A method for start and access verification of a motor vehicle by means of a mobile identification transmitter (3) with an evaluation unit arranged in the identification transmitter (3). At least two antennas (1, 2) arranged in different places on the vehicle in any order: each emit time independently an electromagnetic signal which is measured by a measuring device in the identification transmitter (3), and each simultaneously emit an electromagnetic signal which is measured by the measuring device in the identification transmitter (3). Thus, the security of start and access systems of motor vehicles is increased.

Access and start systems of motor vehicles operate on the principle of an identification transmitter being verified by a vehicle-side transmitting and receiving device, which comprises an evaluation unit, in the motor vehicle. This verification is undertaken by the exchange of radio signals which typically lie in the low frequency range. The radio transmission is activated as soon as a vehicle user operates a vehicle door. In this case a code signal of the identification transmitter is compared in the evaluation electronics of the vehicle with known code signals. If there is a positive match between the signals the motor vehicle is opened or started. Because it is transmitted by radio, the signal can be measured, disrupted or used in other ways by third parties. This can lead to unauthorized use of the vehicle.
An anti-theft device for a motor vehicle is known from DE 198 36 957 C1 in which a transceiver unit emits two consecutive request signals and these outputs are measured in a code generator The two measured signals are sent back by the code generator to the transceiver unit and compared there. A security device controls access to the motor vehicle accordingly, based on the signal comparison.
An access authorization system for a motor vehicle is known from DE 198 12 294 C2. For this system two antennas are arranged on the long side of the vehicle, one on the driver's side in the wing mirror and another in the area of the rear side window, in order to be able to cover the largest possible area around the motor vehicle for transmitting and receiving.
A method for determining the position of an object and for controlling access to a motor vehicle is known from DE 100 45 776 A1. In this method the position of an object in relation to a motor vehicle is determined on the one hand by signal delay times and on the other hand by determining a direction from which the signals are received. A predetermined roaming area of an object is defined in this case as the authorization access to a motor vehicle.
A method for verifying an identification transmitter is known from DE 100 46 897 B4. With this method both the transmit field strength and also the transmit direction are detected by at least one vehicle-side signal transmitter, depending on its position relative to the signal generator. The evaluation of the measured signals described demands measurement accuracy which in practice can only be implemented with difficulty.
An anti-theft system is known from WO 98/50652 A1 in which a request signal is emitted from a vehicle-side transmitter unit via two separate antennas.
This means that the request signal is transmitted in at least two different transmission channels, depending on the transmission parameters. The transmission parameters are varied depending on the response signal.
A magnetic sensor for an anti-theft system is known from DE 197 12 911 A1. In this case the angle of incidence of electromagnetic radiation emitted by a transmitter in the near field is detected. The magnetic field sensor consists of two conductor loops essentially arranged concentrically to each other.
Furthermore access authorization systems for motor vehicles are also known from EP 1 403 653 A1 and GB 2 371 137 A.
The disadvantage of the prior art is that the anti-theft devices described are susceptible to manipulation by third parties. The method known from DE 100 46 897 B4 also demands levels of measurement accuracy which are too high.

Method for a start and access system for a motor vehicle


In a method for reversibly transforming a data format, a forward transformation and a backward transformation are reciprocally conducted for data between unit systems having different resolution levels, and the forward transformation and the backward transformation, a first unit system having a lower resolution level is used as a common unit system, and a reversible data conversion is conducted by an integer operation for data in the first unit system having the lower resolution level and data in a second unit system having a higher resolution level higher than the first unit system.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a transforming process for transforming a format of image data, and in particular, a method for reversibly transforming data format, an image processing apparatus, a program for reversibly transforming data format, and a computer-readable recording medium thereof, in which a color space transforming process is conducted in a system where a lossless/lossy compression/extraction is conducted with respect to the image data in a color space.
2. Description of the Related Art
A color space is one of areas in a vector space that is a three dimensions or higher dimensions. For example, a color coordinate system is defined by three dimensional vectors being three linear independences as bases. In the color coordinated that is generally used, each of R (Red), G (Green), and B (Black) are defined by a central wavelength. When a certain three dimensional color coordinate system is given, any three dimensional linear color coordinate other than the certain three dimensional color coordinate can be expressed by a reversible 3×3 matrix (non-singular).
In practice, various color coordinates (color spaces) are defined by various reasons. For example, in a case of displaying data at a monitor, a RGB coordinate system is used in almost all digital color images. For example, a fixed range being 8 bits/coordinate is preferable. In a case of a compression requiring a color noncorrelativity, the RGB coordinate system is not suitable but another color coordinate system such as a YIQ coordinate system is more suitable. Also, a YUV coordinate system and a YCrCb coordinate system are suitable. Regarding a separation between a brightness and a chrominance relating to a luminosity, these opponent color coordinates systems attempt to improve a separation of a characteristic and an appearance of a change of the chrominance in the same brightness.
In addition, in image for a print, a subtractive color system such as a CMY (Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow) is used. Alternatively, a perfect four dimensional space such as a CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black) is used.
The data compression is extremely useful to store and transmit a large amount of data. For example, a necessary time to transmit image data such as a facsimile transmission of a document can be significantly reduced by compressing the image data and reducing the number of bits necessary to reproduce an image.
Conventionally, there are various data compressing methods. The compressing methods can be classified into two categories: that is, a lossy coding and a lossless coding. In the lossy coding, loss of image data maybe occur. Accordingly, an original image can not be guaranteed to be produced perfectly. An purpose of the lossy compression is to prevent a change caused by reproducing the image data from being unpleasant and conspicuous. In the lossless compression, all the image data are stored and compressed in a state in that the image data can be perfectly reproduced.
In the lossless compression, an input symbol or brightness data are converted into an output code word. As input data, image data, voice data, one dimensional data (for example, data changing temporally), two dimensional data (for example, data changing to two space axis directions), and multi-dimensional/multi-spectrum data are used. When data are successfully compressed, the code words of the compressed data are expressed by the number of hits fewer than the number of bits of the input symbol (or the brightness data). As the lossless coding method, a dictionary coding method (for example, Lempel-Ziv coding method), a run length coding method, an arithmetic coding method, and an entropy coding method are used. In a case of the lossless image compression, the basic of the compression is a prediction, a context, and a coding. A JBIG standard for a facsimile compression and a DPCM (Difference Pulse Coding Modulation that is an option of a JPEG standard) for a continuous-tone image are examples of the lossless compression for the image. In the lossy compression, the input symbol and the brightness data are converted into output code words after quantized. Purposes of the quantization is to store characteristic data being important portions of data and also to eliminate unimportant data. In the lossy compression, a conversion for an energy concentration is utilized before the quantization. A base line JPEG is one example of the lossy coding method for the image data.
Conventionally, a color coordinate transformation has been utilized for the lossless compression with the quantization. In the lossless compressing system or the lossless/lossy compressing system, a main essential requirement is reversibility and effectiveness of a transformation. In other lossless/lossy compressing systems, a non-correlation of colors is one factor other than the effectiveness of a reversible transformation. For example, the 3×3 matrix is used for the lossy compression only. Because factors are not integers, when the non-correlation is required, errors are involved in a process while data is alternately compressed and extended.
When the color space is transformed, a calculation accuracy becomes a problem. For example, when 8 bits are input, 10 or 11 bits are required to transform the color space. Higher accuracy is required for an internal calculation, so that a stable color space can be obtained. Errors are accumulated in a result after an image is converted and compressed from the RGB color space and then extended to restore the image in the RGB color space even if a sufficient accuracy is applied to processes being repeated. Accordingly, a final color does not match the same as an original color. This is called color shift that occurs since the color space is unstable.
Methods are provided to realize a reversible color space transformation by an integer operation having predictable accuracy (for example, refer to IDS or Cross-References 1 and 2).
A color converting method for converting into a full color image at higher speed and lower cost after the image is compressed in a JPEG format is disclosed (for example, refer to IDS or Cross-Reference 3). In this color converting method, the input color image is separated into a brightness element and a chrominance element, a color conversion number is obtained by using the chrominance element in which the brightness element is input and an output color space value output, a color conversion is conducted by applying the brightness element to a color converting function, and then an input color in a given color space is converted into an output color in another color space.
The IDS or Cross-References 1 and 2 discloses the reversible color conversion by the integer operation, in the reversible color conversion, an error is not accumulated even if a conversion and a reversed conversion are repeated, and then the color conversion is reversibly conducted at a predictable accuracy. Therefore, it is just a simple data conversion.
Moreover, in a case of IDS or Cross-References 3, the color converting process can be conducted at high speed, and an operation amount and cost can be reduced in the color converting process. Accordingly, a conversion accuracy can not be improved.
That is, in JPEG and JPEG 2000, as describe above, an image subject to be compressed is processed by YCbCr (Y:brightness, Cb:Black color difference, Cr:Red color difference) data. In addition, in generally, the image display and a print developing process are processed by RGB and YMC (or YMCK). Accordingly, compatibility for both RGB and YMC can be problem. In particular, in JPEG 2000, when the electronic watermark for preventing form manipulaton and the electronic watermark for encryption are embodied, it is required to loss any data even if the conversion and the reversible conversion are conducted, and maintain the compatibility of image data conversion. In particular, in JPEG 2000 where lessless compression and extension are available, RGB and YCbCr color conversion is a not-reversible conversion. It is retired for a basic color conversion disclosed in IDS or Cross-References 1 and 2 to guarantee the image quality.
In addition, not only the conversion for the color space, a problem concerning a length conversion of the image data can be raised. For example, in general, data in a personal computer is process in a mm unit system but data in a printer is processed in a inch unit system. Accordingly, if the reversibility in the conversion and the reversed conversion is displaced, a page location may be displaced.
[IDS or Cross-Reference 1]
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 9-6952
[IDS or Cross-Reference 2]
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 11-219428
[IDS or Cross-Reference 3]
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2000-175061

