A retractable surface apparatus (10) is provided that may be positioned on the bottom side of any device such as a portable computer (12), a keyboard, or a drawer of a computer drawer. The retractable surface apparatus (100) includes a casing (18) and a retractable surface portion (16). The casing (18) has an opening formed therein with a first end and a second end. The retractable surface portion (16) includes a top surface, a bottom surface, a first side edge, a second side edge, a front edge, and a back edge. The retractable surface portion (16) is slidably positioned within the opening of the casing (10) such that the retractable surface portion (16) is operable to extend from the opening of the casing (18) through the first end for a predetermined distance to serve as a work surface.

Portable computers, such as notebook computers and laptop computers, are becoming more and more prevalent. Portable computers are especially useful to travelers, such as business travelers, for use when away from the home or office. With the proliferation of graphical user interfaces, a corresponding increase in the use of computer pointing devices has also dramatically increased. A computer pointing device may include a computer mouse, a trackball, a touch pad, and the like. The computer pointing devices have taken on increased importance with the growing popularity and usage of operating systems employing graphical user interfaces. For example, WINDOWS 3.1, WINDOWS 95, OS/2, and the Macintosh Operating System. As such, the use of computer pointing devices have also taken on increased importance with respect to the use of portable computers.
The goal of portable computers is to reduce the overall system size while maintaining similar functionality and power of a desktop personal computer. Manufacturers and designers of portable computers have addressed the need to include a pointing device by including built-in trackballs, touch pads, and pointing sticks. A pointing stick is an eraser-sized, rubberized device in the center of the keyboard that may be moved with the fingertip to relocate the cursor on-screen. Unfortunately, users of portable computers have found that these devices do not provide the same functionality and ease-of-use that a traditional, full-sized computer mouse provides. Thus, users of portable computers often desire to use a full-sized mouse with their portable computer. This presents substantial difficulties since a flat surface, with an appropriate texture, is often not available in locations where a portable computer is being used. For example, on an airplane, in an airport, and while sitting in a chair.
Users of portable computers often refer to written material while using their portable computer. Similarly, users often need to take handwritten notes while using a portable computer. This too is often cumbersome and inconvenient when operating a portable computer in its intended environment, such as while sitting in a chair. Another disadvantage of portable computers is that due to their reduction in size, it is inconvenient to operate a portable computer from your lap. This is so because the width of portable computers has been reduced to such a width that a user must place his legs and knees next to one another so that the portable computer will be properly balanced and supported. Unfortunately, this is an uncomfortable sitting position which quickly causes muscle fatigue and can cause muscle spasms, such as back muscle spasms. This presents a serious problems since a user often is forced to remain in this unnatural sitting position for extended periods of time.
Portable computers also suffer the disadvantage of overheating when placed on a soft, "cushiony" surface. Business travelers often use their portable computers while working from their hotel rooms. Users often place the portable computer on a soft surface, such as the hotel bed, while operating the portable computer. This can cause overheating of the portable computer resulting in damage to the portable computer and, in some cases, start a fire.
As mentioned above, with the proliferation of graphical user interfaces, from both operating systems and application programs, the need to use a pointing device, such as a mouse, has become a necessity. This presents problems even for users of desktop computers. Often, users are positioned at a workstation or desk in such a manner that the keyboard must be extended from the workstation to the user. This creates additional space between the user and the user's work surface. This necessitates the need to stretch and reach to locate and operate a mouse. For example, users often use a keyboard tray, drawer, or shelf that allows a keyboard to extend from a user's work surface to the user positioned in a chair. An example is provided in U.S. Pat. Nos. Des. 333,300 and Des. 302,425. A user must then reach to the work surface to use the mouse. This causes various injuries such as back strains, arm and shoulder strains, fatigue, and contributes to workplace injury. Employers and their worker's compensation carriers are very interested in reducing such workplace injuries.


A carburetor including a frame having a first air/fuel channel and a second air channel; and a throttle valve assembly connected to the frame and having two valve sections. Each valve section is located in a respective one of the channels. A second one of the valve sections has an air bleed hole therethrough. The second valve section is movable relative to the frame from a first idle position to a second intermediate closed position and then to a third open position at a wide open throttle (WOT). The air bleed hole allows flow through the second channel at the first idle position, but does not allow flow through the second channel when the second valve section is at the second intermediate closed position.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to internal combustion engines and, more particularly, to a carburetor.
2. Brief Description of Prior Developments
U.S. Pat. No. 6,347,787 discloses a carburetor with two passages and two valves. The valves are connected by gears for different motions relative to each other. U.S. Pat. No. 6,216,650 discloses a stratified engine with a carburetor and an ON/OFF valve. U.S. Pat. No. 6,349,925 discloses a carburetor with an air valve shaft and a throttle valve shaft movably coupled to each other.
It has been observed that when a large size main jet is used in a double barrel carburetor, the hydrocarbon emission is very high. When a small size jet or the needle is adjusted for low emission at idle, the acceleration may become unsatisfactory. There is a desire to provide a carburetor for a stratified engine which can allow air to flow through an air channel at idle and at wide open throttle (WOT), but which can block flow through the air channel at a predetermined intermediate position or range.

Carburetor with intermediate throttle valve blocking position


Systems and methods for reverse pulsing are described. One of the methods includes receiving a digital signal having a first state and a second state. The method further includes generating a transformer coupled plasma (TCP) radio frequency (RF) pulsed signal having a high state when the digital signal is in the first state and having a low state when the digital signal is in the second state. The method includes providing the TCP RF pulsed signal to one or more coils of a plasma chamber, generating a bias RF pulsed signal having a low state when the digital signal is in the first state and having a high state when the digital signal is in the second state, and providing the bias RF pulsed signal to a chuck of the plasma chamber.

Plasma systems are used to perform a variety of operations on wafers. A radio frequency (RF) signal is provided to a plasma chamber in which a wafer is located. Also, one or more gases are supplied to the plasma chamber and upon reception of the RF signal, plasma is generated within the plasma chamber. One of the operations is to etch the wafer using the plasma.
It is in this context that embodiments described in the present disclosure arise.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A system and a method for luminance correction that can remove luminance spots of a display device. The system includes a display device, an image detection unit, and a luminance correction device. The display device includes a plurality of sub-pixels including first sub-pixels and corresponding second sub-pixels. The image detection unit is configured to measure respective luminance values of the first sub-pixels. The luminance correction device is configured to supply test data so that only the first sub-pixels emit light, and to calculate correction values corresponding to the plurality of sub-pixels based on difference values between the respective luminance values measured by the image detection unit and one or more target luminance values.

1. Field
Aspects of embodiments of the present invention relate to a system and a method for luminance correction.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, there have been developed various types of flat panel displays capable of having reduced weight and volume in comparison to other displays, such as cathode ray tube displays. The flat panel displays include liquid crystal displays (LCDs), field emission displays (FEDs), plasma display panels (PDPs), organic light emitting displays, and the like. Among these flat panel displays, the organic light emitting displays display images using organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) that emit light through recombination of electrons and holes. Organic light emitting displays have fast response speed and display clear images.

System and method for luminance correction


A hybrid vehicle outputs creep torque by output torque of a second MG. A creep control unit controls creep torque when an accelerator pedal is not operated. The creep control unit controls a creep cut amount defined by a decrement of creep torque when the brake pedal is operated relative to creep torque when the brake pedal is not operated such that the creep cut amount when reverse running is selected is smaller than the creep cut amount when forward running is selected.

In a vehicle with a torque converter mounted thereon, a so-called creep phenomenon occurs in which the vehicle starts to move by the occurrence of minute vehicle driving force when an accelerator pedal is not operated (when an accelerator is off). Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2002-142310 (PTD 1), Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 10-191507 (PTD 2), and the like describe, as for an electric powered vehicle using a motor as the source of driving force, such as an electric vehicle and a hybrid vehicle, control of producing vehicle driving force for creep running (hereinafter also referred to as creep torque) when the accelerator is off.
Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2002-142310 (PTD 1) describes correction for reducing creep torque in accordance with torque on the braking side calculated from braking force so as to produce suitable creep torque in accordance with a brake operation. Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 10-191507 (PTD 2) describes performing brake assist at the instant when a mode of starting with an electric motor serving as the source of motive power and a mode of starting with an engine serving as the source of motive power are switched at the time of creep control.
Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2008-221935 (PTD 3) describes control of gradually decreasing creep torque output from a motor to zero and causing breaking force based on requested torque to function on a driving wheel if requested torque is negative torque and the vehicular state is in a creep torque output range when constant speed running is instructed.
Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2008-100580 (PTD 4) describes setting vehicle driving force for smooth starting when an accelerator is turned on in the state where braking torque is output and the vehicle is at a stop. Specifically, it is described that control is exerted to bring braking torque obtained by a brake unit gradually closer to zero and to increase driving torque by an increment based on a decrement of braking torque.
Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2009-262766 (PTD 5) describes control of achieving a vehicle stop by an automatic brake as a backward movement prevention device at the time of a vehicle stop even when a driver tries to stop the vehicle on an uphill road.


