A system for, and method of intelligently silencing a mobile telephone, allowing the user to avoid unnecessary interruptions while sleeping or engaged in other activities and while still allowing necessary or urgent notifications to be received. The invention provides a method for creating a “do not disturb” mode on a mobile phone, which provides an explicit mechanism which can allow certain designated callers to override the “do not disturb” mode. When the phone is in “do not disturb” mode, an option is typically provided which allows the phone owner to designate certain contacts for different treatment upon receipt of a call or message.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to electronic equipment docks and more particularly to a method for silencing a phone using a docking unit that can dock a wide variety of cellular telephones.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Portable devices, speakers and docks for portable electronic equipment such as digital media and audio players, including so-called MP-3 players, are known in art and have been very popular with consumers. Such devices have ranged dramatically in price, quality and functionality. The simplest have been battery or wall-powered speakers connected to the portable player solely by a 3.5 mm stereo headphone jack. Recently, more advanced devices have come into the market with proprietary connectors that allow charging and control of the device as well as providing speakers. Some of these devices have had remote controls.
The demand for devices has continued to increase with the proliferation of digital and portable media applications and services that have been incorporated into cellular telephones, particularly a new type of so-called "smartphones" that offer computer-like power and functionality. The capability of these devices has increased to include a variety of new applications and services including, but not limited to, streaming music and media services, which operate to provide online radio, on-demand and streaming music and recommendation services as well as on-demand and streaming video, TV and movie entertainment. One common application for such phones is as a replacement for an alarm clock.
It would be particularly advantageous to have a universal docking device that would allow a simplified means for silencing the phone in a way that still allows urgent notifications to get through.
It would be advantageous to have a dock that also provides visual notifications that allow users to see, at a glance, which non urgent notifications have been received.
It would be advantageous if such silencing schemes were easily customizable by the user based on their personal preferences.
Prior art docks generally have lacked integration with phones that allowed silencing the phones as well as providing visual notifications.
While other "do not disturb" features exist in the prior art smartphones, they suffer from the following shortcomings: In one case, they require triggering by setting a daily time to go into "do not disturb mode" of course, this does not allow for changes in daily schedules, nor does it allow for unanticipated periods where the user may desire that their phones go into such a mode, such as taking a nap, attending a meeting or undertaking an activity that requires uninterrupted concentration. In another case, it may require manually initiating the mode, which has two problems, first, it requires navigating through phone menus and interfaces, which is often time consuming. Second, it requires the user to remember to do go through that same process to end the "do not disturb" period, the failure to do so means that the user will miss calls and notifications after the intended "do not disturb" period has ended. Furthermore, it is often the case, that a user desires a way to have some feel for what notifications have been missed while the phone is silenced. In other words, something that allows them to see at a glance the status of missed notifications without actually being interrupted by them. Finally, the prior art offers users the ability to designate a certain list of callers who's calls will always ring the phone, even when in "do not disturb" mode. However, this method is inadequate to discriminate between urgent and non urgent calls since it's often the case that any given caller will call or send messages that vary in level of urgency. A second method that has been employed is to allow repeat calls made in close sequence to override the "do not disturb" mode. For example, if a caller calls twice within 3 minutes, the phone will ring. Calling repeatedly in close sequence is often a proxy for the urgency of the message, but not always. Furthermore, not all callers will anticipate that calling a second time will initiate this special function, and without this knowledge, they may be loathe to call repeatedly on the presumption that the unanswered first call was an indication that the recipient was unable to receive the call, and a second call would provide no additional useful function.

Cellular telephone docking device and silencing method


In some examples, a system may determine a mountpoint included in a first filesystem for mounting a userspace filesystem. For instance, the userspace filesystem may be executable in a userspace provided by an operating system. The system may determine a bind mount path for a mount path corresponding to the mountpoint. The system may bind mount, to the determined bind mount path, at least a portion of a second filesystem associated with the mount path corresponding to the mountpoint. In addition, the system may mount the userspace filesystem at the mountpoint, and may incorporate data from the second filesystem into the userspace filesystem through the bind mount path.

Traditional filesystems are typically implemented in the kernel of the operating system. On the other hand, a userspace filesystem is a filesystem implemented as a process in the userspace, rather than in the kernel space. For instance, executing in the userspace gives the userspace filesystem access to userspace libraries, application programming interfaces (APIs), and the like, and also provides access to the filesystem itself in a manner similar to other userspace processes.
A mountpoint is a location (e.g., an empty directory) in a currently mounted filesystem (which may be either a kernel space filesystem or a userspace filesystem) where an additional filesystem is mounted. The act of mounting a userspace filesystem at a mountpoint hides any content on an underlying filesystem that may have been previously mounted to the mount path corresponding to the mountpoint. While the userspace filesystem remains mounted at the mountpoint, any data written to that mount path is written to the userspace filesystem. Consequently, the data for the underlying filesystem at the mountpoint before mounting of the userspace filesystem may no longer be visible. Further, the userspace filesystem may become unmounted for a variety of reasons, resulting in the undesirable exposure of the underlying filesystem. If the userspace filesystem becomes unmounted, any data written to the mount path may be written to the underlying filesystem instead of to the intended userspace filesystem. For example, after the userspace filesystem is remounted to the mountpoint, the data written to the mount path may become hidden and difficult to locate.

Managing data hidden by userspace filesystem


The present invention provides a side-edge backlight module, which includes: a backplane (2), a backlight source (4) mounted in the backplane (2), and a light guide plate (6) mounted in the backplane (2). The backlight source (4) includes a circuit board (42), a plurality of LED lights (44) mounted to and electrically connected with the circuit board (42), a plurality of vertical heat dissipation boards (46) mounted to the circuit board (42) and arranged between the LED lights (44), and horizontal heat dissipation boards (48) perpendicularly connected to the vertical heat dissipation boards (46). The horizontal heat dissipation boards (48) are mounted to the backplane (2). By mounting the vertical heat dissipation boards to the circuit board of the backlight source and mounting the horizontal heat dissipation boards to the bottom board of the backplane, with the horizontal heat dissipation boards and the vertical heat dissipation boards being jointed to or engaging with each other, the side-edge backlight module of the present invention effectively enhances the heat dissipation performance. Further, the vertical heat dissipation boards are arranged between adjacent LED lights and are located on the same side of the circuit board as the LED lights so as to further enhance the heat dissipation performance and thereby improving the quality of the side-edge backlight module.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of flat panel displaying, and in particular to a side-edge backlight module.
2. The Related Arts
Liquid crystal displays (LCDs) have a variety of advantages, such as thin device body, low power consumption, and being free of radiation, and are thus of wide applications, such as mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), digital cameras, computer monitors, and notebook computer screens.
Most of the liquid crystal displays that are currently available in the market are backlighting liquid crystal displays, which comprise an enclosure, a liquid crystal panel arranged in the enclosure, and a backlight module mounted in the enclosure. The structure of a conventional liquid crystal panel is composed of a color filter (CF) substrate, a thin-film transistor (TFT) array substrate, and a liquid crystal layer arranged between the two substrates and the principle of operation is that a driving voltage is applied to the two glass substrates to control rotation of the liquid crystal molecules of the liquid crystal layer in order to refract out light emitting from the backlight module for generating images. Since the liquid crystal panel itself does not emit light, light must be provided from the backlight module in order to normally display images. Thus, the backlight module is one of the key components of the liquid crystal displays. The backlight modules can be classified in two types, namely a side-edge backlight module and a direct backlight module, according to the site where light gets incident. The direct backlight module comprises a light source, such as a cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) or a light-emitting diode (LED), which is arranged at the backside of the liquid crystal panel to form a planar light source directly supplied to the liquid crystal display panel. The side-edge backlight module comprises an LED light bar, serving as a backlight source, which is arranged at an edge of a backplane to be located rearward of one side of the liquid crystal display panel. The LED light bar emits light that enters a light guide plate (LGP) through a light incident face at one side of the light guide plate and is projected out of a light emergence face of the light guide plate, after being reflected and diffused, to pass through an optic film assembly so as to form a planar light source for the liquid crystal display panel.
Referring to FIG. 1, the side-edge backlight module comprises: a backplane 100, a reflector plate 200 arranged in the backplane 100, a light guide plate 300 arranged on the reflector plate 200, a backlight source 400 arranged in the backplane 100, and a heat dissipation board 500 arranged between the backlight source 400 and the backplane 100. The backplane 100 comprises a bottom board 102 and side boards 104 connected to the bottom board 102. The backlight source 400 is attached via thermal paste (not shown) to the heat dissipation board 500. The heat dissipation board 500 is generally an aluminum board, a copper board, or a graphite patch, which is fixed by screws to the bottom board 102 of the backplane 100. Heat generated by the backlight source 400 is transmitted through the heat dissipation board 500 to the bottom board 102 of the backplane 100 and heat exchange is then performed through the backplane 100 with the surrounding atmosphere to realize heat dissipation. However, the thermal conductivity coefficient of the thermal paste is not great so that the heat dissipation performance of the backlight module is not good and the quality of the backlight module is thus affected.

