A gaming device with a bonus scheme which includes at least one input value; a plurality of selections and at least one modifier associated with a selection. The gaming device enables a player to apply input values to desired selections and depending upon which modifiers are associated with the selections, the player can gain a relatively high or low output value. This type of bonus scheme adds excitement to bonus rounds and increases player entertainment.

Many existing gaming machines, such as traditional slot machines, include bonus rounds. Typically, a bonus round begins when the player reaches a bonus triggering event in the primary game of the gaming device. In slot machines with reels, the triggering event usually occurs when the player reaches a predetermined combination of symbols on the reels. The bonus scheme generally provides the player with an opportunity to gain a bonus value before the bonus round terminates.
Some bonus schemes enable a player to choose from a plurality of selections. Each selection is associated with a value. Depending upon which choice a player makes, the player will receive a relatively high, low or no value at all.
To increase player enjoyment and excitement, it is desirable to provide players with new bonus schemes for gaming devices which enable players to apply certain input values to desired selections, resulting in output values.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Gaming device having an input-output value bonus scheme


A system which is able to take inventory of products stored in high rise racks and immediately provide the inventory information to an information system for immediate processing and which makes use of remote electronic identification means for each product, box, etc. and each row of a correspondent rack, thus allowing the system to read great amounts of information at once.

A. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to systems for taking physical inventory and more particularly to an inventory taking system for automatically recollecting and processing information related to the inventory of a warehouse.
B. Description of the Related Art
The duty of taking inventory and processing all the related information on medium and big warehouses is a big challenge for the company mainly due to the big quantity of products stored therein and to the physical characteristics of the warehouses, in which the products are stored in high rise racks.
Although there have been developed electronic systems for controlling inventory information, said information rely on manually taking the inventory which is not always accurate, and sometimes the information generated by said systems do not accurately reflect the real existences and quantities of products in the warehouse, causing problems and delays in the delivery of products, and consequently, sometimes it is necessary to manually take the inventory to correct the system information.
In some manufacturing industries it is vital to the production processes to have the last accurate and real information about the number of thousands of pieces currently on inventory, which sometimes is very difficult and takes a long time, and therefore, the information rarely reflects the current inventory status.
Therefore, it would be highly desirable to have a system able to provide immediate and current information about the inventory status without having to manually take the inventory, which takes a long time and is not always accurate.
In view of the above referred problems, applicants developed an automated system for physically take inventory and immediately provide accurate and current information about the inventory of products or items.
Applicant's system is able to quickly take the inventory of products stored in high rise racks and immediately provide the inventory information to an information system for immediate processing.
In order to achieve such processing velocity, applicant's system makes use of remote electronic identification means for each product, box, etc. and each storing cell of a correspondent rack, thus allowing the system to read great amounts of information at once.
Applicant's system comprises: at least one remote electronic identification means reading means; moving means for the inventory taking device; control means for controlling the components of the inventory taking device receiving information from the remote identification means and for sending said information to the electronic information and control system; and electronic information transmission means connected to the control means, having wireless information transmission means, receiving the information obtained by the control means and wireless sending said information to the electronic information and control system.
Thanks to applicant's system it is possible to have the last accurate information about the inventory of products or items, no matter how big or extended is the warehouse, thus avoiding delays in the production processes and losses of money.


An approach is provided for scheduling work order tasks based on an optimization of available resources and an assessment of cost penalty functions for missing work order deadlines, including determining an estimated work order completion time for processing a plurality of tasks associated with a work order on one or more resources, scheduling the plurality of tasks in a processing queue based on the estimated work order completion time, and determining a value of a penalty function for violating a work order deadline.

Raw studio film footage, usually produced in high resolution at production studios, often needs to be converted or transcoded into multiple formats so that the footage may be distributed by retail businesses that deliver video to an array of devices that their customers use (e.g., televisions, personal computers, tablets, cell phones, etc.). The film footage is generally part of a package called a "work order," which may also include information about the desired output formats and a deadline by which the work order must be completed (e.g., a scheduled release date). Work order scheduling is a complex process because a work order may contain many disparate tasks that different resources are required to handle and because new work orders can arrive at any time and need to be inserted into task flows that are already underway. By way of example, some traditional work schedulers schedule work orders by establishing start times for all work order tasks, but do not allow tasks to start before the scheduled time a required resource becomes available for the task. Also, where tasks have been scheduled in such a way that several work orders will go past their deadlines, some traditional work schedulers would use the size of a missed deadline as the measure of the work order's importance.
Based on the foregoing, there is a need for an approach providing a work order scheduler that schedules work order tasks based on an optimization of available resources and an assessment of cost penalty functions for missing work order deadlines.

Method and apparatus for scheduling media processing jobs on multiple processors to maximize processor utilization


A truck storage system may include a deck configured to span substantially a total width of a truck bed, four support feet, each support foot situated at a respective corner of the truck bed and configured to support the deck, and a center support extending in a longitudinal direction of the truck bed between the support feet and configured to support the deck. Alternatively, the truck storage system may be configured to span approximately half a total width of a truck bed, and include two support feet situated in corners on a same lateral side of the truck bed, and a center support extending in a longitudinal direction of the truck bed between the support feet and an opposing side of the truck bed not spanned by the deck.

Existing truck storage systems generally comprise a box frame or cabinet structure having drawers that is placed within a truck bed and secured to the truck bed via brackets and holes drilled in the truck bed. Such storage systems generally do not extend the full width of the truck bed, thus not fully utilizing the available storage space, and the storage systems may create gaps and areas between the storage systems and the truck bed sidewalls in which various materials can become trapped and/or lost. Further, the loading and/or hauling of materials on top of the storage systems is rendered more difficult and less reliable by such gaps and areas between the storage systems and the truck bed sidewalls. In addition, the box frame or cabinet structure may not be designed to carry heavy loads that would be suitable for the truck bed alone, and/or the use of the drawers within the storage systems may be adversely affected by such heavy loads placed thereon. Moreover, storage systems that may be designed to carry heavy loads may add excessive weight to the truck bed, thereby adversely affecting vehicle performance, such as for example, handling, torque, speed, fuel economy, and others.


The network security of a radio local loop system is highly desirable to avoid fraudulent use of the network by unauthorised users with appropriate subscriber equipment. For fixed subscribers, the propagation delay between base station and subscriber unit will also remain fixed and, provided this is measured with sufficient accuracy, the distance from the subscriber to the base station can be determined. This can be used as an aid to the authentication of a subscriber. Other signal characteristics which are indicative of the physical location of a purported subscriber can be used, such as directional information. In a system in which propagation delay has to be monitored anyway, for other purposes, such as orthogonal CDMA code synchronisation, or for a TDM system, added security can be obtained without great extra cost.

A local loop is the portion of a telecommunications system which connects a local exchange to the subscribers. Conventionally this is done by means of wires or optical fibres, but a radio link is another possibility. If subscriber stations are mobile, a radio link has to be used, but there are advantages even for static subscribers. For example, lines can be installed, changed and maintained without having to dig up pavements or erect and climb telegraph poles. A radio local loop involves a base station which transmits and receives radio signals at a location which is determined by signal strengths and reception conditions and is not necessarily near to the local telephone exchange, and subscriber units located at subscriber premises, each of which includes an antenna whose location is determined by considerations of signal reception and transmission and a connection to the subscriber's equipment (telephone, fax, computer etc.). Subscribers attempting access to the network will usually have to prove their identity via some means (e.g. electronic serial number, subscriber PIN, smart card key inserted into subscriber unit etc). However, these mechansims can become known to third parties who could then "impersonate" a valid subscriber to gain access via the air interface using representative (or stolen) equipment.

Subscriber authentication for radio local loop system


An optical information memory apparatus in which after a coarse seeking operation to position an optical head to a position near a seeking target address at a high speed has been executed, only at a time point when a light spot has reached a predetermined region from the center of a track near a seeking target address, the pull-in control of the light spot to the track center is executed. The optical information memory apparatus has: a zero-cross pulse generator for receiving a tracking error signal and for producing tracking error zero-cross pulses; and a window comparator for receiving the tracking error signal and for producing tracking error window pulses which are obtained by slicing the tracking error signal by predetermined binary slice levels of an upper limit and a lower limit. Further, at a time point when a period of time of the low level of the tracking error zero-cross pulse is equal to or larger than a predetermined time interval T.sub.0 and the tracking error window pulse has been set to the low level, the tracking control to pull the light spot into the track near the desired seeking target address is executed.

