To provide an anti-vibration actuator capable of smooth transition to image-blur prevention control. The present invention is an actuator (10) furnished with a locking mechanism, including: a fixed portion (12); a movable portion (14) with an image-blur prevention lens (16); a movable portion support means (18); a drive means for driving the movable portion; a movable portion locking mechanism (42) for locking a movable portion by limiting the range over which the movable portion can move to be within a predetermined locked movable range; a memory section (36a), within which is stored the movable portion initial position to which the movable portion is moved upon startup of image-blur prevention control; and a control section (36) for moving the movable portion to the initial position and releasing the lock upon startup of control; whereby the predetermined position in the locked movable range is stored as an initial position.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to an anti-vibration actuator, and more particularly to an anti-vibration actuator furnished with a locking mechanism for executing anti-vibration control by moving an image-blur prevention lens, a lens unit and camera furnished therewith, and a manufacturing method for same.
2. Description of Related Art
A "Vibration Compensation Device" is set forth in Published Unexamined Patent Application H.10-260445 (Patent Document 1). This vibration compensation device is furnished with an affixing means (locking mechanism) for locking an image-blur prevention lens to prevent image blurring. In this vibration compensation device, an affixing means is engaged with a lens frame for an image-blur prevention lens when under non-image-blur prevention control in which vibration compensation is not carried out, thereby locking the image-blur prevention lens in a predetermined position. The affixing means is a ring-shaped member disposed to surround the lens frame of the image-blur prevention lens which is rotated when locking the lens frame, and the lens frame is mechanically locked when the inner circumferential surface of the affixing means engages projections provided on the lens frame.
Here, even if the lens frame is in a mechanically locked state, some looseness ("play"), which is unavoidable with a mechanical lock, is required, and in general the movable portion of a lens frame or the like is able to move on the order of several 10s of microns even in a locked state. In general, however, the position of the image-blur prevention lens is controlled with a resolution of approximately several microns during image-blur prevention control, and movement of the lens frame caused by "looseness" in the locked state greatly affects the quality of captured images. Therefore in an image-blur compensation device (anti-vibration actuator) it is necessary to minimize as much as possible the amount of movement caused by "looseness" in the movable portions such as the of the lens frame, etc. in the locked state.
On the other hand, in anti-vibration actuators having a locking mechanism, in general a drive force is first activated on the movable portion such as the lens frame or the like and the movable portion is held to a predetermined initial position when image-blur prevention control is started, and thereafter locking of the movable portion by the locking mechanism is released. I.e., when locking of the movable portion is released prior to activating a drive force on the movable portion and holding a position, the movable portion drops due to gravity, the image-blur prevention lens is significantly moved, and the image formed in the finder is greatly distorted. Therefore in an anti-vibration actuator drive force is generally applied to the movable portion and the lock released immediately after holding the movable portion at the initial position.

Anti-vibration actuator, lens unit and camera furnished therewith, and manufacturing method for same


A closure, buckle, or clasp for connecting two free ends of a strap, a belt, a necklace, or a harness is disclosed that relies upon a mechanical keeper to at least aid in keeping the closure in an engaged condition, wherein the mechanical keeper is of magnetic material and is biased in a locked position by means of the force field of a magnet, thereby eliminating all springs or snug-fitting elements that could wear or lose their effectiveness over time. The magnetic keeper and the magnet may be parts of the same clasp element or they may be parts in separate clasp elements that are joined to effect closure of the clasp.

The present invention relates generally to clasps for ornamental items, such as watch bands, bracelets, necklaces and like articles, and pertains more specifically to a clasp wherein no spring biasing means nor snugly fitting members are employed; rather, magnetic attraction is used. The invention could also relate to clasps or buckles for belts, harnesses, or other apparatus employing straps to be releasably joined. The invention will be described in the context of a watch band.
Generally, this invention may be used with a leather strap, a mesh band, or a band made of multiple links joined on pivot axes that are substantially parallel to the width of the band, thereby providing flexibility to allow the band to wrap around the wrist of the wearer and also providing adjustability by the adding or the removing of links.
Many clasps for ornamental items rely on spring tension or compression or on the compressive elasticity of elements that fit snugly together either to retain the principal latch mechanism or to retain a cosmetic cover that hides the workings of the latch mechanism. With time and repeated use, many such clasps fail because of wear or permanent deformation of the spring means. Although some clasps continue to function, they may become a nuisance because of the failure of the cosmetic cover to stay in place owing to wear or permanent deformation of their retaining means.

Watch band or bracelet closure with magnetically biased keeper


An antenna has a base substrate, a coil formed from a conductor wound around the base substrate, and a plurality of terminals connected to the conductor. Uncovered base substrate portions where the conductor is absent are formed on the base substrate except the start and end of turns of the coil. The terminals are provided on respective sides of the coil parallel to a coil axis and on the uncovered base substrate portions.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an RF-ID; namely, a radio communication medium processing device that establishes communication with a radio communication medium, like an IC card and an IC tag, or an antenna and an antenna unit used in the radio communication medium itself, as well as to a communication device using the antenna and the antenna unit.
2. Background Art
Portable terminals, such as portable phones, equipped with built-in RF-ID radio tags or a function of reading a non-contact IC card or an IC tag have recently become proliferated. Antenna units that each include a magnetic sheet affixed to an aperture area of a loop antenna (a coil axis of the loop antenna is perpendicular to the magnetic sheet) are frequently used.
Patent Document 1: JP-A-2009-182902
In order to attach a related art antenna, it is necessary to secure a location, in a portable terminal, that is substantially equal in area to the antenna. This has become a factor for hindering a reduction in the size and thickness of the portable terminal.

Antenna, antenna unit, and communication device using them

PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.


An apparatus and method for speeding up access time of a large register file with wrap capability are provided. With the apparatus and method, the 2:1 multiplexers in conventional register file systems are eliminated from the circuit configuration and instead, additional primary multiplexers are provided for half of the addresses, e.g., the first four sub-arrays of the register file for which the wrap capability is needed. These additional primary multiplexers receive the read address and a shifted read word line signal. The other primary multiplexer receives the read address and an unshifted read word line signal. The outputs from the shifted and non-shifted primary multiplexers are provided to a set of secondary multiplexers which multiplex bits from the outputs of the shifted and non-shifted primary multiplexers to generate the read addresses to be used by the multiple read/write register file system.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to an improved data processing system and method. More specifically, the present invention provides an apparatus and method for speeding up access time of a large register file with wrap capability.
2. Description of Related Art
The basic structure of a conventional computer system includes one or more processing units connected to various input/output devices for the user interface (such as a display monitor, keyboard and graphical pointing device), a permanent memory device (such as a hard disk, or a floppy diskette) for storing the computer's operating system and user programs, and a temporary memory device (such as random access memory or RAM) that is used by the processor(s) in carrying out program instructions. The evolution of computer processor architectures has transitioned from the now widely-accepted reduced instruction set computing (RISC) configurations, to so-called superscalar computer architectures, wherein multiple and concurrently operable execution units within the processor are integrated through a plurality of registers and control mechanisms.
An illustrative embodiment of a conventional processing unit is shown in FIG. 1, which depicts the architecture for a PowerPC™ microprocessor 12 manufactured by International Business Machines Corporation. Microprocessor 12 operates according to reduced instruction set computing (RISC) and is a single integrated circuit superscalar microprocessor. The system bus 20 is connected to a bus interface unit (BIU) of microprocessor 12. Bus 20, as well as various other connections described, include more than one line or wire, e.g., the bus could be a 32-bit bus.
BIU 30 is connected to an instruction cache 32 and a data cache 34. The output of instruction cache 32 is connected to a sequencer unit 36. In response to the particular instructions received from instruction cache 32, sequencer unit 36 outputs instructions to other execution circuitry of microprocessor 12, including six execution units, namely, a branch unit 38, a fixed-point unit A (FXUA) 40, a fixed-point unit B (FXUB) 42, a complex fixed-point unit (CFXU) 44, a load/store unit (LSU) 46, and a floating-point unit (FPU) 48.
The inputs of FXUA 40, FXUB 42, CFXU 44 and LSU 46 also receive source operand information from general-purpose registers (GPRs) 50 and fixed-point rename buffers 52. The outputs of FXUA 40, FXUB 42, CFXU 44 and LSU 46 send destination operand information for storage at selected entries in fixed-point rename buffers 52. CFXU 44 further has an input and an output connected to special-purpose registers (SPRS) 54 for receiving and sending source operand information and destination operand information, respectively. An input of FPU 48 receives source operand information from floating-point registers (FPRs) 56 and floating-point rename buffers 58. The output of FPU 48 sends destination operand information to selected entries in rename buffers 58.
Microprocessor 12 may include other registers, such as configuration registers, memory management registers, exception handling registers, and miscellaneous registers, which are not shown. Microprocessor 12 carries out program instructions from a user application or the operating system, by routing the instructions and data to the appropriate execution units, buffers and registers, and by sending the resulting output to the system memory device (RAM), or to some output device such as a display console.
A high-level schematic diagram of a typical general-purpose register 50 is further shown in FIG. 2. GPR 50 has a block 60 labeled "MEMORY_ARRAY—80×64," representing a register file with 80 entries, each entry being a 64-bit wide word. Blocks 62a (WR0_DEC) through 62d (WR3_DEC) depict address decoders for each of the four write ports 64a–64d. For example, decoder 62a (WR0_DEC, or port 0) receives the 7-bit write address wr0_addr<0:6> (write port 64a). The 7-bit write address for each write port is decoded into 80 select signals (wr0_sel<0:79> through wr3_sel<0:79>). Write data inputs 66a–66d (wr0_data<0:63>through wr3_data<0:63>) are 64-bit wide data words belonging to ports 0 through 3 respectively. The corresponding select line 68a–68d for each port (wr0_sel<0:79> through wr3_sel<0:79>) selects the corresponding 64-bit entry inside array 60 where the data word is stored.
There are five read ports in this particular prior art GPR. Read ports 70a–70e (0 through 4) are accessed through read decoders 72a–72e (RD0_DEC through RD4_DEC), respectively. Select lines 74a–74e (rd0_sel<0:79> through rd4_sel<0:79>) for each decoder are generated as described for the write address decoders above. Read data for each port 76a–76e (rd0_data<0:63> through rd4_data<0:63>) follows the same format as the write data. The data to be read is driven by the content of the entry selected by the corresponding read select line.
Register files, such as the one described above, are a common type of storage circuitry used in modern day state-of-the-art microprocessors. For example, in the complex architecture of present-day microprocessors, an instruction buffer is used to store instructions coming out of the instruction cache, e.g. instruction cache 32, and may consist of a number of register file cells. For large register file arrays having multiple simultaneous reads and writes, it becomes extremely difficult to meet the cycle timing constraint to perform the decoding of the address lines and the reading of the register file array before having to store the result in the next stage latch. If the register file has wrap capability, i.e. once a last entry of a group or sub-array of the register file is accessed the next access goes back to the first entry of that group/sub-array, it becomes very complex and is almost impossible to work with all of the write addresses and read addresses for decoding. Instead, only the starting address is used for decoding purposes. However, this adds more time to the critical timing path due to the necessity to include additional circuitry to handle the wrap condition when only the starting address is used for decoding.
Therefore, it would be beneficial to have an improved apparatus and method for accessing a large register file having wrap capability. More specifically, it would be beneficial to have an apparatus and method for access a large register file having wrap capability which does not add additional time to the critical timing path.

