Disclosed is a device for the transport of temperature sensitive products including an insulated container, an insulated lid, a fastener to secure the lid to the container, an active heat exchanger, a thermal circuit to circulate heat exchange, a temperature sensor read by a temperature regulating circuit that maintains a temperature range, a power source, and a support frame that arranges the elements of the device with the overall center of mass at a location adapted for transport and storage of the device. Disclosed is also a method of transport for temperature sensitive products including securing the temperature sensitive product within an insulated container with a lid, removing heat from the container to maintain a temperature range, strapping the device onto the user's back and adjusting to the shape of the user, freeing both hands during transport of the device, and minimizing hindrances to user mobility caused by the device.

There are many often life dependent situations in which a product or substance must be kept under a strict temperature range for a given amount of time, yet may need to travel to areas that do not have an established power grid or availability of a large, consistent power supply. In many areas of society, there is a pressing need for such a method of transporting various objects or substances over long distances and time spans, while maintaining the substances at constant temperature or within various temperature ranges. For example, the organs, vaccines, medicine, and food benefit greatly from reliable means of temperature regulation during transport. For instance, the World Health Organization states that 4.3 million deaths occur each year due to vaccine preventable diseases and that many of these deaths could be averted if cold chain (i.e., the intricate system for vaccine transport, delivery, and administration) technologies for keeping vaccines above their freeze-sensitive range and below their heat-sensitive range were more efficient. First response disaster relief may also benefit from reliable and portable means for temperature regulated medicine transport.
The current mode of vaccine transport involves packing vaccines with phase-change materials such as conventional/dry ice, which are then carried by foot, horse, motorbike, etc. from cities to rural medical outreach centers. Since vaccines must be kept within a strict temperature range of 2-8° C. (36-46° F.) and may no longer be viable if the temperature deviates outside this range, this presents a great problem as strict temperature control is extremely difficult to maintain during the final destination journeys from the cities to the rural areas and account for 75-80% of all vaccine wastage alone. In addition, phase-change materials such as ice have freezing and melting temperatures that do not match the desired temperature range suitable for the vaccines, thus placing vaccines at the risk of wastage even when the heat absorption properties of the phase-change material is still viable. The passive nature of such phase-change materials also leaves certain regions of the vaccine carrier to have lower temperature than others, resulting in uneven cooling. Moreover, since the tendency is to bring more vaccines than are needed in an area, once the cooling source evaporates or expires, the excess vaccines also go to waste.
There are a number of transport systems in existence for maintaining consistent temperature controls. However, these known systems fail to meet the highly specific requirements for transporting sensitive substances, such as vaccines. Generally, two main issues present these failures. The first failure being sufficient temperature regulation of the environment in which these substances are transported. Most environmental control devices or "cold carriers" currently utilized are simply coolers using ice packs. The adaptability to varying environments and substances in terms of temperature regulation using these cold carriers is quite limited in flexibility of temperature. The second failure is transportability. The prior art includes refrigerated transport units, which can control the temperature of their internal environments. However, most of these are not designed for single or multiple person portability. Rather, these known refrigerated transport units generally require a powerful consistent and accessible power supply, which is typically not available in many areas of the world.
Thus, there is a need in the field of transportation of temperature sensitive products to create a new and useful environmentally adaptable device to overcome the disadvantages and drawbacks of the prior art. There is also a need for a transport device able to adapt to varying environments and products requirements in terms of temperature regulation and temperature consistency over time. Additionally, there is a need for a transport device that offers adaptable transportability and power requirements for the control of internal temperature and environment, while being designed (e.g., both compact and ergonomically designed) for single or multiple person portability. This invention provides such a new and useful device.

Environmentally adaptable transport device


A practical chiral zirconium catalyst that can maintain its high catalytic activity even after long-term storage, which is stable in air and storable for a long period of time, and recoverable and reusable after reaction, is provided.

Various asymmetric synthesis reactions are known to be effective for the organic synthesis of natural substances and their analogs. Although some asymmetric catalysts used in such asymmetric synthesis reactions have high activity and promote the intended reaction with high selectivity, many are liable to decomposition and inactivation due to external causes such as oxygen, water, light and heat, and are thus unstable. Hence, most asymmetric catalysts must be prepared from stable precursors immediately before use, and asymmetric catalysts that are stable, storable for a long period of time, recoverable and reusable after reaction, are rare.
The inventors of the present application have developed and reported a chiral zirconium catalyst useful for asymmetric Mannich reaction, and the like (for example, Japanese Patent Application No. 9-197589; Ishitani, H., Ueno, M., and Kobayashi, S., J. Am. Chem., vol. 122, p. 8180 (2000)). However, such chiral zirconium catalyst was also unstable in air and in the presence of water, and use after long-term storage, as well as recovery and reuse after reaction was substantially impossible. Accordingly, in most reaction systems, the catalysts are prepared and used in situ for each reaction.
If a chiral zirconium catalyst could be prepared in advance and stored for a long period of time, the number of process steps for synthesis can be reduced, and for example, in the case of asymmetric Mannich reaction, the operation can be further simplified. Further, if the catalyst could be recovered and reused, not only will it lead to a reduction of cost for the synthesis reaction, but would also lead to a reduction in the amount of metal-containing waste solution, and is thus useful from an environmental viewpoint.
Therefore, the object of the present invention is to solve the aforementioned problems by providing a highly practical chiral zirconium catalyst, which maintains high catalytic activity even after long-term storage, is stable, and can be recovered and reused after reaction.


A nonvolatile semiconductor memory device of an embodiment includes: a semiconductor layer; a tunnel insulating film that is formed on the semiconductor layer and includes a first organic molecular film including first organic molecules each having an alkyl molecular chain as the main chain; a charge storage layer formed on the tunnel insulating film, the charge storage layer being made of an inorganic material; a block insulating film formed on the charge storage layer; and a control gate electrode formed on the block insulating film.

A NAND flash memory that is one kind of nonvolatile semiconductor memory device has a stack structure formed by stacking a semiconductor substrate, a tunnel insulating film, a charge storage layer, a block insulating film, and a control gate electrode. In such a NAND flash memory, the applied voltage of the control gate electrode is controlled. By doing so, charges are stored or erased in the charge storage layer via the tunnel insulating film from the semiconductor substrate, and the threshold voltage of each memory cell is changed. In this manner, the NAND flash memory functions as a memory device.
A flash memory needs to be scaled down, and the film thicknesses of all the layers in the stack structure need to be made smaller, so as to improve or maintain performance. In a flash memory, insulating films such as a tunnel insulating film and a block insulating film account for a large proportion of the overall layer thickness. Therefore, the thicknesses of the insulating films such as a tunnel insulating film and a block insulating film are expected to be reduced.
However, an insulating film made of an inorganic material such as an oxide film or a nitride film needs to maintain a certain film thickness, so as to reduce charge releases due to a defect or the like in the insulating film. Therefore, it is difficult to reduce film thicknesses.


A first communication device generates a media access control (MAC) protocol data unit (MPDU) delimiter having i) a feedback indication field and ii) a feedback content field. The feedback indication field is generated to include a first value that indicates the MPDU delimiter includes the feedback content field rather than an MPDU length field corresponding to a second value of the feedback indication field. The feedback content field is generated to include feedback information such as acknowledgement information regarding a communication frame previously transmitted by a second communication device, or control, management, and/or status information regarding the first communication device that was previously requested by the second communication device. The first communication device then transmits a packet that includes the MPDU delimiter to the second communication device.

In a wireless local area network (WLAN), communication devices exchange control information in media access control (MAC) protocol data units (MPDUs), sometimes referred to as "frames". For example, when a first communication device is to acknowledge reception of a data frame from a second communication device, the first communication device transmits an acknowledgment (ACK) frame to the second communication device that includes an indication of whether the data frame was correctly received (sometimes referred to as "acknowledgment information"). As another example, when a first communication device is prompted by a second communication device to transmit status information, such as an amount of data buffered for transmission at the first communication device (sometimes referred to as "buffer status" information) or an available frequency bandwidth as seen at the first communication device (sometimes referred to as "bandwidth status" information), the first communication device transmits the requested status information to the second communication device in a quality of service (QoS) Null frame.
Frames such as ACK frames and QoS Null frames include a MAC header having several bytes of information, such as a frame control field that indicates a type of the frame, a duration field that indicates a time duration of the frame, an address field that identifies an intended recipient of the frame, a frame check sequence (FCS) field that provides error detection information for indicating whether the MAC header, as received, includes any errors, etc. Much of the information in the MAC header is considered overhead in that such information is not itself the desired information such as the acknowledgement information, the buffer status information, or the bandwidth status information. Overhead tends to limit throughput of a wireless communication system because the overhead occupies wireless transmission time.