Shenzhen China Star Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd


A wireless PC card includes a housing portion including a width and a lens extending substantially the width of the housing portion; a light pipe housed by the housing portion; a substantially flat plug portion extending from the housing portion and configured to be received by a socket of a portable computer for communicating the PC card with the portable computer; an antenna for sending and receiving a wireless signal connected to the housing portion; and a circuit board including an illumination device and electronics to cause the illumination device to emit flashing illumination, causing the lens to emit flashing illumination via the light pipe while the PC card searches for a wireless signal and emit steady state illumination, causing the lens to emit steady state illumination via the light pipe while the PC card maintains a sufficient wireless signal connection.

A wireless PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) modem card is a "credit card" sized modem card for use in computers utilizing and complying with the PCMCIA specifications to wirelessly connect the computer to a computer network. The wireless PCMCIA modem card is inserted into any computer equipped with a PCMCIA compliant socket. The wireless PCMCIA modem card is interchangeable with other computers, and requires only a minimal amount of physical space.
A problem with wireless PCMCIA modem cards is that they did not include status indicator lighting that clearly indicated the existence of a wireless signal connection and wireless signal strength.


Methods and structure described herein provide for detecting data inversions between electronic devices in communication with one another and automatically correcting those that inversions. An electronic device may be configured with a receiver that is configured for receiving differential serial data from a transmitter of another electronic device. The differential serial data is formatted according to a particular communication protocol associated with the electronic devices. The receiver detects an invalid sequence in the received differential serial data, such as an inverted SAS primitive, and automatically change the receive logic of the receiver such that subsequent received differential serial data is in the proper polarity. The transmitting device does not require notification of the change in receive logic.

1. Field of the Invention
Generally, the invention relates to detecting data inversions between electronic devices in communication with one another. More specifically, the invention relates to detecting a data inversion based on the determination of a received invalid sequence of data and automatically correcting the data inversion by logically changing the polarity of the received data.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Differential Signaling, such as Low voltage differential signaling (LVDS), is generally a type of serial data communications where a voltage difference between two wires is used to convey information. In LVDS, a transmitter simultaneously applies a voltage to a wire and the inverse of the voltage to a paired wire. When summed together, the voltage equals zero and any electromagnetic radiation (EMR) generated by one wire is canceled out by the other. A receiver subtracts the voltage on the two wires to recover the signal sent by the transmitter. Subtracting the signals on the two wires generally allows the same signal to be transmitted with half the voltage on each wire, thereby using less power. LVDS also improves signal to noise ratio (SNR) because any noise added to the wires is roughly uniform between the wires and removed by the receiver. Decreased transmit power, decreased EMR, and increased SNR make LVDS very useful in high speed data communications.
Accordingly, LVDS is often employed in computer devices requiring relatively fast data transfer rates, such as computer disk drives. The high speed of LVDS and its use of in-channel synchronization generally allows more data to be sent using fewer wires than can be done with a normal parallel bus. Some examples of LVDS used in computer communications include HyperTransport, SCSI, RS-422, RS-485, Ethernet, Universal Serial Bus (USB), Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA), Serial Attached Small Computer System Interface (SAS), and FireWire.
Many computer devices further enhance the reliability of the transmitted data by formatting the data with a communications protocol. A communications protocol is a set of standard rules for data representation, signaling, authentication, and error detection and correction used in transmitting information. One example of such a protocol includes the PCI express (PCIe) protocol. PCIe is a "point-to-point" bus protocol that removes the need for arbitrating with a computer bus such that a transmitter need not wait until the bus is free to transmit data. One feature of PCIe is its ability to negotiate communications between the transmitter and receiver. For example, when a transmitting computer device (e.g., a host processor on a motherboard) wishes to transmit data to a receiving computer device (e.g., a PCIe card coupled to the motherboard), the transmitting computer device may negotiate communications through a "handshaking" sequence that the receiving computer device acknowledges. In this regard, the transmitting computer device may transfer a sequence of data that is used by the receiving computer device to determine the polarity of the data being transmitted. If the receiving computer device determines that the polarity of the data is inverted, the receiving computer device may inform the transmitting computer device of the data inversion such that one of the computer devices reverses polarity.
While this polarity negotiation between computer devices ensures that the devices will be communicating in the correct polarity, it generally requires implementation within both transmitting computer devices and receiving computer devices. However, some communication protocols are not configured with such a polarity negotiation. Accordingly, devices operating with these polarity correction lacking protocols require design assurance that the devices are properly connected. For example, the SAS protocol does not include a specific polarity checking sequence in which a receiving device may determine a polarity inversion and notify the transmitting device of that inversion. Accordingly, designers must assure that a SAS interface to a SAS device, such as a computer disk drive, has its serial data connections coupled to the device in the correct polarity during assembly. Otherwise, literally half of the SAS devices may require reconfiguration after assembly.
It is evident from the above discussions that there is a need for automatically correcting data inversions for computer devices using communication protocols that lack specific polarity checking sequences.

Automatic correction of data polarity on a differential serial bus


A capping sheet that seals a nozzle surface of a liquid jet head having a liquid jet nozzle that ejects liquid onto a target, the capping sheet includes: a sheet body including an opposite surface facing the nozzle surface of the liquid jet head, the sheet body being provided separately from a capping-sheet carrying mechanism that carries the sheet body from a non-capping position where the opposite surface does not face the nozzle surface to a capping position where the opposite surface faces the nozzle surface; and on the opposite surface, a sealing part that seals the nozzle surface with a sealed space therebetween if the capping sheet is carried to the capping position by the capping-sheet carrying mechanism and relatively moved in a way that the opposite surface comes close to the nozzle surface at the capping position.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a capping sheet and liquid jet apparatus.
2. Related Art
Inkjet printers (hereinafter simply referred to as the "printer(s)") have been widely known as liquid jet apparatus for ejecting liquid from their liquid jet heads onto a target. This type of printers has a problem in that evaporation of ink solvents through the nozzles of their liquid-jet recording head increases ink viscosity and solidifies the ink, and also in that dust cling to the nozzles and bubbles get trapped in the ink. All of these cause nozzle clogging, resulting in print defects.
To address this problem, typical printers have a boxy capping material to seal their recording head in a resting state to prevent ink in the nozzles from drying. The capping material is typically placed in a non-printing area and provides a capping operation by horizontally moving the recording head from a printing position to an area where the capping material is placed. While the capping material seals the head, the space defined by the capping material and head (nozzle surface) is kept wet to prevent ink in the nozzles from drying.
In recent years, printers including a full-line head have been developed for high-speed printing. The head is a large recording head with nozzles arrayed, to the full width of a printing area, in a direction perpendicular to another direction in which a recording medium is fed. With this type of printers, however, it is troublesome to move the heavy recording head to the area where the cap material is placed (non-printing area) to provide the capping operation.
A printer that can solve this problem has been developed. JP-A-2005-53119 is an example of related art. In this type of printer, a capping material forms a unit with a capping-material carrying belt arranged along the circumference of a paper-carrying belt. The capping material is usually placed under the paper-carrying belt. To provide the capping operation, the paper-carrying belt is lowered, and thereafter the capping material is moved by the capping-material carrying belt to a position facing the nozzle surface of the recording head.
The paper-carrying belt is then lifted to press the capping-material carrying belt onto the recording head side, whereby the capping material on the capping-material carrying belt is pressed onto the nozzle surface of the head. This structure therefore provides the capping operation without moving the head from the printing area.
The related-art printer, however, involves the following problems. Since the capping material forms a unit with the capping-material carrying belt, it is troublesome to clean or replace an ink-contaminated capping material. In addition, the mechanism to lift and lower the paper-carrying belt makes the whole structure complicated. Furthermore, the mechanism to lift the paper carrying belt to press the capping-material carrying belt and the capping material thereon onto the nozzle surface of the head would cause undesirable flexure of the paper carrying belt. If the paper-carrying belt has a tendency of such flexure, accuracy in carrying paper (e.g., the distance between the paper and head) can lower.


A multi-function retaining device in which the retaining of articles of clothing is accomplished by an elongated member that has overlapping ends. One end of the elongated member has a series of outwardly extending U-shaped members connected thereon. The other end of the elongated member has a series of apertures disposed therein. When the two ends are overlapped, the U-shaped members traverse the apertures. A second elongated member connected to the first elongated member traverses the U-shaped members, securing the two ends of the first elongated member.