An organic memory device may include a stack of an organic material layer and a fullerene layer to provide a data storage element between first and second electrodes. The data storage element may include an organic material layer formed on the first electrode, and a fullerene layer between the organic material layer and the second electrode. Methods of fabricating organic memory devices are also discussed.

Semiconductor memory devices may be classified into volatile memory devices and non-volatile memory devices. Volatile memory devices include DRAM devices and SRAM devices, and non-volatile memory devices include flash memory devices, phase change memory devices, resistance RAM (RRAM) devices, and magnetic RAM (MRAM) devices.
In these memory devices, electronic addressing and/or logic devices used to store and/or process data have been fabricated using inorganic semiconductor materials such as crystalline silicon. While inorganic semiconductor memory devices formed of inorganic semiconductor materials have enjoyed some technical and commercial success, their complex structure may result in increased expense and reduced data storage density. Volatile memory devices formed of inorganic semiconductor materials may require continuous current to maintain stored data, resulting in heat generation and high power consumption. Non-volatile memory devices may have reduced data storage density due to more complex circuit design and may be more costly. Data processing speed may be relatively low and power consumption may be relatively high.
Attempts to apply organic materials to various electronic devices have been made, and some electronic devices (such as thin film transistors, lasers, emission diodes, etc.) successfully employ organic materials. In addition, several organic materials having electrical switching characteristics between two different states may be used as data storage elements of memory devices.
Conventional organic memory devices may include: a single organic material layer; a plurality of organic material layers and a conductive layer such as a metal particle layer between the organic material layers; or an organic compound layer with conductive nano particles dispersed in an organic matrix. An organic memory device using organic material layers with a conductive layer therebetween as a data storage element is disclosed, for example, in U.S. Patent Publication No. 2004/0246770, entitled "Organic Distable Element, Organic Distable Memory Device Using the Same, and Process for Driving the Same", filed by Kano. The disclosure of U.S. Patent Publication No. 2004/0246770 is hereby incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
When a single organic material layer is used as a data storage element, however, only a few types of organic material layers may be suitable as data storage elements. Moreover, a single organic material layer may cause degradation of operation characteristics. In addition, when organic material layers with a conductive layer therebetween are used as a data storage element, the conductive layer may be difficult to form, especially a metal particle layer, between the organic material layers. Further, when an organic compound layer is used as a data storage element, distribution of cell characteristics may deteriorate due to segregation of conductive nano particles.

Organic memory devices including organic material and fullerene layers


A data supplying apparatus detects a change in the status of the wireless connection established with an external apparatus. When the status of the wireless connection is restored after a change has been detected in the status of the wireless connection, the data supplying apparatus transmits, to the external apparatus, a different data file from the previous data file transmitted by the wireless connection before restoration of the connection.

RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) and NFC (Near Field Communication) techniques are generally known as techniques for executing short range wireless transfer between devices (e.g., JIS X6319-4 2005, ISO 18092:2004). There is another short range wireless transfer technique called "TransferJet". These transfer techniques have a very short communication range and perform control to connect devices that are to perform communication when they are brought close to each other and to disconnect the devices when they are moved away from each other.
Ordinarily, in order to print images stored in a data supplying apparatus by transferring the images to a data output apparatus by wireless communication, the user has to perform complicated operations including selecting images, and as such, there is a demand to simplify operations. To respond to such a demand, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-223518 discloses a technique for improving usability for the user by automatically transferring a plurality of image data files between an image supplying apparatus storing the plurality of image data files and an image storage apparatus in response to establishment of wireless communication.
As already mentioned above, a series of operations involved in the data transfer by the image supplying apparatus requires the user to perform complicated operations, so there is a technical problem in that usability is poor. In addition, the technique of Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-223518 has a technical problem in that the user cannot select image data files to be transferred because a plurality of image data items stored in the apparatus is transferred upon establishment of wireless communication.

Data supplying apparatus, data processing apparatus and data communication system


A speech interpretation server, and a method for providing a speech interpretation service, are disclosed. The server includes a speech input for receiving an inputted speech in a first language from a mobile terminal, a speech recognizer that receives the inputted speech and converts the inputted speech into a prescribed symbol string, a language converter that converts the inputted speech converted into the prescribed symbol string into a second language, wherein the second language is different from the first language, and a speech output that outputs the second language to the mobile terminal. The method includes the steps of providing an interpretation server having resident thereon a plurality of registered sentences to be interpreted, activating a translation connection between the mobile terminal and the interpretation server, receiving speech, in a first language, inputted to the mobile terminal via the translation connection, at the interpretation server, recognizing and interpreting the speech inputted based on a comparison of the inputted speech to the plurality of registered sentences to be interpreted, and outputting a translation correspondent to the second language.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to speech interpretation, and, more particularly, to an automatic interpretation service for translating speech pronounced by a user in a first language into a second language and outputting the translated speech in audio.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Patent Application No. 125539/1999 discloses a compact hand-operable speech interpretation apparatus that translates speech entered in a first language by way of a built-in microphone into a second language and outputs the translated speech in audio through a loudspeaker arranged opposite the microphone. However, such a speech interpretation apparatus, because it is a dedicated apparatus that cannot be used for other purposes, increases the total number of a user's personal effects when the user carries it for actual use, for example, on a lengthy trip.
Japanese Patent Application No. 65424/1997 discloses a speech interpretation system using a combination speech recognition server and wireless mobile terminal. However, as this speech interpretation system allows the user to input nearly any sentence, it does not achieve high accuracy of interpretation, due to the tremendous number of possible spoken sentences, and the difficulty in finding a speech recognizer that can adequately understand a great number of those possible sentences.
Therefore, the need exists for a speech interpretation device and system that does not increase inconvenience while travelling, such as by adding to the number of personal effects, and which achieves improved accuracy of translation over existing methods.

Method for speech interpretation service and speech interpretation server


Incorporation of an encapsulated nucleant made from an encapsulant polymer and a nucleant, wherein the encapsulant polymer is selected from linear low density polyethylene, high density polyethylene, and polypropylene, into polyoxymethylene compositions results in a decrease in the center line porosity of polyoxymethylene extruded stock shape parts, without also reducing the rate of extrusion. The compositions are especially useful for extrusion into stock shape parts, such as rod, slab, sheet, and tube stock, which are used for machined parts (like artificial limbs and complex gears), die cut parts (like washers and gaskets), and control cable inners.

Technical Field
This invention relates to certain polyoxymethylene compositions containing an encapsulated nucleant which, when extruded into stock shapes, such as rod, slab, sheet, and tube, have improved center line porosity values in comparison to comparable compositions that lack the encapsulated nucleant and that are extruded at the same rate.
Compositions based on polyoxymethylenes of relatively high number average molecular weight (i.e., 10,000 to 100,000) are useful in preparing semi-finished and finished articles by stock shape extrusion, compression molding, injection molding, blow molding, rotational molding, melt spinning, stamping and thermoforming techniques commonly used with thermoplastic materials. Finished articles made from such compositions possess desirable physical properties, including high stiffness, strength, low coefficient of friction, and good wear and solvent resistance. However, in certain applications, especially stock shape extrusion, it is desirable to reduce the center line porosity of the polyoxymethylene composition. By the present invention, the center line porosity of polyoxymethylene compositions is found to be lowered, in comparison to comparable compositions, extruded at the same rate by the inclusion of therein of low levels of particular types of encapsulated nucleants.
The compositions of the present invention are especially useful in those applications where a polyoxymethylene composition is extruded into a stock shape and where it is desired that such stock shapes have reduced center line porosity, without slowing the rate of extrusion. Stock shapes include rods, slabs, sheets, tubes, and other symmetrical shapes. Rod and slab stock shapes are used as blanks in machining processes. Sheets are used for die cut parts (such as gears, washers, and gaskets). Tubes are used for control cable inners (which are small diameter tubes that serve as conduits for push/pull cables).

Polyoxymethylene compositions containing at least one encapsulated nucleant


The present invention provides methods for treating a neurological disorder.

The intracellular enzyme p38 MAPKα has been best characterized as a regulator of pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-1β and TNFα) production from macrophages and microglia, and is considered a therapeutic target in Alzheimer's disease (Munoz, 2010); the primary rationale being the reduction of inflammatory mediators from microglia and their impact downstream of Aβ: excitotoxity, synaptic dysfunction, and tau phosphorylation. IL-1β-p38 MAPKα may also directly modulate memory formation and cognitive function through effects on long-term potentiation/depression (MacAfoose, 2009; Barrientos, 2012). However, no p38 MAPKα anatagonists have been developed for AD due to previous unavailability of blood-brain-barrier (BBB) penetrant compounds. Given their known action on pro-inflammatory cytokine production, P38 MAPK inhibitors otherwise have been evaluated in a wide range of non-CNS diseases (rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, COPD) as anti-inflammatory agents. Thus, there remains an important unmet need to develop p38 MAPKα anatgonists that penetrate the BBB as treatments of AD and other neurological conditions.