Method for reversibly transforming data format, image processing apparatus, program for reversibly transforming data format, and computer-readable recording medium thereof


User interface systems and methods are disclosed. The user interfaces include at least one focus pointer that allow a user to quickly access the elements contained in a plurality of folders. A fixed focus pointer selects one of a plurality of elements of a main folder in response to interaction of a user. A moveable focus pointer scrolls through a plurality of elements of the first subfolder to select a second subfolder in response to interaction of a user. The user interface may include additional folders and focus pointers.

Set-top boxes (STBs), televisions, digital video disc (DVD) players, digital video recorders (DVRs), personal video recorders (PVRs), video cassette recorders (VCRs), etc. are being used to provide an increasing number of services to users. As the number of services and the complexity of the hardware have increased, new user interfaces have been developed to assist users in entering and receiving information.
FIG. 1 illustrates a typical user interface 100. A user can navigate through the elements in folder 102 by pressing right and left keys on a remote control device to move elements under focus pointer 112. The user can also navigate through the elements in folder 104 by pressing up and down keys on the remote control. As is apparent from FIG. 1, additional folders and bookmarks may be displayed by entering the appropriate commands. For example, when element 106 is under focus pointer 112 and the user presses the right key on the remote control, element 108 comes into view and element 110 is removed from user interface 100. Focus pointer 112 remains stationary while elements in folders 102 and 104 move under focus pointer 112 in response to commands from a user.
User interface 100 can only be used to organize a limited number of elements. Therefore, there exists a need in the art for user interface systems and methods that allow users to organize increasing numbers of media types with more functionality without substantially increasing the complexity of the user interface.

User interface display for set-top box device


The present disclosure provides an apparatus and a method for fingerprint imaging. The apparatus includes: a light source configured to generate light, wherein a light intensity distribution of the light generated by the light source conforms to a preset encoding mode; a sensing surface on which the light generated by the light source forms a signal light with fingerprint information; and an imaging module configured to image the signal light to obtain a fingerprint image. Embodiments of the present disclosure can encode the fingerprint image by the encoding mode and can “encrypt” the fingerprint image by the encoding mode, thus a clear fingerprint image can be obtained by decoding based on obtaining the preset encoding mode, which can effectively improve the security of fingerprint imaging.

Fingerprint identification technology collects a fingerprint image of a human being through a fingerprint imaging apparatus, and then compares it with fingerprint information stored in a fingerprint identification system to realize identity identification. Due to convenience of use and uniqueness of human fingerprint, the fingerprint identification technology has been widely used in various fields, such as Public Security Bureaus, customs and other security inspection fields, building access control systems, personal computers and mobile phones and other consumer product fields.
In existing fingerprint imaging apparatuses used in the fingerprint identification technology, one kind is to collect human fingerprint images by an optical method. After a finger presses on a sensing surface, light generated by a light source is projected onto the sensing surface, and then the light is reflected and refracted to form a signal light carrying fingerprint information. The reflected light is collected by an optical image sensor, and then a fingerprint image is obtained.
Fingerprint imaging apparatuses are increasingly used in mobile devices such as laptop computers, tablet computers, and mobile phones to achieve automatic unlocking and function of related mobile devices. Especially, a fingerprint identification in mobile phones is widely used.
However, the wide application of fingerprint imaging apparatuses puts forward higher and higher requirements for security.

Apparatus and method for fingerprint imaging

SHANGHAI HARVEST INTELLIGENCE TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.


A method includes capturing continuously vital signs and motion data from one or more sensors adapted to be coupled to a user; capturing food consumption of the user; predicting a predetermined health condition of the user based on the vital signs; generating a plan for the predetermined health condition; and prompting the user to execute the plan with a closed-loop feedback based on sensor data.

The present invention relates to health management with sensors.
Synopsis
In one aspect, a method for health and fitness capturing continuously vital signs and motion data from one or more sensors adapted to be coupled to a user; capturing food consumption of the user; predicting a predetermined health condition of the user based on the vital signs; generating a plan for the predetermined health condition; and prompting the user to execute the plan with a closed-loop feedback based on sensor data.
Implementations may include one or more of the following. The predetermined health condition can be diabetes. The method may include one of: determining an effect of a predetermined food item on glucose; determining an effect of a second food item on glucose when taken with the predetermined food item; determining a glucose reduction when a selected activity is performed by the user; performing a physical activity within a selected period after a meal to keep glucose level in a predetermined range; presenting one or more activity options to the user to implement to keep the glucose level below a predetermined threshold; adjusting a timing or intensity of a selected physical activity to maintain a glucose target; or estimating glucose level using bio-impedance sensors. The method may include one of: measuring a user weight and determining a weight loss program; measuring user activity or exercise and determining a weight loss program; determining user smoking or drug dependency and weaning the user from smoking or drug through a series of behavioral changes including exercise. The predetermined health condition comprises high blood pressure. The method may include one of: a non-invasive blood pressure sensor to continuously estimate blood pressure in a closed-loop feedback; immediately reducing blood pressure with a diuretics, an angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor, an angiotensin II receptor blocker (ARB), calcium channel blocker, alpha blocker, alpha-beta blocker, beta blocker, renin inhibitor, aldosterone antagonist, garlic or garlic extract pills to reduce blood pressure, music therapy, biofeedback, deep breathing, or exercise. A biofeedback sensor can be used reduce blood pressure in real time. The method may include one of: coaching the user to improve user health; wherein the coaching comprises social networking with people having user health characteristics; wherein the coaching provides feedback including adjusting positions to match a target posture; wherein the coaching provides motivation or encouragement; or wherein the coaching is customized for a particular user.


A screen includes: a reflection surface which reflects projection light, wherein a plurality of convexes are disposed on the reflection surface, and each of the convexes contains a spherical surface having a ¼ spherical shape, a curved surface having curvature larger than curvature of the spherical surface and disposed along an end of the spherical surface, and a cover surface having a flat surface shape and disposed at an end of the curved surface.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a screen, a projection system, a front projection television receiver, and a screen manufacturing method.
2. Related Art
A reflection type screen which reflects projection light received from a projector or the like to show a visually recognizable image on the screen is known. Recently, such a reflection type screen which improves optical characteristics by using a number of micro-lenses (micro-lens array), that is, small semispherical convexes disposed on the reflection surface of the screen for reflecting the projection light has been proposed.
JP-A-2003-195029 proposes a technology which delivers ultraviolet hardening resin to a lyophilic area having a circular pattern, raises compositions of the resin on the lyophilic area by utilizing the wettability difference between the lyophilic area and other area (liquid repellency area), and hardens the raised resin to form semispherical convex micro-lenses.
In addition, JP-A-2006-215162, FIG. 2 discloses a technology which forms the shapes of the micro-lenses by ¼ spherical convexes as halves of the semispherical convexes.
According to the screen which has a number of small convexes or concaves on the reflection surface, the screen gain improves in the area directly receiving the projection light. However, substantially no improvement of the screen gain can be recognized in the area not directly receiving the projection light.
For example, when the projection light is diagonally supplied from below to the screen, an area not receiving the light exists in the upper portion of each lens in case of the micro-lenses having convexes. Also, an area not receiving the light exist in the lower portion of each lens in case of the micro-lenses having concaves. These portions scarcely contribute to the improvement of the screen gain.
Thus, according to the screen which includes the micro-lenses having the semispherical convexes on the reflection surface, the screen gain does not sufficiently increase, and the visibility of the image projected on the screen lowers.
For overcoming these problems, JP-A-2006-215162 proposes the structure which disposes the ¼ spherical convexes adjacent to each other in the incident direction of the projection light. According to this structure, the portion not contributing to the improvement of the screen gain decreases, while the portion contributing to the improvement of the screen gain increases.
In this case, however, the contrast lowers due to the effect of external light coming from a ceiling light or the like.
More specifically, when the projection light is diagonally supplied from below to the screen similarly to the above case, for example, the spherical surface of the ¼ spherical convex on which a reflection film is formed is disposed in the lower region, and the flat surface is disposed in the upper region. In this case, the flat surface not having the reflection film also has the reflection characteristics to some extent depending on the material. Thus, when external light is supplied from the ceiling light or the like to the screen, the external light is reflected by the flat surface. The reflection light then reaches the spherical surface of the convex disposed immediately above and is reflected thereby toward the front. As a result, the contrast lowers, and thus the visibility of the image projected on the screen decreases.