Various types of wearing apparel have traditionally required some type of retaining mechanism to secure the wearing apparel about the body of a wearer. This mechanism may be a built-in part of the apparel such as permanently attached buttons, zippers, clasps, or other attached securing mechanisms. Non-permanently attached securing mechanisms of various types and designs have also been employed to secure wearing apparel about the body of the wearer. Examples of non-permanently attached securing mechanisms are straps, suspenders, elastic straps, rope cut to size, braided or woven material cut to size, or waistbelts.
The waistbelts worn on various parts of a person's body to retain wearing apparel have long been in existence. The waistbelt may be worn about a person's midsection or over the person's shoulder. Waistbelts may be of various types, designs, or configurations. They may be made of a variety of materials but are generally of a continuous length, i.e., a waistbelt has a longitudinal length with a minimum of two oppositely spaced ends, requiring some type of mechanism to secure these two ends together. The mechanism employed to secure the two ends of the waistbelt together may be a pin and buckle, snap, clasp, button, or any other variety of devices. The most commonly employed waistbelt securing device is the standard pin and buckle.
During the securing of the waistbelt generally one end of the waistbelt is overlaid or juxtaposition the other end of the waistbelt. These two ends may be secured in any desired manner such as the aforementioned pin and buckle. If the pin and buckle are selected to secure the two ends of the waistbelt, the buckle itself must be secured to one end of the waistbelt. The pin portion of the buckle typically pierces the other end of the waistbelt and provides the means for securing the two ends of the waistbelt together. The pin in concert with the buckle, when tension is applied provides the waistbelt with the necessary mechanism for securing the two ends together.
The number of apertures punched into the body of the pin and buckle waistbelt through which the buckle pin must protrude determines the exact number of locations to which the waistbelt may be fitted to the wearer i.e., a five-aperture waist belt has exactly five locations to which the pin and buckle waistbelt can be adjusted to fit around the waist of the wearer. This means the spaces between each aperture represent lengths to which the waistbelt cannot be adjusted to fit around the waist of the wearer. This limitation to the number of adjustment locations greatly reduces the wearer's ability to obtain a "most desirable" or "most comfortable" fit.
Securing the opposite ends of the waistbelt in this manner over time generally leaves depressions in the waistbelt itself caused by constant pressure of the buckle on one end of the waistbelt. The buckle pin does not cause damage to the waistbelt, as it only protrudes through an aperture and locks the buckle in place. The damage done to the waistbelt by the buckle is inherent to the use of a pin and buckle mechanism. The constant pressure applied to the body of the waistbelt by the buckle causes a depression, or worn spot, in the length of the waistbelt. This depression is commonly referred to as a "buckle scar". With continued wear, the problem of buckle scaring causes the waistbelt to become increasingly weaker and with time, the waistbelt eventually becomes worn out, or non-functional.
Attempts in the past have been made to correct the above discussed limitations and the buckle scaring problem. One such attempt is illustrated generally at 810, FIGS. 8a to 8d of the drawings. The waistbelt 810 does not use a typical pin and buckle arrangement to secure the opposite ends of the waistbelt. This waistbelt employs a single protuberance or buckling loop 820 extending outwardly from the proximal end 830 of the waistbelt. This buckling loop 820 traverses buckling slots 840 inserted into the tongue or distal end 850 of the waistbelt. A second retaining mechanism or thong 860 is inserted into the buckling loop 820 to prevent it's retracting from the buckling slots 840 thereby securing the waist belt 810. A third retaining mechanism 870 is positioned on the distal end 850 of waistbelt 810. The third retaining mechanism or slip-loop 870 may traverse the length of waistbelt 810. The only function of the slip-loop 870 is to prevent the distal end 850 and the thong 860 from dropping downward after the securing of the waistbelt 810 is complete.
The slip-loop 870 is an independent, unattached, and unsecured component, and is a functional component of the waistbelt 810. Though fundamental to the waistbelt 810's operation, there are certain malfunctional characteristics of the slip-loop 870 that are inherent in its design and in relation to its functional compatibility with other required components of the waistbelt 810. The slip-loop 870 is not a component of the buckling mechanism of the waistbelt 810, nor does it function to secure the waistbelt around the waist of the wearer. The only intended function of the slip-loop 870 is to prevent the distal end 850 and the thong 860 from dropping downward after they exit the permanently attached buckling loop 820.
In operation, the slip-loop 870 provides only a limited degree of functionality to its intended purpose. With the slip-loop 870 being an unattached and unsecured part of the waistbelt 810, it does not stay secured in any one desired position because the weight of the distal end 850 and thong 860 presses downward on the slip-loop 870, forcing the slip-loop 870 inward until the slip-loop 870 comes to rest against the buckling loop 820. As a result, the closer the slip-loop 870 shifts toward the buckling loop 820, the further the ends of the distal end 850 and thong 860 drop downward. This progressive inward shifting of the slip-loop 870 eventually renders the slip-loop 870 unable to perform the function for which it was intended.
It would be desirable to have a multi-functional waistbelt that had two opposing ends and a securing mechanism distributed on both ends of the waistbelt. Once the two ends were secured together, neither end of the waistbelt would droop.

Method and apparatus for a multi-functional waist belt


A method of repairing a fractured humerus may include implanting a prosthetic humeral stem into a humeral canal of the fractured humerus. First and second tuberosities of the fractured humerus may be robotically machined to include first and second implant-facing surfaces that are substantially negatives of first and second surface portions of the proximal end of the prosthetic humeral stem. The first and second tuberosities may be machined so that the first and second tuberosities have first and second interlocking surfaces shaped to interlock with each other. During implantation, the first and second implant-facing surfaces are in contact with the first and second surface portions of the proximal end of the prosthetic humeral stem, and the first interlocking surface interlocks with the second interlocking surface.

Certain types of bone fractures and/or joint replacements may present particular difficulties. For example, a fracture of the proximal humerus and/or proximal femur may require the humeral or femoral head to be temporarily removed, an implant stem implanted into the shaft of the humerus or femur, and the humeral or femoral head replaced and fixed to the implant stem. If the fracture results in multiple tuberosities, they may need to be positioned correctly in relation to the implant stem and each other, and fixed together, for example via suturing. Similar procedures may need to be performed during shoulder or hip joint replacements, although in those procedures, the native humeral or femoral head (or a portion thereof) may need to be replaced with a corresponding prosthetic humeral or femoral head. However, current implant products and techniques rely heavily on individual subjective surgeon experience and may not optimize the placement of bone segments relative to one another and to the implant to which they will contact. Non-optimal positioning may lead to relative movement between the pieces of bone and/or the implant, which may slow healing and/or result in below optimal results for the patient.


An image forming apparatus includes multiple image forming units each including a latent image bearer and a developing device, a transfer device to transfer toner images from the latent image bearers onto a surface of endless rotary member, a cleaner to clean the surface of the endless rotary member, and a control unit to execute a forcible toner consumption process to forcibly consume degraded toner stored in applicable one or more developing devices. The forcible toner consumption process includes a step of forming a toner image formed for forced consumption in a non-image region of the latent image bearer with an amount of toner corresponding to a difference between an image area ratio of a developed image and a prescribed threshold when the image area ratio of the developed image is lower than the prescribed threshold.

1. Technical Field
Embodiments of the present invention relate to an image forming apparatus and method that effectively conducts a forcible toner consumption process, in which a latent image formed for forced toner consumption is formed on a latent image bearer to force a developing device to consume degraded toner thereon.
2. Related Art
Conventionally, an image forming apparatus that forms an image by using an electrophotographic process is known. Specifically, after a latent image bearer such as a photoconductive drum, etc., is uniformly charged, an electrostatic latent image is formed thereon that is then developed by a developing device to obtain a toner image. The toner image is then transferred onto a recording medium (a recording sheet) from the latent image bearer either directly or indirectly via an intermediate transfer member.
In such a conventional system, when multiple images each having a low image area ratio are continuously formed for a long time, some toner in the developing device is only stirred without being consumed at the time. With this, additives either separate from or are embedded in surfaces of toner particles, thereby accelerating degradation of the toner. As degradation of the toner progresses, degradation of image quality also occurs simultaneously due to defective transfer, thereby generating a poor image, such as a scumming image (an image with toner adhering to a blank area), a void image, etc.
To suppress generation of such a poor image, a conventional image forming apparatus usually conducts a forcible toner consumption process. Specifically, when an image area ratio of an image having been most recently developed and outputted falls below a predetermined threshold, a toner image is formed on the photoconductive drum in a region thereof that corresponds to an interval between successive sheets of recording media (herein after sometimes simply referred to as a sheet interval corresponding region) using an amount of toner corresponding to a decreased level of the image area ratio to forcibly consume such toner in the developing device. Hence, by promoting consumption of the old toner and replacement with new toner in the developing device and thereby reducing a percentage of deteriorated toner in the developing device, generation of a poor image possibly caused by the degraded toner can be suppressed. Out of all region of the photoconductive drum in a circumferential direction thereof, the sheet interval corresponding region corresponds to an interval between successive sheets of recording media sent in a continuous printing mode to a transfer station.
In such a conventional image forming apparatus, the toner image is formed on the photoconductive drum and a drum cleaning unit is disposed surrounding the photoconductive drum to remove the toner from the photoconductive drum. However, the drum cleaning unit is there simply to clean the photoconductive drum by removing transfer residual toner that remains on the photosensitive surface in a toner image transfer process. Further, since an amount of toner in a toner image before the toner transfer process is far greater than an amount of toner remaining after the toner transfer process, the drum cleaning unit generally cannot remove all of the toner in the toner image formed for forced consumption alone. In particular, like in the former conventional image forming apparatus, since four photoconductive drums are disposed side by side to separately form yellow (Y), magenta (M), cyan (C), and black (K) color toner images, respectively, an individual drum cleaning unit needs to be compact to ease a layout of these drums. When it is attempted to remove all of the toner in the toner image formed for forced consumption only by using such a compact drum cleaning unit alone, various problems more likely arise due to defective cleaning.
According to another conventional image forming apparatus, four latent images formed for forced toner consumption are formed on four photoconductive drums of respective Y, M, C, and K colors and are developed and transferred onto an intermediate transfer belt at different positions thereof as the belt moves. Along with movement of the intermediate transfer belt, these four toner images of Y, M, C, and K colors each formed for forced consumption thereon are sent to a belt cleaning unit at different times from each other and are removed from the intermediate transfer belt.

