The improved metal matrix bolt has a metal shell having the bolt head, shank and threads thereon. The shell has a longitudinal space therein wherein a composite core of fibers is bonded. The fibers are divided into two groups: a longitudinal group and a spiral group. The spiral group wraps clockwise about the longitudinal group and is inclined at an angle of about 30.degree. to 45.degree. degrees from the axis of the bolt. The fibers are bonded within the space to the interior surface of the shell whereby when the bolt is torqued, the bolt has increased tensile strength and reduced thermal axial growth.

The present invention relates to fastener, and, in particular, relates to composite fasteners.
For fastening together portions of certain highly stressed constructions, such as aircraft or other assemblies requiring high strength and light weight, many variations of fasteners have been suggested. Most of these prior art fasteners have been made of a core material to which a different material has been applied as a thin protective coating, as by plating, galvanizing, and other application methods. In these fasteners, the reduction in weight has caused a corresponding reduction in strength and/or the ability to withstand one or more of the other forces caused by the stresses to which the assembly may be subjected.
Attempts to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art fasteners have been successful in part but have introduced other shortcomings. Typically, a molded, non-metallic fastener having an external coating of metal provides a lightweight fastener, but is unlikely to have the desired strength to withstand severe stress and tension forces without a significant increase in size. Also, metal coated non-metallic fasteners typically cannot be used in conjunction with metallic structures since the relatively thin metallic coating can be quickly destroyed by the metallic structures, permitting the assembled structures to act against the more fragile core material. Thus, under the high stress conditions in which these fasteners may be used, failures can occur by cutting through or shearing the core.
Another prior art fastener such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,824,314, places a core material such as epoxy-graphite or alloys into a blank shell and the combination is formed into a bolt by the described technique. The shell would have a thickness such as would allow warm rolling and pressure forming. The core material is homogeneous.
Other prior art fasteners having a totally composite construction use selectively oriented resin-impregnated fibers to achieve strength. These fasteners lack sufficient strength both in tensile and shear loading to be of value in critical areas such as aircraft construction. Further, delamination of the fasteners has been a problem and as such special devices are used to reduce this damage. Examples of these are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,949,054; 4,623,290; and 4,717,302.
Thus, there is clearly a need for a fastener having a composite matrix construction within a metal shell.

Metal bolt with a composite core for enhancement

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Air Force


A fluid power conversion apparatus serving fluid pumping and/or power-generation functions, comprising: an impeller having an impeller hub and a periphery; a housing around the impeller; a diffusor having (a) an outer wall attached to the housing, (b) a diffusor hub rotatably supporting the impeller, and (c) at least one stator vane securing the diffusor hub to the outer wall; and a rotating electrical machine having (a) an armature attached to the housing and (b) a rotor attached to the impeller periphery and positioned to form a rotor-armature gap, whereby the impeller and the rotor form an integrated unit with fluid flow through the rotor.

Fluid power conversion apparatus such as a turbine-generator combination or an electrically-driven continuous flow pump, an example of which is shown in FIG. 1, typically has an external motor 105 driving the pump 106 which causes fluid flow through pump 106 in direction A. Since the process is reversible, the same configuration can be used to convert fluid flow to electrical power. In such a case, a turbine 106 is driven by the kinetic energy of fluid flow through turbine 106 in direction B and drives an electrical generator 105 that is placed outside the turbine housing.
In both of these cases, the drawback of separating the functions of the motor and the pump (or the turbine and the generator) is that it requires that a shaft 102 pass through a housing penetration 100. Housing penetration 100 requires a rotary seal 101 between shaft 102 and housing 103 to prevent escape of the fluid or the ingress of ambient air. In both cases, an external bearing 104 is needed to support shaft 102 connected to impeller 107.
Another drawback of such systems is that a bend in the inlet or outlet duct 103 is needed to allow shaft 102 to exit in line with impeller 107, disturbing the natural flow direction of the fluid and adversely affecting efficiency. Also, the presence of shaft 102 in the flow creates turbulence and drag, also adversely affecting efficiency.
A further drawback is that the bend in duct 103 complicates the installation, especially in locations with tight space requirements. Installation with in-line flange connections is not possible.
Lastly, the motor or generator is a separate entity from the pump or turbine, requiring that these components be installed so as to maintain the alignment of the shafts of each of the pair of components. This requires that a coupling 108 be placed in between the pair of shafts. The motor and pump or turbine and generator need to be mounted to a common base (not shown) to maintain such alignment during operation and to transmit the generated torque from one to the other.
To adapt the high rotational speed of an electric motor/generator to the lower speed of the pump/turbine, a gearbox is frequently placed between pump/turbine and motor/generator, adding another component which then requires yet another coupling. Alignment between motor/generator and pump/turbine are required, and the torque compensation provided by a common base is also necessary.
An electric motor or generator rejects heat during the consumption or generation of electric power and requires the removal of the heat through an external cooling system for the motor or generator.
All of these drawbacks are summarized in the following list:    the need for a drive shaft, fluid seal and external bearing;    separate components resulting in high acquisition costs;    flow turbulence caused by the duct bend and the drive shaft;    the duct bend complicating installation and preventing in-line installation;    the need to align and install separate components on a common base;    the need for a gearbox further complicating the installation; and    the need for an external cooling system, all resulting in higher costs, inefficient operation and inefficient use of space.
The present invention arranges the fluid power conversion apparatus by combining the impeller and the motor/generator rotor concentrically and in radially-coincidental planes whereby the armature windings are outside the fluid flow path at the pump periphery, and the armature is fixed to an outer housing. The motor/generator rotor is attached directly to the impeller at the periphery of the impeller blade tips.
The present invention eliminates all extraneous requirements of the conventional pump or turbine as described above, namely the drive shaft, the external bearing, the shaft seal, the bend in the duct, the installation and alignment of the motor/generator, a common installation base, a gearbox, and the external cooling requirements of the motor/generator. All of this is accomplished by integrating the motor/generator with the pump/turbine impeller in a more efficient and compact way.
The motor/generator rotor is affixed directly to the pump/turbine impeller and is "wet" (exposed to the fluid flow) while the armature with windings is located outside the fluid flow pump/turbine housing. The gap between armature and rotor is situated at a greater diameter from the centerline than is economically practical with a suitable conventional electric motor or generator so that more torque can be generated and more power can be transmitted at lower shaft speed then in an otherwise identical motor envelope. The fluid is forced through the rotor/armature gap to cool the motor/generator by the pressure difference between the intake and outlet side of the impeller. An impeller support bearing serves as a common bearing for both pump/turbine and motor/generator.
The wet rotor consists of magnets and encapsulating material and contains no electrical windings or brushes, thereby eliminating the need to keep the rotor dry. The larger diameter of the rotor of the electric motor/generator in combination with electronic speed control/power conditioning can perform the function of a conventional gearbox.
In a hollow rotor design that is entirely supported at the periphery, the bearing and the water seal are placed at the periphery of the rotor around the impeller. This requires an expensive, large diameter bearing and seal and is difficult to maintain over extended periods of operation. In the present invention, the impeller/rotor bearing is not placed at the periphery of the impeller but at the centerline of the pump/turbine, and the support is supplied by a hub held in place by the pump/turbine diffusor stator vanes.

Integrated fluid power conversion system


A swing ride includes a plastic seat portion, a first plastic hand rest and foot rest portion configured to be coupled to a first end of the seat portion, and a second plastic hand rest and foot rest portion configured to be coupled to a second end of the seat portion. The swing ride in a disassembled state is configured to be received in a container having a volume of less than 5,760 cubic inches.

Two-person swing rides are a favorite item for use with children's playstations. The swing rides are typically hung from a playstation on one or more link-type chains, ropes, or other suitable members, and allow two children to ride the swing together. Most two-person swing rides are currently made primarily from wood parts, metal parts, plastic parts, or a combination of wood, metal, and plastic parts.


The invention relates to methods of treatment comprising administering a compound of the general formula (1):