Screen, projection system, front projection television receiver, and screen manufacturing method


An electronic device and method for controlling the electronic device are provided. The electronic device includes a first surface in a first direction, a second surface in a second direction opposite to the first direction, and a third surface enclosing at least a portion of a space formed between the first surface and the second surface. The electronic device also includes an audio module changing an audio signal input to the electronic device into an electronic signal, and a processor being operationally connected to the display and the audio module. The processor is configured to detect the audio signal input via the audio module from a first user via the first surface, detect a touch signal dragged from the third surface in the direction of the second surface, and display in the second surface a translation corresponding to the audio signal.

For electronic devices, such as smartphones in particular, various technologies have been developed to provide users with widescreen displays while supporting portability. Examples are wallet-shaped, rollable, or bendable terminals with flexible displays.
In addition, electronic devices having plural displays are being developed. For example, such an electronic device may have front and rear displays or may use a slanted side as a display.
When a deformable display is applied to a mobile terminal, a larger screen can be provided regardless of the physical form of the mobile terminal, but commercialization is not easy in terms of durability and cost.
To widen the display while maintaining the rectangular shape of the mobile terminal that is a popular form today, mobile terminals have been developed that have a thin bezel, have displays on the front and back sides, or have a display extended to the sides. However, in the case of a mobile terminal having displays on the front and back sides, it is difficult to use the displays at the same time. In the case of a mobile terminal having a display extended to the side, when the user holds the mobile terminal with one hand, a touch may be input to the side display, causing malfunction.

Electronic device having plurality of displays enclosing multiple sides and method for controlling same


A tactile wave generating apparatus and method to generate amplified low frequency waves which are then transmitted as tactile waves into a structure and/or to a persons anatomy. There is a housing in which is positioned a drive section that in turn comprises a magnet section that moves upwardly and downwardly as an inertial mass, two coils on opposite sides of the magnet and two flux path return plates for the coils. Each coil comprises upper and lower longitudinally aligned generally linear coil portions which drive the magnet section upwardly and downwardly. The magnet section is supported by upper and lower interconnecting sections that resiliently resist the up and down motion of the magnet section and restrain the magnet section to move up and down within close tolerances.

a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a tactile wave generating apparatus and method, and more particularly to generating amplified low frequency waves which are transmitted as tactile sound into a structure and/or to a person's anatomy. Further the present invention relates to a system where the low frequency tactile waves may be transmitted to the person's body while the full audible waves are being transmitted to the person.
b) Background Art
Electroacoustic transducers such as loudspeakers for use in music or movie soundtrack reproduction are well known. In traditional prior art sound reproduction systems, large, powerful speakers move large amounts of air to permit a listener to feel the low frequency of sound. Listeners enjoy live concerts, in part, because they want to feel the sound pressure upon their bodies.
In recent years, one of the more important trends in the audio industry is that of "tactile sound" which may be described as "vibro-acoustic" or "vibro-tactile" stimulation. With tactile sound the realism of the listening experience can be enhanced by transmitting tactile waves into the person's body. For example, this could be done by vibrating the listener's seating surface of a chair or other furniture or structures. These tactile waves are able to be sensed within the person's body to add another dimension to the person's listening experience.
The initial application of these devices were as sub woofer replacements or sub woofer augmentation devices. The addition of higher frequency material began to demonstrate the potential of wider bandwidth devices and the associated additional dimensions that vibro-tactile stimulation brings to the overall experience. There are many parameters that need to be evaluated when designing and/or selecting a vibro-technical device for inclusion in music and/or an entertainment system. For example, bandwidths, efficiency and power handling need to be understood. These parameters can play a big role not only in the device selection but in the amplifier selection as well.
It is well understood in the loud speaker industry that sufficient bandwidths (i.e., flat frequency response with sufficient low frequency and high frequency limits) is critical for high fidelity reproduction. Vibro-tactile devices, like loud speakers, are devices that must be properly designed to refine the required bandwidth for accurate response.
It is with these and other considerations being kept in mind that the design of the embodiments of the present invention were created.

Acoustic wave generating apparatus and method


A white LED includes an LED chip formed on one main surface of a sapphire substrate, the LED chip being formed in a semiconductor stack structure including a light emitting layer and emitting light of a predetermined wavelength, a light extracting film applied on the other main surface of the substrate, the light extracting film being formed of a material having a refractive index within a range of ±5% of a refractive index of the substrate and a surface of the light extracting film that is located on an opposite side to the substrate being processed into a recess and projection shape, and a phosphor member provided on an opposite side of the substrate with respect to the light extracting film, and generating white light as light is incident thereon.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a white LED (light emitting diode), and more specifically to a white LED with an improved light extracting section, and a method of manufacturing the LED.
2. Description of the Related Art
White LEDs that use sapphire (Al2O3) as a substrate have such a structure that an LED that emits UV light is formed on one of the main surfaces of the substrate and phosphor is arranged on the other main surface of the substrate. With this structure, UV light is converted by phosphor into white light. In the white LEDs of this type, a refractive index of sapphire, which serves as the substrate, is high as 1.76, and therefore the problem of loss of light due to reflection on a surface of substrate and on an interface arises. For this reason, only about 32% of light can be extracted between sapphire and air. Thus, it is difficult to efficiently extract light created inside the element to the outside.
In order to increase the light extracting efficiency of LED, there has been an attempt of increasing the transmittance by forming a regularly arranged structure (of recesses and projections) of a nanometer size on a surface of the light emitting element (Applied Physics Letters, 142, vol. 78, 2001, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., L735, vol. 39, 2000). In this attempt, since the recesses and projections of the structure are arranged in nanometer size, the recess and projection region serves as such a layer that the refractive index smoothly changes from the surface of semiconductor to the air, for light. Therefore, the reflection does not occur, but light is completely passed through the layer.
On the other hand, in order to make a coarse surface, there is a conventionally known technique in which the surface is treated with hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, hydrogen peroxide or a mixture of these (Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2000-29949). According to this technique, recesses and projections of micron-sizes are formed by the surface treatment, and thus the multiple scattering on the recesses and projections is utilized to extract as much light as possible.
However, it is difficult to form excellently configured recesses and projections in a surface of sapphire by a technique described above. That is, sapphire is a very difficult material to etch, and therefore sapphire cannot be processed by a dry etching method using a resist mask sufficiently as desired. Even if the optimal etching gas is selected, the ratio in the etching rate with respect to the resist is about only 1 at best. For this reason, it is difficult to form a desired recess and projection configuration, especially, a recession and projection shape having a high aspect ratio of a size of a sub-micron order.
As described above, with the conventional technique, it is not possible to form an excellent recess and projection shape in a surface of a sapphire substrate, which has been a factor of lowering the light extracting efficiency in the white LED.