Image forming apparatus and method having a forcible toner consumption process


A method may comprise measuring during a survey operation a gravitational field data using a survey accelerometer and magnetic field data using a survey magnetometer and determining during a drilling operation an azimuth of a wellbore based on the gravitational field data and the magnetic field data obtained during the survey operation. A system may comprise a drilling rig; a pipe string attached to the drilling rig; a bottom hole assembly attached to the pipe string, wherein the bottom hole assembly comprises at least one sensor; a drill bit, wherein the at least one sensor measure a revolutions-per-minute (RPM) of the drill bit; and a computing subsystem.

Magnetic measurements obtained during wellbore drilling may be affected by external interferences such as from ferromagnetic interferences from drill string, ore deposits in a bottom-hole assembly (BHA), and interaction of drilling fluids and debris with the earth's magnetic field.
The description provided in the background section should not be assumed to be prior art merely because it is mentioned in or associated with the background section. The background section may include information that describes one or more aspects of the subject technology.
In one or more implementations, not all of the depicted components in each figure may be required, and one or more implementations may include additional components not shown in a figure. Variations in the arrangement and type of the components may be made without departing from the scope of the subject disclosure. Additional components, different components, or fewer components may be utilized within the scope of the subject disclosure.

Azimuth estimation for directional drilling


A process for continuously and instantaneously sterilizing soil comprising the steps of applying a water-activated chemical fumigant below the surface of the soil which simultaneously applying water to the soil below the surface. The soil, chemical fumigant and water are throughly mixed to cause instantaneous reaction of 100% of the chemical fumigant to produce a fumigant gas. Immediately covering the treated soil with a gas impervious material to retain the gas within the soil and kill the pathogens contained therein. Thereafter innoculating the soil with antgonistic organisms for preventing recontamination of the soil.

Methyl Bromide, the fumigant that is commonly used today around the world for killing soil pathogens, is being phased out from production and use by the year 2000 as it has been proven to destroy the ozone layer. Other fumigants currently available, such as Metam Sodium (sodium methyldithiocarbamate, Dazomet (mylone), and anhydrous ammonia have been found not to be as good as methyl bromide. These fumigants are water activated fumigants and require the presence of water to produce the necessary reaction and the production of the sterilizing fumigant gas.
Normally, when a water activated fumigant is injected into the ground and a plastic mulch is spread on this ground to hold the gases to kill the pathogens, this plastic prevents rain or irrigation water from entering the soil. If water enters the soil, this moisture does not evenly react with the water activated chemical. This is the main reason why these water activated chemicals have never worked as well as they should.
These water activated fumigants also require a certain soil temperature to activate the fumigant. In routine use, the farmer or grower applies these water activated fumigants and waits for rain or irrigation to activate the chemicals. Soil temperatures being unpredictable, these water-temperature-dependant chemicals perform unevenly and poorly. Uneven activation within the soil profile leaves some inactivated chemicals to persist. These inactivated chemicals are eventually activated during the growing season, but this erratic activation causes undesirable consequences such as killing or stunting of the desirable plants grown in the treated soil.


A prism 11 is formed which has a first face 11a opposing an end face of an optical fiber 21 and receiving a light-to-be-received from the optical fiber, second and third faces 11b and 11c adjoining opposite ends of the first face 11a at right angles and opposing each other, a fourth face 11d for reflecting the light-to-be-received from the face 11a toward the face 11b, and a fifth face 11e reflecting a light-to-be-transmitted as projected from a light source through the face 11c toward the face 11a. First and second light-to-be-received converging lenses 12 and 13 are disposed on the faces 11a and 11b of the prism 11 and first and second light-to-be-transmitted converging lenses 14 and 15 are disposed on the faces 11a and 11c. The tilt angles β1 and β2 of the faces 11d and 11e with respect to the optical fiber axis 21a are less than 45°. With this configuration, if the light-to-be-received enters the light-receiving element 22 and the light-emitting element 23 and is reflected by these elements, such reflected light is prevented from returning back into the optical fiber whereby occurrence of far-end crosstalk can be suppressed.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an optical component for use in two-way optical communication in which transmission and reception of light are effected through a single optical fiber, and an optical transmitter-receiver constructed by the use of the optical component.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIGS. 6A and 6B illustrate a previous optical component (which will be referred to as previous device hereinafter) of the type concerned which has been devised in the factory facilities of the assignee of the present patent application, although not publicly known and from which the present invention originated, and an optical transmitter-receiver constructed by incorporating the component therein together with an optical fiber and light-receiving and light-emitting elements. This previous device will be described below as an example of comparison merely for facilitating of the understanding of the present invention.
In the previous device illustrated, the optical component 10 is constructed by using a prism 11 of pentagular shape (five-sided polygon) in cross-section having first to fifth operative faces 11a-11e which take part in optical transmission and reception. These first to fifth operative faces 11a-11e are all formed perpendicular to the plane of the drawing of FIG. 6A and have respective opposite ends perpendicular to the plane of the drawing. It should be noted, of course, that the prism has end faces 11g and 11h parallel to the plane of the drawing (see FIG. 6B).
One end of the first face 11a of the prism 11 and one end of the second face 11b adjoin each other at a corner Pab such these faces 11a and 11b form a right angle and similarly the other end of the first face 11a and one end of the third face 11c adjoin each other at a corner Pac such these faces 11a and 11c form a right angle. It is thus to be understood that the second face 11b and the third face 11c oppose each other in parallelism.
The other end of the second face 11b of the prism 11 and one end of the fourth face 11d adjoin each other at a corner Pbd, and the other end of the third face 11c and one end of the fifth face 11e adjoin each other at a corner Pce.
Further, the other end of the fourth face 11d and the other end of the fifth face 11e adjoin each other at a corner P, and the fourth face 11d and the fifth face 11e are recessed inwardly from the corners Pbd and Pce toward the first face 11a and form a V-shape as viewed in FIG. 6A. That is, the corner P at which the fourth face 11d and the fifth face le adjoin each other is located adjacent the first face 11a closer than the corners Pbd and Pce are.
The first face 11a and the second face 11b of the prism 11 are formed integrally with first and second condensing lens 12 and 13, respectively for light-to-be-received, and further the first face 11a and the third face 11c are formed integrally with first and second condensing lens 14 and 15, respectively for light-to-be-transmitted. In addition, it is to be noted that the first light-to-be-received condensing lens 12 and the first light-to-be-transmitted condensing lens 14 provided on the first face 11a are partially cut away at planes perpendicular to the plane of the drawing such that the cut surfaces of those lens are joined together.
An optical fiber 21 has an end face 21b at its one end located adjacent and in opposition to the lens 12 and 14 formed on the face 11a and has its axis 21a coincide at a point of intersection between a first plane X (shown in a one-dotted chain line in FIG. 6B) passing through the coupled end surfaces (interface) between the first light-to-be-received condensing lens 12 and the first light-to-be-transmitted condensing lens 14 and the corner P and perpendicular to the plane of the drawing of FIG. 6A on one hand and a second plane Y (shown in a one-dotted chain line in FIG. 6B) passing through the centers of the lens 12, 13, 14 and 15 parallel to the plane of the drawing of FIG. 6A and orthogonal to the first plane X on the other hand.
With this arrangement, the upper half portion of the prism 11 located above the first plane X constitutes a receiving path while the lower half portion of the prism 11 located below the first plane X constitutes a transmitting path.
A light-receiving element 22 is positioned in opposition to the lens 13 on the face 11b with its center A22 aligned with the central axis A13 of the lens 13 while a light-emitting element 23 is positioned in opposition to the lens 15 on the face 11c with its center A23 aligned with the central axis A15 of the lens 15. It is also to be noted that the light-receiving element 22 and the light-emitting element 23 are oppositely positioned in parallel.
In this example, the light-receiving element 22 and the light-emitting element 23 are both mounted on a reed frame 24 and resin-encapsulated in transparent resin. In the drawing, 24 indicates the reed frame and 25 an encapsulating resin. This encapsulating resin has a lens portion 25a. The light-emitting element 23 may be a laser diode (LD) or a light-emitting diode (LED), for example, and the light-receiving element 22 may be a photodiode (PD), for example.
As shown in FIG. 6A, a light 31 to be received which has been emitted from the end face 21b of the optical fiber 21 is condensed through the light-to-be-received condensing lens 12 prior to entering the prism 11 through the face 11a and is then reflected by the face 11d to be directed at the face 11b, followed by being condensed through the light-to-be-received condensing lens 13 before entering the light-receiving element 22. In this regard, the lens portion 25a of encapsulating resin aids the light-receiving element in condensing the light.
On the other hand, a light 32 to be transmitted which has been emitted from the light-emitting element 23 is condensed by the light-to-be-transmitted condensing lens 15 prior to entering the prism 11 through the face 11c and is then reflected by the face le to be directed at the face 11a, followed by being condensed through the light-to-be-transmitted condensing lens 14 before entering the end face 21b of the optical fiber 21.
It is thus to be appreciated that in the illustrated example the arrangement is such that transmission and reception of light is effected through a single optical component 10.
It should be here appreciated that in this type of optical component in charge of both transmission and reception of light, crosstalk is a great concern with respect to its performance and that it is a significant problem to suppress the crosstalk.
Crosstalk in the optical component of the type concerned means that light being transmitted leaks into the receiving side in this side station and enters a light-receiving element in this side station. Particularly, crosstalk ascribable to reflection at an optical interface in the parting area between the receiving path and the transmitting path in this side station or at a proximal end face of the optical fiber is called near-end crosstalk.
In contrast, crosstalk ascribable to reflection at an optical interface in the parting area between the receiving path and the transmitting path in the other side (opponent's) station or at a distal end face of the optical fiber or at the faces of a light-receiving element and light-emitting element in the other side station is called far-end crosstalk. The optical component 10 shown in FIGS. 6A and 6B and the optical transmitter-receiver constructed by combining the optical component 10 with the light-receiving element 22 and the light-emitting element 23 in the illustrated arrangement has been found to have the construction apt to cause especially far-end crosstalk. That is, the previous device described above cannot avoid causing crosstalk. More specifically, it has been found as a result of researching into the cause of such crosstalk that as shown in FIG. 7, since the tilt angles α1 and α2 of the faces (reflective faces) 11d and 11e, respectively relative to the plane X passing through the corner P and the axis 21a of the optical fiber 21 and perpendicular to the plane of the drawing are both set to be relatively large, say at 45°, the light 31 to be received may enter the respective faces 22a and 23a of the light-receiving element 22 and the light-emitting element 23 and the light reflected by these element faces may again follow the path along which it has entered before back into the optical fiber 21 so that it is apt to cause far-end crosstalk in the other side station.
In addition, since the light-receiving element 22 and the light-emitting element 23 are both positioned in direct opposition to the lens 13 and 15, respectively and the centers A22 and A23 of those elements are aligned with the central axes 13a and 15a of the lens 13 and 15, respectively, the previous device are constructed in this respect as well such that the light reflected by these element faces may again follow the path along which it has entered before back into the optical fiber 21, tending to cause far-end crosstalk in the other side station.

