Systems and methods for providing garments with improved and customized fits to one or more target consumer groups fit are described in the present invention. One method provides for a garment fit to a target consumer group comprising the steps of determining common body types for the target consumer group, establishing customized body measurement standards for each body type, selecting at least one real fit model for each body type, creating a sample garment in a range of sizes using grading rules, checking each sample garment on a fit model selected for each size and body type, preparing a block for each sample garment size and body type, and using the block to provide a garment fit for a target consumer group. Additional aspects are also disclosed.

The present invention relates to systems and methods for designing and producing apparel, particularly apparel designed and produced for one or more target consumers based on new and improved fit specifications.
Apparel fit problems continue to plague consumers, retailers and apparel companies—pants that are too short, a dress that droops about the shoulders, a waist that is too big, shorts that sag in the rear or bunch up between the legs. For consumers, fit problems negatively impact their retail shopping experience, level of apparel spending and brand satisfaction. The cost to apparel companies and retailers is tangible as well as intangible: high rates of returned merchandise, lost potential sales, and brand equity erosion. Even for those apparel brand owners who believe they have solved the fit problem for a "target consumer," there is a high loss in revenue when a consumer leaves with only a single pair of pants because only one out of five pairs fit properly. Returns on women's apparel are estimated to be approximately 10–12% of sales. According to a 2002 study, more than 25% of these returns are due to inconsistent or incorrect fit. Store front retailers process nearly $5 billion in returned merchandise each year. Catalog and eCommerce apparel returns range from 33–35% with the largest single reason for return being "poor fit."
Currently, apparel fit specifications are based on an industry sizing standard established in the 1940's by The American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM). This standard has never been updated or revised. Thus, it has become obsolete as body sizes and physiognomy of the any target population has evolved over the last half century. Today, for example, ASTM standard specifications can only provide off-the-rack fit for roughly 13% of women aged 35–55. Apparel companies have been forced to apply their own insights to "tweak" fit specifications, and have achieved only a limited amount of success. In addition, companies now apply "vanity sizing" to many apparels, such that larger sized clothing are labeled with smaller sizes. Together, this has resulted in the dilution of size standards which has only increased consumer confusion, while failing to deliver appreciable improvements in fit.
Apparel fit and sizing are top concerns for apparel brands and retailers worldwide. Based on a recent survey, 62% of consumers say they can't find clothes that fit well; 57% say their body shape won't fit into today's standard sizes; 51% say manufacturers don't make clothes for real bodies. Importantly, fit should include size and design preferences for each specific population, because of the preferred differences exhibited by younger people as compared with middle aged or elderly persons and among ethnic groups. As such, unlike current systems, body cathexis (self body image) must be considered along with body measurements in order to develop a satisfactory fit among targeted populations.
A clear need exists for an improved and more modern industry standard for designing and producing apparel that will provide a better fit for off-the-rack apparel and will dramatically reduce product returns, accelerate sales performance, and increase consumer confidence and loyalty.

Systems and methods for improved apparel fit


A technique for reducing radio frequency signal navigation errors in systems such as Loran-C and the like, comprising the use of an orthogonally crossed pair of antenna windings on a ferrite cross, tuned to the carrier radio frequency to generate from the received signals both in-phase and quadrature circulating current components, and providing for the eliminating only of the quadrature current components.

While more generically applicable, cross-loop antennas have been finding increased popularity in radio navigation applications, such as Loran-C pulse radio location and tracking systems.
The Loran-C magnetic cross-loop type of antenna consists of four coils wound in two orthogonal pairs on a ferrite cross as described in the above-mentioned patents, and as hereinafter shown in FIG. 1.
Without tuning, the Loran-C H-field generates voltages of the same phase across the four coils and of amplitudes depending upon the angular orientation of the cross-loop antenna with respect to the H-field. These induced voltages do not cause any navigation position errors.
To increase the signal strength, however, these coils are usually tuned to the Loran-C frequency ωc by means of capacitors shunting the coils. When the coils are so tuned to the carrier frequency, however, circular currents are generated in the four tuned circuits, and these currents have both in-phase and quadrature components. The quadrature current components, moreover, cause a shift in the antenna current zero crossings and consequently cause deleterious navigation position errors. Such errors must be eliminated in order to make such a loop antenna useful in applications such as in radio signal navigation. The present invention is directed to the effective elimination of such quadrature current components and such errors with simple apparatus.

Method of and apparatus for eliminating quadrature-generated signals in magnetic cross-loop antennas


Graphical elements in a user interface (UI) may be detected in robotic process automation (RPA) using convolutional neural networks (CNNs). Such processes may be particularly well-suited for detecting graphical elements that are too small to be detected using conventional techniques. The accuracy of detecting graphical elements (e.g., control objects) may be enhanced by providing neural network-based processing that is robust to changes in various UI factors, such as different resolutions, different operating system (OS) scaling factors, different dots-per-inch (DPI) settings, and changes due to UI customization of applications and websites, for example.

Robotic process automation (RPA) allows automation of the execution of repetitive and manually intensive activities. RPA can be used, for example, to interact with software applications through a user interface (UI), similar to how a human being would interact with the application. Interactions with the UI were typically performed by an RPA application using application programming interface (API) calls to a function that returns a set of coordinates (i.e., a "selector"). The RPA application can then use this information to simulate a mouse click of a button, for example, that causes the target application to act as if the user had manually clicked on the button.
Per the above, in a typical RPA implementation for native computing systems, the selectors work using the underlying properties of the graphical elements of the UI to identify graphical elements in the application (e.g., buttons, text fields, etc.). However, this technique breaks down when trying to automate the same software in VDEs, such as those provided by Citrix®, VMWare®, VNC®, and Windows® (Windows® Remote Desktop). The reason for the breakdown is that VDEs stream an image of the remote desktop in a similar manner to how video streaming services do. There are simply no selectors to be identified in the images (i.e., "frames") of the video. The RPA application thus cannot make an API call to determine the location of a graphical element to be provided to the application, for example. Attempts have been made to solve this challenge using optical character recognition (OCR) and image matching for VDE scenarios. However, these techniques have proven to be insufficiently reliable and have caused maintenance issues since even minor changes in the UI tend to break the automations.
Computer Vision™ (CV) by UiPath®, for example, solves this problem by using a mix of artificial intelligence (AI), OCR, text fuzzy-matching, and an anchoring system. A CV model identifies the specific graphical elements in the image. This provides more accurate identification of graphical elements, such as text fields, buttons, check boxes, icons, etc.
To recognize graphical elements, AI algorithms, such as Faster Region-based Convolutional Neural Network (R-CNN), may be used. See, for example, Shaoqing Ren et al., Faster R-CNN: Towards Real-Time Object Detection with Region Proposal Networks, arXiv:1506.01497v3 (submitted Jun. 4, 2015). Faster R-CNN passes images of the target application interface through a ResNet with dilated convolutions (also called atrous convolutions) that output feature maps or tensors (i.e., a smaller image with 2048 channels). These feature maps are further passed through another neural network a region proposal network (RPN) that proposes thousands of possible rectangles where a graphical element of interest is believed to potentially have been found, as well as guesses with respect to what regions are believed to be graphical elements as a list of coordinates. The feature maps are grids and there are proposals (also called anchors) for each square on the grid. For each anchor, the RPN provides a classification. Further, there is a graphical element match score between 0 and 1 and a regression part indicating how far an anchor would need to be moved to match a particular graphical element. In other words, the RPN outputs regions where it thinks it found graphical elements, as well as what these graphical elements are believed to potentially be and associated probabilities.
With these proposals, many crops are made from the feature tensors output from the backbone ResNet. In these large feature tensors, feature dimensions are cropped. Cropped boxes are then passed again through a few layers of the CNN, which can output a more precise location and class distribution. Such Faster R-CNN 100 for graphical element detection is shown in FIG. 1.
However, due to this repeated cropping, certain smaller graphical elements may not have a representative pixel by the end of the process. For instance, passing a 2048×1024 input image through a ResNet backbone that produces a feature map with 2048 channels with a standard stride of 32 that reduces dimensionality by a factor of two each time, a 10×10 checkbox, for example, would not have a representative pixel by the end of the ResNet process. Also, changes to resolutions, operating system (OS) scaling factors, dots-per-inch (DPI) settings, and changes due to UI customization of applications and websites, for example, are difficult to accommodate using current techniques. Accordingly, an improved UI element detection approach may be beneficial.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Detecting user interface elements in robotic process automation using convolutional neural networks


A process for removing contaminants from a waste gas stream comprises treating the waste gas stream to remove at least one of SO2 and NOx and to obtain a lean stream having a reduced level of at least one of SO2 and NOx and, contacting the lean gas stream with a mercury absorbent solution comprising permanganate to remove mercury vapour and to obtain a mercury lean stream and a mercury rich absorbent solution. The mercury rich absorbent solution may be subsequently treated on a batch basis to remove precipitated manganese dioxide and obtain a solution containing mercury ions.