Methods for treating neurologic disorders


The invention provides a resin composition containing a resin, a carbon fiber and a conductive liquid, wherein the content of the resin is 47 to 94.9% by mass in the composition, the content of the carbon fiber is 5 to 50% by mass in the composition, and the content of the conductive liquid is 0.1 to 3% by mass in the composition, and wherein the concentration of an element contained in the conductive liquid as measured by SEM-EDS on the surface of the carbon fiber is 1.3 times or more as much as the concentration of the element contained in the resin.

A carbon fiber resin composition has heretofore been widely used in a digital single-lens reflex camera, a compact digital camera, a smartphone, a personal computer and the like for the purpose of achieving both electric field shielding property for preventing malfunction of the products and weight saving.
Patent Literature 1 discloses carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastic resins (CFRTP) in order for the thermoplastic resins to have the electric field shielding property.
Carbon fiber makes a thermoplastic resin conductive by mixing a large amount of the carbon fiber into the thermoplastic resin because of its high conductivity in order for the thermoplastic resin to have electric field shielding property and antistatic characteristics by virtue of a conductive effect.
Patent Literature 2 discloses that the surface of carbon fiber is plated for reducing the mixing amount of the carbon fiber. In addition, Patent Literature 2 discloses that a dispersant is mixed with a carbon fiber resin composition for reducing the mixing amount of the carbon fiber.

Resin composition, production process thereof and optical instrument


A fan motor suitable for use in an electronic device, such as a consumer electronic device, is disclosed. The fan motor includes a stator and a rotor. In order to minimize a varying torque applied to the rotor, the stator includes modifications. For example, the stator includes stator teeth, each with an arc defined by a radius of curvature that varies. The radius (from a reference point to the arc) can vary in accordance with a sinusoidal curve. Furthermore, the corners of each stator tooth may be rounded. The rounded corners of the stator teeth may include a uniform (or constant, non-varying) radius of curvature. These enhancement are designed to provide a more uniform torque by the stator to the rotor. As a result, the rotation of the rotor is subject to smaller fluctuations, and the fan motor undergoes less vibration and generates less acoustical noise.

Fan motors include a stator and a rotor. The stator teeth (of the stator) are magnetized through a switching current, creating an electromagnetic field. The magnetic flux passing through the stator teeth interacts with a magnet, or magnets, on the rotor. The interaction generates torque on the rotor, causing the rotor to rotate, as well as fan blades connected to the rotor. The torque provided by the electromagnetic field changes as a result of the changing polarity of the electromagnetic field. The changing torque leads to "torque ripple," which causes vibration of the fan motor itself, or components near the fan motor. As a result of the vibration, the fan motor can act as a source of unwanted noise. When the fan motor is installed in an electronic device, the noise can be heard by a user of the electronic device.
Further, the stator and the rotor are ideally positioned in a concentric manner during the assembly of the fan motor. However, it is likely that at least some misalignment exists between the respective centers of the stator and the rotor. As a result, the distance, or gap, between the stator and the rotor is not uniform/consistent. This can also lead to vibration, resulting in acoustical noise.

Electronic devices with a motor that includes a stator with a non-uniform radius of curvature


A large single crystal of a complex such as an organic carboxylic acid metal complex, which crystal is useful as an adsorbent of various gases and vapors of organic solvents and as a hydrogen-absorbing material, as well as a process for producing the crystal, is disclosed. Two layers wherein an upper layer thereof is constituted by a solution containing a metal salt and an organic carboxylic acid having a conjugated system, or a solution containing a metal salt of the organic carboxylic acid having a conjugated system, and wherein a lower layer of the two layers is constituted by a solvent which is not miscible with the solvent of the solution, is formed. Vapor of pyrazine or a substituted pyrazine from a solution of pyrazine or the substituted pyrazine is introduced into the upper layer to allow reaction, thereby forming a large single crystal(s) of the organic carboxylic acid metal complex at the interface between the two layers, which crystal(s) has(have) a longer side with a size of not less than 0.8 mm.

Patent Literature 1 discloses a carboxylic acid complex composed of benzoic acid, a metal, and an organic ligand which can coordinate with the metal by bidentate coordination, and also discloses that the complex is useful as a methane gas-absorbing material. Non-patent Literatures 1 and 2 disclose a single crystal of one-dimensionally linked organic metal complex composed of benzoic acid, rhodium (Non-patent Literature 1) or copper (Non-patent Literature 2), and pyrazine, and also disclose that the crystal structure of the metal complex changes when the metal complex adsorbs or desorbs carbon dioxide molecules which are guest molecules.
On the other hand, as an adsorbent of vapors of organic solvents such as benzene and toluene, active carbon, zeolite and the like are conventionally used (Patent Literatures 2 and 3). As a hydrogen-absorbing material, alloys and sintered bodies thereof have been used (Patent Literatures 4 and 5).    Patent Literature 1: JP 2000-309592 A    Patent Literature 2: JP 2004-255336 A    Patent Literature 3: JP 2004-261780 A    Patent Literature 4: JP 2003-1389 A    Patent Literature 5: JP 2003-3203 A    Non-patent Literature 1: Satoshi Takamizawa et al., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2003, 42, 4331-4334    Non-patent Literature 1: Satoshi Takamizawa et al., Inorganic Chemistry Communications, Volume 6, Issue 10, October 2003, pp. 1326-1328

Single-crystalline organic carboxylic acid metal complex, process for producing the same, and use thereof


A railway bogie includes at least two spring units per one wheel, a bogie frame and an essentially single piece adapter which bridges the spring units and is arranged between the spring units on the one side and the bogie frame on the other side.

From UIC standard a bogie with helical springs is well known in which the axlebox suspension consists of helical springs in combination with friction damping. The springs rest on support arms integral with the lower part of the axlebox housing and are connected with the bogie frame using caps integral with the bogie frame for taking up the top of the springs.
US 2002-0089 102 A1 discloses a hydraulic spring comprising a membrane. This document discloses that the hydraulic spring is for use in rail vehicles especially as a primary spring.
Further, the catalogue of the company ContiTech Luftfedersysteme GmbH in Hannover, Germany, "Air Spring Systems for Modem Rail Vehicles", printed and distributed in October 1998, discloses the use of hydraulic springs comprising a membrane in two-axle bogies.
One object of the present invention is to provide an improved railway bogie comprising at least two spring units per one wheel and a bogie frame, so that various types of spring units in connection with also various types of axleboxes having all diverse dimensions can be connected to the bogie frame having standardized dimensions in an easy and reliable manner.


An apparatus of a text image coding and decoding system includes a decomposer to decompose image data to extract a stripe image having one or more symbols, a matching unit to match the symbols with reference symbols of a symbol dictionary, and a dynamic symbol caching unit to generate one or more new symbols when the one or more new symbols of the symbols are not included in the symbol dictionary, and to remove the least used one or more of the reference symbols, so that the symbol dictionary is updated as an updated symbol dictionary with the one or more new symbols and without the least used one or more reference symbols.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method of managing a dictionary composed of different symbols in a text image coding and decoding system, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method of dynamically caching symbols to manage a dictionary memory in a pattern matching based coding and decoding system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, the JBIG2 standard, described in ITU-T T.88, defines a compression method for bi-level images, that is, images consisting of a single rectangular bit plane, with each pixel taking on one of just two possible colors. The JBIG2 standard only defines requirements for decoding a compliant bit stream corresponding to the images, and does not define a specific feature of an encoder design, but is flexible to many optimizations that can improve quality, compression, or speed of the encoder design.
In addition, the JBIG2 standard is the first international standard that provides for lossy, lossless, and lossy-to-lossless compression of the bi-level images, and supports multi-page images and model-based coding for text and halftones. The JBIG2 standard also permits compression ratios that are three to eight times better than previous standards, such as G3, G4, and JBIG1.
A bi-level document may contain one or more pages, and each page may contain text data, halftone data, and other data, such as line art or noise, as an input bi-level image. The JBIG2 encoder is expected to segment the input bi-level image into different regions, usually three regions, and to code each region separately using a different coding method. FIG. 1 is a view illustrating a composite image as an input image to be decomposed into three regions in the JBIG2 standard, such as a text region, a halftone region, and a generic region.
The JBIG2 standard includes encoding the text region of the input image using a symbol dictionary. The input image is split into horizontal stripes. Each stripe is scanned in raster order to extract connected components (symbols). Each symbol extracted is compared with reference symbols in the symbol dictionary. If a match is found between the symbol of the input page and the reference symbols of the symbol dictionary, the symbol of the input image is encoded using the following information: its location offset relative to its preceding symbols, a dictionary index pointing to its best match with the reference symbol in the symbol dictionary, and a refinement of an encoded bitmap of the symbol of the input image. If the match is not found, a new symbol corresponding to the unmatched symbol of the input image is added to the symbol dictionary. This pattern matching based coding system is known as Pattern Matching and Substitution (PM&S).
There exist several methods for the design of the symbol dictionary. The simplest one is a method that creates a completely different dictionary for each stripe encoded, without taking into account the symbols that were used to encode a previous stripe. This method is called an independent Dictionary. This method provides a poor compression ratio since a new dictionary must be encoded at each stripe. It is important to note that the symbols may be repeated from one stripe to another. Therefore, repeating symbols across different stripes has two disadvantages. First, these additional symbols increase computation due to the time taken to encode them. Second, retransmission of these redundant symbols of the independent dictionaries increases the overall bit rate of the encoding system.
The second one is a Global Dictionary method to take advantage of the fact that the symbols are repeated. This method uses a single dictionary to encode an entire multi-page document. Therefore, the Global Dictionary contains all the symbols necessary to encode all the stripes in the document. This method produces a high compression ratio. However, it is not feasible when there are memory limitations on the encoder or decoder. Moreover, the Global Dictionary method also increases the computation time because the symbol matching process requires a linear search through a much larger dictionary.
The third one is a Local Dictionary method which has been proposed by Ye and Cosman in the PhD dissertation "Text Image Compression Based on Pattern Matching", Yan Ye, 2002. The Local Dictionary method takes advantage of the fact that symbols may be repeated within consecutive stripes, and works as follows. At each stripe, the symbols from a previous dictionary that will not be used to encode a current stripe are removed, and the symbols that appear in the current stripe but did not find a match in the previous dictionary are added. The Local Dictionary method has disadvantages in that some symbols that are already stored in the dictionary and may be used in processing the next stripe are discarded. Typically, a compression ratio for the local dictionary method is higher than the Independent Dictionary method but much lower than the Global Dictionary method