Apparatus and method for speeding up access time of a large register file with wrap capability


A device for use in conjunction with a coordinate measuring device, a three-dimensional coordinate measuring system and a method of measuring three-dimensional coordinates are described. The device includes a light source mounted substantially within the center of a spherical member having a spherical surface configured such that the distance from the light source to the outer contact surface of the sphere is substantially equal to the radius of the sphere regardless of sphere orientation. The three-dimensional coordinate measuring system further includes a coordinate-measuring device, the coordinate-measuring device configured to track the movement of the light source and to measure either azithmuth angles and zenith angles, or to spherically encode tracking information related to relevant positions of the light source. The present method includes emitting light at a target with a light source, wherein the light source is mounted substantially within the center of a spherical member having a spherical surface configured such that the distance from the light source to the outer contact surface of the sphere is substantially equal to the radius of the sphere regardless of sphere orientation, moving the surface of the spherical member across a device to be measured, tracking said light source with a tracking device, and measuring information related to the relative position of the light source using either angular or spherical encoders.

The present disclosure relates to a light-source assembly used in conjunction with tracking, angle-measuring devices to determine coordinates of points or surfaces.
An instrument commonly referred to as a laser tracker has the ability to measure the coordinates of a point by sending a laser beam to a retroreflector target that is in contact with the point. A laser tracker is often used in conjunction with a particular type of retroreflector target called the spherically mounted retroreflector (SMR). The SMR comprises a cube-corner mounted within a sphere with the vertex of the cube-corner at the sphere center. A gimbal mechanism within the laser tracker directs a laser beam from the tracker to the SMR. Part of the light retroreflected by the SMR enters the laser tracker and passes onto a position detector. A control system within the laser tracker uses the position of the light on the position detector to adjust the rotation angle of mechanical azimuth and zenith axes of the laser tracker to keep the laser beam centered on the SMR. In this way, the laser beam is able to track an SMR that is moved over the surface of an object of interest. Part of the light retroreflected into the laser tracker passes onto a distance-measuring device such as an interferometer or absolute distance meter (ADM). Angular encoders attached to the mechanical azimuth and zenith axes of the tracker measure the azimuth and zenith angles of the laser beam (with respect to the tracker frame of reference). The one distance and two angles measured by the laser tracker are sufficient to completely specify the three-dimensional location of the SMR.
The cube-corner retroreflector embedded within the sphere in the SMR comprises three mutually perpendicular reflecting surfaces. These three reflecting surfaces occupy three of the six faces of a cube. The diagonal of this cube is the axis of symmetry of the cube corner and, hence, also the axis of symmetry of the SMR. To avoid problems caused by optical effects such as vignetting, the axis of symmetry of the SMR must ordinarily be aligned to within about 40 degrees of the incident laser beam. Because of this limitation, it is difficult to make certain types of measurements with an SMR. For example, it is difficult to measure the coordinates of an SMR attached to a machine tool that is moved over a large distance or rotated over a large angle. As another example, it is sometimes desirable to simultaneously measure a target with several widely separated laser trackers to improve measurement accuracy. However, the SMR is impractical for such measurements because of its limited angle of acceptance. Furthermore, in most applications, the SMR is carried by hand over the surfaces of interest. If the SMR is tilted too far from the laser beam, the tracker measurement will be interrupted until the SMR is rotated back into position. If an interferometer is being used to measure the distance, then it will be necessary to move the SMR back to a reference position before resuming the measurement. Such interruptions can be annoying and time consuming.
In most laser trackers today, the accuracy of the distance and angle measurements is approximately proportional to the distance of the SMR from the laser tracker, with the constant of proportionality given in units of micrometers/meter or, equivalently, in parts per million (ppm). State-of-the-art laser trackers in a typical environment have a radial accuracy, determined by the accuracy of the interferometer or ADM, of approximately 2 ppm. Today, these same trackers have an angular accuracy, determined by a variety of factors including the accuracy of the angular encoders, of approximately 10 ppm. In other words, the main source of error in most measurements is angular rather than radial. The angular accuracy of the laser tracker could be improved to approach the radial accuracy by using larger and more expensive angular encoders together with air bearings, and a stiffer, a thermal mechanical structure. However, a laser tracker modified in this way would be noisier, less portable, and much more expensive than trackers available today. Rather than increase the cost of the laser tracker, it would be preferable to reduce cost while maintaining or improving measurement accuracy.
To measure three-dimensional coordinates, an alternative to the retroreflector target is a point source of light formed by sending light out of an optical fiber and through a dispersing element. Schultz et al. describe this type of target in patent number U.S. Pat. No. 5,907,395.

Spherically mounted light source with angle measuring device, tracking system, and method for determining coordinates


A highback is provided for controlling a gliding board, such as a snowboard, through leg movement of a rider. The highback is comprised of an upright support member to support a rear region of the rider's leg. The highback includes a textile-like material that extends across a portion of the support member to provide support for a portion of the rider's leg. The support member may have an opening therein with the textile-like material extending across the opening to assist in transmitting forces applied to that region of the support member as the rider presses against the highback during riding maneuvers. The textile-like material may help to distribute forces across a larger area of the rider's leg or boot so as to reduce pressure points against the rider's leg. The textile-like material may include one or more filaments, a fabric, or a fabric-like material that is coupled to the support member to support the rider's leg. The textile-like material may include a mesh fabric.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to a highback for gliding sports and, more particularly, to a highback for snowboarding.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Snowboard binding systems for soft snowboard boots typically include an upright member, called a "highback" (also known as a "lowback" and a "SKYBACK"), that is contacted by the rear region of a rider's leg. The highback, which may be mounted to a binding or a boot, acts as a lever that helps transmit forces directly to and from the board, allowing the rider to control the board through leg movement. For example, flexing one's legs rearward against the highback places the board on its heel edge with a corresponding shift in weight and balance acting through the highback to complete a heelside turn.
Known highbacks generally include an upright support member formed with a pair of lateral ears that are employed to pivotally mount the highback in a heel-to-toe direction along a mounting axis that is transverse to the longitudinal axis of the binding or boot. In some instances, the highback may also be mounted for lateral rotation about a substantially vertical axis to accommodate a particular stance angle of the binding relative to the board.
Known highbacks are typically molded from a composite material and/or a plastic material. A highback formed from a composite material, while sleek and lightweight, is generally very stiff. In contrast, a highback formed from a more flexible plastic material generally is bulky and relatively heavy due to structural features typically molded into the highback that provide the necessary stiffness for force transmission.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved highback.

Highback with textile-like material for support


Apparatus and methods associated with detecting prostate cancer (CaP) in a magnetic resonance (MR) image of a prostate of a CaP patient are described. One example apparatus includes logics that acquire an image of a prostate, learn a weighted vector, detect salient features in the image of the prostate, and generate a heatmap that facilitates detecting CaP. An image acquisition logic acquires a T2 weighted MR image of a prostate. A learning logic learns a weighted vector based on a set of positive LBP descriptors and a set of negative LBP descriptors extracted from the image at multiple scales. A salient feature detection logic detects salient features in the image based on the weighted vector and a pixel-by-pixel weighted Hamming matching of the image. A prediction logic generates a statistical probability heatmap based on the weighted vector and the weighted Hamming matching of the image.

