The fibrillation tendency of solvent-spun cellulose fiber is reduced by treating the previously dried fiber with a chemical reagent containing at least two functional groups which are reactive with cellulose and which are electrophilic carbon--carbon double bonds, particularly vinyl sulfone groups, or precursors thereof or electrophilic three-membered heterocyclic rings or precursors thereof. The chemical reagent is preferably colorless and is preferably applied to the fiber from aqueous solution. The fiber may be contained in a woven or knotted fabric.

EP-A-538,977 describes a process for providing a solvent-spun cellulose fibre with a reduced fibrillation tendency, in which process the fibre is treated with a chemical reagent having two to six functional groups reactive with cellulose. It states that the untreated fibre and the treated fibre are preferably of substantially the same colour and that the functional groups reactive with cellulose are those generally used in fibre-reactive dyes for cellulose, for example as described in an article entitled "Dyes, Reactive" in Kirk-Othmer, Encyclopaedia of Chemical Technology, 3rd edition, Volume 8 (1979, Wiley-Interscience) at pages 374-392. Preferred examples of such functional groups are said to be reactive halogen atoms attached to a polyazine ring, for example fluorine, chlorine or bromine atoms attached to a pyridazine, pyrimidine or sym-triazine ring. Other examples of such functional groups are said to include vinyl sulphones and precursors thereof. The great majority of the chemical reagents utilised in the Examples in EP-A-538,977 contain halogen atoms attached to a polyazine ring as the only functional groups reactive with cellulose, but one commercial dyestuff which is used in the Examples contains as the functional groups one chlorine atom and one vinyl sulphone group attached to a triazine ring.
FR-A-2273091 describes a method of manufacturing polynosic viscose rayon fibre with reduced tendency to fibrillation. In that method the fibre is treated in the primary gel state characteristic of polynosic viscose rayon manufacture with a crosslinking agent containing at least two acrylamido groups and an alkaline catalyst. This primary polynosic gel is a highly swollen gel having a water imbibition of 190-200%, which is found only in polynosic viscose rayon that has never been dried. Water imbibition is defined as the weight of water retained per unit weight of bone-dry material. By way of comparison, never-dried conventional viscose rayon fibre is known generally to have a water imbibition in the range 120-150%. Triacryloyl-hexahydro-1,3,5-triazine and N,N'-methylenebisacrylamide are mentioned in FR-A-2273091 as preferred examples of crosslinking agent.


The invention relates to a transflective liquid crystal display and a method of manufacturing the same and provides a transflective liquid crystal display which can achieve high display characteristics in both of reflective and transmissive modes and a method of manufacturing the same. The display has a pair of substrates provided opposite to each other, a liquid crystal sealed between the pair of substrates, a plurality of pixel regions each having a reflective area which reflects light from the side of one of the substrates and a transmissive area which transmits light from the side of the other of the substrates toward the one of the substrates, and an ultraviolet-hardened material which is a product of polymerization of a polymeric component mixed in the liquid crystal with ultraviolet light and which is formed at a substrate interface in the reflective area to control the alignment of the liquid crystal in the reflective area.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display and a method of manufacturing the same and, more particularly, to a transflective liquid crystal display capable of display in both reflective and transmissive modes and a method of manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Among active matrix type liquid crystal displays, attention is recently paid to reflective liquid crystal displays which can be provided with a light weight and a small thickness and which consume low power. Reflective liquid crystal displays that are currently in practical use are one-polarizer type displays utilizing a TN (Twisted Nematic) mode liquid crystal (see Patent Documents 1 and 2 for example). However, a one-polarizer type reflective liquid crystal display has a problem in that it undergoes a significant reduction in visibility in an environment of low brightness because the visibility of the display significantly depends on the brightness of the surroundings.
Meanwhile, a transmissive liquid crystal display is characterized in that it exhibits high contrast and visibility even in a dark environment although it consumes high power because of the use a backlight unit as a light source. However, a transmissive liquid crystal display has a problem in that it undergoes a significant reduction in visibility and therefore becomes poorer in display quality than a reflective liquid crystal display in a bright environment.
Techniques for mitigating the above-described problems of the reflective and transmissive liquid crystal displays include front-light type liquid crystal displays which are combinations of a reflective liquid crystal display and a front-light unit and transflective liquid crystal displays utilizing transflective films as pixel electrodes (see Patent Document 3 for example). However, a front-light type liquid crystal display has a problem in that it has a contrast ratio lower than that of a transmissive liquid crystal display in a dark environment and in that it displays an object darker than a normal reflective liquid crystal display does in a bright environment due to absorption of light at a light guide plate of the front-light unit.
On the contrary, Metal thin films such as aluminum (Al) thin films having a thickness of about 30 nm are normally used as transflective films of a transflective liquid crystal display as described above. A metal thin film has a problem in that it reduces utilization of light because it has a great light absorption coefficient. Further, since it is very difficult to form a metal thin film having a great area and a uniform thickness, a problem arises in that a variation of the thickness of a transflective film can result in a great in-plane variation of the transmittance of the film.
Techniques for solving the above-described problems include transflective liquid crystal displays which have a reflective area formed with a reflective electrode reflecting light and a transmissive area formed with a transparent electrode transmitting light at each pixel (see Patent Document 4 for example). Such a transflective liquid crystal display can display an object with a relatively high contrast ratio in both of the reflective and transmissive modes, and it has no in-plane variation of transmittance.
In a transflective liquid crystal display, however, light passes through a liquid crystal layer only once during display in the transmissive mode, whereas light passes through the liquid crystal layer twice during display in the reflective mode. In the configuration disclosed in Patent Document 4, since a transmissive area and a reflective area have substantially the same cell thickness (the thickness of the liquid crystal layer) and liquid crystal alignment, substantial retardation in the reflective area is approximately twice retardation in the transmissive area when consideration is paid to the fact that light passes through the liquid crystal layer twice in the reflective area. When the cell thickness is set such that display is preferably performed in either of the reflective and transmissive modes, the brightness and contrast ratio are reduced in the other mode. A problem therefore arises in that it is not possible to perform preferable display in both of the reflective and transmissive modes.
Techniques for solving the above-described problem include dual cell gap type transflective liquid crystal displays in which a reflective area and a transmissive area have different cell thicknesses (see Patent Document 5 for example). FIG. 26 shows a sectional configuration of such a transflective liquid crystal display. FIG. 26 shows a transmissive area T of a pixel region on the left side thereof and a reflective area R on the right side thereof. As shown in FIG. 26, the transflective liquid crystal display has a thin film transistor (TFT) substrate 102 and an opposite substrate 104 which are provided opposite to each other and a liquid crystal 106 sealed between the substrates 102 and 104. A pair of polarizers 186 and 187 is provided so as to sandwich the substrates 102 and 104. The TFT substrate 102 has a transparent pixel electrode 116 formed on a glass substrate 110. A leveling film 134 having a thickness of about 2 μm is formed on the pixel electrode 116 in the reflective area R to make a cell thickness dR in the reflective area R smaller than a cell thickness dT in the transmissive area T. A reflective electrode 117 is formed on the leveling film 134. The opposite substrate 104 has a transparent common electrode 142 formed on a glass substrate 111.
Since a voltage applied to the liquid crystal 106 is substantially constant in the same pixel, liquid crystal molecules 108T in the transmissive area T and liquid crystal molecules 108R in the reflective area R are tilted at substantially the same tilting angle. Therefore, refractive index anisotropy ΔnT of the transmissive area T and refractive index anisotropy ΔnR of the reflective area R are substantially equal to each other (ΔnT≈ΔnR). The cell thickness dR in the reflective area R is smaller than the cell thickness dT in the transmissive area T (dT>dR), and the cell thickness dR is about one-half of the cell thickness dT (dT≈2·dR). Thus, the substantial retardation in the reflective area R and the retardation in the transmissive area T are substantially equal to each other, and sufficient brightness and contrast ratio can therefore be achieved in both of the reflective and transmissive modes.
However, since there is a need for forming the leveling film 134 in the reflective area R, the transflective liquid crystal display has a problem in that it involves complicated manufacturing processes which results in an increase in the manufacturing cost. In the transflective liquid crystal display, since the reflective area R and the transmissive area T have different cell thicknesses, the speed of response of the liquid crystal 106 varies accordingly. Further, since the thickness of the leveling film 134 is about one-half of the cell thickness in the transmissive area T, a relatively large step is formed at a boundary between the reflective area R and the transmissive area T. Such a step can cause a defect in the alignment of the liquid crystal 106 and can accumulate a liquid applied to form an alignment film.
Let us assume that spherical spacers are used to maintain the cell thicknesses of the above-described transflective liquid crystal display. Then, if the diameter of the spherical spacers is adjusted to the cell thickness of either of the reflective area R and the transmissive area T, the desired cell thickness can not be achieved in the other area when the spherical spacers are disposed in the other area. As thus described, a dual gap type transflective liquid crystal display has a problem in that it is difficult to control cell thicknesses of the same.
Another problem arises in that a difference between light paths in the reflective area R and the transmissive area T results in a difference in color purity between the reflective and transmissive modes. Specifically, light passes through a CF layer once in the transmissive area T, whereas light passes through a CF layer twice and therefore has a relatively low transmittance in the reflective area R. When the color purity of the CF layer is adjusted to perform display with high brightness in the reflective mode, the color purity of display in the transmissive mode becomes quite low to render the display too light. When the color purity of the CF layer is adjusted to perform preferable display in the transmissive mode, transmittance becomes low during display in the reflective mode to render the display very dark. Patent Document 6 discloses a technique for providing a reflective area R and a transmissive area T with different degrees of color purity to mitigate the problem. According to the technique, a CF layer is provided throughout the transmissive area T, whereas the CF layer is formed in parts of the reflective area R to correct the color purity of the area. According to this technique, however, there is a need for a new processing step for leveling steps which are produced by the partially formed CF layer. This necessitates a greater number of manufacturing processes than a step for fabricating an opposite substrate 104 having an ordinary CF layer and consequently results in an increase in the manufacturing cost of a liquid crystal display.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. JP-A-5-232465
Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. JP-A-8-338993
Patent Document 3: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. JP-A-7-333598
Patent Document 4: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. JP-A-11-281972
Patent Document 5: Japanese Patent No. 3380482
Patent Document 6: Japanese Patent No. 3410664
Patent Document 7: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. JP-A-2002-296585