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to new compounds having high affinity and selectivity for the melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1-receptor). The new compounds selectively activate or block the MC1-receptors, which makes it possible to discriminate between the physiological effects mediated by the MC1-receptors and other subtypes of melanocortin receptors, and to afford selective pharmacological actions upon their administration to an animal or a human. The invention also relates to methods for their manufacture and their pharmaceutical preparations, as well as to their use for the treatment of medical and veterinary conditions which can be influenced by the MC1-receptor.
2. Related Art
Melanocortic peptides (melanocortins) are natural peptide hormones of animals, in particular mammals including man, which bind to and stimulate MC-receptors. Examples of melanocortins are α-MSH, β-MSH, γ-MSH, ACTH, and their peptide fragments. α-MSH is mainly known for its ability to regulate peripheral pigmentation (Eberle 1988), whereas ACTH is known to induce steroidoneogenesis (Simpson and Waterman 1988). The melanocortic peptides also mediate a number of other physiological conditions. Thus, they are reported to act as immunomodulators and to affect one or more of motivation, learning, memory, behaviour, inflammation, body temperature, pain, perception, blood pressure, heart rate, vascular tone, brain blood flow, nerve growth, placental development, aldosteron synthesis and release, thyroxin release, spermatogenesis, ovarian weight, prolactin and FSH secretion, uterine bleeding in women, sebum and pheromone secretion, blood glucose levels, weight homeostasis, intrauterine fetal growth as well as other events surrounding parturition (Garrud et al., 1974, Wiegant et al., 1979, O'Donahue et al., 1981, O'Donahue & Dorsa 1982, DeWied & Jolles 1982, Klein et al., 1985, Feng et al. 1987, Lin et al. 1987, Eberle, 1988, Gruber & Callahan 1989, DeWildt et al., 1995. Fruedman 1997).
By the use of molecular cloning, genes encoding five different subtypes of MC-receptors have been identified (Chhajlani et al. 1993, Chhajlani and Wikberg 1992, Gantz et al. 1993a, b, Mountjoy et al. 1992). The MC-receptors belong to the class of G-protein coupled receptors which are all built from a single peptide forming 7 transmembrane domains. The five MC-receptors are termed MC1, MC2, MC3, MG4 and MC5 and they all couple in a stimulatory fashion to cAMP. Of these the MC2-receptor is the ACTH-receptor whereas the others constitute subtypes of melanocyte stimulating hormone receptors (MSH-receptors).
The MC1-receptor is present on melanocytes and melanoma cells (Low et al. 1994, Siegrist & Eberle 1995). Recent data also indicate that the MC1-receptor is expressed in limited areas (periaqueductal gray) of rat and human brain (Xia et al. 1995), as well as in the testis (Vanetti et al. 1994). Also, very importantly recently the MC1-receptor is shown to be present on macrophages (Star et al. 1995), neutrophils (Catania et al. 1996), glioma cells and astrocytes (Wong et al. 1997), monocytes and endothelial cells (Hartmeyer et al. 1997, and references therein). Recently the MC1-receptor mRNA was also detected in the normal mouse brain (Rajora et al. 1997a), suggesting a specific function of this receptor in the brain. Moreover, recent data obtained by immunohistochemical detection techniques show that MC1-receptors are present in testis and ovary (Thömvall et al. 1997). This suggests a specific role of the MC1-receptor in reproductive physiology, as well as possibly in reproductive pathophysiology.
The MC2-receptor is the ACTH receptor. It is present in the cortex of the adrenal gland. The MC3-receptor mRNA is found in distinct areas of the brain, as well as in placental and gut tissues (Gantz et al. 1993a, Desarnaud et al. 1994, Roselli-Rehfuss et al. 1993). The MC4-receptor is ubiquitous in the brain (Gantz et al. 1993b, Mountjoy et al, 1994). The MC5-receptor is expressed in the brain, as well as in several peripheral tissues (Chhajlani et al. 1993, Gantz et al. 1994, Griffon et al. 1994, Labbé et al. 1994, Barrett et al. 1994, Fathi et al. 1995). More recent data indicate that all the 5 cloned MC-receptors have a wider tissue distribution (Chhajlani 1996).
The five MC-receptors show unique affinities for the melanocortic peptides (Schiöth et al. 1995, Schiöth et al. 1996a,b,c). Thus, the MC1-receptor shows high affinity for α-MSH, but lower affinities for β-MSH, γ-MSH and ACTH. The MC2-receptor binds ACTH with high affinity, but it does not bind the MSH peptides. The MC3-receptor show slightly higher affinity for γ-MSH compared to β- and α-MSH. The MC4-receptor shows slight preference for β-MSH, over α-MSH, and a very low affinity for γ-MSH. The MC5-receptor shows the same potency order for the MSH peptides as the MC1-receptor, although with much lower affinities (Schiöth et al. 1995, Schiöth et al. 1996a,b,c).
A diversity of effects is induced by natural melanocortic peptides not yet fully related to the various MC-receptor subtypes. These effects should be mediated by different subtypes of the MC-receptors. Most pertinent, however, is that increasing evidence indicates the MC1-receptors play an important role in the modulation of inflammation. Thus, for example, α-MSH was shown to inhibit formation of nitric oxide (NO) in cultured murine macrophages stimulated with bacterial lipopolysaccharide and γ-interferon, an effect claimed to be caused by the inhibition of the production of NO synthase (NOS) by the stimulation of MC1-receptors in macrophages (Star et al. 1995). As NO is believed to be a common mediator of all forms of inflammation this indicates that stimulation of MC1-receptors mediates the anti-inflammatory effect earlier known to be induced by MSH-peptides. α-MSH is also known to increase the formation of interleukin 10 (IL-10) in monocytes, which is believed to be an important component in immunosuppressive effects induced by α-MSH (Bhardwaj et al. 1996).
Recent studies also show that α-MSH potently inhibits the chemotactic migration of neutrophils (Catania et al. 1996). Moreover, neutrophils were shown to contain MC1-receptor mRNA, which was upregulated on stimulation of the neutrophils with interferon and bacterial lipopolysaccharide (Catania et al. 1996). Thus, as neutrophil migration constitutes an important component in early inflammation, these results again indicate the importance of the MC1-receptor as mediators of inhibition of inflammation.
In another study the injection of α-MSH, as well as the MSH-analogue [Nle4,D-Phe7]α-MSH (NDP-MSH) was shown to inhibit the release of cytokines IL-1 and TNF-α into the blood after intra-peritoneal injection of lipopolysaccharide (Goninard et al. 1996). This supports the anti-inflammatory role of MSH-peptides.
Important anti-inflammatory roles of MC-receptors (presumed to be of the MC1 type) have also been implicated in the brain since α-MSH inhibits the production of tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) in vivo, as well as in vitro on glioma cells; in the later case α-MSH was shown to inhibit formation of TNF-α induced by bacterial endotoxin (Wong et al. 1997). In another study α-MSH given intracerebroventricularly or intraperitonally inhibited formation of central TNF-α induced by locally administered bacterial lipopolysaccharide (Rajora et al. 1997a). TNF-α occurs in neurological disorders, infection and injury of the brain, and is thought to underlie pathological processes in the brain. These data indicate an important role of MC-receptors as mediators of central anti-inflammatory actions.
Recently α-MSH was also shown to reduce inflammation in a model for inflammatory bowel disease (Rajora et al. 1997b).
The α-MSH peptide too is ascribed an important role in cutaneous biology. Most well known is its ability to stimulate pigment formation of the skin. α-MSH may act not only on MC-receptors located to melanocytes but also on immunocompetent and inflammatory cells, keratinocytes, fibroblasts and endothelial cells of the skin, thereby modifying keratinocyte proliferation and differentiation, and regulate endothelial cell and fibroblast cytokine production, as well as fibroblast collagenase production. α-MSH is known to down-regulate the production of proinflammatory cytokines and accessory molecules on antigen presenting cells. In contrast suppressor factors such as IL-10 are upregulated by α-MSH (Luger 1997). In vivo data show that systemic application of α-MSH inhibits the induction and elicitation of contact hypersensitivity and induces hapten tolerance (Luger 1997). Thus, the accumulating evidence indicates that the stimulation of MC-receptors, presumably of the MC1-receptor subtype, mediates important negative regulation mechanisms of cutaneous inflammation and hyper-proliferative skin diseases (Luger 1997).
In addition to these findings, Hartmeyer et al. (1997) have shown that α-MSH increases MC1-receptor expression in dermal microvasculature endothelial cells and causes increased release of interleukin 8 (IL-8) from these cells. This indicates a role of MC1-receptors in the skin as modulators of inflammation and immunity (see Hartmeyer et al. 1997).
For further reading on the anti-inflammatory role of MSH peptides reference is made to the review by Lipton and Catania (1997).
Since 1957 MSH-receptors have been known as physiological entities. Binding sites for MSH/ACTH peptides have been identified in number of brain and peripheral tissues (Hnatowich et al. 1989, Tatro & Reichlin 1987, Lichtensteiger et al. 1993, Tatro & Entwistle 1994). Peptide structure activity studies of these receptors have been performed on melanophores from lower vertebrates like Rana pipiens (frog), Anolis carolinensis (lizard) and Xenopus laevis. Receptor studies were later also performed by binding on melanoma cell lines. These test systems gave comparable results and it is now known that the data obtained with these systems refer to the MC1-receptor (Eberle 1988).
Using such test systems it was found that replacement of L-Phe by D-Phe in α-MSH provided high potency and prolonged action (Sawyer et al., 1980). Cyclic [Cys4, Cys10]α-MSH analogues were also synthesized; they were found to be potent melanotrophs in skin pigmentation bioassays (Knittle et al., 1983, Sawyer et al., 1982). However, while some of the previous known natural and synthetic peptides, as well as more recently synthesized ones, show high affinity for MC1-receptors, their selectivity versus other subtypes of MC-receptors are limited (see e.g. Hol et al. 1994, Adan et al. 1994, among others). Recently, however, a peptide found by phage display screening was described which showed higher selectivity for MC1-receptors compared to other subtypes for MC receptors (Szardenings et al. 1997). However, for clinical and other uses this peptide showed inferior properties due to 1) comparatively low affinity for MC1-receptors, 2) low agonistic effects on MC1-receptors compared to other peptide hormones and 3) low stability due to presence of oxidizable SH groups and instability in regard of proteolytic cleavage.
There remains a need to provide means and methods to selectively regulate MC1-receptors. Thereby pharmacological effects affecting processes and conditions related to tissues and cells expressing the MC1-receptor may be elicited. These processes and conditions comprise but are not limited to immune responses, inflammatory processes, imunotolerance, immunomodulation, allergic processes, reproductive processes, melanoma and malignant diseases related to MC1-receptor expressing cells.
There is furthermore a need to provide chemical compounds that activate MC1-receptors selectively and with high potency; to provide chemical compounds which antagonize the action of other hormones and agonists on MC1-receptors selectively and with high potency; and to provide a method for administration of said compounds to animals including man.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Melanocortin 1 receptor selective compounds

Abstract: to a patient or a healthy individual.