Transmitting control or status information in an MPDU delimiter


An internal-combustion engine comprises an engine housing having a first wall delimiting a first combustion chamber, a first piston also delimiting said first combustion chamber and with a first piston head, a first crankshaft, a second piston also delimiting said first combustion chamber and with a second piston head, a second crankshaft, and a second connecting rod connected between said second piston and said second crankshaft, said first wail defining at least a section of a torus, said pistons being guided along a curved path defined by said section of a torus.

The invention concerns an internal-combustion engine with an engine housing comprising a first wall delimiting a first combustion chamber, with a first piston also delimiting said first combustion chamber by means of a first piston head and with a first crankshaft.
Engines of this type have been known for more than a hundred years and are used as stationary drives as well as for vehicles. In these engines, the walls delimiting the combustion chambers are of cylindrical shape and closed on one side with a cylinder head. On the other side, a piston is moveably guided in the cylinder to transfer the driving force to a crankshaft via a connecting rod as the combustion gases expand. Combustion engines operating according to this principle may function in two cycles or four cycles, such as Otto and diesel engines. The efficiency of these engines is, however, very low.
It is the underlying purpose of the invention to provide a combustion engine having a higher efficiency.


A drive force control method for a four-wheel drive vehicle including a torque distributing mechanism capable of changing a drive force distribution ratio between front and rear wheels and a drive force distribution ratio between right and left front wheels or between right and left rear wheels. This method includes the steps of increasing the drive force distribution ratio of the rear wheels to the front wheels according to an increase in absolute value of a lateral G signal, and increasing the drive force distribution ratio of a turning outer wheel as one of the right and left front wheels or one of the right and left rear wheels to a turning inner wheel as the other. A lateral G sensor signal is corrected by an estimated lateral G signal calculated according to a steering angle and a vehicle speed to obtain a control lateral G signal, which is used as the lateral G signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a control method for a four-wheel drive vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the case of turning a corner having a small turning radius in a four-wheel drive mode of a four-wheel drive vehicle in a low to medium vehicle speed range, a difference in rotational speed due to a difference in turning radius is generated between the front and rear wheels of the vehicle, causing a tight corner braking phenomenon. As the prior art for eliminating such a tight corner braking phenomenon, front and rear wheels driving devices are disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication Nos. 761779 and 764219.
The front and rear wheels driving devices disclosed in these publications have such a structure that a speed increasing device is provided between main drive wheels and auxiliary drive wheels to thereby adjust an average rotational speed of the auxiliary drive wheels to an average rotational speed of the main drive wheels. This speed increasing device includes a lockup clutch and a speed increasing clutch, which are selectively switched between ON and OFF states to thereby obtain a lockup condition or same speed condition where the average rotational speed of the main drive wheels and the average rotational speed of the auxiliary drive wheels are substantially equal to each other or an increasing speed condition where the average rotational speed of the auxiliary drive wheels is greater than the average rotational speed of the main drive wheels.
Particularly in the front and rear wheels driving device disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 7-61779, a torque distribution ratio between right and left rear wheels are controlled according to a vehicle speed and a steering angle so that the rear wheel torque is larger than the front wheel torque and the turning outer wheel torque is larger than the turning inner wheel torque. In this front and rear wheels driving device, the auxiliary drive wheels are increased in rotational speed by the speed increasing device in turning a corner having a small turning radius in the four-wheel drive mode, thereby preventing the tight corner braking phenomenon.
In the prior art described in the above publications, the lockup clutch and the speed increasing clutch of the speed increasing device are selectively switched between ON and OFF states to thereby obtain the lockup condition (same speed condition) or the increasing speed condition. However, measures against shock occurring in switching between the lockup condition and the increasing speed condition are not sufficient.

Control method for four-wheel drive vehicle


According to an embodiment of the invention, a mobile communication terminal device comprises: an information memory unit configured to store a first information and a security information indicating whether the first information is secret; a backup request memory unit configured to store a first request for backing up identification information of the first information and the first information, or a second request for deleting a second information identified by the identification information with which the first information is stored in the backup device; a transmitting unit configured to transmit the first request or the second request based on the information stored in the backup request memory unit; and a management unit configured to store the identification information of the first information and the first request, if the first information of which the security information indicates that the first information is not secret is stored in the information memory unit.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a mobile communication terminal device, and more particularly, to backing up information stored in a device.
2. Description of Related Art
Information such as address lists, schedules, memo pads, and electronic mails is stored in an information memory unit of a mobile communication terminal device. When a user of the mobile communication terminal device erroneously treats the information, for example, deletes or changes the information, a backing-up of the information in a server device is performed so as to restore the information to the state before the treatment. When the information stored in the mobile communication terminal device is changed, that is, added, modified, or deleted, the changed information is backed up in the server device and the information stored in the server device is maintained equivalent to the information stored in the mobile communication terminal device.
All the information stored in the mobile communication terminal device may be not backed up. Only a part of the information may be backed up in accordance with an instruction from the user of the mobile communication terminal device. For example, there is known a process of classifying information into two kinds depending upon the importance thereof and backing up only important information (see a description of JP-A-2004-40283 at page 8 and FIG. 7).

Fujitsu Toshiba Mobile Communications Limited


A manually propelled device includes two base modules having at least two wheels interconnected by a pedal element. The device is provided with at least four wheels which are parallel with each other. The pedal elements each interconnect two of the wheels and are fixed to the two interconnected wheels at points off-set from the centers of the two wheels. A shaft interconnects the centers of one of the wheels of each of the modules, thereby interconnecting the modules. Pedaling of the pedal elements by the feet of an operator serves to cause rotation of the wheels in a same rotating direction to propel the device in a selected linear direction.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
Such propelled devices operating according to the pedal crank principle, in which the pedal elements are arranged eccentrically with respect to the respective wheel centre-point and at least partially offset with respect to each other in the direction of the wheel circumference, are known as a kit system under the trademark "pedalo". A single propelled device in which three wheels running next to each other can be driven by two pedal elements arranged in between in each case serves as the basic element. In the context of the known pedalo system, this basic module may then be extended, for example, by addition of a second, rear single propelled device which is connected to the first propelled device via two footboards which are mounted in each case on two pedal elements lying in a line parallel to the direction of travel. A track widening may be further brought about in this double propelled device produced in this way by means of an add-on module. This comprises two wheels connected eccentrically via a further pedal element, one or each of which may be mounted onto the wheel outer side of a single or double propelled device. By using the imagination further possible combinations and forms may be devised, although on the basis of the said three-wheel and two-wheel modules they may soon find their limits. Furthermore, the three-wheel modules are relatively expensive to make, and assembly by means of building on further three- or two-wheel modules requires a great deal of complicated accuracy when making the component parts.
This therefore produces the problem on which the invention is based, that of creating a propelled device which can be manufactured with reduced outlay and can be assembled more accurately. The combination flexibility should be increased at the same time.

