A filter component includes a catalyst surrounded by a thermally insulative carbon fiber composite. The catalyst can catalyze the chemical reaction of selected gaseous constituents of a gas stream. During catalysis, the catalyst can reach high temperatures. The carbon fiber composite can contain heat generated during the catalysis within the filter component and thereby reduce heat transfer to the surroundings. The filter component can be used in smoking articles. Methods of making and using the filter-component and methods for treating mainstream tobacco smoke are also provided.

A catalyst is a substance that can accelerate the rate of certain chemical reactions, but without being consumed or undergoing a chemical change itself.
Chemical reactions that occur with the evolution of heat to the surroundings are called exothermic reactions, and have a negative enthalpy change, i.e., ΔH<0. Chemical reactions that occur with the absorption of heat from the surroundings are called endothermic reactions, and have a positive enthalpy change, i.e., ΔH>0.

Thermally insulative smoking article filter components


A guitar support stand includes a mounting plate that is attachable to a stable support such as a musical piece of equipment having a substantial weight. A guitar support member is releasably attached to the mounting plate and includes at its upper end a support bracket for supporting the neck portion of a guitar.

Field of the Invention
This application relates to a stand for supporting a guitar. The stand includes a mounting plate that is attachable to a piece of musical equipment such as an amplifier. A vertical support member is releasably attached to the mounting plate and includes at its upper end a bracket which may be U-shaped for supporting the guitar by engaging the upper neck portion of the guitar.
Background of the Invention
Guitars are quite often expensive musical instruments that can be easily damaged if not handled properly. Frequently when a musician is playing a guitar it is necessary to find a convenient place to temporarily support the guitar to prevent damage. Sometimes whether on stage or during practice the guitar is merely placed against an object such as an amplifier for support and is susceptible to damage. It is also known to use a hook member that may be attached to a block of wood that can be mounted off a vertical surface. This support requires a vertical surface of sufficient height and does not provide for a suitable cushioning for the lower body of the guitar.
Consequently, there is a need for a guitar support that is adapted to be secured to a readily available vertical support surface and also that is steady and has a provision for cushioning and supporting the lower portion of a guitar.


An image forming apparatus includes an apparatus main body, an image forming unit, a tray unit and an attaching portion. The tray unit includes a pivot portion. The sheet is placed on the tray unit in an open state. The tray unit is capable of making a sliding movement in an axial direction of the pivot portion in a closed state. The tray unit is attached to the attaching portion in the closed state. The tray unit includes a pair of hooks that project from opposite end parts in the axial direction and each includes a projection. The attaching portion includes a pair of openings and a pair of engaging portions. The projections are inserted into the opening. Engaged positions of the projections with the engaging portions are variable according to the sliding movement in the closed state of the tray unit.

The present disclosure relates to an image forming apparatus for forming an image on a sheet.
Conventionally, an image forming apparatus for forming an image on a sheet includes a sheet feeding unit, an image forming unit and a sheet discharging portion. An image is formed on a surface of a sheet fed from the sheet feeding unit in the image forming unit. Thereafter, the sheet is discharged to the sheet discharging portion provided on an apparatus main body of the image forming apparatus. Further, some image forming apparatuses are known to include a manual feed tray. The manual feed tray is openable with respect to the apparatus main body and a sheet is placed thereon in an open state.
There is also known a technology with a manual feed tray withdrawable from an apparatus main body of an image forming apparatus and a lid member coupled to the manual feed tray and openable with respect to the apparatus main body.
In such a technology, the openable lid member includes a pair of hook members to be engaged with the apparatus main body and spaced apart in a sheet width direction.


Methods, systems, and computer readable media for rank processing in network function selection. A method includes periodically receiving, at a network function discovery node, and from each producer network function of a number of producer network functions, a current load value specifying a computing load carried by the producer network function. The network function discovery node is configured for performing service discovery between network functions of a telecommunications core network. The method includes determining, for each producer network function, an available capacity for the producer network function based on the current load value and a published capacity of the producer network function. The method includes responding to a network function discovery request from a consumer network function using the available capacity of each producer network function.

The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is a collaboration between groups of telecommunications standards associations. The 3GPP defined mobile phone system specifications for telecommunications networks including 3G, 4G, and Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks.
The next generation network for 3GPP is the 5G network. The 5G specifications target high data rates, reduced latency, energy saving, cost reduction, higher system capacity, and increasing numbers of connected devices.
The 3GPP has defined a service-based architecture for its next generation 5G core network. In a service-based architecture, services are provided to software components by application components, typically through a communication protocol over a data communications network. A service can be, e.g., a discrete function that can be accessed remotely and consumed and updated independently of other services in the system.
Different services can be used together to provide the functionality of a larger functional system such as a software application. The service-based architecture can integrate distributed and separately-maintained software components.
Accordingly, there exists a need for methods, systems, and computer readable media for rank processing for network function selection.

Methods, systems, and computer readable media for rank processing for network function selection


The present disclosure relates to cosmetic agents for cleaning and/or conditioning of hair, which, contain at least one hydrophobic fumed silica in addition to a specific combination of at least two different surfactants. These agents achieve an outstanding cleaning and/or conditioning performance and an increase in hair volume. Furthermore, the present disclosure relates to the use of at least one hydrophobic fumed silica in cosmetic agents for cleaning and/or conditioning of hair to increase the hair volume and/or improve lasting hold of the hair volume.

Furthermore, the present disclosure relates to the use of at least one hydrophobic fumed silica in cosmetic agents for cleaning and/or conditioning of hair to increase the hair volume and/or improve lasting hold of the hair volume.
Cosmetic agents for cleaning and/or conditioning of hair have been known for a long time and are regularly improved and/or adapted to changing requirements of consumers. For example, consumers expect a modern agent for cleaning and/or conditioning of hair to leave a long-lasting, haptically and optically perceptible nurturing effect on the hair. "Haptically and optically perceptible nurturing effect" is understood to mean that the hair is smooth, easy to comb, soft, shiny and easy to dress after the treatment. Furthermore, the treated hair should have an increased volume.
The addition of silicones and cationic polymers to agents for cleaning and/or conditioning of hair for improvement of the care is known in the prior art. The production and use of such agents, however, is currently problematic. On the one hand, some water-insoluble silicone types can often be dispersed in these agents only with increased energy consumption or using additional synthetic stabilizers over a prolonged period.
However, it was found that repeated use of such agents does not have any effect on the volume and has a greasy and weighted effect on damaged and/or very fine, thin hair types, in particular. Therefore, there is a continued requirement for agents for conditioning and/or cleaning of hair which can result in increased and long-lasting hair volume without negatively influencing the texture and cleaning and/or care effect.
The present disclosure addressed the problem of preparing agents for cleaning and/or conditioning of hair which gives the treated hair improved hair sensory characteristics and increased hair volume. In particular, damaged hair and/or very fine, thin hair cannot be knotted and/or made difficult to knot, easily untangled and supple after treatment with these agents. Furthermore, fine, smooth hair should have a long-lasting volume without a weighted effect after treatment. A further task of the present disclosure was to find compounds which increase hair volume that can be easily incorporated into the agents without negatively changing the texture or the cleaning and/or conditioning performance of the agents.
It has been found that the use of hydrophobic fumed silica in agents for cleaning and/or conditioning of hair achieves an increase in hair volume and/or extended lasting hold of the hair volume without negatively influencing the texture and cleaning and/or conditioning effect of these agents. Moreover, the addition of these silica does not reduce the storage stability of the cosmetic agents, so incorporation into existing formulations is possible without further complication.

Hair treatment agents with hydrophobic fumed silica


A cooling fan includes a frame, a stator, a rotor and a display panel. The frame includes a base. The stator is mounted on a bottom surface of the base. The rotor is rotatably installed on the stator and received in the frame. The display panel is attached to a top surface of the base and electrically connected to the stator. The display panel can show a lot of useful information such as a logo of the cooling fan, a rotating speed of the cooling fan and an environment temperature.

1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to cooling fans and, more particularly, to a cooling fan having a display panel mounted on a frame thereof to show dynamic information such as a rotating speed thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
With the continuing development of electronics technology, electronic components such as central processing units (CPUs), generate more and more heat that is required to be dissipated immediately. A heat sink is often mounted on an electronic component for absorbing heat therefrom, and a cooling fan is also provided to further remove heat from the heat sink by forced airflow.
A typical cooling fan has a frame and a rotor received in the frame. A label is generally attached to the frame to show a logo of the cooling fan. The label, usually made of paper or plastic, however, can only show logo and specifications of the cooling fan, which are static information. Static information is insufficient for someone who needs to know the dynamic information of the fan, for example, instant rotation speed of the fan.
What is needed, therefore, is an improved cooling fan which can show a lot of information thereof to satisfy users' increasing desires.

Hong Fu Jin Precision Industry (ShenZhen) Co., Ltd.