Liquid crystal display and method of manufacturing the same


The present invention provides a method of modifying the surface of a polymeric substrate, e.g., to improve the wettability of the polymer film surface and/or alter the reactivity of the surface of the substrate by further oxidation, comprising exposing the substrate to a flame. The flame is supported by a fuel and oxidizer mixture that includes an effective amount, for modifying the polymeric substrate, of at least one oxygen-containing compound that functions as a fuel substitute. Oxygen comprises between about 10 and 50 atomic percent of the compound. Large increases in the ASTM wetting test over that reported with conventional flame-treating processes, have been observed in films treated according to this invention. In addition, significant increases in polymer film surface oxidation levels have been observed.

Flame treating is used to improve the wetting and adhesion properties of polymer film surfaces in general and of polyolefin film surfaces in particular. The most wettable surface-modified polymer films usually have optimal adhesion properties in a variety of practical applications. These enhanced wetting properties result in improved coatability and adhesion of materials such as pressure-sensitive adhesives, primers and low-adhesion release coatings. Enhanced wetting properties are particularly useful in coating waterborne solutions at all film speeds and in coating solvent-borne materials at high coating speeds.
Flame treaters ordinarily use premixed flames, i.e., the fuel and oxidizer are thoroughly mixed prior to combustion and the rate of combustion is controlled by the rate of chemical reaction that occurs in the flame. In a premixed flame, the luminous region is that portion of the flame where the temperature rise is the greatest and where much of the reaction and heat release occur. During a flame-treating process, one side of a polymer film is passed in close proximity to a flame while the other side of the polymer surface generally passes over a cooled support, e.g., a cooled drum, to minimize heat distortion.
Flames are commonly described in terms of two characteristics: the flame power and the molar ratio of oxidizer to fuel. The flame power is the product of the volume of fuel burned per unit time and the heat content of the fuel. Typical units for the flame power are W or Btu/hr. In flame treating, the flame power can be normalized to account for the dimensions of the burner, leading to units such as W/cm.sup.2 or Btu/hr-in.sup.2. The exact ratio of oxidizer to fuel needed for complete combustion is known as the stoichiometric ratio. For example, the exact amount of dry air necessary for the complete combustion of methane is 9.55 volumes per volume of methane; so the stoichiometric ratio for an air:methane flame is 9.55:1. The equivalence ratio is defined as the stoichiometric oxidizer:fuel ratio divided by the actual oxidizer:fuel ratio. For fuel-lean, or oxidizing, flames, there is more than the stoichiometric amount of oxidizer and so the equivalence ratio is less than 1:1. For oxidizer:fuel mixtures at the stoichiometric ratio, the equivalence ratio is equal to 1:1. For fuel-rich systems, the equivalence ratio is greater than 1:1.
Virtually all industrial flame treaters use a premixed laminar (as opposed to turbulent) flame with air as the oxidizer and a gaseous hydrocarbon as a fuel. Typical hydrocarbon fuels include hydrogen, natural gas, methane, ethane, propane, butane, ethylene, liquefied petroleum gas, acetylene, or blends thereof, and city gas, which is often composed of a mixture of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrogen, methane, and nitrogen. While carbon monoxide is also listed as a fuel in one patent, carbon monoxide does not burn in a steady flame with dry air as an oxidizer. Halogen and halogen-containing compounds have also been disclosed as oxidizer:fuel mixture additives to increase the adhesivity of polyolefin films to subsequent coatings.
Recently, hydrocarbon flames enriched with up to 5 percent additional oxygen by volume, up to 5 percent steam by weight and a few parts per million of alkali or alkaline earth metals have demonstrated increases in wetting values on polymer films (American Standard Test Methods (ASTM) standard wetting test) of up to 2 mJ/m.sup.2 relative to a non-enriched flame process. Surface modification of a polymer surface has also been reported by flame treatment where a flammable third component that is neither a fuel nor an oxidizer is sprayed into the flame. The listed third components are polymers such as cellulose, protein, silicones or polyethers, and inorganic materials such as carbides, nitrides, metal salts or metal oxides. While carbon monoxide plasmas and coronas are well known for improving the wettability of polymer films, plasma and corona processes are limited by their tendency to perforate thin or porous films, to "strike through" or inadvertently treat the backside of polymer films, and to create toxic or corrosive gases.
Because of the benefit that the increased wettability of polymer surfaces has on the coating industry, there is an ongoing need for processes that improve the wettability of polymer films.

Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing Company


A collision mitigation apparatus includes an object detecting section for detecting a collision object present in front of an own vehicle on which the collision mitigation apparatus is mounted, a drive assisting section that performs drive assist for avoiding a collision between the collision object detected by the object detecting section and the own vehicle, or mitigate damage to the own vehicle due to the collision, a reliability determining section for determining reliability of detection result of the object detecting section, and a timing setting section for setting start timing to start the drive assist by the drive assisting section in accordance with the reliability determined by the reliability determining section.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a collision mitigation apparatus for avoiding collision of a vehicle or mitigating collision damage to the vehicle.
2. Description of Related Art
There is known a collision mitigation apparatus which detects a collision object present around a vehicle using a sensor such as a camera or a radar, and performs drive assist to avoid collision with the collision object or mitigate damage to the vehicle due to collision with the collision object. Such a collision apparatus has a problem in that, if detection reliability of the sensor is lowered due to the weather, ambient brightness, and the like, a collision object may be falsely detected, causing drive assist to be performed unnecessarily.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2012-48643 describes an object detection apparatus configured to perform drive assist only when reliability of detection of a collision object by a sensor being used is assumed to be high, to prevent drive assist from being performed unnecessarily.
However, there is a chance that the sensor detects an object correctly even when the detection reliability is assumed to be low.


Stem cells or other organ-function cells are cultivated in a fluidized bed system on macroporous glass carrier bodies treated with a structure protein such as gelatin and an extracellular matrix protein such as fibronectin, and coated with a stroma cell layer. Glass carriers coated with gelatin are added to a fluidized bed reactor, and a culture medium containing an extracellular matrix protein is added to bind the protein to the gelatin. Stromal cells are then added and the cells are cultured to immobilize the cells on the carriers containing the bound protein. Immature organ-function cells are added to the reactor, and while generating a fluidized bed of the carriers in the culture medium, the culture medium is recirculated from and to the reactor in a recirculation loop. Bubble-free aeration of the culture medium is effected to cultivate the immature organ-function cells on the carriers to obtain both mature differentiated organ-function cells and progenitor organ-function cells. Mature differentiated organ-function cells which are released from the carriers are harvested from the reactor while retaining the progenitor organ-function cells which adhere to the carriers to provide an equilibrium between the harvested mature differentiated organ-function cells, the progenitor cells and the immature cells added to the reactor. Growth and regulatory factors for cultivating organ-function cells can be produced by culturing immobilized stromal cells in the reactor in the absence of the organ-function cells.

