn.
Over the last 50 to 75 years, technology has removed the need to be face-to-face to communicate in real time. As the telephone has made its way into every house, and now into nearly every pocket, we've learned to converse without co-presence. We've established techniques to continue joint actions and establish common ground without facial expression or gesture and only with language. Because the conversation still occurs in real time, we can use back-channel feedback and turn-taking metaphors to establish common ground and have successful communication.
The answering machine has added a new dimension to distance communication. Asynchronous communication moved us farther from the familiar face-to-face style, requiring new skills. With voicemail, there is no way to continually ground events over the course of the conversation; the lack of feedback interferes with the normally mutual process of grounding events. In addition to the extra burden required to keep common ground in short term memory, one has to continually remember to check for messages, and often there is an added task of having to respond by calling each person back. While these are all clearly skills we can learn, there might be a cost in the quality or pleasure of communication.
A number of factors confound study of the use of stored voice as a communication medium. First, it spans two very different sorts of technologies, answering machines (stand alone recording devices, found in domestic settings) and voicemail systems, accessed by telephone only and typically (though not exclusively) in business settings. Each of these environments produces a different mix of voice message genres (e.g. chatty, information gathering, informing, decision making) though there may be some overlap; message type likely influences user interface requirements. With an answering machine, messages are typically heard and then discarded. In a voice messaging system, the messages may be annotated, forwarded, and archived.
Studies focused on expert users of voicemail have found that there are three main problems experienced when managing voicemail: scanning, information extraction and search (see "All talk and all action: strategies for managing voicemail messages," by S. Whittaker, J. Hirschberg and C. H. Nakatani in Proceedings of Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 1998, pp. 249-250. Scanning is used to give message priority and for locating saved messages. Information extraction is often done by taking notes about a message in order to save important information for future reference. Users also spend a large amount of time searching for archived messages and tracking the status of saved messages.
The problem of information extraction in the context of formulating a reply to a voicemail has been addressed with interfaces that allow users to take notes related to the content of the voicemail or allow them to scan a transcript of the message as they listen. See "Jotmail: a voicemail interface that enables you to see what was said," by S. Whittaker, R. Davis, J. Hirschberg and U. Muller in Proceedings of Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2000, pp. 89-96, and "SCANMail: a voicemail interface that makes speech browsable, readable and searchable," by S. Whittaker, J. Hirschberg, B. Amento, L. Stark, M. Bacchiani, P. Isenhour, L. Stead, G. Zamchick, and A. Rosenberg in Proceedings of Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2002, pp. 275-282.
Answering machines (or phone-accessed voicemail systems) do not have rich graphical user interfaces, and users are required to either jot down notes or keep the content of the message in memory as they attempt to respond. Voicemail has more recently become a very popular feature for mobile phones. Checking voicemail while mobile and with such a small screen makes it nearly impossible to take notes or view transcripts. As a result, more practical methods of replying to voicemail need to be explored. As is well known, memory or recall from memory deteriorates with age, making this task of extracting and remembering information difficult for the elderly. Message recipients must also juggle functionality between listening to a series of messages and then dialing phone numbers, while keeping the message in memory, to reply.
Additionally, despite the media richness of computer-mediated communication, voicemail still remains a closed, single-medium system. Although prevalent on mobile devices and in networked environments, it has rarely benefited from the devices and connectivity around it. It is accordingly desirable to utilize existing capabilities to perform functions such as accepting and delivering voice messages via the Internet, and to support sender-supplied photos and voice annotated slide shows as messages.
Previous attempts to provide a "conversational answering machine" include the PhoneSlave, developed nearly two decades ago. See "Phone Slave: A graphical telecommunications interface," by C. Schmandt and B. Arons in Proceedings of the Society for Information Display, 26(1), 1985, pp. 79-82. PhoneSlave used recorded speech and pause-based audio recording to gather responses to questions such as "Who's calling please?", "What's this in reference to?", and "At what number can you be reached?," and later could play each of these snippets back to the PhoneSlave owner, in response to voice commands. PhoneSlave used speech recognition (in lieu of today's telephone caller ID) to try to identify repeat callers, and could deliver personal messages to them when they called back, as well as indicate whether their previous message had been heard.
Part of PhoneSlave's attraction at the time was that voicemail was still new enough that callers were often not facile at leaving messages on a machine; PhoneSlave took complete messages by turning the interaction into a form-filling conversation. Most callers would likely be unwilling to participate in such a routine now, although "Whom may I say is calling?" has been used for call screening in products by Active Voice and Wildfire (available on the World Wide Web at www.activevoice.com and www.wildfire.com).
A Japanese project implemented answering machines which would mutter back-channel responses ("hai" in Japanese) to encourage callers to leave longer or more complete messages is described in "A Multi-functional Telephone with Conversational Responses and Pause Deletion Recording," by K. Gomi, Y. Nishino, H. Matsui, and F. Nakamura, IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics, 1988. The "Grunt" system described by C. Schmandt in "Employing Voice Back Channels to Facilitate Audio Document Retrieval," Proceedings of ACM Conference on Office Information Systems (COIS), 1988, pp. 213-218, presented driving directions over a telephone, pausing between each major route segment and analyzing any user response based on length and pitch contour to decide whether and when to proceed, or offer more explanation.
In the 1990's several research systems used conversational paradigms bordering on natural language input to control live interactive systems over the phone using speech recognition. MailCall described by M. Marx and C. Schmandt in "MailCall: Message Presentation and Navigation in a Nonvisual Environment," Proceedings of Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 1996, pp. 165-172, emphasized text message retrieval, and its successor SpeechActs described by N. Yankelovich, N., G. Levow and M. Marx in "Designing SpeechActs: issues in speech user interfaces," Proceedings of Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 1995, pp. 369-376, used more conversational techniques and covered a wider range of applications. QuietCalls described by L. Nelson, S. Bly and T. Sokoler in "Quiet Calls: Talking Silently on Mobile Phones," Proceedings of Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2001, pp. 174-181, supported live voice interaction over telephones, with one party speaking and the other playing recorded audio snippets, driven by a conversational state model.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,880,840 issued to Lang et al. (Sony Corp.) on Mar. 30, 1999 describes a voice mail reply method for use in answering machines and office voice mail systems in which an incoming voice mail message is stored and then played back. As the voice mail message is being played back, the listener can interrupt the playback and record a response. The original voice mail message, with the responses inserted, is then returned to the originator.