Many processes have been developed to capture gaseous pollutants, such as carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides (NOx) from industrial process streams. One such method comprises the use of an absorbent to selectively absorb one or more gases from a feed gas stream. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,019,361 and 5,262,139, the disclosure of each of which is hereby incorporated by reference, each disclose an absorbent for recovering sulphur dioxide from a waste gas stream. Co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/459,519, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses an absorbent for absorbing carbon dioxide from a waste gas stream. Co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/902,134, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference, discloses an absorbent for recovering NOx from a waste gas stream.
According to Zhao et al, Hg Absorption in Aqueous Permanganate, AlChE Journal, Vol. 42, No. 12, December 1996, pp 3559-3562, aqueous acidic permanganate has been known to be an effective solvent for elemental mercury vapour since 1956. Zhao et al discloses that aqueous acidic permanganate is also a suitable absorbent for NO. However, except for use the use of acidic permanganate impinger solutions to capture mercury vapor for analyzing gas samples, to the knowledge of the inventors, no commercial process has been developed that utilizes permanganate,
Permanganate has been used in absorption processes as corrosion inhibitors. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,440,731 (Pearce) relates to corrosion inhibiting compositions for use in aqueous absorbent gas-liquid contacting process, and in particular, the removal of carbon dioxide from industrial combustion gasses using a solution containing an alkanol amine absorbent. The corrosion inhibiting compositions are used to reduce degradation of the absorbent under the conditions at which the absorbent was used and corrosion of the metals in contact with the absorbent solution during use. The corrosion inhibiting compositions comprise at least above 50 ppm of copper+2 and at least from 50 parts per million parts of solution one or more of dihydroxyethylglycine, an alkali metal carbonate, an alkali metal or ammonium permanganate and nickel and/or bismuth oxides which are added to the absorbent solution.
Different processes have been developed for the removal of mercury from flue gasses. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,719,828 (Lovell et al) discloses the use of a phyllosilicate substrate, for example vermiculite or montmorillonite, which acts as an inexpensive support to a thin layer for a polyvalent metal sulfide. The sorbent is prepared by ion exchange between the silicate substrate material and a solution containing one or more of a group of polyvalent metals including tin (both Sn(II) and Sn(IV)), iron (both Fe(II) and Fe(III)), titanium, manganese, zirconium and molybdenum, dissolved as salts, to produce an exchanged substrate. Controlled addition of sulfide ions to the exchanged silicate substrate produces the sorbent. The sorbent is used to absorb elemental mercury or oxidized mercury species such as mercuric chloride from a flue gas that contains oxidizable gases (e.g., SO2, NO, NO2, and HCl).
U.S. Pat. No. 6,790,420 (Breen et al) discloses a process for the removal of mercury from combustion flue gasses using oxidation. As stated in the abstract of Breen et al, "ammonia and optionally carbon monoxide are injected into the flue gas in a manner so that there are sufficient amounts of these materials in the flue gas, when the flue gas is at a temperature of from 900° F. to 1350° F., to oxidize the metals within the flue gas. The oxidized metals are then attracted to particulates present in the flue gas. These particulates bound with oxidized metals are removed from the flue gas by a particulate removal device such as an electrostatic precipitator or baghouse".
United States Patent publication 2002-0174646 (Sanders) discloses a method for reducing NOx and/or CO/CO2 emissions from the combustion of coal products or hydrocarbons. One or more curtains of particulate elemental iron, in the form of flakes or the like, are fanned across the combustion chamber and/or the exiting flue gas stream while it is still at high temperature. In a coal-fired furnace or boiler, particulate magnetite can be injected e.g. into a region just above the coal which will effectively sequester Hg and heavy metals at a location below a "rag layer" combustion zone in the vicinity of which iron is injected. Some iron may also adsorb mercury via "red iron" formation and be removed along with solid oxides, iron carbide and siderite via the ash chute of a boiler. Any particulates carried downstream in the flue gas stream are removed, prior to reaching the stack, by cyclones, scrubbers, precipitators or the like.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,482,536 (Ngai et al) relates to an apparatus for containing and scrubbing toxic or corrosive gases from a leaking pipe or cylinder utilizing a scrubbing media which, when it contacts the leaked gas, cleans or removes the harmful component, thus allowing release to the atmosphere of the cleaned air. In the case of a hydride gas, for example, arsine, germane, phosphine, hydrogen sulfide, hydrogen selenide, phosphine or organometallic mixtures, such as dimethyl zinc or diethyl telluride, the scrubbing media is preferably a high surface area carbon impregnated with oxides of copper or aluminum impregnated with potassium permanganate.
One disadvantage with the use of permanganate is that it is not regenerable once it has been used to capture mercury. Further, permanganate will absorb other oxidizable gases (i.e. NO or SO2) in a combustion gas stream.

Waste gas treatment process including removal of mercury


A combustion type power tool having a fan capable of providing a desirable turbulence in a combustion chamber. A fan is rotatably disposed in a combustion chamber and driven by a motor. The fan has fan blades each having a leading edge and a trailing edge. An angle of the leading edge relative to a rotational plane of the fan is approximately equal to an angle of the trailing edge relative to the rotational plane, whereby high degree of turbulence is generated from the position near the leading edge.

The present invention relates to a combustion-type power tool, and more particularly, to such a power tool enhancing combustion efficiency.
In a conventional combustion-type driving tool such as a nail gun, a gaseous fuel injected into a combustion chamber is ignited, and the combusted fuel is agitated by an axial fan disposed in a combustion chamber to promote combustion, so that gas expansion in the combustion chamber causes a linear momentum of a piston. By the movement of the piston, a nail is driven into a workpiece. Such conventional tool is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,483,280 and 5,197,646.
In the above-described conventional combustion type power tool, combustion speed is increased through the agitation by the fan. Here, turbulence can be improved and accordingly combustion speed is increased by the employment of the fan in comparison with a case where no fan is provided. However, the conventional fan has a configuration to generate a smooth flow. As a result, sufficient combustion speed has not been attained, and insufficient driving energy results.
During rotation of the axial fan, the most turbulent area of the combustion gas is located at a leading edge side of each fan blade in a rotating direction of the fan. However, in the conventional combustion type power tool, a distance between neighboring leading edges of the neighboring fan blades is too large due to the shortage of the number of fan blades. Consequently, relatively long time period is required for the ignited flame having been reached one leading edge side of the fan blade to reach the next leading edge side of the next fan blade even as a result of immediate start of combustion and expansion. Thus, combustion speed through an entire space of the combustion chamber may be lowered, to render the driving energy insufficient.


A download and data transfer gaming method utilizes a hybrid peer-to-peer, segmented file distribution protocol to vastly improve the download capabilities of a gaming system by improving the upload cost burdened by the download host. The method redistributes this cost to the download clients by allowing clients on the gaming system to upload pieces of a file to each other. This method is much more redundant by eliminating the possibility of a client missing a download broadcast. The method alleviates this possibility of missing packets and bad data integrity by using SHA-1 verification of the file pieces. The benefits of the improved bandwidth capabilities enable the download of much larger files, thus enhancing the game play experience.