Pixelwise template matching may be used to perform exhaustive searching of an entire image to find pixels similar to a query pixel. In patients undergoing treatment for prostate cancer (CaP) it is useful to distinguish cancerous tissue regions from benign tissue regions in magnetic resonance (MR) images on a pixel-by-pixel basis. A challenge to overcome when matching a pair of pixels is a trade-off between matching speed and accuracy. For example, a higher matching speed may be achieved at the cost of lower accuracy. Local Binary Pattern (LBP) pixelwise template matching is one conventional method of matching a local pixel feature to another pixel. Timo Ojala et al., Multiresolution gray-scale and rotation invariant texture classification with local binary patterns, IEEE TPAMI, vol. 24, pp. 971-987, 2002. The LBP descriptor of a pixel is a collection (e.g., string) of binary bits obtained by comparing the gray value of the pixel with the gray value of other pixels sampled within a ring of a certain radius centered on the pixel. The Hamming distance of LBP refers to the number of bits that are different. Computing the Hamming distance involves carrying out bitwise XOR operations that a computer may compute relatively quickly. Finding a distinctive ring radius facilitates extracting salient LBP descriptions.
Conventional LBP methods detect local Laplacian extrema. Lowe, Distinctive image features from scale-invariant keypoints, IJCV, vol. 60, pp. 91-110, 2004. Bay et al., Speeded-up robust features (surf), CVIU, vol. 110, pp. 346-359, 2008. However, conventional methods are computationally costly, which substantially negates the benefits of LBP matching. In conventional methods, multiple radii may be sampled to guarantee measuring textual content a salient scale. By assuming independent sampling, measuring multi-scale LBP (MsLBP) is defined as the sum of the Hamming scores across individual scales. While conventional MsLBP is an improvement over basic LBP matching, conventional MsLBP under-emphasizes salient patterns while over-emphasizing insignificant patterns. In conventional MsLBP, a weight vector must be defined to account for the statistical significance of information at the salient scale by measuring the dissimilarity between a pair of multi-scale LBPs.
Learned binary projections facilitate indexing large image collections based on content. Strecha et al., Ldahash: Improved matching with smaller descriptors, IEEE TPAMI, vol. 34, pp. 66-78, 2012. However, conventional unsupervised hashing leads to binary codes that may offer no improvement over random binarization. Pauleve et al., Locality sensitive hashing: A comparison of hash function types and querying mechanisms, PRL, vol. 31, pp. 1348-1358, 2010. Weiss et al., Spectral hashing, in NIPS, 2008, pp. 1753-1760. With supervised learning imposed, supervised hashing explicitly learns a mapping that maximizes the distances among different classes. However, conventional supervised hashing suffers from a non-differentiable sign function. The non-differentiable sign function forces a relaxation of the objective function, which results in a sub-optimal solution.
Conventional methods of pixelwise template matching thus suffer from high computation costs related to detecting Laplacian extrema that largely negate the benefits of LBP. Conventional methods of MsLBP also under-emphasize salient patterns while over-emphasizing insignificant patterns. Unsupervised hashing methods can lead to results no better than random binarization, while conventional supervised hashing is forced to relax the objective function due to the non-differentiable sign function. Conventional methods of pixelwise template matching thus suffer from high computation costs and inaccuracies that render them less than optimal for assessing MR images of a section of tissue taken from a CaP patient.

Discriminatively weighted multi-scale local binary patterns


A data input apparatus having at least one transmit element coupled to a source of light of a predetermined wavelength, at least one light receive element and a detection device to detect interruption of beams of the light of said predetermined wavelength extending from said transmit element to said receive element wherein at least one of said transmit element and said receive element comprises at least one waveguide having a light transmitting core and a non-core portion and one or more discontinuance means adapted to reduce transmission of stray light within the non-core portion. The discontinuance is adapted to scatter, absorb, divert or block stray light and can be applied to one or more of the upper cladding, lower cladding, substrate or common base.

Any discussion of the prior art throughout the specification should in no way be considered as an admission that such prior art is widely known or forms part of common general knowledge in the field.
Touch screen input devices or sensors for computers and other consumer electronics devices such as mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and hand-held games are highly desirable due to their extreme ease of use. In the past, a variety of approaches have been used to provide touch screen input devices. The most common approach uses a flexible resistive overlay, although the overlay is easily damaged, can cause glare problems, and tends to dim the underlying screen, requiring excess power usage to compensate for such dimming. Resistive devices can also be sensitive to humidity, and the cost and drive power consumption of the resistive overlay scale quadratically with perimeter. Another approach is the capacitive touch screen, which also requires an overlay. In this case the overlay is generally more durable, but the glare and dimming problems remain.
In yet another common approach, a matrix of light beams (usually infrared) is established in front of a display with a touch event detected by the interruption of one or more of the beams. Such "optical" touch screens have long been known (U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,478,220; 3,673,327), with the beams generated by arrays of optical sources such as light emitting diodes (LEDs) or vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) and detected by corresponding arrays of detectors (such as phototransistors or photodiodes). This type of optical touch screen has the advantage of being overlay-free and can function in a variety of ambient light conditions (U.S. Pat. No. 4,988,983), but has a major cost problem in that it requires a large number of source and detector components, as well as supporting electronics. Since the spatial resolution of such a system depends on the number of sources and detectors, this component cost increases with resolution.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,914,709, 6,181,842 and 6,351,260, and U.S. Patent Application Nos. 2002/0088930 A1 and 2004/0201579 A1, each of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, disclose an improved type of optical touch screen sensor, where waveguides are used to distribute and collect the matrix of light beams. As discussed below with reference to FIG. 1, this approach requires only a single optical source and a single multi-element detector representing a substantial cost reduction.
FIG. 1 illustrates the operation of an optical touch screen sensor 10 similar to that described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,914,709, 6,181,842 and 6,351,260, and U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 2002/0088930 A1 and 2004/0201579 A1. In this optical touch screen sensor design a single optical source 11 (such as an LED or a VCSEL) launches light into an array of "transmit" integrated optical waveguides 12, via some form of 1.times.N splitter 13. Optical waveguides 12 then launch an array of parallel, spaced apart light beams 14 across a display area 15, which are then collected at the other side of the display area by a similar array of "receive" integrated optical waveguides 16 and conducted to a position-sensitive (i.e. multi-element) detector 17. A touch event 18 (e.g. by a finger or stylus) is detected as a shadow 19, with position determined from the particular beam(s) blocked by the touching object.
The touch screen sensors are usually two dimensional and rectangular, with two arrays (X, Y) of transmit waveguides along adjacent sides of the display area, and two corresponding arrays of receive waveguides along the other two sides of the display area. In one construction, a single optical source launches light into a plurality of waveguides that form both the X and Y transmit arrays. In another version, separate optical sources are used for each of the X and Y transmit arrays. On the transmit side, the waveguide arrays may guide light from the optical source to rows of lens elements 110 that expand the guided light beams in the horizontal (i.e. X, Y) plane, then collimate them in the horizontal plane as they are launched across the display area. Collimation in the vertical plane may be achieved with an external vertical collimating lens (VCL), for example a cylindrical lens (not shown in FIG. 1). The receive side is essentially identical, and on each side the arrays of waveguides and lens elements are positioned within and protected by the bezel of the screen. To minimize the width of the bezel, it is desirable for the transmit and receive elements to be as short as possible.
As is usual with integrated optical waveguides, "transmit" optical waveguides 12 and "receive" optical waveguides 16 each consist of an array of patterned, light guiding cores (of refractive index n1) surrounded by a cladding (of refractive index n2, where n2<n1) and mounted on a mechanically robust substrate. Frequently, the portion of cladding between the light guiding cores and the substrate is referred to as the "lower cladding" or "bottom cladding", with the remainder of the cladding referred to as the "upper cladding" or "top cladding".
In the type of optical touch screen sensor described above, each "receive" waveguide 16 is in optical communication with an integral number (usually one, but possibly more) of individual elements 111 of multi-element detector 17. It will be appreciated that for this system to accurately determine the position of a touch event, it is crucial that the light in each of the spaced apart beams 14 be faithfully guided by receive waveguides 16 to the respective elements 111 of multi-element detector 17. If the individual elements 111 of multi-element detector 17 receive light from any source other than the appropriate receive waveguides 16, the performance of the touch screen sensor, as measured for example by the signal-to-noise ratio at the detector, will be degraded. One possible source of stray light is ambient light captured by the transmit- or receive-side lenses. Another possible source of stray light is signal light in spaced apart beams 14 that gets captured by the substrate or cladding of receive waveguides 16, instead of by the waveguide cores.
The present disclosure ameliorates or at least provides a commercial alternative to the prior art and that, at least in the preferred embodiments improves performance of optical touch screen sensors.

