The invention relates to a housing for electronic components with the housing comprising at least a front housing part and a rear housing part. The front housing part and the rear housing part are arranged to be sealed by means of a sealing gasket upon attaching the front housing part to the rear housing part. The housing comprises at least one ventilation opening to prevent build-up of negative pressure inside the housing, where the ventilation opening is covered by a protective covering comprising a through opening. The through opening is arranged to allow water to flow through the through opening, thereby preventing a build up of pressure inside the protective covering. A method for manufacturing a housing according to the invention is also disclosed.

Outdoor units for housing standard electronic components inside are well known from the art. An outdoor housing must be weatherproof so that no water intrusion can occur. This can be indicated by that the housing fulfills an Ingress Protection Rating of for instance IP X5 according to the International Electrotechnical Commission standard IEC 60529. Weatherproofing is normally done by using a rubber gasket or similar to seal the parts of the housing. However if a unit is completely air tight with no ventilation, heavy rain can give rise to negative pressure inside the unit. This is due to the fact that the heated air inside the unit will cool down rapidly during rain causing the pressure inside to drop. The suction force of the negative pressure can be of such magnitude that water can pass the gaskets leading to that the electronic components are subjected to water. This may give rise to malfunctions of the electronic components.
The solution to this problem is to make a ventilation opening for pressure equalization in order to equalize any negative pressure that arises. The pressure equalization must however be done rather quickly in order to avoid build up of negative pressure inside the unit. One existing solution is to use a water tight membrane such as Gore-Tex® to hinder water from entering the ventilation opening. The pressure equalization in these products are slow leading to that negative pressure may be present long enough for water intrusion to occur.
There is thus a need for an improved housing for electronic components where the above mentioned problems are at least partly avoided.


The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for generating an executable file of a multi-instance service. The method includes: performing compilation for a source file corresponding to a multi-instance service, to obtain a first-class object file, where the multi-instance service includes N instances, and N is a natural number greater than or equal to 2; performing an object copy of the first-class object file N−1 times, to obtain N−1 new first-class object files; and performing linking to the first-class object file and the N−1 new first-class object files, to generate an executable file. In the present invention, an executable file is generated by performing mirroring and linking processing for an object file obtained by compilation, thereby reducing a development cost and a maintenance cost of software source code.

Dual-SIM dual-standby terminals and multi-SIM multi-standby terminals are now launched, driven by rapid development of communications technologies and people's increasingly higher requirements on communications devices. A dual-SIM dual-standby terminal can be equipped with two user identity cards, for example, a user identity module (User identity module, UIM) card, or a universal subscriber identity module (Universal Subscriber Identity Module, USIM) card, or a subscriber identity module (Subscriber Identity Module, SIM) card, and both of the user identity cards are in a standby state. In a multi-SIM multi-standby terminal, user identity cards are further added to a dual-SIM dual-standby terminal, and all these user identity cards can be in a standby state at the same time.
In the prior art, it is necessary to develop a new set of software source code that supports functions of user identity cards of a multi-SIM multi-standby terminal, so as to support operation of the user identity cards in the multi-SIM multi-standby terminal. The prior art has the following disadvantages: (1) due to long software development cycle, defects in code cannot be rapidly fixed after the code is developed, and product software that meets subscriber requirements cannot be rapidly made available; (2) a new set of multi-SIM multi-standby source code is developed in addition to existing software source code that supports functions of a user identity card of a one-card one-standby terminal, the two sets of product code cannot be merged, and therefore, the two sets of code need to be maintained separately, which increases difficulty and cost of code maintenance. This problem not only exists in code maintenance of a multi-SIM multi-standby terminal, but also exists in other multi-instance software applications.

Method and apparatus for generating executable file or multi-instance service


A system for producing a three-dimensional image of a surface, such as a surface of a cornea, includes a laser beam that passes through a beamsplitter and an objective lens to produce a spherical wavefront that impinges on the cornea and is reflected by the cornea as a return beam back through the objective lens. The return beam is reflected by the beamsplitter through an imaging lens that focuses the return beam onto an imaging screen, through a dual phase plate, and onto a photosensitive array. The dual phase plate includes two sets of spaced periodic refractive features spaced along orthogonal directions. The phase plate is modulated by incrementing it at a 45 degree angle relative to the first and second directions, thereby simultaneously producing phase shear along the two orthogonal directions. The resulting intensities at each pixel of a CCD camera are digitized and used to compute an optical phase difference (OPD) map consisting of the relative deviation of the cornea surface from the impinging spherical wavefront at each pixel. The OPD map then is summed with a "spherical map" of the impinging spherical wavefront, which has height coordinates measured relative to a limbus plane under the cornea, to obtain a complete three-dimensional image of the cornea. Various d-spacings of the dual phase plate patterns, in conjunction with corresponding capture intervals or shifts produced by the incrementing, allow scaling of the sensitivity of the system to allow "close up" viewing of the cornea.

The invention relates to a device and technique for measuring the topography of a cornea, and more specifically to single-direction incremental displacement or modulation of a cross grating pattern on a phase plate to obtain simultaneous phase shearing in orthogonal x and y directions, imaging the resulting composite diffraction pattern, and operating on the resulting data to compute the height of each pixel of the cornea and store and display a three-dimensional image thereof.
Various corneal topography measurement devices are available. For example, a commonly used TOMEY automatic keratoscope includes an automatic ring detection algorithm and produces a "power" or diopter map, rather than a topographic map of the cornea. (A diopter is the inverse of the radius of curvature in meters.) Eyses Corporation, of Houston, Tex. makes a simplified video keratoscope which operates on the same principles as the TOMEY device, measuring distortion of projected illumination rings by the cornea to extract slope information that is converted to a diopter map. Both of the devices have the disadvantages that the "maps" produced do not cover the full cornea, and furthermore they fail to actually measure the center region of the cornea, at which accurate measurements are most critical. The "shadows" of the rings contain distortion by non-spherical features of the cornea, but are difficult to digitize over the range of the cornea, especially in the central areas. Lateral resolution of points of the points of the diopter maps are not as accurate as desirable. The present assignee has developed an experimental fringe interpretation cornea topography measurement device in which a return beam reflected by the cornea is split, and phase shearing operations are separately performed in the x and y directions. The results are separately imaged by a photosensitive array and the resulting data then is used to compute the relative phase and the relative height of the cornea at each pixel. This technique has the main disadvantage that it is much slower than desired, and is subject to inherent mechanical inaccuracies involved in shifting the x and y phase plates in separate operations.
There currently is an unmet need for an improved automatic keratoscope which provides an accurate topography of the full cornea, especially the center portions. There is an unmet need for accurately producing a true topography map, rather than the conventional "power" maps or diopter change maps of the cornea.

Corneal topography system including single-direction shearing of holograph grating in orthogonal directions


A visual perception threshold unit for image processing identifies a plurality of visual perception threshold levels to be associated with the pixels of a video frame, wherein the threshold levels define contrast levels above which a human eye can distinguish a pixel from among its neighboring pixels of the video frame. The present invention also includes a method of generating visual perception thresholds by analysis of the details of the video frames, estimating the parameters of the details, and defining a visual perception threshold for each detail in accordance with the estimated detail parameters. The present invention further includes a method of describing images by determining which details in the image can be distinguished by the human eye and which ones can only be detected by it.