Various networked gaming systems have been developed over the years beginning at least in the 1980's. With acceptance and utilization, users such as casino operators have found it desirable to increase the computer management of their facilities and expand features available on networked gaming systems. For instance, there are various areas in the management of casinos that is very labor intensive, such as reconfiguring gaming machines, changing games on the gaming machines, and performing cash transactions for customers. In such networked gaming systems, effective methods of transferring data are becoming increasing important.
The most common method by which files are transferred over networks is the client-server model. In this configuration, a central server sends the entire file to each client that requests it. Both HTTP (hyper text transfer protocol) and FTP (file transfer protocol) function in this manner. In the client-server model, the clients only speak to the server and do not speak to each other. A main advantage of client-server model is its simplicity to configure. Additionally, the files are typically always available since the servers usually are dedicated to the task of serving. As such, the servers are always on and connected to a network.
However, the client-server model encounters significant problems with data files that are large or very popular, or both. Otherwise stated, it requires a large amount of bandwidth and server resources to distribute such a data file, since the server must transmit the entire file to each client. Techniques such as mirroring and load balancing have been utilized in an attempt to address these shortcomings by distributing the load across multiple servers. Nevertheless, these techniques typically require a lot of coordination and effort to set up and are not always feasible.
Another method of transferring files is through peer-to-peer networks. Notable peer-to-peer networks include, by way of example only: Kazaa, Gnutella, Direct Connect, and the like. Typically, in such a peer-to-peer networks, ordinary users trade files by directly connecting one-to-one to other user's computers. An advantage of peer-to-peer networks is that files can be shared without having access to a proper server. Accordingly, there is little accountability for the contents of the files. Typically, a downloading user receives a file from a single source (e.g., another user in the peer-to-peer network).
In a peer-to-peer network, the bandwidth problem discussed above is somewhat mitigated since there is a greater chance that a popular data file will be offered by a larger number of peers. The breadth of files available tends to be fairly good in a peer-to-peer network, although the download speeds for more obscure data files tend to be lower. Another common problem sometimes associated with peer-to-peer network is the significant protocol overhead for passing search queries amongst the peers. As a result, the number of peers that one can reach is often limited. Additionally, partially downloaded files are usually not available to other peers. The availability of data files is generally dependent on the goodwill of the users, since rules and/or restrictions regarding send/receive ratios are difficult to enforce.
Another protocol that is designed for transferring files is BitTorrent. BitTorrent is a variation of a peer-to-peer network in which users connect to each other directly to send and receive portions of a file. However, unlike a true peer-to-peer network, BitTorrent does utilize a central server, which is referred to as a tracker, that coordinates the action of all peers in the network. The tracker only manages connections. The tracker does not have any knowledge of the contents of the files being distributed. Accordingly, a large number of users can be supported with relatively limited tracker bandwidth. A core functionality of the BitTorrent protocol is that users are able to upload (transmit outbound) at the same time they are downloading (receiving inbound). In this manner, network bandwidth is utilized with great efficiently. Interestingly, BitTorrent functions at an increasingly higher level of productivity as the number of people interested in a certain file increases, in contrast to other file transfer protocols.
In one exemplary situation, a group of five editors are sitting around a table who are each trying to get a complete copy of a document. The first editor announces that he has a first subset of the total pages. The third, forth, and fifth editors are each missing some of the pages in the first subset of the total pages. These editors coordinate such that the first editor gives the third, forth, and fifth editors the pages that they are missing. The second editor then announces that he has a second subset of the total pages. Some of the remaining editors are missing pages from the second subset of the total pages. These editors coordinate such that the second editor gives the other editors the pages that they are missing. The process continues around the table until everyone has announced what pages they have and what pages they are missing. The editors at the table coordinate to swap pages of the document until all the editors have all the pages of the document.
Continuing with this exemplary situation, there is also another person at the table who happens to be the author of the document. This author has a complete copy of the document, and thus, does not need any pages from the editors to be sent to him. The author responds to the editors with pages that none of the editors have at the table. In the beginning, all of the editors must talk to the author to get their first subset of total pages. To increase efficiency, the editors should each request and receive different pages from the author. Very quickly, all of the editors have most of the pages amongst themselves, even if no editor has the whole document. In this manner, the author can distribute the document to many editors, without having to give a full copy of the document to every editor. In contrast, the author distributes different pages of the document to different editors who are then able to share the document amongst themselves.
A connection link is choked when the BitTorrent client does not currently want to send anything on that connection link. A BitTorrent client signals that it is choked to other clients for a number of reasons, but the most common is that, by default, a client will only maintain a maximum number of active simultaneous uploads to requesting clients. The remaining requesting clients will receive the choked signal. The term interested refers to the state of a downloader with respect to a connection. A downloader is marked as interested if the other end of the link has any pieces that the client wants. Otherwise, the connection is marked as not interested. If a client has not received a data file after a certain period (e.g., default: 60 seconds), the client marks the connection as snubbed, meaning that the peer on the other end has chosen not to send in a while. The function of tracking this variable is to improve download speeds. Optimistic unchoking occurs when a client periodically shuffles its list of uploaders and tries sending on different connections that were previously choked, and choking the connections it was just using.

Download and data transfer gaming method


A method of measuring weight of the refrigerant recovered and a device for refrigerant recovery and recharge device is disclosed. A connection is established between the refrigerant recovery path and refrigerant recharge path. Refrigerant is filled in the refrigerant recovery path and the refrigerant recharge path. Once the refrigerant occupies the all components of the refrigerant recovery and recharge device, weight of the refrigerant storage tank is measured. The weight of the refrigerant storage tank is measured once before the recovery of the refrigerant from the refrigeration equipment and once after recovery of the refrigerant from the refrigeration equipment. Difference in the weights measured before recovery and after recovery is calculated to a get the amount of refrigerant recovered.

U.S. Pat. No. 7,174,742 discloses a device and method for the recovery of refrigerant from a refrigeration system using a refrigerant recovery and reclamation apparatus. The method uses weighing scales to monitor the weight of the refrigerant recovered. The weight of the refrigerant recovered in the refrigerant storage tank 18 is measured after the recovery of the refrigerant.

Method of measuring the refrigerant recovered and a refrigerant recovery and recharge device


This invention is a method allowing for interfacing high speed hard disk drives (ATA-HDD) in high throughput PIO modes to currently available digital media processors (DMP). The prescribed interface programs signals available in the DMP external memory interface (EMIF) functions to match the requirements of ATA-HDD PIO functions. Selected signal redefinition and minimal glue logic is employed to form a seamless link between the EMIF I/O of the digital media processor DMP and the ATA-HDD hard drive.

A variety of Texas Instruments digital media processors have been developed for digital cameras and the digital media players. These processors are designed for products requiring high data transfer throughput including portable media players (PMP).
One of the major functions of PMP is to play movies requiring mass storage in hard drives of extremely small physical size. The movie playback frame rate and resolution both depend on a high level of data transfer throughput between the PMP and the hard drive it accesses.
Digital movie data in portable media players is generally compressed in an MPEG4 format and utilizes mass storage in the range of many gigabytes. The movie playback frame rate and resolution depend on how effectively the processor can respond to data coming from the hard drive. Playback quality is a direct function of the level of throughput that the PMP player and its storage medium can offer.
Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) was created as a way to standardize the use of hard drives in computers with the hard drive and the controller combined. The controller is a small circuit board with semiconductor chips that guide how the hard drive stores and accesses data. Most controllers also include some memory that acts as a buffer to enhance hard drive performance.
Before IDE, controllers and hard drives were separate and often proprietary. Thus, a controller from one manufacturer might not operate properly with a hard drive from another manufacturer. The distance between the controller and the hard drive could result in poor signal quality and affect performance. IBM introduced the AT computer in 1984 with a several key innovations.
1. Additional slots in the computer for adding cards used a new version of the Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus. The new bus was capable of transmitting information 16 bits at a time, compared to 8 bits on the original ISA bus.
2. A hard drive designed for the AT computer was introduced using a new combined drive/controller. A ribbon cable from the drive/controller combination ran to an ISA card to connect to the computer, giving birth to the AT Attachment (ATA) interface.
3. In 1986 ATA standard drives were introduced. This drive/controller combination was based on the ATA standard developed by IBM. Vendors then began offering IDE drives. IDE became the term that covered the entire range of integrated drive/controller devices. Since almost all IDE drives are ATA-based, the two terms are used interchangeably.
Currently, an IDE hard disk may be configured to work in one of the five programmable I/O modes with a range of corresponding data transfer rates. Table 1 summarizes the mode designations of the five currently identified programmable I/O modes and their transfer rates.
TABLE 1Data RateAccess RatePIO Mode(Mbytes/sec)(nsec/access)PIO-03.3606PIO-15.2385PIO-28.3240PIO-311.1180PIO-416.6120The host digital media processor negotiates the desired data transfer rate with the IDE hard disk during initialization depending on the capability of the hard disk. Older hard disk drives may accommodate only one of the lower programmable I/O modes, but many newer hard disks can support all the transfer rates of Table 1. Likewise slower processors cannot access hard disks at the higher programmable I/O modes.
FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a host digital media processor (DMP) 100 and its interface in Prior Art to an ATA/IDE high-density drive media device 101 via a CFC True IDE Mode interface 102 built into the digital media processor 100. The ATA-IDE HDD controller 103 is shown separately to emphasize the presence of I/O registers crucial to HDD operation. Compact Flash Association specification rev. 1.4 dated 1998 defines the compact flash card (CFC), which allows for three major modes of usage: PC Card Memory Mode; PC Card I/O Mode; and CFC True IDE Mode.
The CFC True IDE Mode interface 102 built in to the digital media processor chip supports CFC card data transfers where each read or write access to the hard disk takes typically 255 nsec per word (slower than the programmable I/O-2 mode). Thus the use of the CFC True IDE interface requires that the digital media processor must set the hard disk to work at programmable I/O-1 mode rate where maximum throughput is 5.2 Mbytes per second. In CFC True IDE Mode, CFC True IDE interface 102 uses signals 104 derived from the DMP processor to drive the ATA/IDE HDD high density drive 101. Table 2 lists the signals for read cycle timing.
TABLE 2MinMaxItemSymbolnsecnsecData delay after IORD_ (212)tDdRD—100Data hold followingtDhRD0IORD_ (211)IORD_ width (208)twRD165Address setup beforetAsuRD70IORD_ (205)Address hold after IORD_ (206)tAhRD20CE_ setup before IORD_ (207)tCEsuRD5CE_ hold followingtCEhRD20IORD_ (209)
FIG. 2 illustrates descriptive waveforms of the read signals. These read signals include:
ADDR_valid (201) defines the time window for which addressing is valid;
CE_ 202 is a chip enable signal for read operations and is active low;
IORD_ 203 determines duration of READ cycle and is active low;
Data[15:0] 204 defines data read interval;
tAsuRD 205 is the address setup time prior to IORD_;
tAhRD 206 is the address hold after IORD_;
tCEsuRD 207 is the chip enable setup time prior to leading edge of IORD_;
twRD 208 is the pulse width of IORD_;
tCEhRD 209 is the chip enable hold time after trailing edge of IORD_;
tDsuRD 210 is the data setup time prior to trailing edge of IORD_;
tDhRD 211 is the data hold time after trailing edge of IORD_; and
tDdRD 212 is the data delay time after leading edge of IORD_.
Table 3 lists the signals for write cycle timing.
TABLE 3MinMaxItemSymbolnsecnsecData delay after IOWR_ (312)tDdWR—60Data hold followingtDhWR30IOWR_ (311)IOWR_ width (308)twWR165Address setup beforetAsuWR70IOWR_ (305)Address hold after IOWR_ (306)tAhWR20CE_ setup before IOWR_ (307)tCEsuWR5CE_ hold followingtCEhWR20IOWR_ (309)
FIG. 3 illustrates descriptive waveforms of the write signals. These write signals include:
ADDR_valid 301 defines the time window for which addressing is valid;
CE_ 302 is the chip enable signal for write operations and is active low;
IOWR_ 303 determines the duration of a WRITE cycle and is active low;
Data[15:0] 304 defines the data write interval;
tAsuWR 305 is the address setup time prior to IOWR_;
tAhWR 306 is the address hold after IOWR_;
tCEsuWR 307 is the chip enable setup time prior to leading edge of IOWR_;
twWR 308 is the pulse width of IOWR_;
tCEhWR 309 is the chip enable hold time after trailing edge of IOWR_;
tDsuWR 310 is the data setup time prior to trailing edge of IOWR_;
tDsuWR 311 is the data hold time after trailing edge of IOWR_; and
tDdWR 312 is the data delay time after leading edge of IOWR_.
FIG. 4 illustrates the ATA/IDE HDD controller 103 and associated registers 105 for extended memory interface (EMIF) addressing and control signals to the HDD I/O registers 105 of the prior art. Two types of data are involved in the HDD operation: (a) control data to direct operation from the HDD registers 105; and (b) information data to be stored. In initial operation of any read/write cycle, control data is transferred from the host to the HDD controller addressable registers 401 through 410. Then the ATA/IDE HDD controller 103 performs all of the operations necessary to properly write information data to, or read information data from the media. Information data 430 read from media device 101 is stored in device buffer 407 pending transfer to cache 106. In the write cycle, information data 430 is transferred from cache 106 to device buffer 407 to be written to media 101. ATA/IDE HDD controllers 103 using this interface are programmed by the host computer to perform commands and return status to the host at command completion.
Communication to or from HDD media device 101 is through host interface 400 to I/O registers 401 through 410 that route the input or output data to or from registers addressed by the signals from the host:                (CSO_, CS1_, DA[2:0], DIOR_, and DIOW_)All data written to any of the registers 401 through 410 pass from the host via input 430. Inputs 431 through 433 provide all the control signals described in conjunction with FIGS. 2 and 3.
Control block registers driven by HDD device control 421 and HDD data control 422 are used for device control and to post alternate status. These registers include: write control register 401; alternate status registers 402; and data register 407.
Command block registers are used for sending commands to the device or posting status from the device. These registers include: write command register 403; read status register 404; cylinder high register 405; cylinder low register 406; device/head register 409; error register 412; features register 413; sector count register 410; and sector number register 408.