Propelled device with wheels and pedal elements


A flexible media transport system includes a director element having articulating tips that provide access to selected media paths. The director element(s) can be incorporated into a director module. Multiple director modules can then be combined into a highly flexible and reconfigurable media transport system. By implementing the joints between the articulating tips and the body of the director element such that a continuous surface is provided in the path of the flexible media, stubbing of the moving media can be avoided. The continuous-surface joint interface can be provided via flexible skins, monolithic articulating tip-director element structures, and preconfigured resilient plate structures, among others.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of flexible media handling, and in particular, to reconfigurable media path elements for use in media handling systems.
2. Related Art
Conventional paper transport systems, such as incorporated into printers and copiers, are typically custom-designed units. Each unit includes a heavy frame that defines one or more paper paths, and sets of pinch rollers that move sheets of paper through the paper paths. However, because prior art transport systems are custom designed to meet the differing needs of specific printing systems, field reconfigurability and programmable reconfigurability are generally not readily achievable.
Furthermore, to enhance paper-handling capabilities, it is desirable for a paper transport system to have redirecting capabilities that allow the paper transport system to transport different sheets of paper along different paper paths. Conventional paper transport systems typically use movable gates to provide this redirection capability.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,303,017, issued Apr. 12, 1994 to Smith, describes a gate-based redirection mechanism, as shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B. In FIGS. 1A and 1B, two horizontal baffles 111 and 112 define a first paper path 114, while a sheet diversion chute 113 defines a second paper path 115. Pinch rollers 121, 122, and 123 can then move sheets of paper through paper paths 114 and 115, based on the orientation of a diverter gate 130.
In FIG. 1A, diverter gate 130 is in a horizontal position, thereby allowing pinch rollers 121 and 122 to pass a sheet of paper through first paper path 114 in a transport direction 101. In FIG. 1B, diverter gate is rotated downwards (in a diagonal orientation), thereby blocking paper path 114 and allowing pinch rollers 122 and 123 to pass a sheet of paper through second paper path 115 in a transport direction 102.
In this manner, diverter gate 130 controls the paper transport direction in FIGS. 1A and 1B. However, as the speed and routing requirements placed on paper transport systems increase, elements such as diverter gate 130 can limit paper transport capabilities.
Specifically, the "joint" of diverter gate 130 (i.e., the region where diverter gate 130 makes a movable interface with the frame (baffle 111)) creates a surface discontinuity in the paper path. This discontinuity limits the reliability and performance of the transport system by creating a location at which the edges of paper sheets can catch or stub, particularly if the sheets are curled or have flaws such as "dog ears". This stubbing problem is exacerbated as the speed of the paper transport is increased.
Note that while diverter gate 130 can sometimes be shaped to reduce the effects of the surface discontinuity in one direction, the joint will typically not be suitable for paper transport in the reverse direction. For example, in FIG. 1A, the tapered profile of diverter gate 130 presents a relatively non-stubbing paper path 114 in transport direction 101, attempting to move paper in the opposite direction would result in stubbing at joint A.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a system and method for creating highly configurable and high-performance paper transport systems which eliminate the causes of stubbing and jams.


The invention discloses an LED driving circuit and a controlling method thereof, comprising a power switch and a current sampling unit, as well as a voltage comparison unit for comparing the voltage obtained by the current sampling unit with a first reference voltage; an input voltage sampling unit for converting the sampled input voltage into a current signal; a timing unit for controlling the off-time of the power switch or presetting a fixed off-time; a logical unit for controlling the power switch by means of a power switch driving unit and for controlling the timing switch in the timing unit. The method for controlling the LED driving circuit comprises the step of modulating the off-time of the power switch with the input voltage or the step of presetting a fixed off-time. The invention can be used in LED light cluster driving with the power factor greater than 0.95.

With large power LEDs being widely used in lighting and illumination, power-type LED driving circuits are increasingly important. Additionally, the luminous intensity of an LED, which is a current-type semiconductor light emitting device, is determined by the current flowing through the LED. Therefore, a power supply, which provides a constant current for driving LEDs, is in earnest demand.
Currently, two kinds of methods are commonly used for driving LEDs by means of electric mains (220 V or 110 V alternating-current supplies). One is to take advantage of RC voltage drop. In this case, the efficiency is so low that supplying electricity to an LED of 1 W will consume power of 4-6 W in the grid; and the power factor is extremely low, up to about 0.2, which not only causes heavy pollution to the grid, but also significantly reduces the lifetime of LEDs. The other is to employ a conventional AC/DC switch power supply with a constant voltage to supply electricity. In this case, the efficiency is about 70% and the power factor about 0.6. Due to its bulkiness, the brightness consistency of LEDs used in batches is poor. In addition, EMI (ElectroMagnetic Interference) is severe, and thereby causes heavy pollution to the grid.
To solve the problems described above, a HV9910 Universal High Brightness LED Driver is now commercially available, which has the circuit as shown in FIG. 1. It is designed to convert a high voltage source (AC85-265V after rectification, or DC8-450V) into a constant current source for supplying electricity to high brightness LEDs in series or series-parallel connections. HV9910 controls pulse width modulation (PWM) with the peak current having a constant frequency, which uses small inductors and external switches to minimize the loss of LED drivers. Unlike a conventional PWM controller, it employs a simple on/off control to adjust the LED current, thus simplifying the design of the controlling circuit.
As compared with a conventional LED driver, such a HV9910 driver has many advantages, such as simple design, lower cost, high efficiency (up to 93% or higher) and convenient control, etc. However, it employs pulse width modulation (PWM), which demands an accurate network compensation design for the sampled feedback signals obtained from power circuits. Parameters of such a compensation loop are affected by IC internal parameters, parameters of power circuits and layout and distribution parameters of printed circuit boards. Hence, as the operating frequency increases, such a design becomes increasingly difficult. It not only causes the increase of the costs for IC itself and peripheral components, but also causes the decrease of the stability of mass production. Additionally, the power factor of such a HV9910 driver is also extremely low. Only by introducing an inactive power correction circuit (as indicated by the circuit in a dashed box of FIG. 2) in circuits employing HV9910 when the input power of an LED driver does not exceed 25 W, can the power factor be improved. Even so, its power factor can only be raised up to 0.85.

LED driving circuit and controlling method thereof


Embodiments of the invention reduce the peak consumption current of a disk drive and that of its application system, and to minimize the limitation of the consumption current so that the performance deterioration of the disk drive and its application system is minimized. In one embodiment, a monitor terminal is provided to enter the pre-regulated output voltage of the voltage constant power supply. The disk drive is controlled so as to suppress the currents consumed by individual sections in the disk drive if the monitored voltage falls to a predetermined reference voltage.