The invention relates to an optical information memory apparatus and its control method and, more particularly, to an optical information memory apparatus and its control method for improving the reliability of a seeking system upon fine seeking of an optical information memory apparatus of the two-stage seeking system type.
In an optical disc apparatus, as one of the seeking systems for moving a light spot for recording and reproducing on and from a target track, the two-stage seeking system comprising a combination of a coarse seeking system and a fine seeking system has been known.
As examples of the above two-stage seeking system, there have been known systems disclosed in JP-A-58-169370 and JP-A-58-91536.
According to the above seeking system, an optical head is first moved to a position near a target track at a high speed by using a coarse actuator, a light spot is settled to a proper track near the target track to be sought, a jumping operation is subsequently repeated track-by-track a fine actuator such as a galvano mirror or the like mounted onto the optical head, and the light spot is finally positioned to the target track.
According to the two-stage seeking system, a coarse actuator comprising an optical linear scale (a scale pitch is an integer times as large as a track pitch) is used as a position detector of the optical head and the optical head is positioned (coarse seeking) to a location near the target track at a high speed by an output of the linear scale. After that, the light spot is brought to a track near the target track after waiting for a state in which the light spot is settled, that is, a decentering speed of the track for the light spot (that is, an oscillating speed when the track is relatively oscillated in the disc radial direction in a sine manner for the light spot due to an eccentricity of the track of an optical disc by using one rotation of the optical disc as a period) is sufficiently delayed, a track address is read, and the jumping operation of the light spot track-by-track is subsequently executed, thereby moving (fine seeking) the light spot to the target track.
The above conventional two-stage seeking system will now be described with reference to FIG. 1, showing an operation sequence, and FIGS. 2 and 3, showing arrangement diagrams of pits on an optical disc.
As shown in FIG. 1, when a coarse seeking instruction signal 5 is first turned on, the optical head starts to move toward a target address to be sought. In the above case, a movement distance of the optical head is calculated by a linear scale position signal 2. A moving speed of the optical head is detected by differentiating the signal 2. A speed control of the optical head is executed on the basis of the results of the movement distance and the moving speed.
When the optical head moves to a position near a target point in a track detecting accuracy range of the linear scale and the moving speed becomes sufficiently small, the coarse seeking instruction signal 5 is turned off and the speed control of the optical head is finished. At the same time, a coarse positioning control instruction signal 6 is turned on and the optical head is coarsely positioned by the linear scale position signal 2. At that time, in order to detect that a track decentering speed for the light spot has decreased to a predetermined value or less just after the start of the coarse positioning control, a tracking error zero-cross pulse 4 whose level is inverted each time a tracking error signal 3 zero-crosses (namely, each time the light spot transverses the track) is generated.
A continuation time T of a low- or high-level state of the pulse 4 is monitored. If it is detected that the continuation time T has exceeded a predetermined time T.sub.0 by a state in which the decentering speed had been reduced to a small enough value, the coarse positioning control instruction signal 6 is turned off and a tracking control instruction signal 7 is simultaneously turned on. To read a track address near the target point to be sought at that time, the operation for allowing the light spot to once follow the center of the track near the target point to be sought is started. After that, the light spot is jumped every track as mentioned above, thereby executing the fine seeking operation to move the light spot to the target track to be sought.
According to the above conventional two-stage seeking system, it is unclear at which position in the radial direction for the track center near the seeking target point the light spot exists at a time point when the tracking control instruction signal 7 is turned on.
As shown in FIG. 2, now assuming that a recording pit 8 is located symmetrically with respect to the right and left directions for the track center, and the tracking error signal 3 (for a deviation state of the light spot to the track center, since a state of the reflected light including irregular reflections by grooves on both sides of the track becomes unbalanced in accordance with the deviation amount, such a deviation amount can be detected by a pair of right and left detectors for detecting such an unbalanced state) is symmetrical with respect to the positive and negative polarities and no offset occurs, even if the tracking control operation has been turned on at a point A which is fairly distant from the track center, the light spot is subjected to the acceleration which is proportional to a magnitude of the tracking error signal 3 from the point A, so that the light spot is accelerated toward a target point B serving as a track center and passes the target point B. After the light spot passes the point B, the polarity of the tracking error signal 3 is changed to the negative polarity, so that the light spot is subjected to the acceleration in the direction opposite to the moving direction and is returned to the target point B. Finally, the light spot is settled to the target point B. A desired track pull-in is thus accomplished.
As shown in FIG. 3, in the case where the recording pit 8 is deviated in the radial direction of the optical disc from the track center and is located, amplitudes Pu and PL in the positive and negative directions of the tracking error signal 3 are asymmetrical with respect to the positive and negative polarities (Pu>PL). This is because the tracking error signal shown in FIG. 2 is further deviated to either one of the positive and negative directions by an influence such that when the recording pit is deviated from the track center, a groove between tracks is destroyed as shown at 8a in FIG. 3, so that the grooves on both sides of the track become asymmetrical with respect to the right and left positions or the like. In the case where the tracking error signal 3 is asymmetrical with respect to the positive and negative polarities as mentioned above, when the tracking control operation is turned on at a point C which is fairly away from the track center, the light spot is subjected to the acceleration which is proportional to the positive amplitude Pu of the tracking error signal 3 and is accelerated. After the light spot passes the peak in the positive direction, it passes the target point B.
After the light spot passes the target point B, the light spot is subjected to the acceleration such as to be returned in the direction of the target point B due to the negative polarity of the tracking error signal 3. However, the amplitude PL of the valley in the negative direction is smaller than the amplitude Pu of the peak in the positive direction because of the offset in the positive/negative directions of the tracking error signal 3, so that kinetic energy for allowing the light spot to be away from the target point B is larger than the energy to return the light spot toward the target point B. Consequently, the light spot is also continuously accelerated in the same direction by the offset after that, so that the pull-in for the tracking control cannot be performed.

Track servo pull-in method and apparatus for an optical disc


An ion analyzer that generates product ions from precursor ions derived from a sample component and analyzes the product ions includes a reaction chamber (2) into which the precursor ion is introduced, a radical generation chamber (51), a material gas supply source (52) configured to introduce material gas into the radical generation chamber (51), a vacuum evacuator (57) configured to evacuate the radical generation chamber (51), a vacuum discharge unit (53) configured to generate a vacuum discharge in the radical generation chamber (51), a radical irradiation unit (54) configured to irradiate an inside of the reaction chamber (2) with radicals generated from the material gas in the radical generation chamber (51), and a separation and detection (3) configured to separate and detect product ions generated from the precursor ion by reaction with the radicals according to at least one of a mass-to-charge ratio and ion mobility.

In order to identify a large molecular compound or analyze a structure of the large molecular compound, a kind of mass spectrometry is widely used in which an ion derived from a sample component is dissociated one or more times to generate fragment ions (also called product ions), and the fragment ions are separated and detected according to a mass-to-charge ratio. For example, an ion trap time-of-flight mass spectrometer is used as an apparatus for carrying out such mass spectrometry. As a method for dissociating a precursor ion having a large molecular weight captured in an ion trap in the ion trap time-of-flight mass spectrometer, collision induced dissociation (CID) is most common, which makes an excited precursor ion collide with gas of argon or the like to induce dissociation (see, for example, Non Patent Literature 1). However, the CID is an energy storage type ion dissociation method, in which energy given to a precursor ion is dispersed throughout the molecule, and hence selectivity of the position at which the precursor ion is dissociated is low. Accordingly, the ion dissociation method is not suitable when it is necessary to dissociate precursor ions at a specific site (e.g., binding position of amino acid) when, for example, a protein or a peptide is analyzed.
Electron Transfer Dissociation (ETD) is known as an ion dissociation method capable of dissociating a protein or a peptide at a specific site (see Non Patent Literature 2). In the ETD, negative molecular ions are introduced as reaction ions into an ion trap, and are caused to collide with precursor ions captured in the ion trap. At this time, an electron of a reaction ion is transferred to a protonated site of a precursor ion to generate a hydrogen radical. The hydrogen radical thus generated is bound to a precursor ion derived from a protein or a peptide, and the precursor ion is selectively dissociated at a N—Cα bond position of a peptide main chain.
Since, as described above, in the ETD, the N—Cα bond of the peptide main chain is specifically cleaved, c/z series fragment ions, which are difficult to be generated by the CID, are easily generated. In addition, since the dissociation occurs while a modification such as a sugar chain is retained as it is, identification of the modification and identification of the modification site are easy, and it is useful for analyzing post-translational modification (PTM) of proteins and peptides.
However, the ETD is a method effective only for positive ions because negative ions are used as reactive ions for ionization, and it is difficult to dissociate negative ions. Further, the valence of an ion decreases by one at each dissociation. Thus, the operation of performing dissociation several times to generate, for example, an immonium ion including a side chain of an amino acid can only be applied to positive ions with valences equal to or larger than the number of amino acid residues. Another problem is that the dissociation efficiency is low when it is used with a matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) ion source, since most of ions generated by MALDI, which is most widely used for ionization of proteins and peptides, are monovalent ions.
Under these circumstances, various new dissociation methods have been attempted in recent years. One such dissociation method is hydrogen attachment and dissociation (HAD) method proposed by the present inventors (see Non Patent Literature 3). In Non Patent Literature 3, it has been proposed that hydrogen gas is introduced into a capillary heated to 2000° C. to generate hydrogen radicals (hydrogen atoms) by thermal dissociation reaction, and precursor ions are irradiated with the hydrogen radicals. Similarly to the ETD, the HAD is also a radical induced ion dissociation method in which a hydrogen radical is bound to a precursor ion, and thus the precursor ions can be dissociated at a specific site. In addition, the HAD has an advantage that it can be used regardless of a polarity or valence of the precursor ions. In addition, there have also been proposed a method of introducing hydrogen gas into a microwave discharger to generate hydrogen radicals, and irradiating precursor ions with the hydrogen radicals (hereinafter referred to as "microwave radical generation method") (see Non Patent Literature 4), and a method of generating radicals by corona discharge of water vapor and irradiating precursor ions with the radicals (hereinafter referred to as "corona discharge radical generation method") (see Non Patent Literature 5).