ATA HDD interface for personal media player with increased data transfer throughput


A laundry washing machine agitator having a translucent area which facilitates visualization of the inner part of the agitator.

Laundry washing machines are household, commercial or industrial equipment widely employed to assist in the task of cleaning garments or fabrics in general, due to their practicality and time-saving features provided to the user.
Laundry washing machines are usually provided with a main cabinet, a washing basket and an agitator placed inside the washing basket.
The agitator comprises at least one base and an elongated body placed on said base, so that an alternate rotational movement of the agitator about a turning center promotes agitation of the washing liquid and causes the garments or fabrics placed inside the washing basket to be properly cleaned.
Agitation of the washing liquid and the promoted friction on the garments causes lint to be detached from the fabric being washed. The accumulation of lint and dirt inside the washing basket necessitated the development of filters which would be able to keep the washing liquid as clean as possible and thus prevent the fabrics at the end of the wash from retaining lint on their surface, which causes annoyance to users.
The most common way of assembling the lint filter in a laundry washing machine provided with a mechanical agitator is by means of housing the filter inside said agitator. An example of a laundry washing machine having a filtration system inserted into the agitator is disclosed by the document JPS60111692. This document discloses a mechanical agitator comprising orifices in its elongated portion and mounted inside a washing basket, in the liquid entering the inner area of the agitator, passing through the filtering element, and returning to the washing basket by the lower area of the agitator.
The technique disclosed by the document JPS60111692 is widely known and used in laundry washing machines, in particular because it does not require a pump to promote the filtering of lint and debris which have been detached from the washed garments and fabrics. As an example of this, document U.S. Pat. No. 2,976,711 is concerned with an improvement to a system analogous to that proposed by the document JPS60111692.
In the systems above, the lint filter accumulates a large amount of lint and debris after a long period of use. When this large accumulation occurs, it is necessary to remove and clean the lint filter so that the filtration is not impaired.
To inspect the level of dirt contained in the filter, and to clean the filter, the user must interrupt the operation of the laundry washing machine and remove the filter from the inside of the agitator.
However, in this constructive arrangement, the filter is accommodated in an area not visible to the user, which often does not note the existence of a filter mounted inside the agitator or does not remember to perform its periodic cleaning. Since this cleaning does not occur periodically, there is a poor efficiency in filter operation and, consequently, a worsening in the washing efficiency of the laundry washing machine, resulting in clothes coming out of the wash covered with lint, causing discomfort to the user.
At this point, it is noted that the Prior Art does not provide an effective means for alerting the user to the need to perform the cleaning of the filter, or only allowing the user to continuously view the operation and the existence of the filter within the agitator, in addition to allowing the continuous monitoring of the level of dirt retained by it.

Constructive arrangement applied to the agitator of a laundry washing machine


A cartridge position fixing arrangement within a tape drive reduces vibration of the cartridge by fixing the vertical positioning of the tape reel axles between top mounted retaining springs pressing directly onto the cartridge above the reel axles in opposition to the tape drive motors engaging lower ends of the reel axles for rotating the axles. Each hub axle is journaled with a relatively high force at a bearing that may be formed in the upper wall of the cartridge. A reel axle locking arrangement is provided which, when the cartridge is unloaded from the tape drive, locks the position of each reel axle and centers each reel axle properly for future engagement with motor spindles of the tape drive. In one embodiment, a planar engagement between each motor spindle and each reel axle is provided.

The present invention generally relates to magnetic storage devices and particularly to a method and apparatus for increased mechanical stability of a tape within its cartridge when locked in an operating position and also during handling, storage and shipping.
It is of crucial importance in linear recording that the magnetic head be precisely positioned relative to the magnetic tape. This is important both during writing, when the tracks are to be positioned according to a standardized track table that defines the exact position of each track, or during reading when the head has to be positioned exactly on the track in order to avoid interference from adjacent tracks to avoid read errors. Proper positioning avoids the need for electronic error correction or time-consuming re-read operations.
In order to exactly position the tracks during a writing operation, a reference position is needed so that the tracks are positioned relative to that reference. This reference may be a fixed point inside the drive. If the position of the cartridge as well as the position of the magnetic head are precisely located with respect to this point with a given tolerance, and the tape is referenced to the cartridge, i.e., precisely located with respect to the cartridge, an unambiguous correlation can be established between the magnetic head and the tape position. The problem with this method of positioning the head and the tape is that tolerance build-up reduces the accuracy by which the magnetic storage device is able to position the tracks during a writing operation.
To solve this problem, a commonly used method is to position the tracks relative to one of the edges of the magnetic tape. To determine the position of the tape edge, the magnetic tape device may measure the amplitude from the read head, at the same time as the magnetic head is stepped across a position where the tape edge is expected to be found. The position where the tape edge is calculated, based on that measurement, is then defined as a reference point.
Using this method, various tolerances are eliminated and the position by which the tracks may be positioned onto the tape is increased considerably. However, it is noted that the success of the described method, and the precision that is obtained in positioning of the tracks that are written onto the tape, will depend on the degree the position of the tape varies relative to the cartridge and also on the degree a cartridge may be locked into a fixed position relative to the magnetic head. These two factors are of great importance to allow an increase in track density and thus the ability to meet the demands of higher storage capacity.
Variations in tape position relative to its cartridge is dependent upon various factors, such as the precision of the tape guiding mechanism and the precision of the slitting process during manufacture of the tape. Another factor of importance is the mechanical stability of the tape hubs, as vibrations in these hubs can be transferred to the tape. The components in this vibration that are perpendicular to the direction of normal movement of the tape will be transferred from the hubs to the place where the magnetic head is located, although the amplitude of this vibration may be reduced through the guiding mechanism. Since the first harmonic rotation frequency of these components may be in the order of magnitude of 50-100 Hz, it is evident that the stability of the hubs is important for the stability of the tape position.
The most direct way of controlling the tape position in this respect is to stabilize the cartridge as close as possible to the place where the hubs are located, since this is the place in the cartridge where most of the mechanical energy of movement or momentum is encountered. A method in use today for stabilization of the hubs includes use of a spring that presses the hubs down against the base cover of the cartridge. However, the spring force used is typically not very large in order to limit the friction and thus heat generation within the cartridge. It is also relatively small compared to the forces that are produced as a result of the rotational movement by the tape hubs. Furthermore, the cartridge is fixed in positions that are typically far from the center of the tape hubs. That means that the cover that holds the tape hub in place is relatively free to move and which also means that the cover does not attenuate vibrations that are produced by the tape hubs in an efficient way.
FIG. 1 shows a tape cartridge 10 having a cartridge fixing location 12 between a first tape hub 14 and a second tape hub 16. The cartridge housing 18 above the tape hubs 14,16 is fixed at the fixing location 12 to the bottom cover 11 that, in turn, is fixed to the tape drive 13 at exposed portions 11a, 11b by fixing elements A,B,C,D, (shown schematically) for holding the portions 11a, 11b fixedly to the tape drive 13. Dashed lines 18a, 18b illustrate a vibrational mode of the cartridge housing, that allows the hubs 14, 16 to move in a vertical direction (indicated with arrow Y).
FIG. 5 illustrates a prior art driver geared spline 200 having male gears 202 inserted into a geared hub 210 having female gears 212, of a tape reel 214 which holds tape 216. In order to ensure sufficient engagement, the spline must be inserted a distance h2 into the geared hub 210. It would be desirable to reduce this distance h2 so that a more compact movement can be employed to engage and disengage drive spindles from reel hubs. According to these considerations, the mechanical design of the present art does not satisfy the special requirements in the field of linear recording for a highly stable mechanical design of the tape hubs and cartridge housing, that is necessary in order to obtain reduced variation of the tape position relative to the magnetic head and thus increased track density.

