Each time a prescribed cycle comes to an end, an ECU estimates an average retaining amount of brake fluid in a reservoir of the current prescribed cycle on the assumption that a pump has sucked a constant amount of brake fluid in the current prescribed cycle. The ECU calculates deviation between the average retaining amount at the end of the previous prescribed cycle and the average retaining amount at the end of the current prescribed cycle. The greater the deviation is, the greater a deviation correction amount the ECU sets. The ECU performs deviation pump control in which the target suction amount of the pump is set based on the reference suction amount and the deviation correction amount.

The present invention relates to a vehicle brake controller that controls a brake pump of a vehicle. The present invention further relates to a vehicle brake control method.
Some types of vehicle brake apparatuses generate brake fluid pressure in each of wheel cylinders provided in wheels so that braking force is applied to each wheel. Specifically, a brake apparatus that performs anti-lock brake control (ABS control) ensures steerability of a vehicle by suppressing locking of the wheels when the vehicle is braked quickly. In the ABS control, the brake controller controls the brake apparatus in such a manner that a fluctuation cycle of brake fluid pressure of each wheel cylinder is repeated. The fluctuation cycle of the fluid pressure includes decreasing, keeping, and increasing of the brake fluid pressure.
A brake controller described in Japanese National Phase Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2001-505505 introduces excessive brake fluid that has been sent from a wheel cylinder to a reservoir when the brake fluid pressure in the wheel cylinder is to be decreased. The brake controller then sucks the brake fluid from the reservoir to the exterior by means of a pump. The brake controller estimates the increase amount of the brake fluid in the reservoir from when the brake fluid pressure in the wheel cylinder starts to decrease to when the brake fluid pressure starts to be maintained at a constant level. The brake controller adjusts the rotational speed of a motor, which is the drive source of the pump, in such a manner as to suck the brake fluid from the reservoir by the amount corresponding to the increase amount before the subsequent cycle is started. This prevents the reservoir from becoming full with the excessive brake fluid during the ABS control.
However, the duration of the fluctuation cycle of the fluid pressure varies from one cycle to another. In other words, the rotational speed of the motor is changed at different timings from one fluctuation cycle of the brake fluid to another. Thus, in the ABS control, the rotational speed of the motor changes non-periodically, leading to non-periodic change in at least one of the noise caused by the pump and the noise brought about by the motor. This may cause discomfort for occupants of the vehicle.
Generally, as the μ value, or the friction coefficient, of a road surface on which the vehicle travels becomes greater, the amount of excessive brake fluid in the ABS control becomes greater. Thus, a brake controller described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2004-352163 sets the rotational speed of the motor in correspondence with the μ value so that the rotational speed of the motor is changed less frequently during the ABS control. However, if, for example, the μ value changes, the amount of the brake fluid sent from the reservoir may become insufficient.

Vehicle brake controller and vehicle brake control method


A high efficiency air filter for use in a standard return air grille is provided. Standard return air grilles possess filter receptacles for accepting air filters, a closeable cover with a cover flange for engaging air filters and a duct interface that leads away from the air grille to the remainder of the return air ducts. The air filter has a filter flange with a gasket that is sized to fit within the filter receptacle of the air grille, such that when the cover is closed, the cover flange seals against the cover and the filter receptacle. The gasket is affixed to a housing that is sized to extend beyond the filter receptacle into the duct extending beyond the return air grille. An extended pleat air filter is contained within and sealed to the walls of the housing such that air passing through the return air grille substantially passes through the air filter prior to entering the remainder of the return air duct.

Air filters provide two important functions in any ventilation system, the first function is to remove particulates from the air circulating through the system and the second function is to provide adequate airflow for the system to operate efficiently. The most common method employed to remove particulates from a ventilation system is an air filter. Air filters can be placed at various locations throughout a ventilation system, but a common place for installation is in the return air grille. A standard return air grille is normally one inch deep and thus only accommodates at most a one inch thick air filter. The amount of pressure drop or airflow restriction through an air filter is dictated by the level of filtration needed and the surface area of the air filter presented to the air flow. As the level of filtration or filtration efficiency increases, the airflow reduction or pressure drop resulting from the filter is increased. There are two approaches to overcoming the increased pressure drop from higher efficiency air filters. The first, installing a larger fan to overcome the increased pressure drop, results in increased energy consumption and reduced fan life. The second approach involves modifying the return air grille to accommodate an air filter with greater surface area, which is costly and difficult due to the modification of the ductwork and return air grille required.
Thus, there is a need for a high efficiency filter that has improved filtration efficiency without the need to use a larger fan or modify the return air grille or ductwork.


A system enclosure uses two heat exchangers and a thermoelectric cooling module to manage heat within the system. An airflow enters the system and is heated by server blades. Portions of the airflow split and travel to various portions of the system enclosure. Some heat is removed from the airflow by passing through the first heat exchanger before circulating around downstream subsystems. The first heat exchanger contacts the cold side of a TEC module, to reduce the temperature of that airflow. The air then enters the network switch module or other subsystem where it is further heated. Thereafter, the second heat exchanger ‘bypasses’ those components by reinserting the upstream heat back into the downstream airflow. The second heat exchanger contacts the hot side of the TEC module. The mixture of all heated air is then expelled from the system enclosure.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to an improved thermal management design and, in particular, to an improved system, method, and apparatus for thermally bypassing selected components in electronic equipment.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is well known in the industry that heat contributes to early failures of electronic equipment. As processor clock speeds and rotational speeds of magnetic media increase and the number of processors used in some systems (e.g., servers) increases, heat becomes even more of an issue. In some designs it is necessary to use air that has already passed over hot components to cool other components that are further "downstream" with respect to the airflow.
For example, in IBM's BladeCenter™, air enters a frontal enclosure, passes numerous server blades, then passes through network switch modules, management modules, and power modules before finally being drawn out of the system and expelled from the enclosure via blowers. Thus, the ambient air is heated (e.g., to as much as approximately 54° C.) by the upstream components located at the front of the enclosure before arriving at the subsystems in the rear of the enclosure.
FIG. 1 depicts an enclosure that is similar in many regards to the BladeCenter™ system enclosure 100. The system enclosure 100 comprises one or more server blades 110 (which, in turn, comprise one or more CPUs, memory, support and I/O chips, DASD, etc.), one or more network switch modules 130, and one or more air moving devices 150 (e.g., a fan or blower). Also within the enclosure 100 are a number of air plenums, such as a central plenum 120 and a plenum 140 at the entrance to the air-moving devices 150.
Air 160 enters the front of the system enclosure 100 and passes across the server blade components 110 where it is "pre-heated" 160a by those components 110. The heated air may diverge along different paths with some air 160b traveling to the top of the enclosure 100 and passing down through the network switch modules 130 or other components where it is further heated 160d. Some air 160c may traverse other routes to reach the final plenum. The mixture of all of the heated air is then expelled 160e from the system enclosure 100.
The use of "pre-heated" airflow in system enclosures results from two requirements. First, some applications mandate only front-to-rear airflow within the enclosure, since there are constraints on the use of the top, bottom, and sides of the enclosure for cooling purposes. Second, these configurations minimize server volume and the paths provided for airflow. Thus, the continued or reuse of air through "series cooling" of devices is essential.
In the prior art, a number of solutions have been proposed to address this issue. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,935,864, a Peltier device is bonded to an integrated circuit chip. The cold side of the Peltier device cools the chip and the hot side is connected to heat sinks to dissipate heat. This design uses a single heat exchanger and requires a redesign of the subsystem to incorporate the Peltier device and heat sink.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,431,021, teaches that the operational efficiency of a thermoelectric cooling (TEC) device can be increased by injecting moisture into the gas flowing over the hot side heat exchanger. A TEC module is a solid state device that takes advantage of the Peltier effect whereby current flowing through a junction of dissimilar metals (or of a metal and a semiconductor) produces localized heating or cooling, depending upon the direction of the current flow. TECs are configured to use hundreds of such junctions. The junctions are configured to be electrically in series and thermally in parallel, with the net effect of producing cooling on one side of the TEC and heating on the opposing side of the TEC. The history and a tutorial on TECs can be found on the Internet at, for example, www.tellurex.com/cthermo.html.
TECs also find use in applications where the cold surface is placed on one side of a thermal barrier (e.g., inside a cooler), and the hot surface is placed outside the barrier. The cold surface decreases the temperature of the air that flows around it on one side of the barrier while the air circulating on the other side of the barrier carries off heat produced by the hot surface.
The U.S. Pat. No. 5,431,021 patent describes two heat exchangers with an interposing TEC. The flow over the two heat exchangers are described as separate, possibly even different types of fluids, although it is mentioned that they might both be air. This design seeks to increase the efficiency of a TEC used in a medical device, but makes no reference to bypassing heat around a subsystem of electrical equipment.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,198,628, teaches a method of providing localized cooling within an enclosure: a serial airflow is provided from some inlet vents, through a number of subsystems, through an air moving device, and out of the enclosure. In addition, one or more parallel air paths are provided to allow air to enter through alternate inlets and pass directly over subsystems where localized cooling is required before joining the serial airflow stream and passing thought he air moving device and out of the enclosure.
Another way hotter subsystems have been handled was to increase the flow of air through the enclosure. However, there are practical constraints on how fast and how much-air can be blown through an enclosure. In addition, increased airflow rates give rise to other problems such as increased noise and increased contamination (e.g., dust and lint) as large volumes of ambient air are drawn into the enclosure and "filtered" by the internal components.
As processors continue to increase in speed and power consumption, there is also a point of diminishing returns. Eventually, either the downstream components must acceptably cooled by hotter air, or the ability to support the same number of upstream components must be restricted to reduce pre-heating. It would be desirable to allow higher levels of pre-heating by some components without affecting the intake temperature of downstream components.