There are many types of video signals, such as digital broadcast television (TV), video conferencing, interactive TV, etc. All of these signals, in their digital form, are divided into frames, each of which consists of many pixels (image elements), each of which requires 8–24 bits to describe them. The result is megabits of data per frame.
Before storing and/or transmitting these signals, they typically are compressed, using one of many standard video compression techniques, such as JPEG, MPEG, H-compression, etc. These compression standards use video signal transforms and intra- and inter-frame coding which exploit spatial and temporal correlations among pixels of a frame and across frames.
However, these compression techniques create a number of well-known, undesirable and unacceptable artifacts, such as blockiness, low resolution and wiggles, among others. These are particularly problematic for broadcast TV (satellite TV, cable TV, etc.) or for systems with very low bit rates (video conferencing, videophone).
Much research has been performed to try and improve the standard compression techniques. The following patents and articles discuss various prior art methods to do so:
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,870,501, 5,847,766, 5,845,012, 5,796,864, 5,774,593, 5,586,200, 5,491,519, 5,341,442;
Raj Talluri et al, "A Robust, Scalable, Object-Based Video Compression Technique for Very Low Bit-Rate Coding," IEEE Transactions of Circuit and Systems for Video Technology, vol. 7, No. 1, February 1997;
AwadKh. Al-Asmari, "An Adaptive Hybrid Coding Scheme for HDTV and Digital Sequences," IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics, vol. 42, No. 3, pp. 926–936, August 1995;
Kwok-tung Lo and Jian Feng, "Predictive Mean Search Algorithms for Fast VQ Encoding of Images," IEEE Transactions On Consumer Electronics, vol. 41, No. 2, pp. 327–331, May 1995;
James Goel et al. "Pre-processing for MPEG Compression Using Adaptive Spatial Filtering", IEEE Transactions On Consumer Electronics, vol. 41, No. 3, pp. 687–698, August 1995;
Jian Feng et al. "Motion Adaptive Classified Vector Quantization for ATM Video Coding", IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics, vol. 41, No. 2, p. 322–326, May 1995;
Austin Y. Lan et al., "Scene-Context Dependent Reference—Frame Placement for MPEG Video Coding," IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, vol. 9, No.3, pp. 478–489, April 1999;
Kuo-Chin Fan, Kou-Sou Kan, "An Active Scene Analysis-Based approach for Pseudoconstant Bit-Rate Video Coding", IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, vol. 8 No.2, pp. 159–170, April 1998;
Takashi Ida and Yoko Sambansugi, "Image Segmentation and Contour Detection Using Fractal Coding", IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, vol. 8, No. 8, pp. 968–975, December 1998;
Liang Shen and Rangaraj M. Rangayyan, "A Segmentation-Based Lossless Image Coding Method for High-Resolution Medical Image Compression," IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, vol. 16, No. 3, pp. 301–316, June 1997;
Adrian Munteanu et al., "Wavelet-Based Lossless Compression of Coronary Angiographic Images", IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, vol. 18, No. 3, p. 272–281, March 1999; and
Akira Okumura et al., "Signal Analysis and Compression Performance Evaluation of Pathological Microscopic Images," IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, vol. 16, No. 6, pp. 701–710, December 1997.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and apparatus for visual lossless image syntactic encoding


A motor vehicle climate control system that utilizes a door to selectively open and close an inlet formed in a housing of the climate control system. The housing includes a wall having a seal surface. The seal surface is spaced outwardly from an inner surface of the wall. A seal member, typically attached to the door used to open and close the inlet, contacts the seal surface when the door is placed in a position to close the inlet.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a climate control system for use with an automotive vehicle and more specifically to a climate control system having an air inlet and a door operative to selectively open and close the inlet.
2. Description of Related Art
A motor vehicle climate control system or heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system typically utilizes a blower to move and control airflow through the system. Air rush noise occurring in the HVAC system, is a customer comfort concern. A typical HVAC system operates in both a fresh air mode and a recirculation mode. The recirculation mode of the HVAC system draws air from the interior of the vehicle cabin or passenger compartment, while the fresh air mode draws outside air into the vehicle cabin or passenger compartment.
The HVAC system includes a selectively positionable door that opens and closes the respective fresh air inlet and recirculation air inlet and correspondingly enables operation in either the fresh air mode or recirculation mode. The door often includes a full surface or strip of foam glued around and on both sides of the door. The foam functions as a seal to minimize or reduce leakage of airflow past the door when placed in a position where the door closes either the fresh air inlet or the recirculation air inlet. In many cases, the door is pivotally mounted on the housing of the HVAC system and pivots back and forth between the respective fresh air inlet and recirculation air inlet.
The respective fresh air inlet and recirculation air inlet are typically a plurality of slots or apertures located in a flat or planar portion of the HVAC housing. As the door pivots, the radially inward portion, or that portion closest to the hinge, and the radially outward portion, or that portion farthest from the hinge, move different distances with the radially outward portion traveling a greater distance for the same angular movement of the door. The foam layer attached to the door is typically a strip having a uniform thickness. Accordingly, pivoting the door to close one of the respective inlets compresses that portion or section of the foam layer located closest to the door hinge or pivot point more than that portion or section of the foam layer located at the far end of the door or furthest from the hinge. Thus, the stiffness or compressibility of the foam layer limits the travel of the outer end of the door, that is, when the foam layer closest to the pivot point fully compresses the door travel ceases.
In many cases, when the door pivots to close either the fresh air inlet or the recirculation air inlet the stiffness or firmness of the foam layer prevents the outer end of the door from traveling the necessary distance to close the door. Failure to travel the necessary distance correspondingly reduces contact between a portion of the foam layer located at the outer or far end of the door and the housing adjacent or near the fresh air or recirculation air inlet. This allows airflow leakage at the far end of the door, which induces an objectionable door noise such as a whistling sound, door flutter or chatter.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a climate control system door assembly that minimizes the possibility and potential of airflow leakage when closing the fresh air or recirculation air inlet to reduce potential airflow noise such as whistling or door flutter.

Door assembly for climate control system


A shielded connector is provided which directly grounds harmful noise in the connector to the mounting body at the same time that the connector is mounted to the body. A metal shell is interposed between the insulating inner housing accommodating a terminal and the insulating outer housing accommodating the inner housing. The metal shell is provided with a metal clamp for grounding which projects outwardly from the outer housing to be directly fixed to a grounding body by a bolt.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a shielded connector that is grounded to a car body when assembled to the body to protect the connector from harmful noise.
2. Description of the Prior Art
FIG. 6 shows a vertical cross section of a conventional shielded connector introduced in the Japanese Utility Model Preliminary Publication No. Showa 63-127083.
The figure shows only one shielded connector 32, in which reference numeral 33 represents an insulating cover made of synthetic resin, 34 a cylindrical metallic shell as a shielding member assembled inside the cover 33, 35 a housing body of synthetic resin installed inside the metallic shell 34 and accommodating a plurality of terminals 36; and 37 a shielded cable connected to the terminals and having its braided shield 38 connected to the metal shell 34.
In the other shielded connector not shown, the metallic shell has an earth terminal projecting therefrom (not shown). When both connectors are coupled together to connect the earth terminal to the printed circuit card (not shown), harmful noise is grounded through the earth circuit (not shown).
In other words, the above described shielded connector is similar to a construction shown in FIG. 7, in which the connector portion 32' is engaged with the mating connector portion 39' and harmful noise generated by the connector portions 32', 39' is grounded through the metal shell and shielded cables 37', 40' as shown by arrow B.
Therefore when the circuit connecting the earth terminal or the shielded wires 37', 40' for the earth are long, the earthing distances from the connector portions 32', 39' become long, thus deteriorating the shielding performance.


In an electron accelerator, a conductive housing defines a cavity. Photoelectrons are emitted from a photocathode into the cavity when light is applied to the photocathode. Via an opening formed in a wall of the conductive housing, the photoelectrons are output to the outside of the cavity. Coolant is flowed through a flow path formed in the wall of the conductive housing, to suppress a temperature rise of the conductive housing. The wall of the conductive housing is made by a metal additive manufacturing technique in such a way as to produce a flow path that has a gentle trajectory without discontinuities in gradient.