Optical elements for waveguide-based optical touch screens


An electrode arrangement for electrolytic purposes has a plurality of cathodes and one or a few anodes, so that an advantageous surface ratio between cathodes and anodes results. The cathodes, provided with openings, are embodied as plates and are arranged parallel at distances from each other, the cathodes being supported in a support device with an electrically insulating surface.

An electrolysis cell for the electrolytic separation of metals out of a liquid containing metal ions is known from German Patent DE-PS 36 40 020, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,786,384, GERHARD et al., which has, in a trough, at least one anode and a plurality of flat cathodes disposed parallel level to each other and at a distance from each other, which are each connected by means of their own connectors with the power supply via connecting resistances of various sizes.
The electrode plates used as cathodes are individually arranged in the trough and have sufficient stability; they can also be swapped out individually. Due to the wall thicknesses required for the stability of the individual cathodes, there is a comparatively high loss of material in the course of each change or swap of the cathodes when it occurs.
An electrolysis cell is also known from U.S. Pat. No. 3,788,965, HOLISINGER where an anode plate with a plurality of cathode plates disposed at a distance from each other, but where only the cathode plate which is farthest away from the anode is connected with the negative potential of the power supply. The cathode plates have openings for a zig-zag-shaped ion flow, in the course of which copper from the solutions containing copper ions is deposited on the plates themselves. Following deposition of copper, the cathode plates are swapped out and replaced by non-plated cathode plates.
According to the U.S. Patent, a certain mimimum wall strength of the electrode plates, used as cathode plates, is also required because they must be individually swapped out, which also results in high material losses upon every swap-out.
Further, German patent disclosure 2 213 401 (A), JACCAUD, discloses an electrolysis apparatus for silver recovery from an upstream photographic fixing bath, in which the cathode plates are fastened on a common carrier, parallel to each other with interposed spacer rings, and are suspended as a cathode packet on a housing wall of the apparatus. The anodes, which are rod-shaped with circular cross-section, are arranged along the housing wall in a plane which runs perpendicular to the plane of the individual cathode plates.
Problematical, in this connection, is the relatively great requirement for anode material, since the service life of the anodes is limited and, due to the multiplicity of anodes, extensive/expensive swapping out is necessary.
Proceeding from German Letters Patent DE-PS 36 40 020, GERHARDT et al., it is the object of the invention to provide material-saving cathode systems with large cathode surfaces, with which it is possible to achieve high current efficiency in spite of low material and production costs. In addition, it is also intended to obtain easy handling during operation.
In a preferred embodiment, the support device consists of four rods guided through recesses in the electrode plates, where spacer elements are disposed between the electrode plates, and the respectively outside electrode plates are pressed together by means of arresting devices acting on the bolt ends. The spacer elements are either tubularly formed, where they each envelop a bolt, or they are formed in the shape of pockets, which envelop the electrode plates; the pocket-shaped spacer elements are provided with recesses for putting the bolts through and for the admittance of liquid to the electrode plates.
In a further preferred embodiment, the support device is comb-shaped, in which case the spacer elements, as integral parts of the support device, form the teeth of the comb; in this case several such comb-like support devices are connected via a bar.
The electrode plates have a wall thickness in the range between 0.04 to 0.25 mm, where the ratio of the wall thickness to the distance of the electrodes lies in the range between 1 to 50 to 1 to 300. A wall thickness of 0.1 mm has proven to be particularly practical. The openings are evenly distributed over the electrode surface.
Contact strips are disposed laterally or at the top and bottom for improving contact, each of which is provided with a plate lug.
The comparatively simple handling has proven to be advantageous, because now a cathode exchange can take place in the form of an exchange of an entire electrode package; based on the mutual insulation of the electrode plates from each other it is possible in this case to set an optimal current density corresponding to the respective position of the electrode plate, so that all electrode plates can be removed showing a uniform degree of plating.

Electrode arrangement for electrolytic cells


A method includes extracting data pertaining to a plurality of user actions in connection with one or more changes to one or more of a plurality of applications, and training one or more machine learning models with the extracted data. The one more machine learning models are used to predict whether a user should receive a given notification in connection with a given change to a given application of the plurality of applications. In response to predicting that the user should receive the given notification, content of the given notification is determined. The method further includes generating the given notification for the user, and transmitting the given notification to the user.

Receiving notifications from device management tools for the results of every application installation or upgrade can be very distracting for users and can affect productivity. Currently, systems are in place which treat all users equally with respect to sending notifications when installations and upgrades for various applications have been successfully completed or have failed. Furthermore, conventional systems also send generic notifications to users, which are not insightful and fail to provide users with valuable information or instructions they may need to address any problems with application installations or upgrades.
Accordingly, there is a need to modify the process for management and issuance of notifications to users made in connection with application changes.

Using machine learning to customize notifications for users


The invention provides a method of verifiable generation of public keys. According to the method, a self-signed signature is first generated and then used as input to the generation of a pair of private and public keys. Verification of the signature proves that the keys are generated from a key generation process utilizing the signature. A certification authority can validate and verify a public key generated from a verifiable key generation process.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for verifiable generation of public keys.
2. Description of the Prior Art
When communicating in a communication system that operates over a public network, cryptographic techniques are often used to secure communications. Cryptography can provide secrecy and/or authentication through encryption and digital signatures respectively. In public key cryptographic systems, a user's key includes a private key and a mathematically related public key. It is infeasible to determine the private key given only the public key. The public keys for all entities can be published or otherwise distributed to other correspondents in the communication system.
Accepted good practices for public keys include public key validation (PKV) and proof-of-possession (POP) for the associated private key. These practices are considered to be useful tests that prevent potential abuse of public keys.
Public key validation includes testing a purported public key for conformance to its type of public key. This testing may or may not involve participation of the holder of associated private key. Public key validation helps assure that use of the purported public key is safe, provided that various other security measures are in place.
Proof of possession involves one party demonstrating to another party that it knows the private key associated with a given public key. This is often accomplished through providing a digital signature dependent upon the private key. Successful verification of the signature proves knowledge of the private key.
Neither public key validation nor proof of possession excludes the possibility that the private key was (a) stolen or (b) generated with insufficient randomness. When keys are stolen, it may contribute to identity theft, public key theft, and similar undesirable frauds. Insufficient randomness is a common problem in computers, especially smart cards and other constrained devices. Insufficient randomness can lead to guessable or duplicate private keys, which dramatically undermines security.
It is an object of the present invention to obviate or mitigate the above disadvantages.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and apparatus for verifiable generation of public keys


An electronic display unit includes: 1) a sealed display housing; 2) an electronic display inside the display housing; 3) circuit boards inside the display housing; 4) a heat collector inside the display housing; 5) a heat dissipater outside the display housing; and 6) a thermally conductive link between the heat collector and the heat dissipater. Various apparatus and methods allow gathering heat inside the display housing and transferring heat either to outside the display housing or to the electronic display inside the display housing. The transfer occurs without exposing electronic components inside the display housing to dust and moisture. Thus, exposure of the electronic components to excessive heat is avoided and exposure of the electronic display to excessive cold is also avoided. The electronic display, along with the circuit board, are positioned to at least partially define a front chamber, a center chamber, and a rear chamber. Also, a front and rear fan set are positioned to circulate air among the chambers to accomplish the indicated effects.

