A method for simulating a posture of a flexible cable based on a spring-mass model combining bending and torsion includes: establishing a physical property model of the cable, wherein a torsion property is represented by a torsion spring attached at each 55 cable segment; obtaining an initial position of each discrete mass point based on a total length of the cable and the number of the cable segments; identifying discrete mass points at both ends as fixed points, and obtaining their position information; calculating stress information of other discrete mass points whose position information is not determined based on the physical property model; sequentially calculating 10 10 equilibrium positions of the other discrete mass points by using the stress information and the initial positions to obtain their the position information; and simulating a stable posture of the cable based on the position information of the fixed points and the other discrete mass points.

Cable is a general term for wires and electric lines that connecting electrical components, electrical equipments or control devices in electromechanical system of complex product, and plays important role as a medium for transferring power and signal. The rationality of layout design and the assembly reliability of cable will directly affect the performance of the final product. In recent years, with the development of CAD technology and virtual reality technology, assembly simulation of a flexible cable under virtual environment has gradually attracted attention. Through the assembly simulation of the cable, the assemblability and rationality of cable design can be verified, and can thus forecast the problems that may occurred in the practical assembling of the cable, so as to solve the problems in advance.
Model representation of the cable is the basis for the assembly simulation of the cable under virtual environment. The model representation of the cable under virtual environment needs, in one hand, to truly represent a spatial shape and a physical property of the cable, and in the other hand, also to meet the real-time requirement of a virtual reality system, that is, the solving rate shall meet the operational requirement of the virtual assembly simulation.
The geometry model of the cable may lacks of reality if the physical property of the cable is not taken into account. A physical model of the cable becomes the major research project of domestic and overseas scholars in recent years, because the physical model can more truly reflect the shape of the cable. A spring-mass model is used as a simple, good real-time physical model in simulating a flexible body such as fabric, skin, cable etc. The spring-mass model is initially proposed by Haumann and Parent (The behavioral test-bed: Obtaining complex behavior from simple rules, The Visual Computer, 1988, 4(6): 332-347); they assemble an experimental apparatus by connecting mass points with springs. According to the theory of Newton's laws of motion, the mass points will be moved under external force.
Provot et al. (Deformation constraints in a mass-spring model to describe rigid cloth behavior, Proceedings of the 1995 Graphics Interface Conference, Canadian Information Processing Soc., Quebec, Que, Can, 1995, pp. 147-154) improve the spring-mass model by adding a linear spring, which is also referred to as bending spring, in between two spaced mass points, which resulting in good effect in terms of simulating the bending behavior of fabric. Loock et al. (A virtual environment for interactive assembly simulation: from rigid bodies to deformable cables, 5th World Multiconference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics (SCI), Citeseer, 2001, pp. 325-332) use the spring-mass model in modeling of the flexible cable, and improve the spring-mass model once again. They abstract the cable into being consisted of mass points and springs, wherein two adjacent mass points are still connected by a linear spring, but a coil spring, instead of the linear spring between two spaced mass points, is added at each of the mass points, thereby improving bending effect of the cable. The improved model is used to stimulate spatial shapes of cables of different rigidities under gravity.
On the basis of the above mentioned model, Wang Zhibin et al. (A multi-branch mass-spring model for virtual assembly of cable harness, Journal of Mechanical Engineering, 2014, Vol 50, No. 3, pp. 174-183) propose a multi-branch spring-mass model for modeling of a multi-branch cable by adding branch points, which realize the simulation of the multi-branch cable. Although their model is capable of modeling tension, bending, gravity and other factors of the cable, the torsion of cable is not taken into account, so that their model cannot truly represent the spatial shape of the cable. Moll et al. (Path planning for deformable linear objects, IEEE Transactions on Robotics, 2006, 22(4): 625-636) describe equilibrium postures of a one-dimensional deformable body such as a cable etc. under a variety of operational constraints using an energy curve model. They associate energy of a curve with its curvature and torsion, and consider the curve to be in an equilibrium state when having minimum energy under a variety of constraints. But they assume that the curve has no mass and tension, so consider straight segment without distortion as having minimum energy in the absence of external force.
Hergenröther et al. (Real-time virtual cables based on kinematic simulation, Proceedings of WSCG, Univ. of West Bohemia, Plzen, Czech Republic, 2000, pp. 402-409) regard the cable as a series of cylindrical segments of equal length connected by spherical nodes for a fixed-length cable, arrange a coil spring at each of the nodes to represent bending of the cable, and solve the model using a method of energy (which is the sum of potential energy of the cylindrical segments and elastic potential energy of the coil springs) minimization and step-by-step subdivision, but torsion of the cable is still not represented. Wei Fayuan et al. model the cable with an inverse kinematics model by regarding the cable as a snake-like robot having multiple joints, and simulate the installation of the cable using an inverse kinematics method in robot theory. However, they assume that turning angles are the same at each joint in solving the model, which cannot accurately simulate the actual shape of the cable.
Liu Jianhua et al. (Motional cable harness physical characteristic oriented modeling and kinetic simulation technology in virtual environment, Journal of Mechanical Engineering, 2011, 47(9): 117-124) propose a method of physical property modeling and motion simulation for a movable cable based on a Kirchhoff thin elastic rod mechanical model. Grégoire et al. (Interactive simulation of one-dimensional flexible parts, Computer-Aided Design, 2007, 39(8): 694-707) represent the shape of cable with a general spring-mass model, and represent bending and torsion of the cable with a Cosserat model, and solve the equilibrium state of the cable by energy minimization process. These two methods can more truly represent the shape of the cable with higher accuracy, however, the solution process is complicated, and it is difficult to meet real-time requirement in interactive assembly.
In addition, the modeling of a one-dimension flexible body such as surgical suture and rope in other fields can be a reference for cable modeling. Since the suture, rope and the like often needed to be knotted in practical application, a knotting model of which puts forward higher requirement for real-time performance, collision detection and response and other aspects, which requirement is similar to that in the interactive assembly simulation for the modeling of the cable.
When modeling a rope, Brown et al. (Real-time knot-tying simulation, Visual Computer, 2004, 20(2-3): 165-179) regard the rope as a series of rigid straight segments of equal length connected by spherical nodes, and each of the nodes has two rotational degrees of freedom. Further, in order to meet real-time requirement in knotting the rope, they focus on treating the contact of the rope with surrounding objects and with itself, and solve the model using a simple "Follow the Leader" method, so that the nodes are moved along with the dragged points without changing the length of each of the rigid segments, which resulting in better knotting effect.
With respect to the problem in training laparoscopic operation, Wang et al. (Knot-tying with visual and force feedback for VR laparoscopic training, Proceedings of the 27th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (IEEE-EMBS), 2005) perform a study on surgical suture simulation, and they synthetically take a variety of physical factors into account in developing a knotting model based on springs and mass points, thereby achieving the simulation of a knotted suture with force feedback. The knotting model differs from the cable model in that, the former places more focus on processing collision of a one-dimensional flexible body and has lower requirement in reality of its shape, but the cable model has higher requirement in reality.
From the foregoing, only the gravity, tensile and bending properties of the cable are taken into account in the conventional spring-mass model of the cable, but the torsion property of the cable is not taken into account, and the torsion effect of the cable cannot be modeled. Therefore, the simulation effect is not realistic enough, the rate of model solution is slow and the real-time requirement in the interactive assembly simulation cannot be met, so that the reliability in the process of assembling the flexible cable in the prior art cannot be ensured.

Method and apparatus for simulating posture of flexible cable based on spring-mass model combining bending and torsion


A medical image viewing device for navigation in X-ray imaging includes a processor. The processor is configured to perform a 3D-2D registration of a preoperative three-dimensional volume based on geometry parameters of an image data provider, which provides fluoroscopy images of an object of interest and a plurality of structures with interfering motions to be removed, for creating digitally reconstructed radiograph images of these structures for each fluoroscopy image. These are subtracted from the respective fluoroscopy images to generate structure-suppressed fluoroscopy images free from interfering motions. Based on these structure-suppressed fluoroscopy images, an angiographic image sequence is generated performing a motion estimation of the structures.