Optical component and optical transmitter-receiver for use in two-way optical communication


A fixture mechanism may include first and second outer plates, a central plate and first and second guide members. The second outer plate includes a first face facing the first outer plate. The second outer plate may include first and second guide channels and a guide-member recess. The guide channels may be fixed relative to the first outer plate. The central plate is movably disposed between the first and second outer plates. The central plate may slidably engage first and second gripping arms that are movable relative to the outer plates between a clamped position and a retracted position. The guide members may be received in the guide-member recess and may be movable relative to the second outer plate and relative to each other within the guide-member recess to adjust a position at which the workpiece will be clamped when the gripping arms are in the clamped position.

This section provides background information related to the present disclosure and is not necessarily prior art.
Fixtures are commonly used for securing a workpiece during a machining operation, such as grinding, turning, milling, boring, for example. Gripping arms on the fixture may secure the workpiece while a cutting tool, such as a blade or bit removes material from the workpiece. Known fixtures may include an adjustment mechanism for adjusting the position or location of the gripping arms to ensure the accuracy of the machining operations relative to the workpiece. End users expect the adjustment mechanisms to be accurate, repeatable and reliable. Reducing the number of parts, particularly the number of moving parts, is advantageous and may increase the reliability of the mechanism and reduce the likelihood of the moving parts coming into contact with contaminants. Furthermore, reducing the number of parts may reduce manufacturing costs and complexity.


A method of preparing an organic electronic device, an organic electronic device prepared using the same, and a use thereof are provided. For example, the method of effectively preparing an organic electronic device using a flexible substrate, the organic electronic device prepared using the same, and the use thereof may be provided.

An organic electronic device (OED) refers to a device that includes at least one layer of an organic material capable of conducting an electric current.
Kinds of the OED include an organic light emitting diode (OLED), an organic solar cell, an organic photoconductor (OPC), or organic transistor, etc.
A typical organic electronic device is generally prepared on a rigid substrate such as glass. For these types of rigid elements, research on a flexible element having a flexible substrate has been conducted instead of a typical glass substrate. Flexible substrates may be mainly classified into three types: a thin-film glass substrate, a metal foil substrate, and a plastic substrate.
A method of preparing an element using a flexible substrate requires special attention due to flexibility of the flexible substrate even when the flexible substrate has rigidity substantially similar to that of the rigid substrate. As the method using the flexible substrate, there is a method including attaching a flexible substrate to a hard carrier substrate, performing subsequent processes and peeling off elements from the carrier substrate (for example, see the patent document 1). In such a method, after a proper adhesive material is formed on an edge region of the carrier substrate attached to the flexible substrate, a process of removing the edge region is generally performed to finally peel off the flexible substrate. Therefore, the method has a problem in that preparation efficiency may be degraded due to the presence of such a process, and the elements may be damaged while peeling off of the substrate when the adhesive material is not properly removed.

Method of preparing organic electronic device


A Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) apparatus includes a detector having a first pixel and a second pixel configured to output respective detection signals responsive to light incident thereon, and receiver optics configured to collect the light over a field of view and direct first and second portions of the light to the first and second pixels, respectively. The first pixel includes one or more time of flight (ToF) sensors, and the second pixel includes one or more image sensors. At least one of the receiver optics or arrangement of the first and second pixels in the detector is configured to correlate the first and second pixels such that depth information indicated by the respective detection signals output from the first pixel is correlated with image information indicated by the respective detection signals output from the second pixel. Related devices and methods of operation are also discussed.

Many emerging technologies, such as Internet-of-Things (IoT) and autonomous navigation, may involve detection and measurement of distance to objects in 3D space. For example, automobiles that are capable of autonomous driving may require 3D detection and recognition for basic operation, as well as to meet safety requirements. 3D detection and recognition may also be needed for indoor navigation, for example, by industrial or household robots or toys.
Light based 3D measurements may be superior to radar (low angular accuracy, bulky) or ultra-sound (very low accuracy) in some instances. For example, a light-based 3D sensor system may include a detector (such as a photodiode or camera) and a light emitting device (such as a light emitting diode (LED) or laser diode) as light source, which typically emits light outside of the visible wavelength range.
A Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR or lidar) system, may determine a collection of points (e.g., a point cloud) based on the time of flight (ToF) of reflected light. ToF 3D imaging systems can be categorized as indirect ToF (iToF) or direct ToF systems. Direct ToF measurement includes directly measuring the length of time between emitting radiation by an emitter element of a lidar system, and sensing or detecting the radiation after reflection from an object or other target (also referred to herein as a return or echo signal) by a detector element of the lidar system. From this length of time, the distance to the target can be determined. Indirect ToF measurement includes modulating the amplitude of the emitted signal and measuring the phase delay or phase shift (more generally referred to herein as the phase) of the echo signal, where the time required for the signal to travel to and from an object results in a phase shift that is proportional to the distance traveled.
Lidar systems can be used in various applications, such as (but not limited to) industrial automation and autonomous vehicles. Many such systems can acquire data from various modalities, such as lidar, traditional cameras, stereo cameras and radar. Processing units can combine or fuse the data from the various sensors to form an integrated view of the field of view.

Integrated lidar image-sensor devices and systems and related methods of operation


An exemplary method for reducing complexity of at least one user task includes steps of calculating a complexity metric for the at least one user task; identifying one or more usability issues having a measurable impact on the complexity metric for the at least one user task; determining one or more recommendations for addressing at least one of the one or more usability issues; and displaying a representation of at least one of the one or more usability issues and of at least one of the one or more recommendations. In an illustrative embodiment, implementing any one of the one or more recommendations reduces the impact of the usability issue on the complexity metric of the at least one user task and thereby reduces a complexity of the at least one user task.

Agile software development is characterized by factors such as relatively short-timeframe iterations (which can be as short as two-week iterations), delivery of working software as part of these iterations, and regular adaptation of requirements and designs in response to changing circumstances.
In the practice of software usability engineering, several types of usability evaluation activities are commonly employed, including usability testing and usability inspection methods. Usability testing involves empirical evaluation of user interaction with software systems through testing with participants that represent real users performing real tasks.
By contrast, usability inspection methods include evaluation of user interaction with software systems by one or more evaluators who anticipate potential problems that users will experience. Examples of usability inspection methods include heuristic evaluation, cognitive walkthrough, and formal usability inspection.
Usability testing advantageously provides direct feedback from users on how the software system will ultimately be used. Usability inspection methods, however, are generally considered to be "lighter weight" (i.e., faster and less resource intensive) to implement in comparison to usability testing.

International Business Machines Corporation


An agricultural round baler has an electronic control unit (ECU), a bale diameter sensor, a gate position sensor, and an electro-hydraulic valve that controls the flow to the gate lift cylinder. The ECU determines the height to which the gate must be raised based on the bale diameter. When the gate reaches the desired height, the ECU closes or restricts the electro-hydraulic valve for a brief period of time thereby momentarily slowing or stopping gate the gate. Momentarily trapping the bale between the gate and ground allows the bale to come to rest before the bale is released from the baler. The gate can then be fully opened so that the tractor and baler can be moved clear of the bale before closing the gate.