White LED and manufacturing method therefor


A toothbrush for cleaning individual teeth includes a longitudinally extending handle portion (10) connected to a curved head portion (20). The head portion (20) carries a plurality of relatively long, soft bristle tufts (31) arranged in transverse rows and a plurality of relatively short, hard bristle tufts (32) arranged in transverse rows sandwiched between the transverse rows of the plurality of relatively long, soft bristle tufts (31). The curved head portion (20) has a small radius of curvature of between 1.4 and 1.8 centimeters, optimally 1.5 centimeters, while the relatively long, soft bristle tufts (31) each extend radially from the curved head portion (20) by a distance of between 0.8 and 1.2 centimeters, optimally 1 centimeter. In this manner, the entire arrangement (30) of bristle tufts is made to converge substantially on the area of an individual tooth and its surrounding gum line.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to the field of toothbrushes. More particularly, this invention pertains to the field of toothbrushes having longitudinally curved or bent heads. Still more particularly, this invention pertains to the field of toothbrushes having longitudinally curved or bent heads which carry bristle tufts of bristles arranged for cleaning individual teeth.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various toothbrushes have been proposed which include longitudinally curved heads. Examples of these toothbrushes are shown in the following U.S. Patents, herein incorporated by reference: 4,712,267; 3,792,504; 2,722,504; 958,371; Des. 170,688; Des. 172,567; Des. 155,668; and Des. 113,744. However, in each of these toothbrushes, the degree of curvature of the toothbrush head has apparently been chosen so as to match the curvature of the rows of teeth within the human mouth. Consequently, these toothbrushes are not adapted to individually clean the various teeth within the human mouth; rather, they are adapted to clean the outer portions of rows of teeth, such as the incisors and the canine (or eye) teeth.


A method for impressing holographic images or holograms in the surface of metal objects such as aluminum cans, sheet metal or metal foil. The surfaces of metal shims and print rolls bearing holograms are hardened as by coating them with thin amorphous diamond coatings or diamond like coatings so the holograms can be embossed into many thousands of metal objects with clarity and consistency.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to pressing or engraving holograms and/or diffraction images into metallic surfaces such as metal cans.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is well known to manufacture a variety of products having holograms or diffraction images pressed or embossed into them. Such products include credit cards, license plates, consumer packaging, pictures, tickets and the like. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,368,979; 4,684,795; 4,856,857; 4,971,646; 4,999,075; and 5,267,753. Holograms generally mean a diffraction pattern which produces a three-dimensional image. Other diffraction images modify the behavior of light that strikes an object bearing the image without creating a three-dimensional appearance. The term "hologram" is used herein in the broad sense to include diffraction patterns or images as well as three-dimensional holograms and other complex images having different planes of diffraction. The manufacture of holograms, shims or plates is well known in the art as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,733,258; 3,875,026; 3,944,420; and 5,059,499, among others.
Most holograms on credit cards and the like are embossed into a plastic sheet material such as Mylar® or other polyester which has a thin underlayer of reflective material such as aluminum to produce a reflective hologram. The aluminum is typically vapor deposited onto the substrate. Holograms can also be impressed into thermoplastic layers on durable substrates as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,913,858. The coated sheet is heated to soften the coating which is decorated using an embossing member to provide a diffraction pattern or hologram.
It is further known to create embossing tools or roller dies bearing holographic patterns which are impressed into aluminum foil, translucent plastics and other materials, as is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,521,030. That patent discloses a process in which the holographic pattern is etched directly into a durable surface on the tool or die. The patent states that large quantities of holograms can be made from a single die made of high quality steel, chrome, or the like that is used in the roller die. The patent further states that the die may be a flat plate mounted on a substrate, an inside surface of an injection mold, a mandrel, a casting mold, or other surface used for transferring a relief pattern. The patent states that the holographic pattern may be embossed into aluminum foil, aluminum sheets, steel beverage containers, or the like.
It is also known to emboss holograms directly into the outer surface of sheet metal such as aluminum foil and aluminum beverage cans as is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,773,718 and 4,725,111. Those patents explain that the temperature of the aluminum is important for optimizing the embossing process and that the nickel master plate must be many times less deformable at the embossing temperature than is the material being embossed. The patents describe a process in which the aluminum foil and aluminum cans are heated to reduce the yield strength of the metal. The yield strength of the nickel master is relatively constant over the temperature range in which the yield strength of the aluminum in the foil and cans is dramatically reduced. The patents disclose embossing apparatus having a metal embossing plate carried on the outside surface of a wheel which is pressed against a can mounted on a mandrel. The embossing plate is heated by a heater that may be disposed within the wheel. The machine has a plurality of mandrels for cans which are sequentially embossed. The mandrels are preferably cooled. The process disclosed by these patents has not been used commercially despite the desirability of enhancing the decoration of cans.
Another technique for forming a hologram or diffraction grating in a metal blank or a metal container is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,193,014. According to that patent, a hologram or diffraction grating is first formed on a gently curved surface of a metal plate mold, followed by stamping the metal blank or can with the plate mold to transfer the hologram.
An improved low cost technique is desired for embossing holograms into metal objects such as metal strip material, metal foil and metal cans. Many billions of aluminum beer and beverage cans are made and sold annually, and improved decoration of such cans would improve their marketability. Aluminum cans are made from hard temper aluminum alloys, and the sidewalls of the cans are quite thin such as in the range of about 0.0038 to 0.0042 inch. The cans are typically filled with carbonated beverages which produce pressures of 90–110 psi or more within the cans. The cans are commonly closed with a lid that is secured on the cans by a double seamer that applies a top load of about 100 to 130 pounds on the can during the seaming operation. It is important that the temper and strength of aluminum cans not be unduly reduced during processing as can happen if the cans are heated.
A technique for embossing or engraving holograms on cans is needed which adds little to the cost of the cans and which produces consistently high quality images. It is desirable for a manufacturing system to be capable of engraving/embossing holograms on approximately 2.5 million cans per day in order to be commercially practicable. Beverage companies and bottlers demand high quality cans and will not accept noticeable variations in the decoration on their cans. Moreover, the commercial can manufacturing and filling processes operate at high speeds of 600 to 2000 cans per minute, and can decoration processes must be statistically in control and capable at such speeds.
A technique is also desired for impressing holograms into sheet or strip metal such as aluminum foil or aluminum sheet material. Aluminum foil is commonly used for wrapping and packaging many products, and the foil may be more attractive for some uses if it has holograms impressed in it.

Methods for transferring holographic images into metal surfaces


This invention provides a novel electrochemical display element, which can realize bright white display, high-contrast black and white display, and full-color display by a simple member construction, and a method for driving the display element. The display element is characterized in that it comprises opposed electrodes, and an electrolyte, an electrochromic compound, a metal salt compound, and a white scattering material between the opposed electrodes, and multicolor display of three or more colors is carried out by black display, white display, and display of color other than black by driving the opposed electrodes by taking advantage of 1) a color change as a result of oxidation and reduction reactions of the electrochromic compound, and 2) a color change as a result of reduction precipitation and oxidation dissolution of a metallic element contained in the metal salt compound in at least one of the opposed electrodes.

In recent years, along with the increase in the operating speed of personal computers, the spread of network infrastructure, the markedly increased capacity of data storage, and the decrease in price, a further opportunity is increasing in which information such as text and images which have traditionally been supplied in the form of paper printed matter is now acquired and read as convenient electronic information.
Employed as such electronic information reading means are conventional liquid crystal displays as well as CRTs, and in recent years, emissive displays such as organic EL displays are drawn attention. Particularly, when electronic information is in the form of text, it is necessary for an operator to watch the browsing means for a relatively long period of time, which is not a human-conscious operation. Generally, it is known that emissive displays exhibit the following disadvantages: screen flickering results in eye fatigue; display devices are not portable; reading posture is limited; operators tend to gaze at a still screen; and reading over an extended period of time results in an increase of electric power consumption.
Known as display means to overcome such disadvantages are reflective displays (having a memory effect) which do not consume power for maintaining images since these displays use external light. However, due to the following reasons, it is difficult to mention that sufficient performance has been achieved.
Namely, displays employing polarized plates such as reflective liquid crystals exhibit reflectance as low as approximately 40 percent, resulting in having a problem in displaying white. Further, the production methods employed to prepare constituting members are not simple. Polymer dispersion type liquid crystal displays require relatively high voltage, in addition, since only the difference in the refractive index among organic materials is utilized, the resulting images do not exhibit sufficient contrast. Polymer network type liquid crystal displays result in problems in which a high voltage is required and in order to enhance memory functions, complicated TFE circuits are required. Display elements based on an electrophoretic method necessitate voltage as high as at least 10 V, and durability problems may occur due to coagulation of electrophoretic particles. In order to use one of the above methods for a color display, a method to use a color filter or a method to used a pattern color have been known. In the former method, it is difficult to obtain a bright white display, in principal, due to the coloration of the color filter, and the latter method has a problem in that a dark black color cannot be obtained due to the use of a patter color.
As one of the methods which enable a full color display, an electrochromic method has been know, which can be driven with a voltage of 3V or less. When a display exhibiting a bright white color, a high white-black contrast and a color display is prepared using an electrochromic method, it is necessary to laminate three layers each exhibiting a different color, resulting in a high cost due to the complicated element constitution. A full color electrochromic display having a flat color mixing structure has been known (for example, refer to Patent document 1). In this method, no fully sufficient white-black contrast has been obtained, since a dark black color cannot been obtained due to the flat color mixing structure. Also, a method to use a poly pyridine compound in an electrochromic display has been known (for example, refer to Patent document 2), however, in this method, only two colors can be displayed and, specifically, a black display cannot be obtained.
As a method which enables black display, an electro deposition method (hereafter, referred to merely as an ED method) has been known, in which dissolution-deposition of a metal or a metal salt is used for the display (for example, refer to Patent document 3). An ED method is an excellent method to obtain a sufficient white-black contrast, however, color filters of B, G and R, or Y, M and C are needed in order to display a full color, whereby the excellent white-black contrast has not been fully utilized.
Patent documents 1 Japanese Patent Application Publication Open to Public Inspection (hereafter referred to as JP-A) No. 2003-270670
Patent documents 2 Japanese patent No. 2930860
Patent documents 3 JP-A No. 2003-241227