A retaining clamp for alignment of risers when packing a parachute is disclosed. The retaining clamp comprises a base with three prongs defining bores for receiving and engaging large rings of three-ring release assemblies (three-ring release assemblies are used for cutting off the main parachute canopy in the event of malfunction before deploying the secondary parachute in order to avoid entanglement between the main and secondary parachutes).

The present invention pertains to a retaining clamp for alignment of risers when packing a parachute. It is well known to the persons knowledgeable in the pertinent arts that a skydiver's life and survival depend on correctly packing a parachute. One of the rules that must be strictly followed when packing a parachute is aligning the risers, i.e. the lines that attach the parachute canopy to the harness/container attached to the body of the skydiver. Proper alignment of risers is important for proper operation of the parachute during opening. If risers are not aligned properly during packaging, during opening the parachute may develop line twists and the opening will not be on heading. Line twists in high performance parachutes may result in the necessity off cutting away the main parachute and deploying the reserve.
Most modern parachutes employ the three-ring release assembly for cutting away the main parachute canopy in the event of malfunction before deploying the secondary parachute. The three-ring assembly reduces the pull force required to cut away the main parachute followed by deployment of the reserve parachute. The main parachute must be cut away before deploying the reserve parachute to avoid entanglement between the main and reserve parachutes.
The three-ring release assembly comprises three interlocking rings (the large, medium and small rings) which attach the risers (and the main canopy) to the harness/container. They can be rapidly disconnected in the event of a main parachute malfunction by way of pulling a cord. The large ring has a central bore, a tapered circumference and ring width which is usually uniform throughout the ring.
Conventionally, when packing a parachute, the risers are aligned by tying the large rings together with a ribbon or a rope. However, tying and untying a ribbon or rope can be time consuming and inconvenient.
What is needed is the simple and inexpensive device for alignment of risers when packing a parachute.

Retaining clamp for alignment of risers when packing a parachute

Abstract: The large rings are inserted in the bores, turned and engaged with the bores by way of force of friction. An alternative embodiment of the retaining clamp comprises a base with two prongs defining a bore for receiving and engaging large rings of three-ring release assemblies. Both embodiments can be used in combination with a parachute folding mat.


An apparatus for spitting whole poultry mid-wing sections into a first radius portion that includes the radius bone of the mid-wing and its surrounding muscle, tissue, and skin and a second ulna portion that includes the ulna bone of the mid-wing and its surrounding muscle, tissue, and skin. The apparatus is provided with a rotatably driven carrier wheel having a plurality of product carrier slots formed therein for accepting mid-wings and moving them along a predetermined arcuate path. A splitting blade is mounted in the arcuate path for engaging and splitting the mid-wings into the desired portions. The apparatus is additionally provided with a retention fender for preventing mid-wings from exiting the carrier slots while the mid-wings are being split, and an ejector comb for forcing the mid-wings out of the carrier slots after they have been split.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a poultry processing apparatus and more particularly to an apparatus for automatically separating the radius and ulna portions of a poultry mid-wing from one another.
2. Description of the Related Art
To meet the demands of large scale poultry consumption throughout the world, numerous machines have been developed over the past several decades to enhance various aspects of poultry processing with particular attention directed toward improving the efficiency with which various cuts of poultry meat can be produced. While such machines have proven to be highly effective for producing various different cuts of poultry, some poultry parts contain small, tightly spaced bones that require complex manual manipulation to be separated into smaller cuts. For example, the mid-wing section of a poultry wing, which is located intermediate the larger, more muscular drumette section and the smaller, less muscular wingtip section, contains two generally parallel bones (i.e., the radius and the ulna bones) that are joined together at their ends by ligaments.
Although mid-wing sections of poultry wings are typically cooked and consumed as unitary pieces of food in the United States, it is common practice in some parts of the world to separate the radius bone and its surrounding muscle, tissue, and skin (herein referred to as the "radius portion") from the ulna bone and its surrounding muscle, tissue, and skin (herein referred to as the "ulna portion") to produce two separate, smaller cuts of meat. These cuts are generally easier to consume than a whole mid-wing in that they do not require a consumer to manually rend, or eat between, the radius and ulna bones. This method of preparing mid-wing sections of poultry has been gaining popularity in light of recent advances in agronomy that have allowed the farming of larger, more muscular poultry. Such poultry have large mid-wing sections that can be difficult to manually rend or otherwise consume as a single piece.
Traditionally, the radius and ulna portions of poultry mid-wing sections have been separated by manual cutting, which is time consuming, labor intensive, and somewhat dangerous. The inconsistent nature of manual cutting can also result in the accidental cutting or nicking of the radius and ulna bones themselves, which can create shards of bone that make the cuts undesirable. Therefore, the need exists for a means of separating the radius and ulna portions of poultry mid-wing sections safely, efficiently, and without forming shards.


A fusing device includes a first roller, a second roller forming a fusing nip part together with the first roller, an adjustment mechanism changing posture of the first roller between first and second postures, a separation member, a turning mechanism, an abutting member, and an isolation mechanism. The turning mechanism turns the separation member so that the separation member approaches the first roller when the posture of the first roller is changed from the second posture to the first posture. The abutting member abuts on the first roller to form a gap between the separation member and the first roller when the first roller is in the first posture. The isolation mechanism separates the abutting member from the first roller in a process when posture of the first roller is changed from the first posture to the second posture.

The present disclosure relates to a fusing device to fuse a toner image to a sheet and an image forming apparatus to which the fusing device is applied.
Fusing devices for image forming apparatuses include a fusing nip part formed in a manner that a fusing roller is in press contact with a pressure roller. Pressure and heat are applied to a sheet when the sheet passes through the fusing nip part, thereby fusing to the sheet a toner image transferred to the sheet. Incidentally, toner melted after the sheet passes through the fusing nip part may form an adhesive layer. This may cause the sheet to adhere to the peripheral surface of the fusing roller. In this case, the sheet may wind around the fusing roller. In order to prevent such winding, a separation member is provided downstream of the fusing nip part in the rotation direction of the fusing roller. The separation member is arranged close to the fusing roller to separate the sheet, which starts winding to the fusing roller, from the fusing roller.
The separation member includes a plate-shaped member extending in the axial direction of the fusing roller. Where the tip end of the plate-shaped member is always in contact with the peripheral surface of the fusing roller, the peripheral surface of the fusing roller may be scared. If a toner image is fused to a sheet with the use of the fusing roller of which peripheral surface is scared, the scar may appear on the toner image. This scar may cause an image defect. For this reason, a gap is left between the tip end of the plate-shaped member and the peripheral surface of the fusing roller. This gap is formed with the use of an abutting member mounted on the end of the separation member. The known abutting member is always in contact with the peripheral surface of the fusing roller in a non-sheet passing region of the fusing roller.

Image forming apparatus including fusing device


A semiconductor laser device producing light having a TE-polarized component suitable for practical use (i.e., light having TE-polarized light intensity sufficiently high for practical use). A semiconductor laser device includes a GaAsP active layer, InGaP guide layers, and AlGaInP cladding layers. The GaAsP active layer emits light. The GaAsP active layer is interposed between the InGaP guide layers. The InGaP guide layers and GaAsP active layer are interposed between the AlGaInP cladding layers. Polarization ratio, which is a ratio of light intensity of TM-polarized light to light intensity of TE-polarized light, of the light produced by the semiconductor laser device is less than 2.3.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor laser device, and particularly to a semiconductor laser device capable of oscillating light that contains TE-polarized light of higher intensity.
2. Description of the Background Art
Semiconductor laser devices that oscillate in the TM (Transverse Magnetic) polarization (polarized light having an electric field vector normal to the active layer) include that described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,438,584 (hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 1). The semiconductor laser device of the Patent Document 1 has a structure of layers stacked between an n-electrode and a p-electrode as shown below.
That is to say, the stacked layers include an n-electrode, an n-GaAs substrate, an n-AlGaAs cladding layer, an (AlGa)0.5In0.5P guide layer, a GaAsP active layer, an (AlGa)0.5In0.5P guide layer, a p-AlGaAs cladding layer, an n-GaAs current confining layer, a p-GaAs contact layer, and a p-electrode.
The GaAsP active layer has tensile strain and the GaAsP active layer oscillates TM-polarized light of 600 nm or more.
Now, it is difficult to produce rods or optical fibers that are specially adapted for the TM-polarization. However, passing TM-polarized light into rods or optical fibers adapted for the TE (Transverse Electric) polarization (polarized light having an electric field vector parallel to the active layer) results in deteriorated excitation efficiency.
A device that changes the polarizing angle (i.e., a device that transforms TM-polarized light into TE-polarized light) may be interposed between a semiconductor laser device emitting TM-polarized light and a rod etc., but this involves complicated device structure.
Because of these reasons, semiconductor laser devices that emit TE-polarized light are more practical than semiconductor laser devices that emit TM-polarized light. Also, it is known that increasing the light intensity of TE-polarized light tends to enhance the practicability of the semiconductor laser devices.
A semiconductor laser device capable of emitting light including TE-polarized light of high intensity is described in K. Shigihara et al., "High Power 980 nm Ridge Waveguide Laser Diodes Consisting of Expanded Optical Field Normal to The Active Layer", IEEE J. Quantum Electron, Vol. 38, No. 8, pp. 1081-1088, August 2002 (which is hereinafter referred to as Non-Patent Document 1).
As above, there are conventional semiconductor laser devices that are capable of emitting light including TE-polarized light of high intensity. However, there are demands for semiconductor laser devices that adopt other structures and are capable of emitting light having such high TE-polarized light intensity as to be suitable for practical use.


