A tambourine includes an annular frame which has a plurality of equidistant rectangular positioning holes formed therethrough, a plurality of flexible positioning plates respectively fitted in the positioning holes, and a plurality of positioning bars respectively extending through a plurality of jingle units. Each of the positioning holes is defined by two shorter hole walls and two longer hole walls which have two stop ribs projecting toward each other therefrom. Each of the positioning plates has two positioning ribs abutting against the corresponding longer hole wall and has two locking ribs abutting against the annular frame so as to retain the positioning plate on the annular frame. Each of the positioning plates has a jingle slot formed therethrough. A pair of in-line receiving grooves are formed in the inward surface of the positioning plate on two sides of the jingle slot so as to receive one of the positioning bars within the receiving grooves in such a manner that the jingle unit extends through the jingle slot. Each end of the positioning bar is positioned between the corresponding stop rib of the annular frame and the corresponding positioning rib of the positioning plate in such a manner that the jingle unit is retained on the annular frame.

1. Field Of The Invention
This invention relates to a tambourine, more particularly to a tambourine in which the number of jingle units that are mounted thereon can be varied.
2. Description of The Related Art
Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional tambourine includes: a main frame (1); a predetermined number of jingle slots (2) formed in the main frame (1); a plurality of positioning hole units (3) formed through the main frame (1); a predetermined number of jingle units (4) respectively extending through the jingle slots (2), each of the jingle units (4) having an axial hole (4a) formed therethrough; and a plurality of positioning bars (5) respectively extending through the positioning hole units (3) of the main frame (1) and the axial holes (4a) of the jingle units (4) so as to retain the jingle units (4) on the main frame (1).
The drawback of the above-described conventional tambourine is that the number of jingle slots (2) are fixed. Thus, the number of jingle units (4) on the main frame (1) cannot be changed.
Another drawback of the conventional tambourine is that the positioning bars (5) are fitted tightly within the positioning hole units (3) of the main frame (1). Hence, it is inconvenient to replace a damaged jingle unit (4) with a new one.

No. 9-3, Hai-Wei Tzu Lane, Chung-Yang Rd.

Chung-Ho Tsun, Lung-Ching Hsiang, Taichung Hsien


A fluorine-containing resin being soluble in an organic solvent and having excellent compatibility with a curing agent, which contains Component (A) formed of a unit having the formula ##STR1## and at least one of Component (B) formed of a unit having a cyclic hydrocarbon group introduced through a urethane bond in the molecule and Component (C) of a unit having the formula ##STR2## and which further optionally contains Component (D) of a unit formed from a vinyl monomer having a specific functional group, Component (E) of a unit formed from a vinyl monomer other than monomers forming the Components (A), (B), (C) and (D), and Component (T) of a unit formed from an acrylic resin having a specific substituent; and a coating composition containing said resin, (wherein V, Y, X, Z, R.sup.c1, R.sup.c2 and R.sup.c3 are as defined in the specification).

A fluorine-containing resin has been and is widely used in many fields due to its remarkable excellence in heat resistance, mechanical properties, chemical resistance and weatherability. The use of it includes a use as a coating-forming component in a coating composition. For example, there is known a fluorine resin coating composition containing a tetrafluoroethylene polymer or a vinylidene fluoride polymer, which is used in the fields of chemical industry, foods, construction and machinery due to its excellence in lubricity, nontackiness, weatherability and chemical resistance.
The defect with the above fluorine resin coating composition is that it is required to be baked at a high temperature and the range of its use is inevitably limited. In recent years, therefore, it has been attempted to develop a fluorine-based, solvent-type coating composition which contains, as a main component, a fluorine-containing resin soluble in an organic solvent and containing a reactive group curable at room temperature.
Meanwhile, as fluorine-containing resins soluble in an organic solvent, there are known copolymers obtained from fluoroolefins and vinyl monomers copolymerizable therewith, as disclosed in JP-A-61-275311, JP-A-61-57690, JP-A-62-174213, JP-A-63-182312, U.S. Pat. No. 4,960,827, U.S. Pat. No. 4,859,755, U.S. Pat. No. 4,690,968, U.S. Pat. No. 4,436,773, U.S. Pat. No. 4,436,772, U.S. Pat. No. 4,345,057, U.S. Pat. No. 3,218,287, U.S. Pat. No. 3,166,524, U.S. Pat. No. 2,834,767 and EP-A-328,157.
In the above copolymers, however, alkyl vinyl ethers or special vinyl carboxylates are used as a comonomer, and these comonomers, which provide a coating with flexibility, are insufficient with respect to coating hardness, coating gloss, adhesion of a coating to a substrate, pot life, drying properties of a coating, compatibility with a curing agent or a solvent for a fluorine-containing resin, pigment dispersibility and storage stability. Thus, a fluorine-containing resin having well-balanced properties among these properties has not yet been developed.

Fluorine-containing resin and coating composition containing same as main component


An inflatable watercraft of the kayak type including a hull including:                a longitudinal bottom comprising a central longitudinal edge and two lateral longitudinal sides, so as to have a V-shaped cross section, the bottom comprising at least one inflatable shell, and        a stiffening upper structure comprising two lateral longitudinal inflatable shells and at least one transverse element mounted between the two lateral inflatable shells, each lateral inflatable shell being mounted on one of the lateral longitudinal sides of the longitudinal bottom, in which each of the two lateral inflatable shells comprises two superimposed walls, each of said walls including a textile mat and being connected together by a multitude of connecting threads distributed over the entire surface of said mats while forming a structure suited to be inflated to a pressure capable of stiffening said structure.

The present disclosure relates to the field of sport equipment and in particular the field of inflatable watercraft. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to kayak type inflatable watercraft.
There already exist inflatable watercrafts for the practice of kayaking. Such watercrafts are in particular described in document U.S. Pat. No. 9,452,809. Watercrafts of this type are formed of a plurality of inflatable elements, for example of materials called "dropstitch," assembled together so as to obtain a watercraft having the general shape of a kayak.
Such watercrafts, however, due to their inflatable structure, require an architecture leading to a shape which is not always suitable or which is not the most favorable for the practice of kayaking. Thus document U.S. Pat. No. 9,452,809 discloses an inflatable watercraft having a flat bottom which is not suited to the practice of kayaking on a sea with swells. Moreover, the watercraft also does not have a hydrodynamic hull surface allowing high-performance behavior of the watercraft on the water.
There also exist watercrafts of the boat type, in which only the floor is formed by a so-called "dropstitch" material, in in which the sides of the watercraft are formed by cylindrical inflatable elements. Watercrafts of this type are in particular described in documents FR 2 795 040 or FR 2 722 758.
However, such structures relate most often to motorized watercrafts, and not to watercrafts for kayaking. In particular, the cylindrical inflatable elements located on the sides and forming the main flotation elements of the watercraft, generally have considerable bulk in order to confer sufficient stiffness and buoyancy to the watercraft.


A tobacco smoke filter comprising one or more than one metal phthalocyanine, such as a copper phthalocyanine or an iron phthalocyanine, and further comprising one or more than one polycationic polymer.

It is widely known that tobacco smoke contains mutagenic and carcinogenic compounds which cause substantial morbidity and mortality to smokers. Examples of such substances include polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and nitrosamines.
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons appear to cause toxicity by intercalating within DNA molecules. Nitrosamines are electrophilic, alkylating agents which are potent carcinogens. Nitrosamines are not present in fresh or green tobaccos and are not formed during combustion. They are instead formed by reactions involving free nitrate during processing and storage of tobacco, or by the post-inhalation, metabolic activation of secondary amines present in tobacco smoke.
Attempts to reduce the amount of toxic and mutagenic compounds that reach the smoker include tobacco smoke filters positioned between the burning tobacco and the smoker. Conventional filters are made of cellulose acetate, with or without activated charcoal. These conventional filters, however, are only partially effective in reducing the amount of toxic and mutagenic compounds reaching the smoker. Further, conventional filters disadvantageously remove flavor compounds, thereby decreasing acceptance by the smoker.
Additionally, tobacco smokers tend to titrate their dose of nicotine to obtain the same amount of nicotine from low nicotine content tobacco products by inhaling more smoke than they would when using a high nicotine content a tobacco product. Hence, tobacco smokers will potentially be exposed to a greater amount of some carcinogens when using low nicotine content tobacco products than when using high nicotine content tobacco products.
There is, therefore, a need for an improved filter for a smokable device that substantially removes toxic and mutagenic compounds from tobacco smoke. Further, there is a need for an improved filter which allows the passage of flavor compounds while substantially removing toxic and mutagenic compounds from tobacco smoke. Additionally, there is a need for an improved filter which increases the ratio of nicotine to mutagenic compounds. Such an improved filter would preferably be simple and inexpensive to manufacture, and convenient to use.

Filter containing a metal phthalocyanine and a polycationic polymer


A stand-alone device for navigating in a space having at least three dimensions comprises a housing capable of being manipulated by a user. The housing houses means for generating signals that represent the inclination of the housing according to its pitch axes, rolling axes and yaw axes, and houses at least one isometric device that generates a control signal of a bi-directional displacement according to at least one axis of said space. The invention is used, in particular, for navigating in a virtual space.