In various agricultural and other settings, it may be useful to form bales of crop (and other) material. The formed bales may have various sizes and, in certain applications, may have generally circular cross-sections. Various machines or mechanisms may be utilized to gather material (e.g., from a windrow along a field) and process it into bales. In order to create round bales, for example, a round baler may travel along a windrow of cut crop material gathering the material into a generally cylindrical baling chamber. Various systems of the baler may compress, wind and wrap the crop material into bales. Various mechanisms may then be used to eject the completed bales from the baler.
Since the ejected bale is round, it is prone to rolling. This is particularly a problem associated with baling round bales on hillsides in which case the bale can roll considerably, possibly causing damage to the bale, nearby crop and equipment or other surroundings. Further, conventional round balers may impart a rolling motion to the ejected bales by virtue of the bales being dropped from the baler at a location several inches above the ground and/or being ejected while the baler is still in motion (e.g., before the tractor has completely come to a stop).

Gate position control of round bale discharge


An underground stormwater management system includes a receiving tank connected to a source of non-first flush runoff and a storage chamber that accumulates stormwater runoff for discharge to a storm drain. The storage chamber includes a first inlet connected to a source of first flush runoff, a second inlet connected to receive overflow from the receiving tank, a first discharge and a second discharge above the first discharge. First flush is discharged from the first discharge and is filtered before reaching the storm drain. The receiving tank assists in delaying the receipt of non-first flush runoff into the storage chamber during a major rain event. During major rain events runoff is also discharged from the storage chamber directly to the surrounding media.

Stormwater runoff includes the initial runoff or "first flush" that contains sediments, oil, and other pollutants flushed from surface areas, and other runoff that can be considered essentially pollution-free. The pollution-free runoff includes the later runoff from the surface areas that generated the first flush, and runoff from areas without surface pollutants. In major storm events the volume of non-first flush is substantially greater than the volume of first flush.
Stormwater treatment systems have been developed to remove pollutants from the first flush. Conventional first flush treatment systems include systems that pass the first flush through a filter to remove pollutants. The filter can be a relatively inexpensive low-head filter because of the relatively low volume and flow of runoff to be filtered.
Underground stormwater management systems have also been developed that receive runoff at a high rate during a major storm event, and discharge the runoff at a lower rate to a storm drain. Such systems include an underground storage chamber that receives and stores the water that accumulates while the flow into the storage chamber is greater than the discharge out. The water discharges at a relatively high head from the storage chamber to enable discharge near the maximum discharge rate allowed by applicable law or regulation. The discharge is normally not filtered, but if filtering is desired an expensive high-head filter must be used because of the high volume and flow of runoff being filtered.
Sites such as shopping centers, business parks, and other developed areas often use separate stormwater treatment systems and underground stormwater management systems. The stormwater treatment system is connected to surface areas that generate relatively low volume first flush, while the underground stormwater management system is capable of receiving and accumulating a large volume of non-first flush runoff from major storm events. Building and maintaining two stormwater systems is expensive and can be difficult to locate on some sites.
Thus there is a need for an improved underground storage system that can receive both receives and filters first flush and stores and accumulates large amounts of non-first flush runoff during major storm events without the need for an expensive, high-head filter.

Underground stormwater management system and method


A system, method and article of manufacture are provided for shadow mapping while rendering a primitive in a graphics pipeline. Initially, an offset operation is performed in order to generate a depth value while rendering a primitive. Further, a value of a slope associated with an edge of the primitive is identified. Thereafter, the depth value is conditionally clamped based on the value of the slope.

A major objective in graphics rendering is to produce images that are so realistic that the observer believes the image is real. A fundamental difficulty in achieving total visual realism is the complexity of accurately representing real world visual effects. A scene can include a wide variety of textures, subtle color gradations, reflections, translucency, etc. One important way to make images more realistic is to determine how objects in a scene cast shadows and then represent these shadows in the rendered image. Shadows enhance the realism of an image because they give a two-dimensional image a three-dimensional feel.
The addition of shadows to the rendering of a complex model can greatly enhance the understanding of that model's geometry. The human visual system uses shadows as a cue for depth and shape. Consequently, shadows are very useful for conveying the three dimensional nature of rendered objects and for adding realism to computer generated scenes.
Generally, shadowing is similar to hidden surface removal. In hidden surface removal, objects or portions thereof are obscured because they are behind another object. For hidden surface removal, the point of reference for determining if an object is obscured is called a viewing point. For shadowing, objects or portions thereof are obscured because they are in the shadow of another object. In the shadowing case, the point of reference for determining if an object is obscured is a source light point. While many approaches exist for shadow mapping, depth map-based shadow algorithms are commonly used in graphics pipelines. Examples of such depth map-based shadow mapping algorithms are set forth in:    1) Lance Williams. Casting curved shadows on curved surfaces. In Proceedings of SIGGRAPH'78, pages 270–274, 1978;    2) Reeves, D. H. Salesin, R. L. Cook. Rendering antialiased shadows with depth maps. In Proceedings of SIGGRAPH'87, pages 283–291, 1987; and    3) M. Segal, C. Korobkin, R. van Widenfelt, J. Fordan, P. Haeberli. Fast Shadows and Lighting Effects Using Texture Mapping. In Proceedings of SIGGRAPH'92, pages 249–252, 1992.
which are each incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
Prior Art FIG. 1 illustrates one depth map-based shadow algorithm 100 for generating realistic shadows. In such approach, there are two rendering passes 102 and 104. In the first pass 102, the scene is rendered from the point of view of a light source. The result is a depth map 106, or shadow map, which is essentially a two-dimensional function indicating the depth of the closest pixels to the light. In particular, each primitive, i.e. triangle, is scan-converted into pixels. A depth value, zlight, of the scanned fragment is interpolated across the primitive, and then is z-tested using a standard z-value (or any other depth value representation) buffer algorithm before being written out to the depth map 106. For additional information regarding such algorithm, reference may be made to the previously mentioned references in addition to: E. Catmull. A hidden surface Algorithm with Anti-Aliasing. In Siggraph '78, Page 6–11. 1978, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Prior Art FIG. 2A illustrates the prior art technique 200 of building the shadow map using the standard z-buffer algorithm. As shown, distances 202 between a light source 204 and exposed surfaces of objects 206 are collected from a z-buffer. Depth values which are representative of the distances 202 are then utilized to generate the depth map 106.
For reasons that will soon become apparent, a polygon offset function may be performed in operation 108 for resolving a common self-shadowing aliasing problem. As an option, the polygon offset operation may include the "glPolygonOffset" operation in accordance with the OpenGL® programming language.
In the second pass 104, the scene is rendered from the eye space. During the second pass 104, each primitive is scanned into the screen from the eye space. However, the position (x,y,z) in the eye space can be transformed via a standard projective texture mapping operation 110 into the light space to get a texture coordinates (s,t,r), where (s,t) are the texture coordinates of the sampled three-dimensional point projected on the depth map 106, while r is the depth value that corresponds to the distance of the sampled point to the light source. In the second pass it is important to note that the distance value, r, can possibly be scaled by a percentage value, hence is offset by a small percentage amount using the texgen matrix or a vertex program.
Thereafter, in operation 112, the depth value at the sampling point, r, is then compared with the offset depth value, zlight, stored in the depth map 106 generated in the first pass 102 to yield a light-occlusion result, i.e. r>zlight, if the sampled point is behind some objects which are closer to the light, hence it is in the shadow of those objects. The resultant binary shadow values are then used to shade the current scanned object, resulting in shadow effects. Prior Art FIG. 2B illustrates the various variables associated with the calculations carried out during the second pass 104. Finally, a shadow modulation operation 114 is performed, the details of which will be set forth hereinafter.
Since this two-pass approach requires resampling the depth map 106 in the second pass 104, the problem of self-shadow aliasing may occur. Prior Art FIG. 2C illustrates such aliasing problem that arises when shadow mapping in accordance with Prior Art FIGS. 1–2B. In particular, complications arise when various points on the objects 206 are rendered in light space via a single texel 210 during the first pass 102, and subsequently rendered by way of separate pixels 212 in eye space during the second pass 104.
Prior Art FIG. 3A illustrates the offset operation 108 of Prior Art FIG. 1 which represents a solution to the aliasing problem of Prior Art FIG. 2C. As shown, the depth value, zlight, may be bounded by the "glPolygonOffset" operation. In particular, the "glPolygonOffset" operation includes calculating an offset value, o, using Prior Art Equations A.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

System, method and article of manufacture for shadow mapping


This invention provides a method and apparatus for particle detection utilizing an Al/normal-metal bilayer transition-edge sensor (TES) coupled with a particle absorber. The TES is maintained in the transition region where its properties are extremely sensitive to temperature. In the detector, the energy of an absorbed particle is converted to heat by the absorber and the transition from the bilayer's superconducting to normal state is used to sense the temperature rise. The transition temperature, T.sub.c, of the bilayer can be reproducibly controlled as a function of the relative thicknesses and the total thickness of the superconducting and normal-metal layers. The range of available T.sub.c 's extends from below 50 mK to above 1 K, allowing the detector to be tailored to the application. For x-ray detection the preferred T.sub.c is about 50-150 mK. The width of the transition edge can be less than 0.1 mK, which allows very high detector sensitivity.

