The present invention provides for the protection of and ability to upgrade to new formats of digital content by providing consumers of the digital content the capability of purchasing content insurance on digital content they consume. By purchasing insurance on content, at a later time consumers are able to return to the content distribution channels and re-obtain the previously purchased content in the same, or new format as the original purchased.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of digital content distribution. More specifically, the present invention is related to protecting and upgrading digital content in a digital content distribution system through the use of content insurance.
2. Background
As more and more content is created or made available in digital form and as the ways of distributing such content change, new challenges are arising in terms of preserving this content. The reliability of storage systems such as hard disks or solid state memories is quite high, but data loss is not uncommon. This may be due to hardware or software failures, as well as human errors or intentional destruction, as is the case for computer viruses.
This is a potential problem in data storage for personal use as well as within organizations; however, the latter are more likely to take measures to protect their data through backups. Nevertheless, large amounts of data still remain unprotected in corporations and especially in small businesses. The percentage of data that has not been backed up is typically even higher in private computers or other consumer electronic devices.
A shared characteristic of the various forms of content intended to be distributed for commercial purposes is that the original costs of production are several orders of magnitude more than production of each individual copy thereafter. Technological advances, from Gutenberg's press to the World Wide Web, continue to widen that gap.
When consumers of that content buy a copy, be it a song, a motion picture or a news article, an insignificant percentage of the purchase price goes to cover the marginal cost of distributing that copy. This is even more clear on the Internet, where most, if not all, costs incurred by the distributor when content is downloaded, are fixed.
Content itself is not sold to consumers, but rather is implicitly licensed to them. As an example, one of the most widespread implicit licensing agreements for copyrighted material is that used in the sales of music records. Under the conditions of this agreement, the buyer purchases limited rights to listen to the contents of a piece of media—vinyl record, cassette tape, compact disc, or similar technologies—for as long as this media is usable. Limited copies are generally also considered "fair use" as long as they meet certain requirements.
Different types of media have different useful lives. For instance, analog cassette tapes contain magnetic materials that were polarized to encode an audio signal; the quality of this encoding would progressively fade with repeated playback, fast forward/rewind, heat and other external factors. Typical useful life of a cassette tape was two years or 20 playbacks, whichever happened first, before quality was noticeably lower than when originally recorded.
Compact discs and related technologies like DVD use optical methods to read and write information, which is digitally encoded. These media are therefore not subject to the progressive quality degradation described above, but if the surface gets too dirty or scratched then whole sections may be lost. CDs are also relatively fragile and do not stand significant physical stress.
More recently, with the advent of cheaper magnetic heads and solid state storage combined with advanced compression techniques, the use of "general purpose" computer storage has become an economically viable alternative for storage of content in digital form. In addition, with the advent of these technological advances, the distribution of content has begun to move from traditional hard media to electronic distribution over communication networks such as the Internet.
With the interplay of decreased marginal cost of reproduction of content in digital form and property rights of such content, a number of content distribution models have arisen. One such model is a direct content distribution model, illustrated in FIG. 1a. In this model, a merchant 100 receives digital content from the content owner 104 and the digital content is stored at the merchant's site. The consumer 102 shops at the merchant's site and purchases content from merchant 100. Once the content is purchased from merchant 100, the content is downloaded from merchant 100 to consumer 102.
A second content distribution model is depicted in FIG. 1b. In this model, consumer 102 purchases content from a merchant 100. When consumer 102 purchases content from merchant 100, merchant 100 informs clearing house 106 of this transaction. Clearing house 106 then generates a voucher for the purchase. This voucher is then presented to content owner 104, allowing consumer 102 to download the content from owner 104. The voucher is presented to owner 104 either by clearing house 106 or consumer 102.
Typically, in the distribution models, there is a concern about controlling the distribution of the content in order to protect the property rights of the content owners. Other technological advances, such as in cryptography and digital rights management systems, have also encouraged the electronic distribution of digital content. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,933,498; 5,982,891; 5,673,316; and 6,119,108 generally illustrate content distribution models incorporating these other technological advances.
While economics and technological advances provide incentives for electronic distribution of digital content, there are, however, still problems associated with this distribution which hamper the acceptance of such distribution, both on the part of content owners and consumers. While top of the line storage systems are highly reliable, they are still subject to hardware failure. Even more likely are other sources of accidental loss of data: operating system problems that could affect the file system are not infrequent, viruses could destroy data stored on disk and users may unknowingly delete files containing purchased content.
In addition, there are other disincentives for consumers to accept electronic distribution of content. As technology surrounding encoding of this content continues to advance at a rapid rate, and as the cost of distributing the content via communication mediums such as the Internet is greatly reduced in comparison to hard media distribution of content, it is quite possible that owners and distributors of content will likely be willing to change content formats at a much faster rate than is the current practice. Moreover, due to the fast pace of technological change, consumers may be concerned that the specific format that is offered today will be superseded by a new one in a short lapse of time, and that old content will either be incompatible with new players or will lack the quality of newer formats.
Most content commercially available, such as news and entertainment content, has one common characteristic: it does not change over time. As noted, the media or encoding may change over time, e.g., from big screen format to 8 mm to VHS to DVD, however, the actual content remains constant. If an individual copy of a classic is lost, becomes damaged, or there is not a player compatible with a particular format available, a new copy would be a perfect substitute for the old one, with the possible exception of copies that are considered memorabilia. That is, a new copy of the content would perfectly replace the old content.
The present invention leverages the stability of this type of content by providing an insurance policy that can be purchased alongside digital content. Should an unexpected loss of data occur, the policyholder would be entitled to a new copy of the same material. In another embodiment, the present invention has the additional advantage of guaranteeing to consumers that new encodings of the same content they have already purchased would be made available to them as technology evolves. These would improve the adoption rate of digital distribution of content by reducing switching costs and the perceived risks, and, in addition, increase revenues to members of the distribution channel.

International Business Machines Corporation


A closed type built-up receptacle assembly comprised of at least one receptacle retained inside a hole on a wall by a mounting plate, and a face panel covered on said mounting plate, wherein each receptacle is comprised of a receptacle body supported on a compression spring and held in a casing by a holder, a covering covered on the casing over the receptacle body, and two movable plates controlled by torsional springs to close the opening on the covering and the plug hole on the receptacle body.

The present invention relates to sockets, and more particularly, the present invention relates to a closed type built-lip receptacle assembly.
A variety of receptacles are known and widely in use. In these conventional receptacles, the plug hole(s) is (are) constantly opened for connecting a plug or plugs. Because the plug hole(s) is (are) exposed to the outside, the internal electric circuit of a receptacle may be damped easily causing short circuit problem.

Closed type built-up receptacle assembly


A modular wiring harness is provided for a vehicle including a frame and an electrical system with electrical source devices, operating devices and switching. The wiring harness includes a wiring network connected to the electrical system devices and switching and to system and power module thereof. The system module connects electrical control components at a compact, direct-connection circuit board within the enclosure. The power relay also includes electrical control components, including a circuit breaker and a starter relay, which are connected to the wiring network. A mounting system is provided for mounting the wiring harness on various types of vehicles, including different models of motorcycles.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to vehicle electrical systems, and in particular to a modular wiring harness for motorcycles and other vehicles.
2. Description of the Related Art
Vehicles of various kinds employ electrical systems which can vary considerably in design, complexity and components. For example, land vehicles, watercraft and aircraft have different operational considerations which require different electrical system designs to meet the operating requirements for which each is intended. A wide range of electrical devices are used on different vehicle types for providing lighting, controlling engine operation, controlling conditions within the vehicle, navigation, etc.
Notwithstanding the considerable variety among vehicle electrical systems, most have several common features. For example, most include one or more sources of electrical current, such as batteries and current generating means comprising generators and alternators. Secondly, most vehicle electrical systems include operating devices which utilize such electrical power in connection with operating the vehicle. Thirdly, most vehicle electrical systems include switching for selectively activating the operating devices, either automatically in response to certain vehicle conditions (e.g., warning lights) or manually in response to operator input (e.g., headlights). Fourthly, wiring networks, which are often referred to as harnesses, are commonly employed for interconnecting the electrical system devices and switching.
On vehicles such as motorcycles with relatively open construction and exposed frames mounting various components, electrical system design and placement can be important for function and aesthetics since parts of the electrical system are normally exposed and often need to be accessible to an operator.
In addition to original equipment wiring harnesses which are installed when vehicles are manufactured, there is a considerable aftermarket for wiring harnesses and other electrical system components. For example, restoration, rebuilding and customizing of motorcycles is very popular, particularly with such models as Harley-Davidson motorcycles. Limited production of new Harley-Davidson motorcycles has created a considerable demand for used models, which are often rebuilt and customized. Motorcycles are often customized for their owner's enjoyment and also for display purposes at custom motorcycle shows.
For customizing purposes, the original wiring harnesses are often unsatisfactory because the wiring is not organized in a satisfactory manner and the electrical components, particularly control components such as circuit breakers, relays, flashers and the like, are distributed at various locations on the motorcycle. Moreover, many existing motorcycle wiring harnesses lack diagnostic devices for verifying the proper operation of the devices, switching and wiring and for isolating faults therein.
A solution is to provide one or more circuit boards for a vehicle which mount the various electrical control components and connect same to the wiring. Such circuit boards can be enclosed within enclosures which are preferably located at conveniently accessible locations on the vehicle. Previous electrical enclosures have tended to be relatively large and thus created problems in finding suitable locations for them on vehicles such as motorcycles with limited space. The oversized nature of such previous electrical enclosures was a result of their designs, which typically involved running circuit board traces from a circuit board to a terminal strip located at the edge or edges of the circuit board and providing a terminal thereat for connection to the vehicle wiring system. Such circuit board traces comprised conductive materials, such as copper, and were sufficiently large to accommodate the electrical current loads encountered in the electrical system. The terminal strips and connections thus added considerably to the space requirements for previous enclosed circuit boards.
Other considerations involved in vehicle electrical system design relate to protecting the circuit board connections and the electrical control components from the elements and with providing vibration-resistant electrical connections. For example, typical solder connections are made by wicking solder on to exposed ends of wire leads preparatory to making the solder connections. However, vibration can induce fatigue breakage of the individual conductor strands at the locations where the solder wicking stops.
Heretofore there has not been available a modular wiring harness with the advantages and features of the present invention.