The present invention relates to magnetic disk drives, optical disk drives and other information recording and reproducing apparatus and their application systems. In particular, the invention is applicable to an information recording and reproducing apparatus which employs batteries as its power source and is operated mainly to read out information.
Recently, high density recording technology has remarkably developed and advanced in magnetic disk drives, optical disk drives and the like. Information recording and reproducing apparatus now in practical use include those which can store more than several or several ten gigabytes with media of as small as 25 to 45 mm in diameter. Making use of the compactness and large capacity, these information recording and reproducing apparatus are widely used in portable application systems including portable computers, portable music players and portable video viewers. Many of these application systems depend on either alkaline manganese and other primary batteries or Ni—Cd, Ni—MH, Li-ion and other secondary batteries as their power sources. However, these batteries have not yet reached a satisfactory level in terms of capacity (continuously dischargeable electric energy) giving the electric energy required to satisfy the demand for longer continuous operating time periods. The most direct solution for reducing the power consumed by an information recording and reproducing apparatus and its application system is to lower the maximum power consumption of each functional block by making its energy consumption more efficient. To make the energy consumption more efficient, it is necessary to, for example, make each component smaller and lighter, miniaturize the circuit, lower the operating voltage and change the principle of operation. By these methods, however, it is difficult to immediately and remarkably reduce the power consumption.
Therefore, application systems of information recording and reproducing apparatus employ such a feature that if any access has not occurred to an information recording and reproducing apparatus over a relatively long time period or if no access is likely to occur for a relatively long time period, the information recording and reproducing apparatus is forced into a low power consumption mode such as a standby mode or sleep mode. Power consumption by an information recording and reproducing apparatus in such a low power consumption mode is suppressed to about tenth of that in an active mode such as an active idle mode or read/write mode. Therefore, as the low power consumption mode period increases with respect to the active mode period, the average power consumption by the information recording and reproducing apparatus and the total average power consumption by its application system can be reduced increasingly. If the total average power consumption by the application system is reduced, it is consequently possible to make the power supply section smaller and lighter or extend the continuous operation time per battery exchange or charge.
However, when the information recording and reproducing apparatus returns to an active mode (becomes active again) from a low power consumption mode, its total power consumption greatly exceeds that in the active mode since respective functional blocks simultaneously consume power to initialize them and start mechanisms. Although the aforementioned feature can reduce the average power consumption of the system, it has posed a problem in that an operational impact is given to the information recording and reproducing apparatus and its application system when the mode returns to an active mode from a low power consumption mode. That is, even when the power supply has a current supply capacity enough to sustain the active mode, the information recording and reproducing apparatus may increase the consumption current beyond the capacity when upon reactivation. In this case, due to the output impedance of the power supply, the input power supply voltage to the information recording and reproducing apparatus may greatly fall and make the system unreliable. For example, the system may stop, go out of control and improperly issue the reset signal. Also if the power supply uses a battery, it may be judged wrongly due to the instantaneous fall of the power supply voltage that the battery is exhausted despite the amount of discharge yet lower than prescribed. In this case, the system may be stopped without being reactivated. The direct method to solve these problems is to reduce the output impedance of the power supply by enlarging the output capacity of the power supply. However, enhancing the power supply output merely to solve the problem of current supply during reactivation is remarkably disadvantageous in terms of system cost. In the case of a portable apparatus which mainly uses a battery as the power source, it is necessary to use a larger battery, which not only raises the system cost but also deteriorates the portability due to the enlarged size and increased weight of the system. Therefore, this method has not become an effective solution. In addition, when the battery is rapidly discharged to activate or reactivate the information recording and reproducing apparatus, the battery instantaneously generates heat within the battery cells due to the internal resistance. This deteriorates the energy retrieval efficiency and may degrade the cyclability of the battery, which is disadvantageous in terms of system maintenance cost.
Techniques have been disclosed as solutions for these problems. A first prior technique is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2003-189676 "DISK DRIVE AND SPINDLE MOTOR CONTROL CIRCUIT". According to the disclosure, a capacitor is charged by a counter electromotive force which occurs in the motor when the motor is stopped. When the motor is next started, the energy accumulated in the capacitor is supplied to the rotation speed control circuit in order to reduce the power supply current. A second prior technique is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 6-119708 "OPTICAL DISK DRIVE AND ITS APPLICATION DEVICE". According to the disclosure, the current supplied to the spindle motor is limited when the power consumption increases to peaks, namely when the spindle motor is restarted and when the rotation speed is changed from a steady speed. A third prior technique is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2003-173638 "DISK STORAGE DEVICE AND MOTOR CONTROLLING METHOD". According to the disclosure, if it is detected by the CPU via the current sensor that the current spent by the spindle motor of the disk storage device is larger than a predefined value when the spindle motor is started, the current supplied to the voice coil motor is limited by the CPU to within a predefined maximum value in order to reduce the current supplied to start the disk storage device. A fourth prior technique is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2000-323219 "DISK STORAGE DEVICE AND SPINDLE START CONTROL METHOD USING FOR THE SAME, AND RECORDING MEDIUM ON WHICH THE CONTROL PROGRAM IS RECORDED". According to the disclosure, the microprocessor always monitors the current consumed by drives in the disk array. If the consumed current is detected increasing beyond a threshold while a spindle is being started, starting the spindle is temporally canceled so that the current consumed by the physical disks is controlled to within the threshold. A fifth prior technique is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 1998-69702 "VOLTAGE ABNORMALITY DETECTING CIRCUIT OF MAGNETIC DISK DRIVE". According to the disclosure, a voltage abnormality detecting circuit compares threshold voltage Vth with power supply voltage Vcc supplied to the magnetic disk drive. If the power supply voltage Vcc is below the threshold voltage Vth, the voltage abnormality detecting circuit outputs an abnormality signal to the main control unit in order to prevent the device from destructing data and malfunctioning. A sixth prior technique is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2003-242673 "OPTICAL DISK RECORDING AND REPRODUCING APPARATUS AND METHOD". According to the disclosure, there is provided means for monitoring the power supply voltage to the recording circuit. If the voltage is below a preset value during recording, the recording is halted or done intermittently. Continuous recording is not done until the voltage recovers in order to prevent wrong data recording.

Information recording and reproducing apparatus with power supply voltage monitoring function

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Netherlands B.V.


A method for location-based notifications, the method including receiving a request for a notification from an input device. A current location of the input device is determined in response to the receiving. A reminder location is set responsive to the current location of the input device determined in response to the receiving. On a periodic basis, a new current location of the input device is determined and compared to the reminder location. A notification is provided if the new current location is within a proximity threshold of the reminder location.

The present disclosure relates generally to electronic notification systems, and more particularly, to providing location-based notifications.
Various devices exist to aid individuals in the organization and reminder of tasks to be performed. For example, personal notes and post-its placed on refrigerator doors, calendars, and the like, help to remind individuals of tasks to be accomplished. Schedule books and personal organizers also help individuals keep track of time-sensitive tasks and appointments. If electronic calendars and organizers are used, users may be electronically notified via the device's alarm or notification process when it is time to carry out a particular task or appointment.
If a task is not time-sensitive, individuals often place such a task in a separate to-do list. Typical tasks entered into a non-time-sensitive to-do list include, for example, buying a particular article at a particular store, stopping by the bank, going to the post office, going to the dry-cleaner, and running other types of errands. Whether such a to-do list is maintained manually or electronically, the individual must make an effort to check the list in order to not forget a particular task that needs to be accomplished. Failure to check the to-do list at a particular time and be reminded of the task might cause inefficient management of the individual's time. For instance, an individual who is heading to the grocery store might forget to stop by the bank which is on the way to the grocery store. This might cause the individual to waste additional time to retrace his or her steps to make the visit to the bank, or to forego this task completely. In either case, the individual has made ineffective use of his or her time.
Another issue has to do with the individual having to create a to-do list and planning an execution sequence ahead of time. This is not always practical as an individual might remember that dry cleaning is ready to be picked up when driving by the dry cleaning store. It might not always be practical for the individual to stop, and as such, the individual may desire to add the dry cleaning stop to his or her to-do list. As an example, a parent driving a child to a soccer practice may pass the dry cleaning store and make a mental note to stop and retrieve some suits that were recently dropped off at the dry cleaning store. The parent cannot stop immediately because of the more time-pressing task of dropping the child off at the soccer field in time for the start of soccer practice. After dropping off the child, the parent may or may not remember to retrieve the suits on the return trip. It would be desirable for the parent to be able to easily request a notification, or to add a to-do list item to a task list, that would provide a reminder to pick up the suits the next time that he or she is in the vicinity of the dry-cleaning store.


Methods are disclosed for improving output image quality and reducing processing time in digital halftoning systems. The direction of processing each scan line of a source image is selected with blue noise, rather than the tradional raster scan sequence, to reduce directional and start-up anomalies. Source image pixel gray values are adjusted by means of imposed matrices, prior to error diffusion, in order to minimize distracting patterns and other anomalies in the output image. Error diffusion threshold values are modulated with blue noise, and the average threshold value reduced to reduce start-up delay. Finally, error terms in the error diffusion process are diffused according to a new three-weight filter. The three-weight filter substantially reduces error diffusion processing time, without sacrificing output image quality when used in combination with the modulated error diffusion threshold values.

Digital image data must be transformed or preprocessed so that computer display terminals with various gray level capacities, laser printers, dot matrix printers, ink jet printers, etc, all having various resolutions and aspect ratios, will all render an image represented by the image data in a similar way. A preprocessor associated with or configured for each such device transforms the digital data to a form tailored to the characteristics of that particular device.
Digital Halftoning is a key component of such a preprocessor. This term refers to any process that creates the illusion of continuous-tone images from careful arrangement of binary picture elements, such as ink drops in the case of ink jet printers. The process is also called spatial dithering.
One of the problems with known halftoning techniques is transient behavior near edges or boundaries. This also may be referred to as "start-up delay," and is evident where the first portion of an image to be processed has a very low gray value. Since several of the initial pixels have gray values lower than the error diffusion threshold value, no dots are fired for a time. A first dot will be fired after the accumulated error exceeds the threshold value. The need remains for a halftoning technique that minimizes or eliminates start-up delay transients.
Another common problem with known halftoning techniques is directional hysteresis due to the raster order of processing. This is particularly apparent in very light and very dark patterns. The normal (unidirectional) raster processing order also exacerbates start-up delay anomalies. A "serpentine" or boustrophedonic raster has been suggested to break-up the directionality of a normal raster without the expense of a full two-dimensional buffer. Since neighborhood operations generally buffer image data in full lines, a serpentine raster process does not require increased memory over a normal raster. Nonetheless, a serpentine raster order can itself introduce visible patterns or anomalies which would not otherwise be present in the rendered image. The need remains therefore for reducing or eliminating anomalies that result from the conventional raster ordered processing.
Known error diffusion techniques are computationally intensive and therefore time consuming. For example, even the relatively simply Floyd and Steinberg technique requires, for each pixel, calculation of four separate error terms, weighted according to the filter, and then adding those error terms to the four corresponding neighboring pixels. Other error diffusion filters require processing a greater number of terms, for example, the twelve error terms required by the Stucki filter. The need remains, therefore, for error diffusion in a manner that creates a high quality output image while minimizing processing time.
Another problem with known halftoning methods are the unsightly patterns, clusters and "worm" anomalies that appear in a rendered image in areas where the source image is of constant gray value or nearly so. While some patterns are unobtrusive and an element of subjective judgment is involved in any case, the need remains nonetheless for improved output image quality in halftoned systems.