A method for fabrication of a lens element from a lens blank shaped from a high index, high thermal property thermoplastic resin conditions the surface of the lens blank by an extended annealing process. The temperature of the lens blank is increased to a soak temperature greater than 165 degrees C. over a ramp-up period of more than 2.5 hours, increasing the temperature during the ramp-up period by no more than 2 degrees C. per minute, on average. The lens blank is maintained at the soak temperature for a soak period of at least 3 hours. The temperature of the lens blank is lowered back to room temperature during a ramp-down period at a rate no faster than 1.5 degrees C. per minute, on average. This forms a conditioned lens blank that is diamond-turned to obtain an optical quality surface.

Optical components made of plastic are increasingly used in a wide variety of imaging, telecommunications, medical, defense, and other applications. Because they can be inexpensively molded in high volumes, plastic optical components provide a low cost alternative to conventional glass optics. Plastic lens elements have proved to be particularly advantageous where highly aspheric surfaces or multi-faceted lens elements are needed.
In conventional fabrication of plastic lenses, a mold is designed, machined, and finished to the precise shape requirements of the lens. A suitable high-grade thermoplastic material is then formed into a lens element using the mold in the injection molding process. A wide range of polymers can be used for lens element fabrication in this way, including acrylic (PMMA), polycarbonate (PC), polystyrene (PS), cyclic olefin polymer (COP), and a host of other materials.
As an alternative to molding, some types of plastics can also be machined to obtain optical quality surfaces, with varying degrees of success. Where this capability is available, it allows fast prototyping of optical components, particularly useful for testing and for research and development efforts, without the risk of capital investment in a mold that may not be reusable. However, because molding is the predominant method used for plastic optics fabrication, and because the degree of machining precision needed to obtain optical quality is not possible with many types of polymers, there has been less attention paid to defining and developing useful principles for precision machining of plastics in optical applications.
The high level of precision and accuracy needed for machining an optical surface can be provided by Single-Point Diamond Turning (also termed SPDT) machines, such as those manufactured by Moore Nanotechnology Systems of Keene, N.H. Such diamond turning apparatus are used for shaping optical components of various spherical, aspherical, toroidal, cylindrical, conic, and piano shapes, for example.
Many thermoplastics can be diamond turned to fairly coarse accuracy of within +/−0.1 mm, for example, sufficient for forming components used in a variety of commercial products. Unfortunately, however, only a subset of known thermoplastics can be diamond turned to the high levels of precision needed for forming optical surfaces, where peak-to-valley RMS surface roughness can be no greater than 100 Angstroms and is preferably much less than that amount. Several types of acrylics, for example, have been found to provide acceptable results for optical components using diamond turning methods; however, even these materials can prove difficult to work with except under specific conditions. Many polycarbonate materials prove too soft for diamond-turning to optical standards.
It is widely recognized in the optical fabrication arts that a plastic material must have suitable surface energy characteristics for precision diamond turning. Among other characteristics, a particular material must have suitable durometer, or hardness, in order to be effectively diamond-turned. Some polycarbonates, as noted above, are simply too soft. Other types of plastic prove too brittle for single-point diamond turning.
As a general observation, a number of low-index plastic materials have been found to be workable for precision diamond turning to optical standards. However, as has been acknowledged by at least one plastic optics fabricator, high-index plastic materials have proven to be much more difficult to tool. High index thermoplastic resins have an index of refraction greater than about 1.60.
Among plastics of growing interest for telecommunications and other applications are those having high transmittivity at red and near infrared (IR) light wavelengths, particularly from about 1200 nm to 1600 nm. Two amorphous thermoplastic resins having this transmittivity property are polyetherimide (PEI), manufactured and marketed by General Electric Company, Pittsfield, Mass. as ULTEM® and polyethersulfone (PES), manufactured and marketed by Solvay Advanced Polymers L.L.C., Alpharetta, Ga. as RADEL® A. Having relatively high indices of refraction (about 1.68 for PEI), high dimensional stability, and good resistance to chemicals and fatigue, both PEI and PES are particularly promising candidates for demanding applications using light in the IR region. Their high thermal properties make PEI and PES particularly advantageous for use in optical fiber couplers in data communications and telecommunications applications. Having high glass transition temperatures and being thermally stable at temperatures in excess of 200 degrees C., these plastics can effectively withstand the high levels of heat required for wave reflow solder processing in printed circuit board fabrication.
The use of PEI for lens elements is disclosed in the following, for example:
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2003/0235050 by West et al. discloses a lens component used for a side-emitting LED;
U.S. Pat. No. 6,807,336 to van Haasteren discloses a molded lens formed from ULTEM.
As resins, PEI and PES have been primarily developed and marketed as thermoplastics for injection molding. As noted above, this allows lens elements to be fabricated inexpensively from these materials. According to product literature provided for these resins, precision machining operations, if described at all, are secondary operations at best, that may be employed for specialized use of these materials. As is noted in literature provided by various plastic components fabricators, PEI and PES, without filler materials, are acknowledged to be particularly difficult to machine. The durometer or hardness of stock PEI or PES thermoplastics is very high, not amenable to precision single-point diamond turning. For example, a number of plastic component fabricators, in comparing the overall machinability of various plastics, rate PEI and PES as significantly more difficult to machine than other optical plastics; with a rating of at least 7 on a scale from 1-10, where 10 indicates the most difficult.
To make versions of these thermoplastics that are more suitable for machining operations, manufacturers mix them with various glass fillers and other filler materials. However, while these filler materials allow easier machining, they render such thermoplastics as unusable for optical applications. Thus, optical-grade PEI and PES materials, being difficult to machine except to coarse precision, appear to offer little promise as candidates for high-precision optical machining.
For prototyping, as well as for small production runs, it would be highly advantageous to be able to fabricate lens elements from these and similar high index, high thermal property thermoplastic materials using single-point diamond turning. However, these materials, as supplied by the manufacturers, are particularly poorly suited to single-point diamond turning at the precision needed for optical quality. Conventional procedures for handling and pre-shaping lens blanks from these materials do not yield components having a compatible surface for diamond turning to form an optical surface. Therefore, it is widely held among those skilled in the optical plastic fabrication arts that PEI and PES, and similar types of high index, high thermal property thermoplastics, cannot be satisfactorily diamond turned to the optical quality needed for prototype or production-quality lens elements.
Conventional mold design is particularly costly, with typical mold prices often ranging in the tens of thousands of dollars. This makes molding a particularly expensive way to develop prototype plastic lens elements for initial development and testing efforts. Moreover, mold fabrication can take considerable time, often requiring 12 weeks or more. Time-to-market considerations can be highly significant, particularly in telecommunications, where short product lifetimes are anticipated for many types of components. Diamond turning, while not a preferred method for mass manufacture, potentially offers, to those who need prototypes, reduced lead times in terms of months and cost savings in terms of tens of thousands of dollars.
Thus, it can be seen that there would be particular benefits to methods and apparatus that provide single-point diamond-turned lens elements of high optical quality from PEI, PES, and similar high index, high thermal property thermoplastics.