A door bell includes a case and a frame is located within the open space of the case. An electro-magnetic valve is connected to the frame and controls two hit pins and a circuit board is connected to the frame and electronically connected to the electro-magnetic valve. Two resilient members are mounted to the hit pins which hit a sound plate located beneath the hit pins to generate sound. The sound is amplified by two sound boxes. The circuit board transfers alternative current into direct current so that no hulky part projecting from the door bell.

A conventional door bell is installed on the wall at the front gate so that the visitors can press the button of the door bell which generates sound to acknowledge the owner. One of the conventional door bells is shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, and generally includes a case with an open space in which an electro-magnetic valve 1 is located. Two hit pins 2 are controlled by the electro-magnetic valve 1 and two springs 3 are mounted to the hit pins 2. When the button (not shown) of the door bell is pressed, the electro-magnetic valve 1 is activated and the two hit pins 2 hit the sound plate 4 which generates sound. The sound generated by the sound plate 4 is amplified via two sound boxes 5 which are located on two sides of the electro-magnetic valve 1. The sound can be transferred to a long distance to ensure that the owner of the house can hear the sound from the door bell.
However, it is noted that the electro-magnetic valve 1 can only be activated by direct current (DC) of 16 Voltage and the power supply of the house is alternative current (AC) of 120 Voltage, so that an adaptor 6 is equipped to transfer the current to be usable for the electro-magnetic valve 6. The adaptor 6 is huge and projects out from the case as shown in FIG. 4, and the adaptor 6 makes the door bell to have an awkward profile. Because of the bulky adaptor 6, the difficulty for installation of the door bell is increased. Furthermore, the adaptor 6 makes the door bells occupy much larger space during transportation.
The present invention intends to provide a door bell which includes a circuit board to replace the electro-magnetic valve and the door bell of the present has a compact size without any part projecting from the door bell.


Provided is a liquid crystal display, including: an insulating substrate, the insulating substrate includes a center region and an edge region surrounding the center region; a roof layer formed on the insulating substrate, and configured to support a plurality of separated microcavities; a pixel electrode formed on the insulating substrate, and formed in the microcavity supported by the roof layer; and a liquid crystal layer positioned within the microcavity, in which the roof layer includes an opening for injecting a liquid crystal into the plurality of microcavities, and the opening in the center region has a substantially uniform size, and the opening in the edge region is smaller than the opening in the center region.

(a) Field
Embodiments of the present inventive concept relates to a liquid crystal display and a manufacturing method thereof, and more particularly, to a liquid crystal display having a liquid crystal layer (nano crystal) present within a microcavity, and a manufacturing method thereof.
(b) Description of the Related Art
A liquid crystal display is one of the most common types of flat panel displays currently in use, and includes two display panels having field generating electrodes such as a pixel electrode and a common electrode, and a liquid crystal layer interposed therebetween.
The liquid crystal display displays an image by applying a voltage to the field generating electrode to generate an electric field in the liquid crystal layer, determining alignment of liquid crystal molecules of the liquid crystal layer through the generated electric field, and controlling polarization of incident light.
A nano-crystalline device is a liquid crystal display having an embedded microcavity (EM) structure (nano crystal structure). The nano-crystalline device is formed by forming a sacrificial layer of a photoresist, applying a support member on an upper portion of the sacrificial layer, removing the sacrificial layer, and filling liquid crystal in an empty space formed by removing the sacrificial layer.
However, when the liquid crystal is injected into the EM structure, the liquid crystal leaks to and remains in the outside of the microcavity formed on the panel at an edge region of the panel, so that a display defect may be generated.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the inventive concept and therefore it may contain information that does not constitute prior art.

Liquid crystal display and manufacturing method thereof


A method and apparatus for tailoring the profile of an x-ray beam for radiographic imaging for a specific subject is disclosed. The invention includes a filter assembly having a pair of filters, each of which may be dynamically controlled by a motor assembly during data acquisition. The filters are positionable in the x-ray beam so as to shape the intensity profile of the x-ray beam. In one exemplary embodiment, the filters are dynamically positioned during CT data acquisition based on the shape of the subject. A method of determining the shape of the subject prior to CT data acquisition is also disclosed.

The present invention relates generally to diagnostic imaging and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus of dynamically filtering radiation emitted toward a subject during radiographic imaging in a manner tailored to the shape and/or position of a subject to be imaged.
Typically, in radiographic imaging systems, an x-ray source emits x-rays toward a subject or object, such as a patient or a piece of luggage. Hereinafter, the terms "subject" and "object" may be interchangeably used to describe anything capable of being imaged. The beam, after being attenuated by the subject, impinges upon an array of radiation detectors. The intensity of the attenuated beam radiation received at the detector array is typically dependent upon the attenuation of the x-rays. Each detector element of the detector array produces a separate electrical signal indicative of the attenuated beam received by each detector element. The electrical signals are transmitted to a data processing system for analysis which ultimately produces an image.
In computed tomography (CT) imaging systems, the x-ray source and the detector array are rotated about a gantry within an imaging plane and around the subject. X-ray sources typically include x-ray tubes, which emit the x-rays as a beam at a focal point. X-ray detectors typically include a collimator for collimating x-ray beams received at the detector, a scintillator for converting x-rays to light energy adjacent the collimator, and a photodiode for receiving the light energy from an adjacent scintillator and producing electrical signals therefrom. Typically, each scintillator of a scintillator array converts x-rays to light energy. Each photodiode detects the light energy and generates a corresponding electrical signal. The outputs of the photodiodes are then transmitted to the data processing system for image reconstruction.
There is increasingly a need to reduce radiation dosage received by a patient during an imaging session. It is generally well known that significant dose reduction may be achieved by using a "bowtie" filter to shape the intensity profile of an x-ray beam. Surface dose reductions may be as much as 50% using a bowtie filter. It is also generally known that different anatomical regions of a patient may advantageously mandate different shaped bowtie filters to reduce radiation dosage. For example, scanning of the head or a small region of a patient may require a bowtie filter shaped differently than a filter used during a large body scanning session. It is therefore desirable to have an imaging system with a large number of bowtie filter shapes available to best fit each patient. However, fashioning an imaging system with a sufficient number of bowtie filters to accommodate the idiosyncrasies encountered during scanning of numerous patients can be problematic in that each individual patient cannot be contemplated. Additionally, manufacturing an imaging system with a multitude of bowtie filters increases the overall manufacturing cost of the imaging system.
Further, for optimum dose efficiency, i.e. best image quality at the lowest possible dose, the attenuation profile created by the bowtie filter should be particular to the patient. That is, it is desirable and preferred that when selecting a pre-patient filter that the patient's size, shape, and relative position be taken into account. By taking the patient's size, shape, and position into consideration, radiation exposure can be tailored to the specific patient. Further, it is generally well-known that photon counting (PT) and energy discriminating (ED) CT systems are not possible today, primarily because the large dynamic range of photon flux rates exceeds the count rate capabilities of current PT and ED detectors. Tailoring the pre-patient filter to the subject to be scanned also allows for conforming the filter to minimize photon flux rates in a range suitable to permit continued development of PT and ED CT systems. As noted above, the differences in patients in the potential subject pool are significantly large and fitting a CT system with a pre-patient filter for each possible patient profile is more than cost prohibitive; its simply not practical.
Therefore, it would be desirable to design an apparatus and method of dynamically filtering the radiation emitted toward the subject for data acquisition in a manner tailored to particular physical characteristics of the subject. It would be further desirable to have a system that tailors the radiation emitted toward the subject during data acquisition based on a scout scan of the subject.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and apparatus of radiographic imaging with an energy beam tailored for a subject to be scanned


The invention relates to a method for photographing on board of a flying rotating body and system for carrying out said method. According to said invention, pictures (V0, V90, V180, V270) are taken at predetermined angular positions of said flying body by a device which is rigidly fixed to the front thereof and are exposed to an image geometrical transformation required for the display thereof.

It is known that such rotating missiles are launched and guided towards their target (for example a tank) by means of a firing post, stationed at a fixed post, provided with a picture-taking apparatus and with a display. Thus, an operator can observe on said display the successive images of the scene in which said target lies, which images are addressed to said display by said picture-taking apparatus and which serve the operator in guiding said missile towards the target.
Such a system has the drawback that the missile itself appears on said images, so that the flames and/or the smoke emitted by its motor partially hide said scene, this possibly hampering the accuracy of the guidance of said missile.
To attempt to remedy such a drawback, it would be possible to imagine, by analogy with certain missiles stabilized in roll over their trajectory, mounting a camera aboard said rotating missile. However, it would then be indispensable to provide a roll-stabilized platform to receive said camera. However, the cost of a stabilized platform such as this is significant and it would not accord with common sense to use one on board a missile whose destruction is inevitable on first use.