System, method, and apparatus for providing a thermal bypass in electronic equipment

International Business Machines Corporation


A power system includes a power generating plant including a plurality of power generators, and an AC collection grid adapted to interconnect the power generating plant and an HVDC converter station. The AC collection grid is adapted to operate outside network regulations, whereby advantages such as simplified control and electronics are achieved. A method of operating a power system is also provided.

Photovoltaic (PV) energy generation systems are attractive from the point of view in that they offer a way of generating electricity without CO2 emissions and other drawbacks of conventional energy sources. However, they suffer from the drawback that the best sites for generation are geographically located around the tropics, far from major load centers. For this reason long-distance power transmissions are likely to be necessary if photovoltaics should be employed on a large scale.
For very long distances and subsea transmission the preferred method is currently high voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission. The most intuitive way of creating a PV power plant with HVDC connection is shown in FIG. 1. The plant comprises a large number of PV panels connected in series and parallel to form arrays. These arrays are connected to inverters which convert the unregulated DC output from the PV panels into a regulated AC voltage and ensure that the PV arrays operate in their maximum power point. The inverters feed power into an MV AC collection grid via transformers. The collection grid is connected to a current source converter HVDC converter station, which requires large filters and capacitor banks for compensating the harmonic currents and the reactive power demand associated with the thyristor converter. Also startup of the system provides a technical challenge since there is no large voltage source present in the collection grid, such as a synchronous generator, that can allow for the energizing of the collection grid. One way of mitigating this problem is to provide a STATCOM or a Diesel Gen-set unit in the collection grid. This however, implies cost and power losses that should preferably be avoided.

Power system and method of operating a power system


A device and a process for testing a sample liquid in which especially the ELISA process can be carried out very easily, rapidly and with high precision. To do this, a sample liquid and a dilution liquid are each supplied to several metering chambers of different volumes, so that the sample liquid can be diluted into assigned reaction chambers in one dilution step in different dilution ratios. Different liquids can be supplied in succession to the reaction chambers by means of a common receiving chamber. The liquids are transferred from the reaction chambers into the assigned test chambers to stop the detection reaction.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a device and a process for testing a sample liquid, especially by means of the ELISA process. In particular, this invention is concerned with microfluidic systems or devices with structures which have a size from roughly 1 to 1000 mm and/or cavities with a volume from roughly 1 to 1000 ml each. The following statements apply to devices and processes in which capillary, pressure and/or centrifugal forces act and are especially decisive for operation.
2. Description of Related Art
The term "ELISA" is an English language acronym for "enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay." In respect to this invention, this term should be understood in the sense of a process in which an enzyme is bound to an analyzed substance, especially to a complex of an analyzed substance and an antibody. By means of the enzyme, in a detection reaction, a substrate is modified or converted into a detection substrate, especially a fluorescing substrate or the like. A quantitative determination of the analyzed substance in the sample liquid is possible by recording the detection substrate. In order to enable high precision and a corresponding measurement range, conventionally, a dilution series of the sample liquid is studied in this way.
To date, the ELISA process has usually been carried out manually or automatically, for example, by means of pipetting robots, on an open pipetting plate with, for example, 96 open receiving chambers. The sample liquid to be tested is repeatedly diluted in succession in the receiving chambers in order to achieve different dilution conditions. Then, the sample liquid is pipetted with different dilution ratios into prepared receiving chambers in which the analyzed substance in the sample liquid can be bound to immobilized antibodies. After a relatively long reaction time, repeated flushing with a washing liquid takes place. Then, an enzyme bonded to a detection antibody is added. The detection antibody binds to a complex consisting of an analyzed substance and an immobilized antibody. Then again, different washing steps are necessary. Then, a substrate is added which is modified or converted by the enzyme into a detection substrate. The detection reaction is very time critical. The detection reaction is stopped, for example, by adding acid. The problem is that this cannot take place at the same time in all receiving chambers in which the detection reaction proceeds, and that, for greater volumes, different delays can occur due to diffusion and/or mixing processes. Finally, the detection substrate is determined, for example, optically, especially by fluorescence measurement or the like. The concentration of the analyzed substance in the sample liquid can be determined from the determined values.
The explained process is very complex and fault-susceptible. In particular, inaccuracies add up due to the host of individual steps. Furthermore, preparation of the receiving chambers for immobilization of the antibody is accordingly complex and is likewise associated with the use of large amounts of liquid. Moreover, the reactions often proceed very slowly due to the large amounts of liquid, and accordingly, large diffusion paths, so that the ELISA process in the form which has been conventional to date is very time-consuming.
The article "Design of a Compact Disk-like Microfluidic Platform for Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay" by Siyi Lai et al., Analytical Chemistry, Vol. 76, no, 7, Apr. 1, 2004, pp. 1832 to 1837, describes a microfluidic system in the form of a so-called compact disk (CD) for individual ELISA process steps. A sample liquid, a washing liquid, a liquid with a detection antibody and a substrate liquid are added to corresponding receiving chambers, which are routed in succession by the correspondingly varied rotation of the CD into a single assigned reaction chamber for the corresponding reaction. Thus, individual steps can be carried out in the microfluidic system. However, the pipetting effort is not significantly reduced, since compared to the conventional ELISA process, only the repeated washing steps were avoided.
In general, a host of microfluidic systems in the form of CDs are known, in which the liquid flows are controlled by rotation of the CD, therefore by centrifugal forces.
International Patent Application Publications WO 03/018198 A1 (U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,653,625; 6,717,136 and others), WO 03/072257 A1 (U.S. Pat. No. 6,764,818) and WO 2004/061414 A2 (U.S. Patent Application Publication 2004/121450) disclose microfluidic devices in which a liquid, especially a sample liquid, can be routed from a receiving chamber into connected chambers and can be divided into defined individual amounts and/or can be mixed and preferably react with another liquid. Similar microfluidic systems are also known from U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,705,519 and 6,719,682, U.S. Patent Application Publication 2004/0203136 A1, and International Patent Application Publications WO 00/78455 A1 (U.S. Pat. No. 6,706,519) and WO 01/87485 A2 (U.S. Patent Application Publications 2003/232403 and 2002/151078).
U.S. Patent Application Publication 2004/0203136 A1 discloses a process and a device for testing and diluting samples and reaction liquids. Several metering channels are connected via a common channel to a first receiving chamber for a sample and can be filled with the sample. Furthermore, a second receiving chamber for a dilution liquid is connected to a common channel, and thus, to metering channels. With correspondingly strong rotation, the dilution liquid is routed via the common channel into the metering channels so that the metered sample amounts are transferred into the following mixing chambers which are finally filled completely by the dilution liquid which flows afterward. This does not allow optimum or versatile dilution.

Device and process for testing a sample liquid


A ramp-up circuit for switched capacitor circuits with negative feedback to control the slew rate of in-rush current. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Some prior art switched capacitor circuits may develop large spikes in the drain-source current of their switching transistors when the switching transistors are switched from OFF to ON. These drain-source currents are sometimes termed in-rush currents. Large spikes in these in-rush currents may contribute to unwanted EMI (Electromagnetic Interference) system noise. Reducing the slew rate of these in-rush currents in switched capacitor circuits may help mitigate EMI system noise.

Charge pump for switched capacitor circuits with slew-rate control of in-rush current


In the method of fabricating a metal-insulator-metal (MIM) device, a first electrode of α-Ta is provided. The Ta of the first electrode is oxidized to form a Ta2O5 layer on the first electrode. A second electrode of β-Ta is provided on the Ta2O5 layer. Such a device exhibits strong data retention, along with resistance to performance degradation under high temperatures.