Lens element from diamond-turned thermoplastic resin


An apparatus and a method for motion adaptive de-interlacing with chroma up-sampling error remover are provided. Wherein, a motion detector determines moving pixels and static pixels in a target scan line. A first CUE remover and a second CUE remover remove the CUE of the target scan line in the previous field and the CUE of the adjacent scan lines in the current field, respectively. A de-interlace unit de-interlaces the adjacent scan lines to obtain a de-interlaced second scan line. A selector selects output data of the first CUE remover or the de-interlace unit as data of the target scan line according to a result of motion detection of the motion detector. A merging unit merges the adjacent scan line output by the second CUE remover and the target scan line output by the selector to output two scan lines of an output field.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an apparatus and a method of motion detection, and more particularly, to an apparatus and a method for motion adaptive de-interlacing with a chroma up-sampling error remover.
2. Description of Related Art
Generally speaking, motion detection uses differences between corresponding pixels in the same parity field to determine whether the designated pixels are moving pixels or not. If the difference is larger than a preset threshold, it means a variation is occurred in the content of the video and the corresponding pixels are determined as the moving pixels, and if the difference is smaller than the preset threshold, it means no variation is occurred in the content of the video and the corresponding pixels are determined as the static pixels.
Through the motion detection as described above, motion information of pixels of the moving object is obtained and referenced for determining whether to use a spatial interpolation or a temporal interpolation method to generate the required field data, in which the temperal interpolation is used for calculating values of pixels in an area with no moving object and the spacial interpolation is used for calculating values of pixels in an area with the moving object.
On the other hand, in order to reduce a size of a video, the color components of the video are usually compressed in the 4:2:0 sampling format. To be specific, based on the characteristic of human eyes that is insensitive to color components, the color components of the video data is usually sub-sampled such that only a part of color information is retained. The common sub-sampling formats includes a 4:2:2 sampling format, a 4:1:1 sampling format, and a 4:2:0 sampling format.
For example, in the process of 4:2:2 sub-sampling for pixels containing color components of R, G, and B, the color components of R, G, and B are equivalently transformed into a luminance Y and color components U and V, and the color components of the pixels are sampled by two. That is, for each two pixels, only the color components of one pixel is sampled and used as the color components of the two pixels.
However, when performing three dimensional de-interlacing on a video compressed in a 4:2:0 sampling format, if the color components of corresponding pixels of a static area in a front field and a rear field are combined together for display, a chroma up-sampling error (CUE) may occur.
For example, FIG. 1 is an example illustrating a chroma up-sampling error occurred when performing de-interlacing. Referring to FIG. 1, when performing interlacing on a progressive field having a size of 8×8, the scan lines are separated into an odd field and an even field, in which the odd field contains odd scan lines of the progressive field, the even field contains even scan lines of the progressive field, and the pixels drawn with shadow blocks represent color pixels. Then, when performing a 4:2:0 sub-sampling on both the odd field and the even field, data of one of each two scan lines is retained and used as the data of the two scan lines, so as to reduce the size of the original field. However, when performing de-interlacing on the sub-sampled odd field and even field, the scan lines of the odd field and the even field are up-sampled alternately to recover the field. As shown in the third section of FIG. 1, the color pixels are mistakenly arranged such that saw-tooth may occur on the edge of the color area in the recovered field.
To resolve the CUE problem as described above, the conventional technique uses a low pass filter for up-sampling, but this method may blur the outline with apparent color change in the field. To resolve the problem thoroughly, the components of the pixels of the color area in the front field and in the rear field are required to be swapped as shown in the fourth section of FIG. 1. In detail, the components of the pixels in the odd field are required to be swapped with those of pixels in a next field and the components of the pixels in the even field are required to be swapped with those of pixels in a previous field.
However, the motion adaptive de-interlacing requires data of at least three fields so as to precisely detect the static areas and the moving areas because the motion detection needs to use same parity field. If it intends to remove the CUE in the input three fields so as to perform motion detection, data of at least five fields are required, which expends large volume of buffer.

Apparatus and method for motion adaptive de-interlacing with chroma up-sampling error remover


A frequency-efficient antenna operation method is provided in a multiuser beamforming system. The method includes determining channel correlations and channel gain differences between channels using channel information received from multiple terminals, classifying the multiple terminals into at least one or more clusters using the channel correlations and channel gain differences, selecting a beamforming vector for each of the one or more clusters using the channel information of at least one or more terminals in the one or more clusters, allocating power to the terminals in each of the one or more clusters, and forming a beam based on the allocated power and the selected beamforming vector. According to the method, interference due to sharing space resources may be reduced and more efficient data communication may be achieved.

A multiuser beamforming system supports multiple users by using a beamforming scheme in a multi antenna environment. The Beamforming scheme in a multi antenna environment may be largely divided into Orthogonal Multiple Access (OMA) based beamforming and Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA) based beamforming.
OMA based beamforming (or OMA beamforming) supports a number of users that is less than the number of antennas of a transmitting end. The OMA beamforming shares space resources per user. In other words, the OMA beamforming supports only one user per beam. Accordingly, if a zero-forcing beamforming scheme is used, there is no inter-user interference. In this case, however, the number of users to be supported concurrently (e.g., the number of concurrent users) is limited by the number of antennas of the transmitting end, thus restricting the improvement of communication capacity (or sum capacity).
NOMA based beamforming (or NOMA beamforming) supports a number of users that is more than the number of antennas of the transmitting end. The NOMA beamforming generates beams more than the number of antennas of the transmitting end, thus increasing the number of concurrent users. However, because inter-beam orthogonality is not sustained, performance degradation of the communication capacity occurs, and in this regard, as the number of concurrent users increases, the performance degradation of communication capacity gets worse. Accordingly, the NOMA beamforming rather lags far behind in the communication capacity to the OMA beamforming. Therefore, a need exists for a technology to cancel or minimize inter-beam interference to overcome performance degradation of communication capacity that may occur when such a NOMA based beamforming scheme is used.
The above information is presented as background information only to assist with an understanding of the present disclosure. No determination has been made, and no assertion is made, as to whether any of the above might be applicable as prior art with regard to the present disclosure.

Method and apparatus for operating a non-orthogonal multiple access scheme in multiuser beamforming system

Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation, Yonsei University


The present invention relates to a magnetic disk control apparatus capable of utilizing a data region of a track. The data read/write controlling apparatus according to the present invention comprises a unit for serially reading a signal series constructed of a servo signal and data which has been recorded on a recording track; a unit for generating a first read/ write control signal in response to the servo signal of the read signal series; a unit for generating a second read/write control signal between the generation of the servo signal and a generation of a servo signal subsequent to the first-mentioned signal; a unit for writing given data into the data region of the recording track in response to the generation of the read/write control signal; and a unit for externally outputting data read out just after the read/write control signal is generated.

The present invention relates to a control for reading data recorded on a magnetic disk and for writing data on the magnetic disk in a magnetic disk apparatus. More specifically, the present invention is directed to a magnetic disk control apparatus for reading and writing data in response to a read/write control signal of data.
There is a magnetic disk (simply referred to as a "disk") known as "embedded servo", wherein control signal regions in which servo information to designate which head of is outputting actual data has been recorded, and data regions in which the read data are recorded are alternately connected with each other to constitute a recording track. Such an embedded servo type disk has a merit with respect to data recording density, as compared with the conventional magnetic disk apparatus in which the tracks on which the real data are recorded and the tracks on which the servo signals for controlling the position of the magnetic head are recorded are formed separately on the magnetic disk.
In the conventional embedded servo type magnetic disk apparatus, the read/write control signal, namely the index sector pulse (ISP) signal is produced in response to the servo information from the control signal of the track, and the read data are transferred to an external unit, for instance, a host computer in response to the generation of the ISP signal (concerning the "data transfer" operation).
In FIG. 1, there are shown an arrangement of a signal for a track 1 in the conventional embedded servo type magnetic disk apparatus, and also a timing chart of generating the ISP signals corresponding thereto.
In the conventional magnetic disk apparatus employing the embedded servo, only one index sector pulse signal functioning as the base point for the read/write control is outputted in response to the servo information which has been read out from the servo (control signal) region of the recorded disk plane. That is to say, in response to signal edges of the servo information Sn, S.sub.(n+1) and S.sub.(n+2) read out from the track 1, the index sector pulse signals ISP.sub.n, ISP.sub.(n+1), and ISP.sub.(n+2) are formed. In response to these ISP signals, the read/write controls for the corresponding data ID.sub.n, ID.sub.(n+1) and ID.sub.(n+2) are performed. In other words, a single read/write operation is carried out with respect to a single servo region. The above-described prior art is opened described in, for example, Japanese patent application laid-open No. JP-A-1-194170 filed on Jan. 29, 1988 by Toshiba Corporation.
In data plane servo type magnetic disk apparatuses, a data region on which read data is recorded is referred to as a physical data length. The data length capable of being recorded on a single data region sandwiched by control signal regions for control signals, on which servo information to designate heads of data has been recorded, is predetermined by the types of magnetic disk apparatuse. This data length is fixed and thus cannot be arbitrarily varied by users.
In case that a data transfer demand is made from an external apparatus, e.g., a host apparatus to the magnetic disk apparatus, the data length accessed by the host apparatus within one access operation, namely the logic data length is not always coincident with the physical data length. Since the physical data length is fixed, this physical data length cannot be coincident with the logic data length.
When the logic data length is shorter than the physical data length, a data region corresponding to a difference between these two data lengths is not effectively utilized. This implies that a practical storage capacity of a disk is lowered and high recording density is deteriorated.
Furthermore, in the conventional embedded servo type magnetic disk apparatus, if the servo information cannot be read due to damages or the like of the disk, the ISP signal cannot be produced, so that the data stored in the data region positioned just after this damaged servo information cannot be read out from the disk.

Read/write controlling apparatus for adjusting the data length of a magnetic disk


The invention relates to a process to produce HCFC-244bb from HCFO-1233xf wherein, in one embodiment, one or more co-feed species having a normal boiling point of between about −80° C. to about 0° C., such as HFC-245cb, is added to the reaction at a pressure of at least about 100 psig; and in another embodiment it is added to maintain a mole ratio of HFC-245cb to HCFO-1233xf of between about 0.005:1 to about 1:1. The HFC-245cb may be added as recycled by-product of the reaction and/or added as fresh feed. The HFC-245cb provides elevated pressures to the reaction thereby facilitating reactor operation, mixing and HCFC-244bb product removal. Other co-feed species are also disclosed.