Method for photographing on board of a flying rotating body and system for carrying out said method


A method and apparatus is provided for hydrogenation of a target, such as a polycrystalline silicon film on a glass substrate, by using an atomic hydrogen source. The target is subjected to intermittent exposure of the atomic hydrogen field of the source until at least one area of the target has been subjected to the hydrogen field for a predetermined minimum period of time. The processing area of the source established by its atomic hydrogen field is smaller than the target, and after the target is moved into the high temperature processing zone it is translated within the high temperature processing zone to intermittently process successive areas of the target until the entire target has been processed for a predetermined minimum period of time. After the entire target has been processed, the target is cooled to a predetermined lower temperature while still intermittently subjecting the target to atomic hydrogen.

Thin-film, crystalline silicon on glass (CSG) technology has attracted a great deal of interest as an active material in photovoltaic devices and other large area applications such as thin film transistors (TFT). When applied to solar cells, CSG technology can deliver very low manufacturing costs, however a key element in achieving useful efficiencies which result in a low $/W manufacturing cost is effective, low-cost hydrogenation for defect passivation.
In order to obtain technologically useful materials and devices, the deleterious electrical activity of defects must be reduced. Hydrogenation, the incorporation of atomic hydrogen, has been shown to be an effective method for passivating defects in semiconductors such as silicon. Numerous defects are susceptible to hydrogen passivation, including Si dangling bonds and strained Si—Si bonds at grain boundaries, dislocations, point defects with deep levels such as Au and Fe, and oxygen and its complexes. Commonly used hydrogenation methods include directed ion beam or Kaufman sources, and plasma sources in either the direct or remote configuration. It has long been known that H-induced damage can be of critical importance, motivating the use of remote plasma sources. In the PV industry, the most widely used hydrogenation technique uses a hydrogen-rich SiNx layer deposited by PECVD to simultaneously provide an antireflection coating, surface passivation and following H diffusion into the silicon during the contact firing step, bulk passivation. The efficiency of hydrogenation strongly depends on the passivation technique, passivation temperature, and the type and density of defects in the target material—with low-cost CSG presenting a significant challenge.
CSG modules are fabricated by depositing amorphous silicon onto textured glass after which the silicon is crystallised, for example by solid-phase crystallisation, or laser crystallisation. The resulting highly defected poly-Si is then improved by rapid thermal annealing and hydrogenation. Various methods of hydrogenation have been tried, however many existing methods are slow and the speed with which the hydrogenation step can be completed has a significant effect on the cost of production of a CSG module.
A problem with hydrogenation methods where the target must be immersed in a plasma is that regardless of the speed of the process itself loading the target into the plasma chamber, bringing the target and chamber up to temperature before the process can begin, and reversing these steps before unloading adds a significant time overhead to the process.
A further issue that arises with hydrogenation is that the 'in-diffusion' of atomic hydrogen that occurs during the hydrogenation process will be counteracted by an "out-diffusion" in some circumstances. In particular, if the target is removed from the plasma whilst still at a high temperature, out-diffusion may result in all of the previously in-diffused hydrogen being lost.
Another factor which must be considered is the occurrence of dopant (e.g. boron) deactivation and surface damage which will occur when a silicon film is exposed to atomic hydrogen, especially at lower temperatures. Such damage can include etching and creation of surface defects (e.g. platelets and voids) and has an adverse affect on device performance and can cancel the benefits of hydrogenation. Surface damage may become a significant problem if a target remains exposed to atomic hydrogen at temperatures below approximately 300-350° C., (depending on the intensity of atomic hydrogen and the CSG material quality) for significant periods of time.
Any discussion of documents, acts, materials, devices, articles or the like which has been included in the present specification is solely for the purpose of providing a context for the present invention. It is not to be taken as an admission that any or all of these matters form part of the prior art base or were common general knowledge in the field relevant to the present invention as it existed before the priority date of each claim of this application.

Method and apparatus for hydrogenation of thin film silicon on glass


A method for high speed spin winding a coil on a continuous lamination core. A two piece or hinged bobbin having two flanges is placed around a leg of the transformer core and snapped together. Both flanges include an outwardly facing surface which defines a concentric groove. One flange includes passages for receiving printed circuit board terminating pins which are installed prior to winding the coil. The other flange has a circumferential gear located in its outwardly facing surface. The core with bobbin and terminating pins installed is placed into a spin winding fixture. A bobbin bearing having a bearing surface including a circumferential ridge is placed adjacent the outwardly facing surfaces of the two flanges such that the circumferential ridges are partially received within the concentric grooves of the outwardly facing surfaces of the two flanges. A wire feeder terminates the leading end of the coil wire on one of the terminating pins. A drive gear engages the circumferential gear on the flange and rotates the bobbin at high speed drawing wire from the wire feeder. The wire feeder moves back and forth between the two flanges to uniformly wind the coil wire on the bobbin. The wire feeder terminates the trailing end of the coil wire on the other terminating pin and then cut the wire off. The terminating pins are pressed further into the flange until the desired length for printed circuit board connection extends outwardly from the opposite side of the flange.

As electronic technology has advanced, the need for easily manufactured, inexpensive, smaller printed circuit board mountable transformers capable of providing power to the circuit board as well as sensing current in the primary circuit has increased. In order to provide power to the circuit board, the transformer core must have a high magnetic permeability and the coil must have a high number of wire turns to provide the required voltage. The toroidally wound transformer has generally been the best choice for such a transformer due to its accuracy and compact construction. However, the toroidally wound transformer involves a slow expensive winding process. Less expensive alternatives to the toroid transformer, such as two piece C or E-shaped laminated core transformers or interleaved laminated core transformers, have air gaps in their cores which interrupt the flow of magnetic flux in the core and therefore reduces the accuracy of the transformer. Using special materials having high permeability and proper alignment of the material grain can reduce the interruption of magnetic flux flow in the core but significantly increases the transformer cost. Another alternative is to use a continuous lamination or close magnetic core. This will eliminate the air gap problem but requires winding of the coil about one leg of the closed core. Providing a coil with enough turns to produce the voltage required to power the circuit board can then become a problem. If a fine wire is not used for the coil the number of turns needed to produce the required voltage will significantly increase the physical size of the transformer and thus prohibit mounting on the printed circuit board. High speed winding of a fine wire coil about a one piece bobbin is not new. However, the one piece bobbin construction must be used on a two piece C or E-shaped transformer core or an interleaved lamination core. These cores have the air gap problem. The more desirable solution would be to wind a fine wire core about the leg of a continuous lamination or closed magnetic core. This process is available but has generally been limited to larger power transformers having coils consisting of relatively few turns of medium gauge wire or ribbon wire which must be wound at slow speeds. Examples of this process may be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,305,999; 2,414,603 and 3,043,000.
In recent years the transformer industry has begun to wind coils about continuous lamination cores or closed magnetic cores of smaller transformers. However, as seen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,325,045; and 5,515,597, bobbin positioning and low winding speeds have restricted the efficiency of this winding process. All of the transformers described above involve a number of labor intensive subassembly steps and provide no means for simultaneously terminating the coil wire and connecting to the printed circuit board. It would therefore be desirable to have a less labor intensive generally automated method of producing a low cost, accurate, small, printed circuit board mountable transformer having a high speed spin wound fine wire coil on a continuous lamination or closed magnetic core.