Method and apparatus for increased mechanical stability of a tape and cartridge


Biomass extracts with high protein and nutritional value and methods for making the same are disclosed. Such extracts may include cakes with low residual oil and high levels of desirable constituents and oils that require little to no downstream processing upon extraction from the biomass. Also includes methods of extracting desirable products from an oil bearing biomass.

Screw presses for, and methods of expelling oil from oil bearing material/solids are well known in the art. Such oil bearing material may include oil bearing seeds or fruits. The products resulting from these expelling products may include an oil and a defatted cake. Defatted flakes and cakes may also be produced by continuous solvent extraction using hexane. These process may require subsequent desolventizing via toasting. In addition to continuous hexane extraction, limited batch extraction methods are known, utilizing a variety of solvents, for producing edible defatted flakes.
As an example of an oil bearing material, raw, dehulled soybeans generally comprise 18% oil, 15% soluble carbohydrates, 15% insoluble carbohydrates, 14% moisture and ash, and 38% protein. Edible defatted flakes and cakes, an intermediate of bean processing, are the basis of many soy protein products, for example, soy cake, soy flour, soy milk, soy concentrates, soy isolates, and soy aqua feeds. The same range of improved products can be made from flakes and cakes derived from extracted soy germ rather than beans. High quality oils and cakes improve the nutritional value and other characteristics of a wide range of important products.

Biomass extracts with protein and nutritional value


A method of anonymously resolving Internet Protocol (IP) addresses using a distributed network includes defining a virtual geographic area that comprises a micro dynamic domain name server (MDDNS); wirelessly receiving at a central facility a geographic attribute of a telematics unit; determining at the central facility that the telematics unit is within the virtual geographic area using the received geographic attribute; and transmitting an IP address of a host telematics unit in the MDDNS to the telematics unit.

A large number of electronic devices communicate information via packetized data. This data may be sent and received using IP addresses that are assigned to the electronic devices and route packetized data. An IP address can be assigned to an electronic device and to send it data, the IP address can be resolved by a domain name server that correlates the name of the device with its assigned IP address. While the domain name server is typically thought of as resolving domain names into IP addresses, this type of server can also resolve other identifiers/names into IP addresses as well. For instance, an email address or telephone number can be resolved into an IP address using the domain name server model. IP addresses can be assigned to electronic devices both statically and dynamically. But regardless of whether the IP address is assigned statically or dynamically, a number of challenges exist with regard to domain name servers. For instance, assigning static IP addresses can be an inefficient use of available IP addresses because a device having a statically-assigned IP address may only actively use that IP address for a fraction of each day thereby wasting the use of that IP address for the remainder of the day. Similarly, dynamically assigning IP addresses calls for maintaining a dynamic domain name server that updates a domain name with a current IP address each time the IP address is dynamically assigned. Maintaining such a server can involve significant computer processing requirements.
Electronic devices are more frequently equipped with the capability to communicate wirelessly and as a result can be mobile. As the electronic devices move from one place to another, it can be difficult to maintain a centralized domain name server that can resolve IP addresses for these devices. This is especially true when mobile electronic devices include position-determining capabilities.

Resolving IP addresses in a wireless environment


A system for speech enhancement in a room having a directional lapel microphone arrangement for capturing an audio signal from a speaker's voice; audio signal processor for generating a processed audio signal from the captured audio signal, and an adaptive beamformer unit for imparting directivity to the microphone arrangement provides maximum sensitivity towards the speaker's mouth and minimum sensitivity towards noise sources identified by the beamformer unit. A unit shifts the frequency of components of the audio signal above a frequency threshold value only. A feedback cancelling unit has an adaptive filter and a selection unit which automatically switches between a first mode causing the audio signal to by-pass the adaptive filter and a second mode in which the audio signal is filtered by the adaptive filter. A loudspeaker arrangement generates sound according to the processed audio signal and has plural loudspeakers arranged to form a directional loudspeaker array.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a system for speech enhancement in a room comprising a microphone arrangement for capturing audio signals from a speaker's voice, means for processing the captured audio signals and a loudspeaker arrangement located in the room for generating amplified sound according to the processed audio signals.
2. Description of Related Art
By a system of the above-mentioned type, a speaker's voice can be amplified in order to increase speech intelligibility for persons present in the room, such as the listeners of an audience or pupils/students in a class room. Such speech enhancement systems often encounter feedback problems, especially when used with lapel microphones (when the speaker is moving around in the room, feedback conditions are always changing, the minimum stable gain must be selected leading to poor intelligibility; on the other, hand feedback cancellers reduce the intelligibility when in feedback condition). Feedback problems are less severe when boom microphones (which need less gain since they are located very close to the speaker's mouth) are used; however, most speakers prefer to use lapel microphones rather than boom microphones.
An example of a speech enhancement system is described in International Patent Application Publication WO 2010/000878 A2 and corresponding U.S. Patent Application Publication 2012/221329, wherein the audio signal processing includes a feedback canceller which analyzes the captured audio signals in order to determine whether there is a critical feedback level caused by feedback of sound from the loudspeaker arrangement to the microphone arrangement (Larsen effect). The feedback canceller outputs a status signal indicating the presence or absence of feedback conditions to a main control unit in order to reduce the system gain when feedback conditions occur.
German Patent Application DE 25 26 034 A1 and corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 3,894,195 relate to a hearing aid wherein the microphone signals, after having passed an automatic gain control (AGC) stage, undergo frequency shifting by 10 Hz in order to reduce feedback, so that the maximum gain can be increased by about 10 dB.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,394,475 relates to audio systems providing for a frequency shift of the audio signals in order to reduce feedback, wherein it is mentioned that the frequency shift may be about 5 Hz.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,237,339 relates to the use of directional microphones for feedback reduction in an audio teleconferencing system, wherein the loudspeaker and the microphones are rigidly mounted on a boom and the microphones are located and oriented relative to the loudspeaker in such a manner that the null position of the directivity is directed towards the loudspeaker.
European Patent Application EP 0 581 261 A1 relates to the use of a Wiener filter for feedback reduction in a hearing aid, wherein the Wiener filter is implemented as part of a filter controlled by a user operated control. JP 2008-141734 A and corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 8,311,234 relate to the use of a Wiener filter for feedback reduction in a hands-free telephone system or a video conference system. EP 1 429 315 A1 and corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 7,068,798 relate to the use of a Wiener filter for feedback reduction in a vehicle communication system.


A method of atomization of refined metal is taught. The method starts with the introduction of unrefined metal into an electroslag refining process in which the unrefined metal is first melted at the upper surface of the refining slag. The molten metal in the form of droplets is refined as it passes through the molten slag. The refined metal droplets are collected in a cold hearth apparatus having a skull of refined metal formed on the surface of the cold hearth and protecting the cold hearth from the leaching action of the refined molten metal. A cold finger bottom pour spout is formed at the bottom of the cold hearth to permit dispensing of molten refined metal from the cold hearth. The rate of flow of molten metal through the cold finger apparatus is controlled principally by controlling the rate of melting of the unrefined metal. The metal flowing from the cold finger apparatus is introduced to the upper end of a ceramic melt guide tube. Liquid metal emerging from the lower end of the melt guide tube is atomized by a gas orifice closely coupled to the lower end of the melt guide tube.