1. Technical Field
This invention relates to the field of equipment housings for outdoor communication structures. More specifically the invention relates to an apparatus for protecting equipment in a walk-up or drive-in ordering apparatus and a method for maximizing heat transfer from an electronic display housing.
2. Background Art
One of the services that modern businesses offer with increasing frequency is the ability to transact business while remaining in an automobile or at a walk-up structure. Consumers find such services appealing because of the convenience and efficiency with which they can complete tasks such as purchasing goods, arranging for services, conducting bank transactions, and paying bills. Drive-in or walk-up ordering is commonly associated with fast-food restaurants and dry-cleaning businesses. However, these transactions may also occur at banks or other establishments where feasible.
The outdoor communication structures currently used by walk-up or drive-in businesses also have certain disadvantages. Because such structures are generally placed in an outdoor location and require some sort of communication link with a person or computer, exposure to adverse weather conditions, communication quality, and vandalism are often significant concerns. Very little, if any, patented technology exists for solving these problems with outdoor communication structures. However, a few patents exist that relate generally to the types of equipment often found in such structures. Some of these references include U.S. Pat. No. 4,002,831 issued to Aeschliman, U.S. Pat. No. 4,447,856 issued to Takahashi et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,836,625 issued to Catta, U.S. Pat. No. 4,985,803 issued to Pum et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,243,493 issued to Jeng et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 5,529,120 issued to Howard et al. The teachings of the indicated references do not adequately overcome the problems associated with outdoor communication structures and, more specifically, drive-in ordering apparatus which comprise one subgroup of outdoor communication structures.
A common concern with outdoor communication structures is their exposure to adverse weather conditions. Drive-in ordering apparatus are often positioned remotely with respect to the main business building and cannot receive the benefits of climate control and other protection from heat, wind, dust, and moisture. Remote positioning of a drive-in apparatus is a characteristic choice, for example, with fast-food restaurants where a driveway provides a controlled route for automobiles to approach an ordering apparatus. After placing an order, customers then proceed to a window at the main business building where they pay for and pick up their order. Remote positioning has the advantage of allowing restaurants to improve efficiency by preparing a customer's order while they wait in a line of automobiles to pay for and pick up their order. Other outdoor communication structures may be embedded within an outside facing wall of a building and may or may not be able to receive the benefits of climate control from the building. Even if climate control is possible, the equipment housed in the outdoor communication structure is still potentially exposed to adverse weather conditions.
Among the weather conditions listed above, heat, wind, and dust are particularly troublesome because few conventional equipment housings provide effective protection, particularly in arid or semi-arid climates. A common solution to equipment overheating inside a housing is to provide a fan along with intake and exhaust vents. This arrangement will probably cool the equipment, but at the cost of increased interference with communication, electricity usage, maintenance of fans, and intake of dust and moisture. Ordering apparatus typically have an intercom system with a microphone and speaker that allows customers and business personnel to communicate with each other. Accordingly, the vibration from a fan is transmitted to the intercom microphone and, thus, decreases the coherence of communication to and from the customer. Such interference is in addition to the already troublesome vibration from automobiles, pattering from rain, hissing from wind, and other sources. Also, because a fan continuously intakes and exhausts air, any dust or moisture in the air will be drawn into the housing where it can interfere with equipment such as speakers and/or microphones, fans, lights, and possibly electronic displays.
The above problems are increasingly more troublesome as more businesses begin to install relatively valuable equipment, such as liquid crystal displays, electro-luminescent displays, and field emission displays. Electronic displays such as those listed enhance the communication between customers and business personnel, but they are susceptible to heat, dust, and moisture damage. Not only are displays subject to overheating from sun exposure, but they also generate heat during normal operation that must be dissipated. Currently, electronic displays endure a shortened operation life because of incessant exposure either to heat from the sun or self-generated heat or both. There also exists a paradox that as more effort is made to encase displays and protect them from dust and moisture, heat exposure increases because the encasing prevents proper dissipation of heat.
Thus, it can be seen from the above discussion that it would be an improvement in the art to provide outdoor communication structures having a housing that simultaneously protects equipment from heat, moisture, and dust. Unless better protection is provided, businesses will continue to lose profits from equipment malfunctions that require costly repair and turn away inconvenienced customers.

Heat transfer system and method for electronic displays


A medical bandaging and tourniquet system for use in dressing puncture wounds is provided. The medical bandaging and tourniquet system includes a primary dressing, a secondary dressing, a band, a tightening buckle, a retaining clip, and a tightening rod. The primary dressing serves as a main wrapping bandage that mounts the secondary dressing and tourniquet components together. The secondary dressing removably attaches to the primary dressing and serves as a bandage that can be installed onto minor wounds. The band connects to the primary dressing, serving as an elastic tourniquet band. The tightening buckle and the retaining clip are connected to the primary dressing. The tightening rod is positioned between the tightening buckle and the retaining clip. The primary dressing straps tightly along a wound though the tightening buckle. The strap is further compressed by turning the tightening rod. The tightening rod can then be secured to the retaining clip.

Presently, the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) rates unintentional injury as one of the leading causes of death, despite trauma and first aid kits being known to the art, wherein the constituent elements of the kit are conventionally discretized and isolated. However, this can pose problems as the constituent components thereof can be exhausted prior to an emergency and neglected resupply thereof or overlooked for particular constituent elements. Further; in an emergency, if a constituent component of a trauma kit is somehow misplaced due to the spectrum of tools and sizes thereof, the kit itself will prove subpar or negligible in addressing an emergency situation such as stabilizing a wound. As such, it is the objective of the present invention to incorporate a combination of conventional trauma treatment tools.

FIRST AT SCENE TRAUMA TREATMENT F.A.S.T.T.


A clamp expander for an annular hose clamp includes first and second jaws for engaging first and second ends of the hose clamp. The jaws are mounted on ends of first and second plier sections for translation between open and closed positions thereof. A modified embodiment clamp expander includes first and second arms mounting the first and second jaws. The first arm is fixedly connected to a guide rod and the second arm is slidably mounted thereon for translation between open and closed positions by a draw bolt which connects the arms.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to tools for use with clamps, and more particularly to a clamp expander for removing and installing hose clamps on vehicular hoses.
2. Description of the Related Art
Clamps are available in a wide variety of configurations for meeting the requirements of particular applications. For example, hose clamps are commonly used for mounting hose ends on various objects. Internal combustion engines typically have hoses in the cooling systems thereof for conveying engine coolant among the cooling system components such as radiators, water pumps, heaters, etc. Hoses have many other automotive vehicle applications, some of which require hose end clamps.
Different types of hose clamps are available. For example, one type of hose clamp includes a screw which must be tightened to constrict the clamp and affect a proper seal. Spring-type hose clamps can be formed of spring wire or a flat band-type spring material. Such spring-type hose clamps often include outwardly-projecting ears at their ends to facilitate installation and removal. The ears are squeezed together by hand or with a suitable tool such as a pair of pliers to expand the clamp. The hose clamp is normally expanded when being installed or removed since the larger diameter facilitates passage of a hose through the hose clamp. Moreover, hoses often swell with age and thus require extra hose clamp expansion to provide sufficient clearance for removal. Hose clamps used in automotive applications are often quite stiff and require considerable force for expansion.
Another factor which can increase the difficulty encountered in removing or installing a hose in an engine compartment relates to the accessibility of the hose clamps. Modern vehicles often include a number of hoses connecting various systems, such as cooling, emissions control, air conditioning, hydraulic, fuel and other systems. Hose clamp accessibility can be further complicated by the reduced sizes of the engine compartments in many vehicles. Thus, vehicle service technicians are often confronted with relatively complex engines installed in relatively small and crowded engine compartments. Under such conditions, hose clamp removal and installation can be particularly difficult because there is often little or no room in which to use a normal pair of pliers.
Another problem in dealing with hose clamps relates to the strike hazards they pose if suddenly released from a pair of pliers. For example, if the pliers slip, a hose clamp captured thereby can spring forth in an unexpected direction, with the possibility of attendant injury to personnel in the vicinity. Even if no one is injured, hose clamps are often lost in this manner whereby vehicle service operations are slowed and become more costly.
The present invention addresses some of the problems encountered in installing and removing hose clamps. Heretofore there has not been a clamp expander with the advantages and features of the present invention.