A system and related methods for tagging data, especially in the context of a web-based application, includes various features associated with a tag bar. A text field is displayable in conjunction with such tag bar, as is a list of any potential tags. Data can be received corresponding to a tag to be added to the tag bar. Once the tag bar has been added, it is displayed in the tag bar.

Web-based software applications are available to tag data accessible through a computer network, such as the worldwide web. Such tags are generally terms or key words associated with data or content. Such data or content is often associated with one or more websites, databases, or other data storage. By tagging certain data or content of the website with one or more terms or key words, that content or data can be identified, organized, manipulated or searched according to the associated tag or tags.
Tagging has numerous applications, especially in web-based settings, and can be used in conjunction with a vast range of data, such as photos or text, individual entries or entire articles, or even websites themselves or other software applications. Applications can include tagging data associated with individuals, or extended to family, work-groups, entire companies, communities of interest, or the world population. Although tags can be assembled in lists or arranged in groups (referred to as "tag clouds") accessible to one or more users of web-based applications, it remains desirable to ease tagging of data, especially in web-based applications.


A nether garment for adsorbing odor to be worn close to at least one body part of a user having at least one outer fabric material layer and an inner layer of fiber fabric material for adsorbing odor, such that the nether garment conforms to a shape of the at least one body part of the user thereby providing one or more of a lightweight, flexible, breathable, washable, regenerative and reusable apparatus. Also described is a method of making an odor control nether garment and an improved method of controlling odors, including various body odors.

The average person produces two to three pints of gas daily, which exits the body from the anus in the form of flatus or from the mouth in the form of belching. On average, a flatus outburst for a normal person ranges from 10-20 occurrences per day and the odoriferous component consists mainly of sulfide gases. However, sufferers of, for example, irritable bowel syndrome, diabetes, diverticulitis, MS, aging and other gastrointestinal ailments can produce far more gas with more odors and emit it much more frequently. To minimize the effects of these flatus events, a wearable and regenerative odor control nether garment, incorporating air diffusion and odor adsorbing filtration technology, were developed to eliminate the inherent conflict between someone with odoriferous intestinal gas and the people within his or her breathing zone. Thus, the present invention relates to a gaseous intestinal discharge control apparatus and, more specifically, to an odor control apparatus which when worn close to the body of a user, adsorbs odoriferous intestinal gas and/or genitalia and/or urine and/or foot and/or under arm odor.
The use of activated carbon dates back to 1500 BC when it was discovered in an Egyptian papyrus and used for medicinal purposes. The ancient Hindus filtered water with carbon. In the thirteenth century, carbon materials were used in processes to purify sugar solutions. Late in the eighteenth century, Scheel discovered the gas adsorptive capabilities of carbon and Lowitz noted its ability to remove colors from liquids.
During World War I, activated carbon was used by the allies in gas masks to filter out chlorine gas. During Desert Storm, the allied military, under the threat of gas warfare, used garments impregnated with coconut shell carbon powder for protection.
Activated carbons are typically produced in granular, powdered and pelletized (a form of powdered) forms with the bulk made from coconut shells, coal, wood or peat materials, activated by selective oxidation with steam at elevated temperatures.
During the last few decades a third form of activated carbon was successfully developed by technically advanced countries, known as activated carbon fiber fabric. The raw materials used for making activated carbon fiber are typically Rayon® (cellulose), phenolic compounds and polyacrylonitrile (PAN). In general, the manufacture of PAN involves stabilizing the PAN in air up to 300° C. The resulting oxidized fiber can be directly activated or more usually is made into a fabric through conventional textile means. The oxidized PAN material is then activated. This involves heating the material to a temperature of up to 1300° C. not in an inert atmosphere but in an oxidizing atmosphere such as CO2 or H2O (steam). The action of the oxidizing agent causes a tremendous attack on the surface of the fibers, which induces a huge surface area, and a porous surface. The size and configuration of the pores greatly influence the adsorption capability of the carbon atoms on the surface to act as chemical "hooks" to attach many odoriferous gaseous substances, which are capable of passing through the PAN material. Also, a unique property of the activated carbon fiber fabric is that it is possible to reactivate the material when it becomes saturated, thus allowing the fiber fabric to be reused.
The adsorption speed of PAN activated carbon fiber can be from ten times to several hundred times that of granular or powdered activated carbon due to the size and configuration of the pores. Activated carbon fiber having a PAN precursor consists of micropores whereas macropores are predominant in granular/powdered carbons. The micropores are of a long and narrow shape resulting in a strong attractive force at the carbon surface, accelerating molecules into the pore structure so that efficient and rapid pore-filling continues, up to the point of saturation whereas in granular or activated powdered carbon some micropores exist at the very deep portion of the structure with the entrance to these pores being wide open. As a result, there is only a weak attraction at the surface thus requiring a long time for the molecules to diffuse to the point where they are captured and fixed.
The basic mechanism by which PAN activated carbon fiber fabric removes impurities from contaminated air is referred to as physical adsorption. Physical adsorption is a phenomenon caused by electrostatic forces of attraction (Van der Waal forces) between the impurities and the internal surfaces of the activated carbon. Adsorption differs from absorption in that adsorption is the binding of molecules to a surface and absorption is the filling of pores in a solid.
Activated carbon is not a single product but a variety of products, which can be distinguished by a number of qualitative parameters. The qualitative parameters of one carbon product may make it efficient and cost effective where another may fail in part or in whole. Some of the parameters of activated carbon are: porosity; weight of specific material expressed in g/m2; BET (internal surface area) m2/g; pore volume (ml/g); elastic rate (kg/mm2); tensile strength (kg/mm2); and ash content.
Activated carbons have different sized pores. Pores are referred to as micropores if their diameter is less than 20 angstroms (ideal for gas phase applications, and are of greatest significance for adsorption due to their very large specific surface area, and their large specific volume), mesopores when between 20 angstroms and 500 angstroms (ideal for liquid phase applications), and macropores when greater than 500 angstroms (ideal for large color bodies in liquid applications).
The specific surface area is measured by the BET method (the name being drawn from those of its inventors: Brunauer, Emmet and Teller). It consists of quantifying the pore surface of the activated carbon that is accessible to the molecules of a gas (nitrogen or argon). The value is expressed in m2/g of carbon. The larger the BET, the larger the surface area. Similarly, the larger the external surface area of the material, the more adsorption can take place.
Pore volume relates to the volume of micropores and can be used to determine the adsorbability of a particular entity. Also, elastic rate or elasticity is the greatest stress that can be applied to a material without causing permanent deformation.
The tensile strength is the ultimate strength of a material subjected to tensile loading. Thus, it is the maximum stress developed in a material during a tensile test.
Activated carbons can contain varying quantities of impurities, such as ash and humidity. Impurities can have an adverse affect on the application's performance and in the case of ash content, this residue creates a somewhat dirty/dusty product.
There are several devices that deal with the problems associated with intestinal discharges including devices that filter and/or capture intestinal exudations of various kinds. However, while those devices may be suitable for the purposes for which they were designed, the present invention provides an improved apparatus for adsorbing odors, such as body odors, including flatulence odor and/or genitalia odor and/or urine odor, to be worn close to the body of a user, as hereinafter described.
Typical of these devices are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,182,335 of Matrullo, U.S. Pat. No. 4,490,145 of Campbell, U.S. Pat. No. 4,480,417 of Yabrov, U.S. Pat. No. 5,360,421 of Revelle, U.S. Pat. No. 5,665,081 of Grosse, U.S. Pat. No. 5,728,080 of Suyama, U.S. Pat. No. 5,957,907 of Oakley Sauer, U.S. Pat. No. 6,313,371 of Conant, et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 5,593,398 of Weimer.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,182,335 of Matrullo describes an anal filter for protecting underwear from soiling, is attached to a person's anus solely by non-adhesive adherence to the anus and adjacent portions of the buttocks, due to a facing of fluffy fibrous material, and when attached, serves as a filter by being pervious to the discharge of gas through the anus but substantially impervious to complete passage of excreta carried by the gas or remaining on the anus from a bowel movement. A layer may be adhesively secured to the fibrous material and which prior to use of the anal filter can be pulled off from the fibrous material while pulling this material's fibers outwardly so as to give the material its fluffy characteristic.
Also, U.S. Pat. No. 4,490,145 describes an ostomy pouch having a filter element affixed to the outer pouch wall. The outer pouch wall has an aperture and the filter element includes a polymeric film cover and an insert of gas deodorizing material. The film cover also has an aperture and opposite ends of the insert overlie the two apertures.
Further, U.S. Pat. No. 4,480,417 of Yabrov describes an anal pad for preventing soiling of underwear due to undesired anal discharge. The anal pad includes a thin outer shell enclosing a semi-rigid shell. The semi-rigid shell may be a layer on one interior surface of the outer shell and may also partially cover the opposite interior surface of the outer shell. An absorbing layer is located within the outer shell and the semi-rigid layer. The absorbing layer contains glycerin which absorbs hydrogen sulfide gas and the combination of the absorbing layer and the semi-rigid shell acts as a sound muffling camera so as to decrease the noise due to flatus. The absorbing layer is made of a light porous material, the semi-rigid layer is made of compressed paper and the outer shell is made of a thin sheet of lignin paper. A layer of glue is provided on the outer surface of the anal pad for attaching it to a user's underwear.
Moreover, U.S. Pat. No. 5,360,421 of Revelle describes a washable and reusable absorbent garment designed to be fitted about the waist and legs and covering the groin and anal areas of a wearer. The garment includes a number of superimposed layers of textile material sewn together along their edges. Elastic material may be sewn in the material around the leg openings and waist to improve the fit. A liner material covers the inner surface of the garment. The liner layer of the garment or that portion which is next to the wearer's skin is a knitted bicomponent textile comprised of a brushed polyester outer layer which is interknitted with a nylon block co-polymer inner layer. The materials function to transfer moisture in both vapor and liquid form from the polyester side to the nylon side where it is dispersed and made available to the garment's second or absorbent layer. The two specific materials in the liner adjacent the wearer's skin and absorbent material work together to maintain a high degree of comfort for the wearer even after it has been wetted. The structural and functional integrity of the garment is maintained after repeated washings.
Still another patent in this field is U.S. Pat. No. 5,665,081 of Grosse which relates to a pad for attenuating sound and absorbing odors from an anal region of an individual. The inventive device includes a pad member containing a volume of odor-absorbing granulated charcoal covered by a layer of filler material and encapsulated with a flexible web. A gluteus insert extends from the pad for positioning between the gluteus-maximus muscles and against the anal region of the user to attenuate noise emanating therefrom.
Another patent is U.S. Pat. No. 5,728,080 of Suyama which relates to a degassing device for an artificial anal bag which is capable of storing the gas generated in the intestines, and of discharging the gas from the bag at a selected place where degassing causes no nuisance to others. It comprises an elongated tube having a filter loaded therein, an opening-and-closing plug attached to its head end and a diverging joint formed at its tail end. The diverging joint can be attached to the circumference of a joint opening, which is made in the upper part of the bag. When the bag is inflated with gas and excreta from the intestines, the patient can go to the men's room or somewhere for discharging the gas from the bag. Then, the excreta and liquid content are prevented from passing through the filter, only permitting the gas to flow therethrough. Thus, degassing can be put under the perfect control by the patient, so that there is no fear of permitting leakage of gas to cause nuisance to others or imprignation of his underwear with unpleasant odor before the patient is aware.
Further, U.S. Pat. No. 5,957,907 of Sauer discloses an absorbent article that includes a close fitting bodyside liner having an opening therein. The opening defines a front end edge, a rear end edge, and a pair of laterally opposed side edges. The article also includes a pair of elastic members which extend longitudinally beyond at least one of the end edges of the opening in a laterally divergent direction. The elastic members may also extend at least partially along the side edges of the opening. The elastic members are configured to maintain the edges of the opening in contact with the wearer's buttocks and align the opening with the wearer's anal opening in use. The article may further include a liquid management material located on the bodyside liner in the front waist to absorb or contain liquid exudates.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,313,371 of Conant, et al. describes a flatulence deodorizer which purports to be the first product to use a washable and reusable activated charcoal cloth as a deodorizer because of its effectiveness and efficiency in removing odor such that the thickness of the cloth can be significantly reduced without losing its effectiveness. The filter is worn taped to the inside of briefs or panties and, because of its slim profile, the wearer is comfortable and virtually unaware of its presence.
Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 5,593,398 of Weimer discloses a protective underwear made of air tight polyurethane-coated nylon with an exit hole for the flatus is cut from the back, near the bottom of the underwear. The exit hole is covered with a pocket made of porous fabric, and designed in the same shape as the exit hole. The bottom layer of the pocket is sewn around the edge of the exit hole connecting it to the underwear. The top layer is sewn around the edge of the bottom layer and onto the underwear, except at the top, leaving the pocket opening. The pocket opening is kept closed by a fastener. The replaceable filter is inserted inside the pocket. The top and bottom layers are wool felt and the second layers top and bottom are of polypropylene non woven fabric; followed by layers top and bottom of fiber glass wool. In the middle of the filter is a single layer of activated carbon.
While these devices may be suitable for the purposes for which they were designed, the present invention provides an improved garment for controlling odors, a method of making the garment and a method of controlling odors, as hereinafter described.