In a virtual space, navigation consists in moving an object or a point of view relative to the virtual space. In particular, it may be a question of manipulating a mobile object in the virtual space or of moving an observation point in a virtual space. This type of navigation is used in particular in video games in a virtual space having three dimensions or for exploring a database having three dimensions, such as a geographical database.
Navigation in spaces having three dimensions is generally effected with the aid of peripheral devices placed on a work surface.
To enable navigation with six degrees of freedom in a space having three dimensions, systems are known requiring the simultaneous use of both hands to manipulate independently two navigation devices.
Accordingly, for example, it is routine to associate for navigation in a virtual space a keyboard with a peripheral mobile in a plane such as a standard mouse or a peripheral mobile in space of the joystick type.
The association of a standard mouse with a second navigation device of the joystick type may also be envisaged.
These different methods of navigation requiring the simultaneous use of both hands of the user make navigation not very intuitive. Learning the handling of these navigation devices is difficult and takes a long time, and may constitute a major impediment for many users. Moreover, these navigation devices generally require the use of a work surface for them to work.
This type of navigation technique is described in particular in the U.S. patent publication No. US 2002/14 0698.
There are also known navigation devices sensitive to six degrees of freedom corresponding to three rotations and three translations in space. One such device is described in the document U.S. Pat. No. 5,923,318, for example.
In such a device, navigation is obtained by movement of the device in space. It is a question of an isotonic device. The movements of the device are then translated into diverse actions of movement in the real or virtual navigation space.
However, because of the coupling of the different degrees of freedom in the same isotonic device, this type of navigation device is unsuitable for navigation in a space having three dimensions.

Stand-alone device, system and method for navigating in a space having at least three dimensions


The present disclosure provides an addressing method, an addressing apparatus, a fabric manager, a switch, and a data routing method for data center networks. The addressing apparatus includes a tree creating unit for, sequentially with each of switches as a root, creating a tree containing all hosts by means of network topology discovery function, to obtain a plurality of trees; a tree selecting unit for selecting a tree having a minimum height among the created plurality of trees; and an address assigning unit for assigning addresses to each of switches and each of hosts in a network with respect to each selected tree having a minimum height. The present disclosure is adaptable to various topologies employed by the data center. The present disclosure can achieve aggregation of locator addresses so that a forwarding table can be shortened, and can achieve load balance of the network.

Cloud services are driving the creation of data centers that hold tens to hundreds of thousands of servers. Additionally, a data center concurrently supports multiple distinct applications, some of which require bandwidth-intensive all-to-all communications among servers in the data center. The large scale and the development of applications bring challenges to the network fabric of a data center.
Objects of a data center network involve interconnecting a number of data center servers and providing efficient and fault-tolerant routing and forwarding services to high-level applications. There are mainly two choices for data center network fabric, i.e. layer-2 network and layer-3 network.                In a layer-2 network, a data center is regarded as a single Ethernet. Ethernet makes network management easy (plug-and-play, seamless virtual machine migration, etc). However, Ethernet cannot scale to networks with tens of thousands of servers.        Layer-3 approach can overcome the scalability problem, but it sacrifices Ethernet's simplicity and imposes administrative burden.
New methods and systems are proposed by researchers to address the scalability problem of Ethernet, for supporting a "plug-and-play", large-scale data center network.
Ethernet is a common LAN (Local Area Network) technology in use today. It identifies nodes in the network with MAC addresses. Different from a hierarchical structure of IP addresses, a MAC address has a flat structure and is unique worldwide. A forwarding table in a switch stores mapping records from destination MAC addresses to outgoing ports.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram for illustrating creation of a forwarding table by a switch in a self-learning manner. When a data frame arrives at a switch, the switch checks source MAC address of the data frame and stores in a forwarding table a mapping between the source MAC address and a port into which the data frame comes. By virtue of the self-learning mechanism and use of MAC address, network management becomes easier and the switch is capable of "plug-and-play".
However, Ethernet cannot be scaled to networks with tens of thousands of servers for the following reasons. Firstly, MAC addresses are not hierarchical and thus multiple MAC addresses cannot be aggregated together. Since a forwarding table of a switch stores mapping records between destination MAC addresses and outgoing ports, MAC addresses of all hosts in the entire network need to be stored in the forwarding table of each switch. Buffer size of the switch limits the number of hosts in the network. Secondly, for a data frame having an unknown destination MAC address (the destination MAC address is not stored in the forwarding table), the switch sends (broadcasts) it to all ports except the port at which the data frame arrives, as shown in FIG. 2. In addition, some basic network services (such as Address Resolution Protocol, Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, etc) are performed by broadcasting. This broadcasting mechanism also restrains Ethernet from expanding to a large scale. Finally, Ethernet uses Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) to avoid loops, but forwarding along a single tree results in inefficient routing and unbalancing link loads.
Thus, a data center network cannot be constructed as a large LAN. One solution is to employ a mixture of layer-2 and layer-3 configurations. That is, a data center is constructed as a plurality of LANs which are connected by IP routes. Each LAN consists of tens or hundreds of machines and forms an IP subnet. The mixture of layer-2 and layer-3 configurations can overcome the scalability problem, but it sacrifices Ethernet's simplicity and imposes administrative burden. An object of the present disclosure lies in solving the scalability problem of Ethernet so as to support a "plug-and-play", large-scale data center network.
Reference 1 proposes PortLand protocol, i.e. a set of layer-2 addressing, routing and forwarding protocols for data center networks. According to this protocol, Pseudo MAC (PMAC) addresses are assigned to all hosts in the network to encode their position in the topology. PMAC addresses enable efficient forwarding with less switch states. Below, a more detailed description of the PortLand system is given.
FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of architecture of a PortLand system.
In the PortLand system, each end host is assigned a PMAC (for example, PMAC "00.00.01.02.00.01" is assigned to an end host having MAC address of "00.19.B9.FA.88.E2" and IP address of "10.5.1.2", as shown in FIG. 3), which encodes the location of the end host in the topology. The PMAC addresses but not the actual MAC addresses are stored in the forwarding table for forwarding data packets. PMAC addresses are hierarchical and thus the switches can maintain smaller forwarding tables. Additionally, the PortLand system introduces a centralized fabric manager (FM) 300 which maintains configuration information and state of the network. Contrary to the pure broadcasting mechanism in conventional Ethernet, FM 300 can facilitate ARP resolution and improve performance of fault tolerance.
The PortLand protocol comprises a set of addressing, routing and forwarding protocols based on Fat Tree topology (see Reference 3). In Fat Tree topology, switches are divided into three layers: edge layer, aggregation layer and core layer. All switches in respective layers are identical, each including k ports. FIG. 3 shows a Fat Tree topology with k=4. The fat tree is split into k individual pods. As shown in dotted line boxes of edge layer and aggregation layer in FIG. 3, a pod is formed by k switches in each box. In general, the fat tree can support non-blocking communications among k3/4 hosts by using 5k2/4 individual k-port switches.
Edge switches assign respective 48-bit PMAC addresses to all directly connected hosts, respectively. PMAC addresses are hierarchical and encode locations of hosts in the topology. The format of PMAC address is as follows:                pod.position.port.vmidwherein        'pod' has 16 bits and represents the pod number of the edge switch,        'position' has 8 bits and indicates the position of the edge switch in the pod,        'port' has 8 bits and represents the port number of the edge switch the host connected to, and        'vmid' has 16 bits and indicates the number of virtual machine on the physical machine (there may be a plurality of virtual machines on the same physical machine).
In the example shown in FIG. 3, the third host from left has a PMAC address of "00.00.01.02.00.01", wherein                pod '00.00' indicates pod 0,        position '01' represents position 01 in pod 0,        port '02' indicates that the end host is connected to port 02 of the edge switch, and        vmid '00.01' indicates that virtual machine in the end host has a number of 1.
As shown in FIG. 3, the PMAC addresses but not the actual MAC address are stored in the forwarding table (shown in the table on right side of FIG. 3) for forwarding data packets. Contrary to the flat structure of MAC addresses, PMAC addresses are hierarchical and thus the switches only need to maintain smaller forwarding tables. The forwarding tables of switches in respective layers are as follows:                In core switch: pod.*outgoing port For example, ports 0 and 1 of the core switch of FIG. 3 on the most right side are connected to pod 0 and 1 respectively. Therefore, all data packets having destination MAC addresses "00.00.*" are sent to port 0, which means that all data packets destined to pod 0 are sent to port 0. Similarly, all data packets destined to pod 1 are sent to port 1.        In aggregation switch: pod.position.*outgoing port For example, the aggregation switch of FIG. 3 on the most right side belongs to pod 3, i.e. 00.11. Thus, all data packets having destination MAC addresses "00.11.*" are sent to this pod 3, wherein all data packets having destination MAC addresses "00.11.00.*" are sent to the edge switch with position '0' (i.e. port 0), and all data packets having destination MAC addresses "00.11.01.*" are sent to the edge switch with position '1' (i.e. port 1). Data packets having other destination MAC addresses are sent to other pods through port 2 or port 3 as uplink data packets.        In edge switch: pod.position.port.*outgoing port For example, the edge switch of FIG. 3 on the most right side belongs to pod 3, position 1, i.e. 00.11.01. It has two hosts directly connected thereto, wherein all data packets having destination MAC addresses of "00.11.01.00.*" are sent to port 0, and all data packets having destination MAC addresses "00.11.01.01.*" are sent to port 1. Data packets having other destination MAC addresses are sent to other hosts through port 2 or port 3 as uplink data packets.
The PortLand protocol comprises a set of layer-2 addressing, routing and forwarding protocols for data center networks. However, the PortLand protocol is limited to this Fat Tree topology and cannot be applied to other topologies. For example, the format of PMAC used by the PortLand protocol, pod.position.port.vmid, cannot be directly applied to Clos topology as proposed in Reference 2.
FIG. 4 is a schematic of Clos topology. Clos topology is also divided into three layers, wherein Top of Rack (ToR) switches are similar to edge switches in Fat Tree topology which are connected to end hosts directly. All switches in Fat Tree topology are identical. In Clos topology, however, core switches and aggregation switches are switches with 10G ports, and ToR switches are connected to the aggregation switches via 10G uplink ports but to hosts via 1G downlink ports.
There is no concept of pod in Clos topology. Thus, the format of PMAC (pod.position.port.vmid) cannot be utilized directly. If an aggregation switch corresponds to a pod (for example, aggregation switches S3 and S4 correspond to pod 0 and pod 1 respectively), the ToR switches cannot be addressed. Since each ToR switch is connected to two aggregation switches, such as ToR switch S7 connected to aggregation switches S3 and S4, the pod number of ToR switch S7 may be 0 or 1. Consequently, the PortLand protocol proposed in Reference 1 cannot be directly applied into Clos topology proposed in Reference 2.