Display element and driving method thereof


The efficiency of LEDs is increased by incorporating multiple active in series separated by tunnel junction diodes. This also allows the LEDs to operate at longer wavelengths.

The operating efficiency of light emitting diodes (LEDs) may be improved in a number of ways. These include improvements in the quality of the semiconductor layers and the design of the structure to maximize coupling of light out of the LED.
The operating efficiency of LEDs based on AlGaInN or InGaN decreases as the net drive current is increased as is shown in graph 110 of FIG. 1 for a green GaInN LED. This effect exists in addition to the well-known effect in LEDs where efficiency decreases due to heating brought on by increases in the drive current. The effect limits the performance of AlGaInN or InGaN at high drive currents. Additionally, for AlGaInN or InGaN LEDs, a wavelength shift to shorter wavelengths occurs as the current increases.

Method and structure for improved LED light output

Avago Technologies ECBU IP (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.


A computer-implemented method and system for realizing an interactive, virtual bookshelf representing physical books and digitally stored books of the user. Using a search query, the Web is searched using search metadata to identify a desired book. Library metadata corresponding to the physical books and digitally stored books of the user is then searched using the search metadata to determine whether the desired book is present in the virtual on-line bookshelf. Results indicative of whether the desired book is present on the virtual on-line bookshelf can be displayed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to physical books, online digitally stored books, and Web-based search.
2. Background Art
Paper copies of books (physical books) have existed since before the invention of the printing press. Libraries throughout recorded history have housed collections of physical books in the form of printed books and hand written manuscripts. Access to these libraries has been limited because the actual physical book must be housed in one physical location and the user must be provided access to and possession of the desired physical book in order to gain access to its contents.
With the emergence of the Internet, the availability of physical books has increased. For example, locating a physical copy of a physical book has become easier with the advent of on-line search facilities of physical books such as Amazon and EBay. New and used physical copies of desired physical books can be purchased or leased by users remotely and then shipped to the purchasing user by post or other delivery service mechanism. Thus the universe of physical books available to the user has expanded dramatically from the days of brick and mortar book stores and sellers, and reserved and lending libraries.
Additionally, publishers such as O'Reilly have created digitally stored books that can be accessed by a user on-line over the Internet either for no charge or based on a subscription model or for the fixed fee. Electronic copies of such digitally stored books can often be downloaded to the user over the Internet for electronic storage on the computer system of the user or printed out in hard copy form.
On-line search over the public Web, universal book search engines or proprietary on-line collections allows for desired information to be located in a vast, ever expanding universe of books whose data and/or metadata is made available for search. Often, specific desired content or information can be pinpointed in the book using such electronic searching.
The information explosion that has occurred has made it increasingly difficult for the owner of a library of books (either in physical copy or digitally stored) to keep track of what is in her library or to determine which books contain desired information.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Computer-implemented interactive, virtual bookshelf system and method


An apparatus for warning against lack of stroke in an electronic parking brake may include: a tension sensor for sensing the tension of a cable which is provided in an actuator so as to transmit power; a motor for providing power to the actuator; and a controller for controlling whether to operate the motor based on the sensed tension of the cable and a preset target tension, and calculating an operating stroke of the actuator based on an operating time of the motor. The controller may issue a stroke lack warning based on the operating stroke and a preset critical stroke.

The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for warning against lack of stroke in an electronic parking brake, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for warning against lack of stroke in an electronic parking brake, which issues a warning against lack of stroke and prevents an additional operation to avoid locking between a nut screw and a bolt screw, when a required stroke becomes larger an operating stroke.
In general, when parking a vehicle, a driver manipulates a parking brake to prevent the movement of the vehicle. In an electronic parking brake system, when the driver makes a request or the state of the vehicle satisfies an automatic fastening condition of the parking brake while the vehicle is parked, an electronic controller for controlling the electronic parking brake drives a motor to supply power to an actuator, and the actuator generates a brake force to maintain the stopped state of the vehicle.
At this time, the actuator may include a bolt screw which is advanced and retreated by the power of the motor and a nut screw which is combined with the bolt screw so as to guide the movement of the bolt screw. As the motor is driven, the bolt screw is advanced to transmit power to the brake mechanism, and the brake mechanism generates a brake force.
Thus, as the bolt screw is further advanced, the brake force of the parking brake may be increased. However, when the bolt screw is excessively advanced to be locked to the nut screw, the actuator may be damaged.
The related art of the present invention is disclosed in Korean Patent Laid-open Publication No. 1996-0022048 published on Jul. 18, 1996 and entitled "Electronic brake system".

Apparatus and method for warning against lack of stroke for electronic parking brake


A phase locked loop system (52) and method is used in a synchronously sampled data channel (10) of a disk drive mass storage system (30).