A control processor is used for fetching and distributing single instruction multiple data (SIMD) instructions to a plurality of processing elements (PEs). One of the SIMD instructions is a thread start (Tstart) instruction, which causes the control processor to pause its instruction fetching. A local PE instruction memory (PE Imem) is associated with each PE and contains local PE instructions for execution on the local PE. Local PE Imem fetch, decode, and execute logic are associated with each PE. Instruction path selection logic in each PE is used to select between control processor distributed instructions and local PE instructions fetched from the local PE Imem. Each PE is also initialized to receive control processor distributed instructions. In addition, local hold generation logic is associated with each PE. A PE receiving a Tstart instruction causes the instruction path selection logic to switch to fetch local PE Imem instructions.

Increasing demand for high definition TV products, including interactive TV in a HD format and HD video compression encoding and decoding, requires increasing sophistication, flexibility, and performance in the supporting electronics. The sophistication, flexibility, and performance requirements for HD TV exceeds the capabilities of current generations of processor architectures by, in many cases, orders of magnitude.
The demands of video encoding for HD formats are both memory and data processing intensive, requiring efficient and high bandwidth memory organizations coupled with compute intensive capabilities. In addition, a video encoding product must be capable of supporting multiple standards each of which includes multiple optional features which can be supported to improve image quality and further reductions in compression bandwidth. Due to these multiple demands, a flexible parallel processing approach must be found to meet the demands in a cost effective manner.
A number of algorithmic capabilities are generally common between multiple video encoding standards, such as MPEG-2, H.264, and SMPTE-VC-1. Motion estimation/compensation and deblocking filtering are two examples of general algorithms that are required for video encoding. To efficiently support motion estimation algorithms and other complex programmable functions which may vary in requirements across the multiple standards, a processor by itself would require significant parallelism and very high clock rates to meet the requirements. A processor of this capability would be difficult to develop in a cost effective manner for commercial products.
Two primary parallel programming models, the SIMD and the MIMD models are typically used in commercial parallel processors. In the SIMD model, a single program thread controls multiple processing elements (PEs) in synchronous lock-step operation. Each PE executes the same instruction but on different data. This is in contrast to the MIMD model where multiple program threads of control exist and any inter-processor operations must contend with the latency to synchronize the independent program threads prior to communicating. The problem with SIMD is that not ail algorithms can make efficient use of the available parallelism existing in the processor. The amount of parallelism inherent in different algorithms varies leading to difficulties in efficiently implementing a wide variety of algorithms on SIMD machines. The problem with MIMD machines is the latency of communications between multiple processors leading to difficulties in efficiently synchronizing processors to cooperate on the processing of an algorithm. Typically, MIMD machines also incur a greater cost of implementation as compared to SIMD machines, since each MIMD PE must have its own instruction sequencing mechanism which can amount to a significant amount of hardware. MIMD machines also have an inherently greater complexity of programming control required to manage the independent parallel processing elements. Consequently, levels of programming complexity and communication latency occur in a variety of contexts when parallel processing elements are employed. It will be highly advantageous to efficiently address such problems as discussed in greater detail below.