For primary diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular diseases, such as atherosclerosis, ischemia, hypertension and other, interventional cardiology in a cardiac catheterization laboratory are suitable. Cardiac catheterization stands for the insertion of small tubes (catheters) through arteries and/or veins to the myocardium. In order to visualize coronary arteries and cardiac chambers with real-time X-ray imaging, an opaque contrast agent is injected through the catheter. This procedure leads to an image referred to as an angiogram, which is standard for diagnosing cardiovascular disease.
X-ray based cardiac catheterization systems represent the current standard of care and provide imaging modalities for both diagnostic and therapeutic procedures in cardiology. In particular, they are applied for generating real-time images of obstructions to blood flow in the coronary arteries. Real-time X-ray imaging is utilized to guide insertion of balloon-tipped catheters to the point of obstruction, if such is identified, and allows for treatment by angioplasty and stent placement.
Current cardiac catheterization systems enable the majority of minimally invasive procedures in a catheterization laboratory and all have the same fundamental architecture that uses a point X-ray source and a large-area detector. On a monitor, a shadowgram image of the patient is obtained, which is obtained from the detector.
However, during interventions under X-ray guidance, several movements originating from different anatomical structures may be observed in 2D images. The estimation of one particular motion may be affected by others. For example, cardiac motion estimation is impacted by breathing motion and movements of the bones due to the patient's movements. Several techniques, such as transparent motion estimation, decompose 2D X-ray images into regions governed by independent movements.
US 2012/238871 A1 discloses an angiography system with a system control unit that generates a mask image that detects a reference image, effects a registration of the reference image to a C-arm, whereby if necessary a segmentation of the examination object is implemented in the reference image. Image regions lying inside of the segmentation are contrasted in order to generate a mask image, and the mask image from fluoroscopy live images acquired by the angiography system without contrast agent are subtracted in order to form a roadmap image.

Suppression of independent movements in a series of 2D X-ray fluoroscopy images using a 3D pre-operative volume


An apparatus for restraining a vehicle occupant during a crash of the vehicle comprises a first crash sensor securable to the vehicle and having a sensitivity axis parallel with a front-to-rear axis of the vehicle. The first sensor provides a signal having a value functionally related to crash energy directed parallel to the front-to-rear axis of the vehicle and impervious to crash energy directed parallel to a side-to-side axis of the vehicle. A second crash sensor is also securable to the vehicle and has a sensitivity axis parallel with a side-to-side axis of the vehicle. The second crash sensor provides a signal having a value functionally related to crash energy directed parallel to the side-to-side axis of the vehicle and impervious to crash energy directed parallel to the front-to-rear axis of the vehicle. The first and second crash sensors have their sensitivity axes oriented along mutually orthogonal axes. The apparatus further comprises a controller connected to the first and second crash sensors for determining a crash vector of a crash condition in response to the signals from the first and second crash sensors. Each of a plurality of actuatable occupant restraint devices is connected to the controller. The controller controls which of the plurality of actuatable occupant restraint systems is or are actuated in response to the determined crash vector.

Actuatable occupant restraint systems are well known in the art. Such systems include a crash sensor and an actuatable restraining device. When a crash condition is sensed by the crash sensor, the restraining device is actuated. One known type of crash sensor used in occupant restraint systems is an inertia sensor.
An inertia sensor typically includes a weight movably mounted in a housing so that the weight moves relative to the housing in response to the sensor being subjected to a change in force. When a vehicle is in a crash condition, the weight of an attached sensor moves relative to the sensor housing since the crash effectuates force changes. The sensor includes or is connected to an electric circuit which is arranged so that movement of the weight relative to the housing for a predetermined distance closes the electric circuit. Such movable weight inertia sensors are typically mounted to a vehicle so that the direction of relative movement between the weight and the sensor housing is parallel to the front-to-rear axis of the vehicle. In other words, the sensor's axis of sensitivity is parallel with the front-to-rear axis of the vehicle.
A vehicle crash into a barrier oriented 90.degree. relative to the front-to-rear axis of a vehicle is referred to in the art as a frontal crash. All other crashes are referred to as non-frontal crashes. A movable weight inertia sensor mounted parallel to the front-to-rear axis of a vehicle provides a "measurement" of the inertia of a frontal crash. If the vehicle is subjected to a non-frontal crash, the inertia sensor provides a "measurement" of a component of the inertia having a value functionally related to the sine of the angle between the direction of travel of the vehicle and a line normal to the object hit.
Other types of vehicle crash sensors measure "crash energy." Actuation of the occupant restraint system is controlled in response to the measured crash energy. Such energy type crash sensors are typically mounted to the vehicle so as to measure the energy of a frontal crash, i.e., the axis of sensitivity of the sensor is parallel with the front-to-rear axis of the vehicle. Similarly, if the crash is a non-frontal crash, the sensor provides an indication of a component of the crash energy along the sensitivity axis of the sensor.
Occupant restraint systems may include a plurality of restraining devices such as a plurality of airbags surrounding the occupant. Occupant restraint systems may also include a combination of different types of restraining devices such as a plurality of airbags and a plurality of seat belts having actuatable locking devices In such occupant restraint systems having a plurality of restraining devices, it is desirable to be able to determine the direction of the crash and actuate those devices which are located to best protect the occupant during the crash. It is further desirable to determine the magnitude of the crash so as to control timing of the actuation of the restraining device.

Method and apparatus for controlling an occupant restraint system using real time vector analysis


An electrical cable includes a conductor extending lengthwise along the cable, and a reservoir extending lengthwise along the cable at a first lateral location in the cable. The reservoir contains a dielectric material that is adapted to be transferred to a different second lateral location in the cable.

Electrical cables for transmission of electrical signals are known. One common type of electrical cable is a coaxial cable. Coaxial cables generally include an electrically conductive wire surrounded by an insulator. The wire and insulator are typically surrounded by a shield, and the wire, insulator, and shield are surrounded by a jacket. Another common type of electrical cable is a shielded electrical cable comprising one or more insulated signal conductors surrounded by a shielding layer formed, for example, by a metal foil. To facilitate electrical connection of the shielding layer, a further un-insulated conductor is sometimes provided between the shielding layer and the insulation of the signal conductor or conductors.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Edge insulation structure for electrical cable


A coprocessor 18 comprises a bus controller 24 which further comprises a primary bus controller 28 and a secondary bus controller 30 that drive a floating point processor core 26. The primary bus controller 28 comprises a memory mapped bus interface 32 for processing memory mapped format instructions and an I/O bus interface 34 for processing conventional I/O format instructions. The primary bus controller 28 remains essentially transparent for execution of I/O format instructions and translates memory mapped format instructions into sequential bus cycles compatible to an I/O bus interface for processing conventional I/O format instructions, and for execution by the floating point processor core.

Conventional microprocessor-based systems communicate with peripheral devices through the data and address buses and a variety of control signals. Complex microprocessor-based systems may also comprise coprocessors capable of performing specific tasks more efficiently than the microprocessor itself. For example, floating point coprocessors have been used extensively in the IBM compatible personal computer environment which utilizes Intel microprocessor-based systems.
In general, during operation of these systems, the arithmetic coprocessor will examine the information present on the address and data buses and various control signals to determine if a particular instruction present on either of the buses may be executed by the coprocessor. Two basic methods of communicating instructions to arithmetic coprocessors have been used in the past. The first method is to treat the arithmetic coprocessor as a conventional input/output [I/O] peripheral device. Using this method of communication, an instruction is first transmitted to the coprocessor on the data bus. Any operands associated with the instruction are subsequently transmitted to the coprocessor on the same data bus. The second method of communicating instructions to arithmetic coprocessor involves the concept of memory mapped instructions. Using this method of communication, the microprocessor utilizes a WRITE instruction and writes data to a particular location in its logical address space. The coprocessor is actually resident in a particular block of logical address space. Each position in the logical address space associated with the coprocessor is associated with a different instruction. In this manner, a WRITE of a particular data value to a particular location may result, for example, in the calculation of the cosine of the data value. This method of communication is very efficient in that the instruction is communicated to the coprocessor on the address bus while the data associated with the instruction is simultaneously communicated on the data bus. This has a result of effectively doubling the bandwidth of communication within the integrated system.
Arithmetic coprocessors have been developed which utilize either of these communication formats. However, no arithmetic coprocessor has been developed which is capable of recognizing and processing instructions sent in both I/O instruction format and memory mapped instruction format. Accordingly, a need has arisen for an arithmetic coprocessor interface which is capable of recognizing and processing both formats of instructions.

Coprocessor interface supporting I/O or memory mapped communications


An EGR control device for an engine comprising: an exhaust gas recirculating passage for connecting an exhaust pipe to an intake pipe of an internal combustion engine; an exhaust gas recirculating valve provided at the exhaust gas recirculating passage for controlling a quantity of exhaust gas which is recirculated to intake air of an engine; an oxygen sensor provided at an intake passage on the downstream side of a junction point of the recirculated gas and the intake air for detecting an oxygen concentration of the intake air mixed with the recirculated gas; an exhaust gas recirculating valve passage area controlling means for controlling a passage area of the exhaust gas recirculating valve; a running state detecting means for detecting a running state of the engine; a calculating means for calculating a first exhaust gas recirculation ratio based on an output of the oxygen sensor and for calculating a second exhaust gas recirculation ratio corresponding to a value detected by the running state detecting means; and a feedback controlling means for performing a feedback control which increases or decreases the passage area of the exhaust gas recirculation valve so that the first exhaust gas recirculation ratio agrees with the second exhaust gas recirculation ratio.

1. FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to an EGR control device for an engine which performs a control wherein a portion of exhaust gas of an internal combustion engine is recirculated to an intake pipe of the internal combustion engine.
2. DISCUSSION OF BACKGROUND
Conventionally, an exhaust gas recirculation control device (hereinafter, EGR control device) performing a control of exhaust gas recirculation (hereinafter, EGR) as a means of decreasing NO.sub.x in the exhaust gas of the internal combustion engine, has widely been used. This EGR control device performs the control of EGR by an exhaust pressure control system utilizing a BPT (Back Pressure Transducer) valve.
Since the above-mentioned conventional EGR control device is constructed by using a BPT valve or the like, it can not detect an exhaust gas recirculation quantity, that is, an EGR flow quantity. As a result, when the EGR flow quantity is increased by deterioration of the BPT valve or the like, the drivability is worsened. Furthermore, when the EGR flow quantity is decreased, the NO.sub.x component in the exhaust gas is increased since the temperature of the engine is elevated.
Furthermore, even when this device is in an abnormal state by deteriorations of parts of the EGR control device, this abnormality is hard to be detected.


Increased robotic sophistication and more efficient autonomous operation is implemented by providing separate physical autonomous robots shared and remote access to the sensory array and information from the sensory array of one another. Each robot can access a sensor of any other robot, or scans or other information obtained from the sensor of any other robot. The robots leverage the shared sensory access in order to perform batch order fulfillment, dynamic rearrangement of item or tote locations, and opportunistic charging. These coordinated robotic operations based on the shared sensory access increase the efficiency and productivity of the robots without adding resources or hardware to the robots, increasing the speed of the robots, or increasing the number of deployed robots.

The ever-increasing sophistication of robots allows them to perform more and more human roles or tasks. Order fulfillment and inventory management is a field that has benefited from this increased robotic sophistication.
With respect to order fulfillment and inventory management, robots may traverse a warehouse or distribution site in order to retrieve different items for fulfillment of different customer orders. The robots identify a path to the locations of the different items, navigate the paths while avoiding collisions with humans and other robots, identify the totes or bins that contain multiple units of an ordered item from warehouse shelving, pull the identified totes, carry the totes back to a station where a human or other robot extracts the desired quantity of items from the totes before the robots return the totes back to the warehouse shelving. This is one example of a workflow that the robots can autonomously perform.
The robots depend on multiple sensors, actuators, motors, mechanical components, processors, and algorithms to complete these tasks. As robotic sophistication increases, the efficiency by which the robots can complete the tasks increases, thereby enabling each robot to complete more tasks in less time using the same sets of resources (e.g., sensors, motors, mechanical components, processors, and algorithms). As relating to order fulfillment, the increased efficiencies reduce the average time to retrieve each tote, which in turn, allows the same number of robots to fulfill more orders in the same amount of time, thereby reducing overall cost of the warehouse administrator.
One specific area where there is lack of sophistication is robot interaction. For the most part, robots operate independent of one another. Each robot sets about completing its set of assigned tasks without accounting for what other robots are doing. They use their sensors to detect and avoid colliding with one another when in physical proximity with one another, but they do not coordinate their operations with each other.
Thus, there is a need to shift the robots away from operating independently on a task-by-task basis. There is a need for the robots to better and more directly collaborate with one another, and to intelligently and dynamically account for actions taken by other robots regardless of where those robots are in the warehouse.
By addressing these needs, robot efficiency can be greatly increased. Redundant tasks performed by different robots at different times can be batched and performed at one time by one robot. The robots can simultaneously optimize the space in which they operate and the resource with which they operate such that that the resources they need to access are more frequently available and require less time to access.

Autonomous robots performing concerted operation based on shared sensory access and holistic flow of information


A light emitting device including first and second power sources, which is capable of emitting light without being affected by a charging recycle period. The light emitting device includes an LED as a light emitting section for emitting light, and illuminates an object by light emission from the LED. The light emitting device further includes a first power source and a second power source that is charged by the first power source. Light emission from the LED is controlled using one of the first power source and the second power source as an input power supply according to light emitting current for causing the LED to emit light.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a light emitting device including first and second power sources, a method of controlling the same, an image pickup apparatus, and a storage medium, and more particularly to a method for emitting light without being affected by a charging recycle period or the like.
Description of the Related Art
In recent years, among image pickup apparatuses, such as a digital still camera and a mobile phone with a camera function, with increase in luminance of a light emitting element, such as an LED, an increasing number of them use an LED for a light emitting device (hereinafter also referred to as "the strobe" or "the flash").
In a flash circuit using an LED, a high-voltage circuit is not required, differently from a flash circuit using a light emitting tube, such as a Xenon tube. Therefore, for the flash circuit using an LED, it is possible to configure an LED drive circuit as a circuit relatively compact in size.
Further, the LED is higher in light emission efficiency than the Xenon tube, and is capable of reducing electric power consumed for obtaining the same amount of light emission by increasing the efficiency of the drive circuit.
However, when performing strobe photographing (flash photographing) of a still image with the flash using an LED (hereinafter referred to as "the LED flash"), although the LED is high in light emission efficiency, it is necessary to cause a large amount of current to instantaneously flow through the LED.
To drive the LED, there has been proposed, for example, a flash unit which is provided with a capacitor having a large capacity, such as an electric double-layer capacitor, as an auxiliary power supply of a battery for the LED flash (LED strobe) (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2010-4692).
In this flash unit, the electric double-layer capacitor as the auxiliary power source is charged and is used as an input power supply for the LED, whereby a large current is caused to instantaneously flow through the LED to drive the same.
By the way, in an LED drive circuit described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2010-4692, a recycle time occurs when charging the electric double-layer capacitor from a battery. During this recycle time, the user cannot perform strobe photographing. For example, unless the charging voltage of the electric double-layer capacitor exceeds at least the anode electric potential of the LED, it is impossible to cause the LED to emit light.
Further, when considering so-called full light emission from the LED, it is impossible to perform full light emission from the LED during a charging time period for charging the LED to a charging voltage required to perform full light emission, which is higher than the anode electric potential of the LED.
As described above, in the LED drive circuit described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2010-4692, the user cannot perform strobe photographing during the charging time period for charging the electric double-layer capacitor, which sometimes prevents the user from immediately performing strobe photographing even when the user desires to perform strobe photographing.

Light emitting device including first and second power sources, method of controlling the same, image pickup apparatus, and storage medium


A U-shaped clip secures the posts of floating segments to a surrounding shell. The inboard leg has a slot engaging the post and is compressed against the shell. The outboard leg has a hole engaging the post to resist backward movement of the clip. A resilient finger on the clip abuts the post in the installed position, causing the clip to stay with the post as it moves with respect to the shell.

In U.S. Pat. No. 4,302,941 there is described a combustor liner construction for a gas turbine engine. As disclosed there, a cylindrical combustor shell is protected with a plurality of combustor liner segments. Posts on the liner segments pass through the wall of the shell for support in a manner to permit floating of these segments.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,512,159 shows a clip attachment for securing these posts. The post has a reduced thickness portion remote from its outer end and the clip has a slot which engages this reduced thickness portion. The leg of the clip which is secured to the post is bent sinusoidally to apply opposing forces to the shell and to the post, thereby maintaining a flexible loading against the post.
The other leg of the U-shaped clip is bent inwardly toward the post. It has a hole therein which fits over the post with one edge of the hole engaged against the post. This prevents the clip from dislodging backwardly.
Not only do these segments expand relative to the shell requiring some movement in each post support area, but considerable vibration exists in the engine. When insufficient preload exists or is lost during operation, vibration occurs between the post and the clip. This causes rubbing and fretting between the portion of the clip engaging the head of the post and the clip in that area. When this wears through the retainer fails entirely and falls off leaving a completely unsupported post.


A battery operated, self-contained toilet lid alarm system for alerting adults in a household with small children that a toilet lid is open and thus presenting a danger of drowning or serious injury to the children utilizes a time delay switch contained in a housing (A) to deactivate the alarm for selected periods of time allowing the system to reactivate itself after the delay is over emitting a noise to alert adults within the vicinity of the toilet, even when the toilet lid is only partially open.

This invention relates to an alarm device and method utilizing a position controlled switch for giving a warning that a child has opened a toilet lid.
Every year, many young children drown or become severely and permanently injured when they fall into toilet bowls that were left open by adults, or were opened by the children themselves. Toilet lid locks are readily available in many different designs, but their effectiveness is dependent upon the user of the toilet remembering to close and lock the toilet lid. Efforts have also been made to provide devices to remind the user of a toilet to close the lid after use, but none of these have proved to be satisfactory or fully effective.
Efforts to solve the problem include apparatus disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,849,742, but that solution is problematical in that it is activated only for a limited period of time. Since the danger of a child drowning in a toilet does not diminish after some limited time period, this alarm system would be less than satisfactory as a safeguard against toilet drownings. Also, the signaling device is actuated only after the lid has been fully opened and is resting against the water tank. Because many drownings take place while the lid is not fully opened, the patented device would not prevent those accidents. Furthermore, the patent discloses a device that only actuates the alarm when the toilet has been flushed and the water tank is empty. Accidents often occur in toilets that have not been flushed, and the patented device would not prevent those accidents. Finally, the patented device has several separate components, which does not make for ease of installation.
The following U.S. Patents further illustrate the state of the art: Nos. 4,055,864, 4,462,023, 4,484,186, 4,995,120, and 4,736,471.