Method for high speed spin winding of a coil about a continuous lamination core


In a measuring differential amplifier having first and second input terminals for subtracting a first signal applied to the first input terminal from a second signal applied to the second input terminal to obtain a subtraction and for outputting a signal corresponding to A times of the subtraction, a circuit for reducing an offset generated during measurement. Prior to the measurement, the second signal is applied to the first and second input terminals so that the differential amplifier outputs a voltage corresponding to A times of a difference between the second signals, i.e., A times an offset voltage. At this time, the differential amplifier is connected at its output terminal to one end of a capacitor grounded at the other end so that the voltage corresponding to A times of the offset voltage is applied to the capacitor for charging. During the measurement, the output terminal of the differential amplifier is disconnected from one end of the capacitor so that the voltage charged in the capacitor is applied to the adder and multiplied by 1/A to become again the offset voltage. The adder adds a signal indicative of the offset voltage to the first signal to obtain an addition signal and supplies the addition signal to the first input terminal of the differential amplifier. Thus, the input offset voltage is canceled by an offset voltage newly generated at the differential amplifier.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a differential amplification circuit which has a differential amplifier having two input terminals for outputting a difference between first and second signals applied to the two input terminals and more particularly, to a offset drift reducing device for a differential amplification circuit which can reduce an offset drift generated at a differential amplifier in the differential amplification circuit.
2. Description of the Related Art
An example of the application of a differential amplification circuit is that it receives a D.C. voltage supplied from a temperature sensor at its one input terminal and a D.C. voltage corresponding to a reference temperature at the other input terminal, and outputs a difference between these D.C. voltages. The differential amplification circuit comprises an operational amplifier. However, the operational amplifier usually generates an offset voltage drift. For a general operational amplifier, this offset voltage drift is 50 uV/Cmax. Assuming that the differential gain is 25 and a temperature range is between 0.degree. and 40.degree. C., a temperature drift becomes 50 mV. For the purpose of reducing such a temperature drift, a low temperature-drift operational amplifier such as OP07 manufactured by the PMI company has been often employed.
FIG. 3 shows an example of a conventional circuit which includes a buffer Q1' for inputting a signal from a sensor, a buffer Q3' for inputting a reference voltage and a differential amplifier Q2'. The buffers Q1', Q3' and differential amplifier Q2' comprise an operational amplifier OP07 as mentioned above, respectively. To the buffer Q1', a voltage V1, which is detected at the sensor such as a thermistor, is applied. Then, the buffer Q1' generates an offset voltage e1. To the buffer Q3', a reference voltage V2 corresponding to a target temperature is applied. Then, the buffer Q3' generates an offset voltage e3. The outputs of the buffers Q1' and Q3' are applied to the differential amplifier Q2', which outputs a difference voltage Vd between the outputs of the buffers Q3' and Q1'. The difference voltage Vd is expressed as follows where A is a gain of the differential amplifier Q2'. EQU Vd=A.times.(V2-V1+e2+e3-e1) (1)
The equation (1) shows that the output of the differential amplifier Q2' contains an offset voltage of A.times.(e2+e3-e1) in addition to the difference voltage of A.times.(V2-V1). In this circuit, since the low temperature-drift operational amplifier OP07 is used for the buffers Q1', Q2' and the differential amplifier Q3', the offset voltage A (e2+e3-e1) is small and thus a temperature drift is reduced.
However, it is difficult to incorporate the low temperature-drift operational amplifiers in an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC). This is because the operational amplifier OP07 is 4 to 5 times larger in size than a general operational amplifier, and the operational amplifier OP07 cannot be accommodated in a chip.
As described above, the temperature drift could be reduced by using the low temperature-drift (low offset) operational amplifiers in the circuit of FIG. 3. However, it is difficult to make such circuits in the form of ASIC.

Offset drift reducing device for use in a differential amplification circuit


A data sort method, apparatus, and program to receive a character string of sort key items specified as keys of a data sort process, generate an automaton corresponding to a record whose final transition state corresponds to the character string, determine the order specified by the character string by scanning the automaton, and determine the order of the records corresponding to the character string.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the data sort technology of ordering records by comparing the values of the records corresponding to items specified as sort keys in a large amount of record data constructing a large number of records comprising a plurality of items, and more specifically to the data sort technology of character string data having a record structure in CSV (Comma Separated Value) format data and text format data such as an XML (Extensible Markup Language) document.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, data sort methods can be selection sort, insertion sort, bubble sort, Shell sort, quick sorts, etc. In these methods, a record, which is a unit for a sort, is compared individually. Therefore, it is necessary to repeatedly read the same records each time a sorting process is performed, and the time required to perform the sorting process increases in progression with an increasing number of records. Normally, assuming that the number of records is n, the time required to perform a sorting process in each method can be expressed by the following equation.
Simple selection method: n to the 2nd power
quick sort: n log n˜n to the 2nd power
insertion sort: n to the 2nd power                (in case of a large number of records)
bubble sort: n˜n to the 2nd power
Shell sort: n to the 1.5th power˜n to the 1.25th power
Thus, in the conventional data sort methods, the time required to perform the process of sorting a large amount of record data increases in progression with an increasing number of records, thereby causing the problem that the integrity and servability of data can be badly damaged.

Data sort method, data sort apparatus, and data sort program


A data stream, such as a digital motion picture, is encrypted in units of one or more blocks, each block having an assigned encryption key. A plurality of encryption keys is assigned to the complete data stream, with a synchronization index provided to map each individual encryption key to its starting data block. Encryption keys and associated synchronization indices are provided separately from the data stream, using one or more additional data transfer mechanisms. An optional offset, randomly generated, allows variation in intervals between data blocks at which encryption by a specific encryption key can be performed.