Addressing method, addressing apparatus, fabric manager, switch, and data routing method


A method and apparatus for generating energy from a composition comprising urea and water are described. The method in one embodiment includes: (a) reacting the urea with water to form ammonia; and (b) oxidizing the ammonia formed in step (a) to form water and nitrogen generating energy. The apparatus in one embodiment contains: (a) a first container for providing the composition; (b) a second container for reacting the urea with water to form ammonia, wherein the second container is connected to the first container by means for delivering the composition from the first container to the second container; (c) a third container for providing ammonia, wherein the third container is connected to the second container by means for delivering ammonia from the third container to the second container; and (d) a fourth container for oxidizing ammonia to form water and nitrogen generating energy, wherein the fourth container is connected to the second container by means for delivering ammonia from the second container to the fourth container. The method and apparatus are used to generate energy for use in stationary and mobile applications.

Fossil fuels constitute the largest source of energy supply in the world. Their availability in large quantities, high energy density, and relatively low cost makes fossil fuels the fuel of choice for many applications for both industries and consumers. Nonetheless, an alternative to fossil fuels as an energy source is highly desirable for safety reasons, for environmental reasons, and to reduce the dependence of the industrialized world on oil imported from relatively few oil-producing countries. In spite of these compelling arguments in favor of new energy sources, no economical, safe and readily available fuel has been found to be a viable alternative for fossil fuels, especially in automotive and portable power applications, even though extensive research has been aimed at developing a fuel having the many positive characteristics of gasoline without its drawbacks.
A new, alternative fuel should fulfill several requirements. The cost of the fuel should be competitive with the cost of current energy sources. The fuel should have no undesirable emissions. It should have a high energy density, as gasoline does, to avoid the need for frequent refilling. The fuel should be easy to handle. Preferably, it should be non-flammable and nontoxic, and have a pH as close to 7 as possible. Finally, it should be universally available through a reliable distribution infrastructure that can be readily expanded. There is therefore a need in the art for a fuel having all of the above characteristics.
Current efforts directed to new fuels have not provided a fuel that is cost effective compared to gasoline. Furthermore, the effectiveness of any of the proposed alternatives as a source of energy appears problematic. For example, although hydrogen may be obtained from fossil or non-fossil sources, problems related to handling during transportation and to storage make hydrogen a poor chioce for a consumer-oriented fuel. Other fuels, such as methanol, are toxic and flammable and still require a certain amount of fossil fuel, in the form of either natural gas or carbon monoxide, to be economically produced. Sources of hydrogen such as chemical hydrides, while easy and effective to use, require a recycle loop if it is desired to re-utilize the hydrides, as discussed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,804,329 and 6,534,033.
All fossil fuel type reformers require crude oil based liquid fuels and therefore do not alleviate the need for fossil fuels. It is also questionable whether the cost of such reformers may become economical or whether the net "well to wheel" efficiency of such a system may ever match that of a high compression ratio engine. Therefore, it is desirable to provide a fuel that may be used safely within the existing infrastructure, and which at the same time may function as a non-fossil source without causing an increase change in cost at the fuel pump. For example, urea is currently made in very large quantites at a price which can allow it to be competitive with gasoline. It is currently made from hydrogen obtained from natural gas, thereby avoiding the need to import oil. At the same time, the source of hydrogen is flexible, so that non-fossil hydrogen sources may be seamlessly substituted for fossil hydrogen sources to produce urea.

Urea based composition and system for same


In an OFDM transmitting apparatus, where m (where m is an integer of one or greater) adjacent subcarriers are adopted as a set, an orthogonal code generator generates orthogonal codes of each set in such a manner that the orthogonal codes will be orthogonal in the time direction in regard to m subcarriers of each set and orthogonal in the subcarrier direction in regard to m pilot symbols. An orthogonal code multiplier uses orthogonal codes of each set to multiply subcarrier components of the corresponding set, and an IFFT unit applies IFFT processing to the results of multiplication in each subcarrier.