The ex vivo cultivation of aspirated organ-function cells or of cells with a partial organ function, like human tissue, bone marrow, liver cells and skin cells, is of great interest in the medicinal, therapeutical and pharmaceutical and research and development fields. For example, various clinical treatments utilize bone marrow, umbilical cord blood or blood recovered from peripheral stem cells.
Of special interest is the field of leukemia treatment for which the cultivation of bone marrow stem cells is important for increasing or at least maintaining levels of such cells in the treated organism or maintaining equilibria involving same so as to overcome the donor problem, problems of acceptance of foreign cells, rejection, etc. In the past, efforts have been made to overcome these problems in various ways.
For example in an autologous bone marrow transplant techniques, bone marrow is removed from the patient/recipient and returned to the patient after, for instance, cancer therapy.
In the future, therapy is considered in which the leukemic or tumor infiltrated bone marrow is expected to be subjected externally of the patient to a treatment or healing and then returned to the patient (ex vivo purging).
In allogenic bone marrow transplant techniques, the healthy bone marrow of a donor is administered to the leukemic patient from whom bone marrow has been removed. Complications can arise here in that the foreign bone marrow can be rejected or can treat the tissue of the patient/recipient as foreign tissue and attack it (graft vs. host reaction).
In the past, in practically all cases bone marrow had been transplanted only as a cell mixture. More recently, however, the stem cells are recovered from the bone marrow by the administration of cytokines in a process in which the cytokines mobilize the stem cells in the peripheral blood. These stem cells are purified immunologically and then transplanted to the patient. The need for the removal of bone marrow from a donor is thus eliminated along with the pain and stress on the body with which the bone marrow extraction has been associated. In the stem cell recovery procedure, only the desired stem cells are removed and the remaining cells are returned to the donor so that the loss of hemapoietic cells is a minimum for the donor.
A process for increasing or at least maintaining the concentration of such organ-function cells is important for all of the more recent treatment techniques as described above. The maintenance or cell-increasing cultivation of progenitor cells, (bone marrow stem cells) is expressly important for the production of blood cells for blood transfusions, to replace donor blood, from autologous cells from a patient himself or herself or for donor stem cells for allogenic transfusions and wherever mature blood cells are required. The latter can be utilized in transfusions requiring erythrocytes, thrombocytes and granulocytes. This can greatly reduce the danger of infection for the blood recipient greatly or eliminate it entirely and can insure a uniform product quality.
Furthermore, with cultivation of organ-function cells yielding an increase in the cells, a donor bank can be established in which all of the required specific stem cells for a transplant can be held in readiness. This can reduce the enormous expense and time pressure which can arise at the time that an organ-cell transplant is required.
For over 10 years efforts have been made to cultivate organ-function cells and mixed population cells derived from tissue. However, true long term cultures have been found to be extraordinarily problematical.
From EP 0 241 578 A1, for example, it has been proposed to cultivate bone marrow preparations, especially hemapoietic stem cells, on stroma or fiberblasts which initially have been cultured on a network especially of nylon before being inoculated with the hemapoietic cells.
According to EP 0 358 506 A1, carriers of optional configuration can be suspended in a growth medium and the culture can be carried out with periodic medium replacement.
In WO 92/21402, the ex vivo cultivation of hemapoietic precursor cells is carried out with a prior treatment or in the presence of growth factors or cytokines.
From WO 93/18136, the cultivation of hemapoietic cells on microcarrier beads is taught with continuous or intermittent growth medium supply, the process being carried out in a stirred reaction vessel or airlift bioreactor. Described here is the cultivation of cells which are grown on collagen in spinner flasks.
Finally, T.-Y. WANG et al u.a. (Ann. NY. Acad Sci. 1990, Pages 274-284) describe a three-chamber apparatus for the culturing of hemapoietic cells which are grown on highly porous collagen microspheres. The latter are provided as a packing in the intermediate chamber and the packing is separated from the chambers traversed by the growth medium by a perfusion membrane.
Even these techniques do not result in a true long term cultivation of organ-function cells.

Culturing cells on macroporous glass carriers coated with gelatin, extracellular matrix protein and stromal cells


A method and device for reducing the volume of waste water through evaporation including a tank with a combustion pipe and burner unit, wherein water is injected into the combustion pipe, flash evaporated, and gases are projected into the tank to drive evaporative and water treatment functions.

In the oil industry, produced water is a term used to describe water that is produced along with the oil and gas. Produced water may come from various sources. For example, oil and gas reservoirs have a natural water layer that lies under the hydrocarbons. Also, water may be injected into reservoirs to help force oil to the surface. This water is produced along with the oil and/or gas when the latter is extracted. Produced water is considered an industrial waste, and therefore, careful disposal is necessary. Historically, produced water was disposed of in large evaporation ponds. However, this has become an increasingly unacceptable disposal method from both environmental and social perspectives. The broad management options for produced water include direct injection, environmentally acceptable direct-use of untreated water, or treatment to a standard defined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) before disposal or supply to users.
Management of produced water can be problematic. For example, disposal through direct injection may not be feasible. Typically, large-scale on-site storage and/or disposal require significant investment costs towards large and expensive infrastructure. Trucking water off-site for disposal involves high transport costs. Therefore, cost efficient, on-site solutions to produced water disposal and management are sought.
Evaporation technologies are known in the art, but current designs have significant drawbacks. For example, produced water can be evaporated at small on-site evaporation ponds. While relatively low-cost, these ponds still create relatively large surface-area disturbance and they may also be attractive and/or harmful to wildlife. Also, water may be sprayed into the atmosphere through portable misting towers. But, misting can lead to salt damage to soil and vegetation. Evaporation may be achieved by introducing thermal elements into smaller volumes of water to speed evaporation. But, the resulting precipitates tend to create scaling, which adheres to heating elements over time, reduces efficiency, and creates maintenance issues. Therefore, efficient and environmentally safe solutions for the evaporative disposal of produced water are elusive.

Method and system for treatment of waste water


According to the present invention, there is provided an image display device including a non-luminous reflection type spatial light modulating element, illuminating system to illuminate the reflection type spatial light modulating element and a projection lens and in which light from a light source (2) illuminates the reflection type spatial light modulating elements (14, 15) via first and second fly-eye integrators (9, 10). An unnecessary part, not modulated, of the light reflected by the reflection spatial light modulating elements (14, 15) and further by a reflector (4) for recycling. Since the fly-eye integrators (9, 10) are displaced in relation to their optical axes, it is possible to utilize the light with an improved efficiency and prevent any nonuniform illumination from taking place.