A method of manufacturing an electrostatically tunable magnetoelectric inductor, the method includes forming a piezoelectric layer on a substrate. The method further includes forming a magnetoelectric structure over the piezoelectric layer by: forming a first electrically conductive layer disposed above the piezoelectric layer; forming an isolation layer configured to translate changes in strain; forming a magnetic film layer disposed over the isolation layer; and forming a second electrically conductive layer, disposed over the magnetic film layer and wherein the second electrically conductive layer is in electrical communication with the first electrically conductive layer so as to form at least one electrically conductive coil around the magnetic film layer.

The present disclosure relates generally to tunable magnetoelectric inductors with large inductance tunability and a method of manufacturing such inductors. The invention also relates to semiconductor devices containing tunable magnetoelectric inductors.
Incorporating tunability in conventional RF front-end components allows for the development of radio architectures capable of operating over multiple bands and standards, resulting in a reduction in cost, size, complexity, and power consumption of the radio transceiver. Front-end components such as tunable filters, phase shifters, voltage controlled oscillators, tunable low-noise amplifiers, and other RF components use on-chip and off-chip passive electronic components. Inductors, as one of the three fundamental components for electronic circuits, are extensively used in these front-end components as well as in other electronic applications. Tunable inductors, especially tunable inductors suitable for use in RF circuits, are key elements in creating intelligent, reconfigurable radios. While electronically tunable capacitors and resistors have been widely used for such tasks, electronically tunable inductors have not been readily available, despite the broad range of uses for such inductors.
Different technologies have been explored for tunable RF inductors, including inductors with magnetic materials where the permeability can be tuned by a magnetic field, inductors with magnetic materials where the permeability can be tuned by changing the coupling of the inductor coil and the magnetic core, inductors where the winding is digitally controlled via MEMS switches, mechanical tuning of mutual inductance between coupled inductors, varactor-based tunable inductors created by connecting a varactor with a fixed inductor so as to vary the bias voltage applied across the varactor and thus tuning the effective inductance, and manually tuned inductors. Each of these tunable inductor technologies has shortcomings that prevent general and widespread acceptance. Magnetic field tuning requires significant power and a constant current. Mechanical tuning requires large, complex actuators which are difficult to fabricate. Switchable inductors are limited by the number of switches used and the number of switches is limited as increasing this number reduces inductor quality. Varactor-tuned inductors have low quality factors and limited tunability. Manually tuned inductors are inconvenient to use. These negative aspects to currently available tunable inductors limit their usage.

Manufacturing method for electrostatically tunable magnetoelectric inductors with large inductance tunability


A trail management system for a transport network comprises a database storing data describing each of a plurality of actual and intended/planned trails within a network. Each trail is described in terms of a state model, in which the trail is recorded as being in one of a plurality of stable states, e.g. ready for service, not ready for service, existing in the network but not fully recorded in the network management system, or assigned for deletion from the network. The trail data is modified by a set of automatic processes, by means of which a trail data may transition between stable states. Each trail data may adopt one of a plurality of sub-states, e.g. fully provisioned, incomplete, in conflict with another trail, inconsistent with another trail, unprovisioned, or unsupported by network resources. The network management system learns of actual existing trails within the network and checks for consistency of actual trails with stored trail data.

A conventional communications network, for example a broadband communications network comprises a plurality of physical resources in the form of network elements, eg switches, cross connects, regenerators, repeaters, transmission links such as fiber optic links or coaxial cable links, operating under control of a plurality logical resources, eg transport protocols, and local controls associated with individual physical resources. An example of a generic representation of a communications network is illustrated schematically in FIG. 1 herein, in which the physical resources of a core network are located at a plurality of nodes 100 and links 101 distributed over a geographical area. For a network operator to maintain control of a communications network for its operation, administration and maintenance, a management system is maintained which stores information describing the physical and logical resources within the network. One or more management systems may reside at a centralized location, eg a network controller 102, or different management systems may be situated at a plurality of network controllers at different locations. The management system stores data describing each individual network element in a communications network and has one or more management applications which use the data to manage various aspects of the network, eg operation, administration, and maintenance of the network. A conventional communications network may comprise of the order of hundreds of individual network elements, eg switches, cross connects, regenerators, each of which contains of the order of tens to hundreds of cards, having processors, line terminations, buffers, registers, switch fabrics, etc. each card containing of the order of hundreds of individual components. In general, a conventional communications network may comprise a multitude of different legacy equipment types of different proprietary manufacture, each of which has its own particular internal configuration and offers its own specific capabilities.
International Telecommunications Union (ITU-T) recommendation G.805 of November 1995, (available from International Telecommunication Union, General Secretariat, Sales Service, Place de Nation, CH 1211, Geneva 20, Switzerland), sets out a functional architecture for telecommunications transport networks in a technology independent manner. A generic functional architecture is set out as a basis for a harmonized set of functional architecture recommendations for broadband transport network including asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH) and plesiochronous digital hierarchy (PDH), as well as a corresponding set of recommendations for management, performance analysis and equipment specification for such transport networks. In general, in known transport networks circuit switched communications are made on an end to end basis over a plurality of network entities. In this specification, by circuit switched, it is meant that the network reserves part of its resources for the purpose of supporting an end to end communication, for the duration of that communication, whether those resources are used or not.
Referring to FIG. 2 herein, there is illustrated a simple example of a trail of a circuit switched communication over part of a communications transport network. A transport network is defined in recommendation G.805 as "the functional resources of the network which conveys user information between locations". In recommendation G.805, a trail is defined as "a transport entity which consists of an associated pair of unidirectional trails capably of simultaneously transferring information in opposite directions between their respective inputs and outputs". A unidirectional trail is defined as a "transport entity" responsible for the transfer of information from the input of a trail termination source to the output of a trail termination sink. The integrity of the information transfer is monitored. It is formed by combining trail termination functions and a network connection. A transport entity is defined as "an architectural component which transfers information between its inputs and outputs within a layer network. A layer network is defined as "a topological component that includes both transport entities and transport processing functions that describe the generation, transport and termination of a particular characteristic information. A connection is defined as "a transport entity which consists of an associated pair of uni-directional connections capable of simultaneously transferring information in opposite directions between their respective inputs and outputs. A uni-directional connection is defined as "a transport entity which transfers information transparently from input to output".
In FIG. 2 herein, there is illustrated schematically a plurality of transport entities 200, 201, 202, 203, 204 in a communications network comprising network elements eg switches, cross connects, links, supporting an end to end trail between first and second trail termination points 205, 206. The trail is carried over a plurality of connections, which connect the transport entities to each other. Connections between transport entities terminate at a plurality of connection termination points (CTP) within the transport entities. The generalized trail as illustrated in FIG. 2 herein, incorporates different trails in different transport protocols. For example, virtual paths and virtual circuits in asynchronous transfer mode constitute trails within the meaning of ITU-T Recommendation G.805. ATM cells may be carried within a virtual path within SDH frames over an SDH trail.
Within a layered network protocol trails occur within layers. Trails can occur at a plurality of different layers, however each trail is always contained within its own layer. In a large network, comprising tens to hundreds of network elements, management of end to end trails poses a highly complex problem and poses difficulties in the practical implementation of setting up and tearing down of trails. The concept of trail management is mentioned in recommendation G.805 in which a trail management process is defined as "configuration of network resources during network operation for the purposes of allocation, reallocation and routing of trails to provide transport to client networks." Conventionally, for creation of a trail across a network it is known for several network operators, at several network controllers controlling different sections of the network, to each set up one or more connections within sections of the network which they control. To achieve a trail over a large number of transport entities, a network operator wishing to set up a trail may need to contact, by means of a telephone call or a fax, other network operators having control of other parts of the network across which a trail may pass, and coordinate the setting up of a trail by verbal or fax communication with the other human network operators.
In conventional prior art network management systems, it is known to keep a master database which always overwrites whatever connections exist in the real network under management. Thus, if a network operator makes changes to connections or trails in a network by configuring an individual network element directly, the conventional network management system database will attempt to overwrite any changes made at the network element level, regardless of whether the network operator intended those changes to the network element or not. Further, the known network management systems do not provide an ability to draw configuration and connectivity information from the real network, and do not compare such information with the information kept in the master database.
Prior art network management systems either represent network configurations which a network operator plans at a network controller, and implements those configurations irrespective of existing configurations of a network, or provide a network operator with data describing actual network configurations, without taking into account or making provision for a network operator's planned or intended present and future configurations of the network.

Trail management across transport functionality of large and complex telecommunications networks


A non-contacting shield for use in the perineal area, comprising a main body maintained a distance from the perineal area by two lateral panels which fold generally perpendicularly relative to the main body. The lateral panels, preferably expanded or padded along the outer portion, are positioned adjacent the inner thighs and occupy the pockets formed by the juncture of the thighs and pelvis. The lateral panels are arcuate and the main body is composed of a flexible material to allow it to conform to the shape of the perineal area.