A grip structure includes two holder bars respectively affixed to two inner tubes in two outer tubes of a retractable handle for travel bag, two locating rings respectively mounted in the holder bars, a grip formed of two symmetrical annular half shells and pivotally coupled between the two locating rings; two control bolts respectively movably supported in the locating rings, and a spring-supported operating member mounted in the grip and operable to move the control bolts between a first position where the inner tubes are locked to the outer tubes and the control bolts are engaged with the locating rings to lock the grip to the inner tubes and a second position where the inner tubes are unlocked from the outer tubes and the control bolts are biasable with the grip relative to the inner tubes of the retractable handle.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a retractable handle for travel bag and more particularly to a loop-shaped grip structure for retractable handle that can be rotated relative to the retractable handle and locked to the desired angle for comfortable gripping.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional retractable handle for travel bag, as shown in FIG. 1, comprises two outer tubes 1 affixed to the frame structure of a travel bag in a parallel manner, two inner tubes 2 respectively slidably inserted into the outer tubes 1, a grip formed of a top cover shell 3 and a bottom cover shell 4 and transversely fixedly connected between the top ends of the inner tubes 2, and a control button 5 installed in the top cover shell 3 of the grip for operation by a user to control locking/unlocking of the inner tubes 2.
According to the aforesaid design, the grip is fixedly connected between the top ends of the inner tubes and not rotatable relative to the inner tubes. The user's hand will receive a load and will feel uncomfortable when pulling the travel bag in a tilted condition.

Grip structure of a retractable handle for travel bag


A mooring connector or pipeline recovery tool comprising a mandrel (10) around which is concentrically disposed a ball cage (11) having balls (12) protruding therefrom so that relative longitudinal movement of the mandrel (10) and ball cage (11) causes the balls to ascend ramped surfaces of the mandrel (10) thus to protrude outwardly through the ball cage (11). The conventional arrangement of balls in regular rows and columns is replaced by helical rows or random arrays of the balls thus to avoid excessive grooving and deformation of the wall of a receptor into which the connector is inserted.

This invention concerns a gripping device and particularly, though not exclusively, a device to serve as a pipeline recovery tool or mooring connector.
Devices of this kind are known and described, for example, in patent specification WO 2004/055394 which refers to a mooring connector being a device which is inserted into an anchored receptor, for example on the sea bed, and responds to a pull from a mooring line attached to the connector, by locking together the connector and the receptor.
Alternatively, a pipeline recovery tool may be in the form of a mandrel which is placed inside a pipe and when pulled locks the tool and the pipe together. In some cases, such a tool may be of tubular form to be located around an object to be recovered, again operating such that the tool and the object become interlocked when the tool is pulled.
The device involves so-called ball and taper assemblies, and comprises a pair of elongate members, one of which has an array of ramped surfaces while the other comprises a ball cage with an array of balls interacting with the ramped surfaces such that relative movement of the two elongate members causes the balls to protrude through apertures in the ball cage thus to engage, internally or externally, the pipe or other object to be gripped. In the case of a mooring connector a mooring line is thus connected to a fixed anchor, some means being provided to release the connector from the anchor when required.
In all such devices the ramped surfaces of the mandrel, the apertures of the ball cage, and the balls residing therein, are disposed in longitudinally spaced annular rows around the gripping device. Since the gripping relationship between the device and the object to be gripped involves considerable force, the effect is that the balls tend to become partially embedded within the surface of the object to be gripped with the result that after repeated use of the device, the receptive object displays regular annular grooves created by the rows of balls. It is an object of the present invention to provide a gripping device of this general kind but where such a disadvantage is at least substantially overcome.


The configuration of a synchronous rectification circuit and a controlling method thereof are provided. The proposed circuit includes a converter including a first switch and a first synchronous rectifier, and a burst mode controller including a logic process module performing one of functions of delaying one of a non-integer and at least one operating periods to generate a synchronous rectification driving signal of the first synchronous rectifier counting from a beginning of a first pulse of a driving signal of the first switch during a working time of a burst period, and turning off the synchronous rectification driving signal of the first synchronous rectifier by one of the non-integer operating period and the at least one operating period ahead of an ending of a last operating period of the driving signal of the first switch during the working time of the burst period.

Since the requirements on the power density and efficiency of the power supply and the circuit efficiency are more and more critical, the resonant converters are becoming more and more popular due to their high efficiency.
However, the light-load efficiency of the resonant converters still cannot meet the requirements yet. It is because that the resonant converters need a magnetizing current having a specific value to realize a soft-switching while under the light load condition, this will cause certain constant losses such as the conduction loss and the switch loss, and these losses possess a higher ratio when they are under the light-load condition than they are under the heavy-load condition.
FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram of an LLC series resonant converter in the prior art. As shown in FIG. 1, an LLC series resonant full-bridge converter includes a resonant tank having three series-connected elements: a resonant inductor Lr, a resonant capacitor Cr and a magnetizing inductor Lm. The resonant converter receives an input voltage Vin, generates an output voltage Vo, and further includes an input capacitor Ci, switches Q1-Q4, a transformer T having a primary winding and two secondary windings, a rectification circuit having synchronous switches Q5-Q6, an output capacitor Co and an load RL. FIG. 2 shows operating waveforms of the LLC series resonant converter operating under a light-load condition in the prior art. In FIG. 2, VQ1-VQ4 are driving signals of the primary side switches Q1-Q4 respectively; VQ5-VQ6 are driving signals of the secondary side switches Q5-Q6 respectively; iLr is the waveform of the resonant current; iLm is the waveform of the magnetizing current; and the difference between iLr and iLm is the primary side current of the ideal transformer T, iPo. In the region A, energy transfers from the secondary side to the primary side, and in the region B, energy transfers from the primary side to the secondary side. At the mean time, to guarantee a fully soft-switching of the LLC resonant converter, the magnetizing current iLm must be kept at almost the same level during a light-load condition as that during a heavy-load condition. And all these increase the losses of the circuit. Thus, without any improvements, the light-load efficiency of the above-mentioned resonant circuit is much lower than the heavy-load efficiency of the same.
To increase the light-load efficiency of the resonant circuit, the burst mode control method is often adopted. FIG. 3 shows the operating waveforms of the LLC series resonant converter under a light-load condition wherein the resonant converter adopts the burst mode control method. In FIG. 3, Vds is the voltage across the drain and the source of the switch Q2/Q3; t0-t4 is a burst period comprising several operating period; t0-t2 is the working time and t2-t4 is the breaking time. Under this kind of operating method, the output capacitor Co is charged only during the working time t0-t2. While during t2-t4, the resonant converter stops operation, and the output capacitor Co is discharged and provides energy to the load RL. During the working time t0-t2, the resonant converter operates just like it is under the heavy-load condition. Thus the light-load efficiency of the resonant converter adopting the burst control method is almost equal to the heavy-load efficiency during the work time t0-t2.
But under this burst mode control method, the driving of the synchronous rectifiers in the secondary side is generally not optimized and this will influence the circuit's efficiency. There are mainly two ways to deal with the driving of the synchronous rectifiers under the burst mode control. One is to turn on the synchronous rectifiers just at the same timing that the corresponding primary switches are turned on (ignoring the timing difference between the turning on signals of the primary switches and the secondary side synchronous rectifiers due to the propagation delay). As shown in FIG. 3, VQ5 (VQ6) is the driving signal of the synchronous rectifier Q5 (Q6); VQ1, VQ2, VQ3 and VQ4 are the corresponding driving signal of the primary switches Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4. Switch Q5 is turned on at the same timing as that of Q1 and Q4; switch Q6 is turned on at the same timing as that of Q2 and Q3. Before the timing t0, the resonant tank of the resonant circuit has experienced the oscillations; the currents of the resonant inductor and the magnetizing inductor and the voltage across the resonant capacitor are close to zero basically; and after the synchronous rectifier is turned on at the timing t0, the voltage of the magnetizing inductor Lm of the primary side equals to the voltage across the output capacitor Co and the energy is transferred back from Co to the primary side. As shown in FIG. 3, the output voltage Vo appears a dramatically drop in t0-t1 due to the energy's transferring back, and this results in a large iLr in the next operating period and the increasing power loss. The other method is that the synchronous rectifier does not operate when the circuit operates under the burst mode control method. That is to say, the secondary side current flows through the body diodes of Q5 and Q6 to charge the output capacitor Co during the working time period t0-t2 of the burst period, and this prevents the energy's transferring back from the secondary side to the primary side. But the drawback is the conduction loss is increased since the forward voltage drop of the body diode is much larger than that of the synchronous rectifier.
To resolve the aforementioned conventional controlling problems, a controlling method is proposed in the present invention so as to raise the light-load efficiency of the resonant circuit to its extreme limit.
Keeping the drawbacks of the prior arts in mind, and employing experiments and research full-heartily and persistently, the applicant finally conceived a synchronous rectification circuit having a burst mode controller and a controlling method thereof.

Synchronous rectification circuit having burst mode controller and controlling method thereof


A method for indoor localization using nomadic access points, comprising the following steps: a target object transmits a modulated signal over wireless channels to nearby access points, wherein the access points include both static access points and nomadic access points; the access points measure channel state information via the signal from the target object, after that, the static access points export the channel state information to a server, the nomadic wireless access point report the channel state information along with their coordinates of the current sites to the server; and based on the channel state information, the server determines the target object's relative proximity to two arbitrary access points, then based on the result of the relative proximity determination and the coordinates, the server estimates a feasible region for the target object with a space partition-based algorithm.