The present invention relates to a particle accelerating structure, and more particularly to a structure suitable for both increasing the energy of and raising a repetition frequency of a particle beam periodically emitted from the structure. The particle stream emitting from an RF accelerating structure may be used for multiple purposes, for example medical treatment, non-destructive investigation of solid objects, and the like.
An example of a particle accelerator suitable for application of the present invention is a radio-frequency ("RF") accelerator using a photocathode which typically comprises a conductive housing defining a cavity, a photocathode for emitting photoelectron into the cavity, and a wave guide for generating an RF electric field in the cavity. As light is periodically applied to the photocathode, photoelectrons are emitted into the cavity intermittently. These photoelectrons are converged and accelerated by an RF electric field generated in the cavity. The RF electric field is applied synchronously with application of light to the photocathode. A typical RF accelerator is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,094,010 to Washio, which is incorporated herein by reference.
Such accelerating structures generally include a housing made from a conducting material such as copper. The housing defines a cavity. A photocathode is mounted on an inner surface of the housing. Into the cavity is fed light (laser) via a window, and illuminates the surface of the photocathode. Photoelectrons are emitted from the photocathode into the cavity. Such a housing may include one or more cells, dividing the cavity into a plurality of sub-cavities which are separated from each other by toroidal shaped discs (known in the art as "irises"). The sub-cavities are sized and configured to resonate in a particular harmonic mode which corresponds to the frequency of a particular electromagnetic field induced in the irises, with the result that a strong longitudinal electric field is generated along a longitudinal central axis of the housing.
Once a longitudinal electric field has been established in this way, the photoelectrons are accelerated along the longitudinal axis to emerge from an exit port. The resulting stream of photoelectrons may used for any of the multiple purposes known in the art.
In general, it is desirable to operate an RF accelerating structure at the highest power possible. Very high duty factor, high gradient photo-injectors and RF cavities in general are a critical component of the next generation of applications in high energy electron beam-based physics. Today, there is a compelling need for these applications, which include linear colliders, x-ray free-electron lasers, inverse Compton scattering sources, as well as associated imaging or analysis applications of interest to homeland security. The key issue for high average power, normal conducting, photo-injectors and RF accelerating structures is to effectively cool the housing structure.
Thermal management of very high duty factor, high gradient RF structures is crucial to their performance. A significant percentage of the applied RF power is deposited on the walls of the housing in specific locations depending on the magnitude and the direction of the electromagnetic fields in that location. This heating presents significant thermal engineering problems. The large amount of power dissipated in the structure can cause "hot spots" and local thermo-mechanical distortions which may lead to detrimental changes in RF properties and beam quality. One of the most challenging parts of an accelerator housing to be cooled are the "irises" which protrude into the cavity of the housing. Another challenging aspect to be cooled is the so-called RF coupler, which is a thin walled interface between the waveguide and the cavity.
Accordingly, the problem of thermal gain has been approached by providing channels within the housing structure, and forcing water to flow through the channels in combination with cooling the water on the outside of the housing by conventional heat dissipation means such as by radiator. However, the prior art is limited in the method for creating, and configuring the channels used for cooling the housing structure.
One method currently used to incorporate cooling channels into RF structures is achieved by drilling elongate cylindrical holes into the structure for example, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,094,010 to Washio, which is incorporated herein by reference, and where it is specifically described how cylindrical holes are provided to cool the irises of an RF accelerator. It will be readily understood that because these channels are drilled, they are limited to linear configurations, and are connected to each other at sharp angles. It will be understood that this kind of configuration greatly limits the cooling uniformity and rate of cooling in that fluid flow is dramatically slowed by the sharp changes in direction (discontinuities in flow gradient), thereby reducing the rate at which heat can be extracted.
Another method that has been used to introduce cooling channels into RF structure is to braze sections of the structure together with pre-machined, curve shaped channels cut out in each section. However, brazing multiple components to form high gradient RF structures is a delicate and expensive step, and many braze cycles are needed to build an effective cooling structure. Moreover, the resulting structure is not uniform or homogeneous, which adversely affects the efficiency at which heat can be extracted from the housing by water in the channels.
Thus, there is a need for a method and structure for fabricating an RF housing having a channel system with gentle changes in direction, suitable for cooling the RF housing structure. There is a further need for an RF housing structure having such channel system, that has a uniform and homogeneous configuration, that is not a collection of components, with sections cut out, brazen together. The present invention addresses these and other needs.

Method and apparatus for radio frequency cavity


A steering wheel assembly has an electrical switching device that can be used, for example, for activating a horn or any other electrically run devices. The electrical switching device includes first and second electrical contact elements. At least one of the first and second contact elements can be formed of an electrically conductive synthetic material and a metal conductor at least partially embedded therein. The synthetic material forms a contact surface. The steering wheel assembly includes a steering wheel base, an airbag module having a housing displaceable relative to the steering wheel base. The first contact element can be arranged on the base, and the second contact element can be arranged on either the base or the displaceable member. The housing can comprise a carrier for housing a gas generator and an airbag, and a cover connected to the carrier for covering the carrier. The second contact element can be arranged either on the base or on the carrier and/or the cover.

Motor vehicles use horns to warn other drivers and pedestrians. The driver typically presses the center part of the vehicle steering wheel to active the horn. Pressing the center part moves a portion of the steering-wheel/airbag cover to close a mechanical switching device. Because the steering wheel also houses an airbag assembly for protecting the driver during a collision, the arrangement for closing the switching device can become complicated. The airbag assembly creates problems because it is arranged between the cover and the switching device for activating the horn.
In this respect, German patent publication DE 197 32 022 discloses integrating the switching device with the airbag cover. Here, the switching device is formed by a contact arranged on the upper edge of a container accommodating the airbag assembly, and an opposite contact arranged on the underside of a web projecting from the airbag cover and directed toward the container edge. The web supports the airbag cover on the upper edge of the container using compression springs. In this arrangement, the driver can no longer directly activate the horn. This arrangement uses a lower switching current for improved electromagnetic compatibility. But with a lower switching current, voltage spikes from metal contacts of the switching device closing can interfere with the operation. That is, when voltage spikes appear, electrical components, such as horns, cannot be reliably activated.
To solve this problem, a piezoelectric contact film has been proposed. The film can be arranged between the airbag cover and the airbag so that the horn can be activated in the usual way by axially pressing the central area of the airbag cover. Examples of this solution are disclosed in EP 534 694 B1, U.S. Pat. No. 5,499,841, DE 43 29 120 A1, and EP 568 764 A1. This solution, however, is relatively expensive because application of the piezoelectric material is relatively expensive.
Other solutions involve incorporating an electronic device for detecting and correcting the voltage spikes. This too is expensive since a sub-assembly is needed. Accordingly, there is a need for a reliable horn activation device without the above-identified drawbacks. The present invention addresses this need.
The present invention relates to a steering wheel assembly and an electrical switching device thereof, which can be used, for example, for activating a horn or any other electrically run devices.
One aspect of the invention is the electrical switching device, which includes first and second electrical contact elements. At least one of the first and second contact elements comprises an electrically conductive synthetic material and a metal conductor at least partially embedded therein, the synthetic material forming a contact surface. Both of the first and second contact elements can be made of electrically conductive synthetic material and metal conductor at least partially embedded therein, with their synthetic material forming contact surfaces of the first and second contact elements.
The synthetic material can be an elastomer, more preferably a thermoplastic elastomer. The synthetic material can contain conductive fillers, which can be carbon fibers. One or both of the first and second contact elements can be extruded or injection molded. One of the first and second contact elements can be formed of a sheet metal. The second contact element can be formed of a sheet metal.
Another aspect of the present invention is the steering wheel assembly, which includes a steering wheel base, a displaceable member displaceable relative to the steering wheel base; and the electrical switching device described above. The first contact element can be arranged on the base, and the second contact element can be arranged on one of the base and the displaceable member. Displacing the displaceable member electrically connects the first and second contact elements. The displaceable member can be an airbag module having a housing for holding an airbag and a gas generator. The housing can be displaceable relative to the steering wheel base. The housing can comprise a carrier for housing a gas generator and an airbag, and a cover connected to the carrier for covering the carrier. The second contact element can be arranged at least on one of the carrier and the cover.
According to one embodiment, the steering wheel assembly can have a third contact element movable with the housing relative to the first and second contact elements. Here, the third contact element can be configured to contact both the first and second conductive elements to electrically connect them. The third contact element can be electrically conductive. In this respect, the second contact element is arranged on the base next to the first contact element, and the housing has at least one conductive portion that contacts both the first and second contact elements.
According to another embodiment, the second contact element can be arranged on the housing and positioned so that at least a portion of the second contact element directly contacts a portion of the first contact element when the housing is displaced toward the base. That is, the second contact element can be displaceably mounted relative to the base so that the second contact element is movable relative to the first contact element. The second contact element can comprise at least one projection integrally formed with the housing. The housing can comprise a carrier for housing a gas generator and an airbag, and a cover connected to the carrier for covering the carrier. The second contact element can be arranged at least on the cover. Moreover, the second contact element can be arranged both on the cover and the carrier. Moreover, the second contact element can be arranged on a peripheral end of the cover. The steering wheel assembly can further include a protective element, such as elastic foam, for isolating at least one of the first and second contact elements from dust.
According to another embodiment, both the first and second contact elements can be arranged on the base. The second contact element can be spaced from the first contact element with a gap, and the housing can have at least one pushing portion configured to push the second contact element toward the first contact element when the housing is displaced toward the base. The switching device also can include a switching-element housing supporting both the first and second contact elements. The switching-element housing can be attached to the base. The switching-element housing can be non-conductive. The pushing portion can contact a portion of the switching-element housing. At least the portion of the switching-element housing that contacts the pushing portion can be elastically deformable.
The first or second contact element or both can be configured to be seated in a groove formed respectively on the base or the housing (either or both the cover and the carrier).