Imposed weight matrix error diffusion halftoning of image data


A liquid crystal display device (100) according to the present invention is provided with a liquid crystal display panel (10) and a backlight device (50) which emits light toward the back surface (10r) of the liquid crystal display panel. The backlight device comprises: an LED substrate (21) that has a front surface (21s) on which a plurality of LED chips (22) are arranged so as to emit excitation light toward the back surface of the liquid crystal display panel; a phosphor layer (25) which contains a phosphor (25q) that emits fluorescent light upon reception of the excitation light; a wavelength selective reflection layer (28) which is arranged between the phosphor layer and the LED substrate, and wherein the transmittance of the excitation light is higher than the transmittance of the fluorescent light; and an optical layer laminate (30) which is arranged on the liquid crystal display panel side of the phosphor layer. The optical layer laminate, the phosphor layer and the wavelength selective reflection layer are affixed to the back surface of the liquid crystal display panel in an integrated manner, with a plurality of adhesive layers including a first adhesive layer (40a) being interposed therebetween.

Many liquid crystal display apparatuses that are currently commercially available have a backlight device including a plurality of LEDs. For example, the plurality of LEDs are divided into a plurality of regions, and only the LEDs of regions where illumination light is needed are lit, or each region is adjusted to the brightness needed therein. Such a method for driving the backlight is referred to as split drive, partial drive, area dimming or local dimming. Employing the split drive method, it is possible to improve the brightness contrast ratio of between light and dark areas of the liquid crystal display apparatus.
In recent years, liquid crystal display apparatuses that are compatible with high dynamic range (hereinafter referred to as "HDR") have been on the market in order to improve the display quality of display apparatuses.
Moreover, liquid crystal display apparatuses that suppress color non-uniformity by employing a remote phosphor configuration and using a dichroic filter, as described in Patent Document Nos. 1 and 2, have been researched as liquid crystal display apparatuses compatible with UHD Premium standard (color reproduction: 90% or higher of BT2020 standard, HDR10 standard).

Liquid crystal display device having liquid display panel and backlight device emitting light toward back surface of liquid crystal display panel, and method for producing same


A light converging optical system (1) includes a surface-emission light source (11) that emits light from a light emitting surface (12), a collimator lens (13) as a collimator optical system that converts the light emitted from the light emitting surface (12) into approximately parallel light, a condenser lens (4) as a converging lens as a light converging element that converges the light converted into the approximately parallel light, and an integrator rod (7) as a light-intensity-distribution equalizing element that has an incident surface (8) on which the light converged by the condenser lens (4) is incident, equalizes light intensity distribution of incident light, and emits the light from an emission surface (9). Among the light converged on the incident surface (7) of the integrator rod (7), a converging angle of the light converged on a center portion of the incident surface (8) is smaller than a converging angle of the light converged on a corner portion of the incident surface (8).

Conventionally, a lamp light source has been mainly used as a light source of a projection-type image display apparatus. However, the lamp light source has a disadvantage of short lifetime. Therefore, a surface-emission light source such as a light emitting diode (LED) having a longer lifetime is recently used in replacement of the lamp light source. Light emitted from a monochromatic color LED has a narrow wavelength band. Therefore, a wide color reproduction area can be obtained by using LEDs of red (R), green (G) and blue (B) in combination.
In order to enhance light use efficiency, Patent Document 1 discloses an illumination optical system using LEDs of R, G and B having rectangular light emitting surfaces. Light emitted from arbitrary points on the respective light emitting surfaces is parallelized by collimator optical systems, and combined by a dichroic mirror. The combined light is converged by a converging lens on an incident surface of an integrator rod. The illumination optical system forms a light source image of the LED (i.e., an image of the light emitting surface) on the incident surface of the integrator rod at a predetermined magnification.
Further, in an application of an odd-shaped display such as an extremely horizontally oblong display, there are cases where an aspect ratio of the light emitting surface and an aspect ratio of a screen shape of the display are different from each other. In such a case, the light source illuminates an area of the image display element whose aspect ratio is different from that of the light emitting surface, and therefore loss of light quantity occurs.
Then, Patent Document 2 proposes a configuration in which a toric lens is provided in a light path of the illumination optical system of the projection type image display apparatus so as to change the aspect ratio of the light emitting surface of the light source.

Light converging optical system and projection-type image display apparatus


A dielectric ceramic composition which can be sintered at such a temperature of about 800 to 1000° C. as to permit incorporation of and multilayer formation with a low resistant conductor such as Ag or Cu by the simultaneous sintering with the low resistant conductor, which is sintered to form dielectric ceramics having a dielectric constant εr of not more than 10, and a resonator having a large Q×f0 value and an absolute value in temperature coefficient τf of resonance frequency f0 of not more than 20 ppm/° C., the value being easy to be controlled. The dielectric ceramic composition contains a glass component in an amount of 5 to 150 parts by weight based on 100 parts by weight of a main component represented by general formula: aZnAl2O4-bZn2SiO4-cTiO2-dZn2TiO4, in which the molar fractions of respective components a, b, c, and d satisfy 5.0≦a≦80.0 mol % 5.0≦b≦70.0 mol %, 5.0≦c≦27.5 mol %, 0≦d≦30.0 mol % (a+b+c+d=100 mol %) The main component may also be represented by aMg2SiO4 -bZn2Al2O4 -cSiO2 -dCaTiO3 -eZn2SiO4.

In recent years, along with a rapid development of communication networks, frequency range to be used for the communication is extended to cover high-frequency region such as microwave region or millimeter wave region. With regards to the dielectric ceramic composition for high frequency, it is demanded that a dielectric resonator using dielectric ceramics obtained by sintering the dielectric ceramic composition has a large unloaded Q-value. Further, the dielectric ceramic composition for high frequency is demanded to have a small absolute value in temperature coefficient τf of resonance frequency f0. On the other hand, as the dielectric constant εr of the dielectric ceramics is larger, a microwave circuit or millimeter wave circuit can be more reduced in the size. However, in terms of high-frequency region corresponding to microwave region, when the dielectric constant εr becomes too large, the circuit is excessively reduced in the size, with the result that high processing precision is demanded. Therefore, a material having a small dielectric constant εr is required.
As the dielectric ceramic composition for manufacturing a dielectric resonator having a large Q-value and a small absolute value in temperature coefficient τf of the resonance frequency f0, BaO—MgO—WO3-base material (refer to JP(A)-6-236708 (paragraph number [0033] on page 11, tables 1 to 8)), MgTiO3—CaTiO3-base material (refer to JP(A)-6-199568 (paragraph number [0018] on page 5, tables 1 to 3)), and the like have been proposed. However, the dielectric constant εr of the dielectric ceramics obtained from the above ceramic compositions exceeds 10. Hence, the dielectric ceramic composition from which dielectric ceramics having a lower dielectric constant can be manufactured is demanded.
Forsterite (Mg2SiO4) and Alumina (Al2O3), which have relatively small dielectric constants εr of 7 and 10 respectively, are known as the dielectric ceramic composition from which a dielectric ceramics excellent in high-frequency characteristics can be manufactured. However, the temperature dependency (τf) of resonance frequency is large on the minus side (−60 ppm/° C.), so that an application to such uses as the dielectric resonator and dielectric filter where the temperature dependency needs to be small is limited.
In recent years, laminated ceramic parts formed by laminating dielectric ceramics, such as a laminated dielectric resonator, a laminated dielectric filter, or a laminated dielectric substrate have been developed and the lamination by the simultaneous sintering of a dielectric ceramic composition and an internal electrode is being performed. However, the above-described dielectric ceramic compositions have a difficulty in performing the simultaneous sintering with the internal electrode because of their high sintering temperature of 1300° C. or more and therefore, for forming a lamination structure, material of the internal electrode is limited to an expensive high-temperature resistant material such as platinum (Pt). For this reason, there has been demanded a dielectric ceramic composition capable of performing the simultaneous sintering with the internal electrode at a low temperature of 1000° C. or less, using as the internal electrode material silver (Ag), Ag—Pd, Cu and the like, which are low resistant and inexpensive conductors.
As the dielectric ceramics having a small dielectric constant and capable of performing the sintering at a low temperature, ceramics comprising a ZnAl2O4 crystal, an α-SiO2 crystal, a Zn2SiO4 crystal, and a glass phase is known (refer to JP(A)-2002-338341 (paragraph number [0050] on page 10, table 4, etc.)). This material is a printed circuit board material including the glass phase and, therefore, a mechanical strength is stressed in it. However, the Q-value of the resonator is not sufficient for a high-frequency dielectric ceramics. Further, there is no description about the temperature coefficient τf of resonance frequency f0 in the above publication.
In addition, as the dielectric ceramics having a small dielectric constant and capable of performing the sintering at a low temperature, a ceramics comprising SiO2, Al2O3, MgO, ZnO, and B2O3, where crystalline phases of ZnO and Al2O3, crystalline phases of ZnO and SiO2, crystalline phases of MgO and SiO2, and amorphous phase of SiO2 or amorphous phases of SiO2 and B2O3 are present together is known (refer to JP(A)-2002-53368 (paragraph number [0053] on page 5, table 2, etc.)). This material is a printed circuit board material including the glass phase and, therefore, a mechanical strength is stressed in it. However, the Q-value of the resonator is not sufficient for high-frequency dielectric ceramics. Further, there is no description about the temperature coefficient τf of resonance frequency f0 in the above publication.