Detection of particles, including photons, molecules, electrons, ions and phonons, is essential to many industrial and research measurements. Although the present invention can be used for particle detection in general, it is particularly suited to x-ray detection, and the following discussion relates primarily to x-ray detection.
X-ray photon detectors usually directly detect other types of excitations that are generated by x-ray photons. In silicon and germanium based Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) detectors, electron-hole pairs are generated by x-ray absorption events. Although EDS detectors are the most commonly used x-ray spectrometers for microanalysis, their energy resolution is limited to about 100 eV full width at half max (FWHM) by the counting statistics implied by the large size of the electron-hole pair excitation (a few electron volts (eV)). Superconductor/insulator/superconductor (SIS) tunnel junctions directly detect quasiparticles that are created by the incident x-rays and tunnel through the biased junction. As in semiconductor EDS detectors, the total current is indicative of the x-ray energy, but since the size of the quasiparticle excitation is much smaller (typically about a milli-electron volt (meV)), the theoretical energy resolution of SIS tunnel junction detectors implied by the carrier statistics is much better (a few eV FWHM.) Unfortunately, various effects tend to make the actual performance of SIS tunnel junctions significantly worse than the theoretical limit, and the best energy resolution that has been obtained with SIS tunnel junctions to date is 29 eV FWHM at 6 keV (Frank et al., Nucl. Inst. and Meth. A 370, 41 (1996)).
X-ray microcalorimeters instead convert the x-ray energy into heat in the form of hot-electrons or phonons, which can be a very efficient process. An x-ray microcalorimeter consists of an absorber to stop and thermalize incident x-rays and a thermometer to measure the resulting temperature rise. The first x-ray microcalorimeters used insulating or superconducting absorbers (for low heat capacity) and a semiconductor thermistor thermometer. While these achieve adequate energy resolution (7.1 eV FWHM at 6 keV), the response time is intrinsically slow. A recent microcalorimeter uses a normal-metal absorber and an NIS tunnel junction to measure the temperature rise (Nahum and Martinis, Appl. Phys. Lett. 66, 3203 (1991)). The response is fast but the energy resolution was limited to 18 eV FWHM at 6 keV by an unexpected noise source.
Superconducting transition-edge sensors have been proposed for use as a thermometer within an x-ray microcalorimeter (Irwin, Appl. Phys. Lett. 66, 1998 (1995), which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety). The temperature of a superconducting film is held within the superconducting transition, and heat deposited in the film is measured via the strong temperature dependence of the film's electrical resistance in this region. For x-ray detection the optimum transition temperature is between about 50 and 150 mK. The choice of the T.sub.c within this range depends on the desired detector parameters. Superconducting tungsten films having T.sub.c =70 mK have been used for x-ray detection (Irwin et al., IEEE Trans. Appl. Sup. 5, 2690 (1995)). For an elemental superconductor such as tungsten, the transition temperature tends to be a fixed property of the metal and is difficult to tune to suit specific applications. For alloys of superconductors with normal metals, the T.sub.c can be adjusted but the transition edge is not sharp and the alloys are not stable.
The transition temperature can also be adjusted via the proximity effect in superconductor/normal-metal bilayers. When a clean interface is made between a superconducting film and a normal metal film, and the films are thinner than their coherence lengths, the bilayer acts as a single superconducting film with a transition temperature suppressed from that of the bare superconductor. By varying the relative film thicknesses, the T.sub.c of the bilayer can be adjusted. Iridium/gold bilayers have been described for particle detection (Nagel et. al., J. Appl. Phys. 76, 4262 (1994)). The T.sub.c of elemental iridium is 112 mK, which is within the target range for x-ray detection. In Ir/Au bilayers, Nagel et. al. report T.sub.c 's varying from 33 to 106 mK. However, the Ir/Au system is very difficult to reproducibly fabricate, it requires the substrate to be heated, it requires a very clean, high vacuum deposition system, and the transition temperature of such bilayers is limited to less than 112 mK. As shown in Table 1 and FIG. 3 of Nagel et al., the T.sub.c cannot be reliably predicted as a function of the layer thicknesses, and a transition is not even observed in some instances.
It is desirable to develop a bilayer system that has a larger tunable transition range, that can be more easily deposited, that can be deposited without heating the substrate, that can be deposited in a deposition system with only moderate vacuum (.about.1e-7 torr), that is more reliably reproducible, and that has sharper superconducting transitions. The present inventors attempted to fabricate Ir/Au bilayer transition-edge sensors, but were unsuccessful. Titanium/normal-metal bilayers were fabricated, but the T.sub.c was not reproducible, and the transition was broad. In searching for a suitable superconductor for use in a bilayer, aluminum was considered because of the ease of deposition of stable, low stress aluminum films with suitable hardness, low cost, and non-toxicity. It was, however, considered an unlikely candidate because the T.sub.c for aluminum (1.1 K) would need to be suppressed by more than an order of magnitude to cover the target range for x-ray detection (50-150 mK), which seemed incompatible with sharp, reproducible transitions. In addition, the T.sub.c of elemental aluminum is notoriously sensitive to contaminants and deposition conditions, making one think that the bilayer T.sub.c would be unpredictable. It was therefore an unexpected and surprising discovery that aluminum/normal-metal bilayers have reproducible transition temperatures, that the T.sub.c can be reduced by more than an order of magnitude, that the T.sub.c is tunable in a predictable fashion as a function of the thicknesses of the individual layers, and that the transition edge is extremely sharp.

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of Commerce


An FTIR spectrometer (10) and method using a solid-state drive system with thermally responsive members (27) that are subject to expansion upon heating and to contraction upon cooling. Such members (27) are assembled in the device (10) so as to move an angled, reflective surface (22) a small distance. The sample light beam (13) is received at a detector (24) along with a reference light beam (13) and there it is combined into a resulting signal. This allows the "interference" between the two beams to occur for spectral analysis by a processor (29).

The design of most interferometers used for infrared spectrometry today is based on the two-beam interferometer originally designed by Michelson in 1891. The simplest version of the Michelson interferometer consists of two plane mirrors, one of which is situated perpendicular to the plane of the other, with a beamsplitter between them.
The movable mirror is either moved at a constant velocity or is held at equally spaced points for fixed short time periods and rapidly stepped between these points. Between the fixed mirror and the movable mirror is a beamsplitter, where a beam of light from an external source is partially transmitted to the fixed mirror and partially transmitted to the movable mirror. The split beams are then reflected back to the beamsplitter, where they interfere and are again partially reflected and partially transmitted. The instantaneous intensity of each beam returning to the detector depends on the difference in the path length traveled by the beams in the two arms of the instrument. The difference in intensity of the two beams as a result of their respective distances of travel yields a recombined wave with the spectral information that can be analyzed by a Fourier transform spectrometer.
The interferometer has two primary components, a drive mechanism for moving the mirror, and a beamsplitter. A high quality drive mechanism is required to obtain high resolution and the high maximum wavenumber in the spectrum. The use of simple drive mechanisms has restricted the device to use at low and medium resolution.
High resolution spectrometers have traditionally been large in size. The use of smaller spectrometers in recent years has required compromise of the resolution performance of the instruments.
The ability to perform high resolution analysis, over a large spectral region, in a very small package, has previously not been possible.

FTIR spectrometer with solid-state drive system

Lockheed Martin Energy Research Corporation


A propeller pitch control apparatus for an aircraft in which the vector sum of the aircraft forward speed and the propeller rotational tip speed is a selected fraction of the speed of sound, the fraction based on percent power and altitude, to maximize efficiency and minimize noise.

As aircraft become an increasingly more important mode of transportation, efforts continue to increase the efficiency, safety, and comfort of air travel. In propeller driven aircraft, the propulsion system, and especially the propellers, are under constant engineering scrutiny in order to continuously improve efficiency and safety, while reducing vibration and noise associated with the propulsion system.
Various altitude-compensating propeller pitch controls and constant-speed propeller pitch controls have been known since the 1930's. The constant speed propeller, in which the pilot manually selects the desired rotation rate and the pitch control mechanism controls the blade pitch to maintain that rotation rate, is still the standard on high-performance private and small commercial aircraft.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,209,640 discloses a computer-controlled pitch controller in which flight speed, atmospheric pressure, atmospheric temperature, and throttle setting are considered to calculate an optimum rotation rate for propeller efficiency.
At high power output, aircraft propeller tips frequently approach the speed of sound, causing loss of efficiency and high noise due to compressibility effects. Noise in particular is a major problem during takeoff because of the noise sensitivity of communities near airports.

Method and apparatus for controlling pitch of an aircraft propeller


A wire harness system having a wire harness and a connection unit is provided. The connection unit includes a circuit network configuring a part of circuit lines for realizing selectively added specification in the wire harness. Selection circuit lines of an optional sub-harness branched from the trunk line of the wire harness are connected to the circuit network of the connection unit. Thus, connection or disconnection between the selection circuit lines and switching of connection among branches or the like of the selection circuit lines can be easily realized by changing the circuit network of the connection unit.