Fluorocarbons, particularly fluorinated olefins, as a class, have many and varied uses, including as chemical intermediates and monomers. In particular, these products are useful as refrigerants, monomers or intermediates for preparing refrigerants, particularly those identified as having low global warming potential.
With concerns over global warming, hydrofluoroolefins (HFOs) are being commercialized as substitutes for chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) for use as refrigerants, heat transfer agents, blowing agents, monomers and propellants because HFOs do not deplete the ozone layer and have low global warming potential. Some HFOs are prepared by multiple steps that involve fluorinating a chlorinated organic compound with a fluorination agent such as hydrogen fluoride in the presence of a fluorination catalyst. These reactions may be conducted in either the liquid or gas phase or a combination of these. Among processes to manufacture 2,3,3,3-tetrafluoropropene (HFO-1234yf), the following reaction sequence is known:TCP+3HF→1233xf+3HCl  Step 1:wherein TCP is 1,1,2,3-tetrachloropropene, or CCl2═CClCH2Cl and/or 2,3,3,3,-tetrachloropropene or CH2═CClCCl3; and 1233xf is 2-chloro-3,3,3,-trifluoropropene, or CH2═CClCF3; Alternately, 1,1,1,2,3-Pentachloropropane or CCl3CHClCH2Cl can be used instead of or in addition to TCP as a starting organic raw material.1233xf+HF→244bb  Step 2:wherein 244bb is 2-chloro-1,1,1,2-tetrafluoropropane, or CH3CClFCF3.
A by-product of Step 2 can also form as follows: 1233xf+2HF→245cb+HCl, where 245cb is 1,1,1,2,2-pentafluoropropane, or CH3CF2CF3; and244bb→1234yf+HCl  Step 3:wherein 1234yf is 2,3,3,3-tetrafluoropropene, or CH2═CFCF3.
In various practices, Step 1 takes place in the gas phase in the presence of a fluorination catalyst, Step 2 takes place in the liquid phase in the presence of a fluorination catalyst, and Step 3 takes place in the gas phase in the presence or absence of a dehydro chlorination catalyst.
For Step 2 of the above process, herein referred to as "the Step (2) reaction," liquid phase fluorination is preferred because the reaction can be controlled at relatively lower temperatures, which, in turn, results in less by-product formation due, e.g., to decomposition. In the liquid phase fluorination of HCFO-1233xf to produce HCFC-244bb, no hydrochloric acid (HCl) co-product, or at least no meaningful amount of HCl co-product, is produced because the reaction is strictly a hydrofluorination reaction where HF adds across the double bond of 1233xf. This lack of meaningful HCl by-product formation is unique when compared to other well-known liquid phase fluorination reactions that produce CFCs (e.g. CFC-12), HCFCs (e.g. HCFC-22, HCFC-142b), and HFCs (e.g. HFC-143a, HFC-245fa). This is because these reactions involve a halogen exchange, in whole or in part. That is, F− replaces a Cl− on the molecule.
However, it has been found that the inadequate HCl production has consequences that are adverse to processing. For example, it has been found that because inadequate HCl is produced in the reaction of HCFO-1233xf to HCFC-244bb, there is less mixing in the reactor, which can decrease conversion and also promote by-product formation. In addition, the reactor itself is more difficult to control; among other reasons for this is difficulty in achieving and/or maintaining adequately elevated pressures in the reactor needed to help carry out the reaction to form HCFC-244bb. It has been found in this regard that the formation of HCl in sufficient quantities correlates with the generation of higher pressure, and that the lack of sufficient HCl causes deficient pressure. Other advantages ascribable to the adequate formation of HCl have been found as well. For example, because it is non-condensable at the desired reaction conditions, adequate HCl formation would also increase mixing in the reactor; also, it would readily be carried out in the overhead of the catalyst stripper, and would help carry out the fluorinated product.
Thus there is a need to compensate for the inadequate formation of HCl formation in Step (2) of the reaction.

Process to manufacture 2-chloro-1,1,1,2-tetrafluoropropane (HCFC-244bb)


A scanner and associated method for detecting pressures on a test member are provided. The scanner can be provided with an electronic module that includes an analog-digital (A/D) converter associated with each channel of the scanner and configured to provide digital signals representative of the pressures detected by pressure sensor elements associated with various locations on the test member. The electronic module can also include amplifiers and/or a multiplexer so that the output of the scanner provides an amplified and/or multiplexed digital output signal representative of the detected pressures. In some cases, the A/D converters and amplifiers can be provided in a single, mixed-signal chip of the scanner. The scanner can be small enough to be disposed in various locations in the test member, including small spaces that are generally incapable of accommodating conventional test equipment.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a device and associated method for detecting pressures on a member, such as for measuring the pressures at a plurality of locations on a surface of a test member during wind tunnel testing, flight testing, or the like.
2. Description of Related Art
Wind tunnel testing is conventionally used for testing members such as vehicles and structures. For example, a portion of an aircraft or a full or partial model of an aircraft can be positioned in a wind tunnel and subjected to a flow of air to determine characteristics of the member. According to one typical testing method, pressures can be measured at a number of positions on the surface of the test member. For example, pressures can be detected on the wings, vertical or horizontal tail sections, or other portions of the test member. Surface pressures are also measured for full-scale flight testing of aircraft and other vehicles.
In one conventional method for monitoring generally static pressures on a test member, small pneumatic tubes are disposed throughout the test member to communicate pressure from various points of interest. For example, one end of each tube can be disposed at a surface of the test member, and the tube can extend through the test member to a scanning module. The scanning module includes a pressure sensor corresponding to each pneumatic tube, i.e., each channel of pressure measurement. Each pressure sensor provides an analog signal that is representative of the pressure in the corresponding pneumatic tube and, hence, the pressure at the corresponding point on the test member. The scanning module successively detects the pressure from each sensor, converts the analog signal to a digital signal, and multiplexes the signals for communication to another device for data recording and/or analysis.
In some cases, the number of pneumatic tubes that can be disposed on a particular test member is limited by the size of the devices. The size of each device also restricts the locations in which the devices can be provided. For example, the devices can be too large for mounting on small surfaces, in thin portions, or at sharp edges of the test member. In addition, the placement of each device requires a hole to be drilled in the test member and addition of a channel to route the pneumatic tube, thereby further limiting the number of devices that can be disposed on a single test member. Further, the size of the scanning module restricts the locations in which the scanning module can be provided. For example, conventional scanning modules typically measure more than several inches in each dimension and therefore are disposed in the test member at a location where a space of at least this size is available. Typically, the scanning module must be located remotely from some or all of the points of interest. For example, if a flap or aileron does not provide sufficient internal space for locating the scanning module, the scanning module is located remotely from the flap. The pneumatic lines must extend for some distance to the scanning module and, in some cases, the pneumatic lines must be disposed partially outside the test member, potentially interfering with the aerodynamic testing operation. For example, if the scanning module is located in a portion of the test member that is remote from a flap, pneumatic lines might extend from the module to the flap via a route that goes at least partially outside of the test member. The presence of the tubes outside of the test member can affect the measurements of the aerodynamic characteristics of the test member.
Thus, a need exists for an improved sensor device and associated method for performing such testing of a test member. The sensor device should be capable of being disposed at various locations on the test member and should provide accurate testing of the pressures at a number of locations throughout the test member.