This invention relates to a pilot multiplexing method and OFDM receiving method in an OFDM system and, more particularly, to a pilot multiplexing method and OFDM receiving method in an OFDM system for spreading pilot symbols by prescribed orthogonal codes and transmitting the pilot symbols together with transmit symbols.
Multicarrier modulation schemes have become the focus of attention as next-generation mobile communication schemes. Using multicarrier modulation not only makes it possible to implement wideband, high-speed data transmission but also enables the effects of frequency-selective fading to be mitigated by narrowing the band of each subcarrier. Further, using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing not only makes it possible to raise the efficiency of frequency utilization but also enables the effects of inter-symbol interference to be eliminated by providing a guard interval for every OFDM symbol.
(a) of FIG. 16 is a diagram useful in describing a multicarrier transmission scheme. A serial/parallel converter 1 converts serial data to parallel data and inputs the parallel data to orthogonal modulators 3a to 3d via low-pass filters 2a to 2d, respectively. In the Figure, the conversion is to parallel data comprising four symbols S1 to S4. Each symbol includes an in-phase component and a quadrature component. The orthogonal modulators 3a to 3d subject each of the symbols to orthogonal modulation by subcarriers having frequencies f1 to f4 illustrated in (b) of FIG. 16, a combiner 4 combines the orthogonally modulated signals and a transmitter (not shown) up-converts the combined signal to a high-frequency signal and then transmits the high-frequency signal. With the multicarrier transmission scheme, the frequencies are arranged, as shown at (b) of FIG. 16, in such a manner that the spectrums will not overlap in order to satisfy the orthogonality of the subcarriers.
In orthogonal frequency division multiplexing, frequency spacing is arranged so as to null the correlation between a modulation band signal transmitted by an nth subcarrier of a multicarrier transmission and a modulation band signal transmitted by an (n+1)th subcarrier. (a) of FIG. 17 is a diagram of the structure of a transmitting apparatus that relies upon the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing scheme. A serial/parallel converter 5 converts serial data to parallel data comprising a plurality of symbols (I+jQ, which is a complex number). An IDFT (Inverse Discrete Fourier Transform) 6, which is for the purpose of transmitting the symbols as subcarriers having a frequency spacing shown in (b) of FIG. 17, applies an inverse discrete Fourier transform to the frequency data to effect a conversion to time data, and inputs the real and imaginary parts to an orthogonal modulator 8 through low-pass filters 7a, 7b. The orthogonal modulator 8 subjects the input data to orthogonal modulation, and a transmitter (not shown) up-converts the modulated signal to a high-frequency signal. In accordance with orthogonal frequency division multiplexing, a frequency placement of the kind shown in (b) of FIG. 17 becomes possible, thereby enabling an improvement in the efficiency with which frequency is utilized.
In recent years, there has been extensive research in multicarrier CDMA schemes (MD-CDMA) and application thereof to next-generation wideband mobile communications is being studied. With MC-CDMA, partitioning into a plurality of subcarriers is achieved by serial-to-parallel conversion of transmit data and spreading of orthogonal codes in the frequency domain. Owing to frequency-selective fading, subcarriers distanced by their frequency spacing experience independent fading on an individual basis. Accordingly, by causing code-spread subcarrier signals to be distributed along the frequency axis by frequency interleaving, a despread signal can acquire frequency-diversity gain.
An orthogonal frequency/code division multiple access (OFDM/CDMA) scheme, which is a combination of OFDM and MC-CDMA, also is being studied. This is a scheme in which a signal, which has been divided into subcarriers by MC-CDMA, is subjected to orthogonal frequency multiplexing to raise the efficiency of frequency utilization.
A CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) scheme multiplies transmit data having a bit cycle Ts by spreading codes C1 to CN of chip cycle Tc using a multiplier 9, as shown in FIG. 18, modulates the result of multiplication and transmits the modulated signal. Owing to such multiplication, a 2/Ts narrow-band signal NM can be spread-spectrum modulated to a 2/Tc wideband signal DS and transmitted, as shown in FIG. 19. Here Ts/Tc is the spreading factor and, in the illustrated example, is the code length N of the spreading code. In accordance with this CDMA transmission scheme, an advantage acquired is that an interference signal can be reduced to 1/N.
According to the principles of multicarrier CDMA, N-number of items of copy data are created from a single item of transmit data D, as shown in FIG. 20, the items of copy data are multiplied individually by respective ones of codes C1 to CN, which are spreading codes (orthogonal codes), using multipliers 91 to 9N, respectively, and products DC1 to DCN undergo multicarrier transmission by N-number of subcarriers of frequencies f1 to fN illustrated in (a) of FIG. 21. The foregoing relates to a case where a single item of symbol data undergoes multicarrier transmission. In actuality, however, as will be described later, transmit data is converted to parallel data of M symbols, the M-number of symbols are subjected to the processing shown in FIG. 20, and all results of M×N multiplications undergo multicarrier transmission using M×N subcarriers of frequencies f1 to fNM. Further, orthogonal frequency/code division multiple access can be achieved by using subcarriers having the frequency placement shown in (b) of FIG. 21.
FIG. 22 is a diagram illustrating the structure on the transmitting side of MC-CDMA (namely the structure of a base station). A data modulator 11 modulates transmit data of a user and converts it to a complex baseband signal (symbol) having an in-phase component and a quadrature component. A time multiplexer 12 time-multiplexes the pilot of the complex symbol to the front of the transmit data. A serial/parallel converter 13 converts the input data to parallel data of M symbols, and each symbol is input to a first spreader 14 upon being branched into N paths. The first spreader 14 has M-number of multipliers 141 to 14M. The multipliers 141 to 14M multiply respective ones of the branched symbols individually by codes C1, C2, . . . , CN constituting orthogonal codes and output the resulting signals. The orthogonal codes C1, C2, . . . , CN are Walsh codes that differ for every user. As a result, subcarrier signals S1 to SMN for multicarrier transmission by N×M subcarriers are output from the first spreader 14. That is, the first spreader 14 multiplies the symbols of every parallel sequence by the orthogonal codes, thereby performing spreading in the frequency direction. Next, a second spreader 15 further multiplies the subcarrier signals S1 to SMN by channel identification codes (cell scramble codes) G1 to GMN and outputs subcarrier signals S1′ to SMN′.
A code multiplexer 16 code-multiplexes the subcarrier signals generated as set forth above and the subcarrier signals of other users generated through a similar method. That is, for every subcarrier, the code multiplexer 16 combines the subcarrier signals of a plurality of users conforming to the subcarriers and outputs the result. An IFFT (Inverse Fast Fourier Transform) unit 17 applies an IFFT (Inverse Fast Fourier Transform) to the subcarrier signals that enter in parallel, thereby effecting a conversion to an OFDM signal (a real-part signal and an imaginary-part signal) on the time axis. A guard-interval insertion unit 18 inserts a guard interval into the OFDM signal, an orthogonal modulator applies orthogonal modulation to the OFDM signal into which the guard interval has been inserted, and a radio transmitter 20 up-converts the signal to a radio frequency, applies high-frequency amplification and transmits the resulting signal from an antenna.
The total number of subcarriers is (spreading factor N)×(number M of parallel sequences). Further, since fading that differs from subcarrier to subcarrier is sustained on the propagation path, a pilot is time-multiplexed onto all subcarriers and it is so arranged that fading compensation can be performed subcarrier by subcarrier on the receiving side. The time-multiplexed pilot is a common pilot that all users employ in channel estimation.
FIG. 23 is a diagram useful in describing a serial-to-parallel conversion. Here a common pilot P has been time-multiplexed to the front of one frame of transmit data. It should be noted that the common pilot P can be dispersed within a frame, as will be described later. If the common pilot per frame is, e.g., 4×M symbols and the transmit data is 28×M symbols, then M symbols of the pilot will be output from the serial/parallel converter 13 as parallel data the first four times, and thereafter M symbols of the transmit data will be output from the serial/parallel converter 13 as parallel data 28 times. As a result, in the period of one frame the pilot can be time-multiplexed into all subcarriers and transmitted. By using this pilot on the receiving side, channel estimation is performed on a per-subcarrier basis and channel compensation (fading compensation) becomes possible.
FIG. 24 is a diagram useful in describing insertion of a guard interval. If an IFFT output signal conforming to M×N subcarrier samples (=1 OFDM symbol) is taken as one unit, then guard-interval insertion signifies copying the tail-end portion of this symbol to the leading-end portion thereof. Inserting a guard interval GI makes it possible to eliminate the effects of inter-symbol interference ascribable to multipath.
FIG. 25 is a diagram showing structure on the receiving side of MC-CDMA. A radio receiver 21 subjects a received multicarrier signal to frequency conversion processing, and an orthogonal demodulator subjects the receive signal to orthogonal demodulation processing. A timing-synchronization/guard-interval removal unit 23 establishes receive-signal timing synchronization, removes the guard interval GI from the receive signal and inputs the result to an FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) unit 24. The FFT unit 24 executes FFT processing and converts the signal in the time domain to N×M-number of subcarrier signals (subcarrier samples) SP1 to SPMN at an FFT window timing. A channel estimation unit 25a performs channel estimation on a per-subcarrier basis using the pilot time-multiplexed on the transmitting side, and a channel compensation unit 25b multiplies the FFT output by channel estimation values CC1 to CCMN of respective ones of the subcarriers.
The channel estimation unit 25a multiplies the subcarrier components of each pilot symbol output from the FFT unit 24 by channel identification Gold codes, adds the results of multiplication subcarrier by subcarrier and calculates the channel estimation values CC1 to CCMN of each of the subcarriers based upon the average value. That is, the channel estimation unit 25a estimates the influence exp(jφ) of fading of each subcarrier on phase using the pilot signal, and the channel compensation unit 25b multiplies the subcarrier signal of the transmit symbol by exp(−jφ) to compensate for fading.
A first despreader 26 multiplies the fading-compensated M×N-number of subcarrier signal components by channel identification Gold codes G1 to GMN and outputs the results. That is, the fading-compensation signals are despread by channel identification Gold codes and a signal of the station's own address is extracted from among the code-multiplexed signals. A second despreader 27 has M-number multipliers 271 to 27M. The multiplier 271 multiplies N-number of subcarrier signals individually by codes C1, C2, . . . , CN constituting orthogonal codes (Walsh codes) assigned to users and outputs the results. The other multipliers also execute similar processing. As a result, the signal addressed to the local station is despread by spreading codes assigned to each of the users, and a signal of a desired user is extracted from the code-multiplexed signals by despreading.
Combiners 281 to 28M each add the N-number of results of multiplication that are output from respective ones of the multipliers 271 to 27M, thereby creating parallel data comprising M-number of symbols. A parallel/serial converter 29 converts this parallel data to serial data, and a data demodulator 30 demodulates the transmit data.
(a) of FIG. 26 is a diagram useful in describing an array of Gold codes G1 to GMN (MN=512) for channel identification purposes. The codes are shifted eight at a time in the subcarrier direction for every OFDM symbol. The reason for shifting the codes is as follows: As mentioned above, the channel estimation unit 25a on the receiving side multiplies the subcarrier components of each pilot symbol output from the FFT unit 24 by channel identification Gold codes, adds the results of multiplication subcarrier by subcarrier and calculates the channel estimation values CC1 to CCMN of each of the subcarriers based upon the average value. That is, a channel estimation value CCm of an mth subcarrier is given by the following equation:CCm=(1/Np)·ΣiRm(k)·*Gm(k) (i=1 to Np)  (1)where Rm(k) represents an FFT output of the mth subcarrier in a kth pilot symbol, Gm(k) a channel identification Gold code of the mth subcarrier in the kth pilot symbol, and * a complex conjugate. Accordingly, in a case where the channel identification Gold codes G1 to GMN are not shifted, as illustrated in (b) of FIG. 26, *Gm(k)=*Gm holds and therefore we have the following:CCm=(*Gm/Np)·ΣiRm(k)  (2)Similarly, if we let Gm(k)′ represent a channel identification Gold code of the mth carrier in the kth pilot symbol of another channel, then a channel estimation value CCm of the mth subcarrier is given by the following equation:CCm=(1/Np)·ΣiRm(k)·*Gm(k)′ (i=1 to Np)  (3)If the channel identification Gold codes G1 to GMN are not shifted, therefore, then *Gm(k)′=*Gm′ holds and therefore we have the following:CCm=(*Gm′/Np)·ΣiRm(k)  (4)If *Gm=*Gm′ holds, then, in view of Equations (2) and (4), the channel estimation values of the mth subcarriers of the two channels will be the same. Moreover, it will no longer be possible to identify which channel estimation value belongs to which channel. For this reason, the channel identification codes are shifted in the subcarrier direction for every OFDM symbol, as depicted in (a) of FIG. 26.
FIG. 27 is a diagram for describing the operation of the channel estimation unit. Here n (n=4) pilot symbols (four OFDM pilot symbols) are multiplexed upon being dispersed within one frame composed of 32 OFDM symbols. Since one pilot symbol is composed of subcarrier samples equivalent to the number M of subcarriers (M×N, e.g., 512), subcarrier-by-subcarrier channel (amplitude characteristic and phase characteristic) estimation becomes possible by multiplying the FFT output by the channel identification Gold codes at the pilot-receive timing on the receiving side. More specifically, to perform channel estimation, n (=4) sets of m (m=8) subcarrier samples in the frequency direction are gathered in the time direction to construct one group by a total of m×n (=32) subcarrier samples, as indicated at PG1 in FIG. 27, and the average value of m×n (=32) channel estimation values in this group is adopted as the channel estimation value of the subcarrier at the center. Further, to obtain the channel estimation value of the next subcarrier, n (=4) sets of m (=8) subcarrier samples shifted by one subcarrier in the frequency direction are gathered in the time direction to construct one group by a total of 32 subcarrier samples, as indicated at PG2, and the channel estimation value is similarly calculated using the average value in the group PG2. The reason for obtaining the channel value by averaging as set forth above is that since each symbol contains noise, the effects of such noise are eliminated by averaging to thereby improve the S/N ratio. If subcarriers are very close in terms of frequency, the channel values are almost the same and therefore no problems are caused by averaging.
In OFDM communication described above, only one pilot can be used and it is not possible to deal with a case where it is desired to use pilots of a plurality of types. For example, as shown in FIG. 28, the vicinity of a base station is divided into sectors and directional beams are emitted from antennas AT1 to AT3 in sectors SC1 to SC3. In this arrangement, it is necessary to identify mobile stations MS1 to MS3 sector by sector. This means that it is necessary to use pilots that differ for every sector. With the conventional methods, however, it is not possible to use pilots of a plurality of types.
A method of using orthogonal codes is available as one method of multiplexing pilot signals of a plurality of types. This method involves adopting m (where m is an integer of one or greater) adjacent subcarriers as a set and multiplying the total of m×n subcarrier components of each set in n-number of pilot symbols by orthogonal codes. Pilot signals the number of which is equivalent to the number of orthogonal codes can be multiplexed at the same frequency and same timing.
If pilots are multiplexed by orthogonal codes, however, demultiplexing of each pilot cannot be performed until all codes are received. Consequently, a problem which arises is that it is not possible to cope with a situation where a momentary channel estimation value is desired at a stage where one or two pilot symbols, for example, have been received.