As computer hardware and software technology continues to progress, the need for larger and faster mass storage devices for storing computer software and data continues to increase. Electronic databases and computer applications such as multimedia applications require large amounts of disk storage space. An axiom in the computer industry is that there is no such thing as enough memory and disk storage space.
To meet these ever increasing demands, hard disk drives continue to evolve and advance. Some of the early disk drives had a maximum storage capacity of five megabytes and used fourteen inch platters, whereas today's hard disk drives are commonly over one gigabyte and use 3.5 inch platters. Correspondingly, advances in the amount of data stored per unit of area, or areal density, have dramatically accelerated. For example, in the 1980's, areal density increased about thirty percent per year while in the 1990's annual areal density increases have been around sixty percent. The cost per megabyte of a hard disk drive is inversely related to its areal density.
Mass storage device manufacturers strive to produce high speed hard disk drives with large data capacities at lower and lower costs. A high speed hard disk drive is one that can store and retrieve data at a fast rate. One aspect of increasing disk drive speed and capacity is to improve or increase the areal density. Areal density may be increased by improving the method of storing and retrieving data.
In general, mass storage devices and systems, such as hard disk drives, include a magnetic storage media, such as rotating disks or platters, a spindle motor, read/write heads, an actuator, a pre-amplifier, a read channel, a write channel, a servo controller, and control circuitry to control the operation of the hard disk drive and to properly interface the hard disk drive to a host or system bus. The read channel, write channel, servo controller, and memory may all be implemented as one integrated circuit that is referred to as a data channel. The control circuitry often includes a microprocessor for executing control programs or instructions during the operation of the hard disk drive.
A hard disk drive (HDD) performs write and read operations when storing and retrieving data. A typical HDD performs a write operation by transferring data from a host interface to its control circuitry. The control circuitry then stores the data in a local dynamic random access memory (DRAM). A control circuitry processor schedules a series of events to allow the information to be transferred to the disk platters through a write channel. The control circuitry moves the read/write heads to the appropriate track and locates the appropriate sector of the track. Finally, the HDD control circuitry transfers the data from the DRAM to the located sector of the disk platter through the write channel. A write clock controls the timing of a write operation in the write channel. The write channel may encode the data so that the data can be more reliably retrieved later. A sector generally has a fixed data storage capacity, such as 512 bytes of user data per sector.
In a read operation, the appropriate sector to be read is located and data that has been previously written to the disk is read. The read/write head senses the changes in the magnetic flux of the disk platter and generates a corresponding analog read signal. The read channel receives the analog read signal, conditions the signal, and detects "zeros" and "ones" from the signal. The read channel conditions the signal by amplifying the signal to an appropriate level using automatic gain control (AGC) techniques. The read channel then filters the signal, to eliminate unwanted high frequency noise, equalizes the channel, detects "zeros" and "ones" from the signal, and formats the binary data for the control circuitry. The binary or digital data is then transferred from the read channel to the control circuitry and is stored in the DRAM of the control circuitry. The processor then communicates to the host that data is ready to be transferred. A read clock controls the timing of a read operation in the read channel.
As the disk platters are moving, the read/write heads must align or stay on a particular track. This is accomplished by reading information from the disk called a servo wedge. Generally, each sector has a corresponding servo wedge. The servo wedge indicates the position of the heads. The data channel receives this position information so the servo controller can continue to properly position the heads on the track.
Traditional HDD read channels used a technique known as peak detection for extracting or detecting digital information from the analog information stored on the magnetic media. In this technique, the waveform is simply level detected and if the waveform level is above a threshold during a sampling window, the data is considered a "one." More recently, advanced techniques utilizing discrete time signal processing (DTSP) to reconstruct the original data written to the disk are being used in read channel electronics to improve areal density. In these techniques, the data is synchronously sampled using a data recovery clock. The sample is then processed through a series of mathematical manipulations using signal processing theory.
There are several types of synchronously sampled data (SSD) channels. Partial response, maximum likelihood (PRML); extended PRML (EPRML); enhanced, extended PRML (EEPRML); fixed delay tree search (FDTS); and decision feedback equalization (DFE) are several examples of different types of SSD channels using DTSP techniques. The maximum likelihood detection performed in several of these systems is usually performed by a Viterbi decoder implementing the Viterbi algorithm, named after Andrew Viterbi who developed it in 1967.
The SSD channel or read channel generally requires mixed-mode circuitry for performing a read operation. The circuitry may perform such functions as analog signal amplification, automatic gain control (AGC), continuous is time filtering, signal sampling, DTSP manipulation, timing recovery, signal detection, and formatting. In all SSD channels, the major goal during a read operation is to accurately retrieve the data with the lowest bit error rate (BE) in the highest noise environment. The data channel circuitry, including both a read channel and a write channel, may be implemented on a single integrated circuit package that contains various input and output (I/O) pins.
SSD channels use a read clock to control read operations and a write clock to control write operations and other non-read operations. During a write operation, a write clock or write timing signal is provided to the write channel to synchronize the writing or storing of data to the disk platters. During a read operation, a read clock or data recovery clock is provided to the read channel to synchronize the sampling of data being read from the disk platters. The read and write clocks may be provided at different frequencies to account for slight variations in the speed of the spindle motor.
The presence of separate read and write clocks creates several disadvantages and problems. The presence of two high frequency signal sources having similar frequencies, such as the read and write clocks, often cause interference between the two signals. This interference results in greater system noise and data errors. Separate read and write clocks suffer the additional disadvantages of increased circuitry, increased silicon, increased fabrication costs, and increased power consumption which is especially critical in portable or battery powered applications such as notebook or laptop computers.

Phase locked loop system and method for use in a data channel


A number of structural modules are configured to be secured together and to be secured to a foundation. Each of the structural modules is without one or more sidewalls, such that when the structural modules are secured together they form a building structure that encloses an open region which continuously extends through interiors of the structural modules. Each of the number of structural modules is structurally formed to be independently transported. A power module is configured to be secured to one of the structural modules and to the foundation. The power module is defined as an enclosed structure and is structurally formed to be independently transported. The power module is equipped with electrical components for supplying and distributing electrical power to a pre-defined layout of data equipment to be deployed within the open region of the building structure formed by the number of structural modules.

A data center is a structure defined to enclose, secure, maintain, and power a large number of computer systems. The computer systems within the data center are generally rack-mounted computer systems in which a number of removable electronics modules are stacked relative to each other within a support frame. The data center is defined to maintain interior ambient conditions suitable for proper operation of the computer systems therein. Also, the data center is defined to distribute power to the various computer systems therein.
One type of conventional data center is constructed using standard building construction techniques based on an architectural plan. This type of conventional data center is constructed entirely on-site as a "stick-built" structure, and is neither transportable, nor re-configurable. Also, because this type of "stick-built" data center is constructed on-site, it follows that installation of electrical equipment, including power supply and distribution equipment, must be performed on-site after construction of the data center building portion is completed. Deployment of a standard "stick-built" data center requires extensive time in planning and construction, with commensurate financial expense.
Another type of conventional data center is a containerized transportable data center defined essentially as a standard shipping container that includes a number of computing systems and associated support systems, such as cooling systems and power supply and distribution systems. The containerized transportable data center can be transported to a location where needed and be operated independently. The containerized transportable data center is a useful alterative to the convention "stick-built" data center when the amount of computing power needed at a given location can be provided by a very limited number of containerized transportable data centers. However, for a data center that requires substantial computing resources beyond the capacity afforded by a very limited number of containerized transportable data centers, deployment of numerous containerized transportable data centers becomes untenable.
More specifically, a duplicity of equipment across the numerous containerized transportable data centers becomes quite inefficient and uneconomical. For example, deployment of five transportable data centers will involve all costs associated with five separate structures, five separate power supply and distribution systems, five separate cooling systems, five separate monitoring systems, etc. In addition, there can be inefficiencies and complexities associated with linking the computing systems within/between the numerous containerized transportable data centers at a given deployment location. Also, there can be complexities and increased costs associated with having to supply outside power to each of the numerous containerized transportable data centers at a given deployment location.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need for an improved data center design and implementation.

Modular data center and associated methods


A sign post is formed of a lower support component for anchoring within terrain, leaving an exposed upper portion at the surface of such terrain. The support component includes an array of longitudinally regularly spaced apertures. An upper support component having the same regular spacing of apertures is attached to the lower component at the exposed portion through the utilization of a splicing technique. The splice is formed as a stress transfer component having two strategically positioned boltways therein. These boltways are spaced apart longitudinally a distance representing an even integer of the upper and lower component aperture spacings. The boltways are configured having a small threaded region adjacent one surface. Bolts having a threadless shank and threaded region therebelow are slidably inserted through one of the components into the stress transfer whereupon they are rotated for preassembly engagement with the minor threaded regions of the stress transfer component. In the course of sign assemblage, the bolts are tightened to deform or strip the threads within the stress transfer component. When the splice is completed by the addition of nuts to the ends of the bolts, the bolts are substantially unrestricted by threaded engagement within the stress transfer component and the splice or joint affected is more structurally definable, permitting the bolts to yield along their lengths under load.

Signage employed with roadway systems has been the subject of regulatory and institutional investigation essentially since the emergence of the motor vehicle. The structural characteristics of road or highway signs vary from major bridging entities to the relatively small and ubiquitous stop sign. Regulations and specifications promulgated for signage extend not only to a standardization of their visual cuing aspects, but also to vehicular safety considerations. For example, the Federal Highway Administration evaluates sign structures for conformance with the AASHTO (American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials) "Standard Specifications for Structural Supports for Highway Signs, Luminaires, and Traffic Signals", as well as the NCHRP (National Cooperative Highway Research Program) Report 350 entitled "Recommended Procedures for Safety Performance Evaluation of Highway Features".
The mounting or supporting structures for stop signs and the like, generally are categorized as "small sign supports". Traditionally, the designs for these small supports have been based upon two considerations. First, their mounting should be sufficiently robust to withstand torsional and other stresses associated with wind loads. When typically mounted upon single sign posts, stop signs and the like become airfoils to wind loads with resultant induced torsional and other stresses. A traffic control sign such as a stop sign can pose serious hazards when blown down by virtue of its cuing absence. Secondly, it is reasonably anticipated that such signs will be struck in the course of roadway accidents. Accordingly, they must be designed to break away under specified impact conditions such that they present no danger to vehicle occupants. For example, as an errant vehicle strikes a signpost, the post should break away such that no part of it penetrates the passenger compartment and no passengers experience a negative change in relative velocity greater than 5 meters per second. To assure appropriate breakaway characteristics, many signposts are provided having two components. A first lower support or anchoring component is provided which is driven or otherwise secured in the ground with a small portion of it, for example about 4 inches, protruding from terrain surface. Then, an elongate upper component carrying the sign at one end is attached to the protruding portion of the lower component using a splice form of connection and connectors or fasteners having a breakaway characteristic such as break away bolts which fail under predetermined tensile stresses. Fortuitously, certain of the signposts also are observed to break additionally at the point of impact with a vehicle.
Signpost structures may take on a variety of cross-sectional configurations and generally are formed of steels which may exhibit a variety of characteristics. The cross-sectional configurations may, for example, be round or pipe-like, or very often are formed as flanged channels having a cross-sectional shape somewhat emulating a hat. Steel forming such posts generally exhibits a brittleness, and the completed post structures particularly are subject to failure in wind load induced torsion. In order to provide a splicing interconnection between the two signpost components adequate to overcome wind loads, it is necessary that the two post configurations abut or nest together and that they be fastened by break away bolts which are spaced an adequate distance apart, typically four inches. Generally, the posts will be formed having spaced apart apertures along their central lengths which field personnel align and then install breakaway bolts at specified vertical spacings. A difficulty earlier has been identified in connection with the splicing together of nested channel-formed signpost components. In this regard, the component cross-sectional configurations often do not nest. When this occurs, the breakaway bolts may be subjected to excessive moment induced stresses to cause premature failure of the signs under wind load. Granger addressed this problem in an approach described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,125,194 entitled "Safety Signpost with Break Away Connection", issued Jun. 30, 1992. With the early Granger approach, field personnel were called upon to install spacers between the channel sections such that the contact surfaces of the channel sections were brought together against the spacer notwithstanding their failure to otherwise nest. To provide such correction procedures, field personnel are trained and provided with written and diagrammatic instructions as to the use of the spacers and requisite splice spacing of the break away bolts.
In practice, however, it has been observed that such procedures often are not followed, due in part to the physical difficulties encountered by field personnel while erecting signs under even mild wind conditions. Frustrated under such circumstances, such field personnel will ignore requisite longitudinal bolt spacing and omit spacers. The result may be the subsequent loss of signage due to wind load induced torsional stress.