The invention relates generally to the field of shields or dressings designed for use on the human body, and more particularly to such shields adapted to create an area of separation between the skin and clothing, other parts of the body, absorbent pads, etc. Even more particularly, the invention relates to shields for use in the female perineal area, inclusive of the vulva, perineum and anus, which are specially adapted to provide comfort or promote healing.
In the treatment of many injuries, skin disorders, infections, lesions, hemorrhoids, surgical incisions, etc., it is usually preferred that the area be somewhat exposed to air flow and that contact with clothing, other body parts, or external objects be prevented. Reducing contact prevents loss of medication and irritation of the area being treated, thereby accelerating the healing process and increasing comfort. It is especially difficult to accomplish these goals where treatment of injuries, lesions, infections, hemorrhoids, disorders or incisions in the female perineal area is necessary--the female perineal area being herein defined as the area generally located between the thighs and encompassing the vulva, perineum and anus. Clothing such as underwear or pants will directly contact or rub against the perineal area. Typical dressings for the area, such as panty liners or sanitary napkins, do not alleviate the contact, ventilation and irritation problems as they are designed to be in direct contact with the skin, and such dressings can even be detrimental as they will absorb medication away from the treatment area. Because they are in direct contact, ventilation and air flow is restricted and frequent changing of the liners or napkins is required to maintain a clean environment due to increased perspiration and possible bacteria growth.
It is an object of this invention to provide a shield for the perineal area which provides an isolation and non-contact zone between the perineal area and clothing or other skin, whereby medication will not be absorbed from the treatment area, ventilation and air flow will be present to promote rapid healing and to limit perspiration and bacteria growth, and irritation of the treatment area will be prevented. It is a further object to provide such a device which is comfortable for the wearer. It is a further object to provide such a device adapted to receive absorbent pads if required, yet still maintain the non-contact area above the perineal area.


The hinge unit K of a variable capacity swash plate type compressor has support arms protruded to the back side of a rotor on the rotating drive shaft, and guide pins, one end of which is fixed to a rotatable and wobbling swash plate. The support arms have guide holes (guide surfaces) which extend in a predetermined direction having an angle .alpha. with respect to an axis perpendicular to the axis of rotation of the drive shaft. Sections perpendicular to the center lines L.sub.1 of the guide holes are formed into at least a partial circle. A spherical elements of the guide pins are slidably and rotatably engaged with the guide holes of the support arms to be in line contact with the guide surface of the guide holes. The angle .alpha. is set so that the top clearance TC of the respective pistons at both maximum and minimum compression capacities of the compressor is equivalent.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a variable capacity swash plate type compressor, and more particularly relates to a hinge means for pivotally and inclinably supporting a swash plate of a variable capacity swash plate type compressor suitable for use in an air conditioning system of an automobile.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional variable capacity swash plate type compressors are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,073,603 granted to Abendschein et al. and in Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication (Kokai) No. 1-114988. For example, the latter compressor is provided with a hinge unit shown in FIG. 4, in which a rotor 91 is fixed to a drive shaft 90 disposed in a crank chamber, and a long hole 91a is formed in the rotor 91. As best shown in FIG. 5, the long hole 91a of the rotor 91 is parallel with a plane determined by the central axis "y" of the drive shaft 90, and the top dead center of a rotary swash plate 93, and the long hole 91a extends toward the central axis "y" of the drive shaft 90 from the radially outside of the drive shaft so that an inner end of the long hole 91a is located adjacent to the central axis "y" of the drive shaft. The opposite ends of a section of the long hole 91a taken perpendicularly to the center line "S" thereof extends linearly so as to be parallel with a plane perpendicular to the axis of rotation of the drive shaft 90. A connecting pin 92 is slidably inserted into the long hole 91a of the rotor 91, and has an outer end thereof connected with the rotary swash plate 93 via a bracket 93a of the rotary swash plate 93, so that the rotary swash plate 93 can be inclined back and forth. A non-rotating wobble plate (not shown) is slidably mounted on the rotary swash plate 93, and a piston rod is provided between the wobble plate and each piston accommodated in each of a plurality of cylinder bores formed in a cylinder block of the compressor.
In the described conventional compressor, the rotation of the drive shaft 90 is converted into the rotation of the rotary swash plate 93 and the wobbling motion of the wobble plate by the action of the hinge unit "K". The wobbling motion of the wobble plate is converted into the reciprocating motion of each piston. In this case, pressure in the crank case chamber is controlled by a control valve (not shown in the drawing). Therefore, the inclination angle of the wobble plate is changed, so that the stroke of each piston is also changed. Accordingly, the discharge capacity of the compressor is changed. At this time, the back and forth tilting motion of the rotary swash plate 93 and the nutating motion of the wobble plate are restricted by the long hole 91a having a predetermined radius of curvature. Accordingly, although the inclination angle of the rotary swash plate 93 is changed, the top dead center of the wobble plate is unchanged in the back and forth direction, resulting in the top clearance of each piston in the corresponding cylinder bore becoming approximately zero at the top dead center of the piston.
However, in the above described type of compressor, since a suction force acts on the piston during the suction stroke thereof, the suction force also acts on the rotary swash plate 93 in a region from the top dead center to the trailing side thereof with respect to the direction of rotation of the drive shaft 90 (i.e., approximately the right half portion of the swash plate 93 in FIG. 4). On the other hand, since a compression-reaction force acts on the piston during the compression stroke thereof, the compression-reaction force also acts on the rotary swash plate 93 in a region thereof extending from the top dead center to the preceding side with respect to a direction of rotation of the drive shaft 90, i.e., approximately the left half portion of the swash plate 93 of FIG. 4. To this end, in the above-described compressor, the trailing side of the swash plate 93 with respect to the direction of rotation of the drive shaft 90 is separated away from the rotor 91, and the preceding side of the swash plate 93 with respect to the direction of rotation of the drive shaft 90 is pressed against the rotor 91.
In the compressors disclosed in the Unexamined Utility Model Publication (Kokai) No. 1-114988, the rotary swash plate 93 is mounted on the drive shaft 90 via a cylindrical sleeve (not shown in FIGS. 4 and 5), and the cylindrical sleeve supports the rotary swash plate 93 via trunnion pins so as to slide in a direction parallel with the central axis "y" of the drive shaft 90 and to nutate back and forth. Accordingly, the rotary swash plate 93 is prevented from conducting uncontrolled twisting motion in a direction different from the nutating direction with respect to the rotor 91 even when the suction force and compression-reaction force act on the rotary swash plate 93.
Nevertheless, in order to permit the rotary swash plate 93 to smoothly perform the nutating motion back and forth, a small gap must be provided between the cylindrical sleeve and the drive shaft 90. Thus, the rotary swash plate 93 is slightly twisted by the above-described suction and compression-reaction forces in a direction different from the back and forth direction with respect to the rotor 91 (for example, the rotary swash plate 93 is twisted by an angle ".alpha.", and the connecting pin 92 comes into contact with the long hole 91a in a point contact condition at a point "I" in FIGS. 4 and 5. Therefore, the suction and compression-reaction forces are concentrically received at the point "I".
Further, when an input torque is exerted by the drive shaft 90, the torque is transmitted from the rotor 90 to the rotary swash plate 93 via the hinge unit "K". Therefore, when the rotary swash plate 93 is constantly twisted by a small angle in the direction different from the exact back and forth direction with respect to the rotor 91, the torque must be concentrically sustained at the point I.
Accordingly, in the conventional compressor, the hinge unit "K" provided for regulating the back and forth tilting motion of the swash plate 93 is subjected to an abnormal abrasion during the high speed operation thereof and during the high compression ratio operation thereof.
Similar problems are encountered in a case where, from the viewpoint of easy manufacture of the internal mechanism of the compressor, a sleeve element having a spherical supporting surface is slidably mounted on a drive shaft so as to support a back and forth nutating motion and a rotating motion of the rotary swash plate, respectively, and a pair of equal hinge units are disposed at positions on both sides of the top dead center of the rotary swash plate.
In addition, by suitably adjusting an arrangement of the hinge unit, the amount of a clearance "TC" defined at the top dead center of each piston changes along a curve having an upwardly convexed curvature during the change in an angle of inclination of the swash plate from the minimum inclination angle position to the maximum inclination angle position. Thus, for example, as shown by a curve "A" in FIG. 6, when the clearance TC at the top dead center of each piston is set at an optimum amount at the time when the swash plate takes the minimum inclination angle position, the amount of clearance "TC" unfavorably increases at the time when the swash plate takes the maximum inclination angle position. Otherwise, as shown by a curve "B" in FIG. 6, when the clearance TC at the top dead center of each piston is set at an optimum amount at the time when the swash plate takes the maximum inclination angle position, the amount of clearance "TC" unfavorably increases at the time when the swash plate takes the minimum inclination angle position. Namely, since the amount of clearance "TC" at the top dead center of the pistons changes by a large amount, a sufficient volumetric efficiency of the compressor cannot be obtained.