Steering wheel assembly and a switching device thereof


The invention includes a laser processing method for processing a hidden surface of a workpiece, the hidden surface disposed within a recess having an opening. The method comprises inserting a reflective member into the recess and directing a pulse of coherent energy to reflect off of said reflective member and impact the hidden surface of workpiece to create a shock wave. Alteratively a surface of the recess may be modified to laser shock process the hidden surface.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the use of coherent energy pulses, as from high power pulsed lasers, in the shock processing of solid materials, and, more particularly, to methods and for improving properties of solid materials by providing shock waves therein where the laser beam impacts the solid material on a hidden surface. The invention is especially useful for enhancing or creating desired physical properties such as hardness, strength, and fatigue strength.
2. Description of the Related Art
Known methods for shock processing of solid materials, particularly laser shock processing solid materials, typically using coherent energy as from a laser, orient the laser beam normal, i.e., perpendicular to the workpiece.
When particular constraints of processing are created, based on the shape of the material or other geometric factors such as when attempting to laser shock harden integrally bladed rotors (IBR's), blind bores, slots, or dovetail sections, the laser beam may not have a direct, line of sight access to the area to be shock processed.
Laser shock processing techniques and equipment can be found in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,131,957 to Epstein 5,131,957, along with that of U.S. Pat. Ser. No. 08/547,012 entitled LASER PEENING PROCESS AND APPARATUS, assigned to the assignee of the present invention and hereby incorporated by reference.
Known laser shock processing systems tend to form a relatively small in cross sectional area, laser beam impacting on the surface of the workpiece. This has been accomplished since to sufficiently work a surface of workpiece, sufficient laser energy must be applied over a particular area. The smaller the area with the same amount of energy leads to a greater energy per unit area application. The more energy per unit area applied, the deeper the residual compressive stresses are applied to the workpiece.
Laser shock processing of hidden surfaces would benefit particular types and areas of workpieces if such could be accomplished.
What is needed in the art is a way to modify the laser beam to consistently and uniformly work hidden areas of the workpiece.


A method for calibrating one or more printheads includes printing a reference image using a first portion of image forming points of a first printhead, printing a diagnostic image using a second portion of image forming points of either the first printhead or a second printhead, detecting an optical density of the combined reference image and the diagnostic image and determining a compensation value based upon the optical density.

It may be desirable, in some printer applications to have high alignment accuracy between printhead nozzles to improve print quality. However, manufacturing variations frequently result in misalignment of printhead nozzles. For example, columns of nozzles are frequently curved and the spacing between columns of nozzles may be irregular. These errors are known as scan axis directionality (SAD) errors. In other instances, a column of nozzles may be straight but tilted. This may be the result of the entire printhead being tilted about an axis perpendicular to the medium as a result of the individual column of nozzles being tilted relative to other columns of nozzles on the same printhead. These errors are commonly known as THETA Z errors.

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A wall cover plate is provided for connecting directly to an electrical wiring device without the use of the base plate or adapter plate. The wall plate can have a connector such as a hook and/or prong that engages the housing for the mounting strap of the electrical wiring device. The electrical wiring device can include a removable connector attached to the mounting strap where the connector has at least one edge or coupling member for coupling with a faceplate. The faceplate can have an inner edge with a rib or series of teeth for connecting with the mounting strap or the removable connector by an interference fit.

Electrical wiring devices are installed in various types of installations, for example, industrial, residential and commercial applications and settings. The appearance and safety of the electrical wiring device is greatly enhanced by the wall plate. The wall plates are typically connected to the wiring device by screws which may not provide the desired aesthetics depending on the intended use. The installation of the wall plate typically involves small screws that can be easily dropped or lost.
Wiring devices such as a switch or electrical receptacle are typically mounted in an electrical box which is in turn mounted to a wall stud or other support structure. The open end of the electrical box is usually mounted flush with the outer surface of the wall. A cover plate or face plate is attached to the electrical device to cover the open end of the electrical box and to provide a decorative appearance. Face plates are typically attached by one or more screws that extend through a screw hole in the face plate and are threaded into the electrical device.
Various face plates have been produced having no visible screws or fasteners on the outer surface. The face plates typically have a snap mechanism that enables the attachment of the face plate to an adapter plate or some intermediate plate that must be first attached to the wiring device. One example is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,723,817 to Arenas et al. This cover plate assembly is suitable for single gang or multi gang boxes. The device includes an attachment plate having a tab at each end. A face plate is snapped onto the tabs to attach the face plate to the attachment plate.
Another example of a faceplate attachment assembly is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,189,259 to Carson et al. The face plate assembly includes a mounting plate having a hook-like portion, A face plate is provided with legs that extend outwardly and attach to the hook portion of the attachment plate to attach the cover plate to the attachment plate.
Another example of an attachment mechanism is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,733,330 to Tanaka et al. This patent also discloses an attachment plate which is attached to an electrical box where the attachment plate has a hook-like member. A cover plate includes legs with a hooked end for hooking onto the attachment plate.
Various other arrangements have been developed for attaching a face plate to an electrical box. One type of arrangement includes spring-like members that can snap into a hole in a mounting plate or clamp onto the electrical box or opening in the wall. Examples of this type of device are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,840,582 to Hubbell, U.S. Pat. No. 3,168,612 to Sorenson, U.S. Pat. No. 3,197,549 to Good, U.S. Pat. No. 4,211,905 to Quigley, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,340,795 to Arthur.
Various other arrangements for attaching a face plate to an electrical box are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,987,928 to Mori, U.S. Pat. No. 4,631,354 to Boteler, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,180,886 to Dierenbach et al.
While the prior attachment mechanisms for attaching a face plate to a wall have generally been suitable for the intended purpose, there is a continuing need in the industry for improved attachment mechanisms for the face plate.


A method of forming spring structures using a single lithographic operation is described. In particular, a single lithographic operation both defines the spring area and also defines what areas of the spring will be uplifted. By eliminating a second lithographic operation to define a spring release area, processing costs for spring fabrication can be reduced.

Stressed metal devices have become increasingly important for fabricating interconnects, probes, inductors and the like. However, fabrication of the stressed metal devices is a difficult and expensive process. One reason for the extra expense is the use of multiple lithography steps.
Prior art spring formation techniques typically use at least two lithography operations. A first lithography operation patterns a stressed or bimorph metal to form a general spring structure. A second lithography operation defines a spring release area (the release area is defined as the region that uplifts from a substrate). The second lithography operation may also be used to plate additional metal onto the stressed metal spring. A detailed description of the entire process is provided in U.S. Pat. No. 6,528,350 which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
These two basic lithographic operations have remained the same for about ten years. The cost associated with two lithographic operations has kept spring interconnect technology more expensive then some competing interconnect technologies. Thus a more efficient and thus less expensive way of fabricating a stressed metal device is needed.


A paper sheet folding device (sheet folding device) 160 includes a paper sheet folding unit 60 and a tray unit 110 that is provided on one side surface 161a of a device main body 161 and includes a lower discharge tray 121 on which a paper sheet S discharged through a lower discharge port 85 is loaded. The tray unit 110 is pivotable in an up-down direction about a pivotal shaft 111. A discharge drive mechanism 132 is disposed at a center portion of the tray unit 110 in a paper sheet width direction.

The present disclosure relates to a sheet folding device that performs a folding process with respect to a sheet, such as a paper sheet, on which an image has been formed by an image forming apparatus such as a copy machine or a printer, a sheet post-processor provided with the same, and an image forming system.
Conventionally, there has been used a paper sheet post-processor capable of stacking a plurality of paper sheets (sheets) on each of which an image has been formed by an image forming apparatus such as a copy machine or a printer and executing post-processing with respect to the paper sheets. Post-processing includes a binding process in which a bundle of paper sheets stacked is bound with a staple(s), a folding process in which a bundle of paper sheets is folded in two or three, and so on.
A known such paper sheet post-processor is provided with a paper sheet tray, a stapling device, a folding device, a paper sheet discharge port, and a discharge tray. A prescribed number of paper sheets are loaded on the paper sheet tray. The stapling device performs the binding process with respect to a bundle of paper sheets loaded on the paper sheet tray. The folding device performs the folding process with respect to a bundle of paper sheets loaded on the paper sheet tray. A bundle of paper sheets that has been subjected to the folding process is discharged through the paper sheet discharge port. A bundle of paper sheets discharged through the paper sheet discharge port is loaded on the discharge tray. The paper sheet post-processor is connected to an image forming apparatus, and the discharge tray, therefore, is provided on a side surface of the paper sheet post-processor opposite to the image forming apparatus.
The conventional paper sheet post-processor, however, is not so structured that, for example, at the occurrence of a jam (a paper jam) in a vicinity of the paper sheet tray, a jam clearing process can be performed from a discharge tray side. Because of this, performing the jam clearing process requires that the paper sheet post-processor be separated from the image forming apparatus, and then a side surface of the paper sheet post-processor on an image forming apparatus side be opened. Hence, the conventional paper sheet post-processor has been disadvantageous in that the jam clearing process takes time.