Modern indoor location-based services (ILBS) have rapidly expanded into people's daily life. Predicted by Market and Markets, indoor location market will worth 2.6 Billion U.S. dollars by 2018. To meet the breath of the golden opportunity, several major cooperations have initiated their researches on indoor localization, such as Apple, Google, Microsoft, Nokia, etc. The competition mainly focuses on the location accuracy and user experience.
With the proliferation of wireless communication and mobile computing, WLAN advances indoor localization with its prevalent infrastructure and low cost, as compared with multiple short range communication technologies like infrared, ultrasonic, RFID, and Zigbee sensors. So nowadays, WLAN has become one of the most popular positioning techniques. In WLAN, positioning systems consist of several fixed access points (APs) and an object with a WiFi-enabled device (e.g., wireless router, laptop or smartphone). The fixed AP, also known as static AP, is an infrastructure having a fixed location and a fixed working frequency. The nomadic AP is a WiFi-enabled device having a mobile location. The mainstream principle of WLAN-based positioning system is to leverage propagation models or location fingerprints with the topology of the fixed APs to estimate the target object's location.
However, the above-described WLAN-based indoor positioning systems still suffer from a serious problem named "spatial localizability variance". That is, while the overall performance of the positioning system is stable, the localization accuracy at certain places is in low resolution. As a result, it brings in user experience inconsistency and leads to a poor user experience. One typical example can be found in location-based advertising in a large marketplace. Normally, an appropriate advertisement for a specific customer is chosen based on the statistics of the customer's current location and his history data. However, if the location accuracy is in low resolution, the statistic data can be misleading and may thus lead to inappropriate advertising. The reason for "spatial localizability variance" is the fixed APs are not dedicated for localization functionality. In addition, the dynamic change of the indoor environment, such as the movement of people and the movement of equipments, can affect the localization. Therefore, finding a way to optimize the topology of fixed APs to reduce the effects caused by dynamic deployment of fixed APs will be very helpful to indoor localization.
Existing WLAN-based positioning methods can be classified into two categories, i.e. propagation model-based method and fingerprint-based method. The propagation model-based methods calculate the distance between the transmitter and the receiver, estimate the object's location by trilateration or multilateration. The fingerprint-based methods use wireless devices to collect signals from reference positions as fingerprints, pre-process the fingerprint and save them to a database, in this way, by matching the received signal with the data in database, the object's location can be determined. However, since the propagation-based methods need calibration to obtain the environment parameters, the fingerprint-based methods cannot establish the location fingerprint database due to the mobility of nomadic APs, both of these two methods are not fit for solving the problem of spatial localizability variance.

Method for indoor localization using nomadic access points

Guangzhou HKUST Fok Ying Tung Research Institute


The present invention relates to an interface conversion circuit for conversion of the frame structure of a first interface, such as a U-interface, into a second interface to ensure that the phase relation between frame clocks of both the first interface and the second interface is kept constant during communications by absorbing the jitter between the frame clocks of both interfaces when no certain phase relation is established between the frame clocks when the frame structure of the first interface is converted into the second interface. The interface conversion circuit according to the present invention includes a reception timing signal generator and second interface timing signal generator. The reception timing signal generator is adapted to shift the window signal WND and half window signal HWND, respectively, a predetermined number of bits ahead when the second interface frame clock MTC from the second interface timing signal generator lies in the former half of the window signal WND. The reception timing signal generator is adapted to shift the signals WND and HWND, respectively, a predetermined number of bits back when the second interface frame clock MTC from the second interface timing signal generator lies in the latter half of the window signal WND.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an interface conversion circuit for a conversion of the frame structure of a first interface, such as a U-interface into a second interface (other interface).
2. Description of the Related Art
The connection between a station and terminal equipment in, for example, an ISDN (integrated services digital network) is shown in FIG. 7. In FIG. 7, the reference numeral 101 indicates a station and the reference numeral 102 indicates terminal equipment. A network terminating unit (OCU) 103 in the station 101 and a subscriber terminating unit (DSU) 104 in the terminal equipment 102 are connected to each other by means of a subscriber's line 105. Furthermore, a plurality of terminals (TE) 106 are connected to the subscriber terminating unit 104. The subscriber terminating unit 104 referred to herein is defined in TI. 601-1988 of ANSI (American National Standard Institute).
Note that the subscriber terminating unit 104 and subscriber's line 105 will be referred to as an "U-interface" hereinafter while the terminal 106 of the subscriber terminating unit 104 as a "S/T-interface".
The subscriber terminating unit 104 is provided with a U-interface circuit 107 and a S/T-interface circuit 108 as shown in FIG. 8.
The U-interface circuit 107 converts the frame construction of the U-interface into another interface (will be referred to as "A-interface" hereinafter), and the S/T-interface circuit 108 converts the frame structure of the A-interface into an S/T-interface.
A super frame [see FIG. 12 (a)] consisting of eight basic frames has to be used for the flow of information on the U-interface as stipulated in TI. 601-1988 of ANSI.
In FIG. 12 (a), ISW are bits for an inversion-synchronous word, SW are bits for a synchronous word, 2B+D are bits for a customer data channel and M are bits for a maintenance channel. The basic-frame period is 1.5 ms (millisecond). The super frame has eight basic frames, so its period is 12 ms.
As shown in FIG. 12 (b), the A-interface has a super frame structure consisting of 96 frames (A1, A2, ..., A96). The frame period is 125 .mu.s (microsecond). Since the super frame consists of 96 frames, its period is 12 ms.
In the case of a conversion from a U-interface into an A-interface, the scale of a latch circuit in a MUX (multiplexer) can be minimized by establishing a certain phase relation between the super frames of the two interfaces.
FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a conventional U-interface circuit. As shown, the U-interface circuit comprises a reception timing signal generator (RTIM) 201 and an A-interface timing signal generator (ATIM) 202.
A block diagram showing the reception timing signal generator 201 used in the conventional interface conversion circuit is shown in FIG. 10. Receiving a 160 kHz reception clock R160K (produced by a frequency division of a signal generated by DPLL and which is synchronous with 80 kHz signal of the U-interface) and a reception counter output signal (output signal from a reception counter that receives the 160 kHz reception clock R160K), the reception timing signal generator 201 produces a window signal WND having a predetermined time duration of 20 bits, which indicates the frame top position of the A-interface. For this purpose of producing the window signal WND, the reception timing signal generator 201 has a decoder 203 and a JK flip-flop 204.
The decoder 203 receives a reception counter outer signal and produces signals indicative of an a-bit position and (a+20) -bit position, respectively, of the super frame on the U-interface. The JK flip-flop 204 is provided to produce, from the signal from the decoder 203 and the 160 kHz reception clock R160K, a window signal WND having a predetermined time duration of 20 bits indicative of the frame top position on the A-interface.
Since the signal speed of the U-interface is 160 kbps (kilobits per sec) in this case, transmission of 20 bits over the U-interface takes 125 .mu.s. Therefore, the window signal WND has a time duration of 20 bits (125 .mu.s) on the U-interface.
The A-interface timing signal generator 202 as shown in FIG. 11 is adapted to determine the frame top position in the A-interface based on the window signal WND from the reception timing signal generator 201, an A-interface frame clock MTC and an A-interface bit clock C. To this end, the A-interface timing signal generator 202 comprises a differentiation circuit 205 and an A-interface counter load signal output unit 206.
The differentiation circuit 205 comprises two D flip-flops. Receiving the A-interface frame clock MTC and an A-interface bit clock C, this circuit 205 takes out one bit from the top of the A-interface frame clock MTC.
The A-interface counter lock signal output unit 206 has two AND gates (one of which receives an inversion output from the differentiation circuit 205). The output unit 206 ANDs the A-interface frame clock MTC with the inversion output from the output-stage flip-flop of the differentiation circuit 205 and also ANDS this AND output with the window signal WND to produce an A-interface counter load signal.
Because of the above-mentioned arrangement, a window signal WND having a time duration of 20 bits (125 .mu.s) is produced in a position on the U-interface to which it is desired to bring the top of the super frame of the A-interface as shown in FIG. 13 (a) to (d), thereby taking as the top of the super frame the top of an A-interface frame clock MTC having a time period for which the window signal WND is "H". Namely, it is necessary that the top A1 of the super frame should always be completely synchronous with the frame clock MTC.
It should be noted here that there is no certain phase relation between the U-interface reception clock and A-interface frame clock. Namely, "tp" in FIG. 13 can take an arbitrary value ranging from 0 to 125 .mu.s and the value of tp depends mainly on the timing of initial lead-in. If the tp value is constant during communications, the phase difference between both the U-interface and A-interface super frames will always be constant.
Actually, however, the tp value varies little by little because of the relative jitter between the U-interface reception clock and an A-interface frame clock.
Assume here that the variation of the tp value of one super frame is .DELTA.tp and the period of an A-interface bit clock is T.sub.B. Since there is generally the following relation between the variation .DELTA.tp and period T.sub.B EQU .DELTA.tp<<T.sub.B ... (1)
the above jitter can be absorbed.
However, even if the equation (1) is met, the frame position may possibly be shifted one frame back or ahead when the tp value is approximate to 0 or 125 .mu.s.
FIG. 14 (a) to (f) show that when the tp value is very near 0 .mu.s, the A-interface frame clock MTC rises before the window signal WND in the next super frame, so that the frame position is shifted one frame back. It means that a blank will occur between the last data A96 in the preceding super frame and the first data A in the following super frame.
FIG. 15 (a) to (f) show that when the tp value is very near 125 .mu.s, the A-interface frame clock MTC rises before the window signal WND does in the next super frame so that the frame position is shifted one frame ahead. Namely, if the frame clock MTC rises near the fall of the window signal WND, when the preceding frame clock enters the window signal WND because of a jitter or the like, the last data A96 in the preceding super frame will be erased.
Therefore, if the window signal WND synchronous with the received signal is in a certain phase relation with the A-interface frame clock MTC in the conventional circuit, the relative jitter between clocks of both interfaces cannot be absorbed.