Apparatus and method of dynamically caching symbols to manage a dictionary in a text image coding and decoding system


A vehicular camera for detecting desired imaging objects by shooting the surroundings of a vehicle includes a lens for forming an image of light on an image pickup device, an optical filter capable of selectively transmitting a component of light in a particular wavelength range, the image pickup device for performing photoelectric conversion on the image formed thereon, and an image processing unit for producing a prescribed video signal by processing a signal produced by the image pickup device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicular camera that is mounted on a vehicle, shoots the surroundings, and, in particular, is used for detecting a desired object from a resulting video signal with such a means as image processing.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, vehicular cameras that are mounted on an automobile (a CCD camera (i.e., a camera using a solid-state image pickup device) is mounted on the automobile) and that recognize white lines on the road on which the automobile is running, detect an obstacle, and perform like operations have been developed as apparatus for securing safety driving of automobiles.
For example, a camera disclosed in JP-A-9-83879 (hereinafter referred to as patent document 1) is known as a conventional vehicular camera, in particular, a camera that is premised on image processing and exhibits a pronounced effect when using an optical filter.
The camera of patent document 1 is such that a polarizing filter and an infrared filter are integrated with each other and incorporated in a camera, whereby inclusion of undesired light coming from the windshield can be prevented and reflection light from a road surface can be eliminated without causing deterioration of the polarizing filter by direct sunlight or occurrence of a ghost image. As a result, white lines on the road on which the automobile is running, nearby vehicles, etc. can be shot clearly.
For example, when a scene in front of the automobile is shot with a video camera, there may occur a case that lane boundary lines and vehicles ahead are buried in reflection light from the road surface that is caused by shooting against the sun or the road surface being wet, to disable recognition by image processing.
The vehicular camera of patent document 1 eliminates only a horizontally polarized reflection light component, and hence can shoot white lines and vehicles ahead clearly even under bad conditions as described above and facilitates later image processing as post-processing.
Incidentally, in cameras such as the above-described vehicular cameras that are premised on image processing, it is very important to obtain camera performance that conforms to the object or algorithm of the image processing. For example, in image processing for recognizing traffic lane boundary lines, it is a general procedure to perform the image processing paying attention to the fact that the luminance of the lane boundary lines are higher than that of the road surface. Cameras are required to reproduce the luminance relationship between the road surface and white lines faithfully at proper contrast.
Roads in which white lines are formed on an asphalt road are free of problems because the luminance of the white lines are sufficiently higher than that of the road surface. However, problems may occur in roads in which yellow lines are formed on an asphalt road or white lines are formed on a concrete road, because the difference in luminance between the road surface and the lane boundary lines is small and the contrast of a video signal is low. This adversely affects the cognitive performance of the image recognition such as the recognition rate, the reliability of recognition, and the stability.
Where yellow lines are formed on a concrete road, the luminance of the yellow lines is lower that that of the road surface. This results in a problem that the lane boundary lines cannot be recognized if the relative luminance relationship between the road surface and the lane boundary lines is reproduced faithfully.
Polarizing filters that are used in conventional vehicular cameras as exemplified by the one disclosed in patent document 1 cannot solve the above problems because they do not change the relative luminance relationship except for a case of handling polarized light.


A method, a device, and a non-transitory storage medium to store traffic aggregation settings that include hold time values that each indicate a maximum period of time to suspend a transmission of data; receive data from a resident application; determine a type of application from which the data is received; determine whether the device in an active state; select one of the hold time values in response to a determination that the device is not in the active state; suspend a transmission of the data in response to a selection of the one of the hold time values, wherein the transmission of the data is suspended for at least a portion of a maximum time period indicated by the one of the hold time values; and transmit the data subsequent to the at least the portion of the maximum time period elapsing.

There are two general types of wireless data traffic, namely, signaling traffic and bearer traffic. When an end device establishes, maintains, and releases a connection with a network, the network must use resources to accommodate the traffic stemming from the connection. Additionally, from the end device perspective, the end device must use resources to support these facets of the connection with the network.


A catalyst producing method comprises preparing reverse micellar solution including an aqueous solution containing at least a noble metal element as a catalytic active component, and carrying the catalytic active component by a substrate to establish them into a catalyst precursor; and spraying the emulsion solution containing the catalyst precursor in an inert gas atmosphere to obtain a dried catalyst precursor, and firing the obtained dried catalyst precursor in an air atmosphere. A catalyst is obtained by the catalyst producing method.

Regulations of exhaust gas of vehicles have been strengthened with recently increased environmental consciousness, so that various investigations have been conducted to improve engine systems and to simultaneously improve performances of exhaust-gas purifying catalysts for purifying exhaust gas. Exhaust-gas purifying catalysts include substrates (such as alumina (Al2O3)) having surfaces carrying thereon noble metal particles (such as platinum (Pt) or palladium (Pd)), and oxidize harmful components (such as unburnt hydrocarbons (HC) and carbon monoxide (CO)) contained in exhaust gas by noble metal particles, thereby converting harmful components into harmless components (water and gases). Since noble metal elements as catalytic active components are extremely expensive elements having a fear of resource exhaustion, it is getting difficult to use a large amount of noble metal. There has been thus conducted such an endeavor to bring noble metal into fine particles thereby increasing surface areas and thus increasing contacting areas between exhaust gas and noble metal, to thereby decrease a usage amount of noble metal.
Examples of techniques for bringing noble metal into fine particles include a reversed micelle (microemulsion) method. The reversed micelle method is to firstly mix: a surfactant; and an aqueous solution containing a catalytic active component (such as noble metal element); into an organic solvent. Subsequently, there is prepared reverse micellar solution including the organic solvent each containing the aqueous solution including the noble metal, followed by precipitation of the noble metal and reduction or insolubilization of the precipitated noble metal, thereby depositing the noble metal brought into fine particles within reverse micelles.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 9-262470 has disclosed a producing method of a catalyst utilizing a reversed micelle method. In this method, there is firstly prepared reverse micellar solution including catalytic active components (noble metal element, alkaline metal element, rare earth element) (emulsion solution preparing step), the emulsion solution is then sprayed and fired in air to provide a catalytic powder (spraying and firing step), and catalytic active components are carried on to a substrate (carrying step), followed by firing to obtain a catalyst. However, in this method, catalytic active components are carried on the substrate after spraying the emulsion solution, so that noble metal particles are carried only on the outermost surface of the substrate. This results in a possibility that noble metal particles are sintered due to usage of the catalyst over a long period of time to thereby deteriorate the activity of the catalyst.
Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2000-42411 has disclosed a method for producing a catalyst by containing an element having an oxygen occluding function into reverse micelles in an emulsion solution preparing step. In this producing method, catalytic active components are carried on a substrate within each reverse micelle contained in the emulsion solution, then reverse micelles are broken, and the obtained precipitate is subjected to steps of filtering, drying, grinding, and firing to thereby establish the catalyst. The catalyst produced by this producing method is capable of not only allowing the substrate to carry thereon the element having the oxygen occluding function but also allowing the outermost surface and surfaces of holes formed in the substrate to carry thereon catalytic active components, thereby allowing an enhanced activity of the catalyst. However, in this producing method, the catalyst is produced by spraying and firing the reverse micellar solution, thereby causing factors of complicated producing steps, a prolonged producing time and a considerably increased producing cost.
As such, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication Nos. 2001-103606, 2002-24847, and 2002-66335 have disclosed producing methods of catalysts, respectively, each utilizing a reversed micelle method to prepare reverse micellar solution followed by spraying and firing. In each of the catalyst producing methods, reverse micellar solution is prepared, catalytic active components are carried on a substrate, and the emulsion solution is sprayed and fired. Thus, the producing step can be simplified and the producing time is shortened, thereby allowing a decreased producing cost.