Pivotable tray for jam clearance in sheet folding device


The present invention provides a method, system, and program product for transferring document attributes. Specifically, under the present invention, a change to an attribute corresponding to a document archived in a content storage system is received on an indexing system. In response to the change, an archival date corresponding to storage of the document in the content storage system is set to a current date. Also, a start date and an end date in an index transfer tool is set to the current date. Thereafter, the changed attribute is transferred to the content storage system based on a matching of the newly changed archival date with the set start and end dates.

With the continued development of Information Technology (IT) and integrated environments, electronic document archiving continues to grow in popularity. In one implementation, an organization can maintain its own content storage system, while using a third party system (e.g., an indexing system) to create an index that is stored in the indexing system (e.g., SAP) and later access documents. In this implementation, documents will be stored/archived in the content storage system from the indexing system using a document and index transfer tool/application that integrates the indexing system with the content storage system. One example of such a tool is Commonstore, which is commercially available from International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) of Armonk, N.Y.
In general, when a document is desired to be archived, it will be "attached" using the document and index transfer tool (i.e., because you can use an indexing system such as SAP to store documents into a content storage system without having to transfer any index information). The transferring of index information is generally necessitated by the need to be able to access the document outside the indexing system.
In any event, each document to be archived is typically assigned a unique identifier (e.g., a UID such as a hexadecimal string) in the indexing system prior to being archived in the content storage system. This allows the document to be later referenced/accessed from the indexing system using the UID. In addition, various document "attributes" can be specified. For example, if the document is a contract for services, possible attributes can include a contract number, a contract amount, a contact person, etc. These attributes will be transferred to the content storage system along with the actual document for the reasons described above.
This allows a layperson to access a document using its attributes instead of having to recall the document's unique identifier both inside and outside of the indexing system. In any event, when a document and its corresponding attributes are archived, an archival date (i.e., the date on which it was archived) is saved.
On occasion, document attributes may change. For example, a document's contact person may be changed. Such changes can be input into the indexing system using the index transfer tool, and then transferred to the content storage system so that the archived document's attributes can be changed accordingly. Unfortunately, current approaches result in the transfer of an overly-voluminous amount of information. Specifically, the transfer of attributes from the indexing system to the content storage system is currently based on the original archival date for the corresponding document. For example, if a document and its attributes are archived on Jan. 1, 1970, an archival date of Jan. 1, 1970 will be assigned. If the attributes for that document are changed on Jan. 1, 2006, those changes must be propagated to the content storage system. However, the existing system bases the transfer of changes on the original archival date. Therefore, all attributes for all documents that were archived between Jan. 1, 1970 and Jan. 1, 2006 will be transferred. Such an approach is inefficient and can waste valuable bandwidth.
In view of the foregoing, there exists a need for an approach that solves at least one of the deficiencies in the existing art.

Method, system, and program product for transferring document attributes

International Business Machines Corporation


A station-side communication device connected to subscriber-side communication devices via an optical combining device; sending, to the subscriber-side communication devices, a distance measurement request signal; computing transmission delay times of optical signals from the individual subscriber-side communication devices by receiving distance measurement signals, and including: a threshold control part identifying the level of distance measurement signals; a signal detection part detecting breaks in the distance measurement signals from the threshold control part; a transmission granting part determining the timing at which transmission of optical signals is granted, and a reset timing generation part that, there is notification of detection of a break in the distance measurement signal from the signal detection part while it is being notified that distance measurement is carried out to and from the subscriber-side communication devices from the transmission granting part, sends a reset signal indicating that the voltage level is reset to the threshold control part.

The present application pertains to a PON (Passive Optical Network) system in which a plurality of subscriber connection devices share an optical transmission line.
As an optical access system, there is known the PON which makes a 1-to-n connection (n being an integer equal to or greater than 2) between an OLT (Optical Line Terminal) arranged on the station side and an ONU (Optical Network Unit) arranged on the subscriber side, by means of a device passively carrying out combining of optical signals, such as an optical splitter. A plurality of ONUs are connected to the terminals (e.g. PCs or the like) of the respective subscribers, the electrical signals from a terminal being converted into optical signals and transmitted toward the OLT. The optical splitter having received optical signals from the plurality of ONUs optically multiplexes (time division) the same optical signals. Inversely, an optical signal from the OLT is split, by means of the optical splitter, into a plurality of optical signals and transmitted toward a plurality of ONUs, each ONU selectively receiving and processing signals, from among the transmitted destined for it.
As mentioned above, an uplink signal transmitted from a plurality of ONUs toward an OLT is time division multiplexed by means of an optical splitter. The OLT determines/notifies the transmission timing of the optical signals with respect to the respective ONUs so that the optical signals from the plurality of ONUs do not collide, each ONU transmitting sequentially the optical signals at the notified timing. As specified in Ch. 8 and Ch. 9 of ITU-T Recommendation G.984.1, since the optical fiber length is e.g. set arbitrarily to one range from among the ranges 0-20 km, 20-40 km, and 40-60 km for each ONU, the distances between the OLT and the ONUs, i.e. the optical fiber lengths, are not necessarily equal, also leading to a difference in the transmission delay times of the optical signals transmitted from each ONU toward the OLT. Consequently, there is a need for the OLT to determine the transmission timing of the optical signals by taking into account the optical signal transmission delay times arising from the difference in the distance of each ONU.
In order to implement this, the OLT uses so-called ranging which is described in Ch. 10 of ITU-T Recommendation G.984.3, and by means of this, the OLT adjusts the transmission timing of the respective ONUs as if each ONU had been installed at equal distances, and the optical signals from a plurality of ONUs are made not to mutually interfere. In other words, the OLT assumes that all the ONUs are separated by just the identically same distance, determines/notifies the timing at which each ONU transmits an optical signal, and the OLT further notifies each ONU of the optical signal delay time arising from the difference between the concerned assumed distance and the distance at which each ONU is actually installed, and each ONU transmits an optical signal at a timing delayed, from the transmission timing notified from the OLT, by just the notified delay time.
In ranging, it is necessary for the OLT to transmit a signal for measuring the distance with respect to the ONU. When the ONU returns the distance measurement frame, the OLT receives the same signal, measures the time from the request for transmission of the signal for distance measurement until the reception of the signal for distance measurement, i.e. the roundtrip delay time, and finds out how much the ONU is separated from the OLT. Next, the OLT, in order to make all the ONUs appear to be at an equal distance, sends instructions for each ONU to delay transmission by just a time called the equalization delay (EqD). E.g., in order to make all the ONUs have a roundtrip delay time of 20 km, it indicates to the ONU an equalization delay equal to ("20 km roundtrip delay time")−("measured roundtrip delay time"). The ONU is provided with a circuit that transmits data with a fixed delay of just the indicated equalization delay, and by means of the aforementioned instruction, and uplink data transmission is carried out so that all the ONUs have a 20 km roundtrip delay time.
Also, in the Ethernet™ PON system defined in Ch. 64 of the IEEE 802.3 Standard, the aforementioned distance measurement is carried out notwithstanding the fact that no equalization delay instruction is present. Instead, after the distance measurement, in case the OLT sends a grant to the ONU, the Start value of the grant is compensated on the basis of the measured roundtrip delay time.