Scanner and method for detecting pressures on a member


A mass spectrometer is disclosed wherein ions having a particular desired charge state are selected by operating an ion mobility spectrometer in combination with a quadrupole mass filter. Precursor ions are fragmented or reacted to form product ions in a collision cell ion trap and sent back upstream to an upstream ion trap. The fragment or product ions are then passed through the ion mobility spectrometer wherein they become temporally separated according to their ion mobility. Fragment or product ions are then re-trapped in the collision cell ion trap before being released therefrom in packets. A pusher electrode of a time of flight mass analyser is energised a predetermined period of time after a packet of ions is released from the collision cell ion trap. Accordingly, it is possible to select multiply charged precursor ions from a background of singly charged ions, fragment them, and mass analyse the fragment ions with a near 100% duty cycle across the whole mass range.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to mass spectrometers.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
With the decoding of the 20–30,000 genes that compose the human genome, emphasis has switched to the identification of the translated gene products that comprise the proteome. Mass spectrometry has firmly established itself as the primary technique for identifying proteins due to its unparalleled speed, sensitivity and specificity. Strategies can involve either analysis of the intact protein, or more commonly digestion of the protein using a specific protease that cleaves at predictable residues along the peptide backbone. This provides smaller stretches of peptide sequence that are more amenable to analysis via mass spectrometry.
The mass spectrometry technique providing the highest degree of specificity and sensitivity is Electrospray ionisation ("ESI") interfaced to a tandem mass spectrometer. These experiments involve separation of the complex digest mixture by microcapillary liquid chromatography with on-line mass spectral detection using automated acquisition modes whereby conventional MS and MS/MS spectra are collected in a data dependant manner. This information can be used directly to search databases for matching sequences leading to identification of the parent protein. This approach can be used to identify proteins that are present at low endogenous concentrations. However, often the limiting factor for identification of the protein is not the quality of the MS/MS spectrum produced but is the initial discovery of the multiply charged peptide precursor ion in the MS mode. This is due to the level of background chemical noise, largely singly charged in nature, which may be produced in the ion source of the mass spectrometer. FIG. 1 shows a typical conventional mass spectrum and illustrates how doubly charged species may be obscured amongst a singly charged background. A method whereby the chemical noise is reduced so that the mass spectrometer can more easily target peptide related ions would be highly advantageous for the study of protein digests.
A known method used to favour the detection of multiply charged species over singly charged species is to use an Electrospray ionisation orthogonal acceleration time of flight mass analyser ("ESI-oaTOF"). The orthogonal acceleration time of flight mass analyser counts the arrival of ions using a Time to Digital Converter ("TDC") which has a discriminator threshold. The voltage pulse of a single ion must be high enough to trigger the discriminator and so register the arrival of an ion. The detector producing the voltage may be an electron multiplier or a Microchannel Plate detector ("MCP"). These detectors are charge sensitive so the size of signal they produce increases with increasing charge state. Discrimination in favour of higher charge states can be accomplished by increasing the discriminator voltage level, lowering the detector gain, or a combination of both. FIG. 2(a) shows a mass spectrum obtained with normal detector gain and FIG. 2(b) shows a comparable mass spectrum obtained with a reduced detector gain. An important disadvantage of lowering the detector gain (or of increasing the discriminator level) is that the sensitivity is lowered. As can be seen from the ordinate axes of FIGS. 2(a) and (b), the sensitivity is reduced by a factor of approximately ×4 when a lower detector gain is employed. Using this method it is also impossible to pick out an individual charge state. Instead, the best that can be achieved is a reduction of the efficiency of detection of lower charge states with respect to higher charge states.
Another ionisation technique that has been recently coupled to tandem mass spectrometers for biological mass spectrometry is Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption Ionisation ("MALDI"). When a MALDI ion source is used high levels of singly charged matrix related ions and chemical noise are generated which make it difficult to identify candidate peptide ions.
It is therefore desired to provide an improved mass spectrometer and method of mass spectrometry which does not suffer from some or all of the disadvantages of the prior art.


A method of transitioning from rotary to slide drilling while maintaining a bit of a bottom hole assembly (“BHA”) on a wellbore bottom includes (a) recording a first toolface value of the BHA that is coupled to a drill string; (b) identifying a correlation between the first toolface value and a first quill position of a quill coupled to the drill string; (c) identifying a breakover torque for the drill string; (d) performing rotary drilling; (e) recording a second toolface value while the bit remains on the wellbore bottom; (f) receiving, while the bit remains on the wellbore bottom, a target toolface value; (g) calculating, while the bit remains on the wellbore bottom, an unwind amount to unwind the drill string; and (h) unwinding the drill string by the unwind amount to bring the second toolface value closer to the target toolface value while the bit remains on the bottom.

At the outset of a drilling operation, drillers typically establish a drilling plan that includes a target location and a drilling path, or well plan, to the target location. Once drilling commences, the bottom hole assembly ("BHA") is directed or "steered" from a vertical drilling path in any number of directions, to follow the proposed well plan. For example, to recover an underground hydrocarbon deposit, a well plan might include a vertical well to a point above the reservoir, then a directional or horizontal well that penetrates the deposit. The drilling operator may then steer the BHA, including the bit, through both the vertical and horizontal aspects in accordance with the plan.
Commonly, the transition between rotary and slide drilling involves the removal of the bit from the bottom of the well. The highest levels of shock and vibration, which are phenomena that cause damage to bit cutters and downhole equipment, occur while placing the bit on bottom or removing the bit from bottom. In addition to the high levels of shock and vibration, the process of transitioning between rotary and slide can be time consuming.
As such, there is a need for a rig automation system to better accomplish the transition between rotary and slide drilling, and vice versa, without removing the bit from bottom, which has the effect of minimizing downhole shock and vibrations, reducing downhole equipment failures, and reducing nonproductive time at the rig.

Method and apparatus for transitioning between rotary drilling and slide drilling while maintaining a bit of a bottom hole assembly on a wellbore bottom


The present invention provides a single layer type electrophotographic photoconductor which exhibits the small number of generated black spots in a formed image and exhibits the excellent sensitivity characteristic even when the photoconductor is used for a long time or a photoconductor drum is rotated at a high speed and an image display device which includes the single layer type electrophotographic photoconductor. In the single layer type electrophotographic photoconductor which includes a photoconductive layer containing a binding resin, a hole transporting agent and an charge generating agent, the photoconductor contains a water-repellant polycarbonate resin as the binding resin, and a contact angle of pure water (measured temperature: 25° C.) with respect to the photoconductive layer is set to 100° or more.

Conventionally, as an electrophotographic photoconductor provided to an image forming device and the like, an organic photoconductor (OPC) which contains a binding resin (a binder resin), a charge generating agent, and a charge transporting agent (a hole transporting agent, an electron transporting agent) and the like has been used. Such an organic photoconductor has, compared to a conventional inorganic photoconductor, advantages such as the easy manufacturing thereof, the high degree of freedom in structural designing due to the versatile selectable choices of a photoconductor material.
As an organic photoconductor, there have been known an organic single layer type photoconductor which forms a single organic photoreceptive layer in which a binding resin, a charge generating agent and a charge transporting agent (an electron transporting agent, a hole transporting agent) are dispersively existed on a base body, and an organic laminated photoconductor which forms a charge generating layer including a charge generating agent and a binding resin and a charge transporting layer including a charge transporting agent and a binding resin on a base body.
Here, in many cases, the organic single layer type photoconductor is charged in a positive polarity in a charging step and hence, toner powders used as a developing agent for the organic single layer type photoconductor are charged in a positive polarity which is equal to the charged polarity of the photoconductor whereby the toner is adhered to a portion of the photoconductor where a potential is lowered due to the irradiation of light. In this manner, a toner image formed on the surface of the photoconductor is transferred to a transferring sheet using an electrostatic force. Since the transferring sheet is charged in a negative polarity, paper powders which are charged in the negative polarity is easily adhered to the photoconductor charged in the positive polarity whereby there frequently arises a drawback that the organic single layer type photoconductor generates black spots and black stripes on the image.
In view of the above, as an electrophotographic photoconductor which has a function of suppressing the generation of filming, there has been proposed an electrophotographic photoconductor having a repeating unit represented by a following general formula (51) in the photoreceptive layer (for example, see Patent document 1).

(In the general formula (51), R represents same kinds or different kinds of monohydric hydrocarbon groups which do not contain an aliphatic unsaturated combination, and R23 respectively and independently represents a halogen atom, a substituted or unsubstituted alkyl group having 1 to 6 carbons, a substituted or unsubstituted alkoxy group having 1 to 6 carbons, or a substituted or unsubstituted aryl group having 6 to 12 carbons, X respectively and independently represents an alkylene group having 2 or more carbons or an alkylene oxyalkylene group having 2 or more carbons and X′ respectively and independently represents an alkylene group having 2 or more carbons, an alkylene oxyalkylene group having 2 or more carbons or an oxygen atom, wherein a respectively and independently represents an integer from 0 to 4, na represents either 0 or 1, nb represents either 1 or 2, nc represents either 1 or 2, provided that na+nb+nc=3, wherein n1, n2, n3 and n4 respectively and independently represent an integer of 0, 1 or more provided that n1+n2+n3+n4=0 to 450.)
Also, there has been disclosed an image forming method having a step in which an electrophotographic photoconductor which has a function of suppressing the generation of filming is used and the toner remaining on the photoconductor is cleaned using a brush and an elastic body rubber blade, wherein a contact angle of a surface of a photoconductor with respect to pure water is set to 90° or more (for example, see Patent Document 2).    [Patent Document 1] JP10-232503A (Claims)    [Patent Document 2] JP10-319804A (Claims)