The present invention relates generally to closely coupled gas atomization. More particularly, it relates to methods and means by which closely coupled gas atomization processing of high melting reactive molten metal can be started and carried out with electroslag refined metal.
The technology of close coupled or closely coupled atomization is a relatively new technology. Methods and apparatus for the practice of close coupled atomization are set forth in commonly owned U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,631,013; 4,801,412; and 4,619,597, the texts of which are incorporated herein by reference. As pointed out in these patents, the idea of close coupling is to create a close spatial relationship between a point at which a melt stream emerges from a melt orifice into an atomization zone and a point at which a gas stream emerges from a gas orifice to impact the melt stream as it emerges from the melt orifice into the atomization zone. Close coupled atomization is accordingly distinguished from the more familiar and conventional remotely coupled atomization by the larger spatial separation between the respective nozzles and point of impact in the remotely coupled apparatus. A number of independently owned prior art patents deal with close proximity of melt and gas streams and include U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,817,503; 4,619,845; 3,988,084; and 4,575,325.
In the more conventional remotely coupled atomization, a stream of melt may be in free fall through several inches before it is impacted by a gas stream directed at the melt from an orifice which is also spaced several inches away from the point of impact.
The remotely coupled apparatus is also characterized by a larger spatial separation of a melt orifice from a gas orifice of the atomization apparatus. Most of the prior art of the atomization technology concerns remotely coupled apparatus and practices. One reason for this is that attempts to operate closely coupled atomization apparatus resulted in many failures due to the many problems which are encountered. This is particularly true for efforts to atomize reactive metals which melt at relatively high temperatures of over 1000.degree. C. or more. The technology disclosed by the above referenced commonly owned patents is, in fact, one of the first successful closely coupled atomization practices that has been developed.
The problem of closely coupled atomization of highly reactive high temperature (above 1,000.degree. C.) metals is entirely different from the problems of closely coupled atomization of low melting metals such as lead, zinc, or aluminum. The difference is mainly in the degree of reactivity of high reacting alloys with the materials of the atomization apparatus.
One of the features of the closely coupled atomization technology, particularly as applied to high melting alloys such as iron, cobalt, and nickel base superalloys is that such alloys benefit from having a number of the additive elements in solid solution in the alloy rather than precipitated out in the alloy and the closely coupled atomization can result in a larger fraction of additive elements remaining in solid solution. For example, if a strengthening component such as titanium, tantalum, aluminum, or niobium imparts desirable sets of properties to an alloy, this result is achieved largely from the portion of the strengthening additive which remains in solution in the alloy in the solid state. In other words, it is desirable to have certain additive elements such as strengthening elements remain in solid solution in the alloy rather than in precipitated form. Closely coupled atomization is more effective than remotely coupled atomization in producing the small powder sizes which will retain the additive elements in solid solution.
Where still higher concentrations of additive elements are employed above the solubility limits of the additives, the closely coupled atomization technology can result in nucleation of precipitates incorporating such additives. However, because of the limited time for growth of such nucleated precipitates, the precipitate remains small in size and finely dispersed. It is well-known in the metallurgical arts that finely dispersed precipitates are advantageous in that they impart advantageous property improvements to their host alloy when compared, for example, to coarse precipitates which are formed during slow cooling of large particles. Thus, the atomization of such a superalloy can cause a higher concentration of additive elements, such as strengthening elements, to remain in solution, or precipitate as very fine precipitate particles, because of the very rapid solidification of the melt in the closely coupled atomization process. This is particularly true for the finer particles of the powder formed from the atomization.
In this regard, it is known that the rate of cooling of a molten particle of relatively small size in a convective environment such as a flowing fluid or body of fluid material is determined by the properties of the droplet and of the cooling fluid. For a given atomization environment, that is one in which the gas, alloy, and operating conditions are fixed, the complex function relating all the properties can be reduced to the simple proportionality involving particle size shown below, ##EQU1## where:
T.sub.p =cooling rate, and
D.sub.p =droplet diameter.
Simply put, the cooling rate for a hot droplet in a fixed atomization environment is inversely proportional to the diameter squared. Accordingly, the most important way to increase the cooling rate of liquid droplets is to decrease the size of the droplets. This is the function of effective gas atomization.
Thus it follows that if the average size of the diameter of a droplet of a composition is reduced in half, then the rate of cooling is increased by a factor of about 4. If the average diameter is reduced in half again, the overall cooling rate is increased 16 fold.
Since high cooling rates are predominantly produced by reducing droplet size, it is critical to effectively atomize the melt.
The Weber number, We, is the term assigned to the relationship governing droplet breakup in a high velocity gas stream. The Weber number may be calculated from the following expression: ##EQU2## where
.rho. and V are the gas density and velocity, and
.sigma. and D are the droplet surface tension and diameter.
When the We number exceeds ten, the melt is unstable and will breakup into smaller droplets. The dominant term in this expression is gas velocity and thus in any atomization process it is essential to have high gas velocities. As described in the commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 4,631,013 the benefit of close coupling is that it maximizes the available gas velocity in the region where the melt stream is atomized. In other words, the close coupling is itself beneficial to effective atomization because there is essentially no loss of gas velocity before the gas stream from the nozzle impacts the melt stream and starts to atomize it.
Because of this relationship of the particle size to the cooling rate, the best chance of keeping a higher concentration of additive elements of an alloy, such as the strengthening additives, in solid solution in the alloy is to atomize the alloy to very small particles. Also, the microstructure of such finer particles is different from that of larger particles and often preferable to that of larger particles.
For an atomization processing apparatus, accordingly the higher the percentage of the finer particles which are produced the better the properties of the articles formed from such powder by conventional powder metallurgical techniques. For these reasons, there is strong economic incentive to produce finer particles through atomization processing.
As pointed out in the commonly owned prior art patents above, the closely coupled atomization technique results in the production of powders from metals having high melting points with higher concentration of fine powder. For example, it was pointed out therein that by the remotely coupled technology only 3% of powder produced industrially is smaller than 10 microns and the cost of such powder is accordingly very high. Fine powders of less than 37 microns in diameter of certain metals are used in low pressure plasma spray applications. In preparing such powders by remotely coupled techniques, as much as 60-75% of the powder must be scrapped because it is oversized. This need to selectively separate out only the finer powder and to scrap the oversized powder increases the cost of useable powder.
Further, the production of fine powder is influenced by the surface tension of the melt from which the fine powder is produced. For melts of high surface tension, production of fine powder is more difficult and consumes more gas and energy. The remotely coupled industrial processes for atomizing such powder have yields of less than 37 microns average diameter from molten metals having high surface tensions of the order of 25 weight % to 40 weight %. A major cost component of fine powders prepared by atomization and useful in industrial applications is the cost of the gas used in the atomization. Using remotely coupled technology, the cost of the gas increases as the percentage of fine powder sought from an atomized processing is increased. Also, as finer and finer powders are sought, the quantity of gas per unit of mass of powder produced by conventional remotely coupled processing increases. The gas consumed in producing powder, particularly the inert gas such as argon, is expensive.
As is explained more fully in the commonly owned patents referred to above, the use of the closely coupled atomization technology of those patents results in the formation of higher concentrations of finer particles than are available through the use of remotely coupled atomization techniques. The texts of the commonly owned patents are incorporated herein by reference.
As is pointed out more fully in the commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 4,631,013, a number of different methods have been employed in attempts to produce fine powder. These methods have included rotating electrode process, vacuum atomization, rapid solidification rate process and other methods. The various methods of atomizing liquid melts and the effectiveness of the methods is discussed in a review article by A. Lawly, entitled "Atomization of Specialty Alloy Powders", which article appeared in the Jan. 19, 1981 issue of the Journal of Metals. It was made evident from this article and has been evident from other sources that gas atomization of molten metals produces the finest powder on an industrial scale and at the lowest cost.
It is further pointed out in the commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 4,631,013 patent that the close coupled processing as described in the commonly owned patents produces finer powder by gas atomization than prior art remotely coupled processing.
A critical factor in the close coupled gas atomization processing of molten metals is the melting temperature of the molten metal to be processed. Metals which can be melted at temperatures of less than 1000.degree. C. are easier to atomize than metals which melt at 1500.degree. or 2000.degree. C. or higher, largely because of the degree of reactivity of the metal with the atomizing apparatus at the higher temperatures. The nature of the problems associated with close coupled atomization is described in a book entitled "The Production of Metal Powders by Atomization", authored by John Keith Beddow, and printed by Haden Publishers, as is discussed more fully in the the commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 4,631,013.
The problems of attack of liquid metals on the atomizing apparatus is particularly acute when the more reactive liquid metals or more reactive constituent of higher melting alloys are involved. The more reactive metals include titanium, niobium, aluminum, tantalum, and others. Where such ingredients are present in high melting alloys such as the superalloys, the tendency of these metals to attack the atomizing apparatus itself is substantial. For this reason, it is desirable to atomize a melt at as low a temperature as is feasible.
It has been observed with regard to the prior art structures as discussed above relative to the prior art patents that where the superheat in the melt passing through the melt guide tube is at a sufficiently low level, there is a tendency for the molten metal passing through the melt guide tube to form a solid layer of solidified metal against the inner wall of the melt guide tube and eventually to solidify completely, thus blocking melt guide tube and in effect terminating the atomization procedure.
An important aspect of the atomization of metals which melt at high temperatures is means by which the supply of the molten metal to the atomization processing is accomplished. In general, very high specification metal is desirable as is noted above. In part, the high specification pertains to the absence of particulate ceramic material. In addition, the high specification can pertain to a low level of oxides or other contaminants. Pursuant to the present invention a novel combination of atomization processing is coupled with a unique molten metal supply to make possible a novel and unique atomization processing. In particular, a closely coupled atomization processing is combined with an electroslag refining to permit atomization of uniquely high specification molten metal.
By way of providing further background of this novel overall atomization processing the background of a unique electroslag refining method is now provided.
This aspect of the present invention relates generally to direct processing of metal passing through an electroslag refining operation. More specifically, it relates to processing a stream of metal which stream is generated directly beneath an electroslag processing apparatus.
As explained in U.S. Pat. No. 5,160,532, it is known that the processing relatively large bodies of metal, such as superalloys, is accompanied by many problems which derive from the bulky volume of the body of metal itself. Such processing involves problems of sequential heating and forming and cooling and reheating of the large bodies of the order of 5,000 to 35,000 pounds or more in order to control grain size and other microstructure. Such problems also involve segregation of the ingredients of alloys in large metal bodies as processing by melting and similar operations is carried out. A sequence of processing operations is sometimes selected in order to overcome the difficulties which arise through the use of bulk processing and refining operations.
One such sequence of steps involves a sequence of vacuum induction melting followed by electroslag refining and followed, in turn, by vacuum arc refining and followed, again in turn, by mechanical working through forging and drawing types of operations. While the metal produced by such a sequence of steps is highly useful and the metal product itself is quite valuable, the processing through the several steps is expensive and time-consuming.
For example, the vacuum induction melting of scrap metal into a large body of metal of 20,000 to 35,000 pounds or more can be very useful in recovery of the scrap material. The scrap may be combined with virgin metal to achieve a nominal alloy composition desired and also to render the processing economically sound. The size range is important for scrap remelting economics. According to this process, the scrap and other metal is processed through the vacuum induction melting steps so that a large ingot is formed and this ingot has considerably more value than the scrap and other material used in forming the ingot. Following this conventional processing, the large ingot product is usually found to contain one or more of three types of defects and specifically voids, slag inclusions and macrosegregation.
This recovery of scrap into an ingot is the first step in a refining process which involves several sequential processing steps. Some of these steps are included in the subsequent processing specifically to cure the defects generated during the prior processing. For example, such a large ingot may then be processed through an electroslag refining step to remove a significant portion of the oxide and sulfide which may be present in the ingot as a result of the ingot being formed at least in part from scrap material.
Electroslag refining is a well-known process which has been used industrially for a number of years. Such a process is described, for example, on pages 82-84 of a text on metal processing entitled "Superalloys, Supercomposites, and Superceramics". This book is edited by John K. Tien and Thomas Caulfield and is published by Academic Press, Inc. of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, and bears the copyright of 1989. The use of this electroslag refining process is responsible for removal of oxide, sulfide and other impurities from the vacuum induction melted ingot so that the product of the processing has lower concentrations of these impurities. The product of the electroslag refining is also largely free of voids and slag inclusions.
However, a problem arises in the electroslag refining process because of the formation of a relatively deep melt pool as the process is carried out. The deep melt pool results in a degree of ingredient macrosegregation and in a less desirable microstructure. Defects produced by macrosegregation are visually apparent and are called "freckles". One way to reduce freckles is by reducing the diameter of the formed ingot but such reduction can also adversely affect economics of the processing.
To overcome this deep melt pool problem, a subsequent processing operation is employed in combination with the electroslag refining, particularly to reduce the depth of the melt pool and the segregation and microstructure problems which result from the deeper pool. This latter processing is a vacuum arc refining and it is also carried out by a conventional and well-known processing technique.
The vacuum arc refining starts with the ingot produced by the electroslag refining and processes the metal through the vacuum arc steps to produce a relatively shallow melt pool and to produce better microstructure, and possibly a lower nitrogen content, as a result. Again, for reasons of economic processing, a relatively large ingot of the order of 10 to 40 tons is processed through the electroslag refining and then through the vacuum arc refining. However, the large ingots of this processing has a large grain size and may contain defects called "dirty" white spots.
Following the vacuum arc refining, the ingot of this processing is then mechanically worked to yield a metal stock which has better microstructure. Such a mechanical working may, for example, involve a combination of steps of forging and drawing to lead to a relatively smaller grain size. The thermomechanical processing of such a large ingot requires a large space on a factory floor and requires large and expensive equipment as well as large and costly energy input.
The conventional processing as described immediately above has been found necessary over a period of time in order to achieve the very desirable microstructure in the metal product of the processing. As is indicated above in describing the background of this art, one of the problems is that one processing step results in some deficiency in the product of that step so that another processing step is combined with the first in order to overcome the deficiency of the initial or earlier step in the processing. However, when the necessary combination of steps is employed, a successful and beneficial product with a desirable microstructure is produced. The drawback of the use of this recited combination of processing steps is that very extensive and expensive equipment is needed in order to carry out the sequence of processing steps and further a great deal of processing time and heating and cooling energy is employed in order to carry out each of the processing steps and to go from one step to the next step of the sequence as set forth above.
The processing as described above has been employed in the application of superalloys such as IN-718 and Rene 95. For some alloys the sequence of steps has led to successful production of alloy billets, the composition and crystal structure of which are within specifications so that the alloys can be used as produced. For other superalloys, and specifically for the Rene 95 alloy, it is usual for metal processors to complete the sequence of operations leading to specification material by adding the processing through powder metallurgy techniques. Where such powder metallurgical techniques were employed, the first steps in completing the sequence are the melting of the alloy and gas atomization of the melt. This is followed by screening the powder which is produced by the atomization. The selected fraction of the screened powder is then conventionally enclosed within a can of soft steel, for example, and the can is HIPed to consolidate the powder into a useful form. Such HIPing may be followed by extruding or other conventional processing steps to bring the consolidated product to a useable form.
An alternative to the powder metallurgy processing as described immediately above is an alternative conventional process known as spray forming. Spray forming has been described in a number of patents including the U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,909,921; 3,826,301; 4,926,923; 4,779,802; 5,004,153; as well as a number of other such patents.
In general, the spray forming process has been gaining additional industrial use as improvements have been made in processing, particularly because it involves fewer steps and has a cost advantage over conventional powder metallurgy techniques so there is a tendency toward the use of the spray forming process where it yields products which are comparable and competitive with the products of the conventional powder metallurgy processing.