Dielectric ceramic composition, dielectric ceramic, and laminated ceramic part including the same


A water distiller includes a raw water chamber for storing raw water, a main vaporization tank coupled with the raw water chamber for vaporizing raw water, a condensation device coupled with the main vaporization tank for condensing steam from the main vaporization tank, and a distilled water chamber communicated with the condensing conduit unit for accepting and storing distilled water. An auxiliary vaporization tank is communicated with the main vaporization tank and is mounted on the top end portion of the main vaporization tank. Each of the main and auxiliary vaporization tanks has a generally conical top wall which has a lower end portion that is provided with an annular water collecting groove formed in the inner surface thereof. Each of the water collecting grooves has a bottom wall which has a discharge opening formed therethrough. Each of the discharge openings is coupled with the condensation device so that distilled water and steam, which are formed in the main and auxiliary vaporization tanks, can flow from the main and auxiliary vaporization tanks and into the condensation device through the discharge opening.

1. Field of The Invention
This invention relates to a water distiller, more particularly to a water distiller which has an improved distilled water collecting system so that the water distiller can be operated efficiently.
2. Description Of The Related Art
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, a conventional water distiller, which has a double cooled system, includes a distilled water chamber (11), an air-cooled chamber (12) which has a fan (121) installed therein, a water-cooled chamber (13) which is filled with water, a vaporization chamber (14) which is coupled with a water supply (not shown), and a conduit (15) which extends through the water-cooled chamber (13) and the air-cooled chamber (12) and which is communicated with the distilled water chamber (11) and the vaporization chamber (14). The vaporization chamber (14) includes a water-level controlled valve (141) connected operatively to the vaporization chamber (14) so as to control the amount of raw water flow into the vaporization chamber (14) from the water supply, and a heating device (142) installed electrically in the vaporization chamber (14) for heating the raw water in the vaporization chamber (14) to form distilled water steam. The distilled water steam flows out of the vaporization chamber (14) and into the conduit (15) so as to pass through the water-cooled chamber (13). When the steam passes through the water-cooled chamber (13), heat exchange is effected between the steam in the conduit (15) and the water in the water-cooled chamber (13) in such a manner that a large portion of the steam is condensed so as to form distilled water in the conduit (15). The distilled water and the residual steam then pass through the air-cooled chamber (12). When the residual steam passes through the air-cooled chamber (12), the residual steam is condensed in the conduit (15) so as to form distilled water by the action of the fan (121) in the air-cooled chamber (12) which blows outside air over the outer surface of the conduit (15). The distilled water chamber (11) accepts and stores the distilled water which flows out of the conduit (15). Furthermore, a controlling valve (111) is connected operatively to the distilled water chamber (11) and is coupled with the heating device (142) in such a manner that the controlling valve (111) can activate the heating device (142) of the vaporization chamber (14) so as to repeat the above-described steps when the water level of the distilled water chamber (11) drops to a predetermined level.
The drawback of the above-described conventional water distiller is that a portion of the distilled water steam, which is generated in the vaporization chamber (14), will touch the horizontal top wall of the vaporization chamber (14) so as to be condensed to form distilled water drops on the horizontal top wall of the vaporization chamber (14). Those distilled water drops will fall into the raw water in the vaporization chamber (14) and is vaporized again, thereby resulting in an inefficient operation of the water distiller.


A voltage sensor includes an insulator with mutually insulated electrodes embedded therein. The electrodes are coaxial and cylindrical and overlap axially along part of their lengths. They are mutually staggered and control the surfaces of electric equipotential such that there is a substantially homogeneous electric field outside the insulator and a substantially homogeneous but higher field within a sensing cavity within the insulator. A field sensor is arranged within the sensing cavity to locally measure the field. This design allows for the production of compact voltage sensors for high voltage applications.

In the following description, publications referenced herein are identified with bracketed numbers (e.g., [1]) which refer to the list of references identified in the List of References following the description. Optical high-voltage sensors often rely on the electro-optic effect (Pockels effect) in crystalline materials such as Bi4Ge3O12 (BGO) [1]. An applied voltage introduces a differential optical phase shift between two orthogonal, linearly polarized light waves propagating through the crystal. This phase shift is proportional to the voltage. At the end of the crystal, the light waves commonly interfere at a polarizer. The resulting light intensity serves as a measure for the phase shift and thus the voltage.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,904,931 [2] and U.S. Pat. No. 5,715,058 [3] disclose a sensor in which the full line voltage (up to several 100 kV) is applied over the length of a single BGO crystal [1]. A method used to retrieve the applied voltage from the resulting modulation pattern is described in [4]. An advantage is that the sensor signal corresponds to the true voltage (that is, the line integral of the electric field along the crystal). However, the electric field strengths at the crystal are very high. In order to obtain sufficient dielectric strength, the crystal is mounted in a hollow high-voltage insulator made of fiber-reinforced epoxy filled with SF6 gas under pressure for electric insulation. The insulator diameter is sufficiently large to keep the field strength in the air outside the insulator below critical limits.
In EP 0 316 635 [5], a sensor is disclosed where the applied voltage is approximated by multiple local electric field measurements using piezoelectric sensing elements such as the ones described in more detail in EP 0 316 619 [6]. With proper choice and orientation of the piezoelectric crystals, only one component of the electric field is measured and thus the sensitivity to external field perturbations is reduced. A similar concept has been described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,140,810 [7]. Here, however, the individual piezoelectric sensing elements are equipped with field steering electrodes and connected with electric conductors such that full integration of the electric field is performed. Dividing the voltage among several crystals reduces the peak electric fields such that a slim insulator is sufficient to provide the required dielectric strength.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,252,388 [8] and U.S. Pat. No. 6,380,725 [9] disclose a voltage sensor which uses several small electro-optical crystals mounted at selected positions along the longitudinal axis of a hollow high-voltage insulator. The crystals measure the electric fields at their locations. The sum of these local field measurements serves as an approximation of the voltage applied to the insulator. Here, the field strengths at a given voltage are significantly lower than with the design of [2] and insulation with nitrogen at atmospheric pressure is sufficient. However, since the sensor does not measure the line integral of the field but derives the signal from the field strengths at a few selected points between ground and high voltage, extra measures (permittivity-shielding or resistive shielding) to stabilize the electric field distribution are necessary to avoid excessive approximation errors [9].
A drawback of the above concepts is the requirement of an expensive high-voltage insulator of large size. The outer dimensions are similar to the ones of corresponding known inductive voltage transformers or capacitive voltage dividers. Thus, the attractiveness of such optical sensors is limited.
Refs. [10] and [11] describe an electro-optical voltage sensor of the type as in [2, 3], but with an electro-optic crystal embedded in silicone. A hollow high-voltage insulator of large size and SF6-gas insulation is thus avoided. As in [7], the voltage may be partitioned on several crystals.
When only a fraction of the total voltage is measured, more compact integrated sensor arrangements can be used. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,029,273 [12].
Various techniques used to extract the electro-optic phase modulation from the measured signals are known. As described above, the technique used in [4] relies on the applied voltage exceeding the half-wave voltage of the electro-optic crystal. Moreover, a signal at quadrature or some other means to achieve a non-ambiguous output is required. An advantage of this technique is that the light can be guided from the light source to the sensor crystal using standard single-mode (SM) or multi-mode (MM) fibers—i.e. no polarization-maintaining (PM) fibers are needed. The polarizers required to obtain the linear polarization for the measurement can be incorporated into the sensing element. Likewise, the return fiber to the detector can be a non-PM fiber.
For voltages much lower than the crystals' half-wave voltage, another polarimetric technique is published in [13]. This technique is particularly suitable for measurements using local field sensors. These sensors only measure a fraction of the total line voltage much smaller than the voltages measured with full integration.
A technique for the retrieval of the electro-optic phase shifts based on non-reciprocal phase modulation is known from fiber-optic gyroscopes [14] and has also been described for fiber-optic current sensors [15]. It has been adapted for use with piezo-electric and electro-optic voltage sensors [16, 17]. It is particularly suitable for small phase shifts, but in general requires the use of PM fibers for the link between an optical phase modulator—generally located near the light source and detector—and the sensing element positioned in the high voltage insulator.
Another concept is known from high-voltage bushings. There is often a need in high-voltage systems to pass high-voltage conductors through or nearby other conductive parts that are at ground potential (e.g., at power transformers). For this purpose, the high-voltage conductor is contained within a feed-through insulator. The insulator contains several layers of metal foil concentric with the high-voltage conductor and insulated from each other. By appropriately choosing the length of the individual cylinders of metal foils, the distribution of the electric field within and near the bushing can be controlled in such a way that a relatively homogeneous voltage drop from high-voltage to ground potential occurs along the outer surface of the bushing [18, 19].