Variable capacity swash plate type compressor with an improved hinge unit for inclinably supporting a swash plate

Kabushiki Kaisha Toyoda Jidoshokki Seisakusho


The invention relates to the security of a telecommunications network by duplication of virtual paths between switching nodes. In the case of a malfunctioning on the main path, the input switching node switches its output to the substitute path. For ensuring an effective security, each of said paths utilizes a different route in the network which leads to different transit times and thus to a shift in the reception of the data coming from the two paths. According to the invention and in order to avoid any loss or duplication of packets when they are switched from one path to another, the shift between these paths is evaluated and before the data packets are switched, this shift is taken into account.

The invention relates to a packet switching telecommunications network comprising a plurality of switching nodes between which packets are intended to be transported by logic paths, said network comprising, for securing a logic path called main path between a first and a second switching node, means for linking at least another logic path called substitute path to said main path which substitute path is intended to transport the same packets, the second node comprising switching means for switching from a main path to a substitute path.
The invention also relates to a switching node intended to be used in such a telecommunications network.
The invention has advantageous applications in the field of telecommunications network security, more particularly, for networks of the ATM type.
Networks of the ATM type use the idea of virtual paths which makes it possible to handle a total of up to 216 virtual circuits. More particularly, it is thus possible to secure the network by duplicating certain of these paths. Such a solution is described in Canadian Patent Application no. 2,132,063 filed by Siemens on Sep. 14, 1994.
This Patent Application describes indeed the use of pairs of paths formed by a main path and a substitute path which use different routes in the network between a first and a second switching node of the ATM network. The cells arriving at said first switching node are duplicated to be transmitted to said second switching node by the main path and by the substitute path. In normal operation, only the cells arriving by the main path are transmitted by the second switching node, whereas the cells arriving by the substitute path are suppressed. On the other hand, in the case of malfunctioning of the main path, it is the cells arriving by the substitute path which are transmitted by the second switching node, whereas the cells arriving by the main path are suppressed.
However, for this security to be effective it is necessary that the main path and the substitute path use different routes as much as possible. This implies different network transit times on either one of these paths. By way of example, for a high-rate network that utilizes transmission means based on optical fibers, a 100 km route difference between two paths causes a shift of the order of 1 ms. For cells of 53 octets (size of the ATM cell) and for virtual paths having a rate of several Mbit/s, such a shift is likely to cause the loss or the duplication of about ten cells when a switch is made from a main path to a substitute path.
Such a loss or duplication of cells leads to the disturbance of most of the services carried by the respective virtual path, more especially as the cells coming from the various services are generally interleaved to a maximum level in order to ensure a uniform rate for the various services. The upper layers of the disturbed services when an irregularity is established will make requests for return transmissions, which will have a highly undesirable xe2x80x9csnowballxe2x80x9d effect especially in the case where the cause of the switching from the main path to the substitute path was just a congestion of the main path.
It is an object of the invention to propose a system which remedies this disadvantage.
Therefore, a system according to the invention and as described in the opening paragraph is characterized in that the second node comprises calculation means for calculating a shift between the packets received on said paths, and check means for checking the switching to avoid packet losses or packet duplications by taking said shift into account.

Security by doubling at least certain logic paths in a telecommunications network


An antenna control system enabling the remote variation of antenna beam tilt. A drive means continuously adjusts phase shifters of a feed distribution network to radiating elements to continuously vary antenna beam tilt. A controller enables the beam tilt of a number of antenna at a site to be remotely varied.

The present invention relates to an antenna control system for varying the beam tilt of one or more antenna. More particularly, although not exclusively, the present invention relates to a drive system for use in an antenna which incorporates one or more phase shifter.
In order to produce downtilt in the beam produced by an antenna array (for example a panel antenna) it is possible to either mechanically tilt the panel antenna or electrically steer the beam radiated from the panel antenna according to techniques known in the art.
Panel antennas, such as those to which the present application is concerned, are often located on the sides of buildings or similar structures. Mechanical tilting of the antenna away from the side of the building increases the susceptibility of the installation to wind induced vibration and can impact on the visual environment in situations where significant amounts of downtilt are required.
In order to avoid the above difficulties, electrical beam steering can be effected by introducing phase delays into the signal input into radiating elements or groups of radiating elements in an antenna array. Such techniques are described in New Zealand Patent Specification No. 235010.
Various phase delay techniques are known, including inserting variable length delay lines into the network feeding to the radiating element or elements, or using PIN diodes to vary the phase of a signal transmitted through the feeder network.
A further means for varying the phase of two signals is described in PCT/NZ94/00107 whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference. This specification describes a mechanically operated variable differential phase shifter incorporating one input and two outputs.
For the present purposes it is sufficient to note that phase shifters such as those described in PCT/NZ94/00107 are adjusted mechanically by sliding an external sleeve along the body of the phase shifter which alters the relative phase of the signals at the phase shifter outputs.
A typical panel antenna will incorporate one or more phase shifters and the present particular embodiment includes three phase shifters. A signal is input to the primary phase shifter which splits the signal into two signals having a desired phase relationship. Each phase shifted signal is then input into a secondary phase shifter whose outputs feeds at least one radiating element. In this manner a progressive phase shift can be achieved across the entire radiating element array, thus providing a means for electrically adjusting the downtilt of the radiated beam. Other phase distributions are possible depending on the application and shape of the radiated beam.
While the steering action is discussed in the context of downtilt of the radiated beam, it is to be understood that the present detailed description is not limited to such a direction. Beam tilt may be produced in any desired direction.
Another particular feature of the variable differential phase shifters is that they provide a continuous phase adjustment, in contrast with the more conventional stepped phase adjustments normally found in PIN diode or stepped length delay line phase shifters.
In a panel antenna of the type presently under consideration, it is desirable to adjust the entire phase shifter array simultaneously so that a desired degree of beam tilt may be set by the adjustment of a single mechanical setting means. The mechanical drive which performs such an adjustment must result in reproducible downtilt angles and be able to be adapted to provide for a number of different phase shifter array configurations.
It is also desirable that the beam tilt of an antenna may be varied remotely to avoid the need for personnel to climb a structure to adjust antenna beam tilt.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a mechanical drive system for use in adjusting mechanical phase shifters which mitigates the abovementioned difficulties, provides a solution to the design requirements of the antennas or antenna arrays described above, or at least provides the public with a useful choice.
Accordingly, there is provided a mechanical adjustment means for adjusting the relative phase shifts produced by a plurality of phase shifters connected to an array of radiating elements, said mechanical adjustment means including:
first means for moving a first portion of a first phase shifter relative to a second portion of said first phase shifter to vary the phase difference between output signals from the first phase shifter; and
second means for moving a first portion of a second phase shifter relative to a second portion of said second phase shifter to vary the phase difference between output signals from the second phase shifter, wherein the second phase shifter is fed from an output of the first phase shifter and the degree of movement of the second means is dependent upon the degree of movement of the first means.
Preferably, movement of the second means results in simultaneous movement of a first portion of a third phase shifter with respect to a second portion of the third phase shifter wherein the third phase shifter is fed from an output of the first phase shifter.
Preferably the outputs of the second and third phase shifters are connected to radiating elements so as to produce a beam which tilts as the first and second means adjusts the phase shifters.
Preferably the movement of the first portion of the first phase shifter a first distance relative to the second portion of the first phase shifter results in relative movement between first portions of the second and third phase shifters relative to second portions of the second and third phase shifters of about twice the first distance.
According to a first preferred embodiment the first means includes a gear wheel which drives a rack connected to a first portion of the first phase shifter, arranged so that rotation of the first gear wheel causes the first portion of the first phase shifter to move relative to the second portion of the first phase shifter. Preferably, the second portion of the first phase shifter is mounted to a carriage and the outputs of the first phase shifter are connected to inputs of the second and third phase shifters by push rods so that movement of the second portion of the first phase shifter moves the first portions of the second and third phase shifters with respect to the second portions of the second and third phase shifters.
Preferably a second gear is provided co-axial with and connected to a shaft driving the first gear which drives a rack connected to the second part of the first phase shifter so that rotation of the second gear causes movement of the first portion of the second and third phase shifters relative to the second portions of the second and third phase shifters.
Preferably the ratio between the first and second gear wheels is about 3:1.
According to a second embodiment of the present invention the adjustment means includes a shaft and said first means includes a first threaded portion provided on said shaft and a first cooperating threaded member connected to the first portion of the first phase shifter. The second means includes a second threaded portion provided on said shaft and a second cooperating threaded member connected to the first portion of the second phase shifter. The arrangement is such that rotation of the shaft causes the first portion of the first phase shifter to move relative to the second portion of the first phase shifter at a rate of about twice that of the movement of the first portion of the second phase shifter relative to the second portion of the second phase shifter.
Preferably the second threaded member is connected to the second portion of the first phase shifter and moves the first portion of the second phase shifter via a push rod. This push rod is preferably a coaxial line connecting an output from the first phase shifter to the input to the second phase shifter.,
Preferably there is further provided a third phase shifter fed from a second output of the first phase shifter via a push rod which moves a first portion of the third phase shifter in unison with the first portion of the second phase shifter.
According to a further aspect of the invention there is provided an antenna system comprising one or more antenna including electromechanical means for varying the downtilt of the antenna and a controller, external to the antenna, for supplying drive signals to the electromechanical means for adjusting downtilt.
Preferably the system includes a plurality of antennas and the controller may adjust the downtilt for the plurality of antennas and store the degree of downtilt of each antenna in memory.
Preferably the controller may be controlled remotely from a control centre so that a plurality of such systems may be remotely controlled as part of a control strategy for a number of cellular base stations.
Preferably the electromechanical means varies the electrical downtilt of each antenna and means are included for monitoring the electromechanical means and providing signals representative of the position of the electromechanical means to the controller.