Atomization of electroslag refined metal


Disclosed is a drain blockage responsive alarm system. The drain blockage responsive alarm system comprises a cleanout cap member, at least one drain blockage responsive element, and an alarming module. The cleanout cap member is capable of being installed at a portion of a drain pipe. Further, the at least one drain blockage responsive element is configured to the cleanout cap member adapted to sense clog deposition at the portion of the drain pipe, and to generate an output signal upon sensing the clog deposition. Furthermore, the alarming module is electrically coupled to the at least one drain blockage responsive element for generating an alarm signal upon receiving the output signal.

Maintenance of sewerdrainage systems (hereinafter also referred to as "drains") of residential and/or commercial buildings is an essential requirement for inhabitants thereof. Typically, the inhabitants of the residential and/or the commercial buildings are rarely aware of importance of maintenance of such sewerdrainage. However, upon a blockage condition in the drain, normal activities in the residential and/or the commercial buildings virtually cease until the blockage condition is rectified. Specifically, the inhabitants are not aware of the blockage condition in the sewerdrainage until the sewerdrainage begins to overflow.
In light of the above, various apparatuses have been made, which in one way or another, signal the inhabitants about the blockage condition in the sewer drainage. However, such apparatuses have been less than satisfactory in performance thereof, as such apparatuses only provide warning upon detecting the blockage condition in the sewerdrainage. Such warning may not be useful, as the warning will issue only after a blockage condition has already occurred in the sewerdrainage system.
Further, such apparatuses are complex and expensive, and, more importantly, installation techniques associated therewith are usually complicated. For example, many of such apparatuses necessitate installation thereof in the sewerdrainage system by skilled plumbers and/or electricians or other artisans. As a result, an average inhabitant or property owner, rather than making a large investment, may accept the risks that might occur from not installing such apparatuses.
In accordance with the foregoing, there exists a need for a drain blockage responsive alarm system of simple, dependable, and economical design. Specifically, there exists a need for a drain blockage responsive alarm system that may provide an advance warning under incipient blockage conditions of a sewerdrainage system to inhabitants of a residential and/or a commercial building, before an acute stage of blockage condition occurs in the sewerdrain. Further, there exists a need of a drain blockage responsive alarm system which may be readily installed by the inhabitants of the residential and/or the commercial building, without requiring any professional help and without requiring modification to the existing sewerdrain.