A disc-type unit 10 adjusts temperature of a control face 14 by means of a heater 12 and coolant, with a hollow plate 11 to which the heater 12 is secured, a cavity 13 formed in the hollow plate 11 and a piping 20 for supplying the coolant to the cavity 13, the piping 20 opening in the cavity 13, and the coolant being jetted to a portion to which the heater 12 is secured or a portion in proximity thereto and which shows high temperature rise when energizing the heater 12.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a unit for varying a temperature of a test piece by controlling a temperature of a control face. The present invention further relates to testing instruments incorporating the unit for environmental tests such as temperature and humidity chambers and for temperature tests of semiconductor wafers, electronic components and the like.
2. Description of Related Art
Temperature tests for electronic components such as integrated circuits are conventionally performed as burn-in tests. The burn-in tests of integrated circuits are done by separating several integrated circuits formed on a semiconductor wafer into individual bare dies and exposing each of the integrated circuits, which are packaged with sealing each separated bare die, in high temperature while turning electricity through the circuit. By means of the burn-in tests, it is enabled to reveal potential drawbacks in the integrated circuits within a short period of time and remove defects effectively by initial malfunction and aged deterioration.
Such burn-in tests, though, take a lot of time since they require individual packaged integrated circuits to be mounted at testing instruments. Further, the individual packaged integrated circuits have to be heated, resulting in troubles such as enlargement of testing instruments and increase of heat. Still further, the integrated circuit which is discriminated as a defect by the burn-in tests has to be disposed of, resulting in a factor to cause useless process of package.
Recently, the demand of a bare chip mounting is increased. The bare chip mounting is the method to separate a plurality of integrated circuits formed on a semiconductor wafer into individual bare dies and mount the separated bare dies directly at a board. In order to achieve such a bare chip mounting and excluding useless packaging, testing instruments of a burn-in test during a state of the semiconductor wafer is now being developed.
FIGS. 8A–8D show an example of a unit 101, for varying a temperature of a test piece, to be incorporated in a testing instrument in the related art. FIG. 8A is a front view of the unit 101, FIG. 8B is a bottom view thereof, FIG. 8C is a cross-sectional view taken along line C—C of FIG. 8A, and FIG. 8D is a cross-sectional view taken along line D—D of FIG. 8B.
The unit 101 comprises a disc-shaped hollow plate 102 provided with a heater 103 and a piping 102e. The heater 103 is a sheathed heater of an annular shape secured to a bottom face 102b of the plate 102. The plate 102 has a ring-shaped cavity 102e therein, which functions as a piping 102e. The piping 102e has one end being an opening 102c for supplying coolant and the other end being an opening 102d for recover the coolant. A temperature sensor 104 is attached on an outer peripheral wall of the plate 102.
FIG. 9 is an example of a schematic illustration of a testing instrument 100 using such a unit 101 in the related art. A temperature controller 130 controls to energize the heater 103 and also controls a cooling circuit 150 so that the unit 101 can be heated and cooled.
The cooling circuit 150, which is formed by connecting in series a compressor 151, a condenser 152, an expansion valve 153 and a primary side of a heat exchanger 141, is a cooling circuit for circulating the coolant consisting of refrigerant such as a hydrofluorocarbon or a hydrochloro-fluorocarbon therein. A secondary coolant circuit (viz. a brine circuit) 140, which is formed by connecting in series the unit 101, a circulating pump 142 and a secondary side of the heat exchanger 141, is a circuit for circulating a brine (viz. salt water) by the pump 142.
In the cooling circuit 150, the refrigerant compressed at the compressor 151 is liquefied by cooling at the condenser 152, and the liquefied refrigerant flows into the heat exchanger 141 in liquid phase or in gas-liquid mixture phase while being decompressed with the expansion valve 153. Then latent heat of vaporization of the refrigerant absorbs heat from the brine which flows in the secondary side of the heat exchanger 141. On the other hand, in the secondary coolant circuit 140, the brine cooled by the heat exchanger 141 flows into the unit 101, flowing in the piping 102e so as to cool the hollow plate 102. Then the brine with increased temperature flows out of the plate 102, returns through the circulating pump 142 to the heat exchanger 141 and circulates with being cooled again.
In other words, the temperature controller 130 controls the compressor 151 for adjusting the temperature of the brine to be cooled, so as to cool the unit 101 while adjusting the temperature of the brine which circulates in the unit 101.
The testing instrument 100 in the related art shown in FIG. 9 performs a semiconductor wafer burn-in test according to the following procedure. The heater 103 and the compressor 151 are controlled so that the temperature detected by the temperature sensor 104 corresponds to predetermined temperature at the temperature controller 130. On the other hand, a semiconductor wafer 120 (a test piece) to be brought to the burn-in test is put on a top face 102a (a control face) of the unit 101 and then a prober 110 is put on the semiconductor wafer 120 so as to cover the top face thereof. Thereby a number of probes 111 on the prober 110 come in contact with bumps 121 on the semiconductor wafer 120 so as to turn electricity through each integrated circuit of the semiconductor wafer 120 from a testing controller 131 via the prober 110.
In such arrangement, the semiconductor wafer 120 is driven in the energized condition determined at the testing controller 131, while the burn-in test is performed under temperature determined at the unit 101, so that an abnormal chip is detected at the testing controller 131 for being distinguished from a normal chip.
However, the testing instrument 100 in the related art shown in FIG. 9 employs a structure to flow the coolant toward one direction in the piping 102e for cooling the unit 101. In this case, it is required that the coolant should not cause a change of phase while flowing in the piping 102e. That is because the temperature of the top face 102a of the hollow plate 102 is not maintained uniformly and a cooling efficiency of the coolant decreases, both resulting from a remarkable change of a heat transfer rate, when the coolant causes a change of phase while flowing in the piping 102e.
Consequently, the testing instrument 100 in the related art shown in FIG. 9 had to employ a structure to circulate the brine, which causes no change of phase regardless of fluctuation of an amount of heat, in the secondary coolant circuit 140 for cooling the unit 101, and to cool the brine circulating in the secondary coolant circuit 140 by use of another cooling circuit 150. In such a structure, a system for cooling the unit 101 is extremely complicated, resulting in preventing stability and response of temperature control and/or reduction of volume and cost of apparatus.
It is therefore an object of the present invention made in view of the problems and drawbacks described above to provide an advanced unit for varying a temperature of a test piece with a simple structure which has improved stability and response of temperature control. It is a further object of the present invention proposed simultaneously is to provide an advanced testing instrument employing the unit described above for achieving reduction of volume and cost thereof.

Unit for varying a temperature of a test piece and testing instrument incorporating same


A method and an apparatus for rapidly charging a battery. The preferred charging method comprises applying one or more charging pulses (C1, C2), separated by a waiting period (CW1), with the last charging pulse, if there are more than one, being followed by a second waiting period (CW2). This is then followed by a series of discharging pulses (D1, D2, D3), which are separated by waiting periods (DW1, DW2), and followed by a last waiting period (DW3) before the occurrence of the next charging pulse (C1). The discharging pulses preferably have a magnitude which is approximately the same as the magnitude of the charging pulses but which have a duration which is substantially smaller than the duration of the charging pulses. The discharging pulses serve to create and disperse ions throughout the electrolyte of the battery so that the ions do not shield the plates of the battery from further charge transfer. Multiple discharge pulses are used rather than a single discharging pulse so that natural chemical and electrical gradients within the battery will serve to disperse the ions more evenly throughout the electrolyte. The use of discharging pulses of an extremely small duration does not cause any significant discharge of the battery but does increase the rate at which the battery can be charged and the efficiency with which the battery can be charged, thereby minimizing charging time and battery heating. Also disclosed are a method and an apparatus for thawing and charging a frozen battery, for formatting a new battery, for determining the state of formation of a battery, and for determining the state of charge of a battery.

The general technique of recharging a battery is well known: forcing a current into the battery. However, this technique, while simple, can cause excessive heating of the battery, excessive gassing, and require a prolonged time to fully recharge the battery. The time required to recharge a battery can be reduced by applying a depolarizing (discharging) pulse between charging pulses, as is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,597,673 to Burkett et al. A further reduction in the charging time and in the heating of the battery can be obtained by waiting for a specified period after the end of the discharge pulse before applying the next charging pulse. This technique is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,829,225 to Podrazhansky et al. However, it is desirable to further reduce the battery heating and the charging time.
A rechargeable battery, once discharged, requires recharging to restore energy to the battery. Several hours, or more, are typically required to recharge a battery because a conventional battery charger cannot deliver a high charging current without causing overheating of the battery. As is well known, overheating a battery dramatically reduces the life of the battery. Therefore, there is a need for a battery charger which can quickly recharge a battery by providing a high charging current in a manner which does not overheat the battery.
When a battery is charged, internal resistance is created within the battery by the creation of a diffusion layer which results from the migration of positive ions to the negative plate and the migration of negative ions to the positive plate. This diffusion layer, sometimes called a Duffney layer, is not easy to break and creates a higher internal resistance to the flow of ions. When a battery is frozen, this internal resistance is further increased due to the decreased velocity of the ions. This high internal resistance makes it virtually impossible to charge a frozen battery. Therefore, charging a frozen battery by using direct current is extremely difficult and takes an extended period of time. It is therefore desirable to reduce the charging time of a frozen battery.
With specific types of batteries, such as lead acid batteries, the state of the charge can be determined by simply measuring the battery voltage. In particular, the battery voltage will rise until the battery is fully charged, and then the battery voltage will drop. In lead acid batteries the drop is readily detectable. Therefore, charging systems can determine when to terminate charging based on this change in voltage and avoid unnecessary energy consumption and damage to the battery. In some other types of batteries however, the drop is so small it can be easily masked by noise or normal variations in battery voltage. With some battery types, such as NiCad and NiFe, there is not a known indicator which can be utilized to determine the state of the charge. Therefore, conventional battery charging systems are unable to determine the optimum point to terminate charging. Therefore, there is a need to determine the state of the charge for NiCad and NiFe as well as other battery types in order to avoid unnecessary energy consumption and damage to the battery.
A newly constructed battery requires formatting (charging). Depending on the type and size of the battery, this may require 12 hours to several days. The electrolyte is placed in the battery and some electrolyte is absorbed by the plates. The initial chemical reaction generates a great deal of heat and the battery temperature may easily reach 170.degree. F. Once the electrolyte is absorbed by the plates, the temperature will begin to fall, thereby indicating that the absorption (pickling) time is over and the battery is ready for formation. An electrolyte temperature of 135.degree. F. to 145.degree. F. is desirable for battery formation. A high charging current is desired in order to reduce the formation time. However, the charging current should not be greater than that required to maintain the desired battery temperature or overheating of and damage to the battery may result. Therefore, there is a need for a battery charger which provides a charging current which minimizes the formation time without overheating the battery.
There is no known method of determining the state of formation of the battery. This inability to determine the state of formation of the battery makes it difficult to determine the optimum point for terminating formation of the battery. Therefore, in order to assure that a battery has been formatted, a battery is typically charged for a fixed amount of time. However, this generally causes overcharging of the battery, wastes energy, causes gassing due to electrolysis of the water, and prolongs the formatting time. If a short time is used, so that gassing does not occur, the battery may not be completely formatted or charged. Therefore, there is a need to determine the state of formation of the battery in order to insure that the battery is completely formatted, in order to avoid unnecessary energy consumption, and in order to reduce the time for the formation process.

Method and apparatus for charging, thawing, and formatting a battery


An airfoil is provided having a cross-sectional geometry which includes a first wall, a second wall disposed opposite the first wall, a leading edge, a trailing edge disposed opposite the leading edge, and a first cavity. The first cavity is disposed between the first and second walls, and the leading and trailing edges. The cross-sectional geometry extends between a first and a second end, and the airfoil is formed from discontinuously reinforced aluminum.