Odor control nether garment, method of making same and method of controlling odor


A method and apparatus for determining the period Tp of a signal representing a digitally modulated waveform using NRZ coding with a discrete/integer number of a clock periods between signal transitions, where a periodic sequence of logic “1s” and logic “0s” is transmitted. The method samples an input periodic signal, constructs an estimate of the autocorrelation sequence rk of the sequence of samples, constructs a sequence of peaks pk, and computes the period Tp to be the time between the first pk sample (k=0), and the time location of the maximum value of pk based on the known Ts spacing of the pk sequence samples.

The Alliance for Telecommunication Industry Solutions (ATIS) defines "non-return-to-zero (NRZ)" to be a code in which logic "1s" are represented by one "significant condition" and logic "0s" are represented by another, with no neutral or rest condition, such as a zero amplitude in amplitude modulation (AM), zero phase shift in phase-shift-keying (PSK), or mid-frequency in frequency-shift-keying (FSK). The term "significant condition" is defined as follows. In the modulation of a carrier, "significant condition" is one of the values of the signal parameter chosen to represent information. Examples of "significant conditions" are an electrical current, voltage, or power level; an optical power level; a phase value; or a frequency or wavelength chosen to represent a "0" or a "1"; or a "mark" or a "space." The duration of a significant condition is the time interval between successive "significant instants".
Significant conditions are recognized by an appropriate device. Each "significant instant" is determined when the appropriate device assumes a condition or state usable for performing a specific function, such as recording, processing, or gating. A change from one significant condition to another is called a "signal transition".
For a given data signaling rate (i.e., bit rate) the NRZ code requires only one-half the bandwidth required by the well-known "Manchester Code". One skilled in the art will recognize that the Manchester Code is a code in which (a) data and clock signals are combined to form a single self-synchronizing data stream, (b) each encoded bit contains a transition at the midpoint of a bit period, (c) the direction of transition determines whether the bit is a "0" or a "1," and (d) the first half is the true bit value and the second half is the complement of the true bit value.
The process of varying one or more parameters of a carrier wave as a function of two or more finite and discrete states of a signal is known as digital modulation. It is the process by which some characteristic (frequency, phase, amplitude, or combinations thereof) of a carrier frequency is varied in accordance with a digital signal, for example, a digital signal consisting of coded pulses or states.
One particular class of digital modulation employing NRZ is the one for which the time between signal transitions is a multiple of the embedded clock period. There are many practical and theoretical approaches of this sort to transmitting information. In such implementations the information data is transmitted or retrieved without any additional timing reference. Examples include the high-frequency waveforms for optical storage (CD/DVD), serial data communications standards (Infiniband, PCI Express), and many others. In some of these cases the information is contained in the timing between signal transitions (as in optical storage CD/DVD signals), in some others the information is contained in the amplitude of the signal between the signal transitions, and so on.
The salient feature of digital modulation using NRZ with integer numbers of clock periods between signal transitions is that for each clock period there is exactly one logic "1" or logic "0" bit of information associated with each clock period time length of decoded signal. Therefore, a major step in decoding these types of digital modulation signals is the recovery of the embedded clock, or the determination of the period of the embedded clock. The complexity of this task is greatly reduced if the period of the NRZ signal is first known.