An air conditioning register includes a downstream fin, primary upstream fins, a secondary upstream fin, and an operation knob slidably attached onto the downstream fin. The operation knob sandwiches a shaft of the secondary upstream fin. The air conditioning register has a link mechanism that includes arms and a coupling rod. The arms extend from pivots of the primary and secondary upstream fins in a direction orthogonal to the pivots, and have a pin at the tip of the arms. The coupling rod couples the respective pins. The distance between the pivot and the pin in the arm of the secondary upstream fin is longer than the distance between the pivot and the pin in the arm of each primary upstream fin. The coupling rod includes coupling portions, each of which couples the pins of an adjacent pair of the arms. Adjacent coupling portions are pivotally coupled.

The present invention relates to an air conditioning register, which changes the flow direction of air for air conditioning transmitted from an air conditioner to be blown into a compartment by a plurality of fins and, more particularly, to an air conditioning register that has a structure for selectively opening and closing a ventilation passage by the fins.
For example, Japanese Patent No. 4055693 discloses an air conditioning register for changing the flow direction of air for air conditioning transmitted from an air conditioner blown into a vehicle passenger compartment and that has a structure for selectively opening and closing a ventilation passage by fins.
This air conditioning register includes a case, a plurality of downstream fins, a plurality of upstream fins, and an operation knob. The case has a cylindrical shape, and its inner space constitutes a ventilation passage for the air for air conditioning. Each of the plate-shaped downstream fins has a pivot, and is pivotally supported by the case via the pivot. Each of the plate-shaped upstream fins has a pivot, and is located upstream of the downstream fins. Each of the upstream fins extends in a direction orthogonal to the downstream fins, and is pivotally supported by the case via the pivot. The operation knob is slidably attached onto the downstream fin. In order to transmit sliding operation of the operation knob to the upstream fins, a rack is formed on the operation knob and a pinion that meshes with the rack is formed on the upstream fin.
According to the above-described air conditioning register, the air for air conditioning is blown out of the case after its flow direction is changed along the upstream fins and the downstream fins.
When a force is applied to the operation knob in a thickness direction of the downstream fins, the downstream fins are tilted in the same direction. At this time, the rack tilts together with the downstream fins, and slides along teeth of the pinion. Movement of the rack is not transmitted to the pinion, and therefore, the upstream fins are not tilted. The flow direction of the air for air conditioning is changed along the tilted downstream fins.
When sliding the operation knob along the downstream fins, the rack moves together with the operation knob. Along with the movement of the rack of the operation knob, the rack meshes with the pinion to move the pinion, so that the upstream fins are tilted. When the sliding operation of the operation knob is made along the downstream fins in a normal movable region, the flow direction of the air for air conditioning is changed along the tilted upstream fins. When the sliding operation of the operation knob is made along the downstream fins in a specific movable region that is out of the normal movable region, the upstream fins are almost orthogonal to the ventilation passage. At this time, the ventilation passage is closed by the upstream fins and blowing of the air for air conditioning from the case is blocked.


A robot procurement apparatus stores a deficient or surplus number of robots in each of service areas where robots provide services and performs a procurement process of determining a procurement target robot to a dispatch destination service area that is the service area to which the robot is to be dispatched based on the deficient or surplus number of robots in the dispatch destination service area and the deficient or surplus number of robots in any service area other than the dispatch destination service area. The robot procurement apparatus sets the deficient or surplus number of robots in each of the service areas based on load of the robot in the service area.

The present invention relates to a robot procurement apparatus and a robot procurement method.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Publication No. 2006-198730 states "Provided is a reception and guiding system including multiple mobile robots that are capable of simultaneously attending multiple visitors by taking their respective shares of tasks, moving between building floors by use of elevators, and working in rotation by exchanging their tasks between them", and "includes a mobile robot that includes a speech recognition unit configured to recognize human speech, a speech unit configured to speak a human-understandable language through speech synthesis, a mobile object configured to autonomously move in a space, a manipulator configured to handle objects, and an external communication unit configured to communicate with an external server; an elevator control server that controls elevators; a visitor detection device that detects visitors; and a visitor detection server that is coupled to the visitor detection device and controls the visitor detection device".

Robot procurement apparatus and robot procurement method


The present invention comprises systems and methods of utilizing hull arrangements that combine aerodynamic and hydrodynamic effects to provide marine vessels with broader ranges of performance capabilities. The combination hull arrangements variously combine V-hulls, slot aspects, topographic features, and other hull characteristics that enable a vessel to retain the primary performance benefits of conventional V-hulls and achieve assorted improvements. Embodiments of the slot-V hull system employ specifically shaped hull characteristics to influence the manners in which water, air, and air/water spray mixtures interact with the vessel's hull. One principal operative effect can enable a vessel with the slot-V hull system to achieve a planing attitude more rapidly and efficiently than a standard V-hull.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to systems and methods of configuring marine vessel hulls with combination hull arrangements, and more specifically to systems and methods of configuring a hull with combination hull arrangements that utilize aerodynamic and hydrodynamic effects to provide broader ranges of performance benefits than are provided by uncombined hull arrangements.
2. Related Art
Marine vessels may encounter widely varying conditions and can be asked to perform well in a broad range of tasks. A broad variety of hull arrangements have been devised in order to provide performance benefits that are particularly well suited for certain tasks or conditions. While many of these individual hull arrangements are advantageous for accomplishing certain objectives they have been devised for, there often are also significant limitations in the range of situations in which they are capable of performing well. These limitations can be generally characterized in at least one of two ways. The first characterization is the type of function at which the vessel can perform well, and the second characterization is the type of conditions in which the vessel can operate well. Frequently, limitations characterized in one way are also capable of being characterized in the other way.
For marine vessels, designs intended to provide certain functional capabilities must also take into account both the conditions in which the vessel will normally operate, as well as the potential for the vessel to encounter less customary or even extreme conditions. Often, designs are primarily optimized for the normal operating conditions, while some provision, often limited, is made for the less common conditions. For example, a V-hull design provides capabilities of traversing waters with significant waves while lessening their jarring effects by virtue of its ability to "cut" through the waves. However, a V-hull is also susceptible to greater rolling, for example due to steering changes, and is less efficient when moving at high speeds across relatively calm waters than are flatter bottom hulls or catamarans which will normally plane more easily. By the same token, those hulls that plane most easily, and hence are more efficient for travel at higher speeds, are also more susceptible to being adversely affected by larger waves, and their uses can be limited by their difficulties in handling turbulent waters.
One approach to surmounting these limitations has been to develop hull designs that amalgamate aspects of disparate hull designs. Hulls which attempt to combine the virtues of both V-shapes and efficient planing bottom shapes are frequently compromises that may not perform either task optimally, but hope to at least avoid the worst performance problems of both. In some designs, hull step(s) are also utilized to attempt to facilitate easier planing. While some of these approaches have managed to avoid various performance deficits of certain single-shape hull designs, or expand the range of conditions in which a vessel can operate well, there remain substantial amounts of improvement in both performance gains and reductions in condition-based limitations that are desirable, but not yet available.


An organizer for holding surgical instruments includes a tray that has instrument wells extending from the top surface of the tray. The shape of each instrument well corresponds to particular surgical instrument's shapes. Each instrument well's depth corresponds to the height of a particular stack of surgical instruments. Pivoting locking bars extend over each instrument well to a locked position. In that position, instruments cannot be added to or removed from the instrument well. When the bar extends over the instrument well, the bar rests against the top instrument in the instrument well if the instrument well is full. If one or more instruments are missing from their instrument well, the locking bar's intersection with the structure of the tray adjacent the instrument well is such that an end of the locking bar projects about the tray's surface. Thus, one can notice quickly whether all instrument wells are full.

1. Field
Organizers for holding surgical instruments in operating rooms.
2. General Background and State of the Art
Surgeons and their staff need their instrument and other items used during surgery to be readily accessible and well organized. Spending time looking for a clamp that other instruments hide adds crucial time to a surgery. That is undesirable for the patient because delays increase the length of the surgery and time under anesthesia.
Increasing the time for each surgery also is detrimental to surgeons, accompanying physicians and staff and to the hospital or surgical center. Surgeons and other physicians and staff are in high demand and often perform many procedures daily. Adding time to each surgery can eliminate one or more surgeries per day or force a surgery planned for one day to be delayed to the next or a later day.
For hospitals and surgical center, delays for each surgical team are compounded. The operating rooms at many hospitals are fully utilized. That fact alone causes delays in scheduling patients' surgeries. In addition, if some or all the operating rooms handle even one fewer procedures every day, the hospital becomes less efficient. Therefore, costs increase. Because fully equipped operating rooms are very expensive, adding more operating rooms is costly. On the other hand, having any added but under-utilized operating rooms generates less revenue to pay for the operating rooms or for other hospital expenses.
Increased costs and decreased efficiency are not the only concerns. At the end of each procedure, all instruments must be accounted for. For example, if the surgeon starts with 15 surgical clamps and has five unused surgical clamps left at the end of the surgery, the other ten must be accounted for. Otherwise a missing clamp might be inside the patient. More likely, it may be hidden on the operating table or dropped on the floor. Finding the clamps may not be difficult and may not take excessive time, but the time spent adds up for each operating room, each hospital and hospitals in general.