Passive optical network system and ranging system thereof


A control valve assembly (94) is provided for allowing manual and automatic splitter shifting in a compound splitter-type vehicular transmission system (92). The control valve assembly is interposed in series between a selectively pressurized and exhausted conduit (108) controlled by a manual selector valve (104) and a pilot conduit (110) controlling the operation of a splitter shift actuator (86). The control valve assembly is designed to fail in a position allowing fluid communication between the selectively pressurized and exhausted conduit and the pilot conduit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a control valve assembly for a splitter-type compound change-gear transmission allowing both manual and automated splitter shifting. In a preferred embodiment, the present invention relates to a control valve assembly for a vehicular partially automated splitter-type compound mechanical transmission system of the type requiring manual shifting in the lower ratios and having automatic splitter shifting in the upper two or more ratios.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Partially automated vehicular transmission systems requiring manual shifting in the lower ratios and having a control for automated shifting in the upper ratios are known in the prior art, as may be seen by reference to U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,722,248; 4,850,236 and 5,038,627, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Splitter and combined range and splitter-type compound vehicular transmissions requiring manual splitter shifting are well known in the prior art, as may be seen by reference to U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,799,002; 4,754,665; 4,974,468; 5,370,013 and 5,390,561, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.

Automatic and manual splitter shifting control assembly


A diagnostic system and method for repairing computing devices comprises a diagnostic application running on a same computing system having a failed operating system (O/S). The diagnostic application is provided with access to the file system of the failed O/S image. The diagnostic software application collects relevant configuration information from the file system of the failed O/S image, and transports this information to a proxy system running the same operating system as the computing device being diagnosed. The proxy system utilizes the collected data to diagnose the subject failed O/S system. Once the proxy makes a determination it synthesizes repair information comprising new or modified files and instructions to be transported back to the diagnostic software system to apply. A network connection is provided between the computer running the diagnostic application and the proxy system that enables data to be easily transported between the two systems without human intervention.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to computer diagnostic systems and particularly, to a computer diagnostic system that executes under one operating environment (e.g., Linux) to gather information, diagnose, and make corrections to a second operating environment (e.g., Windows) on the same machine.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Often in the case of computer system failure, a diagnostic software package is executed to attempt to diagnose the cause of the failure. This software may be hosted in its own operating environment (e.g., Linux) outside of the operating system (O/S) that is normally executed on the machine (e.g., Windows). However, unless the diagnostic operating environment is the same as the one being diagnosed and repaired it will not be able to examine the internal configuration of the failed system image. This is because the configuration of the failed system (e.g., Windows) must be manipulated via proprietary interfaces exposed by the failed operating system which are not available in the diagnostic environment (e.g., Linux). For example, consider the case when the diagnostic software is running under Linux while the system to be diagnosed and repaired is a Windows system. This limits the types of repairs the diagnostic software may make. In many cases running the diagnostics software under the same operating system may not be practical for a number of reasons including: image size limitations, cost of additional licenses, or business decisions that do not allow the two O/Ss to be identical.
One proposed solution for a computer diagnostic system that executes under one operating environment (e.g., Linux) to gather information, diagnose and make corrections to a second operating environment (e.g., Windows) on the same machine is to write a plethora of Windows diagnostic tools to run under Linux. For example, Linux based tools to manipulate the Windows registry (e.g., Regedt32), event log, INF files, user profiles, Active Directory database files, Security Descriptors, etc. This is a large complex programming and reverse engineering task as the physical layout of these entities on disk are Microsoft proprietary and often change with each update of Windows operating system (O/S). Moreover, there are always new facilities in upcoming releases of Windows O/S (e.g., .NET related system components) that vendors may not be privy to. This will require increased programming and reverse engineering effort to enable diagnosis via Linux based diagnostic tools.
It would be highly desirable to implement a system that facilitates diagnosing a failed computer system that obviates the complex programming and engineering tasks.
It would be highly desirable to provide a service that facilitates diagnosing a failed computer system without complex programming and engineering tasks.

Diagnostic repair system and method for computing systems


A method, apparatus, and storage medium for training a neural network model used for image processing are described. The method includes: obtaining a plurality of video frames; inputting the plurality of video frames through a neural network model so that the neural network model outputs intermediate images; obtaining optical flow information between an early video frame and a later video frame; modifying an intermediate image corresponding to the early video frame according to the optical flow information to obtain an expected-intermediate image; determining a time loss between an intermediate image corresponding to the later video frame and the expected-intermediate image; determining a feature loss between the intermediate images and a target feature image; and training the neural network model according to the time loss and the feature loss, and returning to obtaining a plurality of video frames continue training until the neural network model satisfies a training finishing condition.

With the development of computer technologies, in an image processing technology, a neural network model is usually used to perform conversion processing on a feature of an image, such as image color feature conversion, image light and shadow feature conversion, or image style feature conversion. A neural network model used for image processing needs to be trained first before feature conversion processing is performed on the image through the neural network model.

Method and apparatus for training neural network model used for image processing, and storage medium

TENCENT TECHNOLOGY (SHENZHEN) COMPANY LIMITED


Embodiments of the present invention are directed to provide novel methods and a system for adaptive resolution rendering via scaling in a multiple graphics processor system. A method is described herein that maintains a constant framerate by reducing the resolution of the graphical output rendered in one graphics processor and using another graphics processor in the same computing system to scale the already-rendered output to its original intended resolution when the framerate drops below a desired threshold.

Graphics processing subsystems are used to perform graphics rendering in modern computing systems such as desktops, notebooks, and video game consoles, etc. Traditionally, graphics processing subsystems are implemented as either integrated graphics solutions or discrete video cards, and typically include one or more graphics processing units, or "GPUs," which are specialized processors designed to efficiently perform graphics processing operations
Integrated graphics solutions are graphics processors that utilize a portion of a computer's system memory rather than having their own dedicated memory. Due to this arrangement, integrated graphics subsystems are typically localized in close proximity to, if not disposed directly upon, some portion of the main circuit board (e.g., a motherboard) of the computing system. Integrated graphics subsystems are, in general, cheaper to implement than discrete video cards, but typically have lower capability and operate at reduced performance levels relative to discrete graphics processing subsystems.
Discrete or "dedicated" video cards are distinguishable from integrated graphics solutions by having local memory dedicated for use by the graphics processing subsystem which is not shared with the underlying computer system. Commonly, discrete graphics processing subsystems are implemented on discrete circuit boards called "video cards" which include, among other components, one or more GPUs, the local memory, communication buses and various output terminals. These video cards typically interface with the main circuit board of a computing system through a standardized expansion slot such as PCI Express (PCIe) or Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP), upon which the video card may be mounted. In general, discrete graphics processing subsystems are capable of significantly higher performance levels relative to integrated graphics processing subsystems. However, discrete graphics processing subsystems also typically require their own separate power inputs, and require higher capacity power supply units to function properly. Consequently, discrete graphics processing subsystems also have higher rates of power consumption relative to integrated graphics solutions.
Some modern main circuit boards often include two or more graphics subsystems. For example, common configurations include an integrated graphics processing unit as well as one or more additional expansion slots available to add a dedicated graphics subsystem. For mobile computing devices implemented according to these configurations, typically only one of the graphics processing subsystems (generally the integrated graphics processing subsystem) will have an output terminal, typically with one or more ports corresponding to one or more audio/visual standards (e.g., VGA, HDMI, DVI, etc.), for connecting to a display device.
Typically, only one of the graphics processing subsystems will be running in the computing system at any one time, with heavier graphics processing loads being allocated to the dedicated or discrete graphics processing subsystem for processing. Since typical configurations do not include a direct display connection between the discrete graphics processing subsystem and a coupled display device, graphical output rendered by the discrete graphics processing subsystem is often stored in system memory, where it is retrieved by the integrated graphics processing subsystem and presented to the coupled display device in a "pipeline" arrangement.
In general, rendering at the highest framerates possible is preferable to the application's user or viewer. This is especially true for computing gaming applications. However, rendering at a constantly high framerates is not always possible as executing applications may be sending an ever changing amount of data to render. On many applications, the framerate may vary widely between scenes or even individuals frames between scenes, depending on the complexity of the scene being rendered. Naturally, experiencing large variance or inconsistencies in framerate is undesirable and may negatively impact the application user's viewing experience.

Adaptive resolution DGPU rendering to provide constant framerate with free IGPU scale up


An ignition device for igniting an associated fuel, such as charcoal briquettes or firewood, includes a base, an ignitor, a wick, and an ignition cream. The base is planar and is made of a combustible material such as cardboard. The ignitor has a generally conical configuration and is attached to a top surface of the base. The ignitor is a thermite type material which includes aluminum and iron oxide. The wick is attached to the top surface of the base and extends between the ignitor and an edge of the base. The ignition cream can be made of the same material as the wick, both being ignitable with a match or cigarette lighter.