A shopper valuation system may include a user device associated with a given shopper, and a shopper valuation server. The server may obtain historical purchase data associated with shoppers at a given retailer, apply a machine learning algorithm to determine a corresponding shopper value for each of the shoppers, and obtain historical purchase data associated with the given shopper at the given retailer. The server may apply the algorithm to determine a shopper value for the given shopper based upon the historical purchase data for the shoppers and, the corresponding shopper values for the shoppers, and update the machine learning algorithm based upon the shopper value for the given shopper. The server may also communicate a notification to the user device soliciting the given shopper to enroll in a retailer loyalty program for payment to the given shopper of the shopper value for the given shopper.

A loyalty program is a marketing strategy that encourages shoppers to continue to purchase items or services from one or more retailers, for example. A loyalty program typically involves the retailer or other entity that operates or manages the loyalty program to set up an account for a user. Rewards are added or associated with the loyalty account, for example, based upon purchases made at the retailer.
Sales of a particular product or service may be based upon how well that product or service is marketed to a consumer. One form of marketing is a coupon, typically in paper form, for a discount toward the product or service. Some coupons may be retailer specific, for example, only redeemable for the discount at a particular retailer, while other coupons may be product specific from a manufacturer and redeemable at any retailer.
A coupon, while typically in paper form, may be in digital form and may be referred to as a digital promotion. A digital promotion may be selected or "clipped" via a mobile phone and saved to a digital wallet for redemption at a point-of-sale (POS) terminal, for example. A typical coupon is applicable to a given product and has a redeemable value that may vary based upon, for example, the quantity of a given item, brand of item, size of the product in terms of packaging, and/or the price point of the given item. A typical coupon may also be redeemable only at a given retailer and/or within a threshold time period.
U.S. Pat. No. 10,861,041 to Tietzen et al. is directed to a loyalty system. In some loyalty programs, merchants may be required to pay a set monthly or periodic fee to participate in or otherwise be associated with the loyalty program. The loyalty system and/or transaction processing system can charge an incremental fee based on a profile group of the customers the merchant can target with rewards/offers/incentives/etc. in the loyalty system. For example, if the merchant wishes to target a specific customer profile group, the merchant may be provided access to generate rewards for those customers and can incur an incremental transaction fee any time a customer in the profile group completes a transaction with the merchant. This fee may apply to any customer in the profile group irrespective of whether a reward was actually offered to the specific customer involved in the transaction.

Shopper valuation system and related methods


A data terminal is able to use data services of a cellular network so that it is detachably connected to a mobile phone with a connection cable. The data services need not be supported by the telephone. The connection cable forms a fast synchronous serial bus. The service-specific data protocols needed in implementing a data service are accomplished in a microprocessor unit in an external interface adaptor connected to one end of the serial bus, said processor being via the bus directly connected to the processor performing the signalling and control functions and the channel coder of the phone. Thus, the interface adaptor is able to exchange messages directly with the processor unit and the channel coder of the phone.

The present invention relates to a procedure and an apparatus, relating to the connection between a data terminal means and a radio telephone.
The modern digital cellular systems offer the user a great number of services in addition to standard call transmission. For instance, in the Global Systems for Mobile phones (GSM) system the services have been classified into three classes: telecommunications, bearer and auxiliary services.
The telecommunications services are services which are available to the network subscriber. They enable data transfer between the users according to agreed communications practices, i.e. protocols. In addition to transmission of telephone calls, the GSM standard includes the following telecommunications services: emergency call, automatic fax group 3, and short message service.
The bearer services make the use of the telecommunications services possible. They are divided into the following classes: circuit switched asynchronic data transfer, circuit switched synchronic data transfer, Packet Assembly Disassembly (PAD) communication as asynchronic data transfer, packet switched data, and exchangeable speech/data transfer.
The services are defined to be transparent and non-transparent. A transparent service is not provided with flow control, and the error ratio thereof varies in accordance to the mode of the radio channel. A non-transparent service includes a flow control and a specific Radio Link Protocol RLP, provided with an Automatic Repeat request ARQ, whereby the delays vary but the error ratio is low.
When data services specified in digital cellular systems are used, they and the transfer protocols associated therewith require a considerable amount of processing capacity, as well as program and data memory capacity of the mobile phone, because a data terminal connected to the phone, such as a facsimile device or a personal computer, uses data transfer protocols of its own, which in the phone have to be adapted to the protocols of the cellular system to be used.
PCT Application WO 93/02512 describes a common radio telephone part comprising a transceiver, a speech coder, a microprocessor unit with a memory, and a data arrangement block. A plurality of peripherals can be connected to the common part via a data bus. The bus is a cable in which time division multiplexed data transfer on a data bus is carried out between the part in common and the peripherals. Each peripheral part also includes a data arrangement block which formats the digital data produced by the part and positions it in an appropriate time interval of the bus. In the application aspects associated with bus management are described in detail, such as priority and control of collisions. There is no discussion of the respective functions of the common and peripheral parts. The peripheral part refers primarily to separate operating means (handset + keyboard + speech codec). A plurality of calls travel via one transceiver.
In WO 93/02512 a modern phone is described as including functions supporting data transmission, such as a radio unit, the rf frequencies thereof being those used in said system, and an interface between the radio unit and the other functions; a system-specific signalling towards the network and from the network to the phone (such as call control) and other control functions, such as user connection; and a system-specific coding/decoding and potentially error correction of the data travelling via the radio interface to the traffic channel and therefrom.

Adapter for data transmission to and from a radio telephone


A perpendicular spin transfer torque MRAM memory cell includes a magnetic tunnel junction stack comprising a pinned layer having a fixed direction of magnetization, a free layer having a direction of magnetization that can be switched, a tunnel barrier between the pinned layer and the free layer, a cap layer above the free layer and one or more in-stack multi-layer thermal barrier layers having multiple internal interfaces between materials. The thermal barrier layers have high enough thermal resistivity to maintain the heat generated in the memory cell and low enough electrical resistivity to not materially change the electrical resistance of the memory cell. One embodiment further includes a thermal barrier liner surrounding the free layer, pinned layer, tunnel barrier and cap layer.

Memory is widely used in various electronic devices such as cellular telephones, digital cameras, personal digital assistants, medical electronics, mobile computing devices, non-mobile computing devices, and data servers. Memory may comprise non-volatile memory or volatile memory. A non-volatile memory allows information to be stored and retained even when the non-volatile memory is not connected to a source of power (e.g., a battery).
One example of a non-volatile memory is magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM), which uses magnetization to represent stored data, in contrast to some other memory technologies that use electronic charges to store data. Generally, MRAM includes a large number of magnetic memory cells formed on a semiconductor substrate, where each memory cell represents (at least) one bit of data. A bit of data is written to a memory cell by changing the direction of magnetization of a magnetic element within the memory cell, and a bit is read by measuring the resistance of the memory cell (low resistance typically represents a "0" bit and high resistance typically represents a "1" bit). As used herein, direction of magnetization is the direction that the magnetic moment is oriented.
Although MRAM is a promising technology, it has been challenging to achieve high bit density and high endurance for write operations with previous MRAM memory cell designs.

Perpendicular spin transfer torque MRAM memory cell with in-stack thermal barriers


The present invention is drawn to evaluation of the aroma of aroma-emitting substances, such as agricultural grains and oil seeds, in a safe and quantitative way. This is accomplished by causing a known volume of non-toxic gas to pass through the aroma-emitting substance, absorb the aroma, and deliver it to an evaluator. This enables the evaluator to sniff the aroma and thereby make gross quantitative evaluations with respect to the strength of any particular odor of the substance.

It is customary to evaluate various aroma-emitting solid substances by sniffing the aroma and making a judgement as to its quality. The evaluation can often be used to help establish the quality of the substance and whether it meets certain specifications. For example, the evaluation of agriculture products, especially grains and oil seeds, is important because it helps establish the quality, or grade, of such products in commerce. This enables the purchaser of the product to negotiate a fair price for any given grade of agricultural product, in consideration with other market forces. A major aspect to overall grading of agricultural products, such as grains and oil seeds, involves the evaluation of the aroma associated with the substance. The aroma of the grain or oil seed is typically evaluated for malodors which indicate such things as contamination by microorganisms, fumigants, insects, or any other agent which would degrade the grain or oil seed. Fumigant odors are typically picked-up in warehouse storage where fumigants are used to protect the grain and oil seed from pests. Other odors can be derived from shipping containers contaminated by the previous cargo.
The evaluation of aroma of agricultural grain and oil seed is presently done by an inspector placing his or her nose into a 3-cornered pan containing about 2 to 3 inches of grain or oil seed. When the inspector sniffs the aroma, it is often accompanied by undesirable and potentially harmful substances, such as dust, mold, spores, biotoxins, fungus, and comminuted grain particles. While some attempts have been made to improve on this technique, they have not met with widespread acceptance, primarily because they have been less effective for evaluating the aroma than the above conventional method. For example, a device know as the "Cargill Sniffer" was developed for evaluating aroma from substances such as grains and oil seeds. The "Cargill Sniffer" consists of a nose-cup on the end of a plastic tube about 6 to 9 inches long. The tube is placed in the grain and the inspector places his or her nose in the nose-cup and sniffs. The "Cargill Sniffer" proved to be too ineffective for accurate evaluation of grain aroma because it was difficult for the inspector to sniff enough aroma, in acceptable concentrations, to make accurate multiple evaluations, especially with respect to quantitative aspects. That is, multiple evaluations as to whether a particular odor encompassed in the overall aroma was weak, moderate, or strong.
Consequently, there still exists a need in the art for a device for the uniform evaluation of aroma from aroma-emitting substances, such as grains and oil seeds, which is capable of enabling the operative, or evaluator, to make a quantitative, as well as a qualitative judgement. There is also a need in the art for a device which can deliver an aroma sample substantially free of potentially harmful substances.