1. Technical Field
This invention applies to gas turbine engines in general, and to guide vanes for use in gas turbine engines in particular.
2. Background Information
Airfoils disposed aft of a rotor section within a gas turbine engine help direct the gas displaced by the rotor section in a direction chosen to optimize the work done by the rotor section. These airfoils, commonly referred to as "guide vanes", are radially disposed between a hub and an outer casing, spaced around the circumference of the rotor section. Historically, guide vanes were fabricated from conventional aluminum as solid airfoils. The solid cross-section provided the guide vane with the stiffness required to accommodate the loading caused by the impinging gas and the ability to withstand an impact from a foreign object.
"Gas path loading" is a term of art used to describe the forces applied to the airfoils by the gas flow impinging on the guide vanes. The magnitudes and the frequencies of the loading forces vary depending upon the application and the thrust produced by the engine. If the frequencies of the forces coincide with one or more natural frequencies of the guide vane (i.e., a frequency of a bending mode of deformation and/or a frequency of a torsional mode of deformation), the forces could excite the guide vane into an undesirable vibratory response.
A significant disadvantage of conventional guide vanes made from solid aluminum is the cumulative weight of the guide vanes. Gas turbine design places a premium on minimizing the weight of engine components because increasing the weight of an engine negatively affects the engine's thrust to weight ratio. Hollow guide vanes made from conventional aluminum avoid the weight problem of the solid guide vanes, but lack the stiffness and fatigue strength necessary for high thrust applications. This limitation is particularly problematic in modern gas turbine engines where the trend has been to increase the fan diameter of the engine to produce additional thrust. Increasing the thrust of an engine generally increases the loading on the guide vanes, particularly those in the fan section when the fan diameter is increased. An additional problem with hollow guide vanes made of conventional aluminum is that some of the more desirable conventional aluminum alloys cannot be extruded into the cross-sectional geometry required of a guide vane.
More recently, guide vanes have been produced from polymer matrix composite materials, or "PMC's". PMC's are attractive because they are significantly lighter than conventional aluminums, possess the requisite stiffness, and can be formed into a variety of complex geometries. A disadvantage of PMC guide vanes is the cost of producing them, which is significantly more than that of similar guide vanes made from conventional aluminum. Like weight, cost is of paramount importance. Another disadvantage of PMC guide vanes is their durability. Conventional aluminum guide vanes have an appreciable advantage in average life cycle duration over PMC guide vanes. Shorter life cycles not only require greater maintenance, but also exacerbate the difference in cost between the two materials.
In short, what is needed is a guide vane that possesses adequate stiffness and fatigue strength to accommodate loadings present in high thrust engines, one that possesses adequate stiffness and fatigue to accommodate foreign object strikes, one that is lightweight, one that is relatively inexpensive to manufacture, and one that can be readily manufactured.

Discontinuously reinforced aluminum gas turbine guide vane


A system and method for engineering data into interface control documents is provided. The method includes creating and loading an interface control document by selecting features of an interface control document to create, providing a standards document having interface control document standards, and providing a case tool for maintaining interface control documents. The method provides for generating the interface control document using the standards document and based upon the selected features, and storing the interface control document in the case tool. The method includes designating a document having data attributes for the interface control document, reading at least some of the data attributes from the document, loading at least some of the data attributes read from the document into the interface control document, and storing the interface control document having at least some of the data attributed in the case tool.

Development of quality enterprise software, for example, software which is employed by large corporations to conduct operations, is a complicated task. Many organizations have evolved standardized processes for developing software in order to achieve consistency and predictability in their software development activities. This consistency and predictability effect how much time it takes to develop the software and how robust and reliable the software is.
Typically a software development process produces intermediate products or artifacts along the path to producing the finished software product. Production of these artifacts serves to provide a sense of direction to the software developers. The software developers are instructed what content and level of detail the artifacts are expected to contain. Creating the artifact according to these expectations compels the software developer to work through specific issues of the software development and hence defines a sequence and direction to the software development work. The artifacts serve as an excellent basis to share technical information among software developers, testers, and managers. Often the software development process employs reviews of the in-progress software development to decide whether the work has matured sufficiently to advance to the next stage in the software development cycle or whether more work is required. The artifacts capture the current maturity and completeness of software development and provide visibility into the status of the software development to reviewers.
A variety of names for software artifacts are employed by different companies. Often a given artifact name means different things to software development teams in different companies. Some of the typical artifacts are briefly described below.
Requirements documents define functional requirements that the finished software is expected to satisfy. Sometimes requirements are divided into high level or customer requirements and into low level, derived, or engineering requirements.
Use cases are brief textual descriptions of a business operation at a high level. They are intended to capture the nature of a single business operation from the view of the end user and not the view of the technologist developing the software.
Message sequence diagrams, also referred to as sequence diagrams, may be employed to capture inter-module or inter-application communication sessions. These diagrams indicate the participants in the communication session, the senders and the receivers of each communication, the content of each communication, and the sequence of the communications. The communications may be termed messages.
Interface documents define the interface between different modules, systems, or applications. Such documents may define the communication technology employed, for example, sockets, message queues, Java remote method invocation (RMI), transmission control protocol (TCP), and ethernet. They may define the structure of the information communicated in terms of bit sequences, byte sequences, and fields. They may define the valid values or valid range of values and the meanings of values which may be communicated. They may define a mandatory message sequence, or handshake, for establishing a communication link, for exchanging information, and for terminating the communication link. Sometimes these documents are called interface control documents (ICDs).
High level design documents (HLDs) and low level design documents (LLDs) are comprehensive documents which may contain any of the preceding information. Additionally, HLDs and LLDs typically provide a narrative text description of design which is not a normal part of the other artifacts. HLDs provide less detail than LLDs. The definition of what information belongs in a HLD versus what information belongs in a LLD differs from one software development organization to another. Some software development organizations produce only HLDs and no LLD. Some software development orgnaizations do not produce either HLDs or LLDs, but capture the information with other artifacts.
Software development tools have been created to aid software developers to develop software and to encourage them to follow and adhere to the software development process. These tools may provide editors for quick construction and revision of message sequence diagrams, interface documents, and other documents. These tools may perform rules checking between development artifacts, for example, to validate that the accepted software development process is adhered to, to discover shortcomings in a given artifact. Some software development tools may be sold or leased as off-the-shelf software from software vendors. These off-the-shelf software development tools may provide means to extend their capabilities and to customize their behavior to accommodate the needs of a specific software development organization. Some of these tools may be referred to as computer aided software engineering (CASE) tools.
Software development tools may impose specific structures on the information captured in the artifacts, and the structures may be different from one specific software development tool to another software development tool. An incompatibility between software artifacts produced using different software development tools may cause difficulties when modifying existing software. For example, if software which was developed using tool A now needs to be modified using tool B, the developer may need to manually translate the software artifacts associated with the software being modified from the structure associated with tool A to the structure associated with tool B. This incompatibility between software artifacts produced using different software development tools may cause similar problems when two intercommunicating systems are developed using different software development tools, which may happen when systems are developed by different branches of one company.

Software development artifact creation tool


A system for dynamic policy curation includes a computing system and interfaces with an autonomous agent. A method for dynamic policy curation includes collecting a set of inputs; processing the set of inputs; and determining a set of available policies based on processing the set of inputs. Additionally or alternatively, the method can include any or all of: selecting a policy; implementing a policy; and/or any other suitable processes.

State of the art vehicle automation has enabled vehicles to operate effectively and safely in autonomous and/or semi-autonomous states. The inventors have enabled this through a multi-policy decision making process, which simulates a plurality of candidate policies for an autonomous agent at a future time point, thereby enabling an optimal policy to be selected based on the simulation results.
A technical problem that arises, however, is that there can be an abundance of potential policies that a vehicle can elect, which requires a large amount of computing resources to simulate and ultimately select the optimal policy (e.g., for safety, rider enjoyment, reaching a destination efficiently, etc.). These computing requirements can result in an inability to simulate all candidate policies, a requirement for much larger computing resources, an increased latency between policy election and execution, and/or other effects.
The inventors have discovered a new and useful system and method for dynamically curating these policies, which is described below.

Method and system for dynamically curating autonomous vehicle policies


The invention utilizes forced air heating in which heated air is fed through tubes to a mold or form shaped substantially like a human foot. The mold or form has apertures or holes which are patterned to provide heat to the insole and/or tongue, heel, counter, midfoot, arch, and toe box. The size of the holes can vary in size as can the quantity depending upon how much heat is needed by a specific area. Panels may be provided in the mold or form to regulate the amount of air flow to a given area. Where insoles are the main item being formed, the insole must be beveled before it is molded because the material has a tendency to expand to its original thickness upon heating. Beveling the edges of the insole before it is premolded prevents the insole from expanding around the edges when the insole is molded to a person's foot.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to a method and apparatus for heating thermoformable material in footwear such as an insole. More particularly, the present invention relates to a device for insertion into a piece of footwear where the thermoformable material is heated by the application of hot air, and the wearer's foot is inserted to form the heated insole at the contour of the foot. The device includes a form or mold which fits into the footwear and has apertures for directing the flow of hot air.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Various systems for producing custom insoles have been developed. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,895,405 to Edwards teaches an adjustable insole method in which an insole having a cushion layer and a foam cover is inserted into a shoe. A heat gun then applies heat to the insole. The wearer then places his or her foot into the shoe so that the insole conforms to the wearer's foot. The Edwards system has several limitations. First, the heat gun cannot evenly heat the entire insole. Second, there is no way to ensure that the end of the insole away from the opening will receive sufficient heating. Third, the Edwards patent does not disclose any way to heat any other portion of the inside of the shoe to create a custom inner surface.
Other systems for producing insoles are complicated and require considerable time to complete, as well as involve significant cost. U.S. Pat. No. 4,669,142 to Meyer shows such a method in which a cast is made of the wearer's foot, an insole is inserted into the cast where it is heated. The wearer then places his or her foot upon the insole in the cast so that it conforms to the foot. In addition to the foregoing drawbacks, the Meyer method does not allow for heating and conforming of other portions of the inside of the shoe or for insoles which extend along the sides and top of the foot. Similarly, since the insole is not heated inside the shoe, conformity of the insole to the inside of the shoe in addition to the shape of the wearer's foot, cannot be guaranteed.