1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to electronic devices, and more particularly, to a method of fabricating a Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) device.
2. Background Art
FIG. 1 illustrates a two-terminal metal-insulator-metal (MIM) resistive memory device 30. The memory device 30 includes a metal, for example copper electrode 32, an active layer 34 of for example copper oxide on and in contact with the electrode 32, and a metal, for example copper electrode 36 on and in contact with the active layer 34. As an example of the operational characteristics of such a device 30, with reference to FIG. 2, initially, assuming that the memory device 30 is unprogrammed, in order to program the memory device 30, ground is applied to the electrode 32, while a positive voltage is applied to electrode 36, so that an electrical potential Vpg (the "programming" electrical potential) is applied across the memory device 30 from a higher to a lower electrical potential in the direction from electrode 36 to electrode 32. Upon removal of such potential the memory device 30 remains in a conductive or low-resistance state having an ON-state resistance.
In the read step of the memory device 30 in its programmed (conductive) state, an electrical potential Vr (the "read" electrical potential) is applied across the memory device 30 from a higher to a lower electrical potential in the direction from electrode 36 to electrode 32. This electrical potential is less than the electrical potential Vpg applied across the memory device 30 for programming (see above). In this situation, the memory device 30 will readily conduct current, which indicates that the memory device 30 is in its programmed state.
In order to erase the memory device 30, a positive voltage is applied to the electrode 32, while the electrode 36 is held at ground, so that an electrical potential Ver (the "erase" electrical potential) is applied across the memory device 30 from a higher to a lower electrical potential in the direction of from electrode 32 to electrode 36.
In the read step of the memory device 30 in its erased (substantially non-conductive) state, the electrical potential Vr is again applied across the memory device 30 from a higher to a lower electrical potential in the direction from electrode 36 to electrode 32 as described above. With the active layer 34 (and memory device 30) in a high-resistance or substantially non-conductive OFF state, the memory device 30 will not conduct significant current, which indicates that the memory device 30 is in its erased state.
It will be understood that it is highly desirable that the memory device, when programmed, be capable of retaining its programmed state for a long period of time, i.e., until it is desired that the state be changed to its erased state. Likewise, it is highly desirable that the memory device, when erased, be capable of retaining that state for a long period of time as chosen. (these are of particular interest if the device is to be used as a One-Time-Programmable (OTP) device). While the above described device is effective in operation, it has been found that over a period of time, the conductivity of the memory device can be significantly reduced, so that the memory device undesirably loses its programmed state.
Furthermore, it is typical that the formed memory device is subjected to high temperatures during subsequent semiconductor processing steps. It is important that all elements of the memory device be capable of withstanding these high temperatures without degradation in performance. In particular, depending on the material chosen, the active layer can be subject to degradation in performance due to the application thereto of the normal high temperatures involved in subsequent semiconductor processing steps. It is therefore of great interest that the active layer be of a material which is highly effective in operation, meanwhile maintaining high thermal stability.
Therefore, what is needed is an approach wherein these requirements are met.

Method of fabricating metal-insulator-metal (MIM) device with stable data retention


A tool holder holding a tool according to the present invention includes: a tool mounting unit forming and penetrating a tool fixing hole having an interior diameter that is relatively smaller than an exterior diameter of a shank unit of the tool; and at least one shape memory alloy ring inserted and arranged to a ring fixing hole formed at the tool mounting unit to have an interior diameter that is relatively larger than the tool fixing hole, wherein an interior diameter size of the tool fixing hole is forcibly changed by deformation of a shape memory alloy ring by a heating source and a cooling source provided to the shape memory alloy ring for clamping or unclamping the tool.

In general, a tool holder has a function of holding by clamping a tool such as a drill for mechanically processing a process object in a spindle unit of a machine tool.
In this conventional tool holder, as shown in FIG. 1 (a), as a taper collet-chuck method, a tool (T) is inserted to a taper collet 10 and a force is applied in an axial direction by a collet nut 12 to provide a component of force in a radial direction at a taper surface to clamp the inserted tool. As shown in FIG. 1 (b) and FIG. 1 (c), as a hydraulic-chuck method, a hydraulic chamber is formed inside a tool holder to elastically change an inner surface of a tool insertion inlet through a hydraulic force and to clamp the inserted tool, while as shown in FIG. 1 (d), as a shrink-fit method, high temperature heat is applied to heat-expand a tool mounting unit such that the tool is clamped by stress generated by interference of the tool mounting unit that is restored to an original shape at room temperature and a tool shank unit.
However, the conventional art has the following problems.
That is, the tool holder applied with the taper collet-chuck must be installed with a separate device for applying the force in the axial direction such as a spring or the collet nut as the taper collet to the spindle unit such that the entire structure of the tool holder is complicated such that an accurate process and assembly technique are required, and a shape error of the taper collet is accumulated, and as a result, a problem that a geometrical tool set-up error is increased is caused.
Also, deformation by centrifugal force decreases a taper contact ratio under high rotational speed of the tool holder and the tool position error of the axial direction may not only be generated, but also the structure of the spindle unit is further complicated because of adding a draw bar and a press control device in the axial direction inside the spindle unit to realize an auto tool exchange device such that a vibration mode characteristic of the spindle unit may be damaged.
Secondly, in the tool holder applied with the hydraulic-chuck method, when clamping the tool by using the high pressure, as shown in FIG. 1 (b), the separate pressing system is required such that the entire system is complicated and an auxiliary cost is added.
Also, in the case using the low pressure, as shown in FIG. 1 (c), a pressure bolt 14 is rotated at one side of the tool holder to increase the pressure, and in this case, it is difficult to realize the auto tool exchange device, and the position of the pressure volt and the arrangement of the hydraulic line inside the holder do not form axis symmetry such that a structural mass imbalance factor is generated, and as a result, the rotation accuracy of the high rotational speed is decreased.
Thirdly, the tool holder applied with the shrink-fit method applies the high temperature heat to exchange the tool such that the tool holder is moved to an additional heating system for the tool exchange after the tool holder is separated from the spindle unit, and thereby the entire system is complicated and the auxiliary cost is increased.
Also, for the unclamping of the tool, when heating to the high temperature, 1-2 minutes are taken if necessary such that the time for the tool exchange is increased, and as a result, work productivity is deteriorated.

Tool holder using shape memory alloy and tool holding method

KOREA INSTITUTE OF MACHINERY & MATERIALS


An apparatus for providing a focus error signal, a push-pull tracking error signal, and a differential phase tracking error signal for controlling an application of a radiation beam from an optical source to a data track of an optical storage medium is disclosed. The apparatus includes a transparent substrate arranged between said optical source and said optical storage medium such that said radiation beam passes through said substrate; a grating beam splitter supported by said transparent substrate and having at least six grating elements. The arrangement of the grating elements being selected to produce signals which are particularly adapted to produce signals which are received by a detector array. The detector array responds to these signals to produce the focus error signal and responsive to signals from the first, second, fifth, and sixth detectors to produce the push-pull tracking error signal, and a differential phase tracking error signal.

In many optical information storage and retrieval systems, a radiation beam from an optical source is reflected and diffracted from a data track on an optical storage medium. The beam returning from the storage medium may be directed to a detector array that provides signals used to generate, for example, a focus error signal (FES), a tracking error signal (TES), and a data signal. The FES and TES generally drive servo systems for maintaining the radiation beam in-focus and on-track, respectively, relative to the storage medium. The data signal is indicative of the data stored on the data track scanned by the radiation beam. The portion of the optical system which generates and processes the radiation beam is generally referred to as an optical head.
The stability of an optical head is usually improved by decreasing the distance between certain critical components, such as an optical source, beam splitter and detector array. In addition, the cost and complexity of the optical head is reduced if these components are integrated in to a single package. A known technique for accomplishing these objectives involves combining components such as an optical source, a grating beam splitter and a detector array into an integrated package generally referred to as a laser-detector-grating unit (LDGU). LDGUs are also known as laser/detector optical heads and hologram laser units. Optical systems which incorporate an LDGU or a similar device will be referred to herein as LDGU-based systems. A number of exemplary LDGU-based systems are described in W. Ophey, "Compact Optical Light Paths," Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 32, Part 1, No. 11B, pp. 5252-5257, November 1993. Other LDGU-based systems are described in, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,050,153 and 4,945,529. An exemplary optical head in accordance with U.S. Pat. No. 4,945,529 includes a diffraction grating with four grating regions. The four grating regions direct portions of a reflected and diffracted radiation beam to a detector assembly in order to generate an FES, a TES and a data signal.
The above-noted LDGU-based systems suffer from a number of drawbacks. For example, the optical source is generally not sufficiently isolated from the return beam, resulting in increased optical source noise. The optical source noise may result from phenomena such as longitudinal mode-hopping. Existing LDGUs also typically have an inherently low throughput efficiency, due in part to the fact that the radiation beam is generally not circularized. A circularized radiation beam is rotationally symmetrical about its optical axis. Throughput efficiency may be defined in terms of a percentage of optical source radiation which is transferred to the surface of the optical storage medium. Currently available LDGUs used for reading optical disks have throughput efficiencies on the order of only about 10%, with a consider able amount of the optical source output lost in the grating beam splitter and in truncating the non-circularized radiation beam. Although LDGUs are now commonly used for read-only applications such as compact disk (CD) players, the problems of source noise and low throughput efficiency have limited the usefulness of LDGUs in higher power applications such as optical recording.
In addition, some LDGU designs exhibit excessive optical crosstalk between tracking and focus signals. The optical crosstalk originates from, for example, diffracted radiation components and optical wavefront aberrations in the return beam. The presence of optical crosstalk may limit the effectiveness of LDGUs in certain optical systems, particularly those systems which utilize high performance focus and tracking servomechanisms. Although U.S. Pat. No. 5,406,541 reduces the effect of crosstalk in optical heads by implementing an orthogonality condition between the focus and tracking sensors, it does so by using separate optical paths for generating the focus and tracking signals. The need for additional components to create and process separate optical paths adversely affects the cost and complexity of the optical head.
Furthermore, the previously mentioned LDGU designs do not permit the generation of a differential phase tracking error signal.