I. Field of Invention
This invention pertains to the art of ignitors for charcoal and other similar fuels such as wood, and, more particularly, to an improved ignitor wherein the ignitor is a clean, inexpensive substance not comprising petroleum distillates.
II. Description of the Related Art
The use of charcoal briquettes and similar fuels for outdoor cooking is well-known. Typically, one wishing to cook outdoors purchases charcoal and charcoal lighter fluid in combination. The charcoal is often difficult to kindle, even when using lighter fluid. Conventional charcoal lighter fluid, being a liquid, can be volatile and can present safety and fire hazards. Typical lighter fluid is a petroleum distillate which can cause serious burns, dangerous flame-ups, objectionable odors, poor tasting food, and ozone-layer affecting carbons.
Typical lighter fluid operates by soaking into the charcoal briquettes. Upon ignition, the lighter fluid burns away and the charcoal smolders until hot enough to provide proper heat for cooking. Generally, the procedure takes more time than is desirable.
Further, because of the safety problems recited above, lighter fluid is unacceptable as an igniting substance for use in home fireplaces.
To alleviate these and other problems, some self-kindling fuel packages have been sold. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,832,703 to Campana, et al. describes one such self-kindling fuel package in which a charge of fuel is held together within a container. The container is comprised of two elements which are folded together to create the container which receives the fuel.
Another example of a fuel package is U.S. Pat. No. 3,269,807 to Key, Jr., in which the fuel package comprises a basket formed of a plurality of staves. Within the staves is loaded a charge of fuel. The top of the basket is covered with a circular lid which features a tab.
Another example of a fuel package is U.S. Pat. No. 1,401,803 to Lynes in which a wick extends without a box-like structure containing inflammable material.
U.S Pat. No. 2,834,661 to Chaplin discloses a self-kindling fuel package featuring a chimney section in the middle.
Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 4,460,377 to Kalil features a hollow cardboard container in which charcoal or another similar fuel is stored and ignited with an ignitor.


A reference current generating circuit generates at least one reference current. A voltage generating circuit generates voltage. A sense amplifier compares a current caused to flow in a memory cell according to the voltage supplied from the voltage generating circuit with the reference current supplied from the reference current generating circuit. A control section is supplied with an output signal of the sense amplifier. When verifying the threshold voltage of the memory cell, the control section causes the voltage generating circuit to generate verify voltage which is the same as readout voltage generated at the time of data readout from the memory cell.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device which stores multivalue data, for example, and more particularly to a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device using a current comparison type sense amplifier.
2. Description of the Related Art
For example, various types of nonvolatile semiconductor memory devices (which are hereinafter referred to as flash memories) which are configured by EEROM cells and in which data can be electrically and simultaneously erased are developed. For example, the readout and verify operations of a NOR type flash memory are performed by comparing currents flowing in a selected memory cell and a reference memory cell by use of a sense amplifier (for example, refer to Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2001-325795, B. Pathak et al., A 1.8V 64 Mb 100 MHz Flexible Read While Write Flash Memory, 2001, IEEE international Solid-State Circuits Conference). This type is called a current comparison type sense system.
In the case of the current comparison type sense system, voltage applied to the control gate of a memory cell is changed at the verify time in which the threshold voltage of the memory cell having data written therein is verified and at the readout time in which data is read out from the memory cell. A system in which the threshold voltage is thus verified by use of voltage different from the voltage used at the readout time is hereinafter called a voltage verify system.
In a case where the verify operation is performed by use of the above voltage verify system when binary data of "0" or "1" is stored in the memory cell, a current margin (which is hereinafter referred to as a sense current margin) with respect to the reference current at the data readout time can be made sufficiently large even if the current-voltage characteristic (which is hereinafter referred to as Gm) of the memory cell varies.
However, when multivalue data such as "00", "01", "10", "11" is stored in the memory cell, for example, a sufficient large sense current margin cannot be attained because of a variation in Gm of the memory cell at the verify time according to the voltage verify system. Therefore, it becomes difficult to stably verify the threshold voltage of the memory cell and becomes impossible to control the threshold voltage of the memory cell with high precision. Accordingly, it is desired to develop a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device in which a sufficiently large current margin at the readout time can be attained and the threshold voltage of the memory cell can be controlled with high precision.

Nonvolatile semiconductor memory device which stores multivalue data


A computer implemented method and apparatus for automatically improving legibility based on preferred font characteristics. The method comprises determining a plurality of preferences regarding font size characteristics of sample text; receiving a request to view an electronic document having text in a given font; and displaying text of the electronic document in the given font with a zoom level based on the preferences.

Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to electronic readers and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for automatically improving legibility based on preferred font characteristics.
Description of the Related Art
When reading an electronic document, it is preferable for the text, regardless of the font, to be legible, or in a size that can be easily read. However, what is legible and easy to read to one user may not be legible and easy to read to another user. A user who is far-sighted may want the text to be large and bold to make the text more legible. A user who is near-sighted may find a small font size to be more legible. Hence, legibility is a preference personal to each individual user. Typically, each time a user opens an electronic document, the user must adjust the zoom level in an electronic display in order to change the size of the text to a size that is more comfortable to the user. This is inconvenient and provides a poor user experience.
Therefore, there is a need for a method and apparatus for automatically improving legibility based on preferred font characteristics.

Method and apparatus for improving text legibility by automatically adjusting zoom level based on preferred font characteristics including height, weight, and condensation


A semiconductor integrated circuit contains a logic circuit which operates upon receiving a clock; a logic built-in self test circuit which executes a built-in self test of said logic circuit, said logic built-in self test circuit having a pattern generator which generates a pattern to be input to said logic circuit, a pattern compactor which receives data output from said logic circuit that has received the pattern, compacts the data, and outputs a result, and a logic built-in self test control unit which controls operations of said pattern generator and said pattern compactor and controls an operation of causing a scan path in said logic circuit to shift upon receiving the pattern; a device circuit which operates upon receiving the clock; and a device circuit built-in self test circuit which executes a built-in self test of said device circuit.

The present invention relates to a semiconductor integrated circuit and a design apparatus thereof.
One of test facilitation techniques to overcome difficulties in testing large-scale complex semiconductor integrated circuits is a built-in self test (to be referred to as a BIST hereinafter). The BIST is widely used.
In the BIST, a BIST circuit arranged around a test target block in a semiconductor integrated circuit automatically generates a test pattern to be supplied to the test target block and analyzes the test result output from the test target block.
First, a semiconductor integrated circuit including a test target, i.e., a test target block is set in a test mode. In this mode, the input terminals of the test target block receive a test signal which is different from that in the normal operation, and the output terminals feed data also to the BIST logic.
A BIST control circuit to control a BIST circuit is initialized. Then, a predetermined number of BIST clocks are input to execute the BIST. During the BIST, a test pattern generated by a pattern generator is automatically input to the test target block.
A test result analyzer analyzes the test result output from the test target block and outputs an analysis result.
In the BIST, it is unnecessary to prepare a large amount of test patterns on an external tester memory. Hence, the cost of the tester is reduced. All operations are done in the device in synchronism with the BIST clock. The use of a high-speed BIST clock enables a test at a higher operation speed than the test operation clock of the tester. This allows a product test in an actual operation.
In a System-on-Chip (to be referred to as a Soc hereinafter) having a plurality of kinds of functional blocks (IP (Intellectual Property) cores), it is possible to independently test blocks by building a BIST in each of the logic core and memory core. This arrangement also allows to simultaneously test a plurality of blocks and shorten the total test time.
On the other hand, when a plurality of blocks are tested at the same time, power consumption upon the test tends to considerably increase.
Especially in the BIST, generally, the fault detection capability is enhanced by raising the activation efficiency of the circuit as compared to the normal operation mode. For this reason, even when power consumption during the system operation is suppressed below a prescribed value set in design, power consumption during the test may fall outside the guaranteed range of power design and cause an operation error due to voltage drop.
Hence, scheduling to decide the test execution sequence needs to be appropriately done. It is necessary to make the total power consumption of simultaneously executed tests fall within the prescribed range and optimize the test from the viewpoint of power consumption and test time.
However, simple scheduling may be unable to solve the problem of power consumption because when the test circuits of several blocks are being operated, other blocks may operate.
For example, to execute a memory BIST circuit at a high frequency, the timing must be adjusted by using a high-speed clock input during the system operation as the clock of the memory and using the same clock even for the memory BIST circuit.
However, the high-speed clock for the system operation also propagates to a system logic circuit. The logic circuit operates at random so that power consumption is generated in the part other than the test target. If the propagation range spreads, the power consumption of the overall semiconductor integrated circuit becomes too high to neglect.
To prevent this phenomenon, a clock switching circuit to suppress clock input is provided at the system clock diverging point to the logic circuit to prevent clock propagation to it during memory BIST execution.
However, adding a circuit to the high-speed clock path locally delays clock propagation to each path, resulting in an increase in difficulties in timing adjustment and an increase in the design time.
A reference that discloses a conventional BIST circuit is as follows.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-208331