Pilot multiplexing method and OFDM receiving method in OFDM system


A brokered authentication request is received corresponding to an interaction between a particular user and a particular online entity. An identity provider corresponding to the particular user is identified that stores user data identifying the particular user. Confirmation is received that the identity provider has authenticated the particular user to a user profile maintained by the identity provider and a unique persistent user identifier is generated for the particular user that is unique within a system to a pairing of the first user with the first entity. The user identifier is caused to be communicated to the first entity for authenticating the first user in interactions with the first entity.

The Internet has enabled interconnection of different computer networks all over the world. Additionally, a constantly evolving array of applications and services have developed using these networks, in some cases, developing entire industries, including electronic mail services, ecommerce, social media, gaming, online payment systems, etc. Online services can also allow for highly-customized user experiences. Accordingly, hosts of applications and services maintain user account data storing a variety of information describing attributes of the user, including sensitive personal attributes such as users' addresses, government-issued identifiers (such as Social Security numbers), birthdates, bank account information, credit card information, credit history, etc. Entrusting such information across a variety of widely-distributed entities and their sensitivity makes it more difficult for users to control such information and protect against its undesired dissemination and use. Additionally, as users maintain relationships with a variety of different services, keeping their personal information up to date and consistent across multiple user accounts can be difficult. Moreover, users sometime manage multiple different usernames and passwords, sometimes based on varying username and password schemes of the disparate hosts, further complicating account management.
Some online entities have attempted to develop solutions to consolidate management of user information and passwords. For instance, online "passport" systems and services have been developed, such as Microsoft™ Account, OpenID™, OAuth™, Google™ ID, among others. In some instances, the providers of such passport and single sign-on systems can also be content and/or service providers, both providing services based on user profiles as well as providing portals for managing a user's multiple accounts and profile.
Like reference numbers and designations in the various drawings indicate like elements.


An electronic scheduling calendar is made more useful to a user by merging to-do list items onto an event list schedule. A user can assign priorities to the to-do list items and estimates of how much time is required to complete each item. Then, upon request by the user, the to-do list items will be placed onto the event list in an available time slot on an available day.

Electronic calendar usage has greatly proliferated as the use of personal computers has gained popularity. Electronic calendar systems allow a user to maintain a personal or group schedule on a day-to-day basis. Other calendar functions often include the ability to schedule meetings, check other calendars, prepare a personal memorandum applicable to a single date, and maintain a current "To-do List".
A user is generally provided with a time breakdown of each individual day in order to schedule and see events for that day. By utilizing pop up menus, drop down boxes, etc., the user may enter dates, times, attendees, and event descriptions for placement into the time breakdowns.
Many current calendars also provide a "To-do List" as separate items typically carried on a separate portion of the calendar or in a separate file. Whenever a user selects an entry for a to-do list item, the appropriate information may be inserted and then appears only in the to-do list. There is no known solution which integrates to-do list items with the scheduling calendar. The term integrate or integration, as used herein, is meant to describe the merging of separate items from separate lists into one list rather than merely being packaged together or displayed in the same on-screen panel. Thus, it is desirable to provide a method and system which will allow integration of to-do items with a scheduling calendar.

Method and system for automatically integrating scheduled work items onto an electronic calendar

International Business Machines Corporation


The present invention relates to a toy car kit comprised of a block or frame, wheels, a motor and electric circuitry to operate the toy vehicle.

There are a number of science, technology, or engineering toys which are used to interest children, especially in the 8 to 14 year age range, learning the art and science of electric circuits, the mechanics of motors of pulleys and to get them generally interested in science and technology. The present invention allows children to obtain hands-on experience in building a motorized vehicle and hopefully create the beginnings of future automotive engineers and scientists.


In one embodiment, the present invention is a system for two dimensional digital image processing. The system includes a memory access module for accessing a memory containing image data to be processed, and a data flow organizer module for preparing a data stream from the input image data accessed by the memory access module. The data flow organizer module predicts future data neede for processing, and the memory access module pre-fetches the predicted data from the memory. A data processing module processes the pre-fetched data from the data flow organizer module. Address generation for accessing the memory is performed independent and in parallel with processing the pre-fetched data.

Most of digital image processing algorithms are memory access intensive. For example, a 3×3 window mean filter algorithm with simplest software implementation would have 9 memory reads, 10 memory address calculations, 8 add operations, one divide operation, and one memory store operation for each pixel as follow:OUT[i][j]=(IN[i−1][j−1]+IN[i−1][j]+IN[i−1][j+1]+IN[i][j−1]+IN[i][j]+IN[i][j+1]+IN[i+1][j−1]+IN[i+1][j]+IN[i+1][j+1])/9;
where OUT[i] [j] is the output image gray scale value at row i and column j, and IN[i] [j] is the input image gray scale value at row i and column j.
With initialization of the sum of 9 input image pixels, the above algorithm can be optimized as:SUM=SUM−(IN[i−1][j−2]+IN[i][j−2]+IN[i+1][j−2])+(IN[i−1][j+1]+IN[i][j+1]+IN[i+1][j+1]); OUT[i][j]=SUM/9;
Here, there are still 6 memory read operations, one memory write operation, 3 add operations, 3 subtract operations, one divide operation, and 7 memory address calculations.
For a general-purpose microprocessor, the memory address calculation operation, memory read and write operations take a large portion of the executing instruction flow. Traditional microprocessors can be classified into three types from an architectural viewpoint, 1) General purpose CPU(CISC/RISC), 2)DSP and 3) Parallel Array processor.
General purpose CPU normally has one Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU) to take care of all the data manipulations and address calculations in serial. A DSP has one or more simple Adders to update the data address registers at the same time, while making data calculation in main ALU. This feature can double or triple the speed of a one dimensional (1-D) filter with a single cycle Multiplier and Accumulator (MAC).
A parallel array processor has many similar simplified ALUs. The data to be processed is fed through a hardwired data-path. Many special-function processors like FFT/Motion estimation processors or so-called general-purpose systolic/wave-front processors share the same basic idea. However, these kinds of processors are typically inflexible, can do limited types of image processing operations, and take substantial silicon area.
Another example of a computation intensive application is a histogram operation on an image. A histogram is the distribution of gray levels in a given input image. The histogram of gray levels provides a representation of the appearance of an image. Histogram based image enhancement or noise filtering method has been widely used in various image processing fields and proves very effective. Histogram equalization is the most widely known method for image contrast enhancement, and is described in J. S. Lim, "Two-Dimensional Signal and Image Processing", Prentice Hall, Eaglewood Cliffs, N.J. 1990. Furthermore, a conventional histogram extraction circuit has been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,219,447 issued to Hyo seung Lee, Apr. 17, 2001, the entire contents of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
Traditional histogram operations are also memory intensive. After initializing, for each image pixel, there will be one image memory address calculation, one image memory read operation, one histogram memory address calculation, one histogram memory read operation, one add operation, and one histogram memory write operation as: Histogram [Image[u][v]]++.
Therefore, there is a need for an efficient and fast method and apparatus for two dimensional (2-D) image processing that minimizes the memory access bottleneck.

Method and apparatus for two dimensional image processing


A fabricated intelligent joint provided with particle damping chambers for energy dissipation includes a core steel frame, an external fully-fabricated steel pipe column, a fully-fabricated annular beam-column connecting assembly, a structural health detection system and particle damping chambers. The core steel frame is located in the external fully-fabricated steel pipe column, is concentric with the external fully-fabricated steel pipe column and comprises a circular hollow steel keel and a plurality of protruding steel plate wings. The external fully-fabricated steel pipe column is formed by splicing a plurality of arc steel pipe column sheets. A space between the external fully-fabricated steel pipe column and the circular hollow steel keel of the core steel frame has the particle damping chambers installed therein and has concrete poured therein. A large quantity of spherical rubber particles is contained in the particle damping chambers.

With the development of economy and the improvement of living standards, the requirement of people for housing conditions is becoming higher and higher from the requirement for having houses to live therein to the requirements for good houses, that is, the living space should be not only available, but also should be spacious, comfortable and safe. Accordingly, higher requirements are put forward for the house construction technology. In recent years, various novel building techniques have emerged endlessly with the development of building industrialization, wherein the fabricated steel-structure building technique has become mature after years of development. Fabricated steel-structure buildings have been widely accepted by people thanks to their advantages of being convenient to construct, environmentally friendly in construction, good in seismic performance and capable of realizing steel reserves, and the like.
The performance of steel-structure joints as key stress components of a fabricated steel structure has a decisive influence on the performance of the whole structure. However, existing fabricated steel-structure building joint techniques still have the following drawbacks: first, although the steel-structure joints are easy to construct compared with reinforced concrete structures, there are still certain processes having high requirements for the skills of constructors such as welding and the quality cannot be kept consistent due to field operation by the constructors; second, the assembly degree is low, and components are too large and difficult to transport; third, the seismic performance is poor, and under the effect of an earthquake, weld joints may crack, or the whole joints may be deformed or irrecoverably destroyed; and fourth, the degree of intelligence is low, and neither the performance of steel pipe columns nor the performance of concrete inside can be effectively monitored and evaluated.