Period determination of a periodic NRZ signal


An electrophotographic image forming apparatus employs a gradational power saving mode for reducing power consumption step by step with the passage of a print-waiting time. The apparatus raises a fixing temperature up to a print-waiting temperature when the image forming apparatus is turned on. When the fixing temperature reaches the print-waiting temperature, the print-waiting time is counted and compared with reference values which are preset into multiple gradations. Then, the fixing temperature is reduced to a temperature corresponding to the reference values step by step, if the counting value is equal to or greater than the reference values.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a power saving technique for an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, and more particularly a gradational power saving technique for reducing power consumption step by step with the passage of a print-waiting time.
2. Description of the Related Art
An electrophotographic image forming apparatus, such as a laser printer and copying machine, maintains a constant fixing temperature near to a printing temperature during a print-waiting state, in order to quickly restart a printing operation. The laser printer or the coping machine utilizes a heat lamp for providing a high temperature during a process of fixing a toner on a paper. As stated above, since the heat lamp is continuously turned on, power consumption is undesirably increased. However, in the electrophotographic image forming apparatus, the print-waiting time is normally much longer than an actual printing time. Nevertheless, the heat lamp is continuously heated even during the print-waiting state, causing an unnecessary power consumption. Therefore, in order to solve such s problem, various techniques have been proposed. For example, an earlier electrophotographic image forming apparatus employs a power saving mode in which the heat lamp and a fan motor are completely turned off if a predetermined time has passed during the print-waiting state, in order to reduce the unnecessary power consumption.
A laser printer, which is a typical electrophotographic image forming apparatus, includes a video controller and an engine. The video controller includes a personal computer interface, a controller, an engine interface, an operating panel, a random access memory, and a read only memory. The personal computer interface interfaces an input/output signal with a personal computer. The controller performs data communication with the personal computer through the personal computer interface and controls the engine according to various control commands received from the personal computer and the operating panel so as to control the overall operation of the system. The engine interface interfaces an input/output signal with the engine under the control of the controller. The operating panel includes a plurality of keys for generating key data, provides the controller with the key data and displays display data generated by the controller. Under the control of the controller, the random access memory temporarily stores image data received from the personal computer interface and various data generated while the controller controls the printing operation. The read only memory stores software control programs for the controller. The engine, comprised of a driving mechanism for transferring the paper and printing the image data, controls the driving mechanism and an engine member according to the control of the control to perform the printing operation.
In the system noted above, the controller increases the fixing temperature of the engine up to a print waiting temperature and maintains the print waiting state. The controller checks whether or not the printing data or control command data has been received from the personal computer interface and the operating panel. If the printing data or the control command data has not been received, the controller counts the print waiting time to increase a counting value. This counting value is compared with a reference value for entering the power saving mode. If the counting value is less than the reference value, the process flow returns to the previous checking step of the controller and otherwise, if the counting value is equal to or greater than the reference value, the controller performs the power saving mode and then returns to the checking step. Meanwhile, if the printing data or the control command data has been generated, the controller resets the counting value and then a determination is made as to whether or not the current operation mode is the power saving mode. If it is not the power saving mode, a corresponding processing routine is performed. Namely, the controller performs an operation corresponding to the key input or pints the printing data. Otherwise, if it is the power saving mode, the controller repeats the previous step to increase fixing temperature of the engine up to the printing temperature and thereafter, the controller executes the processing routine step.
Unfortunately, in the above-noted system, the heat lamp is completely turned off in the power saving mode. While this saves power, it takes a considerable length of time, e.g., fifty seconds, for the printing temperature to reach its proper value when the system is switched from the power saving mode to the printing mode. This long delay creates considerable problems for the user.
The following patents each disclose features in common with the present invention but do not teach or suggest the incremental control of the print waiting temperature in accordance with the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,321,428 to Dornier, entitled Laser Printer Power Saver, U.S. Pat. No. 5,589,923 to Lee et al., entitled Power Saving Method Of An Image Forming Apparatus, U.S. Pat. No. 5,534,987 to Ohtsuka et al., entitled Fixing Apparatus With Variable Fixing Temperature, U.S. Pat. No. 4,618,245 to Fukushi et al., entitled Image Forming Apparatus And Attachment Which Together Enter An Energy Saving Mode, U.S. Pat. No. 5,465,141 to Asano et al., entitled Fixing Apparatus For changing The Duty Cycle Of Electric Current Supply, U.S. Pat. No. 5,317,367 to Pierce et al., entitled Thermal Realtime Clock, U.S. Pat. No. 5,489,935 to Dornier, entitled Laser Printer Power Saver, U.S. Pat. No. 5,600,406 to Aikawa et al., entitled Fixing Temperature Control Device, U.S. Pat. No. 4,878,092 to Arai, entitled Method Of Controlling A Fixing Unit Of An Image Forming Apparatus, U.S. Pat. No. 5,109,255 to Nishikawa et al., entitled Temperature Control System, U.S. Pat. No. 5,241,349 to Nagasaka, entitled Image Forming Apparatus Having A Plurality Of Control Modes Of Thermal Fixing Apparatus, U.S. Pat. No. 5,321,479 to Yoshida et al., entitled Electrophotographic Apparatus, U.S. Pat. No. 5,528,346 to Kim et al., entitled Power-Saving Printing Method Of A Printing System, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,464,964 to Okuda et al., entitled Image Heating Apparatus Changing Set Temperature In Accordance With Temperature Of Heater.

Gradational power saving technique for electrophotographic image forming apparatus


A zoom lens includes, in order from an object side, a first lens group having a negative power, a second lens group having a positive power, and a third lens group having a positive power. At least the first and second lens groups are movable during a change from a wide-angle end state in which a focal length becomes shortest to a telephoto end state in which the focal length becomes longest. The first lens group is constructed of a glass lens and a plastic lens, the glass lens being positioned on the object side and having a negative power, the plastic lens being positioned on an image side and having a positive power. The second lens group includes a single plastic lens having a negative power. The third lens group includes at least one plastic lens having a positive power. The lenses are satisfied predetermined conditions.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a zoom lens and an image pickup apparatus using the same. More particularly, the invention relates to a zoom lens used for digital video cameras, digital still cameras, and the like, and to an image pickup apparatus using the zoom lens.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, digital cameras using an imaging device, such as a Charge Coupled Device (CCD) and a Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS), in place of silver salt film, have rapidly widespread and become popular. As the digital cameras have become popular, user's needs for lower cost, miniaturization, and higher magnifying power of lens-incorporated digital cameras in particular are growing. In addition, the number of pixels in the imaging device tends to increase every year, increasing a need for higher image quality as well.
To meet these needs for lower cost and higher image quality, an optical system having a three-group lens with negative-positive-positive power arrangement in which each group includes a resin lens is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No.2000-267009 (Patent Document 1).


A install blade bracket for a ceiling suspended fan comprises: a discal seat is disposed at a bottom of the rotary assembly, the discal seat is formed with a recess, in the recess are defined a plurality of locking cavities and a plurality of receiving cavities, a plurality of positioning structures disposed in the respective receiving cavities; a plurality of fan blade mounting brackets each of which is provided with a locking portion and a plurality of projections correspondingly to the locking cavities and the positioning structures, each of the projections has a curved limit surface and a guiding slope arranged.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a blade bracket for a ceiling suspended fan, and more particularly to an easy install blade bracket for a ceiling suspended fan.
2. Description of the Prior Arts
Fan blade mounting bracket is one of the important structure in a ceiling suspended fan, as shown in FIG. 1, a conventional fan blade mounting bracket 11 is locked to the bottom of the rotary assembly 10 of a ceiling suspended fan, this conventional locking structure has been used on the ceiling suspended fan for many years, however, it still has some disadvantages that could be improved.
Due to the fan blade mounting bracket 11 is locked with the rotary assembly 10, and normally the number of the fan blade mounting brackets 11 locked on the rotary assembly 10 is no less than three, it is really time-consuming for the worker to assemble all the fan blade mounting brackets 11 to the rotary assembly 10.
The present invention has arisen to mitigate and/or obviate the afore-described disadvantages.

Install blade bracket for a ceiling suspended fan


An integrated system for tidal/wave flow electrical power generation. This bi-directional system utilizes the wave flow on the shores and the flow of various rivers and estuaries to generate electrical power through a venturi box which has mounted in it and comprises of the following components: a vane assembly with variable pitch vanes made from high impact blade material; a drive shaft assembly that connects the vane drive unit with the generator; a flow detection vane that determines velocity and direction thereby providing input to the flow detection controller and variable pitch computer and controller; a solid state voltage regulator; a mechanical fly wheel assist for the drive assembly during transition between flow direction; a grid cycle input device to match the power being generated with the grid. This system is capable of being coupled together both physically and electrically. The generator unit assembly is a field replaceable unit to ease installation and maintenance. The venturi box design mitigates slit and sand build-up. The vane radial design limits the damage by flotsam and provides a means of reducing fish damage as well.