Organizer for surgical tools and items used during surgery


A trenched DMOS transistor is fabricated using six masking steps. One masking step defines both the P+ regions and the active portions of the transistor which are masked using a LOCOS process. The LOCOS process also eliminates the poly stringer problem present in prior art structures by reducing the oxide step height. A transistor termination structure includes several field rings, each set of adjacent field rings separated by an insulated trench, thus allowing the field rings to be spaced very close together. The field rings and trenches are fabricated in the same steps as are corresponding portions of the active transistor.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method for fabricating a trenched DMOS transistor using six masking steps, resulting in a transistor having narrow trenches, shallow diffusions, and formed using relatively few process steps.
2. Description Of The Prior Art
DMOS transistors are well known as a type of MOSFET (metal on semiconductor field effect transistor) using diffusions to form the transistor regions, with a typical application being as a power transistor. Such devices enjoy widespread use in such applications as automobile electrical systems, power supplies, and power management applications.
Many different processes have been used for the fabrication of power MOSFET devices over the years; these are generally deep diffusion processes. It is also well known to form such transistors having a trench in the substrate, the trench being lined with a thin oxide layer and filled with a conductive polysilicon to form the transistor gate structure.
Prior art trenched DMOS transistors have the shortcoming that typically it takes a fairly large number (such as eight or nine) fabrication masking steps to define the various transistor regions, including the tubs in which the active transistor regions are formed, the body region of the transistor, the source region of the transistor, the body contact regions, each of which are separate diffusions, and the termination structures, i.e. field plates and field rings. Additional masking steps are used to define the oxide layers and polysilicon portions of the transistor. Each additional masking step requires a mask alignment and thus results in the possibility of alignment error, undesirably reducing yield. Additionally, the many process steps which include temperature cycles tend to result in unwanted diffusion of certain of the implanted ions, thus undesirably altering the lateral extent and/or depth of various of the diffused regions.
Thus there is a need for transistor fabrication processes using relatively few masks.
It is also desirable in fabrication of such a device to eliminate the polysilicon ("poly") stringer problem. Polysilicon stringers are typically formed when a layer of polycrystalline silicon ("polysilicon") is deposited over for instance an oxide layer which includes a step structure. Subsequent etching down of the polysilicon layer results in a portion of the polysilicon remaining adjacent to the step, since the polysilicon layer is thickest at that point. This "stringer" portion causes significant performance problems in the resulting transistor.

Trenched DMOS transistor fabrication using six masks


A quick connect joint includes a base with first and second lock receivers on opposite sides of the base, and a connection plate including first and second engagement members engageable with the first and second lock receivers, respectively. The first engagement member is displaceable between a release position and lock position, and the first engagement member is rotatable between an insert position and a connect position. The quick connect joint creates a safe and reliable connection.

The invention relates to a quick connect joint for connecting a first part to a second part and, in an exemplary application, the invention relates to a quick connect joint for connecting a water pipe to a sprinkler.
There are many different "quick connections" used in the irrigation industry. These connections enable the user to irrigate large areas with fewer sprinklers and remove the sprinklers when not in use. There are issues that come up when dealing with portable sprinklers. The first is safety, wherein many of the current connectors can be connected and/or disconnected improperly. This can be a danger to the user moving these sprinklers because when they open the valve and pressurize the system, the sprinkler may be launched into the air due to the connection not being properly engaged. Many of them can also be opened under pressure and can send the sprinkler flying. Existing quick connectors include, for example, cam lock, ring lock, Certa-set, and ball and socket connectors.
The Cam-lock connector utilizes two over center cams that rotate into a groove that is cut into the male side of the connection. These cams pull the connection together and apply positive pressure on the seal that is seated inside the female connector. There are some potential dangers with using the cam lock system. If both cams are not fully rotated down, there is a possibility of the connection blowing apart and potentially injuring the user. The cams can also be released under water/fluid pressure, which is dangerous because if the sprinkler is plugged and the irrigator releases the cams, this can cause the sprinklers to release and be launched into the air.
The ring lock connector utilizes a male and female coupler that is joined with a "ring" that holds the two together. These rings either have an over center cam latch or a bolt connection. The over center cam is more of a portable solution to allow for quick assembly and disassembly. The over center cam latch ring lock, however, can be opened while under water/fluid pressure, which can cause the connection to separate and injure the user. It also can be latched while the pipe is misaligned, which can cause the connection to fail and separate.
The Certa-set connector utilizes a male and female coupler that is held together with a plastic spline that is inserted in a slot which keeps the connection together. This connection can also be opened under water/fluid pressure, and if the user forgets to install the plastic spline, the connection can come apart while under pressure and launch the sprinkler into the air.
The ball and socket connector uses a male and female connection that is held together with two clamps that pull the connection together. If the latches are not properly hooked on the lip of the female part, this connection can come apart when the system is pressurized.


A method for accessing a device, such as a memory device and an interface device, by a processor is disclosed. The method involves the processor requesting access permission for the transfer of data. The bridge device grants access permission. The processor in response to the granting of access permission indicates that the processor is busy with the access. The processor also generates address and control signals for the access. The bridge device indicates that data is ready for transfer. A processing system including the processor and the bridge device is also disclosed.

This invention relates to memory access in a processing system. More particularly, this invention relates to a method, a system and a device for a processor to access memory devices of different speeds using a standard memory bus.
A product, such as a printer, typically includes a specially designed part, such as a print head, for which an accompanying application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) is usually designed. The specially designed print head, which may account for a large proportion of product design cost, is thus leveraged and used in a range of products. For example, a printer family that uses the print head may include a basic printer, a printer with a network functionality, a printer having a network hard disk, a photo printer supporting various types of photo media, and a multi-functional printer including scanner and facsimile functionalities. It would be ideal to build a single ASIC including the different functionalities that can be used across all printers. However, the cost of such an ASIC will be prohibitively high since an ASIC that includes a large number of functionalities is complex to design and produce. The design cycle is proportionately longer than would be required for designing a less complex ASIC. As there are more components in such a complex ASIC, production yield for the ASIC may be lower. Furthermore, building functionalities that are not utilized in an ASIC is also wasteful and adds unnecessary cost to a product.
One solution is to have a basic ASIC for the basic printer and additional function-specific add-on ASICs that can be connected to the basic ASIC. These add-on ASICs are typically connected to the basic ASIC using a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus. Such a PCI bus includes sixty or more signal lines, usually more when power and ground signal lines are counted. The basic ASIC and the add-on ASICs supporting such an interface will need to include a corresponding number of ports or pins for interfacing with the PCI bus. These ASICs will cost more than one with a lesser number of pins.
To reduce the number of pins on the basic ASIC, a standard host bus used for accessing an SDRAM has been used to also interface with a bridge device to which a PCI device is connected. Such a design has been disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,632,021 and 6,247,088. However, the design suffers a notable disadvantage. To accommodate the bus speeds of slower PCI devices, the standard host bus is operated at only a clock speed of 33 MHz. With some of these PCI devices having relatively long access latency, the sustainable standard bus throughput seldom exceeds 50 Mbytes per second. Operating the SDRAM at such a throughput is not efficient considering that an SDRAM throughput of about 400 Mbytes per second is achievable.
To overcome this disadvantage, another method that is common with standard PC chipsets has been used. According to this method, the bridge ASIC is also connected to the basic ASIC using a host bus. However, the SDRAM, IDE and PCI interfaces are provided by the bridge ASIC. Such a design results in a bridge ASIC that is more complicated and thus costly, especially for low cost printing and imaging products.

Method, system and device for a processor to access devices of different speeds using a standard memory bus

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A batting swing aid fitting onto the barrel of the bat to assist with hand speed when swinging a bat and having an outer body and an inner body. The inner body has four chamber compartments each of which is filled with an equal amount of shot. As the bat is moved to the proper hitting position the shot travels down the inside chambers to make a swoosh sound at the impact zone. During the proper swing pattern the swoosh sound will be closer and closer to the proper impact zone. The device helps build power, and repeating the swing with the additional weight increases the power of the batter and help create proper batting muscle memory.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to baseball and softball bats, and more specifically, relates to a swing aid added to the barrel of the bat.
2. Description of the Related Art
When people are first learning to play softball and baseball, it is difficult for them to learn to attain the correct position and speed of movement of their hands when swinging the bat to hit a ball. In baseball having the batter's hands in the appropriate position at the impact point when the bat hits the ball is critical.
Other products that have been designed for this purpose and which fit on bats only add weight to the bat for warm up, but they do not provide a way for the batter to feel the correct hand position or movement. Some of these other devices are made of metal, plastic or cloth. These products vary in weight and are used to help make the bat feel lighter after warming up.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a batting swing aid that allows the batter to feel the correct position, so that if the hands are in the correct position the batter will hear a loud swoosh sound when crossing the impact zone.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a batting swing aid that has a throttle designed to help slow the flow of shot down within the batting swing aid to allow for correct hand position.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a batting swing aid that improves hand position, swing speed and increase power.
Other objects and advantages will be more fully apparent from the following disclosure and appended claims.