Fabricated intelligent joint provided with particle damping chambers for energy dissipation and assembly method


A method of control includes operating in autonomous mode and steering according to a tracking angle. The method also includes receiving a torque signal indicating a measured torque being applied to a steering control device and determining a difference between an expected torque and the measured torque, and based on a direction of the expected torque, the direction of the measured torque, and the difference between the two, switching from autonomous mode of operation to manual mode operation.

Autonomous vehicles are configured to control various operations, such as acceleration, braking, and steering, without human input. The autonomous vehicle may require or allow a human operator to take control in different circumstances, for example, when the human operator desires to override autonomous operations or simply desires to drive the vehicle.


A system and method for performing complex queries in a database system. The method identifies a single type of entity in the database. A table or set of columns is formed that is used to track which entries meet the various subcriteria in a complex query through entry of binary marker bits. Logical operations may be performed on such marker bits to identify those entities meeting the specified search criteria. Through appropriate search planning, the bits may be "reused" during the query search. The method may be used in combination with, for example, index searches and other optimized searching techniques.

The present invention relates to the field of database systems. More specifically, in one embodiment the invention provides a system and method for evaluating database queries.
Many applications of database systems have evolved over the past several years, and the size of the databases managed by these applications has become staggering in some instances. As the size of a managed database becomes large, it becomes increasingly difficult to evaluate the database to identify entries meeting particular query conditions. As an example, reservation systems often include millions of entries, and from these entries a single entry must be quickly located in order to serve a consumer. In other applications, such as manufacturing operations, millions of entries must be evaluated to identify which products, for example, meet certain manufacturing quality control criteria.
Historically, such queries were evaluated by "looking at" each entry in the database individually, and compiling the results as the entries were evaluated. A variety of techniques have been developed for evaluating such queries in a more efficient manner, however. For example, the use of indexes has become common. In an indexed database, a commonly queried field in the database is provided with a separate index field. When a query is applied against the database, it is then no longer necessary to evaluate each entry, enabling much faster access to a desired entry in a database. Such systems now commonly use a "b-tree" structure, as described in, for example, Knuth et al., The Art of Computer Programming, (1973). See Volume 3, Sorting and Searching, incorporated herein by reference for all purposes.
While meeting with some success, prior techniques have also met with certain limitations. For example, in indexed searching systems the size of the index can often become unwieldy both in terms of the size of the index and the time it takes to utilize the index. Moreover, when complex queries are imposed on the system, it often becomes difficult or impossible to use indexed systems because the parameters used in a complex query often have no index. Further, databases in which the data within the database are "denormalized" present particular difficulty, and procedures may need to be utilized to put the data in an acceptable form.
In the case of large databases, such complex queries can effectively not be performed, even on large computer systems. Moreover, the storage requirements of an index for such complex queries that span all fields would be unreasonably large.
From the above it is seen that an improved system and method for performing complex queries in a database system is needed.

System and method for performing database query using a marker table


A vehicle control apparatus includes: an information acquisition unit acquiring feature information indicating a feature regarding vehicle driving of an occupant of a vehicle; and a control unit changing at least one property included in a driving property or a manipulation property in the vehicle. Further, the control unit changes at least one property included in the driving property or the manipulation property of the vehicle, from a basic property of the vehicle to a property reflecting the feature information, based on the feature information, and brings the changed property close to the basic property of the vehicle in accordance with at least one of an integrated value of boarding hours, an integrated value of running distances, and the number of boardings of the vehicle of the occupant.

The present disclosure relates to a vehicle control apparatus.
In the related art, there is disclosed a technology of controlling many properties of a vehicle using an in-vehicle computer (Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2000-219092). In this technology, a smart card key stores a user preference value data such as performance parameters and ride quality parameters, and the in-vehicle computer adjusts a performance property and a ride quality property of a vehicle using the user preference value data.
In the related-art technology such as Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2000-219092, the property of the vehicle is adjusted based on individual taste (preference) of a user. Thus, in the long term, original performance that is based on a basic property set at the time of design/manufacturing of the vehicle, such as fuel consumption, cannot be sufficiently exerted in some cases. In addition, in the related-art technology, a case where the user changes a vehicle is not considered. In a case where the user changes a vehicle, the user sometimes feels uncomfortable in differences in manipulation feeling and running properties of a vehicle. Nevertheless, applying individual user taste data that had been used in a certain vehicle to a changed vehicle has not been considered.


A purse alarm includes a unitary housing mounted within the purse having a heat sensor to activate a latching circuit, whereupon sensing of heat such as by an unauthorized individual within the purse cavity effects actuation of an alarm to direct a tone generator to effect audible alarm through an associated speaker of the housing.

1. Field of the Invention
The field of invention relates to purse alarm structure, and more particularly pertains to a new and improved purse alarm wherein the same is operative through a heat activated sensor switch.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Purse alarms of various types are utilized throughout the prior art and typically are arranged to include mechanical switch actuation, such as exemplified in the U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,394,644; 4,885,570; 4,067,290; and 4,617,558.
Accordingly, the instant invention addresses a need not set forth in the prior art to utilize a heat activated thermo sensor to detect intrusion of unauthorized individuals into an associated purse and in this respect, the present invention substantially fulfills this need.


Systems and methods are presented that use the rate of change of a legged robot's centroidal angular momentum ({dot over (H)}G) in order to maintain or improve the robot's balance. In one embodiment, a control system determines the current value of {dot over (H)}G, compares this value to a threshold value, and determines an instruction to send to the robot. Executing the instruction causes the robot to remain stable or become more stable. Systems and methods are also presented that use a value derived from {dot over (H)}G in order to maintain or improve the robot's balance. In one embodiment, a control system determines the location of the Zero Rate of change of Angular Momentum (ZRAM) point (A), determines the distance between A and the location of the center of pressure of the resultant ground force, compares this value to a threshold value, and determines an instruction to send to the robot.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to controlling a legged robot so that the robot does not fall. More particularly, the present invention relates to controlling the robot based on the rate of change of the robot's angular momentum.
2. Description of Background Art
In order to engage in useful activities, a legged robot should be able to maintain its balance. The term "balance" generally refers to the preservation of overall rotational stability or equilibrium. If a robot's overall rotational equilibrium is lost, the robot can fall.
Control systems have been developed that instruct robots to take certain actions in an attempt to maintain or improve the robots' balance. A control system is usually based on a "stability criterion," which is a physical quantity that represents a robot's rotational equilibrium (or lack thereof). The value of the stability criterion varies based on the robot's state, and there is usually a range of values that indicate stability. If a robot's stability criterion does not fall within this goal range, the control system instructs the robot to take certain actions. These actions are meant to change the robot's state such that the value of the stability criterion approaches (or reaches) the goal range. By continuously monitoring the stability criterion, the controller can cause the robot to maintain or improve its stability over time.
One type of stability criterion is a point on the support surface (e.g., the ground) on which the robot is standing. One such point is the center of pressure (CoP). The CoP is the point of application of the resultant ground reaction force (GRF) underneath the robot's feet. Thus, the CoP exists as long as the robot is not airborne, since at least one of its feet is touching the ground at all times. The location of the CoP can be experimentally measured. In order for the robot to be stable, the CoP should be located within the robot's support polygon and, ideally, at the most central location within the polygon.
In robotics literature, the CoP is sometimes referred to as the zero moment point (ZMP). This literature provides a means to analytically compute (rather than experimentally measure) the location of the CoP/ZMP. The location of the CoP/ZMP is not well-defined when the support surface is non-planar. Although the location of the CoP/ZMP can quantify the stability of a relatively stable robot, it cannot do so for an unstable robot. This is because, in certain cases, the same CoP/ZMP location can correspond to several different states of a robot, and these states can have varying effects on the robot's stability.
Another such point is the foot-rotation indicator (FRI) point. The FRI point is related to the phenomenon of foot rotation and is applicable only during the single support phase of a biped. While, by definition, the CoP cannot leave the support polygon, the FRI point can. When the FRI point is located outside the support polygon, the distance between the FRI point and the support polygon is proportional to the amount of instability. The location of the FRI point is undefined when more than one foot is touching the ground.
What is needed are a stability criterion that overcomes the disadvantages of the previous criteria and a control technique that uses the criterion to maintain or improve a robot's balance.

Systems and methods for controlling a legged robot based on rate of change of angular momentum


A clothes drying device for using a vacuum to dry clothes includes a housing being positioned on a support surface. The housing includes a top wall, a bottom wall and a perimeter wall extending between the bottom wall and the top wall to define an interior space of the housing. A drum assembly is mounted in the interior space of the housing. The drum assembly receives clothes to be dried. A hole in the perimeter wall of the housing is in communication with the drum assembly to allow the clothes to be placed in the drum assembly. A vacuum pump is mounted in the interior space of the housing. The vacuum pump is in fluid communication with drum assembly to create a vacuum in the drum assembly to draw moisture out of the clothes in the drum assembly.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to clothes dryers and more particularly pertains to a new clothes dryer for using a vacuum to dry clothes.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of clothes dryers is known in the prior art. While these devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives and requirements, the need remains for a device that has certain improved features that detects a moisture level in the air being vacuumed from the device to turn off the device when the moisture level is below a predetermined level. Additionally, the device should include a heating element to maintain a minimal operating temperature in the device.