In order to take advantage of expanding utilities for transmission or transfer of a data stream, such as can be provided by high-capacity portable storage devices and by high-speed data transmission channels, users who need mass data transfer capabilities require that a high degree of security be provided. Security measures help to prevent such activities as tampering with data, eavesdropping, and data piracy.
Data piracy can be particularly damaging for providers of entertainment that is transmitted as a data stream, such as providers of TV and video programs and providers of digital motion pictures. Unless stringent security measures are followed, digital contents of such copyrighted materials could be illegally copied and distributed, resulting in the loss of substantial investment to the rightful owners. The need for data security is becoming more acute as the digital motion picture industry evolves. Conventional methods for distributing film copies to local theaters are expected to change as motion pictures are prepared and distributed digitally. Whether distributed using transmission by satellite or cable or over dedicated, high-speed phone lines, or distributed using a portable, high-capacity storage medium such as DVD device, it is anticipated that digitization of motion picture material will begin to replace current film-based distribution. This development presents substantial potential risks to the entertainment industry that must be countered with security measures so that only qualified sites have access to the entertainment material.
Digitization of motion picture images presents special challenges for ensuring data security. One aspect of the security problem is file size. A digitized, full-length feature film can be of the order of a few terabytes of data, before compression. Even with advanced data compression techniques, the amount of data for a standard movie is substantial. Because of the amount of data, and because of the risks in allowing a decrypted or unencrypted copy to be available for access, there are advantages to high-speed or real-time decryption techniques that would provide rapid decryption of a digital data stream for movie projection or viewing (and also allow time for data decompression).
For maximum security, an ideal goal would be to have video data, motion image data or motion picture data (also interchangeably referred to herein as digital motion image data and applicable to digital movies or motion pictures, whether to be viewed on TV or at motion picture theaters or on the computer) encrypted under all conditions, even during film editing and preparation processes. In this way, wherever the motion picture would be handled or transmitted, from initial filming and editing stages through viewing at the theater, the digital data for the motion picture would not be available in plaintext (unencrypted) form. At the same time, however, any encryption scheme would need to allow access to one or more individual frames, such as for editing purposes.
An important aspect of the security problem is the need to distribute a motion picture, as a digital data stream, to thousands of sites within the same time period. This means that solutions for data encryption/decryption, compression/decompression, and overall distribution must be robust. These solutions must also allow for the "staggered show-time" arrangements used by many theaters and must be capable of handling difficulties such as equipment problems that might require restarting or pausing momentarily, again requiring individual frame addressability and re-synchronization of a decryption scheme. As used herein the term encryption involves transforming data in order to conceal its meaning and is thus distinguishable from other well-known encodings such as compression and image processing used to affect color size or density of the image.
Considering the size of files for video and digital motion pictures, conventional encryption approaches are not well-suited to the difficult task of maintaining encryption security while, at the same time, allowing individual frame access. For example, the simple approach of encrypting a digital motion picture as a single block makes operations such as individual frame editing, fast-forward operations, staggered display, and related frame-based activity difficult to support or infeasible. Thus, the approach of parsing the data into blocks makes sense; however, if the same encryption key applies to each block, system security may not be adequate. Therefore, it is recognized that a flexible solution for encoding data in discrete blocks that still provides data security is needed.
It is instructive to observe that, at a base level, encryption algorithms themselves require handling of plaintext data (that is, data that is to be encrypted to form ciphertext data) in discrete blocks. For example, DES encryption operates on a 64-bit unit of data at a time. Encryption methods may re-use the same key for each encryption or may use different keys for different data blocks. Using multiple keys, as will be described subsequently, allows advantages by more securely encrypting the data.
As an overview, there are two general types of encryption schemes:                (1) Private or symmetric encryption. Symmetric algorithms use the same key for encryption and decryption. Anyone who has possession of the private key can decrypt the data. The National Bureau of Standards Data Encoding Standard (DES), as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,962,539 (Ehrsam et al.) is a well-known example of a symmetric encryption scheme.        (2) Public, or asymmetric encryption. Asymmetric algorithms use different keys for encryption and decryption. Data is encrypted using a public key, accessible to anyone. However, data can only be decrypted by someone who holds a private key. RSA, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,405,829 (Rivest et al.) is a well known public key encryption scheme.
In general, symmetric encryption is faster than asymmetric and thus is a more likely candidate for motion picture encryption and encryption/decryption for similar data streams. However, a drawback with symmetric encryption is the requirement that a symmetric key must be securely distributed to each intended recipient. The risk of allowing unintended access to other recipients must be minimized.
There are a number of conventional solutions for distribution and management of keys used for decryption of large files. For example, it is known to take advantage of the strengths of both symmetric and asymmetric algorithms for this purpose, first using asymmetric encryption to distribute a symmetric key or keys, then using these keys for fast decryption. A key is a series of bits or a number that is required in order to decrypt the encrypted data
A conventional solution for efficient decryption of a sizable data stream is to provide multiple keys, where keys are mapped to identified blocks in the data stream. As an example of one key management approach used for a stream cipher, U.S. Pat. No. 6,052,466 (Wright) discloses the use of multiple private keys for encryption when negotiating a key exchange for a public key encryption scheme. A sequence of identical private keys is generated at both sending and receiving sites, based on initial key generation information transferred using public key methods. To synchronize keys to the data stream, each member of the sequence of generated keys is indexed to a predetermined, fixed location on a page within the data stream. Re-synchronization is thereby provided in the event of data packet loss. While the direct key-to-page mapping scheme used in the Wright patent has advantages for reducing problems due to packet loss and re-synchronization, no attempt is disclosed to provide any measure of security by requiring rearrangement of keys or manipulation of page boundaries. The method disclosed in the Wright patent also has other inherent disadvantages for secure data transfer such as is required for digital motion pictures. For instance, index information for using the keys is encoded within the ciphertext message itself, rather than provided separately. In addition, the same communication channel is used for key exchange and ciphertext data transmission. This use of the same channel means that anyone who can access the communication channel has access to the encrypted data as well as to the information needed for decryption.
Similarly, for a radio communications channel, U.S. Pat. No. 5,185,796 (Wilson) discloses providing encryption key information interleaved with the transmitted data, a security scheme optimized to allow re-synchronization in the event of signal loss. Keys themselves are not transmitted, however, but are stored at sending and receiving sites. Methods such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,052,466 and 5,185,796 are suitable for some types of data transfer applications. With respect to delivery or transmission of digital motion picture information, however, these methods do not provide the most advantageous solutions. For maximum data security and for overall decryption speed, it is preferable to provide both keys or key generation data and key indexing and synchronization information separately from the data stream. When multiple keys are used with motion picture and video data, some correspondence between the encryption of data in blocks and the individual motion picture or video frames (not addressed in the above-mentioned disclosures) would be advantageous, as is described subsequently.
As an example of handling data in blocks, U.S. Pat. No. 6,021,391 (Shyu) discloses a method for encryption of a data stream by handling individual data segments of arbitrary length. Each individual data segment can then be separately encrypted, using a separate key and algorithm, which are specified in a segment header that is part of the data stream. Here again, the encryption key and encryption algorithm are identified in the data stream itself, which can be viewed as a disadvantage when contrasted with a strategy of providing an encryption key separately. For the same reasons discussed above, clear identification of a data segment header may be useful in some applications, but may be disadvantageous for a data stream representing video or audio data, such as in a motion picture application.
Other solutions have been proposed to make encryption of a data stream more efficient or more secure. Among examples of key management and usage solutions for efficient reusability of a symmetric key is U.S. Pat. No. 5,438,622 (Normile et al.) which discloses a method for providing an offset value that can be encrypted by a transmitted system and then used to specify a "deferred" starting point within a key for encryption/decryption. The key itself is generated from a secret key and an initialization vector. Given the offset value, a decryption processor can use that portion of the key indicated by the offset value for decryption. This method makes it difficult for an unauthorized listener to decode repeated patterns, since a variable offset value can be applied to the same key multiple times, effectively changing the key, since different parts of the key are used with each encryption. It is instructive to note that, with this method, the offset value is applied to the key that is generated in a transmitter/receiver, requiring that a substantial portion of the generated key be discarded with each encryption/decryption operation. Moreover, since some portion of the key may be the same with each encryption operation, it is less likely that this method is more secure than simply providing a different key altogether.
As an example in which blocks of video data are encrypted, U.S. Pat. No. 6,021,199 (Ishibashi) discloses a method for encryption of an MPEG 2 video data stream. MPEG 2 (a standard of the Motion Picture Experts Group) stores video data as a series of frames, for which an I-frame serves as a reference frame. Other MPEG frames (P- and B-dependent frames) require reference to an I-frame (an intra-coded stand alone frame) in order to be correctly interpreted. In the Ishibashi patent, only these essential I-frames of the data stream are encrypted, which effectively precludes use of any of the other video data in the data stream until decryption of the I-frames is performed. While this method has merit, it can be objected that frame boundaries would remain obvious in the ciphertext data stream, which is a disadvantage from a data security perspective. It would be most advantageous to mask any defining frame header or synchronization character within the ciphertext data stream and to securely encrypt all data in the data stream. Notably, the overall security of this method relies on encryption of I-frames only. While this selective encryption simplifies the effort and minimizes the time required for encryption, it has a disadvantage, since unauthorized decryption of a single I-frame would allow access to other P- and B-frames as well.
Copy protection schemes for distribution of recorded media do not suggest satisfactory solutions to the requirements for secure storage and distribution of motion picture data and other data streams. Schemes such as are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,028,932 (Park) or U.S. Pat. No. 5,963,909 (Warren et al.), for example, disable or constrain playback or copying but are impractical for digital motion picture applications since they require some advance knowledge of the specific destination hardware. Pay-per-view schemes, such as is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,016,348 (Blatter et al.) provide decryption codes for conditional access to video programming using an insertable ISO 7816-3 compliant smart card; however, this arrangement is limited to providing data access and algorithm identification.
Thus, it can be seen that while conventional approaches address some of the needs for secure encryption and for distribution and synchronization of encryption keys provided to receiver sites, existing methods do not provide data encryption solutions that are well-suited to the security requirements for high-volume, data stream distribution, such as is needed by providers of digital motion pictures. Moreover, conventional methods are not well-suited to the specific requirements for frame-by-frame access of a digital motion picture data stream that allows editing, restart, and fast-forward functions. Therefore, there is a need for a secure encryption apparatus and method for synchronizing multiple encryption keys with individual blocks in a data stream, where the apparatus and method are readily adaptable to digital motion picture applications.

Encryption apparatus and method for synchronizing multiple encryption keys with a data stream


When a sample stream is decimated, frequency components from outside of a desired frequency band are aliased into the desired band, causing interference and loss of information. Different decimating ratios result in different frequencies aliasing into the desired frequency band. A current-mode sampling mixer 800 with capacitor banks 811 and 812 that are controlled by a digital control unit 820 with a capability to integrate and decimate an RF current at different decimating ratios is able to measure the frequency spectrum with different decimating ratios. The measured frequency spectrum is then analyzed to detect the presence of interferers aliased into the desired frequency band. The interferers can then be eliminated or avoided.

Direct RF is a newly emerging field in wireless digital communications wherein analog RF signals that are transmitted over-the-air are directly sampled into a digital data stream suitable for digital signal processing. A typical wireless digital communications device would use analog filters, duplexors, mixers, analog-to-digital converters (ADC), etc. to convert the analog RF signals into a digital data stream that is suitable for digital signal processing. Unfortunately, analog circuit components, especially components such as capacitors, inductors, resistors, etc. necessary for the analog filters are difficult to integrate into an integrated circuit. This is especially true for the precise values of these components required for use in filters. Of course, the desire of the manufacturer is to maximize the degree of integration for the wireless transceivers. This is because the more highly integrated a wireless transceiver can become, the lower the production costs for the transceiver and the transceiver will typically use less power during operation.
Direct RF involves the direct conversion of the analog RF signal into digital data stream through the use of a direct sampling mixer, without having to undergo any intermediate analog filtering, downconversion, etc. An example of a direct RF sampling mixer is one that uses current to perform its sampling. The current-mode direct sampling mixer converts the received analog RF signal into a current that is then integrated by a sampling capacitor. The charge on the sampling capacitor is then periodically read out to produce the discrete-time data stream. The discrete-time data stream is then converted to a digital data stream by a quantizer or an analog-to-digital converter (DAC).
A common source of impairment or potential impairment that may occur whenever a signal is sampled at a particular sampling rate (or frequency) is aliasing. When a signal is sampled at a particular sampling frequency, Fs, then any part of the signal at a frequency that is greater than Fs/2 will wrap around and combine with the signal at frequencies less than Fs/2. This wrapping around of frequency components greater than Fs/2 is known as aliasing. Therefore, to accurately represent a signal with a certain bandwidth, F, the sampling must be performed at a frequency of at least 2*F. This is known as the Nyquist rate for the signal.
When the signal being sampled has frequency components at frequencies greater than one half of the Nyquist rate, these frequency components are aliased down into the signal and as a result, interference and/or noise is added to the sample stream. A typical way to reduce the aliasing is to use filters, commonly referred to as anti-aliasing filters, to remove any frequency components beyond one half of the Nyquist rate.
However, anti-aliasing filters may be rather complex filters that are difficult to design and integrate onto an integrated circuit. They can be difficult to design if the desired frequency response is sharp. Furthermore, they can be both bulky (consuming a large amount of real estate) and expensive (due to requirements for precise component values). In integrated circuits, it is often not possible to include an anti-aliasing filter on the same integrated circuit containing the sampling circuit and digital circuitry, therefore these filters may be external to the integrated circuit. This requires that the signals go off-chip, reducing the overall performance of the system and introducing additional complexity. Additionally, anti-aliasing filters are static in nature, meaning that their frequency response is set when they are designed and fabricated and cannot be changed to meet changing spectral environments; For example, should operating conditions change such that a formerly low-powered, frequency component that was aliasing into a band of interest but had been previously ignored due to its low power, now for some reason becomes a significant source of interference, a static anti-aliasing filter will not be able to adapt to eliminate that particular aliasing frequency component. Note that the term frequency band of interest may represent a single communications channel or a group of communications channels, typically adjacent.
A need has therefore arisen for a method and apparatus that is capable of detecting aliasing frequency components, determine their effect to the signal within the frequency band of interest, and eliminate the aliasing frequency components.