Laser detector grating unit (LDGU) for producing focus error, a push-pull tracking error, and differential phase tracking error signals


A verification platform may include a data connection to receive a stream of industrial asset data, including a subset of the industrial asset data, from industrial asset sensors. The verification platform may store the subset of industrial asset data into a data store, the subset of industrial asset data being marked as invalid, and record a hash value associated with a compressed representation of the subset of industrial asset data combined with metadata in a secure, distributed ledger (e.g., associated with blockchain technology). The verification platform may then receive a transaction identifier from the secure, distributed ledger and mark the subset of industrial asset data in the data store as being valid after using the transaction identifier to verify that the recorded hash value matches a hash value of an independently created version of the compressed representation of the subset of industrial asset data combined with metadata.

Some embodiments disclosed herein relate to industrial assets and, more particularly, to systems and methods to verify industrial data using a secure, distributed ledger.
Recent technological advancements have resulted in increased connectivity with respect to the industrial space. With the emergence of smart devices and the industrial internet, among other technologies, the ability to improve the operation of systems (e.g., factories) and industrial assets very quickly based on large amounts of data, much of it gathered from interconnected sensors, has improved substantially. For example, the performance of gas turbines, jet engines, etc. may be monitored to improve performance and avoid malfunctions. However, these benefits may also have adverse consequences. For example, numerous vulnerabilities in industrial systems might be utilized by unauthorized parties to compromise the industrial assets. Consider sensor data from oil pipelines, water pressure systems, gas turbines, and other industrial equipment that could be altered to give false readings or corrupted data. The result of such alterations might cause both automatic controllers and human operators to take improper corrective actions. These actions might lead to substantial confusion in the community as well as increase the operating costs of plants and factories.
To avoid such consequences, a centralized architecture might utilize a database storing hash values that can be used to verify industrial data. However, because there is a single master copy or database where everything is stored, a single compromised element within the architecture could put the entire system at risk and allow data to be manipulated or corrupted. It would therefore be desirable to provide systems and methods to efficiently and accurately facilitate industrial data verification.

Industrial data verification using secure, distributed ledger


A new and improved shopping cart release system is disclosed for use in collecting, transporting, removing and loading various types of carts and carriers. A release system is adapted for use with carts of the type configured for materials handling and a vehicle such as a semi-truck trailer used to transport such carts. The release system includes and a ramp that physically engages with a cart so as to retain the cart within the semi-trailer. An automated remote system may also be used, enabling an operator to release a cart without having to manipulate the release system directly. The release system is located within the floor of the semi-trailer. The release system can also be used in other arrangement, for example, within a liftgate mechanism that has the release system incorporated within the loading ramp of the liftgate. The release system utilized in the liftgate operates in the same manner as that of the release system incorporated within the floor of the bed of a semi-trailer truck.

A. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to materials handling and, in particular, to carts that may be decoupled from within a larger trailer/transport carrier through a release system.
B. Description of the Related Art
Typically, carts, goods carriers, or the like are used to facilitate the shopping process by allowing a shopper to move throughout a grocery or department store and successively place selected goods in the cart for purchase. Also, carts are used to convey the purchased goods or items to the shopper's vehicle; automobile, car, truck, or the like.
Carts are loaded onto larger transport carriers, such as semi-trailers, and problems often arise both in terms of cart transport and removal from the trailer. As for transport, unless the carts are somehow physically secured to one another and/or to the trailer, the carts may become unacceptably unstable, particularly during a rough ride. Often, the carts themselves are utilized to transport goods from one location to another. The carts are loaded from a first location with goods that, for example, a grocery store places upon a shelf to sell to an end user. The carts, along with the goods contained therein, are removed from the carrier where the goods are placed within the store for selling. The utilization of carts in this manner expedites shipping and provides a convenient and cost-effective manner to ship goods.
Tethering the carts to each other and/or to the trailer tends to create consequential problems during cart removal. The operator of the vehicle or other device used to pull the carts out of the trailer must somehow unlatch them, which might require the operator to maneuver around the carts in the trailer and unfasten chains or other fastening items. Undoubtedly, any arrangement capable of simplifying or automating the process of loading and de-coupling carts of this kind from a larger carrier or vehicle would be appreciated by those engaged in such activities.
Unloading carts of this kind from a large trailer can be quite tedious. Oftentimes, carts roll off of the trailer since there is nothing to impede their progress. For example, where a carrier is on an incline, the carts are forced against the rear of the carrier. Other times, as explained in the preceding paragraph, they are coupled together via some securing means. In either event, there is a need to impede the releasing of carts from a carrier.

Method and apparatus for removing carts from a trailer


The wiper motor unit for a motor vehicle includes a case comprising a base and a cover adapted to close the base and define an inside enclosure of the case, the motor unit having a duct adapted to convey a liquid, isolated from the inside enclosure, and defined by one element of the base and the cover, the motor unit further including an outlet shaft. The duct extends outside the shaft.

The invention relates to motor units for motor vehicle wipers.
FIG. 12 of EP 0 414 873 discloses a motor vehicle wiper motor unit in which the wiper blade is mounted on one end of an outlet shaft of the motor unit. The motor unit is adapted to impart alternating rotary motion to the shaft relative to the housing of the unit. A washing liquid feed duct is provided, said duct extending coaxially along the outlet shaft of the motor unit from one of its axial ends to the other. In order to provide good sealing between its outlet shaft and its stationary portions, that motor unit suffers from the drawback of it being necessary to manufacture and assemble together a relatively large number of parts.
Document DE 36 32734 discloses a wiper motor unit in which the cover of the case includes a rod that is integral therewith and that extends outside the case. A hollow shaft is engaged on the rod. It serves as a support for the wiper blade and it is rotated by the motor unit. A washing liquid feed duct runs along the axis of the fixed rod. In order to provide good sealing between the stationary portions and the moving portions, in this case at the wiper blade end, it is necessary to provide a large number of parts and for them to be assembled with great precision.

Motor unit for a motor vehicle wiper and including a duct for washing liquid


An active probe pod used in a logic analyzer is disclosed. The active probe pod may be connected to the logic analyzer having a FPGA decoder and to a DUT circuit board. The active probe pod may include a LVDS differential ire component connected to the FPGA decoder and a front-end circuit board for capturing a weak signal input from the DUT circuit board. The front-end circuit board is adapted not to transmit the captured weak signal input over a long-distance signal transmission path, which helps minimize interferences with the weak signal input, while outputting a LVDS differential signal to the FPGA decoder for decoding. As the front-end circuit board is used for capturing the weak signal input, which falls within the category of one short-distance signal transmission, the signal reflection may not take place, without affecting the signal quality and/or attenuating the signal strength.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to an active probe pod used in a logic analyzer, in particular, to an active probe pod capable of capturing a weak signal input from a DUT circuit board and transmitting such over a shortened signal transmission path, minimizing the occurrence of the signal reflection, ensuring the signal quality, and avoid the attenuation of the signal.
2. Description of Related Art
In the current digital era, the traditional oscilloscope has been proved unable to measure logic signals in 8-16 and even more channels. Despite the in-circuit emulator (ICE) could help resolve some relevant problems, the software development-oriented ICE could be having hard time handling the actual time sequence-related issues. Plus, considering the ICE could only be exclusively used in certain microcomputer systems the logic analyzer still entrenches as one of the necessary equipments for digital engineers. The logic analyzer could have data illustrated in an organized or structured fashion when displaying the operations of the digital circuitry.
The traditional logic analyzer utilizes a passive probe pod in which signal detection circuitry has been incorporated. When the total capacitance of each channel may be at 16 pF, up to eight channels may be detected at the same time. A passive probe pod 2 shown in FIG. 1A could be a single-end wire and is configured to capture the weak signal input from a DUT circuit board 1 before transmitting the captured weak signal input over a long-distance signal transmission path to an operational amplifier 31, a comparator 32, and an FPGA decoder 33, all of which are disposed inside a logic analyzer 3. The operational amplifier 31 could pre-amplify the weak signal input received by the logic analyzer 3 and the comparator 32 could thereafter output a LVDS differential signal to the FPGA decoder 33 where the decoding of the same is performed.
However, as shown in FIG. 1B the traditional approach could be associated with the following disadvantages:                (1) the weak signal input inevitably would be attenuated after the long-distance transmission over the single-end wire, negatively affecting the signal quality, which in turn undermines the subsequent amplification and the decoding (for example, no data could be decoded or the data loss); and        (2) the signal reflection could occur after the long-distance signal transmission for the weak signal input over the single-end wire, also subjecting the amplification and the decoding to the data loss or lack of the data to be decoded.
Accordingly, in order to overcome the above problems it is wise to properly set up the signal transmission path for the weak signal input so that the weak signal is not transmitted over the long-distance transmission path. Further, the weak signal input could be converted into the corresponding differential signal, which may be more suitable for the long-distance transmission, since the differential signal is less susceptible to the interference.