A wire harness system mounted on a vehicle such as an automobile is generally configured as an assembly obtained by bundling, for example, a plurality of sub-harnesses respectively prepared for each system. The sub-harnesses to be bundled are prepared according to various required specification of the wire harness.
More Specifically, there are a wide variety of electrical components to be mounted in vehicles corresponding to vehicle types, vehicle grades, and optional equipment (an acoustic system, a power window system, etc.) selected according to a demand of a vehicle customer (driver). Therefore, circuit lines configuring power supply lines, ground lines, signal lines, and communication lines which are to be connected to the various electrical components, are variously different. In order to cope with such differences in circuit lines, a bundle of circuit lines to be mounted standardly (standard circuit lines) is provided as a standard sub-harness so as to operate a drive system in units of the drive system such as an engine and a motor. Further, in order to operate optional equipment or the like to be selectively mounted, a bundle of circuit lines (selection circuit lines) to be mounted selectively and additionally is provided as an optional sub-harness.
In recent years, application of Information Technology (IT) to vehicles such as automatic driving technology and external environment detection technology is rapidly advancing, and both standard circuit lines and selection circuit lines are tending to increase with the introduction of IT. That is, the number of types (kind) of sub-harnesses that needs to be prepared in advance is increasing significantly when mounting wire harnesses in a vehicle.
Therefore, in order to reduce the increase in the number of types of sub-harnesses, it is known to construct a wire harness system with a circuit substrate and a plurality of sub-harnesses by connecting the plurality of sub-harnesses to the circuit substrate and connecting the circuit lines of each sub-harness to each other through a circuit pattern on the circuit substrate (for example, see Patent Literature 1). In the wire harness, circuits such as branches can be provided in the circuit substrate for both the standard sub-harness and the optional sub-harness.


A speaker assembly includes a rigid, structurally stable and self supporting housing within which at least a first driver is mounted and enclosed. The housing including a first aperture formed in a first wall of the housing. The first driver includes a cone coupled to a driver magnet for generating sound. The driver magnet is seated within the first aperture exposing a portion of the driver magnet to an exterior of the housing. The driver magnet is encircled by a foam gasket member, the foam gasket member being shaped and dimensioned to permit airflow about the magnet.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a speaker assembly. More particularly, the invention relates to a speaker assembly with reduced size and weight, yet retaining robust structural integrity and simplified integration allowing optimum placement and excellent performance of the speaker assembly within an aircraft.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The current global community has made it possible for people from around the country, and around the world, to interact for both business and personal reasons. For many people, this requires they spend considerable time traveling from one location to another location. More often then not, these people travel in aircraft.
Whether these people travel in private or commercial aircraft, they desire high quality entertainment during the many hours they spend within the confines of an aircraft. While, high quality entertainment, for example, digital video with CD quality sound, is readily available for theatre and home use, the weight and size requirements for use of such equipment in an aircraft makes it very difficult to incorporate high fidelity systems within an aircraft. This problem is especially pronounced for audio speaker assemblies when one attempts to meet the size, weight and shape requirements for use in aircraft.
The aircraft industry places great priority upon component weight and size reduction. Range and payload are adversely affected by conventional terrestrial designs. These concerns are notable when one attempts to make changes within smaller private jets. For example, a small increase in the weight carried by an aircraft results in a substantial increase in the fuel consumption of the aircraft. In addition, the limited space available within an aircraft dictates the use of any space within the aircraft be carefully considered by those responsible for ensuring the comfort of passengers.
Lightweight and compact audio speakers are currently available. These speakers, however, substantially compromise sound quality for reduction in size and weight. With this in mind, an individual wishing to add an audio system to an aircraft must make a choice between high fidelity speakers, which do not suit the size and weight requirements of the aircraft or lower quality speakers providing desirable size and weight characteristics.
Another concern encountered in the incorporation of speakers within an aircraft is the fact the speakers are generally confined within an enclosed space offering little in the way of airflow for cooling the driving components of the loudspeakers. In addition, the small spaces available within an aircraft also dictate that the speaker housing be relatively small. This further creates heating problems as little air is available within the housing for the cooling of speaker components. As such, speakers are susceptible to overheating, which may result in damage thereto or failure of the component.
More particularly, and as those skilled in the art will certainly appreciate, the voice coil of a conventional driver generates heat which is then dissipated to the surrounding driver structure, that is, the driver magnet, etc. This heat must be "bled off" to maintain the driver at an appropriate operating temperature or the performance of the speaker will be compromised.
A need, therefore, exists for a speaker assembly providing high-fidelity sound, while also accommodating the size and weight constraints of an aircraft. The present invention provides such a speaker assembly.


A method for open systems printing including routing print jobs automatically from different types of source computers to different types of printers without the source computers selecting printers for each print job. The method including routing print jobs automatically from an arbitrary number of source computers to an arbitrary number of printers without the source computers selecting printers for each print job. The method using a print server for use with different types of source computers and different types of printers, the print server directs print jobs received from the source computers to the printers without the source computers selecting printers for each print job. The print server being for use with an arbitrary number of similar types of source computers and an arbitrary number of similar types of printers, the print server directing print jobs received from the source computers to the printers without the source computers selecting printers for each print job.

This invention relates to open systems printing. Printing is often a proprietary sub-system of computer operating systems. This is especially true for production or high-speed printing (i.e., greater than 100 pages per minute). For example, IBM™ MVS™ mainframes 10, 12 (FIG. 1) are connected to IBM™ printers 14, 16 over IBM™ bus-and-tag channels 18, 20, Microsoft™ NT™ server 22 is connected to NT™ printer 24 over proprietary bus 26, and image server 28 is connected to image printers 30 over proprietary busses 32. In a typical MVS™ environment, print files are generated from a mainframe MVS™ application and sent to a Job Entry Sub-System (JES). The print job is routed over the proprietary bus to a printer directly connected to the proprietary bus. The job is then printed using JES commands.
When new processors are developed and installed, new printers corresponding to the new technology are also installed. Dedicated, high-bandwidth channel bus extenders are used to connect remote high-speed printers to a central mainframe location.
Client/server systems typically include smaller desktop computers (clients) connected to larger more powerful computers (servers). To print a client/server print stream on a high-speed printer, the print stream is typically routed (arrow 34) to a mainframe, e.g., MVS™ 10, and then routed to a high-speed printer, e.g., printers 14. The mainframe is effectively made a high-cost print server for the distributed client/server system.
Switch 36 enables either MVS™ 12 or a VAX™ mainframe 38 to send print streams to printer 40. If MVS™ 12 is configured to send print streams through switch 36 and a user instead wants to send print streams from VAX™ 38 to the printer, the user enables the VAX™ and disables the MVS™ and configures the switch accordingly. Approximately 20 minutes to an hour is required to re-configure the mainframes and switch. A new switch is needed to allow a different hardware platform, e.g., NT™ server 22, to share a printer with MVS™ 12 and/or VAX™ 38.


An apparatus for controlling a cursor (10) on an electronic viewing screen (102) connected to a computer (104) without using hands. The apparatus comprises a detecting unit (108), intended to be carried by a user (106). The detecting unit (108) is provided with at least one ultrasonic device (110), which emits ultrasonic signals mainly in a direction towards the user's (106) mouth cavity and registers reflected ultrasonic signals. The apparatus further comprises a processing unit (116) for transforming the reflected ultrasonic signals into control signals intended to control the cursor (100). Thereby, the control signals create movement or activation of the cursor on the viewing screen such that different conditions in the mouth cavity are associated with specific cursor commands.

In e.g. different kinds of personal computers, a so-called mouse is used to control a cursor on a viewing screen connected to the computer, by moving the mouse on a basis for displacing the cursor. The mouse is further typically provided with one or more clickable buttons for performing different operations in the computer, corresponding to the current position of the cursor on the screen. A number of known techniques exist within this field for providing the above-mentioned functions. For example, a freely rotating ball may be arranged at the bottom of the mouse, where the rotation of the ball during movement of the mouse over the basis is transformed into signals, which are transferred by means of a cable to the computer, where the signals are transformed into a corresponding command for producing movement of the cursor on the viewing screen. When clicking a mouse button, a command signal is transferred to the computer for executing a predetermined operation, depending on the position of the cursor, such as activating a program or an application. Known techniques also exist for wireless transmission of signals from the mouse to the computer, e.g. IR transmission or radio transmission, such as Bluetooth.
The mouse is typically operated by one of the user's hands, which is not possible or desirable in certain situations. Thus, there is a need for enabling cursor control without using any hand, e.g. for disabled persons, or when both hands, sometimes as well as feet, are occupied with other things, such as during car driving and when operating machines or instruments. Solutions have previously been proposed where the user can control the cursor by means of movements of the tongue and/or other parts of the mouth cavity or the face. The tongue is undeniably one part of the body, apart from the hands, which is the most easy to control for making a large number of different movements, without much effort and with great precision. The previously known solutions therefor typically involve some manipulating device corresponding to the mouse, which is placed inside the mouth cavity, such as a ball or the like being applied at a tooth row or in the palate, see for example DE 195 12 595 A1. However, it may be perceived by the user as troublesome to have a foreign object in the mouth, not least from a hygienic standpoint. Further, it may be percieved as uncomfortable to manipulate such an object by the tongue, since a certain muscular strength is typically required, which may result in tension pains or cramps. The manipulating device must also be applied correctly in the mouth cavity, and be cleaned and maintained, resulting in added efforts. Thus, there is a problem to use a manipulating device inside the mouth cavity for obtaining computer control without using hands.

Apparatus and method for controlling a cursor on a viewing screen