There has been proposed a projection type image display device including an illuminating system, a reflection type spatial light modulating element illuminated by the illuminating system and a projection optical system (projection lens) that forms an image of the reflection type spatial light modulating element. Using a discharge lamp as the light source of the illuminating system and a liquid crystal element as the reflection type spatial light modulating element, such an image display device is already in the actual use as a relatively large image display device.
The image display device can be produced at a reduced cost by adopting a structure in which a color filter is disposed for each pixel of one reflection type spatial light modulating element and a so-called sequential color display system in which an image is displayed in colors on the time-sharing basis. However, it cannot utilize light with a high efficiency and consumes much power.
The reason why the image display device cannot utilize with a high efficiency is as follows. Since the reflection type spatial light modulating element does not emit light but modulates the polarized state of incident light, it needs a means for splitting a light beam emitted from a light source into polarized components and thereafter synthesizing the split polarized components. Also, different from the self-luminous modulator, the light source emits light even for dark display and there takes place a loss of light corresponding to an efficiency of light utilization that depends upon the open area ratio of the reflection type spatial light modulating element.
In the conventional image display device, an improved efficiency of light utilization can be achieved by optical elements etc. included in the image display device as will be described below.
(Splitting of Light Beam into Polarized Components and Synthesis of Split Polarized Components)
The P-S conversion element is known as a polarization changing element which splits a light beam emitted from a light source of an illuminating system into polarized components and synthesizes the split polarized components. It is disposed between the light source and the reflection type spatial light modulating element. The P-S conversion element is formed by preparing a glass block formed by alternately attaching together glass sheets each having a polarization splitting layer formed from a multilayer film of an inorganic substance and glass sheets each having a reflecting surface formed thereon and cutting the glass block along a plane inclined in relation to the plane of attachment into plates.
A light beam as a mixture of P-polarized light and S-polarized light, incident upon the P-S conversion element, is split by the polarization splitting layer into the P-polarized light and S-polarized light. The P-polarized light and S-polarized light are split by each layer of the P-S conversion element and go out of the P-S conversion element. A half wave (λ/2) plate is disposed at the outgoing side of the P-S conversion element, corresponding to the S- or P-polarized light, whereby a light beam including only either the P- or S-polarized light can be provided.
Using such a P-S conversion element and half wave (λ/2) plate as the polarization splitter, it is possible to improve the efficiency of light utilization of an illuminating system which illuminates a reflection type spatial light modulating element that modulates a polarized component of incident light.
In the illuminating system, a light beam emitted from a light source is reflected by a parabolic mirror for incidence upon the P-S conversion element via a pair of fly-eye lenses. Then, the light beam is passed through the half wave (λ/2) plate and a condenser lens to the reflection type spatial light modulating element.
(Reflection Type Polarization Plate)
The conventional polarization plate allows one of polarized components to pass by while absorbing the other polarized component. However, there is known a reflection type polarization plate that allows one of polarized components to pass by while reflecting the other polarized component, not absorbing it. With the use of the reflection type polarization plate as a polarization changing element, it is possible to utilize the other polarized component by reflecting it again or manipulating it otherwise, thereby improving the efficiency of light utilization.
(Linear Polarization Plate Using Birefringence Multilayer Film)
The linear polarization plate using a birefringence multilayer film is formed by making multilayer lamination of two types of polymer films each having an index anisotropy and different in refractive index from each other and drawing the laminated polymer films. More specifically, the two types of laminated polymer films are coincident in refractive index with each other for one polarization-axial orientation, and different in refractive index from each other for the other polarization-axis orientation. By adjusting the refractive indexes different from each other, it is possible to provide a reflection type polarization plate which allows polarized light having one polarization-axis orientation to pass by while reflecting polarized light having the other polarization-axis orientation orthogonal to the one polarization-axis orientation.
Note that such a reflection type polarization plate is available under the trade name "DBEF" or "HMF" from the 3M.
(Circular Polarization Plate Using Cholesteric Liquid Crystal)
A circular polarization plate utilizing the selective reflectivity of a cholesteric liquid crystal can take the entire visible range as the selectively reflected wavelength band because the cholesteric pitch varies more than 100 nm as disclosed in the Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. 281814/1994 for example. With the use of such a cholesteric circular polarization plate, it is possible to provide a circular polarization plate having no wavelength dependence.
A circular polarization plate using the cholesteric liquid crystal and a polarization changing element using the circular polarization plate are disclosed in the Japanese Patent No. 2509372 for example. The invention set forth in this Japanese Patent utilizes the fact that with the characteristic of the circular polarized light, that is, a change by 180 deg. caused by one reflection, clockwise circular polarized light changes to counterclockwise circular polarized light, and vice versa.
A combination of the cholesteric liquid crystal with a reflecting mirror provides a polarization splitting synthesizer. The polarization splitting synthesizer using the above-mentioned linear polarization needs a half (λ/2) plate, but the polarization splitting synthesizer using the circular polarization needs not any half (λ/2) plate.
That is, a light beam emitted from the light source is either incident directly upon the cholesteric liquid crystal via a condenser lens or reflected by the reflecting mirror and then incident upon the cholesteric liquid crystal depending upon the outgoing direction of the light beam from the light source.
At this time, the circular polarized light in one direction passes by the cholesteric liquid crystal while the circular polarized light in the other direction is reflected by the cholesteric liquid crystal. Thus, the circular polarized light in the other direction, reflected by the cholesteric liquid crystal, is reflected by the reflecting mirror to be the circular polarized light in the one direction which will be incident again upon the cholesteric liquid crystal and pass by the latter. Each light passing by the cholesteric liquid crystal becomes the circular polarized light in the one direction.
The image display device using the aforementioned illuminating system have the following problems to solve:
The aforementioned illuminating system can only be produced through a complicated process of production. Thus, it is thus complicated to produce and expensive.
The circular polarization plate disclosed in the aforementioned Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. 281814/1994 has no wavelength dependence but has no sufficient polarization splitting characteristic. On this account, it is necessary to use a combination of the circular polarization plate with a light absorption type polarization plate (which absorbs other polarized light) in order to assure a contrast required for the image display device. Therefore, it is difficult for the conventional image display device to have an improved efficiency of light utilization.
In the illuminating systems disclosed in the aforementioned Japanese Patent No. 2509372 and Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. 281814/1994, the shape of a reflector used for the discharge lamp actually used as a light source or illumination of the reflection type spatial light modulating element by reflected light from the reflector is not so effective for an improved efficiency of light utilization as expected.
More specifically, since the shape of the actual reflector for the discharge lamp is a paraboloid or ellipsoid of revolution, so a light beam reflected by the polarization splitting element formed of a cholesteric liquid crystal to the light source is reflected twice by the reflector. When the light beam is reflected twice with the phase change caused by one reflection by the reflector being 180 deg., the phase will not be changed.
Further, since the reflector reflects the P-polarized light and S-polarized light with a difference in reflectance between them and these polarized rays of light are changed in phase and scattered due to passing by the glass tube of the discharge lamp as the light source, the effect of polarization changing will be lower. Also, in case the reflector is a parabolic mirror, a light beam emanated from a focal point will return to the focal point when it is reflected by the reflection type polarization plate, but a light beam emanated from any other point than the focal point will not always return to the point from which it has being emanated when it is reflected by the reflection type polarization plate.
Also, in case a spheroidal mirror is used as the reflecting mirror, light reflected by the cholesteric liquid crystal will be absorbed by the electrodes of the discharge lamp or diverged after reflected by the reflecting mirror, without returning to the light emission point of the light source, depending upon where the cholesteric liquid crystal is positioned. The "diversion" will increase the etendue of the light source, which will cause the efficiency of illumination-light utilization to be reduced.
As above, being disadvantageous in the efficiency of light utilization and manufacturing cost, the polarization changing element in the conventional illuminating system cannot return light to its source with a sufficient efficiency.
Also, in case the reflection type polarization plate has to be increased in area, the optical parts included in this illuminating system will be very expensive. Further, the light returned to the light source will possibly cause the illuminance to be nonuniform at the reflection type spatial light modulating element.
In addition, a part, made unnecessary for image display, of the illumination light having arrived at the reflection type spatial light modulating element may be returned to the light source and reused for illuminating the reflection type spatial light modulating element.
In this case, since the light emanated from the light source has arrived at the reflection type spatial light modulating element via a pair of fly-eye integrators for example, it will go back again to the light source through the fly-eye integrators. For reflecting the light having returned to the light source and directing it again toward the reflection type spatial light modulating element, the optical axis of an optical system located downstream of the fly-eye integrators has to be displaced in relation to that of the light source.
At this time, in case the optical axis of the optical system downstream of the fly-eye integrators is displaced only in one of longitudinal and lateral directions perpendicular to the optical axis, it is difficult to sufficiently reflect the light having returned to the light source.
Also, in case all the optical parts such as the projection optical system etc. located downstream of the fly-eye integrators are displaced in relation to the optical system including the light source and extending to the fly-eye integrators, all the optical systems will not possible be in line with each other. In this case, a support mechanism to support the optical systems will be extremely complicated and include many parts. Especially, the fly-eye integrators, condenser lens, field lens, etc. have to be aligned with each other with a high precision and thus the precision required for the support mechanism will be very high. The support mechanism will be difficult to produce.


A positioning member for securing in position an add-on board is proposed, which is disposed inside an electronic device. The positioning member includes a coupling portion for coupling the positioning member to the inside of the electronic device, and a block portion attached to the coupling portion for preventing the add-on board electrically connected to a motherboard installed inside the electronic device from occurring any undesirable displacement. As the block portion is capable of being resiliently movable relative to the coupling portion, it allows the engagement and disengagement of the add-on board with the motherboard to be easily carried out without use of any auxiliary tool.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to positioning members, and more particularly, to a positioning member for securing an add-on board to a motherboard installed inside an electronic device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
With constant advancement and development of technology, electronic devices have become indispensable to modern people's daily lives. An electronic device (for example, a host computer or a server) nowadays is demanded to have not only a reduced size but also enhanced performance. To meet with such a demand, more electronic components are required to be accommodated in a limited space. Among them, installation of an add-on board on a motherboard mounted inside an electronic device is an example that the functionality of the electronic device is improved.
FIG. 1 shows a partially perspective view of an add-on board 11 disposed on a motherboard 12 installed inside a housing 13 of an electronic device in a known manner. As shown in the drawing, disposed on the add-on board 11 are a connection port 112 and two sockets 111 corresponding to two plugs 121 disposed on the motherboard 12. For the add-on board 11 to be electrically connected to and disposed on the motherboard 12, the two sockets 111 of the add-on board 11 have to be coupled to the two plugs 121 on the motherboard 12. This allows the connection port 112 of the add-on board 11 to reach into an opening 131 formed on the housing 13 of the electronic device so that the connection port 112 is exposed to the ambient via the opening 131 on the housing 13 of the electronic device. Accordingly, a connector (not shown) of an external cable is able to be inserted into the connection port 112.
However, in the situation where a connector of an external cable is inserted into the connection port 112 of the add-on board 11, as the add-on board 11 is coupled to the two plugs 121 on the motherboard 12 via mere two sockets 111, during the coupling process both the two sockets 111 and the two plugs 121 are subjected to an insertion-related force exerted by the connector of the external cable. When in the presence of an excessive force, the add-on board 11 tends to be forced to inwardly move such that the coupling of the sockets 111 of the add-on board 11 to the plugs 121 of the motherboard 12 may be damaged. In an even worse case, both the sockets 111 and the plugs 121 may even deform to thereby damage the add-on board 11 and the motherboard 12.
In view of the aforesaid drawback, a method for securing an add-on board to a motherboard and thereby installing the add-on board inside the housing of an electronic device is then proposed. Referring to FIG. 2, two bolts 222 are disposed on a motherboard 22 mounted with two plugs 221, and two apertures 213 corresponding to the bolts 222 are formed in the add-on board 21 equipped with a connection port 212 and two sockets 211. After the coupling of the sockets 211 of the add-on board 21 to the plugs 221 of the motherboard 22, screws 24 are screwed into the bolts 222 via the apertures 213 such that the add-on board 21 is secured in position to the motherboard 22. In the meantime, the connection port 212 of the add-on board 21 is allowed to be exposed through the opening 231 formed on the housing 23 of the electronic device, so as to be connected to a connector (not shown) of an external cable.
However, the aforesaid design of locking the add-on board 21 on the motherboard 22 by means of the bolts 222 and screws 24 has its drawbacks. The assembly/disassembly of the add-on board 21 requires a tool to carry out, that entails trivial and labor-consuming steps. Moreover, it necessitates the formation of a plurality of apertures 213 on the add-on board 21 and the bolts 222 on the motherboard 22 respectively. In consequence the layout density of the add-on board 21 decreases and the manufacturing cost of the add-on board 21 and the motherboard 22 increases.
Accordingly, an issue that currently needs urgent solution involves overcoming the drawbacks of the aforementioned prior art.