Semiconductor integrated circuit having built-n self test circuit of logic circuit and embedded device, and design apparatus thereof


A motor apparatus is provided with a yoke housing, a gear housing and a brush holder. A receiving portion of the gear housing receives the worm wheel, etc. therein. The brush holder is interposed between the yoke housing and the gear housing. The worm wheel is provided with a switching plate on one side face thereof, which is in slide contact with contact members. The gear housing is provided with a housing body and a cover. In the housing body is formed a communication hole to communicate an internal spaces of the receiving portion and a yoke housing. The contact members are disposed on the brush holder and on the bottom portion side of the receiving portion with respect to the worm wheel so as to extend through the communication hole into the gear housing.

Conventionally, a motor apparatus is in use that has a motor unit provided with an armature and a gear unit provided with a speed reduction mechanism. In the speed reduction mechanism, a face of a wheel gear is provided with a switching plate having a specific conductor pattern thereon, and a gear housing of the gear unit is provided with a fixed terminal (refer to JP-06-44371-U, for example). In this kind of motor apparatus, a contact between the switching plate and the fixed terminal, which are in accordance with a rotational position of the wheel gear, serves as a switching detector, so that the motor apparatus is suitable for a wiper motor, for example. That is, this kind of motor apparatus is provided with a so-called automatic return-and-stop mechanism. When a wiper switch is turned off to stop an operation of a wiper system, the motor apparatus does not stop at once, but stops after moving the wiper arm to a specific off position on a window of a vehicle.
In the above-described motor apparatus according to JP-06-44371-U, the gear housing includes a housing body, which is provided with a receiving depressed portion to receive the wheel gear, etc., and a cover, which is fixed on the receiving depressed portion to cover that. On a bottom portion of the receiving depressed portion is formed a receiving portion. An output shaft of the motor apparatus is inserted into and supported by the receiving portion. The wheel gear, a motion conversion mechanism to convert a rotational rotation of the wheel gear into a reciprocating swing motion of the output shaft, the fixed terminal and the cover are assembled in turn in an axial direction of the receiving portion, namely in a depressing direction of the receiving portion.
However, the receiving portion disposes both a mechanically moving structure such as the motion conversion mechanism and an electrical structure such as the fixed terminal and the switching plate of the wheel gear in a single space therein. Thus, it is necessary to dispose the mechanically moving structure and the electrical structure so as to avoid an interference between them, thereby an electrical wiring structure is disposed outside the gear housing. Accordingly, a connector unit (wiring), which is fixed outside the gear housing, connects a connection terminal of the fixed terminal and a connection terminal connected to a brush to energize the armature, to make a wiring structure long and complicated, to increase the number pf parts and working processes, and to decrease a reliability of a waterproofness of the wiring structure.

Motor apparatus having rotational position detector


The present invention provides systems and methods that can provide a high g-force to a test specimen. An exemplary system of the present invention includes a beam, rigidly fixed at one or both ends, on which a test specimen can be mounted. A loading device is preferably provided that can load the beam by using a ceramic column positioned between the beam and the loading device. A flywheel that has a cutter that can be deployed on command while the flywheel is rotating to fracture the ceramic column is also provided. The present invention also provides systems and methods for controllably damping the oscillation of a loaded beam at some point after the load on the beam is released to produce a high g-force event. For example, a damping device of the present invention may be engaged after the completion of the high g-force event. Such damping can prevent subsequent ringing or oscillation of the beam without affecting the magnitude of the high g-force event.

Shock testing is used to characterize devices that are exposed to impact or shock in use. For example, electronic devices and components used in avionics applications such as gyroscopes and accelerometers can be exposed to shock in the form of high g-forces. Because of this, it is often desirable to characterize the effect of such high g-forces on such devices as part of the design process.
One shock testing technique for applying a high g-force shock to a test specimen is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,655,190 to Grossman et al., which is fully incorporated herein by reference for all purposes. The device and method of Grossman et al. uses a test system that includes an I-beam fixed at one or both ends. A test specimen is mounted to the beam and electrically connected to a monitoring system to record or monitor the effects of the high g-force shock provided to the test specimen during the test. The beam is loaded within the elastic range of the beam material by applying a force that deflects the beam away from a static position by a predetermined amount. Such loading creates a high strain on the beam and stores elastic energy in the beam. The high g-force event is created by suddenly releasing the stored energy in the beam by removing the force. A shockwave travels along a length of the test beam and applies a high g-force to the test specimen.
In order to create a high g-force in this way, it is desirable to release the loading of the beam suddenly and reliably. Releasing the beam suddenly contributes to maximizing the g-force that can be achieved for a particular beam and loading condition. This is because the length of time that it takes to completely remove the loading force from the beam can contribute to a decrease in the elastic energy that creates the high g-force event. Thus, when a sudden release is achieved, more of the elastic energy that is stored in the beam can efficiently contribute to the high g-force event.
Releasing the beam in a reliable manner relates to a desire to provide consistency and repeatability in testing. For certain test specimens, such as inertial devices for example, it is desirable to minimize any forces that might act on the beam from directions other than the desired or primary direction of the applied g-force. In order to do this, the force applied to the beam needs to be repeatedly released in a controlled and reliable manner. The need to have a clean and repeatable test is important for most test devices. If the test is repeatable then the relationship between the motions in various directions is fairly consistent. By monitoring motion in the primary direction there is reasonable confidence that the motion in the other directions stays within some limits. If the motion is primarily in one direction it is easier to determine the cause and effect relationship between the shock applied and the resulting behavior of the test specimen (breakage, shift in performance, etc.). Also, in order to be able to meaningfully compare test results from plural test runs, consistency throughout the test runs is desired. Reliability in testing is also desired because test specimens can be expensive or their availability may be limited. As such, it is undesirable for a test to fail. Moreover, shocking a test specimen with a g-force that is lower than the desired test force can make the test specimen unsuitable for further testing. Thus, for many applications, test specimens must be tested at the desired g-force on the first test run.
The Grossman et al. test device uses a hydraulic ram to apply the loading force to the beam. In particular, the ram applies the loading force to a ceramic column that is positioned between the ram and the beam. In this condition, the ceramic column is put in compression and supports the complete load directed to the beam. In order to conduct the test and cause a sudden beam release and thus create the high g-force event, the ceramic column is impacted with a projectile to fracture the ceramic column and quickly release the beam, thereby creating a high g-force event. This technique effectively releases the beam in a sudden and reliable manner. However, where it is desired to increase the g-force created by the test, an increased load is placed on the beam by the hydraulic ram through the ceramic column to provide greater stored elastic energy in the beam. In order to support the increased load, the diameter of the ceramic column is increased. The ceramic column thus experiences a correspondingly increased load and greater energy is required to be provided by the projectile to fracture the ceramic column because of its increased diameter. Where the ability to provide a projectile with sufficient energy is unavailable or difficult, other techniques that can suddenly and reliably fracture the ceramic column are desired.
After the force is removed from the beam and the high g-force event is completed, the beam will resonate until the energy stored in the beam is fully dissipated. The magnitude of the g-force is greatest during the first resonant cycle of the beam and it is the reaction of a test specimen to this maximum g-force that is usually of most interest. Subsequent resonance of the beam may be undesirable for certain applications. Such ringing can be undesirable where the purpose of a test is to simulate a real world shock event such as a gun launch or the like as accurately as possible. Repeated oscillations after the primary shock event are generally unrealistic and could conceivable cause damage to a test specimen that would not occur as a result of an actual real world shock event. Also, by eliminating the ringing it is easier to demonstrate by analysis of the data that a real world shock event has been adequately simulated.

Damper for high g-force shock pulse generator systems and methods