Uniform and quantitative evaluation of aroma emitting substances

The United States of America, as represented by the Secretary of Agriculture


A four-buffer MPEG decoder is provided for decoding MPEG video frames. A four-buffer frame controller and control method manage the four frame buffers including decoding, displaying and discarding of I-frames, P-frames and B-frames so that video data decoding is accelerated. The four-buffer frame controller and control method frees one frame buffer when the frame buffer contains obsolete data, defined as data which is no longer useful for decoding additional frames and for which storage is not necessary for displaying pictures in a correct temporal order. One example of an obsolete frame is a B-frame that is displayed. Another example is a P-frame for I-frame which is no longer used for motion compensation and has been displayed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a Moving Pictures Expert Group (MPEG) video decoder. More specifically, the present invention relates to an apparatus and operating method for managing frame buffers for decoding of video frames.
2. Description of the Related Art
Standardization of recording media, devices and various aspects of data handling, such as audio recording, storage and playback, is highly desirable for continued growth of this technology and its applications. One compression standard which has attained wide spread use for compressing and decompressing video information is the moving pictures expert group (MPEG) standard for audio and video encoding and decoding. The MPEG standard is defined in International Standard ISO/IEC 11172-1, "Information Technology--Coding of moving pictures and associated audio for digital storage media at up to about 1.5 Mbit/s", Parts 1, 2 and 3, First edition Aug. 1, 1993 (hereinafter referred to as MPEG International Standard).
Pictures defined by the MPEG standard are divided into 16.times.16 pixel macroblocks. Each macroblock has six 8.times.8 blocks including four luminance (Y) blocks, one chrominance red (Cr) block and one chrominance blue (Cb) block. The luminance blocks correspond to sets of 8.times.8 pixels on a display and control the brightness of respective pixels. The chrominance blocks control the colors for sets of 16.times.16 pixels. A set of 2.times.2 pixels on the display use a single Cr characteristic and a single Cb characteristic.
Three types of pictures of video information are defined and classified in the MPEG standard, intra-frames (I-frame), forward predicted pictures (P-frame) and bi-predicted pictures (B-frame).
An I-frame is encoded and decoded independently from other pictures in a video sequence as a single image having no reference to any past or future picture. Each block of an I-frame is encoded and decoded independently. Accordingly, when decoding an I-frame, no motion processing is necessary. However, I-frames are stored and accessed for use in decoding other types of pictures.
A P-frame is predicted from previous I-frames or P-frames. A P-frame is encoded and decoded relative to a most recent past reference picture where the reference picture is a P-frame or an I-frame. A macroblock in a P-frame is encoded as either an I-macroblock or a P-macroblock. A P-macroblock is stored as a translated 16.times.16 area of a past reference picture plus an error term. To specify the location of a P-macroblock, a motion vector which indicates the relative position of the macroblock in the current picture to the position of the translated area in the past reference picture is also encoded. A subsequently decoded P-macroblock includes the 16.times.16 area from the reference picture offset according to a defined motion vector. In this manner, the decoding of a macroblock inherently includes motion compensation with error-correction using inverse discrete cosine transform (IDCT) error terms which are defined on a block by block basis.
A B-frame is related to both the previous P-frames or I-frames and the future P-frames or I-frames. Thus, a B-frame is encoded relative to the most recent past reference picture and a next future reference picture. The decoding of a B-frame is similar to P-frame decoding with the exception that a B-frame motion vector may refer to areas in the future of the reference picture. For macroblocks that use both past and future reference pictures, 16.times.16 areas are averaged. The macroblocks from the reference pictures are offset using motion vectors.
A frame, whether an I-frame, P-frame or B-frame, cannot be simply decoded, displayed and discarded due to motion-compensation in which a frame is decoded based on other frames. P-frames and I-frames are retained in a frame buffer memory so that B-frames can be encoded and decoded based on the P-frames and I-frames. An I-frame and a P-frame are also retained in a frame buffer memory so that the frames are displayed in the correct temporal order. For example, encoded frames may be arranged in an order, as follows:
1I 4P 2B 3B 7P 5B 6B 10P 8B 9B 13I 11B 12B.
For such an arrangement of encoded frames, the correct display order is, as follows:
1I 2B 3B 4P 5B 6B 7P 8B 9B 10P 11B 12B 13I.
I-frame 1I and P-frame 4P are decoded and stored in frame buffers. I-frame 1I is displayed when an End-Of-Process (EOP) signal is received, signifying that the display of a previous frame is finished and a new frame may be displayed. B-frame 2B is decoded from the stored I-frame 1I and the stored P-frame 4P, displayed and discarded when the presentation is finished. Similarly, the B-frame 3B is decoded from I-frame 1I and P-frame 4P, displayed and discarded when the presentation is finished. The P-frame 4P is then displayed. Not until the P-frame 7P is decoded is the I-frame 1I discarded since the I-frame 1I is used for decoding the B-frames 2B and 3B and typically the P-frame 7P, but not needed for decoding of B-frames 5B and 6B. I-frame 1I is discarded and replaced with P-frame 7P which is decoded using the P-frame 4P and usually the I-frame 1I. The minimum number of frame buffers for decoding and displaying MPEG frames is three so that P-frames and B-frames can be decoded an all frames are displayed in the correct temporal order.
A three-buffer MPEG decoder is optimum for conserving circuit size but may have difficulty in meeting timing requirements in some implementations, including personal computer (PC) implementations.
What is needed is a multiple-buffer MPEG decoder that includes a sufficient but conservative amount of video buffering and meets stringent timing requirements of versatile PC environments.

Apparatus and method for managing a frame buffer for MPEG video decoding in a PC environment


A lighting device comprises an array of controllable light emitting pixels, each pixel having an adjustable light output colour. A controller is configured to receive a limited set of light output colours and to locally process these light output colours to form a colour gradient pattern to be displayed across pixels of the array.

An area of increasing interest within the home decorative lighting market is that of pixelated LED strips which typically comprise a long, flexible cord or strip having a relatively dense array of LED pixels embedded extending along its length. The LEDs are typically controllable to output light across a broad spectrum of different colours. Such pixelated strips may be installed by users directly onto furniture, within recesses in walls or other surfaces, or hidden within furniture for example. They may be used to provide an atmospheric luminous effect within a room, or alternatively may be installed within a range of different luminaire structures to thereby provide a source of functional light within a room.
The individual addressability and colour change functionality of such LED lighting strips opens the possibility for a wide range of different control options to provide a variety of different interesting and attractive luminous effects.
One type of effect of particular interest is that of colour gradients, wherein a lighting strip is controlled to vary the colour outputs of LEDs between two defined points so as to gradually transition from a first colour at a first point to a second colour at a second point. A colour gradient effect is thereby created extending across the strip.
Creation of pre-stored gradient patterns across an LED strip is relatively straightforward, and simply requires a pre-defined set of colour mappings to be stored locally within the strip for controlling pixels to generate the pattern. However, of increasing interest is the ability to create customised colour gradient patterns.
One option for facilitating this is to create custom control regimes in accordance for instance within user input commands, on a remote computer or mobile device, and to remotely operate the lighting device in accordance with these control regimes via a suitable network link. However, such a method requires a network connection of relatively high bandwidth in order to continuously transfer new, updated control commands to the device. Where such bandwidth is not available, or is not reliably available, such control options are not possible.
Desired therefore is a lighting device or system which is capable of creating customisable colour gradient effects across a controllable array of LED pixels on the basis of a minimal amount of input control data.
It has been suggested, in WO 2016/096615, that a colour gradient effect across a pre-defined stretch of an LED strip might be customised by user-specification of start and end colours for the gradient pattern.
However, customisation possibilities remain highly limited with such approaches. It would be desirable to provide a lighting device or device capable of offering a greater level of customisability.


An apparatus includes a test board for testing electrical characteristics of the semiconductor chip; socket pins vertically disposed on the test board to electrically connect the test board, and external terminals of the semiconductor chip; socket springs interposed between the socket pins and the test board and making the socket pins vertically elastic; a plurality of laser beam transmitters vertically penetrating the socket pins, the socket springs, and the test board; and a laser beam source supplying laser beams to the laser beam transmitters.