A multi layer film having enhanced barrier properties against transmission of oxygen and water vapor is provided. The multi layer film includes a polypropylene base layer, with a high density polyethylene layer on at least one surface of the polypropylene base layer. The polyethylene layer includes a surface which has been subjected to plasma treatment with a hydroxyl-donating material such as a methanol. The film further includes a metal layer deposited on the plasma treated surface, such as a layer of vacuum deposited aluminum. Multi layer films according to the present invention are particularly useful as packaging films for food products.

Plastic materials such as polymeric films have been widely used for packaging various food and non-food products. In order to ensure proper preservation of products packaged in such polymeric films, it is necessary to provide the films with barriers against transmission of air, moisture, deleterious flavors, etc. Unmodified polymeric films, however, typically lack sufficient gas and moisture barrier characteristics needed for proper packaging requirements. For example, polypropylene films are particularly preferred in the manufacture of packaging films due to their low cost and ease of manufacture. Such films, however, inherently permit the transmission of oxygen and water vapor from the outside of the film to the inside of the package made up of the film. As will be recognized by those skilled in the art, transmission of oxygen and water vapor through food packagings promote deterioration of the foods packaged therein.
Multi layer polymeric films have been developed having improved gas and moisture barrier characteristics. For example, it is known that films incorporating ethylene vinyl alcohol as a co-extruded coated layer thereon display improved oxygen and moisture barrier properties. U.S. Pat. No. 5,192,620 discloses an oriented polypropylene base layer having a coating on one surface of a blend of a vinyl alcohol homopolymer or copolymer and an ethylene-acrylic acid copolymer, with a further metal layer thereon. Films incorporating ethylene vinyl alcohol as co-extruded or coated layers, however, are difficult and expensive to manufacture.
The use of multi layer films incorporating metal layers has also been proposed for providing improved barrier properties. U.S. Pat. No. 5,194,318, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses a metallized oriented thermoplastic film combination having a propylene homopolymer or copolymer substrate with a high density polyethylene skin layer on at least one side of the substrate. The high density polyethylene skin layer further includes a thin metal layer which has been vapor deposited thereon. In one embodiment, the high density polyethylene skin layer is flame or corona discharge treated, and the metal coating is thereafter deposited onto the flame or corona discharge treated layer. Although films which incorporate a high density polyethylene skin do not suffer from the deleterious effects of metal pick off, such films do not provide optimum oxygen and water vapor barrier properties for all packaging needs.
Plasma treatment of polymeric films with hydrocarbons has been proposed to impart improved adhesion of metal coatings to films. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,897,305 discloses a packaging film of a polyolefin substrate such as polypropylene having a thin layer of a low molecular weight hydrocarbon and a metal layer thereon. The film is prepared by exposing the polypropylene substrate to a plasma treatment of aliphatic hydrocarbon vapors, followed by vapor deposition of a metal layer. The films produced with plasma treatment involving aliphatic hydrocarbons, however, are expensive to manufacture, and the hydrocarbon layer is not believed to add any significant barrier properties to the film.
While the prior art discloses various packaging films, such films are typically difficult to manufacture, involve incorporation of costly materials and processes, and provide inefficient adhesion for a subsequent vapor deposited metal layer. Accordingly, a need exists for a packaging film which is simple and inexpensive to manufacture and which is capable of providing enhanced barrier properties to oxygen and water vapor transmission.

Enhanced barrier vacuum metallized films


An organic light emitting diode (OLED) display device for reducing the number of lines of an organic light emitting diode panel is provided. The OLED display device includes first and second data lines; a power voltage supply line supplied with a power supply voltage; a gate line crossing the first data line, the second data line and the power voltage supply line; first and second organic light emitting diodes commonly connected to the power voltage supply line; a first organic light emitting diode driving circuit for driving the first organic light emitting diode with a data voltage from the first data line in response to a scanning signal from the gate line; and a second organic light emitting diode driving circuit for driving the second organic light emitting diode with a data voltage from the second data line in response to the scanning signal from the gate line.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an organic light emitting diode, and more particularly to an organic light emitting diode display device that is adaptive for reducing the number of power lines in an organic light emitting diode panel to thereby increase the aperture ratio of the display device as well as improve brightness.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, there have been highlighted various flat panel display devices reduced in weight and bulk that are capable of eliminating disadvantages of a cathode ray tube (CRT). Such flat panel display devices include a liquid crystal display (LCD), a field emission display (FED), a plasma display panel (PDP) and a light emitting diode (LED) display, etc.
The LED display device among such display devices employs an LED capable of light-emitting a phosphorous material by a re-combination of electrons with holes. The LED display device is generally classified into an inorganic LED device using an inorganic compound as the phosphorous material, and an organic LED (OLED) device using an organic compound as the phosphorous material. Such an OLED display device has been highlighted into a post-generation display device because it has advantages of a low voltage driving, a self-luminescence, a thin thickness, a wide viewing angle, a fast response speed and a high contrast, etc.
The OLED as a light emitting device usually includes an electron injection layer, an electron carrier layer, a light-emitting layer, a hole carrier layer and a hole injection layer that are disposed between a cathode and an anode of a light emitting diode. In such an OLED, when a predetermined voltage is applied between the anode and the cathode, electrons produced from the cathode are moved, via the electron injection layer and the electron carrier layer, into the light-emitting layer while holes produced from the anode are moved, via the hole injection layer and the hole carrier layer, into the light-emitting layer. Thus, the electrons and the holes fed from the electron carrier layer and the hole carrier layer emit a light by their re-combination at the light-emitting layer.
As shown in FIG. 1, an active matrix OLED display device employing the above-mentioned OLED includes an OLED panel 13 having n×m pixels P[i,j] arranged in a matrix type at each area defined by intersections between n gate lines G1 to Gn (wherein n is an integer) and m data lines D1 to Dm (wherein m is an integer), a gate driving circuit 12 for driving the gate lines G1 to Gn, a data driving circuit 11 for driving the data lines D1 to Dm, and m power voltage supply lines S1 to Sm arranged in parallel to the data lines D1 to Dm to supply a high-level power supply voltage VDD to each pixel P[i,j]. Herein, P[i,j] is a pixel positioned at an ith row and a jth column, wherein i is an integer smaller than or equal to n, and j is an integer smaller than or equal to m.
The gate driving circuit 12 supplies a scanning signal to the gate lines G1 to Gn to sequentially drive the gate lines G1 to Gn.
The data driving circuit 11 converts a digital data voltage inputted from the exterior thereof into an analog data voltage. Further, the data driving circuit 12 supplies the analog data voltage to the data lines D1 to Dm whenever the scanning signal is applied.
Each of the pixel P[i,j] receives a data voltage from the jth data line Dj whenever a scanning signal is applied to the ith gate line Gi, and generates a light corresponding to the data voltage.
To this end, each pixel P[i,j] includes an OLED having an anode connected to the jth power voltage supply line Sj, and an OLED driving circuit 15 connected to a cathode of the OLED to drive the OLED and the ith gate line G1 and the jth data line Dj to supply a low-level power supply voltage VSS.
The OLED driving circuit 15 includes a first transistor T1 for supplying a data voltage from the jth data line to a first node N1, a second transistor T2 for controlling an amount of current flowing at the OLED in response to a voltage at the first node N1, and a storage capacitor Cs in which the voltage at the first node N1 is charged.
The first transistor T is turned on when a scanning signal is applied, via the gate line Gi, thereto, so that it supplies a data voltage from the data line Dj to the first node N1. The data voltage supplied to the first node N1 is charged in the storage capacitor Cs and is supplied to a gate electrode of the second transistor T2. If the second transistor T2 is turned on by the data voltage supplied in this manner, then a current flows through the OLED. At this time, the current flowing through the OLED is generated by the high-level power supply voltage VDD from the jth power voltage supply line Sj, and an amount of the generated current is in proportion to a magnitude of the data voltage applied to the second transistor T2. Further, even when the first transistor T1 is turned off, the second transistor T2 is maintained at the turned-on state by a voltage at the first node N1 derived by the storage capacitor Cs charged with the data voltage to thereby control an amount of current flowing through the OLED until a data voltage at the next frame is supplied thereto.
Meanwhile, the above-mentioned OLED display device has the following problems.
As shown in FIG. 1, the OLED panel is provided with the power voltage supply line Sj for supplying the high-level power supply voltage VDD to each pixel. For instance, the OLED panel is provided with 800 power voltage supply lines Sj in the case of SVGA having a resolution of 800×600 while being provided with 1024 power voltage supply lines Sj in the case of XGA having a resolution of 1024×768. However, such a large number of the power voltage supply lines reduces an aperture ratio of the OLED panel and deteriorates brightness. It also can increase the cost and size of the OLED panel.