Active removal of aliasing frequencies in a decimating structure by changing a decimation ratio in time and space


A system and method for collecting fingerprint reference wave forms under controlled conditions includes a radio frequency (RF) enclosure designed to receive a cellular telephone. A control system, including a transmitter and receiver provides RF communications with a cellular phone placed in the enclosure. A processor controls operation of the transmitter and receiver. The processor sends commands to the cellular phone in the enclosure using the transmitter. The transmitted commands are selected to elicit a RF transmission from the cellular phone in response to the command. The receiver detects the response from the cellular telephone and generates a reference wave form indicative of the transmission characteristics of the transmitter of the cellular phone in the enclosure. The processor captures one or more reference waveforms that can be used to generate a fingerprint indicative of a transmission characteristic of the transmitter of the cellular telephone. In addition, the system can include an external power supply and temperature control system to vary the voltage level of power supplied to the cellular telephone in the enclosure and to vary the temperature in the enclosure. By varying the operating voltage and temperature, the processor can collect reference waveforms under a variety of operating conditions. In addition, the processor can select the carrier frequency for the cellular telephone and for the transmitter and receiver of the control system. Furthermore, the processor can vary the transmit power of the system transmitter and the transmit power of the transmitter within the cellular telephone itself. The system is sized to be readily moved from one location to another to permit the simple collection of reference waveforms under a variety of controlled conditions.

In a communications network, it is often desirable to identify and distinguish one transmitter from other transmitters operating within the network. For example, in the radio telephone industry, a cellular telephone system utilizes an electronic serial number (ESN) and a mobile telephone identification number (MIN) to provide a unique identification for each transmitter. When an individual subscriber or other authorized user of a particular cellular telephone wishes to place a phone call, he dials in a telephone number and presses the "Send" button. In response, the cellular telephone transmits its ESN and MIN to the cellular network so the individual subscriber can be charged for the telephone call.
Unfortunately, unscrupulous individuals illegally operate cellular telephones by counterfeiting the ESN and MIN of a valid subscriber's telephone in order to obtain illegal access to the cellular network without paying for the service. The ESN and MIN of a cellular telephone can be obtained by a counterfeiter electronically monitoring the initial transmission of the telephone, and then programming the detected ESN and MIN into another telephone for illegal use. Thus, the mere transmission of the authentic ESN and MIN is by itself inadequate to protect a cellular telephone system from misuse by counterfeiters.
In an effort to provide additional security, some cellular systems and other wireless services, authenticate mobile units based on the radio frequency (RF) transmission of data by the mobile unit during a call set-up process. Rather than identify the mobile unit by its ESN and MIN alone, the system identifies a mobile unit by its transmission characteristics. In this manner, the cellular system operator can reject calls from illegitimate mobile units even when those mobile units transmit valid ESN and MIN numbers. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,005,210 issued to Ferrell on Apr. 2, 1991 ("the Ferrell patent"), a system is described that analyzes certain transmitter characteristics in an effort to identify the transmitter type. The system in the Ferrell patent analyzes the manner in which the modulator makes a transition to the designated carrier frequency. This transient response is used to identify the type of transmitter.
While the Ferrell patent describes one class of transmission characteristics that can be used as a fingerprint, other transmission characteristics are also known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,420,910 issued to Rudokas et al. on May 30, 1995 ("the Rudokas patent"), describes an identifier, such as a radio frequency signature, that can be used to positively identify a valid cellular telephone or a known fraudulent telephone. Other types of signature authentication systems are also known in the art and need not be described herein. These transmission characteristics, from whatever source they are derived, can be processed in different manners to create a "fingerprint" of the individual transmitter. The analogy with fingerprints is used because each fingerprint is believed to be completely unique. The transmitter fingerprint can be used to determine whether the transmission characteristics of an unknown transmitter match the stored fingerprint of the authentic transmitter corresponding to the transmitted ESN and MIN. In such manner, the fingerprint is used with cellular telephone calls to authenticate the cellular telephone.
The fingerprint authentication systems all require at least one transmission characteristic waveform, known to be generated by the authentic cellular telephone, to be used as a reference waveform for the fingerprint authentication system. Some systems may rely on more than one reference waveforms to generate the fingerprint. One drawback of these fingerprint authentication systems is making sure that only authentic reference waveforms are included when delivering the fingerprint to be stored. The fingerprint is corrupted if it includes as reference waveforms transmission characteristics from illegal cellular telephones using the ESN and MIN of the authentic cellular telephone for which the fingerprint is being defined.
Some systems take steps to assure that the reference waveforms are from the authentic cellular telephone. For example, some cellular telephone systems monitor the telephone numbers dialed by the cellular telephone in an effort to detect a pattern of use. The commonly called telephone numbers are sometimes referred to as "valid dialed digits." In these fingerprint authentication systems, reference waveforms may be collected from the cellular telephone when it dials one of these valid dialed digits. This helps assure that it is the authentic cellular telephone generating the reference waveforms.
However, even with the assurance that the cellular telephone is authentic, the reference waveforms themselves are often collected under adverse or varying conditions thus leading to inaccurate fingerprints. For example, the signal strength of the cellular telephone transmission often varies based on the location of the cellular telephone and other factors such as the strength of the battery in the cellular telephone. Thus, the received signal, which is used as the source of the reference waveforms, may be a noisy or otherwise poor quality signal and thus provide a poor quality fingerprint. Another variable factor leading to poor quality fingerprints is the operating frequency or channel of the cellular telephone. As is known in the art, each cell in a cellular telephone network operates on a different frequency. The particular frequency or channel on which the cellular telephone is operating may also affect the quality of the fingerprint because the reference waveforms may be different at different frequencies. Furthermore, environmental factors, such as temperature of the cellular telephone, can alter the reference waveforms and thus adversely affect the fingerprint generated.
In addition to variable conditions related to the cellular telephone itself, external environmental factors may also affect the quality of the reference waveforms used to generate the fingerprint. For example, the cellular telephone transmission may be affected by other nearby transmitters, or other sources of radio frequency interference (RFI), as well as natural phenomenon such as sun spots, which may interfere with or disrupt normal radio communications.
Therefore, it can be appreciated that there is a significant need for a system and method to collect reference waveforms and formulate an authenticating fingerprint which eliminates these problems. The present invention provides this and other advantages as will be illustrated by the following description and accompanying figures.

System and method for collection of transmission characteristics

Cellular Technical Services Company, Inc.


A packaging machine (10) includes a lane assembly (12) that includes one or more lanes (L) which guide cylindrical articles (B), such as cans or bottles, across a series of substantially parallel conveyors. The lane assembly (12) includes an adjustable guide bar (34) which defines an adjustable portion (V) of the lane (L) that can be adjusted to adapt to the diameter of articles (B). The lane assembly (12) also includes lane extensions (70) that can be adjusted to control the position of rows of articles (B) as the articles (B) exit the lanes (L) onto a conveyor (20).