1. Technical Field
This disclosure relates to semiconductor devices, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for testing the electrical characteristics of a semiconductor chip.
2. Description of the Related Art
After semiconductor chips are packaged, they are typically tested to determine whether defective chips exist. During this process, the electrical characteristics and reliability of the semiconductor chips are evaluated.
Depending on the results of the test, some of the semiconductor chips may be discarded or processed further. It is very important to reliably and precisely test semiconductor chips manufactured through a series of processes to determine whether the semiconductor chips are defective.
FIG. 1 is a sectional diagram illustrating a conventional apparatus 100 for testing a semiconductor chip 50. The scale of the various components of apparatus 100 may be exaggerated for clarity. The apparatus 100 includes a pressurization plate 120 disposed on the semiconductor chip 50, the pressurization plate 120 operable to weigh down the semiconductor chip such that a number of external terminals 55 for the semiconductor chip 50 are connected to a corresponding number of socket pins 110. Accordingly, the apparatus 100 may exchange electrical signals with the semiconductor chip 50 through the socket pins 110.
Socket springs 115 are interposed between the socket pins 110 and a test board 105 such that the socket pins 110 are vertically elastic. In other words, the socket springs 115 are compressed by the weight put on the semiconductor chip 50. Consequently, the external terminals 55 are maintained in physical contact with the socket pins 110.
The physical contact between the socket pins 110 and the external terminals 55 is usually reliable. However, that does not mean that the socket pins 110 always electrically contact the external terminals 55 without fail. Insulating foreign matter may be attached to surfaces of the external terminals 55 and the socket pins 110. Also, the surfaces of the external terminals 55 and the socket pins 110 may be oxidized. These residues may increase contact resistance when the socket pins 110 contact the external terminals 55.
If the apparatus 100 is repeatedly used, the contact resistance between the socket pins 110 and the external terminals 55 becomes very high, thereby causing test errors. In this case, the socket pins 110 must be washed or replaced by new socket pins. As semiconductor chips become faster and operating voltages of the semiconductor chips are lowered, the effects of contact resistance during a test process become increasingly greater.
Embodiments of the invention address these and other disadvantages of the conventional art.

Apparatus and method for testing semiconductor chip


In an improved method and apparatus for investment casting, a pattern (31) is mounted on a sprue base (19) of an spider gasket (12) that is secured to one end of a standard investment flask (11). A solid end cap (13) is secured to the other end of the flask. The end cap is provided with a matrix of holes (15) extending therethrough parallel to the axis of the flask, and a plurality of small diameter rods (16) are slidable secured in the holes in the end cap. The rods are extended into the interior of the flask about the pattern without contacting the pattern. Investment plaster (10) is poured into the flask through the spider assembly to immerse the pattern and rods, and the plaster is allowed to set. The rods are then withdrawn, forming a large plurality of channels (32) extending into or through the investment plaster, reducing the amount of investment plaster required in the flask. The channels greatly accelerate the drying time of the investment, and hasten the subsequent burnout process in a kiln. The channels permit the escape of air from the cavity during casting, so that casting porosity is eliminated. Moreover, the channels formed by the rods are ideally placed for the strategic application of vacuum to the mold cavity during casting.

Investment casting is a well-known and mature technology for precise replication of an existing object or model. Generally speaking an original wax model or a wax model made from an impression of an object is mounted on a sprue base extending from an end cap (gasket). A casting flask is secured to the gasket to form a container having an open upper end, and wet investment plaster is poured into the flask to a level above the model. The assembly is then set aside to dry and cure. Thereafter, the flask assembly is heated in an oven to drive off the wax and create the hollow casting mold cavity. A liquid casting material is then poured into the cavity through the sprue vent, and permitted to solidify to form an exact replica of the original model. In the case of molten metal casting, the molten metal is poured into the cavity while the investment is hot, so that the metal will fill all the mold voids and displace all the gas therefrom before it solidifies.
Production and transportation of investment plaster is costly, due to the energy intensive nature of investment plaster manufacturing and the density of the resulting product. Handling of dry investment plaster is a health and safety problem, as the fine particulate plaster poses a respiratory risk. Disposal of used investment is messy and ecologically wasteful, and has a negative environmental impact.
Porosity in cast parts is another shortcoming that occurs in investment casting. Porous parts are less strong, less aesthetic, and in many cases require additional finishing. Many porous parts are not usable at all.
A persistent problem in casting is that the investment plaster must be dry before being heated in the oven. When flasks containing investment that is still damp are placed into a kiln, the outside of the plaster cast heats and dries first, due to the fact that only the end surfaces of the flask assembly are exposed. The inner portion of the investment remains damp, while the drying of the outer end portions seals in the moisture. As the mold heats and the moisture turns to steam, the resulting internal steam pressure may cause the flask to explode. The mold is ruined, and a great deal of time and material is wasted. If the model is a primary wax pattern, the destruction of the original object represents a loss of many hours of highly skilled labor, and the original cannot be exactly duplicated.
Moreover, the investment casting process requires sufficient time to complete the steps of investment, drying, burnout, casting, and finishing. Often the process requires at least two days to complete, and this turnaround time for the flasks and models necessitates a large inventory of flasks, gaskets, and models for high volume, continuous production. The extensive time required to complete the entire process is problematic in terms of work schedules and delivery times. In addition, the prodigious amount of energy consumed in running a kiln, especially at its highest temperatures, is expensive and causes deterioration of the kiln element and lining.

Method and apparatus for investment casting


A method for fabricating an alternating phase shifting mask includes a transparent substrate, a number of oblique layers formed on the transparent substrate, and a number of embedded phase shift layers inside the transparent substrate. Then, a photolithography process is applied to form a photoresist layer on the transparent substrate corresponding to a desired pattern and, therefore, exposing a portion of the transparent substrate. Then, an ion implantation process utilizing the photoresist layer as a mask is applied to form the embedded phase shift layers and the photoresist layer is removed after ion implantation. The embedded phase shift layers are formed in alternating positions in the transparent portion between the oblique layers.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a structure of a phase shifting mask (PSM) and fabricating the PSM, and more particularly to an alternating PSM in which use of a semiconductor fabricating procedure is combined with ion implantation technology.
2. Description of Related Art
Currently, application of photolithography in the fabricating procedure on a wafer usually includes a PSM, which can increase the resolution of a pattern transferred from the PSM. Generally, there are two common types of PSM; one is a strong PSM and the other one is a weak PSM. The strong PSM further includes a Levenson PSM and an alternating PSM, and the weak PSM further includes a half-tone PSM, a rim PSM and an attenuated PSM.
The alternating PSM is characterized by having a phase shift layer, which appears in alternating positions. The phase shift layer can invert the phase of a light wave when the light travels through it so that light with an inverted phase can interfere with light without an inverted phase. Because of the interference of the light, the contrast of light intensity is increased. Thus, the alternating PSM is commonly used in the conventional technology.
FIG. 1 is a sectional plot schematically illustrating a conventional alternating PSM. Referring to FIG. 1, a transparent substrate 10 including quartz has a number of opaque layers 12 separately covering surface portions of the transparent substrate 10 so that there are a number exposed portions of transparent substrate 10 for transferring the desired pattern. Then, at every other position between the opaque regions 12, a number of phase shift layers 14 cover the transparent substrate 10. The method of forming the phase shift layers 14 usually uses a transparent layer (not shown) formed over the transparent substrate 10 and defines the transparent layer by etching to form the phase shift layers 14.
When the light, which is also a kind of electromagnetic plane wave, is incident on the transparent substrate 10, the light travelling through the transparent part has interfered with the light travelling through the opaque part. FIG. 2A schematically shows the distribution of the electric field (E) versus the position of the transparent substrate determined in FIG. 1 after light has traveled through the alternating phase shifting mask. Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2A, the electric field (E) correlates to the location of the opaque layers 12 and the phase shift layers 14 on the transparent substrate 10. The Emax and Emin in FIG. 2A are the maximum and the minimum of the E distribution corresponding to the transparent part of the transparent substrate 10 and the phase shift layers, respectively. The Emin is a negative quantity.
FIG. 2B schematically shows the distribution of the intensity of light versus the position of the transparent substrate determined in the FIG. 1. Referring to FIGS. 1, 2A and 2B, the intensity (I) of light correlates to the location of the opaque layers 12 and the phase shift layers 14 on the transparent substrate 10. The intensity I also correlates to the electric field with a relation of I.varies.E.sup.2 so that the maximum intensity I, as indicated by Imax, appears at the Emax or Emin.
For a conventional alternating PSM, as is widely used in photolithography and etching, the critical dimension is below 0.25 .mu.m, and is especially suitable for transferring line/space pattern. Because the phase shift layer 14 is formed by etching, some drawbacks are inevitable, for example, defects appear due to poor etching selectivity or bias of transferring line/space pattern.

Structure of a phase shifting mask and method of fabricating the same


An exercise feedback system receives exercise data such as images or video captured by client devices of users performing exercises. The exercise feedback system may access a machine learning model trained using image of a population of users. The images used for training may be labeled, for example, as having proper or improper musculoskeletal form. The exercise feedback system may determine a metrics describing the musculoskeletal form of a user by applying the trained machine learning model to images of the user as input features. The exercise feedback system may generate feedback for a certain exercise using the metrics based on output predictions of the model. The feedback can be provided to a client device of the user or a physical therapist for presentation.

This disclosure generally relates to exercises or posture for the musculoskeletal system and to providing feedback on musculoskeletal form.
Physical exercise and good posture help maintain the musculoskeletal system of the body and prevent conditions including chronic pain, arthritis, osteoporosis, or injury, among others. Individuals may seek feedback regarding musculoskeletal exercises from personnel such as physical therapists or electronic resources, for example, online guides, applications, or videos. However, existing systems and resources for exercise feedback do not provide individuals with customized evaluations on their exercises outside of in-person sessions with physical therapists, for instance, feedback indicating whether the individuals are performing exercises with proper musculoskeletal form per repetition. It would be desirable for individuals to receive personalized physical therapy regardless of the exercise setting, which may encourage users to perform more exercises at home or work, and thus promote a healthy musculoskeletal system or overall fitness. Moreover, it can be time consuming for physical therapists to manually review performance and provided feedback on an individual-by-individual basis.

Classification of musculoskeletal form using machine learning model