Positioning member for securing in position add-on board


A container for a stack of individually removable paper products (9) such as facial tissues, handkerchiefs, towels and the like, or similar products made of non-woven material is described. The container has an upper wall (2), in which a withdrawal opening is formed which is closed by a tear-off-able lid (8) and a cavity accommodating the stack of products. The lid (8) has on its inner surface (12) an adhesive or bonding surface (11) by which the uppermost paper product (10) of the stack adheres, preferably detachably, to the lid (8).

Such containers are known and on the market. In particular for very thin paper products such as facial tissues, it is difficult to grip the top tissue securely with the fingers through the withdrawal opening and remove it from the container. The opening is often damaged or the appearance of the container spoiled. Also it occurs that on an attempt to remove the top tissue, instead of one tissue several tissues are removed simultaneously. These tissues too can be torn or crumpled.
It is already known to solve this problem by applying a sticker to the top tissue which serves as a handle for removal.

Container for a stack of individually removable paper products


The invention provides an autonomous vehicle capable of driving independently through a path of intense traffic and transporting objects or people, even on rough surfaces, while ensuring safety of the vehicle and general road safety. The autonomous vehicle includes at least one variable pitch camera for producing images to be used for a computer vision to control the autonomous vehicle. The invention facilitates changing the pitch of the variable pitch camera to maximize camera image clarity and/or resolution as the autonomous vehicle moves. The images can be used for lane detection, pedestrian detection, three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of an environment and/or pothole detection. With the invention, at least one image from the variable pitch camera is used in controlling the movement and/or the trajectory of the autonomous vehicle.

Autonomous vehicles with a capability of independent control operation with minimal human intervention can be used in transporting people and objects. Typically, some autonomous vehicles require an initial input from an operator, while some other designs of the autonomous vehicles are under constant operator control. Some autonomous vehicles can be operated entirely by remote. For example, automatic parking is an example of the autonomous vehicle in operation in a normal human driven car, such as Tesla.
Further, the autonomous vehicles are required to operate in dynamically changing environmental conditions. For example, the autonomous vehicles may be required to track a path over varying surface stretches, at varying speeds and across different obstacles. The varying surface may include flat, winding, or hilly terrains and the different obstacles may include other vehicles or humans appearing at unexpected places or times.
At a broader level, the autonomous vehicles include a control system configured to receive sensory data corresponding to environment from a number of information gathering devices. The information gathering devices may include light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation (laser), sound navigation and ranging (sonar), radio detection and ranging (radar), light detection and ranging (LIDAR), etc. Of late, the autonomous vehicles have also been equipped with commercial cameras for information gathering to ensure maximum safety.
In conventional autonomous vehicles, the cameras are mounted in a fixed position and/or orientation which prevents the camera from achieving an optimal performance and results in unreliable image reconstruction accuracy. Due to the unreliable image reconstruction, objects represented in the images may be lost in a homogeneous texture background, thereby resulting in inaccurate lane detection functionalities, position reconstructions, detection of road markings, etc. The unreliability of the image reconstruction may be dangerous for road safety, detection of objects in vehicular path and environment, and reduce the manoeuvring abilities of the autonomous vehicle.
Inaccuracies in examining how and to what extent the positioning and/or the orientation of the various sensors on a vehicle chassis influence the detection capabilities of the autonomous vehicle. Thus, as a result the manoeuvring abilities of the autonomous vehicle are also hampered, thereby making the autonomous vehicle unreliable.
Autonomous vehicle with a movable camera was already known in Evans et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,040,116. This document is cited here as reference.
How on-board camera pitch influences the computer vision image of an autonomous car is analysed in U.S. Pat. No. 9,121,717. This document is also cited here as reference.
However, the prior art is deficient in techniques that would improve image quality of the on-board cameras as the vehicle moves.

Autonomous vehicle with improved visual detection ability


A method and system where data is maintained in a continuous data protection system is disclosed. A primary volume may be protected according to an any-point-in-time (APIT) window wherein restores may be performed at any time as desired. The APIT window may be of any time duration as desired. Outside of the APIT window, a retention policy for phasing out data may be established as desired.

Data protection, used for backing up various types of data, from simple letters to mission-critical enterprise data, has typically been implemented by duplicating data via techniques such as mirroring with RAID (redundant array of independent disks). Mirroring relates to the physical media on which the data is stored, and protects against media failure. When a logical data loss or corruption occurs, such as an accidental file deletion or a virus, the data must be restored from a backup system.
Even when used in conjunction with mirroring, all of the disks in a RAID system reflect the current state of the primary disk; i.e., any data loss or corruption will also exist on the disks in the array. Backup copies are generally made on a periodic basis, and reflect the state of the primary disk at a given point in time. Because backups are not made on a continuous basis, when data is restored, there will be some data loss from the time of the backup until the time of the data loss. In a mission-critical setting, such a data loss, even if only for a brief period, can be catastrophic. Beyond the potential data loss, restoring a primary disk from a backup system, can become complicated and take several hours or more. This additional downtime further exacerbates the problems associated with a logical data loss.
The traditional process of backing up data to tape media and time driven and time dependent. A backup process typically is run at regular intervals and covers a certain period of time. For example, a full system backup may be run once a week on a weekend, and incremental backups may be run every weekday at some time after the close of business (usually overnight). These individual backups are then saved for a predetermined period of time, according to a retention policy. In order to conserve tape media and storage space, older backups are gradually faded out and replaced by newer backups. Further to the above example, after a full weekly backup is completed, the daily incremental backups for the preceding week may be discarded, and each weekly backup may be maintained for a few months, to be replaced by monthly backups.
While the backup creation process can be automated to a great extent, restoring data from a backup remains a manual and time-critical process. First, the appropriate backup tapes need to be located, including the latest full backup and any incremental backups made since the last full backup. In the event that only a partial restoration is required, locating the appropriate backup tape can take even longer. Then after the backup tapes are located, they must be restored to the primary disk. As can be imagined, even under the best of circumstances, this type of backup and restore process cannot guarantee high availability of data.
Another type of data protection involves making point in time (PIT) copies of data. A first type of PIT copy is a hardware-based PIT copy, which is a mirror of the primary disk onto a secondary disk. The main drawbacks to a hardware-based PIT copy are that the data ages quickly and that each copy takes up as much disk space as the primary disk. A software-based PIT, typically called a "snapshot," is a "picture" of a file system's data structure. Various types of software-based PITs exist, and most are tied to a particular platform, operating system, or file system. These snapshots also have drawbacks, including occupying space on the primary disk, rapid aging, and possible dependencies on data stored on the primary disk wherein data corruption on the primary disk leads to corruption of the snapshot. Furthermore, both types of PIT techniques still require the traditional tape-based backup and restore process.
Using a PIT copy means that a copy is made at a discrete moment in time, and restores based upon that PIT copy are based on that discrete moment in time. In contrast an any point in time (APIT) copy implies all moments in time, i.e., a continuous copy. It is therefore desirable to have a continuous data protection scheme in which a copy can be selected from any point in time.

Method and system for maintaining data in a continuous data protection system


Magneto-optical disk recording and reproducing devices and actuators and distance detectors for use therewith are disclosed. The mageneto-optical disk device comprises, in addition to the usual elements, a bimorph type actuator or an electromagnetic actuator for driving the magnetic head of the magneto-optical disk device. The bimorph actuator has a metallic shim whose width varies with respect to the longitudinal distance inversely porportional to the normal function of the first or the second free natural vibration mode. Alternatively, the bimorph type actuator have a recess formed on a bimorph element to expose a piezoelectric crystal which outputs a voltage corresponding to the acceleration of the vibration of the actuator; the driver circuit of the actuator reduces the driving voltage when the frequency of the voltage generated at the recess comes into the neighborhood of a higher resonance frequency of the actuator. The optical distance detector comprises a light-emitting diode and a pair of photodiodes which detects the amount of light incident thereon after being reflected at a surface of an object the distance to which is measured. The geometric parameters of the photodiodes are selected in such a manner that the output of a first photodiode decreases as the measured distance increases while the output of a second photodiode increases as the measured distance increases. Thus, the normalized differential output of the two photodiodes, from which the measured distance is determined, varies substantially linearly with respect to the measured distance. In preferred forms, the photodetectors have stepped concentric configurations so that small distances can be measured accurately and efficiently.