Sign post with stress-defined breakaway splice


Two-dimensional and three-dimensional optical coherence tomography is obtained by differential imaging of full-frame interference images using a white light source. Full-color tomographic imaging is also possible by processing the three-color channels of the interference images. A technique is described to obtain two-dimensional OCT images with full natural color representation. In a particular embodiment, the interference image is acquired using a color camera and the three-color channels are processed separately, recomposing the final image. In an additional embodiment, the interference images are acquired using separate red, blue and green light sources and the three color channels are combined to recompose the final image.

In the field of biomedical imaging, various methods of optical imaging of biomedical tissues known in the art offer significant advantages over other biomedical imaging approaches. These advantages include non-ionizing radiation, wide range of resolution, numerous and effective contrast mechanisms, and relatively compact and inexpensive instrumentation. Optical imaging can be applied to a wide range of biological systems, from cells and subcellular organelles, in vivo and ex vivo tissues, to organs and whole body of a subject, covering the length scales of nanometers and micrometers to millimeters and centimeters. The contrast mechanisms include absorption, transmission, polarization, fluorescence, phase interference, nonlinear and multiphoton processes, as well as time behavior of these processes. Another very important dimension in optical imaging is the effect of these processes as functions of the wavelength of the light—i.e. the spectroscopy of the images. Through spectral imaging, one can monitor for detailed biochemical and biomedical parameters of the specimen.
Optical microscopy and its applications in biomedical imaging have been experiencing a remarkable growth over past few decades, thanks to such technological developments as lasers and digital acquisition and processing of images. One of the main thrust areas of the development of modem microscopy is three-dimensional microscopy, where one acquires a three-dimensional image with every image plane sharply in focus. This is in contrast to conventional microscopy where the image of the in-focus plane is superposed with a blurred image of out-of-focus planes.
In confocal scanning microscopy, CSM, the out-of-focus signal is spatially filtered out by confocal aperturing of the object illumination and the detector points. The three-dimensional image is constructed by pixel-by-pixel mechanical scanning of the entire object volume, which places a fundamental limit on the image acquisition speed.
Another more recent development in 3D microscopy is optical coherence tomography (OCT), where the axial resolution of a few μm is provided by interferometric measurement of the time-of-flight of short-coherence light. In a typical arrangement, a Michelson-type interferometer is illuminated by femtosecond laser or superluminescent LED, and the reference arm is dithered to generate a heterodyne signal in the interference with the back-scattered light from the sample point. The two- or three-dimensional image is constructed from the mechanical scanning over the sample area or volume, as in confocal scanning microscopy. In order to maintain the high speed of the z-scan, a considerably large depth of field, approximately a mm, is needed, which compromises the lateral resolution to a few μm. It is known in the art to sue a confocal adaptation to improve the resolution. The heterodyne detection allows for very high sensitivity and unique capabilities such as Doppler velocity detection of blood flow. OCT-based imaging systems are being developed for diverse areas of medical imaging including retinal structures, endoscopy of gastrointestinal tract and catheter-based intravascular imaging. As a coherent imaging technique, the OCT is capable of penetrating a larger distance into highly scattering media such as biological tissues and ceramics.
Scanning microscopies, including the confocal microscopy and optical coherence tomography, have a number of distinct advantages such as relaxed requirements on the imaging optics and high sensitivity and high resolution. On the other hand, the mechanical scanning is a major limiting factor in the image acquisition speed. Parallel acquisition of two-dimensional images while maintaining the optical sectioning characteristics of CSM or OCT would have obvious advantages. In CSM, such 2D imaging is approximated with a large number of well-spaced apertures, such as rotating Nipkow disk or multi-aperture scanning using an electro-optic spatial light modulator, but the light efficiency or image contrast tends to be low. Wide field optical sectioning is also achieved by structured light microscopy where a moving grating pattern illuminates the object and processing of several images extracts the in-focus sectioned image.
With OCT, it is known that full-field interferometric images can be acquired using broadband light sources, and the regions of the image that do contain interferometric information can be extracted by digital processing of the CCD images, thus generating optical section images variously known as wide-field, full-field, or two-dimensional OCT. The 3D image is constructed by mechanical scanning of the axial direction only. In a simple 2DOCT system, the light source illuminates the entire area of object to be imaged and its interference with the reference beam is imaged using a CCD array. For example, the reference optical path length is modulated by half wavelength, and pair of images is taken with a □ phase shift between them. The difference image then highlights the areas of interference within an axial depth equal to the coherence length, while the rest of the image area is significantly attenuated. A quasi-lock-in image acquisition is known in the art demonstrating synchronous illumination, instead of synchronous detection, due to the limited frame rate of the CCD camera, 30 Hz. High-frequency (50 kHz) true lock-in image acquisition has also been demonstrated in the art using custom made smart array detector, although with a limited number of pixels (58×58).
As such, the prior art demonstrates the potential for high-speed high-resolution 3D microscopy with very respectable sensitivity or dynamic range, at least ˜80 db, and promises to have significant impact on OCT applications where acquisition speed is critical, as in real-time in-vivo ophthalmic and endoscopic imaging.
Unlike conventional microscopy, most of the current developments of 3D microscopy usually discard the natural color information of the object, whereas in some of the critical application areas of OCT such as ophthalmic and dermatological imaging, the color and texture of relatively thin top layers of the tissues can provide vital information in a format that is familiar to medical specialists in these areas.
Accordingly, what is needed in the art is a full-color 3D microscopic imaging system and method utilizing wide-field optical coherence tomography resulting in a 3D image with full natural color representation.
However, in view of the prior art considered as a whole at the time the present invention was made, it was not obvious to those of ordinary skill in the pertinent art how the identified need could be fulfilled.

Method of full-color optical coherence tomography


An image classification system trains an image classification model to classify images relative to text appearing with the images. Training images are iteratively selected and classified by the image classification model according to feature vectors of the training images. An independent model is trained for unique n-grams of text. The image classification system obtains text appearing with an image and parses the text into candidate labels for the image. The image classification system determines whether an image classification model has been trained for the candidate labels. When an image classification model corresponding to a candidate label has been trained, the image classification subsystem classifies the image relative to the candidate label. The image is labeled based on candidate labels for which the image is classified as a positive image.