This disclosure concerns a semiconductor device that includes a booster portion including first switches and first capacitors; and a voltage converter comprising boosting stages each of which includes a second capacitor whose one end is connected to a first voltage source via a second switch and whose other end is connected to a reference voltage via a third switch, the second capacitor being charged on the basis of a voltage difference between the first voltage source and the reference voltage, and comprising fourth switches each of which is provided between two of the boosting stages to control the number of the second capacitors connected in series between a second power source and the other ends of the first capacitors according to the voltages of the first and second voltage sources, the voltage converter outputting clock signals with phases opposed to each other to adjacent ones of the first capacitors.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device provided with a booster circuit.
2. Background Art
FIG. 15 is a circuit diagram of a booster circuit 10 housed in a conventional semiconductor device (JP2002-51538A, hereinafter, referred to as Patent literature 1).
The booster circuit 10 is provided with transistors QNA1 to QNAm connected in series between an input IN and an output OUT and capacitors CA1 to CAm whose one ends are respectively connected to the respective transistors QNA1 to QNAm. The other ends of the capacitors CA1 to CAm are connected to a clock supplying source via a voltage converting portion 12,
The voltage converting portion 12 has voltage converting circuits VB1 to VBm connected to respective other ends of the respective capacitors CA1 to CAm. The voltage converting circuits VB1 to VBm receive clock signals Φ and Φbar having phases opposed to each other alternately and they boosts voltages of these clock signals to supply them to the capacitors CA1 to CAm. Timing charts of the clock signal Φ and Φbar are illustrated in FIG. 17. Thereby, the booster portion 11 boosts the input voltage Vin to output an output voltage Vout higher than the input voltage Vin.
FIG. 16 is a circuit diagram illustrating a constitution of one (hereinafter, called "voltage converting circuit VB) of the voltage converting circuits VB1 to VBm. The voltage converting circuit VB has a plurality of boosting stages including capacitors CB1 to CBk whose one ends are connected to a voltage source Vin via n-type transistors QNB1 to QNBk and whose other ends are grounded via n-type transistors QNC1 to QNCk. The voltage converting circuit VB further has p-type transistors QPA1 to QPAk. The transistors QPA1 to QPAk can connect all the capacitors CB1 to CBk in series between input and output.
Since the transistors QNB1 to QNBk and QNC1 to QNCk, and the transistors QPA1 to QPAk are different in conductive type, they are alternately switched by the clock signal Φ or Φbar. When the clock signal Φ or Φbar is High, the respective capacitors CB1 to CBk are connected in parallel between the input voltage Vin and the ground, and when the clock signal Φ or Φbar is Low, the capacitors CB1 to CBk are connected in series between the input voltage Vin and the output CLKOUT. As illustrated in FIG. 17, according to repetition of the clock signal Φ or Φbar between High and Low, the voltage converting circuit VB boosts the input voltage Vin to output the same from the output CLKOUT to either of the other ends of the capacitor CA1 to CAm.
Now, it is preferable that a power source voltage supplied externally of the semiconductor device (hereinafter, also simply called "power source voltage") is low for reducing power consumption. Conventionally, the power source voltage is lowered stepwise such as 5V and 3.3V (or 2.5V). In recent years, the power source voltage is further lowered from 3.3V to 1.8V. In such a transient term where the power source voltage is being lowered in this manner, a semiconductor device is required to accommodate a plurality of power source voltages with voltages different from one another.
Further, even in a semiconductor device corresponding to a single power source voltage in an ordinary operation, there occurs a case that a power source voltage higher than a power source voltage in the ordinary operation is used in a test step before shipping. For example, in order to make a judgement about an initial defective, a high voltage is used as a power source for accelerating failure in a burn-in step where a device is made defective by accelerating the defective condition. Thereby, it is preferable that the semiconductor device corresponds to a plurality of power source voltages with different voltages.
In general, in case that an operation of a semiconductor device is ensured when a power source voltage applied externally is in a range of Vccmin to Vccmax, such a design is made that the booster circuit outputs a desired output voltage when the power source voltage is Vccmin. An internal supply voltage (hereinafter, simply called "supply voltage") Vin is an external power source voltage itself or a voltage obtained by voltage-reducing this voltage, and it increases/decreases depending on the power source voltage. Thereby, assuming that the supply voltage Vin is in a range of Vinmin to Vinmax, the booster circuit is designed such that the supply voltage Vin outputs a desired output voltage, when the supply voltage Vin is Vinmin. For example, when voltages with two different ranges of 1.8V and 3V are used as the power source voltage Vcc, such a setting can be made that Vin=1.5V in case of Vcc=1.8V range (Vcc=1.5V to 2V) and Vin=2.5V in case of Vcc=3V range (Vcc=2.5V to 3.6V). In this case, the booster circuit 10 is generally designed so as to output a desired output voltage in case of Vcc=1.5V, namely, Vin=1.5V.
In this case, however, when the power source voltage Vcc is on the side of the Vccmax, or when the power source voltage Vcc in the burn-in step is higher than Vccmax, if the supply voltage Vin is set to be High according to the power source voltage Vcc, the booster circuit 10 results in possession of an excessive boosting capacity. For example, in case that the booster circuit 10 is designed so as to output a desired output voltage in case of Vcc=1.5V and Vin=1.5V, the booster circuit 10 has an excessive capacity with setting of Vcc=3V and Vin=2.5V (>1.5V).
Further, when the supply voltage Vin is set to be higher according to a relatively high power source voltage Vcc, all the boosting stages in the voltage converting circuit VB are boosted on the basis of the supply voltage Vin, so that excessive voltages are applied to transistors in the voltage converting circuit VB. Therefore, some or all of the transistors QNB1 to QNBk must comprise high breakdown voltage transistors. Since the high breakdown voltage transistor has a lower conductance than that of a low breakdown voltage transistor, it is necessary to increase the size (the channel width) of the former transistor in order to maintain a conductance approximately equal to that of the low breakdown voltage transistor. As a result, since a parasitic capacitance increases, there occur a problem that an operation efficiency of the voltage converting circuit VB lowers and a problem that a circuit area of the booster circuit 10 becomes large.
In order to solves the above problem, for example, Vin can be set to 1.5V even in case of Vcc=3V. However, a voltage drop of Vcc=3V down to 1.5V causes waste of power, which is undesirable. That is, considering the power consumption in the range of Vcc=3V, a consumed current of a product corresponding to both Vcc=1.8V range and Vcc=3V range becomes larger than that of a product corresponding to only Vcc=3V range.


A recording/reproducing apparatus and method can accurately reproduce high density record information by the mark-edge recording method. The apparatus and method can use a sag cancellation circuit or a reference slice level follow-up circuit immediately before or at amplitude limitation for amplitude of a read signal to attain transient correction. As a result, the recorded information can be reproduced even under a reproduction environment with a low signal to noise ratio without an amplitude limiter circuit for narrowing the margin for transient caused by sudden variation of direct current.

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for reproducing information in which information is recorded and reproduced at a high speed and high density using information reproduction means which uses magnetic force or a laser beam, and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for optically reproducing information with a laser beam or the like.
In an information recording/reproduction system using an optical or magnetic disk as a recording medium, there are a mark-position recording/reproduction scheme and a mark-edge recording/reproduction scheme.
In recent years, attention is being focused on a mark-edge recording scheme in which information is provided for the leading and trailing edges of a mark as a technology enabling high density recording.
To reproduce the mark-edge recorded information, there have been known a second order differential zero-cross detection type in which a read signal is second order differentiated for detecting a zero-cross point corresponding to an edge position, and a DC slice detection type in which a read signal is binary coded by slicing it with a reference level.
The edge reproduction scheme of such second order differential zero-cross detection type has an advantage that an apparatus can be easily implemented with a simple circuit configuration since its characteristics are not affected even if there is a sudden direct current (DC) variation due to defects or immediately after erasure of record, but it is very sensitive to a reproduced S/N ratio and distortion of waveform.
That is, the edge reproduction scheme of the second order differential zero-cross detection type has various problems. Noises (medium noise, LD noise, circuit noise or the like) causing problems in reading may be enhanced by the differential, and an inflection point of a second order differential signal does not correspond to an edge position of a record mark due to waveform distortion. These factors deteriorate an information signal detection accuracy, disabling to reduce the reproduction error rate.
Then, as an example of means for solving such disadvantage, Japanese Patent Publication (Unexamined) No. A-4-232659 proposes to use amplitude limitation means for the edge reproduction scheme of the second order differential zero-cross detection type.
FIG. 5 is an example of arrangements for conventional information recording/reproduction apparatus, while FIG. 6 illustrates the operation of information recording/reproduction apparatus of FIG. 5.
Information recorded on an information recording medium is extracted by an optical head 1, and amplified by an amplifier circuit 2.
The amplified read signal (a) is corrected for resolution by a linear phase type waveform equalizer circuit 3 to obtain a signal (c) limited for amplitude with an amplitude limiting circuit 5. The amplitude limited signal (c) is differentiated by a differential circuit 7 to obtain a first order differential signal (d), and compared for level with positive and negative slice levels +V.sub.T and -V.sub.T by a change direction extraction circuit 9 to obtain binary signals (f) and (g) for a direction of signal change. In addition, the first order differential signal (d) is differentiated by a differential circuit 8 to obtain a second order differential signal (e), and an inflection point signal (h) of the read signal is extracted by a zero-cross comparator circuit 10. An edge of the read data signal is extracted and binary coded from a timing relationship between the binary coded signals (f), (g) and the inflection point signal (h).
In such prior art, it has been believed that the reproduction error rate of read data information can be reduced by improving the reproduction S/N ratio or eliminating waveform distortion with the amplitude limiting means even in the edge reproduction scheme in the second order differential zero-cross detection type.
However, when the amplitude limiting means is applied to the edge reproduction scheme in the second order differential zero-cross detection type, it is only to improve the reproduction S/N ratio, which is a disadvantage shortcomings of this scheme, narrowing the characteristic margin against sudden direct current variation, which margin is originally an advantage of this scheme.
Then, there is a problem that reproduction error tends to occur (although the reproduction S/N ratio is improved) because up to an original edge extraction point is eliminated and lost by the amplitude limiting means was the variation of direct current component becomes significant as in the case immediately after erasure of a record or a defect in the recording medium.