A method of constructing a ferrite magnetic head that can be used for vertical recording. The head is created by first bonding a non-magnetic shoe to the legs of a C-Shaped magnetic core to create a block assembly. A pole surface of the block is then lapped and sputtered with a magnetic pole material. A layer of alumina is then sputtered onto the magnetic pole material. After sputtering, the block is ground to create air bearing grooves and a plurality of poles. The bearing surface of the block is then lapped to the apex of an oblique interface between the shoe and core to create the throat of the pole. The block is cut into individual transducer cores which are then wrapped with a wire coil and attached to a flexbeam.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of constructing a magnetic head for a hard disk drive.
2. Description of Related Art
Hard disk drives contain a magnetic disk which spins relative to an actuator arm assembly. At the end of the actuator arm is a magnetic head which can magnetize and sense the magnetic field of the disk. The head has a coil wrapped around a magnetic core. The core has a pole that is separated from a magnetic return path by a gap. The gap in a conventional head is kept relatively narrow to maintain the strength of the magnetic flux between the pole and return path.
The surface of the disk is magnetized in one of two opposite directions parallel with the radial axis of the disk. A change in direction is typically interpreted as a binary 1. Two consecutive readings in the same direction are treated as a binary 0. Magnetizing the surface of the disk parallel to the radial axis is commonly referred to as longitudinal recording.
There has been developed magnetic heads which have a relatively large separation between the pole and the magnetic return path. Such an arrangement causes the magnetic flux of the head to flow through the disk in a direction perpendicular to the radial axis. The material of the disk therefore becomes magnetized in a direction perpendicular to the radial axis. Magnetizing across the thickness of the disk is commonly referred to as vertical recording. Because magnetization is occurring through the disk thickness, instead of across the disk surface, vertical recording can potentially provide higher data densities than longitudinal recording techniques.
Magnetic heads are typically constructed to create an air bearing between the head and the surface of the disk. The air bearing prevents contact between the head and disk surface, and wear on the two members. Vertical recording heads create a longer flux path than conventional longitudinal recording heads. The air bearing between the head and the disk further increases the flux path. For vertical recording, it is desirable to provide a head that is in contact with the spinning disk. Unfortunately most conventional magnetic heads are heavy and thus cause excessive stiction and wear when used in contact recording.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,041,932 issued to Hamilton and assigned to Censtor Corp., discloses a magnetic head that is light enough (approximately 1.5 milligrams) to allow contact recording without excessive wear on the disk or head. Consequently, the Censtor head could be potentially used for vertical recording. The Censtor head is constructed with processes similar to constructing an integrated circuit, including steps of plating metal and sputtering dielectric material to create a conductive coil that spirals around a magnetic core. Although the Censtor magnetic head is lightweight, it is also very expensive to produce. It would therefore be desirable to provide a magnetic head that is inexpensive to produce and can be used for vertical recording.

Method of making a vertical recording head for contact and near contact magnetic recording


Output variations of individual channels of radiation detector arrays and particularly the outer channels of the scintillator crystal array are reduced by modifying the reflectivity of the surfaces of the individual crystal elements according to the output. This is accomplished by creating a specific difference in the reflectivity of the internal channel reflectors compared to the external reflector material to enhance or reduce the output of specific channels to achieve a balance in the outputs. The specific difference in reflectivity may be obtained by using different color pigments, different color cements and various colored foils, for example.

Radiation imaging systems are widely used for medical and industrial purposes, such as for computer tomography (CT) and luggage scanning. Imaging systems have been developed that use detected radiation to produce a signal which can be used to operate a visual display device or which can be used for other analyses of the pattern of detected radiation such as x-ray or gamma radiation. In such systems the radiation is typically absorbed in a scintillator material, resulting in generation of photons of light. Light photons emanating from the scintillator are detected by photodetectors to generate an electrical output signal that can be processed to drive the display or analysis system.
Scintillator arrays or blocks heretofore have been composed of several individual crystal elements assembled with reflectors between the crystal elements. The crystal elements were optically coupled to PIN diode arrays to form individual detector arrays composed of multiple channels (a crystal element and photodiode together form a "channel" that produces an output for processing along with the outputs of the other "channels"). These detector arrays were then placed in groups of several arrays such that the resulting matrix acts as a single array.
One known method of forming a scintillator array involved attaching a reflector to each internal surface of the crystal elements and then bonding them together. The outside surfaces of the thus bonded assembly were then covered with reflector material to finish the array.
Another method involved the use of the bonding material as the reflector between the individual crystal elements. One such bonding material was Eccobond 45 clear epoxy adhesive available from Emerson & Cuming, Inc. of Woburn, Mass., USA. The Eccobond 45 mixed with a catalyst 15 clear curing agent or hardener had an amber color. To improve the reflective properties of the epoxy adhesive, the Eccobond 45 was doped with titanium oxide with this yielding an off-white color interface material that was suitable for use in forming the crystal array. The outside surfaces of the bonded assembly were then covered with a reflective paint to finish the crystal array. In the resulting detector array (the crystal array with the photodiodes assembled thereto), the variation in outputs of each channel was good, i.e., within .+-.5%.
The detector arrays formed from crystal blocks using the Eccobond 45 were found to be unacceptable because of high expansion rates in applications where the detector arrays encountered large temperature excursions including those that crossed the glass transition temperature of the epoxy adhesive. The problem arose from the relatively low thermal expansion of the crystal element composed, for example, of CdWO.sub.4 compared to the epoxy adhesive, and the fact that the bond between the epoxy and adjacent surfaces of the crystal element restrict the volumetric expansion of the epoxy interface layer in two geometric dimensions such that most expansion occurs in the third dimension. The result is possible damage to the detector arrays and unacceptable stress on the optical coupling between the crystal elements and photodiodes.
A discovery was made of another epoxy that had an expansion rate closer to that of the scintillator crystal. This epoxy was Eccobond 24 water clear epoxy adhesive available from Emerson & Cuming, Inc. when mixed with Catalyst 9 instead of the intended Eccobond 24 Part B catalyst. The Eccobond 24 was doped with titanium oxide to produce a white material having a lower expansion rate, higher glass transition temperature and higher reflectivity than the above mentioned doped Eccobond 45 epoxy adhesive. Those skilled in the art would view the higher reflectivity as being desirable in that it increases the number of photons that are detected by the photodiode. However, it was found that the end channels of the detector arrays generally had a substantially lower output than the inner channels. This phenomena also has been found to occur in other detector arrays using different reflectors than the aforesaid low expansion rate epoxy adhesive. Typical variations in output of .+-.15% are not uncommon in the industry.
The present invention provides a solution to the problem of low end channel output in detector arrays that otherwise would exhibit such phenomena. According to the invention, the output variations of individual channels and particularly the outer channels of a scintillator crystal or detector array are reduced by modifying the reflectivity of the surfaces of the individual crystal elements according to the output. This is accomplished by creating a specific difference in the reflectivity of the internal channel reflectors compared to the external reflector material to enhance or reduce the output of specific channels to achieve a balance in the outputs. The specific difference in reflectivity may be obtained by using different color pigments, different color cements and various colored foils, for example.
According to one aspect of the invention, there is provided a scintillator array comprising plural scintillator elements assembled side-by-side with inner reflectors interposed between the sides of relatively adjacent scintillator elements, and outer reflectors at the outermost sides of the outer scintillator elements between which one or more inner scintillator elements are sandwiched. The inner reflectors include an epoxy adhesive adhered to the sides of the relatively adjacent scintillator elements, the epoxy adhesive has a glass transition temperature greater than 80.degree. C, and the inner reflectors and outer reflectors have respective reflectivities providing an output variation between the outer scintillator elements and the inner scintillator elements of no greater than about .+-.10%, and more preferably no greater than about 5%.
In a preferred embodiment, the outer reflectors are formed by a reflective coating, for example a paint, on the outermost sides of the outer scintillator elements which are scintillation crystals. The inner reflectors further include a pigment in the epoxy adhesive to increase the reflectivity of the epoxy adhesive, and the epoxy adhesive is formed from an epoxy resin and two catalysts, one catalyst being clear and composed at least in part of tetraethylene pentamine, triethylene tetramine and pentaethylene hexamine, and the other catalyst being colored and composed of m-phenylene diamine and n-methyl pyrrolidone. Plural photodiodes may be optically coupled to the scintillator elements to form a detector array.
According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a method for compensating between variations in outputs of individual scintillator elements of a scintillator array wherein the scintillator elements are assembled together side-by-side with inner reflectors interposed between the sides of relatively adjacent scintillator elements and outer reflectors at the outermost sides of the outer scintillator elements between which one or more inner scintillator elements are sandwiched. The method is characterized by the step of modifying the reflectivity of the reflectors to reduce any output variation between the scintillator elements to no greater than about .+-.10%.
According to a preferred method, the modifying step includes using different color reflective materials for the inner and outer reflectors. The preferred method further includes the step of using an epoxy adhesive to form the inner reflectors and further to bond together the relatively adjacent scintillator elements. The epoxy adhesive preferably has a glass transition temperature greater than 80.degree. C., and the modifying step may include selecting the inner and outer reflectors such that they have respective reflectivities providing an output variation between the outer scintillator elements and the inner scintillator elements of no greater than about .+-.5%. The method also may include the step of applying a reflective coating to the outermost sides of the outer scintillator elements to form the outer reflectors, and the epoxy adhesive may be formed from an epoxy resin and a first catalyst composed at least in part of tetraethylene pentamine, triethylene tetramine and pentaethylene hexamine and a second catalyst composed of m-phenylene diamine and n-methyl pyrrolidone.
The foregoing and other features of the invention are hereinafter fully described and particularly pointed out in the claims, the following description and the annexed drawings setting forth in detail a certain illustrative and preferred embodiment of the invention, this being indicative, however, of but one of the various ways in which the principles of the invention may be employed.