A computer-implemented method according to one embodiment includes estimating a speaker dependent acoustic model utilizing test speech data and a hybrid estimation technique, transforming labeled speech data to create transformed speech data, utilizing the speaker dependent acoustic model and a nonlinear transformation, and adjusting a deep neural network (DNN) acoustic model, utilizing the transformed speech data.

The present invention relates to automatic speech recognition (ASR), and more specifically, this invention relates to adjusting a deep neural network (DNN) acoustic model used in ASR.
Deep neural network (DNN) acoustic models are frequently used in the performance of automatic speech recognition (ASR). However, current methodologies for adapting DNN acoustic models to new test conditions suffer from covariate shift which arises from a distribution mismatch between training data and test data.

Adjusting a deep neural network acoustic model

International Business Machines Corporation


The invention features a lining material for footwear. The material includes a non-woven felt including up to 80% by weight of grooved or multi-lobed cross section transport fibers and the remainder of thermally bondable fibers arranged to secure the transport fibers against abrasion and excessive mechanical stretch presented during incorporation of the lining material into a product during that product""s manufacture.

The present invention relates to a lining material and more particularly, but not exclusively, to a lining material for footwear.
A large number of products include a lining material for a variety of reasons. For example, a lining material is used within footwear to improve wearer comfort, abrasion resistance and for presentational reasons. Alternatively, linings are applied to clothing and other products in order to achieve a similar wear abrasion, moisture control and simply to facilitate more efficient product construction or operation.
Of particular concern with some lining materials is the ability to wick away moisture from damp areas and this is a particular requirement in footwear linings. Absorbent fibres can be used in linings to facilitate this moisture wick ability. However, the abrasion resistance of linings using such fibres has been limited. More recently, improved wicking synthetic fibres have been developed which have a grooved cross-section to promote capillary transport of moisture along the fibre and thus disperse moisture more rapidly about the lining material made from such fibres.
One type of lining material is a non-woven felt comprising appropriately needle entangled fibres to form a felt of suitable weight and gauge for the product in which the lining is to be applied. One such lining is marketed by British United Shoe Machinery Limited, Leicester, England under the trademark Aquiline. In order to incorporate such grooved cross section fibres for their wicking efficiency within a non-woven fabric, the grooved cross-section fibres it will generally be needle entangled as with previous felts. However, it has been found with typically available grooved cross section fibres, such as fibre 4DG supplied by the Eastman Chemical Company of Tennessee, USA or multi-lobed cross-section such as fibres-sold as Dacron, in simple fibre entangled felts have had too high an abrasion rate for acceptable performance in such products as footwear or clothing. Furthermore, the felts have had too high a stretch rate during product manufacture.
It will be appreciated that generally non-woven felts depend upon fibre entanglement and fibre friction slip resistance to ensure consolidation. Thus, with grooved or multi-lobed cross section fibres it may be that there is less surface contact between fibres to provide such entanglement and friction resistance i.e. only the tops of the grooves or channels are available as compared to a generally round cross section fibre. The valleys of the channels are not available even though they do provide the facility of capillary wicking as indicated above and are available for application of a suitable coating for hydrophobic or hydrophobic attraction of moisture or other desired performance criteria e.g. electrical/thermal conductivity, ph resistance etc. With regard to stretching, it will be appreciated that the felt may become distorted after a manufacturing stage due to fibre slippage passed one another and there will be no xe2x80x98bounce backxe2x80x99 to its original shape.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a lining material based upon non-woven felts that incorporates grooved or multi-lobed cross sectioned fibres for improved wicking whilst maintaining acceptable abrasion levels and properties adequate for shoe manufacture and for durability in use.
In accordance with the present invention there is provided a lining material for footwear, the material comprising a non-woven felt made of up to 80% by weight of grooved or multi-lobed cross section transport fibres and the remainder thermally bondable fibres arranged to secure said transport fibres against abrasion and excessive mechanical stretch present during incorporation of such lining material into a product during that product""s manufacture.
Preferably the transport fibres are 4DG fibre supplied by the Eastman Chemical Company of Tennessee, USA or Dacron.
Preferably the thermally bondable fibres may be polypropylene fibres, bicomponent fibres or low melting polyester fibres, all of the appropriate decitex.
In replacement of a certain proportion of the transport fibres, anti-bacterial fibres or other special performance fibres may be included in the non woven felt.
Preferably, the lining material has a density in the range 150-160 kg per cubic meter and preferably about 156 kg per cubic meter. The material preferably has a weight of 250 gsm and a gauge of 1.6 mm but may have a weight in the range 100-400 gsm.
Preferably the thermally bondable fibres have a decitex in the range 1.7-5.0 decitex but in any event sufficient to allow upon heating the transport fibres to be resiliently bonded or embedded within the thermally bondable fibres without the thermally bondable fibres melting completely. The preferred decitex of the thermally bondable fibres is 2.5 whilst the transport fibres may have a decitex in the range 2.5 to 4.0 decitex but most advantageously, with 4DG fibre, of 3.3 decitex.
The preferred composition of the lining material is 70% 4DG fibre, 3.3 decitex blended with 30% polypropylene fibre, 2.5 decitex with a weight after thermal activation of 250 gsm and a gauge of 1.6 mm.


A system and method are provided that improve upon existing aircraft display systems by generating and updating an overrun image that may be overlaid on a variety of panoramic and landscape images on a display device. The overrun image displays stopping locations for all relevant available stopping devices, as determined from the far end of the selected runway. In addition, the aircraft display system determines an advisory zone on the selected runway and presents limited symbols and images in and near the advisory zone that indicate distances and relevant information.

Landing an aircraft on a runway can be very cognitively demanding. To perform the landing properly, the pilot must view and synthesize complex information provided by a variety of sources, and in a variety of mediums.
Visual information is often displayed in the form of a landscape or panoramic image, such as a navigation map, on a display device. The navigation map may have text, icons, and symbols overlaid on it. Depending on the current display scale settings and the approach, symbology representing the runway icon can be too small to provide additional, relevant, landing information, such as a predicted touch down point and a predicted stopping point. While some display systems address this concern by providing a dedicated runway display section on a navigation map, there is room for improvements that enhance a pilot's uptake of the relevant information reduce the cognitive load and increase the pilot's confidence when landing and making go-around decisions.
Improvements that further enhance a pilot's uptake of the relevant runway information are desirable. For example, in addition to presenting a stopping location representative of the aircraft's current configuration, a displayed image that presents stopping location information that is inclusive of all available stopping devices is desirable. In addition to displaying stopping locations of all available stopping devices, presenting the stopping location information as measured from a far end of the runway may be a more intuitive and unambiguous approach. The provided system and method realize these improvements. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the exemplary embodiments will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description.

System and method for displaying runway overrun information


A method for initial alignment of an inertial navigation apparatus, comprising the following steps: providing an apparatus loaded with a sensor, and preprocessing the sensor; carrying out relative alignment to calculate an installation error angle of the sensor; carrying out absolute alignment to calculate an installation attitude angle error of the sensor to increase an accuracy of an error attitude angle calculated during the relative alignment. The relative alignment process calculates a relative error attitude angle, the relative error attitude angle being used as the initial value for attitude error in a stat vector in the absolute alignment process, thereby accelerating convergence of the Kalman filter. Alignment precision is further enhanced by the absolute alignment process.

As MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical-System) sensors, navigation, and control technology develop, combined with increasing government support for agriculture, has led to precision agriculture becoming increasingly popular. During agricultural machine-assisted driving control, the motion and position information of the vehicle body can be reflected by the attitude (including pitch angle, the roll angle, and course angle), speed, and position information of the vehicle body in real time. This information can provide important data input for a combined navigation and control algorithm with high-precision.
Strapdown-Inertial-Navigation-System (SINS) has features such as: autonomous navigation, good confidentiality, strong anti-interference ability, having plentiful navigation parameters, having high precision for using in a short period time, etc., and is widely used. However, since the inertial sensor has inherent errors, as time goes by, navigation errors accumulate and the accuracy of the navigation deteriorates, such that the assistant of other navigation systems (e.g. a high-precision GPS-RTK) with stable error are required. The inertial navigation system obtains velocity and position information by carrying out an integral operation based on the measured acceleration of the vehicle body. Hence, it is necessary to know initial velocity and position. Additionally, in an inertial navigation system taking the geographic coordinate system as a navigation coordinate system, either the physical platform or the mathematical platform is a reference for measuring the acceleration. Furthermore, the platform must accurately align and track the geographic coordinate system to avoid the error of the platform from causing the error in acceleration measurement. The accuracy of initial alignment directly relates to the working accuracy of the navigation system. Thus, the initial alignment is also one of the key technologies.
There are two commonly used alignment methods: coarse alignment and alignment. However, the two alignment methods are mainly used with high-precision gyroscopes, which can sense the angular speed of Earth's rotation. Therefore, these two alignment methods are not suitable for the inertial navigation apparatus with a low-cost and low-performance.

Method for initial alignment of an inertial navigation apparatus

SHANGHAI HUACE NAVIGATION TECHNOLOGY LTD


A fixture configuration module comprises range control circuitry and fixture control circuitry. The range control circuitry is configured to store a range of a lighting parameter. The range identifies at least a subset of values of the lighting parameter supported by the light fixture to produce light. The fixture control circuitry is communicatively coupled to the range control circuitry and is configured to control the light fixture to produce the light in accordance with the range stored by the range control circuitry.

In recent years, a movement has gained traction to replace incandescent light bulbs with light fixtures that employ more efficient lighting technologies as well as to replace relatively efficient fluorescent light fixtures with lighting technologies that produce a more pleasing, natural light. One such technology that shows tremendous promise employs light emitting diodes (LEDs). Compared with incandescent bulbs, LED-based light fixtures are much more efficient at converting electrical energy into light, are longer lasting, and are also capable of producing light that is very natural. Compared with fluorescent lighting, LED-based fixtures are also very efficient, but are capable of producing light that is much more natural and more capable of accurately rendering colors. As a result, light fixtures that employ LED technologies are expected to replace incandescent and fluorescent bulbs in residential, commercial, and industrial applications.
Unlike incandescent bulbs that operate by subjecting a filament to a desired current, LED-based light fixtures require electronics to drive one or more LEDs. The electronics generally include a power supply and a special control circuitry to provide uniquely configured signals that are required to drive the one or more LEDs in a desired fashion. The presence of the control circuitry adds a potentially significant level of intelligence to the light fixtures that can be leveraged to employ various types of lighting control.


The present invention relates to a system and methods for measuring the haze of a thin film, such as a transparent conductive film, deposited on a substrate by either the reflectance of light by the external surface or the scattering of light by the internal grain surfaces of the thin film. More particularly, the haze measuring system is operated fully under computer control. The control program guides an operator through a calibration procedure, then calculates the haze of a thin film by comparing the reflectance minima at a wavelength of 500 nm or the ratio of the reflectance amplitude at 500 nm to 800 nm to calibration standards.

Technical Field
The present invention relates to a system and methods for determining the haze of a thin film deposited on a substrate. Particularly, the system and methods measure the haze of a thin film, such as a transparent conductive film deposited on a substrate, by either the reflectance of light by the external surface or the scattering of light by the internal grain surfaces of the thin film.
Conventionally, the word "haze" is defined as the ratio of the diffuse (i.e. scattered) component of transmitted light to the total amount of light transmitted by a thin film for the wavelengths of light to which the photodetector is sensitive. However, as used herein, the word "haze" means the macroscopically observable ability of a thin film to scatter, reflect or transmit light in reference to an arbitrary relative haze scale. The haze scale is established by setting 50-90 samples of ZnO of varying "haziness" against a black background, then based on their relative haziness to the eye of an observer, they are arbitrarily assigned a number between 1 and 10 with a resolution of 0.5. Coarse assignments of the sample are made first; then detailed decisions are made by side-by-side comparisons of the samples.
As used herein, the word "fringer" means an optical measurement system for measuring the thickness and haze of thin films based on the optical interference ("fringes") observed in the spectrum of light reflected or scattered from the thin film surface.
As used herein, the word "transparent conductor" means a thin film having a sheet resistance value useful for fabricating practical photoconductor devices and also exhibiting a peak optical transmission of greater than about 75% in the wavelength range to which the photoconductor is sensitive.

System and methods for measuring the haze of a thin film


A method and a device for collecting light characterized by a body which acts as a light trap, contains at least two different groups of fluorescent particles with each group having an absorption range and light emitting range which are different from the other groups, and has at least one light decoupling window to emit the fluorescent light therefrom.

The present invention is directed to a method for collecting light which utilizes a body functioning as a light trap, the body preferably is designed in plate shape and consists of a solid polymerized synthetic carrier containing fluorescent particles and is provided with at least one light exit window.
A light collector utilizing a body containing fluorescent particles or pigments is known in a various number of embodiments. For example, it may be used for collecting solar energy as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,110,123, which was based on German O.S. 26 20 115. Two other examples of such a solar collector used for capturing solar energy are disclosed by Paul M. Mauer et al, "Fluorescent Concentrator for Solar Energy Collection", Research Disclosure, January, 1975, No. 129, pages 20 and 21, and Goetzberger et al, "Solar Energy Conversion with Fluorescent Collectors", Applied Physics, Vol. 14, 1977, pages 123-139. Collectors, which utilize fluorescent particles, have also been used for optical transmission of messages as disclosed in copending U.S. Pat. application Ser. No. 932,569, which issued as U.S. Pat. No. 4,222,880 on Sept. 16, 1980 and is based on German application P 27 42 899, and for brightening the image of a passive display, as disclosed in both U.S. Pat. No. 4,142,781 which includes the disclosure of German O.S. 25 54 226 and in an article by W. Greubel et al, Elektronik, Vol. 6, 1977, pages 55 and 56. Collectors have also been used for increasing the sensitivity of a scintillator as disclosed by G. Keil, "Design Principles of Fluorescence Radiation Convertors", Nuclear Instruments and Methods, Vol. 87, 1970, page 111-123. Favorable processing conditions, carrier materials and possibilities for improving the light yields have already been described in copending U.S. application Ser. No. 062,816, which is based on German application P 28 33 914.2; U.S. Ser. No. 062,734 which is based on German application P 28 33 926.6 and U.S. Ser. No. 062,784 which was based on German application P 28 33 934.6.
When light strikes a fluorescent plate, then the component of the light lying in excitation spectrum of a fluorescent substance is absorbed by the fluorescent centers of the materials. The remaining light component will permeate the fluorescent plate undisturbed. The absorbed radiation is emitted by the fluorescent centers with a longer wave length and spatially undirected. Due to reflections at the plate interface a large part of the fluorescent light is conducted in the interior of the carrier plate until it emerges at specific coupling out regions with an increased intensity.
The efficiency achieved up until now with fluorescent plates still always lags behind the theoretical possible values. Mainly this is because the emission spectrum overlaps with the absorption spectrum and the fluorescent radiation of the plate therefore has a finite absorption length. What is particularly dissatisfying is that this "self-absorption" has a particularly unfavorable effect particularly on fluorescent bodies with a large collecting surface.
It has already been known for a long time that the emission band is displaced towards the lower frequencies with respect to the excitation band in some organic fluorescent substances when these particles are dissolved in a liquid with a strong orientation polarization. In the following it will be understood that pigments are unsolved or unsoluble dyes. Whereas particles are molecules solved in a liquid or a carrier. This displacement, which is known as a red shift occurs when the fluorescent molecule has different dipole moments in its basic or at rest state and its excitation state and when the environment which remains unchanged during the absorption process can re-orient during the existence of the excitation state as described in an article by E. Lippert, Zeitschrift fur Elektrochemie, Ber. Bunsengs. Phys. Chem. Vol. 61, No. 8, 1957, pages 962-975.
However, fluorescent bodies should consist insofar as possible of a solid carrier material. Solid carriers, which are organic synthetics, can be manufactured and processed with relatively low outlay which is an advantage, particularly in a mass production process.
The desired band separation in solid state solution also depends on the dielectric constant of the solid and the dipole differences between the rest state and the excited state also plays an important role. This is discussed in the above mentioned article from Applied Physics. Investigations of the suggested interrelationship which leads further and which investigation would teach one how to select the synthetics with the necessary polarization properties, are stil lacking. Above all, there is a lack of suggestion as to how one is to proceed so that the polar synthetics also fulfills the demands to be made of the fluorescent bodies. The fluorescent body, as well known, must be highly transparent and thermally as well as photochemically stable. In addition, the fluorescent bodies should be easy to bring into any desirable shape, must be hard and dimensionally stable in the final state, and should have a high fluorescent quantum yield.

Method and device for collecting light utilizing a light trap