The present disclosure relates to digital information processing, and particularly to labeling images for information retrieval.
The Internet provides access to a wide variety of resources, for example, video or audio files, or Web pages including content for particular subjects, book articles, or news articles. A search system can select one or more resources in response to receiving a search query that includes one or more search terms or phrases. The search system selects and scores resources based on their relevance to the search query and on their importance relative to other resources to provide search results that link to the selected resources. The search results are typically ordered according to the scores.
The relevance of a resource to a search query can be determined based on text associated with the resource. The text associated with a resource includes text that appears in the resource, text that appears on a same Web page as the resource, and text metadata for the resource. For example, text associated with resources can be compared to a search query to determine measures of relevance for the resources relative to the search query. In turn, the resources are scored based on the comparisons and search results corresponding to the resources are ordered for presentation based on the scores.
Images are an example of resources that can be determined to be relevant to a search query based on text associated with the image. The relevance of an image to the search query can be determined, for example, based on text that appears within a specified proximity of the image. For example, an image that is presented on a Web page and within a specified proximity of the text "football" can be determined to be relevant to the queries "football," and/or "sports" and referenced in search results for these queries.
While text associated with an image can be used to compute the relevance of the image to a search query, it can sometimes be difficult to determine the relevance of individual words of the text that is associated with the image. For example, an image of a knife may be associated with the text "a wedding cake knife" Based solely on this text, it can be difficult to determine which of the terms "wedding," "cake," and "knife" is more relevant to the content of the image. Therefore, the image of the knife may be improperly identified as being a relevant image for the queries "cake" or "wedding cake" even though a cake does not appear in the image. Similarly, some text that is identified as being associated with the image based, for example, based on its proximity to the image, may be text that was included in the Web page to describe other content of the Web page (e.g., another image in the Web page).


A product and process for preparing a pharmaceutical composition for forming tablets, the composition containing pamabrom and pyrilamine maleate. In preferred embodiments, the composition also contains acetaminophen. A fluid bed granulator is charged with a first material containing pamabrom or pyrilamine maleate, and a first liquid containing pregelatinized starch is sprayed onto the first material so as to form a barrier coat. The barrier coated material is dried and then further coated with a second liquid containing only one of pamabrom and pyrilamine maleate, whichever was not present in the first material charged to the fluid bed granulator. The further coated material is then dried to a moisture content of from about 0.5% to less than about 2% by weight, so as to form particles in which the pamabrom and pyrilamine maleate are separated by the pregelatinized starch barrier.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of pharmaceutical compositions, particularly to a process and composition containing pamabrom and pyrilamine maleate.
2. Description of the Background Art
Many pharmaceutical compositions contain a combination of ingredients. Different compounds can be combined into a single pharmaceutical formulation so as to enhance the effectiveness of one or more of the compounds. Alternatively, a pharmaceutical composition can contain different compounds for treatment of a variety of symptoms.
Pamabrom is a diuretic, and is described in expired U.S. Pat. No. 2,711,411. Pamabrom is a fine white powder which decomposes at about 300.degree. C., and has a solubility in water of greater than 30 g/100 ml at 25.degree. C. A saturated aqueous solution of pamabrom has a pH of from about 8.0 to 8.5. Merck Index, entry no. 6865, 10th ed., p 1005 (1983).
Pyrilamine is an antihistaminic pharmaceutical which is described in expired U.S. Pat. No. 2,502,151. Pyrilamine maleate forms crystals which are stable in air, having a melting point of about 100.degree.-101.degree. C. One gram of pyrilamine maleate dissolves in about 0.4 ml water and a 10% solution thereof has a pH of about 5.1. Pyrilamine maleate can precipitate to the oily, free base at a pH of 7.5-8.0. Merck Index, supra. entry no. 7883, p. 1152.
Acetaminophen is an analgesic and antipyretic described in expired U.S. Pat. No. 2,998,450. Acetaminophen forms large monoclinic prisms from water, and has a melting point of about 169.degree.-170.5.degree. C. Acetaminophen is very slightly soluble in cold water and considerably more soluble in hot water. Merck Index, supra, entry no. 39, p. 7. Acetaminophen is one of the most widely used over-the-counter analgesics, and it is highly desirable to form pharmaceutical compositions containing acetaminophen and other pharmaceutical compounds.
In view of the diuretic activity of pamabrom and the antihistaminic activity of pyrilamine maleate, it would be desirable to combine these compounds in certain pharmaceutical compositions. Furthermore, because of the analgesic and antipyretic activities of acetaminophen, it would be desirable to combine acetaminophen with pamabrom and pyrilamine maleate in a single pharmaceutical composition.
Additionally, in view of the threat of product tampering, it is highly desirable to be able to form tablets from pharmaceutical compositions containing more than one active ingredient.
One method of manufacturing pharmaceutical compositions containing two or more active ingredients is to prepare separate formulations containing the respective active ingredients, and then dry blending the formulations together to achieve the desired active ingredient levels. However, from a processing standpoint, it is often more desirable to produce one formulation containing all active ingredients utilizing a single process.
There thus remains a need in the art for tablettable pharmaceutical compositions containing more than one active ingredient.

Process and composition containing pamabrom and pyrilamine maleate

Mallinckrodt Specialty Chemicals Company


A backlight assembly is provided, which includes a side-lit backlight module having a plurality of light-emitting units disposed along a first direction, wherein a state of each of the light-emitting units can be individually controlled. A liquid crystal cell is disposed on the side-lit backlight module, wherein the liquid crystal cell has a plurality of pixel units disposed along a second direction, each pixel unit has two states of a transparent state and a cloudy state, and the state of each pixel unit can be individually controlled. The plurality of light-emitting units intersect with the plurality of pixel units.

The present application relates to a field of display technologies, and in particular, to a backlight assembly, a display panel assembly, and a backlight control method.
Liquid crystal display panels are currently widely used in the market, and have many advantages, such as being light weight, thinner, no radiation, no flicker, low power consumption, and the like. As an important indicator of liquid crystal display panels, contrast ratio has become one of important parameters to measure quality of liquid crystal display panels.
In this regard, people use a variety of ways to improve the contrast ratio of liquid crystal display panels. For example, a negative liquid crystal is used instead of a positive liquid crystal to reduce liquid crystal light-leakage. For another example, a partitioning algorithm is used to carry out partition control with a miniature light-emitting diode backlight. However, aforementioned various techniques for improving the contrast ratio, either limited range for increasing contrast ratio, or involving complicated algorithms, may reduce maximum brightness of liquid crystal display panels.

Backlight assembly, display panel assembly and backlight control method

Wuhan China Star Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd.


A new approach is proposed to support instant merchant activation for secured in-person payment at a point of sale (POS) of a merchant. When a customer initiates an in-person payment request at a payment initiation device associated with the merchant, the payment initiation device collects both sensitive and non-sensitive portions of electronic payment transaction data for the request and encrypts the sensitive data portion for secured transmission. A payment gateway in the payment transaction process relays the data and the payment request to a payment processor for approval by an issuer and transmits only the non-sensitive portion of the data to a payment service engine for risk analysis if the payment request is approved by the issuer. The payment service engine determines if the payment request is at high risk based on risk analysis of non-sensitive portion of the data and notifies the payment initiation device and/or merchant accordingly.

A payment is a monetary or financial transaction (or simply transaction) that moves money from a source account to a destination account. For a non-limiting example, one common form of payment is credit card payment. A point of sale (POS) or point of purchase (POP) is the time and place of an in-person (vs. online) purchase where a retail payment transaction is completed between a merchant and a customer who makes a payment in exchange for goods or services from the merchant. A POS payment terminal or device is a payment transaction device associated with the merchant, wherein the POS payment terminal accepts a credit card, a debit card, or an EMV® chip card, such as Master, Visa, American Express, or Discover card from the customer and provides information of the card to the card issuer (e.g., credit card company) to process the transaction.
There are various types of POS payment terminals on the market and they all have one thing in common—they need to be certified upfront by the card issuers providing electronic payment processing services to the merchants to make sure that the POS payment terminals can function correctly and comply with the requirements set by the card issuers. The certification process is a rigorous underwriting process including full upfront review of the merchant via testing of the entire chain of electronic payment processing from the POS payment terminal through an acquirer to the card issuer. The certification process typically requires the merchant to first apply for certification of its POS payment terminal by an authorized third party, which handles the certification based on the rules set by EMVCo, a global organization that manages, maintains and enhances the global EMV® standard. Such certification process is often time-consuming. As the number of individual retailers (vs. traditional retail chain stores) are increasing rapidly, they would prefer their POS payment terminals to be activated ("on-board") and available to use instantly instead of waiting for the lengthy certification. Although some companies (e.g., Square) have offered their own proprietary POS payment terminals such as card readers to merchants for instant on-board usage, these terminals are limited to their own types only and still need to be certified. It is thus desirable to be able to instantly activate various kinds of existing POS payment terminals on the market without certification while still maintaining secured electronic payment processing via the POS payment terminals.
The foregoing examples of the related art and limitations related therewith are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. Other limitations of the related art will become apparent upon a reading of the specification and a study of the drawings.

Systems and methods for instant merchant activation for secured in-person payments at point of sale