This invention relates generally to the field of electrical power generation specifically to a system that generates power from tidal or wave motion. The virtually perpetual motion of the ocean waves and the tidal flows of rivers especially those classified as estuaries provide an endless source of energy that can be converted into electrical power.
The ability to cut back on dependence on oil and fossil fuel for power generation has long been a goal of the United States government and other global governments. Previously utilities or energy companies have utilized dams to create a water source to be run through generators for electrical power generation. This is extremely costly and limited to topographic areas where dams are adequately situated. Up until today, technology has not been available to provide a solid state generation capability or a variable pitch capability for turbine blades. With the advent of this capability, an application to use the shoreline tidal/wave action and the tidal action of our major rivers and estuaries in this country result in an untapped source of energy for electrical power generation. Additionally, turbine blade construction has been developed to provide an almost indestructible blade capable of providing the reliability that this device would require in the wave and river installation. The design of the spacing of the radial pattern would also mitigate damage from flotsam and reduce the fish kill probability.
Through the use of venturi designed concrete or other material flow devices and field removable/serviceable turbine and generator assemblies, this now can be a reality.
Proper placement of these systems along coastal areas would allow municipal governments to generate their own power. Placement in rivers especially those designated as major estuaries would provide local regions with power no matter what the time of year.
Variable geometry fan blades with flow direction and velocity detection and solid state power regulation and generation would provide a source of stable power for the continental and regional grids. In addition a solid state or mechanical fly wheel drive shaft would allow the unit to be used quickly in a bi-directional flow motion coupled with the ability to change the pitch of the vanes.

Tidal/wave flow electrical power generation system


A system and method are provided for dynamically reducing power consumption of floating-point logic. A disable control signal that is based on a characteristic of a floating-point format input operand is received and a portion of a logic circuit is disabled based on the disable control signal. The logic circuit processes the floating-point format input operand to generate an output.

Processing units such as central processing units (CPUs) and graphics processing units (GPUs) are designed to perform arithmetic operations that conform to a specified numeric representation. One common numeric representation is a floating-point number, which typically includes a mantissa field, an exponent field, and a sign field. For example, a floating-point number format specified by the institute of electrical and electronics engineers (IEEE) is thirty-two bits in size and includes twenty-three mantissa bits, eight exponent bits, and one sign bit. Other standard floating-point numbers are defined that are up to one-hundred and twenty-eight bits in size. Floating-point arithmetic circuits configured to implement arithmetic operations on floating-point numbers must properly process one or more input floating-point numbers and generate an arithmetically correct floating-point result.
Conventional IEEE format floating-point multiply/add units include a large multiplier followed by a wide adder which receives a product generated by the multiplier and a shifted version of an addend that are combined to produce the value of a*b+c that is then normalized. This value is then inspected and renormalized to return a value conforming to the IEEE floating-point format specification. To conform to the IEEE standard, an implementation of a floating-point multiply/add unit maintains complete internal precision between the multiplier and multiplicand (a and b) used to generate the product and the c addend through the computation to the output. Maintaining the internal precision necessitates a large logic circuit that expends both static and dynamic power.
Thus, there is a need for reducing the amount of power consumed by floating-point arithmetic circuits and/or addressing other issues associated with the prior art.

System and method for dynamically reducing power consumption of floating-point logic


The present invention relates to a housing for electrical equipment. The housing is composed of side walls, ventilation openings in the side walls and at least one louver provided in front of the ventilation openings. The housing additionally includes a cover plate which is arranged between the ventilation openings and the louver. The cover plate is inserted into a receptacle at the rear face of the louver. This housing makes it possible to close or open, respectively, existing ventilation openings by means of the cover plates and thus adapt the housing to the respective cooling requirements, whether equipped individually or upon subsequent changes in the equipment.

The present invention relates to a housing for electrical equipment. The housing includes side walls, ventilation openings and cover plates for closing the ventilation openings.
The present invention is used primarily for housings made of steel sheet for independent table model units for use in industrial electronic systems.
It is known to permanently provide a certain number of ventilation openings, depending on the particular model, in housings for electrical equipment. These openings cannot be closed again and thus it must be determined before the housings are equipped how much cooling is to be provided in the individual regions of the housing for the highly sensitive electronic units. Specifically, however, if the housings are equipped individually, it may happen that none of the embodiments on the market meets the particular requirements. Another drawback is that, once the housing has been equipped, it is no longer possible to consider subsequent changes, since the making of additional ventilation holes produces dust and chips which penetrate into the interior of the housing and thus may interfere with the proper operation of the electronic device. For example, retrofitting from convection cooling to fan cooling or vice versa creates difficulties since ventilation openings disposed in the side walls cause the generally horizontally arranged blowers to suck in the wrong air through these ventilation openings. In contrast, for good fan cooling it would be appropriate to suck in the cooling air only from the front or the bottom and let it be discharged at the rear or through the cover plate of the housing. Makeshift solutions of, for example, closing the annoying ventilation openings by gluing something over them, generally do not meet safety regulations and are thus not permitted.
A component carrier is known which has side walls and a cover and bottom that are provided with air ventilation holes. Guide rails for circuit boards that are equipped with electronic components and can be inserted one next to the other are provided at the top and bottom. With the aid of pressure and screw lock mechanisms, fittings are fastened to those guide rails that do not carry any circuit boards to close the air ventilation holes in these bottom regions and thus influence the stream of cooling air in the direction toward the existing circuit boards (German Unexamined Published Patent Application DE-OS 3,922,188). However, this proposal is not suitable for influencing the cooling air to be supplied from the outside to housing interiors.


Methods are provided for effecting functional control of program flow and/or data flow in digital signal processors and in processors which have closed and separated modules for effecting the program and data flow control or which operate in parallel arithmetic-logic units. The methods enhance the functionality of the signal processor to such an extent that the units of the processor, without time delays, are adapted, with regard to their energy consumption, to the latest demands of signal processing. The methods provide additional possibilities for saving energy which are enabled by algorithm-related shutdown of functional units. An external hardware-related signal input into the processor or a software-related state output from the program flow in the processor may be used to trigger an interruption in the clock pulse supply for the respective functional units for the period of time during which these functional units are not used.

In fast digital signal processors (DSPs), particularly in those with a pronounced data path structure for the parallel data processing, a large amount of power is consumed in certain modules of the processor during the signal processing. Particularly the high demands on the signal processing speed of the processors, on the one hand, and, on the other, the demand for the processors to be used in compact appliances operated on a mobile basis and, in this case, for a long standby and operating time to be provided using a battery (storage battery) power supply contain a discrepancy in the direction of development.
To resolve this conflict, the prior art involves not only the use of fundamentally energy-saving technologies but also primarily the matching of the clock rates to the signal processing tasks in order to reduce the power consumption of the processor as a whole (speed step mode). That is to say that the clock rate is reduced in steps when the processor is in standby or has a low utilization level. An opposite sequence of steps is initiated up to the maximum possible clock rate when continuous performance demands are made on the signal processing.
This procedure for reducing the power consumption has the drawback that the efficient matching to the signal processing requested only ever occurs after a time delay. In addition, this does not achieve any specific matching to particular functional units, particularly those which are responsible for the high power consumption.
Hence, those signal processors which effect an immediate power reduction as a result of external signal allocations are not known in the prior art.
A further drawback of the known energy-saving methods is that it is not possible to shut down functional units on the basis of algorithms, which means that it is not possible to make full use of additional energy-saving effects by temporarily shutting down modules which consume a lot of power while particular algorithms are being executed in the various functional units.
Consideration is now being given to ways of improving digital signal processor shut down methods. In particular, attention is directed to shut down procedures that can be initiated in response to external signal allocations. Signal processor shut down procedures that are based on algorithms are desirable.

Method for effecting the controlled shutdown of data processing units


The present invention provides a touch display panel comprising a touch driving electrode and a touch sensing electrode, wherein the touch display panel further comprises a signal enhancement layer which is capable of generating electric field lines by coupling with the touch driving electrode and/or the touch sensing electrode. The present invention also provides a display device including the above touch display panel. When the operator's finger touches the surface of the touch display panel, a large amount of electric field lines generated by coupling of the signal enhancement layer are attracted to the operator's finger, thereby increasing the amount of change in capacitance, and the sensitivity of the touch display panel is further improved.

FIG. 1 shows a capacitive in-cell touch display panel comprising an array substrate 40 and an upper substrate 50 opposed to the array substrate 40, an upper polarizing sheet 60 is disposed on the upper substrate, touch driving electrodes 43, gate lines 41, and common electrodes 42 are provided on the array substrate 40, the touch driving electrodes 43 and the common electrodes 42 are arranged on a same layer and disposed with intervals, touch sensing electrodes 20 are provided on the inner surface (i.e. the surface facing towards the array substrate) of the upper substrate 50, the common electrode 42 corresponds to the touch sensing electrode 20. When the operator's finger does not touch the upper surface of the touch display panel, the touch sensing electrodes 20 receive electric field lines from the touch driving electrodes 43. When the operator's finger touches the upper surface of the touch display panel, the electric field lines emitted from the touch driving electrode 43 beneath the touch point are attracted to the operator's finger, the capacitance beneath the touch point is caused to change, thereby the coordinate of the touch point can be determined based on the change of the capacitance.
With the increasing requirements of operators to the touch sensitivity, how to improve the sensitivity of the finger touch becomes a technical problem to be solved in the present field.