This invention relates to recording and reproducing optical disk devices, and more particularly to magneto-optical disk devices which utilize a magnetic material as the recording medium.
The recording and reproducing optical disk devices of the above type effects recording on the disk as follows: the recording spot on the disk is heated by means of a light (laser) beam to raise the temperature thereat; in addition, a varying exterior magnetic field, namely the biasing magnetic field, is generated by a magnetic head to reverse the direction of the magnetization of the magnetic material on the disk. On the other hand, during the reproducing operation, a light beam of less energy is irradiated on the recording surface to read out the above direction of the magnetizion on the disk by means of a magneto-optical effect, such as the magnetic Kerr effect or Faraday effect. This type of optical disk device is finding increasing applications as exterior memory devices of computers, audio disks, etc.
FIG. 1 shows an example of the recording and reproducing optical disk device of the above type. A disk 1 is rotated by a disk driver motor 2. The light beam 4 emitted from the optical head 3 forms a converged light spot 5 on the surface of the disk 4; the diameter of the light spot 5 is generally from about 1.0 to 1.5 micrometers. The optical head 3 comprises following elements: a light source for emitting the light beam; optical elements for conducting to the surface of the disk 1 the light beam emitted from the light source; optical elements for conducting the light reflected from the disk surface; a photosensor element (a light-sensitive detector) for converting the reflected light into an electrical signal upon receiving the reflected light via the above optical elements for conducting the reflected light; and optical sensors for detecting the focusing and tracking errors of the light spot 5 on the recording surface of the disk 1. The objective lens of the optical head 3 which forms the light spot 5 on the disk 1 is driven in the focusing direction perpendicular to the recording surface of the disk 1 and in the direction perpendicular to the track on the recording surface, such that the focusing and the tracking errors are reduced. The optical head 3 is supported on the base 6, which is supported on the frame of the device via the bearings 7a and 7b to be driven in the radial direction A. Further, on the base 6 is disposed a magnetic head 8 for generating an exterior magnetic field from the side opposite to the side at which the optical head 3 is situated. The recording on the disk 1 is effected by modulating this exterior magnetic field generated by the magnetic head 8.
As shown in detail in FIG. 2 (a) through (c), the distance (designated by H.sub.1 through H.sub.3, respectively) between the recording surface of the disk 1 and the magnetic head 8 varies as the disk 1 rotates. The strength of the magnetic field generated by the magnetic head 8 is generally from about 100 to 500 Oe at the recording surface; as illustrated in FIG. 3, the magnetic field strength B at the recording surface of the disk 1 (plotted along the ordinate) decreases as the distance H between the surface of the disk 1 and the magnetic head 8 (plotted along the abscissa) increases. The distance H between the recording surface of the disk 1 and the magnetic head 8 varies as the disk 1 rotates, due, for example, to an undulating motion of the recording surface of the disk 1.
The above conventional recording and reproducing optical disk device therefore has the following problems. First, the distance H between the magnetic head 8 and the recording surface of the disk 1 cannot be set as small as is desired, if the contact of the head 8 with the disk 1 is to be avoided; thus, the efficiency of the magnetic head 8 in producing a magnetic field at the recording surface of the disk 1 is reduced. Second, the variation of the distance H between the head 8 and the recording surface of the disk 1 results in a variation in the recording characteristics. Third, if the above problems are to be avoided, an extremely high mechanical precision is required of the device.

Magneto-optical recording/reproducing system having an electromagnetic actuator


A circuit and method for achieving compressed distributions of erased cell threshold voltages in an EEPROM array is disclosed. The invention, when used to condition flash memory cell arrays, results in increased endurance of such arrays, and eliminates the need for pre-programming operations before a bulk erase can take place. By eliminating the need to pre-program the memory array before each erasure, the process provides a signicant improvement for low power applications, because battery life is extended and write cycle time is enhanced.

In a typical non-volatile flash EEPROM (or EAROM) a memory array is usually erased by erasing an entire block of memory cells. The memory cells are organized alone a number of word lines and a number of bit lines. The memory array contains data denoted as `1` and `0`, which values are determined by the threshold voltage of the particular cell in question. As is well known, the threshold voltage of the cell, in turn, is determined by the amount of charge stored on the floating gate, which charge therefore dictates the state of the core cell. Accordingly, the data in the core transistor of the flash EEPROM cell is read as a `1` if the core transistor is at an `on` state, and such data is similarly read as a `0` if the core transistor is at an `off` state.
A core transistor in the non-volatile flash EEPROM is considered at its `on` state if the transistor conducts more core cell current than a reference core cell transistor, whereas the core transistor is considered at its `off` state if it conducts less core cell current than the reference core cell transistor. The amount of current conducted by the core transistor is a direct function of the amount of charge stored on the floating gate, and this in turn affects the turn-on voltage. A number of different operations during normal use of a flash memory cell will affect the charge on the floating gate, and for this reason a substantial amount of effort is made to ensure that such operations effectuate the proper response from such cell (i.e., that a predictable and proper amount of charge remains on such gate after such operation).
One of these typical steps in the use of a flash cell array is an "erase" operation. The purpose of this step is to remove charge from the floating gates, and thus place them into a "1" data state condition. It is very critical to control the threshold voltage distribution in the non-volatile flash EEPROM after each erase operation, since the memory array may be "over" erased; this means that the core cell transistor exhibits a negative threshold voltage. It is apparent that if the flash memory array experiences over-erasure, erroneous data may be retrieved from the memory array. Furthermore, it is even conceivable that the entire non-volatile flash memory may be no longer operated reliably if the floating gate of the cell has so deteriorated that it can no longer acquire meaningul differences in charge so that the difference between an `on` state and an `off` state can be detected. This can be true if the cell is extremely leaky, i.e., in the sense that it cannot hold charge. In other cases it is possible that it will render a substantial amount of other cells unusable because it will conduct so much current that it will swamp the "on" current of adjoining cells and make them essentially irrelevant.
Correction of over-erased cells in a non-volatile flash EEPROM, therefore, is a far more critical operation than most because over-erased cells not only cause erratic operation on the said flash memory array, they also greatly reduce the number of times the core array may be re-programmed. Preventing the occurence of over-erased cells in a non-volatile flash memory is therefore extremely desirable; as a corrolary to this, of course, it is apparent that excessive use of embedded erase algorithms should be avoided whenever possible.
To prevent over-erasure, prior art systems have employed a mechanism as shown generally in FIG. 1B. Instead of applying a single "erase" pulse, which might drive a large number of the voltage thresholds of the lower group of cells into an over-erase condition, a first "program" operation is instead effectuated on the entire array. This has the effect of moving all the threshold voltages into the area generally bounded by Vt.sub.pmin and Vt.sub.pmax. Then, a second "erase" operation has the effect of placing the threshold voltages of the cells into the area bounded by Vt.sub.emin and Vt.sub.emax. This procedure is not perfect, however, and a significant number of cells can still end up being over-erased as shown by the dotted line portion of FIG. 1B. These cells, in turn, must be identified, and, if any are found to exist, an erase correction pulse is applied to rectify the threshold voltages. In any event, it is apparent that the above methodology is non-optimal since it requires that the array be first programmed before an erase procedure can occur, and this stressing cycle exacts a toll on the lifespan of a part incorporating such array.

Circuit and method for erasing flash memory array


When photographing is started, pulsation of a subject is detected and a pulsation period T is measured. A standstill period is determined and the rotation time S of a rotation table is calculated according to the equation S=nT (where n denotes an odd number). When rotation is started and a predetermined speed and a predetermined angle are attained, X-ray exposure is started, and the exposure is stopped when a predetermined number of views are obtained. After scan data is collected, a motion area is detected and data-rearrangement is performed, and a half-scan reconstructed image is created by using the rearranged scan data. When an artifact is identified by reconstructed-image evaluation, a retry is made. Subsequently, a standstill period is changed, the data rearrangement is performed again, and half-scan reconstruction and image evaluation are performed again. When the image evaluation is successful, three-dimension-voxel coupling is performed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an X-ray image processing apparatus for creating the image of an X-ray characteristic distribution in a subject by using ordinary rays, such as an X-ray computer tomography (CT) apparatus for photographing an image by using X-rays or the like, and an X-ray image processing method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hitherto, known X-ray CT apparatuses for exposing a subject to X-rays, detecting an X-ray that passes through the subject or that is scattered by the subject using an X-ray detector, and picking up the fluoroscopic image, tomographic image, and three-dimensional image of the subject based on the X-ray detection output (the number of photons of the X-ray) have been used.
However, the subject must be fixed for collecting data obtained during scanning performed by the X-ray CT apparatus. Further, the body motion and/or the internal-organ motion during the scanning generates an artifact in a reconstructed image. Subsequently, the diagnostic efficiency reduces.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-217810 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-355241 disclose cone-beam CT apparatuses, as known systems for solving the above-described problems. The cone-beam CT apparatuses obtain a transmission X-ray image of the subject by emitting an X-ray to the subject from circumference, and create and display an X-ray tomography image and/or a three-dimensional X-ray image of the subject based on the transmission X-ray image. According to the above-described disclosures, the transmission X-ray images are divided into different groups, and a transmission X-ray image corresponding to each group is reconstructed, so that a plurality of X-ray distribution images is obtained. Then, the sharpness of each of the X-ray distribution images is calculated and an X-ray tomography image and/or a three-dimension X-ray image of the subject is created, based on the transmission X-ray image of a group showing the highest sharpness, and displayed. More specifically, various half-scan data sets with shifted start angle are generated from full-scan data. Then, reconstructed images created by using the various half-scan data sets are compared to one another and a suitable image is selected.
An imaging system may be used for solving the above-described problems. The imaging system scans the heart of a patient, obtains a plurality of projection views, and determines a differential projection by the projection views. A load function for minimizing the motion artifact is used for the differential projection, and an inequality index used for determining the image reconstruction position is determined by the differential projection. According to this method, an electrical signal is not measured but the dynamic motion of the heart is directly measured. Further, the most suitable position for minimizing an image artifact is selected by using the projection data. More specifically, by using the load function for the differential projection, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-355241, the heart-pulsation phase can be detected. Subsequently, a reconstructed image is obtained by using half-scan data from which images showing major heart-pulsation motion are moved.
The cone-beam CT apparatus have been developed, as X-ray CT apparatuses. In the case of the known X-ray CT apparatuses, an X-ray beam is sliced in a vertical direction Z and referred to as a fan beam. However, in the case of the cone-beam CT (CBCT), an X-ray beam extending in the direction Z is used. Therefore, the X-ray beam is referred to as a cone beam.
In the CBCT apparatus that is different from known CT apparatuses wherein a small number of slices are collected at the same time, several hundred slices of data are collected at the same time. That is to say, the projection data includes part inducing artifacts and another part inducing no artifacts. In general, the quality of an image reconstructed by using the full-scan data is better than that of an image reconstructed by using the half-scan data. Therefore, even though an artifact occurs in part of the projection data, the entire projection data should not be reconstructed by half scanning from the viewpoint of making effective use of the projection data.