Methods, devices, and systems for managing access rights are described herein. One method includes receiving, by a mobile device, information from a passive tag located at an entrance to an area, wherein the information includes identification information for the entrance, sending, by the mobile device to a computing device of an access control system associated with the area, the information from the passive tag and a request to access the area, and granting, by the computing device of the access control system, access to the area based on the information from the passive tag and the request to access the area.

Access to a location, such as, for example, an area (e.g., room, zone, hallway, etc.) of a secured building or facility, may be controlled (e.g., limited and/or restricted) and/or monitored by an access control system. For example, the access control system may include an access control device (e.g., card reader, electronic lock, etc.) located at the entrance (e.g., door) to the area, and an individual (e.g., a worker, visitor, employee, etc.) attempting to enter the area may need to present a valid identification token (e.g., key card, magnetic badge, wireless identification tag, etc.) to the access control device in order to gain access to (e.g., enter) the area.
Such access control systems, however, may have a number of problems associated therewith. For example, if the individual is denied access to the area (e.g., if the access control device does not grant the individual access to the area upon the user presenting the identification token to the device), the individual may not know the reason for denial, especially if the individual believes he should be able to access the area.
Further, obtaining access rights to the area (e.g., updating the individual's access rights so that the individual may access the area) can be a long and/or difficult process for the individual. For example, the individual may have to travel to a different location (e.g., control room, security desk, reception area, etc.) in the building, make a request to the relevant authority to grant the access, wait for the request to be approved, and have his or her identification card updated in order to obtain access.
Further, in situations where the access control device may not be working properly (e.g., the access control device is improperly granting or improperly denying access to the area), it may be difficult to determine why, or even whether, the device is not working. For example, a maintenance engineer of the access control system may not be able to discern why, or even whether, the access control device is not working by looking at the device.

Managing access rights using a passive tag


A downrigger apparatus to hold a fishing line at a selected fishing depth in game fish inhabited water, and a sound emitting device attached to the downrigger cable of the downrigger apparatus. The downrigger apparatus includes a reel and a downrigger cable spooled on the reel. The free end of the downrigger cable extends to a depth beyond the selected fishing depth. A downrigger weight is attached at the free end of the cable. A sound emitting device is attached to the downrigger cable and emits sounds attractive to the fish. Sound waves travel through the water a range extending beyond the visual range of the fish. Fish, although out of visual range of the lure, detect the sound and travel toward the source. The fish eventually comes in to visual range of the lure being trolled behind the fishing boat. The fish is attracted to and takes the lure. The sound emitting device can generate intermittent sounds. There can be a period of silence, for example a 25 second silence interval, followed by a sound emitting period, for example five seconds. The sound emitting device is effective to attract fish at those depths where darkness greatly impedes the visual range of the fish. The sound emitting device can be powered by a rechargeable battery pack.

In deep sea sport fishing a downrigger apparatus is used to maintain a fishing line at a selected fishing depth beneath the surface of game fish inhabited water. The downrigger apparatus is fixed to the boat. It includes a large reel usually connected to a boom and a supply of stainless steel downrigger cable spooled on the reel. The cable extends from the reel and is trained over the boom tip and into the water. The free end of the cable extends to a depth which is a function of the selected fishing depth in that it will be a depth greater than the selected fishing depth. A trolling weight is attached to the end of the cable in the water. The reel can be manually or electrically operated. Conventional fishing tackle is used along with the downrigger apparatus. A fishing rod line is releasably attached to the downrigger cable by means of a release clip at approximately the selected fishing depth in the water. The release clip secures a segment of the fishing line at the desired depth. During trolling, the fishing line descends generally vertically to the release clip, and then rearward from the release clip. A lure attached to the end of the fishing line is maintained at about the selected depth and trails horizontally. Upon the abrupt impact of a fish striking the lure, the release clip releases the fishing line from the downrigger cable. The fish is then conventionally landed with the fishing tackle.
A typical deep sea fishing depth might be 150 feet to 200 feet. At that depth there is little or no light from the sea surface whereby the lure is not as visually apparent to the fish as it is at a lesser depth. At such a depth, the fish is more apt to perceive sound before it perceives the visual attraction of a fishing lure. Sound waves are readily transmitted through the water. Game fish have a sensitive ear enabling them to hear sounds transmitted through the water. Additionally, fish have lateral line organs that enable them to sense sound wave vibration in the water. The fish are apt to associate the sound with a prey in distress and be attracted to the source.

Downrigger apparatus with sound emitting device


A seat assembly includes a seat back that is pivotable from an upright use position to a stowed position. A head restraint includes first and second portions, each of which are movable from a respective upright use position to a respective stowed position. Each of the portions includes a respective contact surface for contacting an occupant of the seat assembly. A release mechanism is configured to facilitate movement of the first and second portions from their respective upright use positions to their respective stowed positions. An automatic return mechanism is provided to automatically return the first and second portions from their respective stowed positions to their respective upright use positions when the seat back is pivoted from its stowed position to its upright use position.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a seat assembly with a folding head restraint, and a method for folding the seat assembly.
2. Background Art
Many vehicles today include seat assemblies that fold down to provide increased cargo area. In particular, the second and/or third row of a vehicle may include seats that kneel, fold and tumble to provide a flat surface on which to load cargo. One limitation of many of these seats is the need to remove the head restraint prior to folding the seat. The head restraint must then be stowed in some generally inconvenient location. For example, if the head restraint is stowed outside the vehicle, it may not be available when the seat is returned to its upright position. If the head restraint is stowed inside the vehicle, it may occupy a portion of the cargo space made available by folding the seat down; this reduces the utility of a fold-down seat. In either case, the head restraint might not be reinstalled into the seat assembly when it is returned to the upright position. Thus, a vehicle occupant may not have the head restraint available when it is needed.
Not all head restraints must be removed from a seat assembly when the seat assembly is folded down. Some head restraints can remain in the seat assembly; however, such designs have their own inherent limitations. For example, the height of the head restraint may be limited because of space considerations—i.e., when the seat back is folded down, a head restraint that is too tall may interfere with the seat directly in front of it, or it may interfere with the body of the vehicle. Moreover, even if a head restraint folds out of the way and remains with the seat assembly when the seat assembly is folded down, the head restraint may still require a manual operation to return it to its upright use position. Thus, a seat may be returned to its upright position with the head restraint still attached, but if the head restraint is not manually returned to its upright position, it may not be available to a seated occupant.
Therefore, a need exists for a seat assembly that includes a folding head restraint that includes at least two portions that can each be folded into a stowed position, thereby allowing the head restraint to remain attached to the seat assembly when the seat assembly is folded down.

Seat assembly with folding head restraint and method for folding same


Example systems, apparatus, circuits, and so on described herein concern parallel transmission in MRI. One example apparatus includes at least two field effect transistors (FETs) that are connected by a coil that includes an LC (inductance-capacitance) leg. The apparatus includes a controller that inputs a digital signal to the FETs to control the production of an output analog radio frequency (RF) signal. The LC leg is to selectively alter the output analog RF signal and the analog RF signal is used in parallel magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) transmission.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) involves the transmission of radio frequency (RF) energy. RF energy may be transmitted by a coil. Resulting magnetic resonance (MR) signals may also be received by a coil. In early MRI, RF energy may have been transmitted from a single coil and resulting MR signals received by a single coil. Later, multiple receivers may have been used in parallel acquisition techniques. Using multiple receivers facilitates speeding up signal reception, which in turn may reduce scan time. Similarly, multiple transmitters may be used in parallel transmission techniques. Using multiple transmitters may facilitate speeding up a transmission process, which in turn may facilitate volumetric excitation, selective isolation, and other very high speed features. However, conventional parallel transmission techniques have encountered issues with scaling, fidelity, and synchronization.
Conventional systems may have attempted to parallelize their existing RF transmitters. Thus, conventional systems may have relied on multiple, individually powered, single channel, analog-in-analog-out RF transmitters for parallel transmission. These systems tended not to scale well due to cabling duplication, power transmitter duplication, control duplication, and other issues. Even when a small number (e.g., 4) of transmitters were employed, these systems may not have produced desired fidelity. For example, conventional systems may have had complicated power distribution management and may have been difficult to synchronize. Additionally, conventional systems typically had poor isolation between coils, resulting in degraded performance. Furthermore, these systems may have required each element in an array to be tuned and matched, which is a very time-consuming procedure.
Conventional systems may also have been limited by their use of relatively low power (e.g., <50 W), low efficiency class A or class AB amplifiers. While some systems may have included on-coil series and/or shunt-fed class-D amplifiers, even these conventional systems have suffered from several limitations including inadequate detuning and low efficiency. Proposed systems that indicate that they may achieve higher efficiency still appear to lack adequate control mechanisms. Due, at least in part, to these limitations, conventional systems may not have produced desired levels of amplitude and/or phase control and thus may have had less than desirable fidelity.