Many packaging machines include several conveyors that underlie multiple lanes which direct cylindrical articles, such as bottles or cans, across conveyors in the process of grouping and packaging the articles. For example, articles are commonly brought into the packaging machine via an infeed conveyor that feeds the articles to a metering chain, which provides a timing function and buffers the relatively high infeed line pressure. Upon exiting the metering chain, which may in essence be a linear star wheel, the articles in a single lane tend to be somewhat staggered as they transition onto a grouping conveyor. One purpose of the grouping conveyor is to order the articles into a substantially single file, and so, it is desirable for the width of each lane to be only slightly greater the diameter of articles before the articles exit the grouping conveyor. The articles are thereby predictably arranged, for example, to facilitate separating the articles into groups on a pocket conveyor that awaits downstream and to prevent unnecessary wobbling or ether variance in trajectory that increases the likelihood of damaging the articles.
Packaging machines generally do not have the flexibility to "changeover," that is to be reconfigured between runs to group articles that vary in size or diameter. Given the size, cost, and complexity of these machines, this lack of versatility is expensive. Therefore, it is advantageous to design machines which are as adaptable as possible.
It is desirable for such a packaging machine to have the ability to process articles of different diameters. For example, it is desired that the packaging machine can accommodate a first run of articles having a first diameter and can be changed over to accommodate a second run of articles having a second diameter that differ from the first diameter.
To group and package articles of different diameters, previous packaging machine designs allow for the installation of a lane insert that is mounted to one of the walls of the lane. The lane insert narrows the width of at least a portion of the length of the lane to correspond to the desired article diameter plus an allowable tolerance. Thereby the narrow portion of the lane orders the articles in a single file line with predictable distances between the centers of the articles. This predictable arrangement prepares the articles for engagement by lugs on a metering conveyor. The lane inserts are removable and typically can be interchanged with lane inserts of a different thickness to adjust for articles of different diameters. However, interchanging lane inserts is a time consuming process and it is impractical to have a set of lane inserts corresponding to every possible diameter of article to be packaged.
Articles can also be damaged upon leaving the lanes, if the articles are not deposited on the next conveyor in an orderly fashion. Typically, the outfeed ends of the lanes have been aligned with an edge of the pocket conveyor such that each row of articles exiting the lanes is moved or pushed onto the pocket conveyor by an incoming row of articles, thereby defining a matrix like group of articles. Each additional incoming row of articles must push with increasing force to move the previously formed rows of the group. In this arrangement, articles of any diameter with even a minimal gap between rows and articles may damage one another when pushing each other onto the pocket conveyor. For example, adhesive labels or directly deposited graphics may be scuffed or otherwise damaged.
To address this shortcoming, certain other lane assemblies extend the outfeed ends of the lane assembly a fixed distance over the pocket conveyor such that the rows of articles do not push against one another when exiting the pocket conveyor. However, if such a lane assembly is utilized in a packaging machine that can be changed over to process articles of various diameters, the gap between rows of articles of a first diameter will differ from that of articles of a second diameter so there will not be a tight and orderly formation of grouped articles. It is desirable to minimize potential damage by controlling the spacing of articles as they exit the lanes onto the pocket conveyor.
Therefore, a heretofore unaddressed need exists in the industry for a lane assembly that is easily and selectively adjustable to vary the width of the lane according to the diameter of the article and to control the position of and gap between rows of articles exiting the lanes.


The present invention establishes a trusted market place which allows insurance goods and services to be transacted on the Internet between insurance business entities and certain type of consumers called “networked consumers” who can be properly authenticated without requiring each to obtain an authenticating device. The market players are the business entities, the networked entities, and the networked consumers. In this market structure, a plurality of business entities have access to the insurance market place, and they place details of insurance goods and/or services to be sold on-line. The networked insurance consumers can access the market place to purchase the insurance goods and services, and at least the registration must occur through a networked entity having an authenticating system. Because the authentication is performed via the networked entities, no authenticating system is required by the networked consumers.

With the advent of the Internet, virtually anything can be bought, sold, or negotiated on-line. Currently, many Web portals offer products and/or services to business entities and consumers. One serious problem facing many of these Web portals is in the area of security. Although some aspects of the security concerns have been resolved or at least reduced using various encryption or related technologies, many fraudulent transactions still occur because the current security measures are generally inadequate to address certain types of security breaches.
Currently, there are at least two major security issues in regard to on-line transactions. The first issue concerns confidentiality, that is, the ability to make a transaction without the transaction being known or intercepted by a third party. For instance, when a consumer purchases a product or service on the Internet using a credit card (i.e., submitting the credit card number and other requested information to the seller), it is imperative that the transaction be confidential such that sensitive information such as the credit card number, expiration date, and the identity of the product or service purchased, not be revealed to unauthorized parties. This aspect of on-line security has been dealt with, and to large extent, resolved, through the encryption technology where the sensitive information is encoded to prevent third parties from reading the data, even if the data were to be intercepted.
The second security issue concerns authentication, that is, the ability to uniquely identify the individual who is making the transaction. For instance, taking the example above where a consumer purchases a product or service on the Internet using a credit card, it is imperative that the seller be able to determine that the person submitting the credit card information is actually the owner of the credit card, or a person authorized by the owner. Failure to do so means that the transaction can be made void by the actual owner. The ability to identify the individual protects against at least two types of fraudulent transactions. One type is the case where an unauthorized person uses the credit card number of others to purchase a good or service on the Internet. The other type is the case where an authorized person uses the credit card, but who later denies having made the transaction. It is a commonly known fact that many credit card transactions result in a default due to a seller's inability to properly authenticate the identity of the individual making the transaction.
Currently, there are many authenticating devices and methods for uniquely identifying individuals which can presumably be used to prevent or limit the fraudulent transactions due to improper authentication. One such system is one employing digital certificate technology where a user obtains an encrypted file from a certificate authority who, before giving out the certificate in a special storage device such as a smart card, authenticates the user by requiring the user to produce an acceptable identification card. A special reader is then attached to the user's PC to read the digital certificate stored in the smart card. When a secure transaction needs to be made, the digital certificate is sent to the transacting party who then verifies the authenticity of the certificate and reads the information provided in the certificate such as the name of the person whom the certificate belongs to.
The fingerprint identification system, on the other hand, employs a fingerprint reading device which is attached to a user's PC. Whenever a secure transaction needs to be made, the user places a finger on the reader, and a digital image of the reader is sent to the transacting party. The image is then compared against a previously stored image in a database to identify the individual.
Although these devices may significantly reduce the on-line fraudulent transactions due to improper authentication, at this time, it is unrealistic to expect consumers to purchase such a device for the sole purpose of conducting a transaction over the Internet, especially, when alternative less-costly options such as offline purchases are available. In addition, because there are currently no single standard or device which is acceptable to all, purchasing such a device does not necessarily ensure that a trusted transaction would be possible.
For these reasons, many types of transactions which can presumably occur on-line are still being done only through the traditional off-line mediums, though conceivably such transactions may be facilitated on the Internet if a trusted method of transaction not requiring the consumers to purchase such authenticating devices were to be available. While many types of transactions would fall under this category, one notable example is the transactions concerning group benefits plans which cater to business entities and other entities such as educational institutions, clubs or associations which have a large base of individuals, e.g. employees, students, club members, etc., who are associated with the entity. These benefits can include services such as insurance coverage of all types, e.g., medical, dental, life, travel; loans with below-market rates; mobile phone service plans; etc. The benefits can also include goods which are sold to the associated individuals at a discounted rate.
A unique characteristic of the group benefits plans is that while the end product or service directly benefits the associated individuals, e.g., employees, club members, etc., the plans are negotiated by the entity whom the individuals are associated with. Take for instance, a company employing a large number of employees. A group benefits plan such as group insurance would be negotiated by the employer, i.e., the company, on behalf of the employees. By having control over a large pool of potential customers, the company is able to negotiate a better deal with the benefit provider than if the employees were to negotiate the benefit directly.
Currently, most aspects of procuring and administering of group benefits are manual in nature. Namely, the employer would have to manually choose and contact the group benefit provider and the group benefits plans are shown and negotiated off-line. Even after the plan is chosen, the details of the plan are generally presented to the employees in a manual manner. The shortcomings of such manual methods are many. First, because the company must manually select and contact each of group benefit providers and individually negotiate the plan, much time and resources are wasted, and thus, only a limited number of providers may be considered. And second, the administration of the benefits plan is inefficient because the employees must often communicate their choices and desires through the employer, even when a direct contact between the benefit provider and the employees would be more sensible and efficient.
While it can be appreciated that there is a need for system and method for facilitating a trusted transaction between business entities and consumers, and one which can be used to efficiently transact group benefits plans, currently, no such systems are known to exist, and certainly, none which are both efficient and trustworthy.