Reflector compensation for scintillator array with low temperature expansion

Saint-Gobain/Norton Industrial Ceramics Corporation


A metal oxide layer is in contact with an interlayer insulating layer covering a transistor, and has a stacked-layer structure including a first metal oxide layer having an amorphous structure and a second metal oxide layer having a polycrystalline structure. In the first metal oxide layer, there are no crystal grain boundaries, and grid intervals are wide as compared to those in a metal oxide layer in a crystalline state; thus, the first metal oxide layer easily traps moisture between the lattices. In the second metal oxide layer having a polycrystalline structure, crystal parts other than crystal grain boundary portions have dense structures and extremely low moisture permeability. Thus, the structure in which the metal oxide layer including the first metal oxide layer and the second metal oxide layer is in contact with the interlayer insulating layer can effectively prevent moisture permeation into the transistor.

1. Field of the Invention
One embodiment of the present invention relates to a semiconductor device and a manufacturing method thereof.
Note that a semiconductor device refers to a device which can function by utilizing semiconductor characteristics; an electro-optical device, a semiconductor circuit, and an electronic appliance are all included in the category of the semiconductor device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the case of forming a thin film transistor (hereinafter also simply referred to as a transistor) which is used for a semiconductor device, an insulating layer formed using a silicon oxide film, a silicon nitride film, or the like is provided over the thin film transistor so as to prevent corrosion of a wiring portion and change in electrical characteristics of the thin film transistor which are caused by permeation of external moisture (for example, see Patent Document 1).
Note that "moisture" in this specification is used as a generic term covering water, water vapor, water molecules, hydrogen molecules, and hydrogen atoms. Note that the expression "moisture permeability is low," for example, is construed that "permeability to one or more of water, water vapor, water molecules, hydrogen molecules, and hydrogen atoms is low."

Semiconductor device and method for manufacturing the same

Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.


In a device for detecting mirror position, there is provided a resistor substrate being located coaxially with a nut adjuster for adjusting an angle of incline of a mirror, and a contact member so as to nip the resistor substrate. The contact member slides in line corresponding to the movement of the nut adjuster while the resistor substrate is fixed to a housing. Thus, as the nut adjuster slides, the contact member slides against the resistor substrate, which results the change of a contact position of the contact member and a long resistance R1. Consequently, since a voltage level generated at the contact member changes, the angle of incline of the mirror can be determined by detecting this voltage level. Inasmuch as the contact member and the resistor substrate are housed within a sliding block, there is no need for much space to locate the various parts in, and thus the whole device can be configured in a compact manner.. In addition, the fact that the resistance R1 is connected to the direct-current power source via resistances R2 and R3 means that the measured voltage level is acquired in the form of an intermediate value of the direct-current power source voltage. Subsequently, it is possible to reduce the influence of noise and other factors so that the mirror angle can be detected with a high degree of accuracy.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automobile mirror whereof the angle of incline can be altered by means of remote control, and in particular to a technique for detecting the angle of incline of the mirror.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Generally speaking, the angle of incline of automobile mirrors needs to be adjusted to suit the driver. Since it is very troublesome to perform operations of this sort by hand, various means of adjusting the angle of the mirror by remote control have hitherto been employed.
Adjustment of the mirror angle in this manner is normally achieved by locating sliding rods in suitable positions in the up-down and left-right directions on the rear side of the mirror, and then moving these sliding rods. In other words, the action of moving the sliding rod which is attached in the up-down direction of the mirror causes it to incline upwards or downwards, while moving the sliding rod which is attached in the left-right direction of the mirror causes it to move to the left or to the right. This allows the mirror angle to be adjusted to the desired position by means of remote control.
Since the angle of incline of the mirror normally differs from driver to driver, fine adjustment is required every time the driver changes. Moreover, when a vehicle is being put into a garage, it is convenient for the driver to have the vicinity of the rear wheels of the vehicle within the field of vision. Even so, it is troublesome if the angle of the mirror needs to be adjusted by remote control in order to bring the rear wheels within the field of vision of the mirror whenever the vehicle is being put into a garage. Suggestions have hitherto been made for a mirror position detection device to detect the angle of incline of the mirror. If such a mirror position detection device is coupled to the tilting mechanism of the mirror, it becomes possible to adjust the mirror to the desired angle at a single touch. In other words, where more than one person drives a vehicle, the facility to have a device memorise the mirror angle for each driver allows the angle of incline of the mirror to be adjusted at a single touch to the one best suited to each driver, thus not only making adjustment of the angle very simple, but also making it possible to adjust the angle at a single touch so that the vicinity of the rear wheels can be seen when the vehicle is being put into a garage.
Examples of conventional mirror position detection devices are provided by Japanese Utility Model S57[1982]-157548 (hereinafter referred to as Conventional Example 1) and Japanese Utility Model S58[1983]-115440 (hereinafter referred to as Conventional Example 2). FIG. 12 is an explanatory diagram demonstrating the technical details of the mirror position detection device described in Conventional Example 1. As will be seen from FIG. 12, in this mirror position detection device a contact holder 104 is attached via a link 103 to the trailing edge of an operational shaft 102 which by pushing and pulling serves to tilt the mirror 101. The sliding movement of this contact holder 104 causes the resistance value of a variable resistor 105 to vary, and it is by measuring this resistance value that the angle of incline of the mirror 101 is detected. However, the mirror position detection device described in Conventional Example 1 suffers from the disadvantage that it requires extra space to locate it because the contact holder 104 is attached to the trailing edge of the operational shaft 102, which means that it is impossible to make the whole of the mirror housing more compact.
FIG. 13 is an explanatory diagram demonstrating the technical details of the mirror position detection device described in Conventional Example 2. As is shown in FIG. 13 (A), the sliding movement of a drive shaft 110 causes the mirror to tilt, while a contact 111 slides in line with this along a variable resistor 112. This causes the resistance value of the variable resistor 112 to vary, and it is by measuring this resistance value that the angle of incline of the mirror 101 is detected. Meanwhile, FIG. 13 (B) is a diagram showing the mirror position detection device and the electric equalising circuit. This is configured in such a manner as to detect the voltage level between terminals T10 and T11, which changes with the movement of the drive shaft 110. By detecting this voltage level it is possible to measure the distance which the drive shaft 110 moves, thus allowing the angle of incline of the mirror to be detected. However, the mirror position detection device described in Conventional Example 2 suffers from the same disadvantage as the one described in Conventional Example 1 in that the variable resistor 112 is located on the trailing edge of the drive shaft 110, which means that it is impossible to conserve space.
A further disadvantage is the fact that, as will be seen from FIG. 13 (B), the voltage level which is measured between the terminals T10 and T11 is acquired as a value based on 0 volts. In other words, if the voltage level which is impressed on both ends of the variable resistor 112 is represented as V2, the voltage level between the terminals T10 and T11 is measured in the range 0-V2 volts. The use of a low voltage level close to 0 volts as a detection signal leads to poor accuracy of detection resulting from the effect of noise and other factors, and it is impossible to detect the position with an great degree of accuracy.
Thus, conventional mirror position detection devices are flawed in that the attachment of a variable resistor to the trailing edge of a shaft which serves to tilt the mirror means that they require a large amount of space. Meanwhile, the measurement of voltage levels in a range between 0 and a few volts by connecting a detection contact to a variable resistor which changes according to the angle of incline of the mirror means that it is easily affected by noise and other factors, so that accurate position detection is not possible.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a mirror position detection device which does not require much space for locating its various parts, and which allows the angle of the mirror to be detected with a high degree of accuracy.