X-ray image processing apparatus and x-ray image processing method


A restricted coded modulator apparatus (100, FIG. 1) is used to assign binary digits to symbols such that an error in one or more binary digits in an M-ary modulation format are the most likely. A parallel concatenated convolutional code is then applied to one or more digits of the symbol before transmitting the symbols across a communications channel (190, FIG. 1). At the receiving end, the one or more binary digits of the symbols and the associated error correction information are decoded by way of a parallel concatenated convolutional decoder (200, FIG. 4). The corrected information is then used to correct errors in other binary digits of the received symbol.

In a digital communication system, binary information is conveyed from one device to another through a variety of channels and recovered at a receiving end. The electronics which receive the binary information also receive varying amounts of noise and distortion which degrade the quality of the signal. This can be the result of a variety of physical phenomena, such as interference from adjacent similar transmitters or receivers, thermal noise present in the receiving device electronics, meteorological phenomena, or numerous other sources. In most communication systems, provisions are made to minimize the impact of degradations on the received signal.
There are several approaches taken to minimize the effect of noise present in a received signal. A typical approach is to increase the power of the transmitter. This increases the ratio of the received signal strength relative to the noise present at the receiving end. Though effective, this technique increases the resources needed at the transmitting end of the communication system. In some communication systems, an increase in required transmitter power can vastly increase the cost of operating the system.
Another approach toward minimizing the effects noise and distortions present in a received signal is to decrease the rate at which information is conveyed from the transmitter to the receiver. This is effective since it increases the time allotted to the receiver to make a decision as to the state of each binary digit. This technique has the obvious disadvantage of reducing the speed of the information transfer within the communication system.
A better technique of minimizing the effect of noise and distortions present at the receiving end is to encode the binary information at the transmitter using an error control code. Through the use of an error control code, the transmitted information is encoded through the addition of error control information according to various techniques in order to become more resistant to the effects of noise. At the receiver, these error control binary digits are manipulated in order to correct errors in the information binary digits. Generally, the more error control binary digits that are added at the transmitter, the more robust the error correction capability of the error control code and therefore the more resistant the code is to the effects of noise at the receiving end of the communication system. However, as error control binary digits are added, they consume a larger and larger percentage of the available channel bandwidth.
A disadvantage of many error control codes is that although they provide acceptable performance in moderate noise environments, they are incapable of performing in severe noise environments. In these environments, a larger and larger percentage of the available bandwidth is consumed by the error control binary digits. Convolutional error control codes provide satisfactory operation in moderate noise environments without consuming a large amount of channel bandwidth. In more severe noise environments, concatenating more than one convolutional error control code and arranging the encoders along parallel data paths can improve performance. However, these techniques require significant channel bandwidth to be effective due to the additional error control binary digits added by the concatenated convolutional code.
Therefore, what is needed is a method and apparatus for encoding and decoding binary information using a highly noise resistant code that will consume only a small portion of the channel bandwidth.

Method and apparatus for encoding and decoding binary information using restricted coded modulation and parallel concatenated convolution codes


The present invention relates to an antenna unit (500, 600) and a portable device (10) comprising such an antenna unit. The antenna unit (500, 600) may include at least two antenna elements (510B, 510C) forming a television antenna (600) arranged in a cable adapted for detachably connecting an auxiliary device (500) to the portable device (10). The at least two antenna elements form a dipole antenna that provides good properties over a known frequency range without requiring any additional circuitry or signal processing for the device (10) and without requiring or occupying any space within the device (10).

Recent trends in modern communications device are rendering these devices smaller and more functional on an ever-increasing basis. Because many of these devices incorporate displays, one functionality being investigated and implemented in communications devices is the reception and display of television signals. In addition, modern phones have fairly large colour screens. In particular, devices such as mobile telephones are being provided with broadcast television tuners and large color displays for displaying received television signals to users.
Unfortunately, one recognized problem with the reception of television signals on portable devices is that it typically requires a relatively large sized antenna in order to cover the entire frequency band being used by available broadcasters. Successfully implementing an effective antenna for television signals has been a major obstacle in providing television signals to mobile telephones or other portable communication devices, where the size of the device is generally of primary or critical.
Prior attempts to solve this problem have used a single antenna for both communication (e.g., cellular communication) as well as reception of broadcast television signals. However, this solution has been ineffective in that the frequencies used for telephone communication and television broadcasts are quite different. Therefore, the single-antenna approach is unduly compromising and provides inferior performance for both communications and television reception. In order to increase performance in a single-antenna solution, additional circuitry and/or additional signal processing may be incorporated into the communication device. Unfortunately, this modified approach suffers from an increase in physical size. Additionally, increasing processing requirements for the portable device has the further disadvantage of decreasing usable battery life of the device. Another hurdle to the single-antenna approach results from the requirement of a ground plane in the device, which is a technical challenge to accomplish in connection with such small portable devices, such as mobile telephones, especially with respect to a television antenna.

Antenna for portable communication device


A lighting system includes an electrically insulating and transparent or translucent optical material having a plurality of compartments containing a luminous composition, forming a light-emitting material. Structure for passing radiation, preferably radio frequency radiation, through the compartments is provided such that the luminous composition in the compartments will emit light through the optical material. The luminous composition is preferably a gas that is entrained as bubbles in the optical material when it is in the liquid state. The optical material is hardened to seal within the luminous gas and to produce a light-emitting material. Electrodes are used to pass the RF radiation through the light-emitting material. The electrodes can be provided as an adhesive-backed foil which is attached to the light-emitting material.

Current fluorescent and neon lights are easily broken, and when broken, the entire light will not function. These lights also suffer from the disadvantage that it is relatively difficult to form the lights in irregular shapes. It is also difficult to achieve large areas of planar light. The lights are cumbersome and heavy, and relatively high-cost to fabricate. There is a need for lighting which is durable, has high efficiency and long life, is light-weight, and can be produced at a reasonable cost.
Several consumer, commercial and industrial markets desire curved and flat light panels that are energy efficient, lightweight, rugged, long-lived, and survivable. The automobile industry, for example, has a need for improved brake, turn-signal and back-up lights that can be fashioned more flexibly than current incandescent technology will permit. Also, decorative and panel lighting requires more stylistically-shaped lighting systems than is possible with the bulky and inflexible framework of fluorescent technology. It is also desirable in some uses, such as defense, outdoor, and safety uses, that the light be able to function even after a damaging impact.

Lighting system of encapsulated luminous material

Lockheed Martin Energy Research Corporation


A pizza box having a plurality of ribs, which are selectively moveable between a first stored position and a second upright position is provided. The ribs are coupled to at least one actuating strip, which enables the ribs to be simultaneously shifted from the first stored position to the second upright position. The ribs and the actuating strip are formed from the same piece of material. The actuating strip may be configured to interlock with the box to maintain the ribs in the second upright position. There is also a stop tab configured to prevent the actuating strip from moving the ribs beyond a predetermine point.