On-coil switched mode amplifier for parallel transmission in MRI


A fuel supplying apparatus is configured to supply a gas engine with gas fuel in such a manner that tar separated from the gas fuel is guided to the engine. The apparatus includes a primary regulator and a secondary regulator formed integrally with the primary regulator. The primary regulator communicates with the secondary regulator through a gas passage. The secondary regulator is disposed below the primary regulator. The secondary regulator has a gas inlet for taking in the gas fuel and the tar that have passed from the primary regulator through the gas passage. The secondary regulator has an orifice disposed below the gas inlet for discharging the gas fuel and the tar. The tar separated from the gas fuel flows from the primary regulator through the gas passage and the gas inlet into the secondary regulator and discharged out of the orifice into the engine.

Fuel supplying apparatuses vaporize liquefied fuel into gas fuel and supply such gas fuel to gas engines. These apparatuses have problems that tar produced after the vaporization of the liquefied fuel remains within the apparatuses. The remaining tar can deteriorate rubber components such as diaphragms, clog up jet ports of the apparatuses, or hinder flow control valve from closely contacting valve seats.
JP-U-64-19052 and JP-U-64-21252 disclose fuel supplying apparatuses for gas engines, which are designed to address those problems. The disclosed apparatuses include heaters for heating fuel passageways which interconnect vaporizers and mixers.
The apparatus disclosed in JP-U-64-19052 includes a main fuel passageway which interconnects a secondary chamber of a vaporizer and a venturi of a mixer, and a low-speed fuel passageway which interconnects a primary chamber of the vaporizer and a portion of the mixer disposed below the venturi. Attached to these passageways are first and second heaters that are made of nichrome wires.
The apparatus disclosed in JP-U-64-21252 includes a heater attached to both a main fuel passageway and a low-speed fuel passageway and configured to guide engine-cooling water through the heater.
Some small-sized general-purpose engine does not carry a battery or a generator, for decreased cost and weight, etc of the engine. It is difficult for such small-sized general purpose engines to carry the electric heaters as disclosed in JP-U-64-19052 or the heater utilizing the engine-cooling water as disclosed in JP-U-64-21252 because these general-purpose engines are air-cooled engines.
Other than the above heaters, heating means may include ones that use engine-cooling air or exhaust heat from mufflers, but such heating means have temperatures that are difficult to control. For the small-sized general-purpose engines, therefore, there is a need for a simple structure designed to efficiently discharge tar out of fuel passageways without utilizing the heaters.


Disclosed is a readily expandable printing apparatus which, despite having only a small memory capacity, is applicable to a number of types of printing processing. On the basis of the type of ink cartridge loaded in the printing apparatus and the content of information that is to be printed, a host computer retrieves from its own memory a program to be run in the printing apparatus. The host computer then transfers the retrieved program to the printing apparatus. The later stores the transferred program in an internal RAM and, when print data has been transferred from the host computer, executes the program.

This invention relates to a printing apparatus, a method of controlling the same, an information processor connected thereto, a method of controlling the information processor, and a related storage medium.
Printers of the kind that discharge liquid ink include those that allow a cartridge of one type (an ink tank or a unit that is a combination of an ink tank and printing head) to be exchanged for another, after which printing is performed in conformity with the particular type of ink cartridge. Examples of such ink cartridges are monochromatic ink cartridges, color ink cartridges and, in some cases, low-density ink cartridges. (Low-density ink cartridges are suitable for forming grayscale images by performing a plurality of printing cycles.)
A variety of printing processing types (printing modes) are available. For example, there are printing modes in which printing is completed by a single pass or by a plurality of passes, and in which printing is performed by moving a carriage in one direction or back and forth in two directions.
Thus, the printing processing that is executed depends not only upon the type of ink cartridge but also upon the combination of cartridge type and printing mode.
According to the prior art, a printer capable of performing printing in a number of printing modes has a memory in which a program for each type of printing processing is stored in advance, and printing is executed by switching among the programs in appropriate fashion. However, a problem with such a printer is higher cost because of the need for a large-capacity memory to store the programs.
Further, since the programs are stored permanently in a ROM or the like, printing processing suited to a new type of ink cartridge cannot be executed.

Printing apparatus, method of controlling same, information processor connected thereto, system and storage medium


Skin coloration categories are identified based upon blue and yellow undertones of the skin using a color measuring device, developing the Hunter b value, utilizing that value alone to determine which of several categories of skin coloration a subject's skin exhibits. Category selection is made by comparison of measured Hunter b with ranges of Hunter b value of skin color categories. Instrumentation to effect the method includes the color measuring device, a central processing unit (CPU), memory storing the ranges of Hunter b, and an output device such as a printer, LCD, or CRT. The skin color Hunter b is calculated and compared to stored ranges to assign a category. The output device displays the category of skin color based upon the central processing unit's comparison. Colors compatible with skin color categories are identified or formulated based upon broad color family designation, yellow, brown, red, etc., and a comparison of measured and stored ranges of known or specially developed color characteristics for the particular family.

This invention relates to a method and instrument for identifying categories of skin coloration for compatibility with colors of clothing, makeup, etc., and more particularly to methods and apparatus for classifying skin color based upon its blue and yellow undertones and for assigning one of a plurality of basic categories for which compatible colors have been selected.
Recently, numerous proposals for identifying colors of, for example, clothing, makeup, hair colorants, and the like, based upon an individual person's coloration have been put forth. Some of these proposed techniques have taken into account the color of the person's complexion, but have incorrectly emphasized redness and have also wrongly relied upon eye color, color of hair, and even racial background to assign color categories to the person. Based on that assignment a preselected collection of colors of fabric or other materials was chosen.
Draping techniques, whereby drapes of a series of colors are placed adjacent an individual's face for an assessment of compatibility, have been in widespread use. The purpose has been to better enable the evaluated individual to choose clothing and other items of a harmonious color. These draping techniques have had some success. Being subjective, they depend, however, upon the observational skills of the one who conducts the assessment and cannot be relied upon for consistent accuracy.
Much has been written about the various color assessment techniques. Often this has been misleading in that the true scientific basis for skin color categorization was not perceived. Again, for example, writings on the subject have advised attention to eye color, hair color, or race, or have suggested assessment of the redness or pallor of the subject individual. Although blue and yellow have been mentioned along with other colors and/or features said to contribute to an assessment of compatible colors, there have been only vague mentions of these broad color families encompassing many different colors in the blue and yellow families. There has not been any clear expression of exact blues or yellows contributing to the proposed assessments. Nor has there been any exact specification of a reproducible parameter derived from these colors and capable of accurate, consistent use in skin color assessment.
Several attempts have been made to quantify color assessment and, after long, hard work on the subject, these attempts have failed. It has been generally recognized by those who have considered the possibility that a consistent, scientifically sound, and reproducible technique for accurately categorizing an individual's skin coloration would be extremely desirable as would the availability of an instrument for consistently and accurately assessing and categorizing skin color. Prior to the subject invention, there has never been a correlation of physically measured color characteristics with perceived categories of skin color. Neither has any skin color parameter been identified that enables consistent categorization for the purposes described. The reliable coloration of products for compatibility with skin color has been unknown, as well.
In color identification utilized in other endeavors, numerous qualities, measurable values, or parameters exist. To identify color accurately more than one characteristic, and often three values, are used. No single value satisfactorily defines color.
Although extensive collections of colors of non-skin objects, particularly fabrics, for each skin color category have been determined visually, there remains a need to quickly and reliably identify new colors as compatible with one or more skin color categories. Prior to this invention, no color characteristics have been identified or developed to permit this.

Method and instrument for selecting personal compatible colors

Chromatics Color Sciences International Inc.