BEIJING BOE OPTOELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.


According to the machine tool according to the present invention, a top-bottom guide is attached to a back surface of a base frame. By being guided by this top-bottom guide, the lifter moves in the top-bottom direction with respect to the base frame. A drive source which drives rotation of a top-bottom feed screw which extends parallel to the top-bottom guide is attached to a back surface of the base frame. This drive source is coupled with a bottom end of the top-bottom feed screw. As a result, compared to when the drive source is coupled with a top end of the top-bottom feed screw, the center of gravity of the machine tool can be set to a lower position. In this way, a machine tool can be increased in stability.

For example, PLTs 1 and 2 disclose machine tools which machine workpieces. In these machine tools, workpieces are attached to tables which are arranged on base frames. At the base frames, discharge holes for discharging chips of workpieces which drop down from the tables extend from the front to the back of the base frames. At the discharge holes, for example, conveyor belts are used to discharge the chips from the backs of the base frames to the outside. On the other hand, working fluid which drops downward from the table is stored inside the discharge holes or in storage tanks which are arranged at the rear of the machine tools.
Above the base frames, feed mechanisms which make lifters to which tools are attached move along guide rails in for example the vertical direction, that is, the Y-axis, are arranged. These feed mechanisms are provided with pairs of top-bottom feed screws which are arranged in parallel with each other, that is, ball screws, and pairs of feed motors which individually drive these ball screws to rotate. The ball screws have nuts which are fastened to the lifters screwed with them. As a result, rotation of the ball screws causes the lifters, that is, tools, to move along the Y-axis in the top-bottom direction.
PLT 1: Japanese Patent No. 4542001
PLT 2: Japanese Patent No. 3697697


A phase lock detector circuit is disclosed that generates delayed versions of both a reference clock signal and a synthesized clock signal. From the delayed signals, first and second control signals that are pulses are generated. The pulses are passed through respective delays of predetermined durations and then clocked into respective shift registers by the latched signal of the opposite input. The shift register outputs are logically combined and shifted into a third shift register. Outputs from the third shift register are logically combined to ascertain whether a phase-lock loop is phase lock. The lock detector circuit may include a lock-out circuit to disable the phase lock detector circuit upon detecting phase lock.

Phase locked loops are well-known and widely used in synchronizing an output signal with a reference or input signal in frequency as well as phase. In the synchronized state, sometimes referred to as the locked state, the phase error between the output signal and the reference signal is zero, or at least within a small, acceptable tolerance. Principles of phase-locked loops operation as well as applications are described in Phase-Locked Loops, second ed., by R. Best published by McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1993, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
Phase and frequency locked loops are used concurrently in the control of an oscillator to expand a clock signal or generate a higher or lower frequency clock signal based on a reference clock signal. The phase locked loop first adjusts the frequency of operation of the oscillator as a coarse adjustment. The phase detector circuit provides a finer adjustment of the operation of the oscillator to align a characteristic feature, typically a leading rising edge, of the oscillator generated clock signal, known as a synthesized clock signal, with the same characteristics of the reference clock signal.
Typically the frequency of the synthesized clock signal will be adjusted until it is the desired multiple or fractional multiple frequency of the reference clock signal. Upon achieving the desired frequency relative to the reference clock signal, a phase-lock circuit adjusts operation of the oscillator until the instantaneous phase error between the reference clock signal and the synthesized clock signal is within a predetermined tolerance.
When a phase locked loop is initially powered-up, a finite time is required until the instantaneous phase error is within the tolerance, that is before the synthesized clock signal is stable and considered locked. The synthesized clock signal is not reliable until the lock condition occurs.
One known technique of permitting switching from a reference clock signal to a synthesized clock signal is to perform a worst-case analysis to determine the maximum time required for the synthesized clock signal to be aligned with the reference clock signal. A time delay greater than the maximum time required for alignment to occur is introduced such that the synthesized clock signal cannot be used until the delay times out. In this manner it can be assured that the synthesized clock signal cannot be utilized until it is aligned with the reference clock signal.
A shortcoming of this technique is that power is unnecessarily consumed when alignment occurs in less time than the worst case scenario but use of the synthesized clock signal is prevented due to the delay having not timed out.
What is desired is a technique that would permit using a synthesized clock signal as soon as it is aligned with a reference clock signal.

Digital lock detector for phase-locked loop


A system includes a gas turbine engine having a combustor, a liquid fuel supply coupled to the combustor, and a water supply coupled to the liquid fuel supply. The water supply is configured to flow water through the liquid fuel supply while the liquid fuel supply is not in use to flow a liquid fuel.

The subject matter disclosed herein relates to combustion systems, and, more particularly, to supplying liquid fuel to gas turbine engines.
Various combustion systems include combustion chambers in which fuel and air combust to generate hot gases. For example, a gas turbine engine may include one or more combustion chambers that receive compressed air from a compressor, inject fuel into the compressed air, and generate hot combustion gases to drive the turbine engine. Each combustion chamber may be supplied with one or more different fuels, such as gaseous fuels and liquid fuels, that are used separately from one another. For example, the different fuels may be supplied to different combustion chambers through separate flow paths. Unfortunately, fuel left in an unused flow path may degrade and/or leaks may occur to cause backflow of hot combustion gases, thereby decreasing performance of the gas turbine engine.

System for turbine combustor fuel assembly


An imaging lens module includes a fixed aperture stop and an optical module, and the optical module includes a first, a second, a third and a fourth lenses. The first lens has a meniscus lens with positive refractive power and a concave surface disposed towards the image. The second lens has a meniscus lens with negative refractive power and a concave surface disposed towards the image. The third lens has a meniscus lens with positive refractive power and a convex surface disposed towards the image. The fourth lens has a concave surface disposed towards the object.

Simply designed, easy-to-use and highly compatible electronic devices will be the main stream in the future. To increase the compatibility, digital carriers are connected to optical lenses so that the digital carriers image objects and instantly show the images of the objects. 3-C products such as cell phones, Webcams and laptop computers are equipped with optical lenses. As the electronic devices are getting lighter and smaller, the optical lenses must also be getting lighter and smaller so that the optical lenses can be used in the digital carriers. The pixel number and the image quality are also important factors taken into consideration by a customer. A cell phone equipped with a camera providing two million pixels is not satisfactory.
There is a conventional four-piece imaging lens module including four lenses. The fourth lens includes at least one convex surface near the optical axis on the side of an object. A digital carrier equipped with the four-piece imaging lens module provides more than two million pixels, but fails to provide good image quality, high color saturation and small optical length because of the convex surface of the fourth lens.
Moreover, the fourth lens includes a convex surface on the side of an object so that the optical length cannot be reduced effectively and that the fabrication is difficult. Therefore, it is not competitive in the market. The yield of the four-piece imaging lens module is lower than expected.
The present invention is therefore intended to obviate or at least alleviate the problems encountered in prior art.


A reference surface is used to develop an empirical plot between a parameter of interest, such as roughness or modulation, and the position of the reference mirror in an interferometer by repeating measurements of the reference surface at different positions of the reference mirror so as to identify the in-focus position of the reference mirror. Serial quality-control measurements of samples of interest are carried out with the reference mirror in such in-focus position until a predetermined quality-control event triggers an automated system re-calibration by re-measuring the reference surface and, if the result does not correspond to the in-focus position of the reference mirror according to the plot, by finding a new in-focus position for the reference mirror using the same plot or, alternatively, a new similarly produced plot. Sample measurements are then resumed with the mirror placed at that new position.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to the general field of interferometric metrology. In particular, it pertains to an automated method for periodically re-focusing the reference mirror of the interferometer to account for environmental changes during repeated interferometric measurements.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The interferometric objectives used in the art are usually off-the shelf components (such as produced by Nikon and Olympus) that allow manual adjustments to refocus the objective's reference mirror as needed to account for drift caused by environmental factors, such as temperature, humidity and vibrations. Thus, the process of recalibration of an interferometric instrument is slow and unsuited for online testing of parts for quality-control purposes, where the measured parameters are expected to be essentially the same during repeated measurements.
As is well understood in the art, an interferometric measurement, whether conducted with white-light so-called vertical-scanning interferometry (VSI) or with narrow-band phase-shifting interferometry (PSI), produces acceptable results only if the optical path difference (OPD) between the reference and test arms is zero when the sample surface is in focus. This condition is especially critical for measuring small features, such as the roughness of machined metal parts and the air bearing surface (ABS) of computer head sliders. Therefore, when environmental factors affect the initial calibration of the interferometer that ensures this OPD/focus condition, the quality of the measurements deteriorates and testing is no longer reliable. If the location of zero OPD is shifted away from the objective's focal point (a condition that occurs when the reference mirror is out of focus), the modulation produced by the interferometric scan is reduced with the attendant loss of measurement precision, which in turn reduces the ability to control whether the parameter of interest is maintained within the desired specification.
This invention describes a mechanism and a process for the automated adjustment of the reference mirror in the objective so that re-focusing can be carried out automatically at predetermined periods during the operation of the instrument.