Apparatus and method for recording/reproducing information


A method and a system for controlling hydrogen supply for a fuel cell are provided. The method includes calculating a target hydrogen supply pressure, which is a target pressure value of hydrogen supplied to a fuel cell stack based on a required output. A fuel supply valve (FSV) duty is then adjusted based on the calculated target hydrogen supply pressure and modes are determined based on the FSV duty or actual hydrogen supply pressure measurements of a sensor. A hydrogen supply pressure measurement is calculated according to each of the determined modes and the FSV duty is corrected based on the calculated target hydrogen supply pressure and the hydrogen supply pressure measurement.

A fuel cell system applied to a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle includes a fuel cell stack configured to generate electrical energy through electrochemical reactions of reaction gas; a hydrogen supply device configured to supply fuel hydrogen to the fuel cell stack; an air supply device configured to supply, to the fuel cell stack, air including oxygen which is an oxidizer necessary for the electrochemical reactions; and a heat and water management system configured to discharge heat, which is a by-product of the electrochemical reactions of the fuel cell stack, outside the fuel cell stack to optimally adjust an operation temperature of the fuel cell stack, and perform a water management function.
With regard to the hydrogen supply device for supplying the fuel hydrogen to the fuel cell stack, among others, the device is configured to control the duty of a fuel supply valve (FSV), arranged on a hydrogen supply line, to supply hydrogen in response to an output based on a driver's input, and thus supply hydrogen to the fuel cell stack. In particular, hydrogen, stored at high pressure in a hydrogen tank, is primarily decompressed through a head pressure control valve (HPR) and medium-pressure hydrogen is supplied to the front end of the FSV. The FSV supplies the medium-pressure hydrogen to the stack in an on/off control (e.g., pulse width modulation (PWM) control) manner.
In controlling the above-described FSV, two sensors may be provided for actually measuring a hydrogen supply pressure of the hydrogen supply line. In general, an average of hydrogen supply pressures which have been measured by the two sensors is used to calculate a hydrogen supply pressure measurement. However, when one of the two sensors has an error such as offset, moisture inflow, measurement stopping, etc. or when the sensors, although not short circuited or disconnected, sense an incorrect value, an error may occur in hydrogen supply pressure measurements. Accordingly, a correction value for the hydrogen supply amount may thus be erroneous, resulting in erroneously correcting the FSV duty or excessively oscillating control values. Thus, the hydrogen supplied to the fuel cell stack may be hyper- or hypo-pressurized, incurring the condition that fuel supply is interrupted.
The above information disclosed in this section is merely for enhancement of understanding of the background of the present disclosure and should not be taken as acknowledgement that this information forms the prior art that is already known to a person skilled in the art SUMMARY
The present disclosure provides a method for controlling hydrogen supply for a fuel cell, whereby the calculation of hydrogen supply pressure measurements is differentiated according to control modes for pressures of hydrogen supplied to a fuel cell stack to improve the reliability of hydrogen supply pressure measurements.
In accordance with an aspect of the present disclosure, a method for controlling hydrogen supply for a fuel cell according to the present disclosure may include calculating a target hydrogen supply pressure, which is a target pressure value of hydrogen supplied to a fuel cell stack based on a required output; operating a fuel supply valve (FSV) duty based on the calculated target hydrogen supply pressure; determining modes based on the FSV duty or an actual hydrogen supply pressure measurement of a sensor and calculating a hydrogen supply pressure measurement according to each of determined modes; and correcting the FSV duty based on the target hydrogen supply pressure and the hydrogen supply pressure measurement, which have been calculated.
The calculating of the target hydrogen supply pressure may include calculating a necessary hydrogen amount based on an output required for the fuel cell and a target hydrogen supply pressure based on the necessary hydrogen amount which has been calculated. In the operation of the FSV duty, the FSV duty may be calculated based on the target hydrogen supply pressure using a preset map and an FSV may be operated based on the calculated duty. In the calculating of the hydrogen supply pressure measurement, when the FSV duty is within a preset range, an average value of actual hydrogen supply pressure measurements of a plurality of sensors may be calculated as the hydrogen supply pressure measurement.
In the calculating of the hydrogen supply pressure measurement, when the FSV duty is equal to or greater than a preset value, the hydrogen supply pressure measurement may be calculated by averaging an average value of actual hydrogen supply pressure measurements of the plurality of sensors, and a hydrogen supply pressure according to the FSV duty. The hydrogen supply pressure according to the FSV duty may be derived using a preset map. In addition, in the calculating of the hydrogen supply pressure measurement, when an error of the actual hydrogen supply pressure measurements of the plurality of sensors is greater than a preset range, actual hydrogen supply pressure measurements of a part of the plurality of sensors may be selected and used for calculating a hydrogen supply pressure measurement.
An actual hydrogen supply pressure measurement which is the closest to the hydrogen supply pressure based on the FSV duty among the actual hydrogen supply pressure measurements of the plurality of sensors may be selected and used for calculating the actual hydrogen supply pressure measurements of a part of the plurality of sensors. In the calculating of the hydrogen supply pressure measurement, when the FSV duty is equal to or greater than a preset value and when an error between the actual hydrogen supply pressure measurements of the plurality of sensors is greater than a preset range, the hydrogen supply pressure measurement may be calculated by averaging an average value of the actual hydrogen supply pressure measurements of the plurality of sensors, a hydrogen supply pressure according to the FSV duty, and a target hydrogen supply pressure.
Further, in the calculating of the hydrogen supply pressure measurement, modes may be determined based on the hydrogen pressure variation rates (FpPrsRat), calculated based on a variation amount of the target hydrogen supply pressure and a variation amount of the actual hydrogen supply pressure measurement of the sensor. The hydrogen pressure variation rate (FpPrsRat) may be calculated by the following equation.
            F      p                  P      rs                  R      at        =      |                            Δ                                                                          P            sns                                    Δ                                                                          P            target                              -      1        |
wherein, ΔPtarget is a variation amount of a target hydrogen supply pressure and ΔPsns is a variation amount of an actual hydrogen supply pressure measurement of a sensor.
When the hydrogen pressure variation rate is equal to or greater than a first variation rate, the hydrogen supply pressure measurement may be calculated by averaging an average value of actual hydrogen supply pressure measurements of the plurality of sensors and a hydrogen supply pressure according to the FSV duty. In addition, when the hydrogen pressure variation rate is equal to or greater than a second variation rate, the hydrogen supply pressure measurement may be calculated by averaging an average value of actual hydrogen supply pressure measurements of the plurality of sensors, a hydrogen supply pressure according to the FSV duty, and a target hydrogen supply pressure.
In accordance with an aspect of the present disclosure, the system for controlling hydrogen supply for a fuel cell according to the present disclosure may include: a fuel supply valve (FSV) disposed on a hydrogen supply line through which hydrogen is supplied to a fuel cell stack and configured to adjust a supply pressure of hydrogen supplied to the fuel cell stack; a plurality of sensors disposed on the hydrogen supply line and configured to measure a hydrogen supply pressure; and a controller configured to calculate a target hydrogen supply pressure, which is a target pressure value of hydrogen supplied to the fuel cell stack based on a required output, operate a fuel supply valve (FSV) duty based on the calculated target hydrogen supply pressure, determine modes based on the FSV duty or the actual hydrogen supply pressure measurements of the sensors, calculate a hydrogen supply pressure measurement according to each of the determined modes, and correct the FSV duty based on the target hydrogen supply pressure and the hydrogen supply pressure measurement, which have been calculated.
The system for controlling hydrogen supply for a fuel cell may further include a memory configured to pre-store a map of the FSV duty according to a hydrogen supply pressure of the hydrogen supply line; and the controller may be configured to operate the FSV duty based on a target hydrogen supply pressure which is calculated using the map pre-stored in the memory. The method and the system for controlling hydrogen supply for a fuel cell in the present disclosure has the effect that, when a substantial error occurs between a plurality of sensors, the actual hydrogen supply pressure measured by an erroneous sensor may be eliminated, thus allowing normal hydrogen supply.
Further, the method and the system for controlling hydrogen supply for a fuel cell in the present disclosure has the effect that, even when actually measured values of a sensor are oscillated in a section where a control is performed for a high hydrogen supply pressure, a final control value for the hydrogen supply pressures may be maintained more stably. Moreover, the method and the system for adjusting hydrogen supply for a fuel cell in the present disclosure has the effect of increasing the completeness of fail-safe with regard to hydrogen supply for a fuel cell to cope with a situation in which a sensor malfunctions, thereby improving the reliability of a fuel cell vehicle.

Method and system for controlling hydrogen supply for fuel cell