A traffic channel transmission device for a CDMA communication system using a plurality of coding rates and orthogonal codes, determines a present channel condition and adaptively selects a coding rate and an orthogonal code according to the determination. In the device, a channel receiver receives a channel signal and a controller analyzes the received signal to decide an environment of a channel in service and generates a coding rate select signal and orthogonal code information according to the decision result. A channel transmitter includes a channel encoder for encoding transmission data at a coding rate selected according to the coding rate select signal and an orthogonal modulator for generating an orthogonal code according to the orthogonal code information to spread the encoded data with the generated orthogonal code, whereby the channel transmitter adaptively encodes and spreads the transmission data according to the channel environment. The orthogonal code information includes a number and a length of the orthogonal code.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to communication systems, and in particular, to an apparatus and method for adaptively controlling a channel data rate according to a channel environment in a CDMA communication system.
2. Description of the Related Art
At present, CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) communication systems are implemented in accordance with the IS-95 Standard. With the progress of mobile communication technology, the number of mobile communication service subscribers is increasing and demands for various services are rising in proportion to the increased user demand. To date many methods have been proposed to meet the subscribers' demands.
FIG. 1 illustrates a structure of a forward traffic channel transmission device for the CDMA communication system, wherein the traffic channel includes a fundamental channel and a supplemental channel.
Referring to FIG. 1, a channel encoder and puncturing part 10 encodes and punctures input data and outputs symbol data. A convolutional encoder or a turbo encoder can be used for the channel encoder and puncturing part 10. A symbol repetition part 20 repeats the respective encoded symbol data for the input data having different bit rates to output a single common symbol rate. An interleaver 30 interleaves an output of the symbol repetition part 20. A block interleaver can be used for the interleaver 30.
A long code generator 91 generates long codes for the user identification, which are uniquely assigned to the respective subscribers. A decimator 92 decimates the long codes so as to match a rate of the long codes to a rate of the symbols output from the interleaver 30. A mixer 40 mixes the encoded symbols output from the interleaver 30 with the long codes output from the decimator 92.
A signal mapping part 50 maps binary data output from the mixer 40 into 4-level data by converting data "0" to "+1" and data "1" to "−1". An orthogonal modulator 60 modulates data output from the signal mapping part 50 with an orthogonal code. A Walsh code can be used for the orthogonal code. In this case, Walsh codes of lengths 64, 128 and 256 bits can be used. A spreader 70 spreads the orthogonal modulation signal output from the orthogonal modulator 60 by combining it with spreading sequences. PN (Pseudo-random Noise) sequences can be used for the spreading sequences. Accordingly, a QPSK (Quadrature Phase Shift Keying) spreader can be used for the spreader 70. A gain controller 80 controls a gain of the spread signal input from the spreader 70 according to a gain control signal Gc.
In operation, when the convolutional encoder is used for the channel encoder and puncturing part 10, the coding rate is ⅓ and the constraint length, k=9, for an IS-95 system. Therefore, one input data bit is encoded into three encoded bits (i.e., three symbols) in the channel encoder and puncturing part 10 (which performs ⅓ rate convolutional encoding or ⅓ rate forward error correction (FEC)). Forward error correction is utilized to provide coding gain to a channel so as to compensate for an increase in a BER (Bit Error Rate) at a mobile station (for the case of a forward link) and a base station (for the case of a reverse link). An increase in the BER of a channel may arise as a result of the channel having a reduced SNR (Signal-to-Noise Ratio) due to an increase in signal path loss, noise and interference.
It is well known that CDMA communication systems cannot provide reliable communication service when a mobile station is located at an outer service area of the base station or is in a bad channel environment. In this case, it is preferable to change the coding rate to enhance the quality of the communication service in the bad channel environment. That is, when the channel SNR is reduced due to a bad channel environment or an increased distance between a mobile station and a base station, it is preferable to use a coding rate (or FEC rate) lower, ⅙ for example, than the present coding rate of ⅓.
In particular, when the distance between the base station and the mobile station increases, a reception device is very susceptible to path loss or noise on the link channel and interference, so that the channel SNR is reduced unless a transmission device increases the transmission power or performs a pertinent compensation. Therefore, when the traffic channel transmission device with the fixed channel structure of FIG. 1 experiences an increased BER (Bit Error Rate) due to a reduction in SNR, the base station increases a forward link traffic power in order to compensate for the increase in the BER. Therefore, it is preferable to use the FEC with a lower coding rate than the FEC in use. Given a ⅓ coding rate it has been shown that channel gain is lower by about 0.2–1 dB as compared with a ⅙ coding rate. For example, the forward reception power of a mobile station using the ⅓ coding rate is lower by about 1 dB than that of a mobile station using the ⅙ coding rate, when the mobile station is far from the base station or in a bad forward channel environment. Therefore, the base station should increase the forward link transmission power, resulting in a waste of transmission power and low communication performance.
Unlike the channel transmission device with the fixed channel structure of FIG. 1, a channel transmission/reception device for a 3rd generation multicarrier CDMA system as proposed in the TIA/EIA TR45.5 conference, includes a scheme for transmitting and receiving the respective channel data by distributing them to the multicarrier. For example, when three carriers are used and a rate ⅓ encoder is used, the multicarrier scheme encodes the respective input data bit into three encoded bits (i.e., symbols) using the rate ⅓ encoder and transmits the encoded bits using the three carriers after repetition and interleaving. This is well disclosed in Korean patent application No. 61616/1997 filed by the applicant of this invention. Here, the respective carriers each have a bandwidth of 1.2288 Mhz (hereinafter, referred to as 1.25 Mhz) which is identical to the IS-95 channel bandwidth. Therefore, the three carriers have a combined or collective bandwidth of 3.6864 Mhz, which is identical to three separate channel bandwidths.
The forward link of the 3 G multicarrier system can employ an overlay method where it shares the same frequency band with the IS-95 forward channel. In this case, it may be interfered with the IS-95 system. In addition, it is preferable to use the coding rate lower than the present coding rate of ⅓, even when the channel SNR is reduced due to the bad channel environment or the increased distance between the mobile station and the base station.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Rate control device and method for CDMA communication system


A multi-mode access point (AP) and a method of controlling access between that AP and one or more clients is disclosed. In a first time period, the AP commands the client(s) not to send data on a first channel, using, for example, the 802.11a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) Standard. The AP is enabled, in that first time period, to receive data on a second channel using say, the 802.11b WLAN standard. At the end of the first time period, the AP switches so that the first channel is commanded to be silent while data can instead be sent via the second channel. Data queuing for a given channel can take place at the or each client when that channel is commanded to be silent, for subsequent transmission when that channel is enabled again.

Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) have become the focus of intense research efforts owing to the user's growing necessity to have greater connectivity to a myriad of wired and wireless networks, and hence greater mobility. Wireless networking products such as personal computers (PCs), laptops and other portable devices incorporate a Network Interface Card (NIC), which provides connection via a wireless medium to other such devices.
IEEE 802.11 is a standard, hereinafter referred to as "802.11", developed by the Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers (IEEE) for operation of wireless LAN devices currently covered within the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands but, which can be extendable to other bands. The most common architecture of an 802.11 LAN is a group of stations (STAs) or clients, for example a group of PCs and/or laptops, and an Access Point (AP) that provides access to other networks, such as wired networks, by controlling connection of stations to the LAN. The AP also provides data forwarding services for the stations: frames are not passed directly between stations but always go via the AP. This is known as an infrastructure mode. An alternative wireless architecture where the LAN does not include an AP is called an Independent Basic Service Set (IBSS).
A wireless network enables the transfer of information from one device to another by the implementation of several functions including: a medium which provides a data transmission path; Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol to define how stations share a common medium; synchronisation and error control protocols to ensure that data transfer within each link in the network is intact; encryption services for secure data transmission; mechanisms for transferring the data from the source to the recipient; and connectivity software for interfacing an appliance to application software on a server.
FIG. 1 shows the logical architecture of the 802.11 standard that applies to each station. The fundamental purpose of the MAC layer 10 is to provide access control functions for shared medium Physical Layers (PHYs) 20 in support of the LLC (logical link control) layer 30, with Network and Upper layers 40 above the LLC layer.
Before transmitting a frame, the MAC co-ordination of an 802.11 wireless LAN takes measures to avoid collisions by using one of two protocols, for example, carrier sense multiple access/collision avoidance (CSMA/CA). Within the 802.11 standard this mode is specified as the Distributed Coordination Function (DCF), which is a contention-based protocol. Another mode is the priority-based Point Coordination Function (PCF) which is a contention-free access protocol for infrastructure mode configurations.
The 802.11 standard outlines the media access control (MAC) and the physical layer (PHY) layer specifications for wireless LANs. 802.11 utilises three transmission technologies including Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) and Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS). Moreover, the DSSS system of the 802.11 standard operates at data rates of 1 Mbps and 2 Mbps only. Products conforming strictly to the 802.11 standard operate in the 2.4 GHz ISM band between 2.4000 and 2.4835 GHz.
With subsequent developments in the technology, the DSSS wireless LANs could exchange data at up to 11 Mbps, a consequence of which was that devices had problems with interoperability and implementation under 802.11.
More specifically, the IEEE802.11b standard, hereinafter referred to as '802.11b', emerged from 802.11 as the "high rate" and Wi-Fi™ standard specifying the DSSS system to operate at 1, 2, 5.5 and 11 Mbps. The 802.11b compliant devices operate in only the 2.4000 GHz ISM band between 2.4000 and 2.4835 GHz. The IEEE 802.11a standard, hereinafter referred to as '802.11a', for device operability at the higher 54 Mbs rate in the 5 GHz band, can support even higher data rates owing to the implementation of Orthogonal Frequency Division Modulation (OFDM).
Consequently, two major variants have emerged from the IEE802.11 specifications, namely the 802.11b and 802.11a standards. The 802.11b standard operating on the 2.4 GHz band is the most prevalent but is limited to a peak data rate of 11 Mbps available on a limited number of channels, while the higher data rate 802.11a network operating on the broader 5 GHz band has a greater number of channels than 802.11b. The new 802.11a standard offers a higher peak data rate of 54 Mb/s by implementing OFDM.
Hitherto, most products have been 802.11b-compliant and therefore use the 2.4 GHz band, and currently there are few 802.11a-compliant products on the enhanced 5 GHz band. Hence the principal problem in this context facing the information technologist is that network administrators who have a large network of existing 802.11b users will not all be able to upgrade from 802.11b to 802.11a simultaneously in order to exploit the higher data rates available on the latter. The feasibility of the upgrade poses a considerable burden to network administrators as upgrading all stations from 802.11b to 802.11a is not economical and/or practical.
Most recently, yet a further variant on the IEE 802.11 specification has been proposed, the 802.11g standard. This employs the same band as the 802.11b standard, but is, in certain modes, incompatible with it. It is conceivable that further non-interoperable and/or interfering standards may be developed in the future. This will increase still further the difficulty of integration.
The current invention provided for a solution to the problems of the prior art.