Automated re-focusing of interferometric reference mirror


An apparatus and method for achieving desired spectral emission characteristics in plasma lamps is disclosed. The apparatus and method use multi-layer thin film optical interference coatings to selectively reflect a portion of the light such that it can be absorbed in the plasma. The multi-layer thin film coating is applied to any surface of the lamp, which substantially surrounds the plasma. The number and thickness of the layers in the coating are selected to ensure that significant portion of the selected light emitted from the plasma is reflected by the coating and absorbed by the plasma. The properties of the coating, reflectance, transmittance and absorption are determined as a function of plasma and lamp characteristics. These characteristics include the spectral emission characteristics of the plasma, the spectral absorption characteristics of the plasma, the physical dimensions of the plasma, the angular distribution of the light emitted from the plasma on the coating and the geometry of the coated surface.

The present invention generally relates to electric lamps and methods of manufacture. More specifically, the present invention relates to lamps wherein the light source includes a light emitting plasma contained within an arc tube (i.e. plasma lamps) having dichroic thin film coatings to improve the operating characteristics of the lamp.
Plasma lamps such as mercury lamps or metal halide lamps have found widespread acceptance in lighting large outdoor and indoor areas such as athletic stadiums, gymnasiums, warehouses, parking facilities, and the like, because of the relatively high efficiency, compact size, and low maintenance of plasma lamps when compared to other lamp types. A typical plasma lamp includes an arc tube forming a chamber with a pair of spaced apart electrodes. The chamber typically contains a fill gas, mercury, and other material such as one or more metal halides, which are vaporized during operation of the lamp to form a light emitting plasma. The operating characteristics of the lamp such as spectral emission, lumens per watt ("LPW"), correlated color temperature ("CCT"), and color rendering index ("CRI") are determined at least in part by the content of the lamp fill material.
The use of plasma lamps for some applications has been limited due the difficulty in realizing the desired spectral emission characteristics of the light emitting plasma. For example, metal halide lamps were introduced in the United States in the early 1960's and have been used successfully in many commercial and industrial applications because of the high efficiency and long life of such lamps compared to other light sources. However, metal halide lamps have not as yet found widespread use in general interior retail and display lighting applications because of the difficulty in obtaining a spectral emission from such lamps within the desired range of CCT of about 300-400 K and CRI of greater than about 80.
Relatively high CRI (>80) has been realized in metal halide lamps having a CCT in the desired range by the selection of various metal halide combinations comprising the lamp fill material. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,694,002 to Krasko et al. discloses a metal halide lamp having a quartz arc tube with a fill of halides of sodium, scandium, lithium, and rare earth metals, which operates at a CCT of about 300 K and a CRI of about 85. U.S. Pat. No. 5,751,111 to Stoffels et al. discloses a metal halide lamp having a ceramic arc tube with a fill of halides of sodium, thallium and rare earth metals which operates at a CCT of about 300 K and a CRI of about 82. However, the quartz lamps disclosed by Krasko et al. have a relatively low LPW, the ceramic lamps disclosed by Stoffels et al. are relatively expensive to produce, and both types of lamps have a relatively high variability in operating parameters and a relatively diminished useful operating life.
The use of a sodium/scandium based halide fill in plasma lamps has addressed the efficiency and variability problems by providing improved efficiency and lower variability in operating parameters relative to metal halide lamps having other fill materials. However, such lamps have a relatively low CRI of about 65-70 and thus are not suitable for many applications.
One known approach in improving certain operating characteristics of plasma lamps is to filter the light emitted from the plasma. Recent developments in thin film coating technology have increased the utility of such coatings in the lighting industry by improving both the thermal capability of the coatings and the uniformity of such coatings when applied to curved surfaces such as the arc tubes, reflectors, and outer envelopes of lamps. The MicroDyn® reactive sputtering process of Deposition Sciences, Inc. of Santa Rosa, Calif., as disclosed and claimed for example in U.S. Pat. No. 5,849,162 is particularly suitable for depositing a variety of thin film coatings useful in lighting applications. Other known coating processes such as chemical vapor deposition, thermal evaporation, and ion and electron beam deposition may also be suitable for lighting applications.
It is a characteristic of such coatings that they selectively reflect and/or absorb radiation at selected wavelengths. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,552,671 to Parham et al. discloses a multilayer UV radiation absorbing coating on the arc tubes of metal halide lamps to block UV radiation. U.S. Pat. No. 5,646,472 to Horikoshi discloses a metal halide lamp having a dysprosium based fill with a multilayer coating on the arc tube for reflecting light at wavelengths shorter than nearly 600 nm while transmitting light at longer wavelengths to lower the CCT of the lamp. However, the optimal utilization of thin film coatings to control certain operating characteristics of plasma lamps often requires that a significant portion of the light that is selectively reflected by the coating be absorbed by the plasma, and there remains a need for thin film coatings for plasma lamps directed to plasma absorption.
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to obviate many of the deficiencies of the prior art and to specifically address the plasma absorption of reflected light in the improvement of the operating characteristics of plasma lamps.
Another object of the present invention is to improve the effectiveness of thin film coatings used in plasma lamps by consideration of the absorption of reflected light in the plasma in the design and fabrication of such coatings.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a novel multilayer thin film filter and method for plasma lamps.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a novel plasma lamp with improved operating characteristics and method of manufacturing such plasma lamps.
Still yet another object of the present invention to provide a novel plasma lamp and method using multilayer thin film coatings to obtain the desired spectral emission characteristics for the lamp.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a novel plasma lamp and method of making plasma lamp with operating characteristics suitable for indoor retail and display lighting.
Yet a further object of the present invention to provide a novel metal halide lamp and method having a highly selective notch in transmissivity.
Still a further object of the present invention to provide a novel method of making multilayer thin film coatings for plasma lamps wherein the number and thickness of the layers in the coating are determined as a function of the spectral and/or physical characteristics of the plasma.
Yet still a further object of the present invention to provide a novel method of making multilayer thin film coatings for plasma lamps wherein the number and thickness of the layers in the coating are determined as a function of the geometry of the surface to be coated and/or and angular distribution of the light emitted from the plasma on the coating.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a novel sodium/scandium lamp and method.
These and many other objects and advantages of the present invention will be readily apparent to one skilled in the art to which the invention pertains from a perusal of the claims, the appended drawings, and the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments.


A projector includes an image forming device, a projection lens for projecting an image produced by the image forming device, and an external case which accommodates the image forming device and at least a part of the projection lens and has an opening through which a light emission end of the projection lens is exposed. The projection lens has a lens barrel and a plurality of lenses equipped within the lens barrel. The lens barrel has a fixed part and a movable part. A turn table for shifting the movable part of the lens barrel in the direction of the optical axis of the projection lens is provided. The direction of the rotation axis of the turn table is substantially perpendicular to the optical axis of the projection lens. The top surface of the turn table is exposed through the outer surface of the external case.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a projector which projects images using a liquid crystal panel or other light modulators.
2. Related Art
A projection lens of a projector has a focusing mechanism for controlling focus of a projection image, and a zooming mechanism for controlling projection magnification of a projection image. These focusing and zooming mechanisms vary focus and projection magnification by holding a part of a lens barrel of the projection lens and rotating the part around the optical axis (see JP-A-2001-194572 and JP-A-2004-45809). In addition, there is a projector capable of indirectly performing focusing and zooming operations by rotating an operation member which is adjacent to and coaxial with a projection lens instead of directly rotating a part of the lens barrel of the projection lens (see JP-A-2004-12973).
According to the above controlling method which directly rotates a part of the lens barrel of the projection lens, a projection such as a lever provided on the lens barrel of the projection lens is operated to rotate the part of the lens barrel. In this structure, however, it is difficult to widen the movable range of the lever, and it is necessary to touch the projection lens when operating the lever. Thus, the maneuverability of the lever is unsatisfactory. In addition, since the lever is a projection, limitations to the size and external appearance of the projector increase.
According to the controlling method which indirectly rotates the lens barrel using the operation member, a lever-shaped projection is operated similarly to the above method. Therefore, widening the movable range of the projection is difficult, and the maneuverability of the lever is undesirable. Moreover, since the operation member is disposed adjacent to the projection lens in the lateral direction, focusing and zooming operations cannot be easily performed depending on the position of the user sitting on the seat.

Projector including a turn table for shifting a lens barrel


The present invention relates to an infant support structure, such as a swing for a child. In one embodiment, the child swing includes a recline mechanism that can be adjusted to change the recline angle of the seat in which a child is positioned.