The present invention relates generally to boxes and more particularly to improved pizza (or a similar hot food item) take-out boxes, which minimize the surface area of the box that contacts the pizza.
Pizza take-out boxes are typically formed from a single panel of fiberboard, liner board, corrugated fiberboard, or micro-flute, which is folded by pizza restaurant personnel to form a box having a lid and a tray portion. There are also pizza take-out boxes that are formed from separate lid and tray portions, but they are not as popular. There are pizza boxes of various shapes and sizes such as circles, squares with cut off corners, octagons, etc, boxes for whole pies single slices, etc. Regardless of the shape or how many parts the boxes have, there are certain common goals; to keep the food hot while retaining the desirable characteristics and quality, such as, in the case of pizza, a crispy crust. While this may seem like an easy task, it is not.
Hot pizza produces stream, which condenses and absorbs into the box. Since the pizza rests on the conventional box bottom, the condensation also absorbs into the crust of the pizza. This absorption results in a loss of both crispness (e.g., the pizza crust will become soggy) and product quality (the crust absorbs the taste of the cardboard with the condensation). While cutting vents or holes into the box releases some of the steam and lessens the condensation problem it does not entirely eliminate the problem does nothing for the grease and oil problem and it also causes another; temperature loss. With vents in the box, the pizza crust remains slightly crispier but the pizza now arrives at its destination cold.
In addition to the condensation problem, pizzas that have toppings, such as pepperoni, drip grease which collects in the tray portion of the box resulting in the pizza crust sitting in this grease. This is also not desirable as it causes the pizza crust to become greasy wet and soggy. Venting the box has no effect on this problem.
Conventional pizza boxes have been designed with relatively expensive moisture absorbing materials, variations in the shape of the box and in the number and size of the vents, etc. in an attempt to resolve this issue. Some of the two-piece boxes also employ permanent projections formed in the tray portions in an attempt to raise the crust off of the bottom of the tray. However, these projections are not employed in the one-piece cartons since the permanent projections prevent the boxes from being stacked flat. Other conventional attempts to resolve this issue include relatively expensive metal or plastic trays with permanent projections, etc. There is at least one conventional one-piece pizza box (U.S. Pat. No. 5,052,559), which employs a combination of discrete support strips, which may be individually elevated, and vents which are used to secure the support strips in an elevated position. However, this design requires too many operations to be practical, requires the pizza to be cut before it is placed into the box and requires too many vents, which causes the heat loss problem discussed above. Each of the conventional pizza box designs are either too expensive, too complicated or address one problem while creating an equally unacceptable problem.
Another problem faced by a majority of the conventional pizza boxes is that they are difficult to carry from the bottom due to the fact that the bottom of the box gets very hot from the hot pizza resting on the bottom.
Accordingly there exists a need for an improved pizza take-out box which is relatively inexpensive, maintains a large surface area of the food off of the box, maintains a cool box surface for carrying, can be stored relatively flat and sets up in relatively few steps.

Quality maintaining pizza/food take-out box


Providing context in functional testing of web services. Methods of a web service are categorized into predefined categories defining interaction flows on the web, based on a semantic analysis of the names of the web methods. For each categorized web method, a testing context for the web method is created according to its category in the form of a sequence of one or more other methods of the web service that provide an appropriate context for testing the web method.

This invention relates to the field of functional testing of web services. In particular, the invention relates to providing context in functional testing of web services.
Web services are a fundamental cornerstone of the web, providing online functionality for web applications as well as other web services. As such, web services have become an important subject of functional testing, including security testing, typestate checking, etc.
An important challenge in testing web services is to ensure that the test payload reaches the business logic of the web service. Otherwise, if the payload is invalid, then the web method typically reports a SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) fault, and there is little gain from submitting the payload.
One of the most prevalent reasons for the rejection of an input by a web method is if the method is invoked outside its appropriate context. For example, for a "DeleteCustomer" method to process its input data, this method must be called after a corresponding call to "CreateCustomer".
Existing testing tools for web services do not support this context problem. The strategy used to decide the order of invocation of web methods is largely arbitrary, for example, invoking all the web methods in the web service's WSDL (Web Services Description Language) file in a serial order.
This leads to many situations where testing misses important problems (for example, critical security vulnerabilities) simply because a method was invoked without its preconditions being met, which leads to immediate rejection of the input data.
Therefore, there is a need in the art to address the aforementioned problems.

International Business Machines Corporation


Client position in a multi-client game is determined using dead reckoning. Clients send information to a server over a network. The server distributes this information to other clients. A client uses this information and dead reckoning to determine a character's position. The server may calculate the client's position using dead reckoning and send updates to clients when errors between actual and calculated positions exceed a threshold. Clients may calculate their position according to dead reckoning, and when an error between actual and calculated position exceeds a threshold, send updated information to other clients. This Abstract is provided for the sole purpose of complying with the Abstract requirement rules that allow a reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the disclosure contained herein. This Abstract is submitted with the explicit understanding that it will not be used to interpret or to limit the scope or the meaning of the claims.

Growth of the electronic entertainment industry has introduced new challenges for effectively transferring information between clients, or players. For example, many new video games allow multiple players to participate in the same game environment. Some newer games support multiple clients participating in a game environment using a wide or local area network, such as the Internet or other network, to transfer data between the clients.
As video games increase in sophistication and complexity the amount of data exchanged between players also increases. The increase in data exchanged between players places increased demands on the network. Increases in the amount of data transferred between players can cause decreased game performance, even with broadband network connections, such as DSL and cable modems.
Thus, there is a need for improved, more efficient, techniques for transferring data between players in an electronic gaming environment. The present invention satisfies this need.

Sony Interactive Entertainment America LLC


A method of disseminating topology information related to a subscriber in a system having one or more networks, each network having access devices and policy functions, includes identifying a current location of the subscriber by a serving policy function. The method further includes forwarding information relating to the current location from the serving policy function to an anchor policy function associated with the subscriber. The process of identifying the location of the subscriber and forwarding the information to the anchor policy server is repeated each time the subscriber changes its physical location. The system uses the current location information to route policy information from the anchor policy function to the policy function that is serving the subscriber. The system may use a push model, a pull model, or a combination thereof, to disseminate the topology information.

The present invention relates to communication systems and services for distributing digital content, and more particularly, to techniques for properly associating subscribers with appropriate policy servers regardless of the physical location of the subscriber.
FIG. 1 shows a prior art system 10 for delivering digital content to a number of subscribers. An application function 12 (in this example a P-CSCF; proxy call session control function), provides session setup functions to enable subscribers to make VoIP calls, or can also be a server, which serves digital content such as a video stream to one of several subscribers 14. The subscribers may include any of a number of electronic devices such as telephones or personal computers. These electronic devices may be wireless or they may be connected to a local wired network.
During a session, the digital content the application server 12 provides to a subscriber 14 may pass through a number of network components. The content passes through enforcement points(s), but the signaling to request policy is signaled between the policy elements in the diagram—the policy router 16 and the policy server 18 as well as the enforcement point.
The enforcement point 20 is an edge device, such as a cable modem termination system (CMTS), GPRS gateway support node (GGSN), a packet data serving node (PDSN), etc. In general, an enforcement point can be any entity in the network through which packets traverse during the subscriber's session. The enforcement points 20 are not dedicated to any particular application server 12, but instead resources on the enforcement points are allocated to the subscriber's application session by the policy function (e.g., the policy server 18 in this example) in the network.
"Policy function" is used as the generic term for an entity in the network that is performing policy. The primary purpose of the policy function is providing the appropriate Quality of Service for the session, as well as managing any billing and accounting information associated with the session. The policy function is responsible for conveying or "pushing" a policy decision to the enforcement point 20, and making sure the correct set of policies for the subscriber is set. The policy function thus controls the enforcement point 20 via on behalf of the application server 12.
The policy router 16 in the above diagram is a policy function that also can route or forward policy requests to a downstream policy function. In the example of FIG. 1, the application server 12 conveys a policy request to the policy server 20 via the policy router 16.
In general, FIG. 1 shows a service provider policy environment supporting multiple applications, multiple subscribers and multiple subscriber edge devices. The subscriber edge devices 20 function as policy enforcement points for operator policies relating to Quality of Service, Bandwidth Management, and Admission Control.

Distributed policy services for mobile and nomadic networking


Polypeptides which include at least one antigenic and/or immunogenic determinant of the envelope protein (env) of the HIV-2 virus and their production by recombinant DNA technology and the DNA sequences, expression vectors and transformed single-cell organisms used in this process are provided. A method for the detection of HIV antibodies or HIV viruses in human sera or in other biological fluids is also provided.

In 1986 a new virus designated as HIV-2 was isolated from West African AIDS patients Clavel et al., Science 233, 343-346 (1986); Clavel et al., Nature 324, 691-695 (1986)!. On the basis of its morphology, its lymphotropism and its cytophatic in vitro activity on T.sub.4 -positive cells, this virus was associated with the AIDS-causing HIV-1 viruses. In spite of these similiar properties, a genetic comparison of HIV-1 and HIV-2 viruses showed, however, only a limited sequence homology Guyader et al., Nature 326, 662-669 (1987)!.
More than 20 different HIV-2 viruses have been isolated from West African AIDS patients and from European AIDS patients Guyader et al., supra; Brun-Vezinet et al., Lancet 1, 128-132 (1987)!. The sera of these AIDS patients were all negative in the HIV-1 ELISA Brun-Vezinet et al., supra!. Accordingly, there is a very great need for a precise and rapid method for the diagnosis of HIV-2 viruses in human blood and in other body fluids.