High-voltage sensor with axially overlapping electrodes and local field sensors


A loss of a power source for a bus is detected. Responsive to detecting the loss of the power source, a voltage is generated on the bus using an uninterruptible power supply (UPS). A generator is transitioned to a desired output state concurrent with generating the voltage on the bus using the UPS. The generator is coupled to the bus responsive to the generator attaining the desired output state. The UPS may be used to provide power to a load connected to the bus while the generator is in transition. For example, detecting the loss of the power source may be preceded by operating a converter of the UPS coupled to the bus as a rectifier and generating the voltage on the bus using the UPS may include operating the converter of the UPS as an inverter.

The invention relates to power systems and methods and, more particularly, to power systems and methods employing generators.
Power systems for facilities may serve critical, life safety and other types of loads that require high availability. A typical power system for such a facility, therefore, may include an auxiliary generator, such as a diesel-powered engine-generator set, which may supply power to these loads when a primary power source, such as a utility source, fails.
Referring to FIG. 1, a typical power system may include an input breaker 40a configured to couple a load bus 30 to a utility power source 10. Respective breakers 40d, 40e, 40f are used to couple and decouple life safety, essential and non-essential loads 80b, 80c, 80d to and from the load bus 30. Another breaker 40c is configured to couple and decouple a generator 60 to and from the load bus 30. A UPS 50 is coupled and decoupled to and from the load bus 30 by another breaker 40b, such that it may receive power from the utility power source 10 or the load bus 30 depending on the state of the input breaker 40a. In the illustrated system, the UPS 50 is an on-line UPS including an input rectifier 52 having its output coupled to an output inverter 54 by a DC link. The inverter 54 provides AC power to a critical load 80a. A battery 56 is coupled to the DC link and may supply power to the inverter 54 when the AC power delivered to the rectifier 52 fails. A bypass switch 58 may be used to bypass the rectifier 52 and inverter 54. A controller circuit 70, which may include circuitry physically distributed among the various components of the power system, controls operations of the breakers 40a-40f and the generator 60.
Typically, in response to a loss of utility power, the load bus 30 of the system is disconnected from the utility source 10 and the life safety, essential and non-essential loads 80b, 80c, 80d are disconnected from the load bus 30. The engine of the generator 60 is started and accelerated and a field voltage applied to the rotor field windings to regulate the output voltage. The generator 60 typically remains disconnected from the load bus 30 until the generator 60 achieves an output voltage and frequency within acceptable limits. Loads may be selectively connected to the load bus 30 after the generator 60 stabilizes the load bus 30.
Thus, the time required to bring such a generator fully on line may include time required to detect the outage, time required to decouple the load bus from the utility source, time to disconnect the loads from the load bus, time to bring the generator up to an acceptable voltage and frequency, time to connect the generator to the load bus and time to connect loads to the load bus. These operations may take on the order of several seconds, which may negatively affect the availability of certain loads.

Power systems and methods using an uniterruptible power supply to transition to generator-powered operation


A receipt receives an electronic message from a sender, wherein said electronic message comprises at least one suggested folder name specified by the sender for the recipient to select as a folder name for filing the electronic message, wherein the at least one suggested folder name is detected by a sender computer system from a selection by the sender within a user interface of the sender computer system of the at least one suggested folder name for the electronic message and inserted into the electronic message. The electronic message is filtered to detect the at least one suggested folder name for filing the electronic message in a messaging filing directory. Responsive to the recipient selecting to file the electronic message, the electronic message is filed in at least one folder with the suggested folder name from among a plurality of folders.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to improved messaging systems and in particular to improved filing of electronic messages within messaging systems. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to filtering the folders in a filing system to present the user with a suggested selection of folders for filing a particular electronic message.
2. Description of the Related Art
The use of electronic mail (e-mail) and other electronic messaging and communications, such as instant messaging, has expanded rapidly over the last few years. Typically, an e-mail application, such as Lotus Notes, provides a user interface between the user and an e-mail server that sends and receives e-mail via a network, such as the Internet.
E-mails, like other data files, often need to be categorized and filed for later retrieval. Thus, many e-mail applications will include a directory structure of files for storing e-mails. Users are typically enabled to add and name folders within the directory structure and then move e-mails into the different folders.
A disadvantage of current e-mail filing systems is that as the number of folders in a directory structure increases, more and more time is required for a user to locate a particular folder and select to place an e-mail in that folder. Further, a disadvantage of current e-mail filing systems is that a user must take time to determine which folder to place an e-mail in. A user may have multiple folders that an email could potentially be placed in or may need to create a new folder to store the e-mail. Either way, eventually, filing the e-mail away in a folder may become so time consuming that any benefit of later locating the e-mail by its folder location is diminished.
In addition to e-mail, other types of electronic messaging can be saved and filed. For example, a participant in an instant messaging session may save and file the session. However, just as e-mail filing systems are currently limited, so are filing systems for other types of electronic messaging where locating the appropriate filing folder can be time consuming.
Therefore, in view of the foregoing, there is a need for a method, system, and program for automating the folder creation and filing process for e-mail and other electronic messages. In particular, there is a need for a method, system, and program for automatic location and presentation of suggested folders for filing a particular electronic message. Further, there is a need for a method, system, and program for automatic creation of a folder and filing an electronic message in the newly created folder based on a folder name suggestion by the sender of the electronic message.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Automated electronic message filing system

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


A communication device includes a communication circuit capable of switching a reception or a transmission of a desired frequency signal through an antenna. The circuit includes an oscillator that oscillates a first frequency signal according to the desired frequency signal at a receiving time, a first divider that outputs a second frequency signal obtained by dividing the first frequency signal into two, a second divider that outputs a third frequency signal obtained by dividing the second frequency signal into two, a first mixer that mixes the reception signal received through the antenna and the first frequency signal and outputs an intermediate frequency signal, a second mixer that mixes the intermediate frequency signal and the third frequency signal and outputs a baseband signal, a third mixer capable of mixing the output from the first divider and the output from the second divider, and a filter circuit that eliminates a signal component of the frequency of an output signal from the third mixer from the reception signal at the receiving time.

This disclosure relates to a communication device and more particularly, to a communication device including a communication circuit.
When receiving a desired frequency signal, in a communication device including a communication circuit, an interference wave signal (noise) superimposed on or coupled to the received signal (noise) has to be eliminated (refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. Hei 7(1995)-38453).
In the above Patent Publication, there is proposed a method of detecting the frequency of an interference wave and generating the frequency signal of the detected interference wave, to eliminate the interference wave signal.