Method and apparatus for heating thermoformable material in footwear


A method of manufacturing a clad metal column for linear motor, wherein a core material provided with a convex-and-concave pattern consisting of many longitudinal, transverse, or slanted grooves, or the combination thereof on its peripheral surface is inserted into a pipe made of a good conductor, and said pipe is fit tight onto the peripheral surface of above-mentioned core material by the reduction of diameter of pipe by means of drawing or extrusion.

The present invention relates to a clad metal column for a linear motor which is used for elevators, etc., driven by a linear motor, and the method of manufacturing thereof.
In recent years, elevators driven by a linear motor have been developed, and those linear-motor-driven elevators have employed clad metal columns, each of which consists of a magnetic steel column whose periphery is shielded with an aluminum pipe which is a good conductor. And, in manufacturing said clad metal column, a steel column is shielded with an aluminum pipe which is cladded by shrinkage fit or chilled fit.
However, in the actual use of the above-mentioned clad metal column, there has been a problem that the core material and the aluminum pipe are liable to separate in the longitudinal direction caused by the shearing force due to the thrust force generated thereon.
Further, if the bonding force between the core material and the aluminum pipe is deficient in the practice of employing a screw connection for connecting a large number of clad metal columns, a twisting torque is applied to the outer aluminum pipe and, as a result, only the outer aluminum pipe rotates and a sufficient torque cannot be transmitted to the inner core material.

Method for manufacturing a clad metal column for a linear motor


A cap moving mechanism for moving a cap for sealing a liquid ejecting head for ejecting liquid to a target, includes a pushing-up part for moving the cap upwards or downwards by rotating, a cam shaft provided integrally with the pushing-up part as a rotating shaft of the pushing-up part, a cam shaft gear including a drive region, which rotates integrally with the cam shaft taken as a rotating shaft, whereby a driving force of a motor for driving the cam shaft is transmitted, and a non-drive region whereby the driving force of the motor is not transmitted and a driving force transmission gear for transmitting the driving force of the motor to the cam shaft gear in order that the cap can be moved downwards from a state in which the cap has been completely moved upwards, after the motor rotates by a predetermined amount from when the cap has been completely moved upwards, and transmitting the driving force of the motor to the cam shaft gear in order that the cap can be moved upwards from a state in which the cap has been completely moved downwards, after the motor rotates by a predetermined amount from when the cap has been completely moved downwards.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cap moving mechanism, a liquid ejecting apparatus and a liquid ejection characteristics maintaining mechanism therefor. More particularly, the present invention relates to a cap moving mechanism, a liquid ejecting apparatus and an ejection characteristics maintaining mechanism to move a cap for sealing a liquid ejecting head for ejecting liquid to a target.
2. Description of the Related Art
As an example of a liquid ejecting apparatus, an inkjet type recording apparatus performs recording on a medium to be recorded by ejecting ink from a discharge opening provided at a recording head. The inkjet type recording apparatus includes a cap for sealing a surface on which the discharge opening is formed in case of the cessation of recording, and prevents the discharge opening from drying. The cap holds the ink compulsorily discharged from the discharge opening during cleaning the discharge opening. As an example of a cap moving or capping mechanism to move such a cap for sealing the recording head, there is a method of moving the cap up and down in a direction perpendicular to the recording head by rotating a shaft including a cam directly under the cap as disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Application Publication (Laid Open) No. 2002-307700.
In the conventional capping mechanism as described above, however, it is necessary to generate a time lag so as not to transmit the driving force of a motor to the cap during a predetermined time period in order to use various kinds of operations such as moving the cap, feeding the medium to be recorded or the like. As a means for generating the time lag, there is a method of providing means for engaging a claw on the way for a transmission mechanism (or gear) to transmit the power of the motor. In case of the method of providing a claw, however, since the mechanism moving the cap receives the push-up load of the cap when the cap is separated from the recording head and lowered, the cap could not be moved smoothly. In addition, in the method of moving the cap using a gear and a cam, it was difficult to generate the time lag. Further, there occurs a tooth skipping sound where the gear does not rotate against the driving force after the cap has been completely raised or lowered.
Meanwhile, in order to avoid providing the time lag as mentioned above, there is a method of providing a motor for moving the cap and a motor for feeding the medium to be recorded respectively. In this case, however, there is a problem that the number of the parts is increased.

Cap moving mechanism, a liquid ejecting apparatus and a liquid ejection characteristics maintaining mechanism


A power control circuit and corresponding technique for controlling the reduction or augmentation of operating frequency and/or supply voltage utilized by an electronic device. Such control is based on the operating environment of the hardware product employing the electronic device by determining whether the hardware product is interconnected to an external source having at least one enhanced cooling mechanism. As a result, the hardware product is able to operate at full frequency and voltage during certain situations and to operate at a reduced frequency and/or voltage during other situations.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of power management. More particularly, the present invention relates to a circuit and a method for configuring an electronic device to operate in one of a plurality of power states based on the operating environment of its hardware product.
2. Description of Art Related to the Invention
Over the last few years, there have been many advances in semiconductor technology. These advances have lead to the development of high-speed electronic devices operating at higher frequencies and supporting additional and/or enhanced features. As a result, high-speed electronic devices normally require more power and dissipate more heat as a by-product than antiquated electronic devices operating at lower frequencies.
In order to satisfy customer requirements, battery-powered portable computers (e.g., laptop or notebook style computers, hand-held computers, etc.) are implemented with high-speed processors similar to those implemented in desktop computers. Normally, the heat produced by internal logic of conventional portable computers is dissipated through passive cooling. For portable computers, "passive cooling" involves spreading the heat uniformly along an interior of its casing. Thereafter, the casing of the portable computer is simply cooled through conduction, convection and radiation.
In light of the semiconductor technology advances, standard passive cooling techniques are now becoming unable to provide sufficient thermal dissipation for portable computers. When the high-speed processor is operating at full frequency, the surface temperature of the casing of the portable computer tends to rise above a temperature considered acceptable by the Occupational Safety and Health Association (OSHA) and/or portable computer users. As a result, power usage by conventional portable computers must be reduced in order to prevent the surface temperature of the casing from rising above this temperature.
Commonly, power usage of portable computers is reduced by decreasing processor core operating frequency at manufacturing to a static value which will not exceed the portable computer's passive cooling capability. In general, processor core operating frequency is an external clock, or bus frequency, multiplied by a fixed bus ratio which is set by hardware at processor reset. The processor core operating frequency may be decreased by lowering the bus ratio or by lowering the frequency of the external clock supplied to the processor (hereinafter referred to as "frequency reduction"). Frequency reduction at a fixed bus ratio may be accomplished by dividing the clock signal before it is supplied to the processor. Alternatively, frequency reduction at a fixed bus ratio may be emulated by periodically halting the clock signal for brief time intervals so that the average operating frequency is reduced.
Referring to FIG. 1, a graph illustrating power savings realized by conventional frequency reduction of an electronic device (e.g., a processor) is shown. It is well-known that a processor is designed to operate across a frequency range at a specific voltage. This operating range 100 is represented as being between points A and B, where (i) point A represents the minimum operating frequency at which the processor will operate, and (ii) point B represents the maximum operating frequency that the processor can support. In theory, to a first order approximation, power is directly proportional to frequency as presented herein. Thus, as shown through points C and D, a reduction in the operating frequency of the processor by ten percent (10%) will reduce its total power consumption by ten percent (10%) from P1 to P2. Of course, true system power savings are not exactly proportional to frequency reduction because most every hardware product, including a portable computer, is implemented with processor frequency-independent components which consume power (e.g., a display).
However, the use of static power saving techniques has generated performance gaps between desktop computers and portable computers. This performance gap is a continuing concern to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). One reason is that substantial differences in performance will adversely effect the demand for portable computers and for components used therein. To date, it appears that no efforts have been made in controlling the reduction or augmentation of the operating frequency and/or supply voltage utilized by an electronic device, including a processor, based on the operating environment experienced by its hardware product.
Besides complying with its thermal dissipation constraints, a battery-powered portable computer is configured to reduce its power usage in order to extend the life of its removable battery packs. The typical technique in reducing power usage is not dependent on the operating environments of the portable computer. Rather, it is usually dependent on a system dependent, power management system which, through a combination of software and hardware, is able to put unused sub-systems into sleep or shut-down modes thus saving power.

Circuit and method for controlling power and performance based on operating environment