Method of controlling access to a communications medium


An optical data recording and reproducing apparatus including an objective lens holder which holds an objective lens for converging laser light onto an optical disc, a tracking mechanism which drives the objective lens holder in a tracking direction of the optical disc, and a displacement detecting mechanism which detects the displacement of the objective lens holder effected by the tracking mechanism. The displacement detecting mechanism has photosensors which have light emitters and light receivers. The light receivers are located further from the optical disc than the light emitters. The photosensors are supported on a single sensor holder.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical data recording and reproducing apparatus (hereinafter referred to as an optical disc apparatus) which records optical data onto an optical recording medium, such as a magnetic optical disc, and reproduces the recorded data from the optical recording medium. More precisely, it relates to an improved carriage (optical head) which is moved in the tracking direction across data recording tracks, formed circumferentially on the optical disc thereof, to record and reproduce optical data.
2. Description of Related Art
In a known optical disc apparatus, such as a magnetic optical disc apparatus, an objective lens is supported by an objective lens holder which is movable in both the focusing direction and the tracking direction of the optical disc on a carriage. Namely, the movable objective lens holder, on which the objective lens is supported, is provided with focusing and tracking coils which, together with a magnetic circuit provided on the carriage constitute an electromagnetic drive mechanism. The carriage holds a mirror which reflects laser light emitted from a stationary optical system in the radial direction of the optical disc toward the objective lens. The focusing and tracking coils are supplied with a predetermined intensity and direction of electric current to precisely converge the laser light onto a predetermined recording track of the optical disc to thereby control the focusing and tracking operations.
In the known optical disc apparatus mentioned above, it is necessary to detect the position of the objective lens (lens holder), particularly in the radial direction (tracking direction) of the optical disc, to thereby determine a deviation from a correct position and reduce access time. To this end, a detector, which uses a photosensor, is incorporated in the optical disc apparatus.
The detector comprises, for example, a pair of reflectors (reflecting plates) provided on opposite sides of the lens holder in the tracking direction, and reflection type photosensors, opposed to the reflectors and secured to the carriage. Each photosensor has a pair of light emitting and receiving elements, so that the radial position of the objective lens can be detected in accordance with a difference in output between the two photosensors, depending on the displacement of the objective lens in the radial direction (tracking direction), to thereby control the position of the objective lens.
However, in the conventional optical disc apparatus, it is necessary to provide the photosensors in the vicinity of the objective lens. Accordingly, light reflected by the optical disc is made incident upon the photosensors and causes an error of measurement by the photosensors.
Furthermore, if the characteristics of the photosensors are identical, the photosensors must be positioned at equal distances from the reflectors of the lens holder. This however makes it difficult to independently adjust the position of the photosensor, however.
In addition to the foregoing, it is premised that the reflection type photosensors have an identical output characteristic, but, in practicality, it is very difficult to realize identical output characteristics in the two photosensors. If the output characteristics of the two photosensors are not identical to each other, there will be a measurement error in the detection of the position of the objective lens using the output difference of the two photosensors. Consequently, upon initial adjustment of the position of the photosensors, in accordance with the outputs thereof, the distances of the photosensors from the lens holder are not identical to each other. To compensate for this, it is necessary to independently adjust the distances of the photosensors from the reflectors provided on the lens holder. However, this is troublesome and complicated.

Optical head carriage, tracking mechanism and displacement detecting mechanism


An edge enhancement system, including a selective edge controller for determining one or more properties of an edge of image data, and for generating one or more weighting factors on the basis of properties of the edge; and a scaling module for scaling an edge enhancement signal by the weighting factors to control the degree of edge enhancement. The image data may represent a still or moving (i.e., video) image. A max-min search circuit determines maximum and minimum turning points closest to the center of the data processing window and that are located on opposing sides of the window, to determine values and locations of maximum and minimum pixels of the edge. An edge-directed pre-filtering circuit reduces the amplification of edge fuzziness by smoothing close the edges vertical prior to enhancement. An aliasing protection circuit reduces the visibility of saw-tooth defects on predominantly horizontal diagonal edges.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an edge enhancement process and system for image data representing static or moving (i.e., video) images.
2. Description of the Related Art
Luminance transient improvement or enhancement refers to the sharpening of an image by steepening edge transitions on the luminance component of the image, thereby increasing the original signal bandwidth. There are two general approaches to making an edge steeper. One approach increases pixel values on the high side of an edge and decreases pixel values on the other side of the edge, thereby making a gradual transition more abrupt. The other approach is to replace pixel values near the edge with pixel values further away from the edge.
In general, existing transient improvement circuits are based on one of three transient improvement techniques. The first technique uses edge detectors. Usually, the center of the edge is located and the degree of enhancement applied to a given pixel depends upon the distance away from the center of the edge and also on the magnitude of the edge. International Patent Application Publication No. WO 01/67392, entitled System and Method for Improving the Sharpness of a Video Image, and incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, describes an edge sharpening system including a sub-pixel edge center locator that reduces visible jitter after enhancement. The system also provides gain control for the enhancement signal using the relative position of edge information to tackle the "over-the-hill" problem that occurs for an edge when pixels of a second edge are shifted.
The second technique employs a strong peaking filter. Although peaking filters do not increase frequency components, they steepen the edges. By clipping the overshoot and undershoots, high frequency components are introduced to increase the original signal bandwidth and sharpen the image at the same time. In addition, special boundary conditions are detected at the pixel level whereby adjustments are constrained.
The third technique extracts the maximum and minimum values of a local window. U.S. Pat. No. 6,094,205, entitled Sharpness Control, and incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, performs edge enhancement using the 2nd derivative to select the minimum or maximum pixel value and then generates a fading transition between the original and the selected minimum/maximum pixel value using the magnitude of the first derivative.
International Patent Application Publication No. WO 01/52188, entitled Method and Apparatus for Edge Detection, and incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, discloses a method for edge detection using a low pass second derivative for increased robustness in noise and aliasing, a thresholded first derivative to distinguish between noise and edges, and a third to first derivative comparison as an edge frequency calculation to differentiate soft and hard edges for suitable edge enhancement.
There are a number of difficulties with existing edge enhancement processes. The first has been attributed to discrete time sampling in that an edge center may not coincide with the pixel grid. If the resulting error in the exact location of the edge becomes too large, jitter becomes visible after enhancement. Generally, this problem only occurs when edge enhancement is based on the distance from the edge center that is identified by the pixel grid.
A second problem is the over-enhancement of soft and hard edges that results in an artificial-looking image. An example of soft edges is the enhancement of facial features. The 3D information of the visualized object, represented on the 2D plane, is lost as the smooth edges are straightened and steepened. In addition, visible contouring of images is introduced after edge steepening because the subset of pixel representation for the edge has been reduced significantly. Furthermore, when hard edges are steepened further, unnatural looking plateaus on both sides of the edge are generated.
Thirdly, edge processing methods are generally not robust to noise and often result in images with enhanced noise. In methods based on detected edge centers, local processing masks used with 2nd derivative operators or Laplace operators locate edges most precisely, but are very sensitive to noise. Stochastic gradient operators, on the other hand, are most robust to noise, but are not easy to implement as the level of noise changes. Similarly, methods using peaking filters are very sensitive to noise. The conventional counteraction strategy is to use low pass filters or derivatives, as described in International Patent Application Publication No. WO 01/52188.
A fourth problem is the inflexibility to handle close and complicated edges. Generally in pixel level processing, special boundary conditions are made to cater for such situations but these may not be sufficient to cover all cases. A typical artifact is the result of shifting pixels of another edge and thus changing the contents of the image. As described in International Patent Application Publication No. WO 01/67392, this "over-the-hill" problem can be alleviated by controlling the gain of the enhancement signal based on the distance between the detected edge pixels.
Another problem is the enhancement of fuzzy edges, resulting in obvious jagged edges. Fuzzy edges often occur on a soft focused background and/or image. They may be present due to randomness introduced on edges for special effects purposes or the deteriorating quality of old films.
Finally, edge enhancement brings about an aliasing side effect in the vertical direction that manifests itself in the form of saw-tooth edge. The horizontal steepening of a diagonal edge draws pixel values further from the edge nearer to the center. As the edge slopes away from the vertical, the further spaced apart the center of the 1D edge relative to its counterpart above and below the line, the more obvious the saw tooth pattern becomes to the observer. This effect worsens and appears as horizontal flickering lines when the image is interlaced and the edge is moving.
It is desired therefore, to provide an edge enhancement system and process that alleviate one or more of the above difficulties, or at least to provide a useful alternative.

STMicroelectronics Asia Pacific Pte Ltd.