Single layer type electrophotographic photoconductor and image forming device


Disclosed herein is a wavelength converted light emitting apparatus comprising a substrate, a light emitting diode, and a phosphor layer. The substrate is formed at its upper surface with first and second conductive patterns. At a partial region of the first conductive pattern and at the second conductive pattern are formed first and second connection bumps, respectively. The light emitting diode has first and second surfaces opposite to each other, and a side surface. The first surface of the light emitting diode is formed with first and second electrodes. The light emitting diode is disposed at the upper surface of the substrate so that the first and second electrodes are connected to the first and second connection bumps, respectively. The phosphor layer is formed along the second surface and side surface of the light emitting diode by a certain thickness, thereby serving to convert a wavelength of light emitted from the light emitting diode.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wavelength converted light emitting apparatus, and more particularly to a light emitting apparatus and manufacturing method thereof for producing specific colors of light, such as white light, by converting the wavelength of a portion of the light to be emitted, by making use of phosphors.
2. Description of the Related Art
Semiconductor light emitting diodes are devices having a great potential for miniaturization and good light emission efficiency, and thus they have been utilized as optical sources of various display apparatuses and optical communication equipment. Further, as semiconductor light emitting diodes, which produce blue or ultraviolet light of a short wavelength, have been commercialized in recent years, the semiconductor light emitting diodes can serve to produce white light through the combination of blue, red and green light.
Generally, respective semiconductor light emitting diodes have a feature of emitting single color of light having a predetermined wavelength. Therefore, two typical methods have been used in order to realize emission of white light. One typical method is for integrating two or more kinds of light emitting diodes into a single package, and the other method is for converting a portion of the light emitted from a blue or ultraviolet light emitting device by making use of phosphor, so as to produce white light. Conventionally, the latter method is widely utilized since it is advantageous in view of miniaturization of products.
FIG. 1a illustrates a wavelength converted light emitting diode using phosphor. More particularly, the light emitting diode shown in FIG. 1a may be a light emitting diode 10 adapted to mainly emit white light.
Referring to FIG. 1a, the white light emitting diode 10 comprises a gallium nitride (GaN) based light emitting structure including an n-type GaN clad layer 12, a single quantum well (SQW) or multiple quantum well (MQW) active layer 13, and a p-type GaN clad layer 14, which are successively stacked on a sapphire substrate 11 in multiple layers. This GaN based light emitting structure further includes a first bonding electrode 16a formed on the upper surface of the n-type GaN clad layer 12, and a second electrode 16b formed on the upper surface of the p-type GaN clad layer 14. For the formation of these electrodes, the clad layers are processed by mesa-etching. The white light emitting diode 10 further comprises a phosphor layer 20 provided at the overall upper surface thereof. As used herein, "phosphor" refers to a wavelength convertible material for producing white light. That is, in a state wherein the active layer 13 of the white light emitting diode 10 emits blue or ultraviolet light, most of the emitted blue or ultraviolet light is converted into long wavelength light while passing through the phosphor layer 20. Then, the long wavelength light is combined with the remaining unconverted portion or differently converted portion of the blue or ultraviolet light, thereby allowing desired white light to be finally produced.
Since the conventional white light emitting diode 10 shown in FIG. 1a is manufactured in such a manner that, after the phosphor layer 20 is formed on the overall upper surface of a wafer, which is formed with a plurality of the light emitting diodes, and then the wafer is cut so as to form a plurality of individual chips, the phosphor layer 20 exists only on the upper surface of the white light emitting diode 10.
In this case, upward light A emitted from the upper surface of the white light emitting diode 10 passes through the phosphor layer 20 serving to stimulate the light emitted from the active layer 13 into white light, while lateral light B emitted from the side surface of the white light emitting diode 10 does not pass the phosphor layer 20, thereby being inevitably emitted as the original blue or ultraviolet light itself. As can be well noted from this fact, the light emitting diode 10 shown in FIG. 1a, which is formed only on the upper surface thereof with the phosphor layer 20 due to its manufacturing manner, has a problem in that it is very disadvantageous for the emission of appropriate white light.
As another example of conventional light emitting diodes, FIG. 1b illustrates the structure of a white light emitting diode using a phosphor material in accordance with the prior art. In FIG. 1b, the phosphor material is added at a package level of the light emitting diode.
Referring to FIG. 1b, the white light emitting diode package, designated as reference numeral 50, comprises a cup shaped package structure 42, which is mounted with a substrate 44 having a first electrode formed thereon. That is, the first electrode is formed on the substrate 44 within the cup shaped package structure 42. On the first electrode is mounted an ultraviolet or blue light emitting diode 30. This light emitting diode 30 is connected to an electrode pattern provided in the cup shaped package structure 42, that is, to a second electrode formed on the substrate 44 through wires 45.
Inside the package structure 42 mounted with the light emitting diode 30 is formed a molded portion 40, which is made of a luminescent material including appropriate phosphor. The phosphor for use in the molded portion 40, for example, may be a yttrium-aluminum-garnet-based luminescent material. Such a luminescent material is obtained by mixing a hardener with an unhardened epoxy resin powder as a main material, thereby producing epoxy slurry. As the epoxy slurry is provided inside the package structure by using a dispensing method, the phosphor molded portion 40 is constructed. Since the phosphor existing inside the molded portion 40 takes the form of scattered phosphor particles, a portion of the light emitted from the light emitting diode collides with the scattered phosphor particles, thereby undergoing wavelength conversion, while the remaining portion of the light directly passes through the molded portion 40 without conversion of wavelength. The combination of the wavelength converted light and other light can appear white to the human eye. The formation method of the phosphor as stated above is further applicable to form the phosphor layer 20 as shown in FIG. 1a.
The phosphor molded portion 40 or the phosphor layer 20, however, results in a non-uniformity in spatial distribution of the phosphor particles scattered therein, and especially, in case of the structure shown in FIG. 1a, the phosphor layer 20 cannot be formed throughout the light emitting surface of the light emitting diode as stated above. Therefore, there is a problem in that it is very difficult to obtain desired colors of light from the overall light emitting surface of the light emitting diode. This problem is a big roadblock to commercialization of the wavelength converted light emitting diodes using phosphors.
Therefore, there has been a requirement of a wavelength converted light emitting diode structure capable of overcoming the above problems in the art.

Wavelength converted light emitting apparatus using phosphor and manufacturing method thereof


A cache system configured to provide a cache service includes a network switch and a cache device. The network switch is configured to route data associated with a plurality of servers. The cache device is disposed in association with the network switch. The cache device is configured to cache, in at least one memory available to the network switch, data published by the plurality of servers via the network switch. The cache device is also configured to transmit at least some of the cached data in response to a request received from at least one of the plurality of servers. The network switch provides the cache service via the cache device.

Field
Exemplary embodiments relate to a cache system and a cache service providing method using network switches.
Discussion
Conventional cache servers are high-speed storage devices configured to store data frequently referenced by users of an associated service. Typically, the frequently referenced data is stored for a limited (or otherwise predetermined) duration of time. Further, conventional cache servers may be established to provide a relatively faster response time (or speed) for a service utilizing one or more cache techniques by assisting a relatively slower main storage device, such as a relational database management system (RDMS). For instance, a web cache server may be configured to temporarily store web documents (e.g., webpages, images, etc.) to reduce bandwidth usage, server load, and perceived lag in association with one or more main servers configured to provide the web resource associated with the web documents. In this manner, conventional cache servers typically store copies of frequently accessed data when such data passes through the cache server onto its intended destination. As such, subsequent requests for the cached data may be provided by the cache server instead of being forwarded to and responded by a main server.
In order to cache data, cache servers may be disposed in an internet data center (IDC) in numbers equal to or greater than a number of servers providing a service such as, for example, a web server, a web application server, an application server, and the like. In this manner, the IDC may be configured to execute one or more processes for providing a cache service, and thereby, enable the cache servers to be accessed by users. As such, additional management servers may be required when a fault-tolerant cache service is to be provided to ensure reliable access to the cached data.
By way of example, Korean Patent Laid-Open Gazette No. 10-2010-0118836, published on Nov. 8, 2010, and entitled "SYSTEM FOR AVOIDING A DISTRIBUTED DENIAL OF SERVICE ATTACK, A LOAD DISTRIBUTING SYSTEM, AND A CACHE SERVER, CAPABLE OF REDUCING CIRCUIT COSTS" sets forth a method for distributing traffic to a plurality of cache servers. However, when an established cache server exceeds a predetermined degree of resource exhaustion due to, for instance, an increase in use of an associated cache service, an issue may arise in terms of a cost to manage the cache server being higher than a cost to manage an associated main storage. In general, the cost to manage the main storage may include an IDC rack cost (e.g., a rack space cost), power costs to maintain suitable environmental conditions (e.g., constant temperature, humidity, etc. conditions), and the like. Also, an issue of a central processing unit (CPU) of a cache server being utilized inefficiently may exist due to a characteristic of a cache service using only a common memory.
Therefore, there is a need for an approach that conveniently and efficiently provides cache services within cost-effective network architectures.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and, therefore, it may contain information that does not form any part of the prior art nor what the prior art may suggest to a person of ordinary skill in the art.

Cache system and cache service providing method using network switch


The present invention provides a system and method for overlaying video from different video sources on a display device. The sources may include a primary video source that provides first image data in the form of a first video signal, and an overlay video source that provides second image data in the form of a second video signal and a fast blank signal. The system encodes the fast blank signal into the second video signal to form encoded image data. The fast blank signal can occupy one bit of the encoded image data. The system stores the first image data and the encoded image data in a frame buffer. A controller reads the first image data and the encoded image data from the frame buffer. The controller processes and decodes encoded image data, extracting the fast blank signal. The controller then uses the extracted fast blank signal to combine the second image data and the first image data, effective to overlay an image from the overly video source onto an image from the primary video source.

Electronic display devices may be used to display images from multiple video sources. For example, a computer or other target device may receive signals from multiple video sources and combine the signals to produce an image that is communicated to a display monitor. The combination may involve overlaying images from one video source onto images from another video source in order to produce a "picture-in-picture" effect, background graphics, windows and the like.
This overlay process may be performed on a pixel-by-pixel basis. One way to perform such an overlay is by use of a fast blank signal. A fast blank signal is typically a one-bit signal that may be used to indicate to the display device where video from the second source should be overlaid onto video from the first source. For example, when the second video source reaches a certain x, y position or pixel, it transmits a fast blank signal to the target device. The fast blank signal causes the video from the second source to replace the video from the first source for that pixel. Because the primary (first) source and overlay (second) source typically operate independently (e.g., at different frequencies), the sources must be synchronized prior to the overlay process. This may involve primary source acting as a master and providing horizontal and vertical synchronization signals to the overlay source, which acts as a slave. This synchronization and corresponding overlay process is very complicated and difficult, especially in applications requiring frame rate conversion and scaling to different resolutions.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a new and improved system and method for overlaying images from multiple video sources on a display device, which allows video from an overlay source to be combined with video from a primary source without receiving synchronization signals from the primary source.