Various types of swings for children are known. Usually, a swing includes a frame, one or more hanger arms that are pivotally coupled to the frame, and a seat that is attached to the hanger arms. Some swings include a drive mechanism which moves the hanger arms and the seat in a reciprocating manner.
Some child swings include a recline mechanism that can be adjusted to change the inclination of a portion of the seat relative to another portion of the seat. For example, a seat back can be pivotally mounted relative to a seat bottom so that the angle of the seat back with respect to the seat bottom can be adjusted. In that arrangement, the seat back can be disposed in various positions, such as an upright position, a fully reclined position, and/or an intermediate position between the upright position and the fully reclined position.
Conventional child swings do not provide recline mechanisms that are easy to use. Therefore, a need exists for an improved recline mechanism for a swing for a child.

Swing with a recline mechanism and method of using the same


A replenishing device for replenishing toner to a developing device for developing electrostatic latent images includes a hopper, and a toner conveying screw disposed in the hopper along a bottom surface of the hopper. The bottom surface consists of an inclined surface that rises in a downstream direction relative to the direction in which the screw conveys toner, so that an interior height dimension of the hopper at an end portion that is located upstream in the toner conveyance direction is greater than an interior height dimension at an end portion that is located downstream in the toner conveyance direction.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus in which an electrostatic latent image is formed and developed into a toner image.
2. Related Background Art
In an image forming apparatus of the above-described type, since a developing device for developing electrostatic latent images consumes toner each time the developing device develops an electrostatic latent image, toner is replenished to the developing device as needed.
A toner replenishing device for replenishing toner to the developing device mainly comprises a container (also referred to as "hopper") for containing toner, and a toner conveying member, such as a screw, for conveying toner within the container to a toner outlet port of the container.
A known image forming apparatus of the type being described includes a toner container longer in a horizontal direction than in the vertical direction, and disposed in the body of the apparatus at a position immediately behind a front cover of the body with the longitudinal dimension of the container lying parallel with the front cover in its closed position.
In such an image forming apparatus, if the toner container is made longer in order to increase its capacity, the increase in the length of the container creates disadvantages. For example, one of the ends of the container may become closer to a heat fusing device of the apparatus, thereby increasing the risk that toner particles may aggregate within the container. In addition, the distribution of the internal space of the apparatus among various structures to be disposed therein may become difficult.
Increasing the height of the toner container over the full length of the container may also make it difficult to distribute the internal space of the apparatus among various structures, and sometimes necessitates an increase in the size of the apparatus.

Image forming apparatus having a toner replenishing container


A power semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate, an active device region disposed in the semiconductor substrate, an edge termination region spaced laterally outward from the active device region in the semiconductor substrate, and first and second trenches. The first trench is disposed in the edge termination region and has an inner sidewall, an outer sidewall and a bottom, the inner sidewall being spaced closer to the active device region than the outer sidewall. The second trench is spaced laterally outward from the first trench in the edge termination region, and extends further into the semiconductor substrate than the first trench and has a sidewall which outwardly faces the outer sidewall of the first trench and is doped opposite as the inner sidewall and bottom of the first trench.

Many power semiconductor devices are fabricated on the same semiconductor substrate. The devices are physically separated following processing via a so-called dicing process which can be accomplished by scribing and breaking the substrate, by mechanically sawing (e.g. with a dicing saw) or by laser cutting. In each case, the lateral edge of each device has crystal defects which result from the dicing process. Leakage current significantly increases due to the crystal defects if any equipotential lines are permitted to reach the lateral edge of the device, reducing the blocking voltage capacity of the device.
To ensure a sufficiently high blocking voltage capacity for high-voltage semiconductor devices fabricated from e.g. Si or SiC, suitable measures must be implemented in the edge termination region at the lateral edge of the device. For modern MOS (metal oxide semiconductor) controlled power switches such as SIPMOS transistors, IGBTs (insulated gate bipolar transistors) or DMOS (double-diffused metal-oxide-semiconductor) transistors as well as high-voltage diodes, the strength of the electric field must be fully dissipated between the active device region and the saw edge of the device. Otherwise, field magnification occurs at the edge of the device.
The higher the reverse capacity of the device, the more complicated are generally also the requirement on the passivation layers. For IGBT products, as well as the associated freewheeling diodes, reverse voltages of 600 V to up to 6.5 kV are currently required. The edge termination region is in this case frequently realized with a planar design. The purpose of the edge construction is to ensure that the equipotential lines are conducted from the inner part of the device to the surface in such a way that their curve and thickness do not lead to any premature onset of avalanche generation in the silicon, or to a dielectric breakdown in the passivation layers, and that the blocking capacity of the device will be lowered far below the value of the volume breakdown voltage.
Other critical locations are the steps and edges in the topology of the edge construction. Peak field strengths of several MV/cm can build up on the surface in these locations during dynamic operation, creating extremely high requirement for the robustness of the protective passivation layers on the surfaces. When these requirements are not fully met, there the device can fail after a certain number of switching cycles.
Several conventional techniques can be applied in order to ensure a sufficiently high blocking voltage capacity in the edge termination. Each of these techniques attempts to weaken the electric field on the surface and to increase the tolerance region relative to the surface charges. The intent is to create potential relationships on the surface of the semiconductor material which can be maintained in a stable manner over a long period of time. For mesa termination structures, the contouring of the edge of the semiconductor is performed in the form of inclined cross-sections or trenches created with the blocking pn-transitions. For planar termination structures, the dissipation of the field strength must be brought about with suitable masking techniques. Accordingly, either a lateral development of doping is provided with the doping concentration adjusted accordingly, or so-called field plate constructions are used, through which the strength of the surface field can be laterally dissipated in a suitable manner in the insulation layer surface which is located between the field plate constructions and the surface of the semiconductor.
However, a considerable portion of the surface of the device is required for the optimization of a highly blocking planar edge with respect to the blocking potential and blocking stability. Typically, a twofold or threefold base thickness is set for the width of the edge termination. The high area requirement arises because the curving of the equipotential lines occurs for the most part in the silicon so that they can be led out to the surface. The curving of the equipotential lines is connected with an increase of the electric field. If the field exceeds a critical value, an avalanche breakdown occurs. In order to keep the curve radius sufficiently low, a field plate construction with a cushion oxide for a 600 V device requires an edge termination width of approximately 200 to 250 μm. An edge width of more than 2,000 μm is required with such a structure already for a blocking capacity of 6.5 kV.
Also, a planar high-voltage termination edge increases the expense associated with optimizing the simulation and increases the process complexity during the manufacturing. An overly complex process is particularly expensive for high-voltage diodes because the basic structure in the active part of the device is relatively simple and only requires a few process steps.
In contrasts to planar edge termination structures, mesa edge termination structures shift (at least partially) the dissipation of the field strength in the vertical depth of the device and the edge requirement is thus correspondingly smaller. Such a mesa edge termination is widely used for the manufacturing of high-voltage devices in the long-established bipolar technology, such as for example for thyristors.
However, very rough, mechanical techniques such as grinding, lapping or sandblasting are employed, which cannot be integrated with the manufacturing of MOS devices for reasons related to defect density. Moreover, the devices must be isolated for mechanic edge processing (for example with laser cutting operations), and then further processed and finished as individual chips or dies. This is also not compatible with the manufacturing of wafers which have standard diameters at a high level of automation.
Alternative technologies which are compatible with MOS technology are now available with the development of modern trench cell concepts, for example with new IGBT generations, which are suitable for the manufacturing of a vertical edge termination. With the vertical design of the edge termination structure, a circumferential trench is formed at the device edge, approximately in the area of the kerf along the dies which are later separated, through the depth of the drift zone. The blocking voltage capacity is improved with the integration of the acceptors (p-type dopants) in the sidewall of the vertical trench. For alternative, the trench can be set off from the lateral edge of the device so that the terminating edge region serves as a lateral field plate which is connected to the rear side potential. The equipotential lines can thus be led to the upper part in the trench which is filled with a dielectric material, and the actual chip edge remains field-free.
With the implantation of a higher acceptor dose in the bottom of the trench as opposed to the sidewall, the depth of the trench can be reduced with a structure having a side field plate by about a half. The structure is thus suitable for process integration with thin wafer technology in which a highly doped carrier material is no longer used.
However, the reduction of trench depth together with an increasing so-called punch through (PT) dimensioning leads to a behaviour in which the equipotential lines running through the structure under the bottom of the trench are "curved back" with a relatively large curve radius in the outermost region to a channel stopper region. This requires a considerable amount of space for the width of the lateral field stop zone in order to prevent impacting of the space charge zone (SCZ) at the lateral saw edge, which leads to a massive leakage current increase due to the damage caused to the crystals. The width of the lateral field stop zone can correspond to twice the width of the edge trench depending on the strength of the PT dimensioning. This indeed holds strongly true without limitations only in the fast switching case, since under the conditions of a static blocking load, accumulation of holes occurs at the outer lateral trench edge due to thermal generation, which partially shield the field against lateral spread. However, numeric simulations provide evidence that the shielding effect practically disappears with a relatively small depth of the trench, such as for example a half of the thickness of the chip, and with increased PT dimensioning, and that hardly any effect is exerted on the distribution of the equipotential lines even in the static blocking mode.

Power semiconductor device with an edge termination region