Methods and apparatus for independent processor node operations in a SIMD array processor


In an encoding method of moving pictures which generates a predictive picture for a current picture based on a reference picture and a motion vector, a macroblock is divided into subblocks. In each of the plurality of subblocks, an initial value of the motion vector is set and an evaluated value E on a difference between the current picture and the reference picture is calculated along a steepest descent direction to determine the minimum value. Then, the smallest evaluated value is selected among the minimum values obtained on the plurality of subblocks to determine the motion vector based on the pixel position of the smallest value.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to image coding of moving pictures.
2. Description of Prior Art
Recently, a mobile instrument such as mobile phone is widely used as a terminal unit for transmitting information, and it is possible to talk and send a moving picture to anyone whenever and wherever. Therefore it is desirable to run a mobile instrument for a long time with a limited cell capacity for driving the mobile instrument.
An MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group) encoder is used in a mobile instrument to compress moving pictures. A motion compensator in an MPEG encoder estimates a motion between pictures for predictive coding. The position of a macroblock which matches best with a reference picture is detected in a current picture, and the picture at the position is used as a predictive picture. Then, the position is sent for encoding as motion vector information, and the picture data is encoded by using the motion vector to compensate the motion. Full search method is used as a block matching technique to determine the motion vector. In an MPEG encoder which uses the full search method, a motion compensator performs a large part of the computation. Therefore, it is necessary to provide a motion compensator of lower consumption power.
Full search method used for block matching is a technique which performs search in all cases. In this method, a value to be evaluated, for example, a sum of distortions in the block (a sum of square difference) on a macroblock (TB: a template block of 16*16 pixels) in a current picture is calculated on every macroblock in a search range (SW: search window) of a reference picture, and a macroblock having the minimum evaluated value is detected as motion vector (Vx, Vy). If the search range is ±16*±16, the computation is performed on vectors of 322 Because the computation is performed on all the vectors, the quality of the image obtained by full search method is very good, but the required computation power is very large.
Techniques such as greedy search method (for example, H. Nakayama et al., "An MPEG-4 Video LSI with an Error-Resilient Codec Core based on a Fast Motion Estimation Algorithm", Proc. ISSCC 2002, 22-2, 2002) and gradient descent search method (for example, M. Takabayashi et al., "A Fast Motion Vector Detection based on Gradient Method", Technical Report of IEICE, IE2001-74, September 2001) can decrease the computation power very much than that of the full search method. In greedy search method, an initial vector is calculated first wherein a vector having the smallest evaluated value of, for example, a sum of square difference among top, upper right and left vectors is selected as the initial vector. Next, block matching of four neighboring pixels is performed in the precision of a half-pel, and the macroblock is moved at the precision of half-pel in the direction of a minimum. This process is repeated, and it is stopped when the macroblock is moved to a position having the minimum value.
The gradient descent method is a kind of steepest descent method. Differential coefficients of an evaluated value are calculated at a search point, and the evaluated value is calculated in the direction of the steepest downward gradient derived from the differential coefficients. A vector having the minimum evaluated value is determined as a motion vector. In the calculation, an evaluated value of an initial motion vector is calculated. Next, the differential coefficients are calculated, and the evaluated value is calculated in the direction derived from the differential coefficients to determine the minimum in the one-dimensional search. In this method, the differential coefficients are calculated, and the evaluated value is calculated only in the direction derived from the differential coefficients in contrast to the above-mentioned full search method. Then, the required computation power is decreased in the gradient descent method.
Lower computation power and higher quality of image are desirable in the calculation of motion prediction. The above-mentioned gradient descent search method has a disadvantage that it is liable to lead to a local solution, depending very much on the initial value, and in such a case, the optimum motion vector cannot be detected, and image quality is deteriorated. Therefore, it is desirable that the computation power is decreased without deteriorating image quality.

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