System and method for overlaying images from multiple video sources on a display device


A document illuminator comprising a light-transmissive element having an embedded side emitting LED fitted in a cavity formed therein. The light-transmissive element is formed with one or more optical notches and is totally encased in a white surround to yield total internal reflection of the light rays emanating from the LED. The reflected light rays are collected at an aperture which in turn transmits high power and highly uniform illumination profile to illuminate a document.

Disclosed is a document illuminator using light emitting diodes in a light-transmissive element.
Document illumination systems or devices which are used for illuminating documents in order to scan, typically include an illumination source such as a tungsten lamp or fluorescent lamp and an opposing reflector. The illumination source is normally located on one side of an optical center line of the scanner under a platen or constant velocity transport (CVT) system while the reflector is positioned on the opposite side of the optical center line of the scanner under the platen or CVT system. The illumination source, in conjunction with the opposing reflector, provides illumination of the document or object being scanned by the scanner.
FIG. 1 illustrates the components of a document illumination system which may be used as a stand alone scanner or in a copier. As described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,236,470, the system may be employed in either a light lens scanning system or a digital (image input terminal) scanning system (platen or CVT) in order to illuminate a document for reproduction, display, and/or storage in an electronic memory, magnetic medium, or optical disk. The illumination system of FIG. 1 includes a platen 20 upon which a document 10 rests. The documents may be dispensed on the platen by means of a document handler 25. Document 10 is illuminated by a light source 50 which provides an active source of light to irradiate the illuminated region of the document. Typically, this source of light is provided by a linear fluorescent lamp (with or without aperture reflecting coatings 60 on the interior lamp surface to form an aperture 65), or by linear tungsten lamps. As noted above, the light source 50 is situated on one side of an optical center line 40. An imaging system (not shown) causes an image of the portion of the document immediately surrounding this optical centerline 40 to be projected onto a light sensing device such as a charge coupled device (CCD). It is known in the art that if the image is directed to a CCD sensor or a full width array sensor, the light reflected from the document about the optical centerline 40 is converted into electronic signals forming image data which electronically represent the document, and the data may be stored on a recording device such as memory storage in a computer.
On the opposite side of the optical center line 40, an opposing reflector 30 is situated. The opposing reflector 30 provides indirect illumination to the document being scanned by redirecting light which would normally not illuminate the document (light leaving the light source in a parallel or substantially parallel path with respect to the platen 20) back to the illuminated region of the document. Reflector 30 reflects scattered light 57 back 35 to the document 10 at an angle opposite from the angle of light being directly 55 emitted by the light source 50. This reflection suppresses shadowing on documents with nonplanar features.
Although illumination systems provide adequate illumination for a scanner, various problems are associated with conventional illumination systems. One such problem is the size of the lamp/reflector combination, where space can be premium. Another problem is the repair and maintenance of these relatively large illumination systems.
Further, a vast majority of document illuminators in digital input scanners are based on linear fluorescent lamps, including CCFLs (cold-cathode fluorescent lamps), which use small diameter (˜2 mm) mercury (Hg) fluorescent lamps. For high speed, high performance scanners, larger diameter (8-10 mm) xenon (Xe) linear fluorescent lamps are used in preference over larger diameter Hg linear fluorescent lamps. However, due to high voltage requirements and thermal sensitivity of the Hg lamps, as well as the desire to reduce mercury content in products, it is desirable to explore other light producing technologies such as light emitting diodes (LEDs) which may perform at high performance levels with less mechanical problems, less energy, high efficiency and less maintenance and cost. Such a side light emitting device is described by Robert S. West in U.S. Pat. No. 6,598,998. A different type of point-shaped light source is shown in US Patent Application Publication US 2002/0097578 A1 by Host Grainer. Still another line illumination device is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 6,017,130 to Tomihisa Saito, et al.
The present disclosure incorporates a small size light source in a different light-transmissive element (LTE) 100 shown in FIG. 2 below, to provide a compact document illuminator.


A system, method, and computer program product which allows more versatile manual and automatic edits by embedding behaviors in the curve elements. These imbedded behaviors allow intelligent shape preservation during a curve edit. Each curve carries a behavior property that describes how it should react when edited. This means that the curve and graphics system have full knowledge of the right edit type to make, even when triggered by an outside source, such as a re-compute of an object at a higher level in the feature tree.

In the area of computer graphics and in particular in the area of b-spline or NURBS curve editing and manipulation, it is typical for graphical curves, after they have been drafted, to be edited by users. Conventionally, there are two major approaches to editing curves in existing solutions.
The first conventional approach is to directly edit the curve data, i.e., either edit points of the curve or the control vertices of the control polygon.
In this method the user directly selects an edit point for example and moves it to a new location. The other points on the curve remain fixed and the curve re-interpolates through the new location. Because the other edit points do not know how to react intelligently to this edit, the curve shape is often distorted, requiring many more edits to re-achieve a pleasing shape.
The second conventional approach entails an edit using a special command. In this method, the user chooses a special command for editing the curves, where the special command contains some intelligence on how to edit the points as a set. For example, a user might choose a scale command and scale the curve in X, but not in Y and Z. This keeps the general curve shape, but has several significant downsides. The most important downside is that by making this command-based, the element is not able to react appropriately if it is asked to edit outside the context of this command. For example, in current associative (or history-based) systems, a change to another curve might require this curve to change to stay connected. Because the intelligence for a "shape-preserving" modification is not maintained within the curve, it cannot react appropriately, and instead edits in a "local" manner as described in the first conventional technique above.
Some commercial software tools with curve-editing capabilities take a "global" approach to curve editing, where by default the curve scales rather than deforming. That is, when a scaling handle of the curve graphic is dragged in a specific direction, the curve will scale in the x-dimension, the y-dimension, or both, while maintaining a basic form of its original shape. This crude "shape preservation" method has specific limitations, however.
One limitation of this technique is that the curve editing is indirect, in that scaling can only be done by manipulating a global scaling handle point. The user is unable to modify a point on the curve specifically and have the rest of the curve update globally.
Further, this type of curve editing is limited to single edits; the user is unable to edit multiple points on the curve in multiple different directions and have the curve respond appropriately.
Finally, this conventional graphical edit cannot be triggered by an outside event, such as another object being modified; it must be manually performed by the user.
There is, therefore, a need in the art for an improved system, method, and computer program product for intelligently preserving shape properties of a curve when being manually or automatically edited.

System and method for shape preservation of curves in an editing process


Implementations set forth herein relate an automated assistant that provides suggestion elements at an OEM application and/or third-party application that is accessible via an OEM vehicle computing device, which employs restrictions on communications between local applications. The automated assistant can render suggestions via OEM vehicle applications and/or third-party applications, and initialize actions for performance via the OEM vehicle applications and/or the third-party applications—despite the limitations. The suggestions can be rendered at a graphical user interface of a vehicle, and include content that, when spoken by a user, causes the automated assistant to initialize such actions. Actions that are suggested by the automated assistant can be performed by third-party applications that are different from a third-party application that is rendering the suggestion. In this way, a common automated assistant can be indiscriminately available via various vehicle computing devices, despite differences in restrictions of communications between vehicle applications.

Computing devices and their respective applications typically provide robust functionality to assist a user with various tasks. A provider of a particular application or device may not expect the user to employ all functionality during an initial use, but rather learn the functions of the application or device over time. When a particular device provides access to an automated assistant, the automated assistant can act to familiarize the user with various functions using suggestions, which direct the user to control one or more actions of the particular device and/or application. However, in some instances, such as at a vehicle computing device or other OEM computing device, the automated assistant may be accessible through the vehicle computing device but limited in the types of data that can be gathered from operations of the vehicle computing device. As a result, any suggestions made by the automated assistant may not be suitably tailored to functions of the vehicle computing device and/or other applications that may enable more effective and/or efficient use of the vehicle and/or vehicle computing device.
Furthermore, such limitations can prevent the user from learning about safety functions of the vehicle computing device sooner. In other words, because the vehicle computing device can provide a plethora of safety features that a user could not reasonably be expected to instantly acknowledge, any delays in learning about such features could limit the safety and/or utility of the vehicle. Additionally, because a user may spend much of their time controlling the vehicle in order to navigate rather than learning features, the user would not be reaping the benefits, such as reducing power consumption and increasing efficiency. This can be especially apparent when the vehicle computing device is not exclusively proactive about suggesting functionality to the user—as such benefits are often realized when users outsource various tasks to a computing device.

Automated assistant suggestions for third-party vehicle computing devices with restricted architecture