Communication device and its control method


A detection apparatus for light-emitting diode chip comprising a substrate with the function of photoelectric conversion and a probing device is disclosed. The substrate is designed to bear at least one light-emitting diode chip. The probing device comprises a power supply and at least two conductive elements. The two ends of the conductive elements are respectively electrically connected to the light-emitting diode chip and the power supply to enable the light-emitting diode chip to emit light beams. Some of the light beams are emitted from the light-emitting diode chip toward the substrate such that the light beams emitted by the light-emitting diode chip are converted into an electric signal by the substrate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a detection apparatus, and particularly, to a detection apparatus for detecting a light-emitting diode chip.
2. Description of the Related Art
Due to the technology improvements and the elevation of life quality, modern people pay more and more attention to illumination. From the ancient illumination measures of burning material, such as fire torches, vegetable oil lamps, candles, and kerosene lamps, of using electricity, such as incandescent lamps and fluorescent lamps, to the modern light-emitting diode (LED), it all shows that illumination plays an important role in people's ordinary life.
By combining the electrons and electronic holes, light-emitting diode emits light to provide illumination or alerting. Compared with the traditional light sources, the light-emitting diode has the advantages of high light-emitting efficiency, long service life, robust, fast response time, etc. In recent years, due to the great promotion of governments and the increasing scale of the light-emitting diode street lamps in cities, using light-emitting diode as the illumination source is available everywhere.
Generally, a probe device is used to test the luminous efficiency of the light-emitting diode chips. The probe device provides a power source through the probe pins to enable a light-emitting diode chip to emit light beams, and the light beams are then collected by a light-sensing device of the probe device such that the luminous efficiency of the light-emitting diode chip could be determined. However, when using the probe device, the complication and the detection time of detecting the light-emitting diode chip are increased because user has to select an appropriate light-sensing device to detect the luminous efficiency of the light-emitting diode chip, and in practically operated, user has to adjust the opposite position between the light-sensing device and the light-emitting diode chip to achieve the object of collecting light completely. Besides, the light loss would be caused owing to the light refraction of the pathway of the light beams passing from the chuck to the light-sensing device such that the accuracy of detecting the luminous efficiency of the light-emitting diode chip is influenced.

Detection apparatus for light-emitting diode chip


A method of manufacturing a display device to improve the quality of a polycrystal silicon upon dehydrogenating and polycrystallizing an amorphous silicon at the outside of a display region of a substrate, by forming a plurality of pixels having TFT devices using an amorphous silicon in the display region of the substrate, and forming a plurality of driving circuits having semiconductor devices using a polycrystal silicon at the outside of the display region, the method including irradiation of a first continuous oscillation laser only to the amorphous silicon in the region for forming the driving circuit and the peripheral region thereof to conduct dehydrogenation and then irradiation of a second continuous oscillation region only to the dehydrogenated region to polycrystallize the amorphous silicon, wherein the region to which the first continuous oscillation laser is irradiated is wider than the region to which the second continuous oscillation laser is irradiated.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a manufacturing method of a display device and it particularly relates to a technique effective to application for a manufacturing method of forming a driving circuit having semiconductor devices on the outside of a display region including an assembly of pixels having TFT devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Existent liquid crystal display devices having liquid display panels in which a liquid crystal material is sealed between a pair of substrates include active matrix type TFT liquid crystal display devices. The active matrix type TFT liquid crystal display device is used generally, for example, as displays of television receivers or personal computers (PC) and display areas for mobile telephone terminals or personal digital assistances (PDA).
In a liquid crystal display panel used for the active matrix type TFT liquid crystal display device, a plurality of scanning signals lines, a plurality of video signals lines, TFT devices, pixel electrodes, and the like are disposed on one of substrates.
Generally, in an existent liquid crystal display device, a flexible circuit substrate such as TCP or COF mounted with a driver IC for inputting video signals (sometimes also referred to as gradation data) to the plurality of video signal lines or a driver IC for inputting scanning signals to the plurality of scanning signal lines is connected to the liquid crystal display panel, or each of the driver IC is mounted directly on the liquid crystal display panel.
Further, in recent years, a liquid crystal display panel in which a driving circuit having a function equivalent with that of the driver IC (peripheral circuit) is formed to the outside of the display region of a substrate formed with the scanning signal lines (hereinafter referred to as a TFT substrate) is proposed for instance.
The driving circuit formed to the outside of the display region of the TFT substrate is mainly constituted with semiconductor devices such as transistors or diodes and the electrodes for each of the semiconductor devices are formed upon forming the scanning signal lines or the video signal lines, and the semiconductor layer of the semiconductor device is formed upon forming the semiconductor layer of the TFT device (channel layer) of the display region. For the semiconductor layer of the TFT device formed in the display region of the TFT substrate, an amorphous silicon (a-Si) or a polycrystal silicon (poly-Si) is used for instance.
By the way, polycrystal silicon is used preferably for the semiconductor layer of the semiconductor device in the driving circuit in view of the operation characteristics. In this case, a method of polycrystallizing the entire surface of an amorphous silicon on a substrate by dehydrogenating amorphous silicon by a heat treatment, and irradiating and scanning a pulse laser such as an excimer laser to the dehydrogenated amorphous silicon while displacing the same stepwise little by little so as to be irradiated by plural times for one position.
Further, JP-A-2002-158173 and JP-A-2002-64060, for example, disclose a method of hydrogenating an amorphous silicon by using a laser beam instead of heat treatment. In JP-A-2002-158173, dehydrogenation is conducted by a first excimer laser and polycrystallization is conducted by a second excimer laser. Further, in JP-A-2002-64060, a pulse laser beam is bisected and dehydrogenation is conducted by a preceding beam and polycrystallization is conducted by a beam succeeding thereto.
Further, although not intended for dehydrogenation, JP-A-Hei-6-61172 discloses of conducting annealing by two lasers of different energy density in relation with the use of the two lasers. A pulse layer or a continuous oscillation laser is used for the two lasers.
Further, JP-A-Hei-8-129189 discloses a method of polycrystallization only in the driving circuit portion instead of polycrystallization over the entire surface of an amorphous silicon. In JP-A-Hei-8-129189, upon constituting the pixel with hydrogenated silicon and the driving circuit with polycrystal silicon, one pulse laser is used, the energy of the pulse of the laser light is increased stepwise and crystallization is conducted while dehydrogenating the hydrogenated amorphous semiconductor only in the driving circuit portion.
In a case of manufacturing a TFT substrate using an amorphous silicon for the semiconductor layer of a TFT device in a display region and using a polycrystal silicon for the semiconductor layer of a semiconductor device in a driving circuit to the outside of the display region, while it is preferred to use a hydrogenated amorphous silicon as the amorphous silicon in view of the characteristics, since bumping occurs upon irradiation of a laser unless dehydrogenation is conducted upon polycrystallization, it is necessary for partial dehydrogenation only for the driving circuit portion.
However, since the partially dehydrogenated region and the crystallized region completely coincide to each other in JP-A Nos. 2002-158173 and 2002-64060, and 8-129189, in a case where the position for irradiation is displaced upon irradiation of a laser for conducting crystallization, the laser for crystallization may possibly be irradiated to the not dehydrogenated region at the boundary between the hydrogenated region and the not dehydrogenated region and, as a result, bumping may possibly occur.
While dehydrogenation is not described in JP-A No. Hei 6-61172, since the two laser irradiation regions coincide to each other, it is considered that a similar problem may occur in a case of intending application to the hydrogenation and the crystallization.
Further, the pulse laser is a laser intermittently emitting (generating) a light at a time interval. Accordingly, in a case of melting and crystallizing an amorphous silicon into polycrystals by irradiation of the pulse laser, this results in a problem that the size of individual granular crystals is small to form a number of crystal grain boundaries. As a result, it results in a problem that the carrier mobility is low in the TFT device of the driving circuit, failing to obtain sufficient transistor characteristics.
The present invention intends to provide a technique capable of improving the quality of a polycrystal silicon upon dehydrogenating and polycrystallizing an amorphous silicon at the outside of a display region of a substrate.
The invention further intends to provide a technique capable of improving the manufacturing efficiency of a TFT substrate using an amorphous silicon for a semiconductor layer of a TFT device in a display region and using a polycrystal silicon for the semiconductor layer of the semiconductor device of the driving circuit at the outside of the display region.
The foregoing and other objects and novel features of the present invention will become apparent in view of the descriptions of the present specification and the accompanying drawings.