Method and system for facilitating a trusted on-line transaction between insurance businesses and networked consumers


Light-emitting elements disposed on a light-emitting display panel are driven by constant currents, and the forward direction voltages of the light-emitting elements are obtained by a sampling/holding circuit. Then, the voltage output from a drive voltage source composed of a DC-DC converter is controlled by the forward direction voltages obtained by the sampling/holding circuit. For example, in a case in which the light emission luminance of the light-emitting display panel is changed or in other case, a sampling and holding operation is executed by the sampling/holding circuit in response to a control signal from a sampling timing control circuit at intervals shorter than ordinary intervals. With this arrangement, when light emission luminance of a light-emitting display panel is changed, the gentle changing characteristics of the light emission luminance thereof can be improved.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a drive method of a light-emitting display panel using, for example, organic electroluminescence (EL) elements as light-emitting elements and to a display device using the light-emitting display panel, and more particularly, to a control technology for controlling the light-emitting luminance of the light-emitting elements.
2. Description of the Related Art
Attention is paid to an organic EL display as a display replacing a liquid crystal display because the organic EL display can reduce power consumption, can display an image of high quality and further can be reduced in thickness. This is because the efficiency and life of the organic EL display has been improved to a practically usable level by using an organic compound promising good light emitting characteristics for the light-emitting layers of EL elements used in the EL display.
There have been proposed a passive matrix drive system and an active matrix drive system as a drive method of a display panel in which the EL elements are disposed. FIG. 5 shows the passive matrix drive system and an example of the display panel whose light emission is controlled by the passive matrix drive system. Two drive methods, that is, a cathode line scan/anode line drive method and an anode line scan/cathode line drive method are available as a drive method of the organic EL elements in the passive matrix drive system, and the arrangement shown FIG. 5 is an example of the former cathode line scan/anode line drive method.
That is, a display panel 1 is arranged such that anode lines A1 to An are longitudinally disposed as n-pieces of drive lines, whereas cathode lines B1 to Bm are laterally disposed as m-pieces of scan lines, and organic EL elements OEL shown by the symbol of diode are disposed at the intersections (n×m positions in total) of the respective lines. Then, the respective EL elements acting as light-emitting elements constituting pixels are disposed in a lattice shape, and one ends thereof (anode terminals of the EL elements) are connected to the anode lines and the other ends thereof (cathode terminals of the EL elements) are connected to the cathode lines in correspondence to the positions of the intersections between the anode lines A1 to An traveling along a vertical direction and the cathode lines B1 to Bm traveling along a horizontal direction. Further, the anode lines are connected to an anode line drive circuit 2, and the cathode lines are connected a scan circuit 3, so that they are driven respectively.
The cathode line scan circuit 3 has scan switches SY1 to SYm in correspondence to the respective cathode scan lines B1 to Bm that act to connect any one of a reverse bias voltage VM from a reverse bias voltage creation circuit 5 for preventing the crosstalk light emission of the elements and a ground potential acting as a reference potential to a corresponding cathode scan line. Further, the anode line drive circuit 2 has constant current circuits I1 to In for supplying drive currents to the respective EL elements through the respective anode lines and drive switches SX1 to SXn.
The drive switches SX1 to SXn act to connect any one of the currents from the constant current circuits I1 to In and the ground potential to corresponding anode lines. Accordingly, when the drive switches SX1 to SXn are connected to the constant current circuit I1 to In, they act to supply the currents from the constant current circuits I1 to In to the respective EL elements disposed in correspondence to the cathode scan lines.
Note that it is possible to use a voltage source such as constant voltage circuits, and the like in place of the constant current circuit. However, the constant current circuits are ordinarily used as shown in the figure because of the reasons that the voltage/luminance characteristics of the EL elements are unstable to a temperature change while the current/luminance characteristics thereof are stable to the temperature change, that there is a possibility that the EL elements are deteriorated by an excessive current, and the like.
A control bus is connected to the anode line drive circuit 2 and the cathode line scan circuit 3 through a light emission control circuit 4 including a CPU, and the scan switches SY1 to SYm and the drive switches SX1 to SXn are manipulated based on the signals of an image to be displayed. With this arrangement, the constant current circuits I1 to In are appropriately connected to desired anode lines while setting the cathode scan lines to the ground potential at a predetermined cycle based on the image signals. Accordingly, the respective light-emitting elements selectively emit light, thereby the image is reproduced on the display panel 1 based on the image signals.
A DC output (output voltage=VH) from a drive voltage source 6 composed of, for example, a voltage increasing type DC-DC converter is supplied to the respective constant current circuits I1 to In of the anode line drive circuit 2. With this arrangement, the constant currents created by the constant current circuits I1 to In having received the output voltage VH from the drive voltage source 6 are supplied to the respective EL elements disposed in correspondence to the anode scan lines.
In contrast, the value of the reverse bias voltage VM used to prevent the crosstalk light emission of the EL elements is ordinarily generated by being series regulated from the output voltage VH because the voltage VM is relatively near to the value of the output voltage VH and the current consumed by the reverse bias voltage VM is smaller than that of the output voltage VH. It is considered that the employment of the above arrangement is advantageous from the view point of the number of parts and power consumption.
A reverse bias voltage creation circuit 5 arranged simply as shown in FIG. 5 can be preferably employed as the series regulating circuit. The reverse bias voltage creation circuit 5 is composed of a voltage division circuit for dividing the output voltage VH from the drive voltage source 6 and a transistor Q1 for outputting a divided voltage created by the voltage division circuit as a reverse bias voltage after it has been subjected to impedance transformation. That is, the voltage division circuit is composed of resistors R1 and R2 connected in series between the drive voltage source 6 and the reference potential (ground), and the collector terminal of the npn transistor Q1 that achieves the impedance transformation function is connected to the drive voltage source 6, and the base thereof is connected to the node between the resistors R1 and R2. With this arrangement, the transistor Q1 is in an emitter follower connection, and the reverse bias voltage VM is output from the emitter terminal of the transistor Q1.
Incidentally, according to a drive unit arranged as described above, the constant current circuits are provided in correspondence to the respective anode lines to drive the respective EL elements by the constant currents. In the constant current circuits, a certain amount of voltage drop in the circuits must be taken into consideration to drive the respective EL elements by the constant voltage at all times. Accordingly, the output voltage VH from the drive voltage source 6, which is supplied to the constant current circuits, must have a value equal to or larger than the value obtained by adding the amount of voltage drop arisen in the constant current circuits to the forward direction voltages VF of the respective EL elements driven by the constant currents.
Moreover, when the electric dispersion and deterioration with age of the respective EL elements and further the dispersion of the respective elements in the constant current circuits are taken into consideration, it is necessary to set the output voltage VH by adding a predetermined margin to the forward direction voltages VF, in addition to the amount of voltage drop in the constant current circuits. When this margin is added, the amount of voltage drop is made excessive in almost all the constant current circuits, thereby a problem is arisen in that a power loss is increased in the constant current circuits.
Thus, it is contemplated to detect the forward direction voltages VF of the respective EL elements driven by the constant voltage by, for example, a sampling/holding means and to control the value of the output voltage VH supplied from the drive voltage source 6 based on the thus sampled forward direction voltages VF. When the control means described above is employed, it is possible to create the output voltage VH by adding a given voltage value capable of guaranteeing the constant current drive of the respective EL elements in the constant current circuits to the forward direction voltage VF. Accordingly, it is possible to set the margin to a very small amount so as to reduce the power loss in the constant current circuits. With this arrangement, when this drive method is used in, for example, mobile appliances, and the like, the power consumption of batteries can be reduced.
In contrast, it is known that the organic EL elements described above have diode characteristics including a predetermined electric capacitance (parasitic capacitance) from the laminated structure thereof. Then, when the organic EL elements are driven by constant currents, as described above, the waveform of the anode voltage of the elements has such a characteristic that it gently rises up as shown in FIG. 6 because the constant current circuits are high impedance output circuits in the operation principle thereof. That is, in FIG. 6, a vertical axis shows the anode voltage V of the element, and a lateral axis shows an elapsed time t.
The rising-up curve of the anode voltage V is changed by various conditions such as the lighting/non-lighting condition of the elements when they were scanned last time, the lighting/non-lighting condition of adjacent elements, and the like. Then, the luminance of the organic EL elements is changed by the change of the rising-up curve. However, the substantial luminance of the display panel cannot help being dropped because the rising-up of the light emission of the element is delayed.
To cope with this problem, there has been proposed a drive method of connecting a constant voltage source to elements when the elements are lit/driven and providing an instantly charging precharge period with the parasitic capacitances of the elements. There is available a cathode reset method as a typical drive method of executing the precharge and is disclosed in, for example, JP-A No. 9-232074. According to the cathode reset method, it is possible to instantly rise the anode voltage of an EL element to be lit to a voltage near to the reverse bias voltage VM by making use of the reverse bias voltage VM for preventing the parasitic capacitances of elements and the crosstalk light emission.
FIG. 7 shows an anode voltage waveform when a precharge voltage (VM) is set equal to the forward direction voltage (VF) of an element. A vertical axis shows the anode voltage V of the element, and a lateral axis shows an elapsed time t also in FIG. 7. Then, a period a shows a precharge period with respect to the element, and a period b shows the constant current drive period of the element.
In contrast, the following problem is arisen when the precharge drive described above is executed as well as when the forward direction voltages VF of the EL elements are obtained by making use of, for example, the sampling/holding means and the control means described above is employed to control the value of the output voltage VH supplied from the drive voltage source 6. That is, when the light emission luminance of light-emitting elements is dropped while they are, for example, being lit, the forward direction voltages VF of the elements are dropped from the state shown in FIG. 7 to the state shown in FIG. 8. At this time, a final forward direction voltage VF cannot be sampled and held at the timing of a sampling operation but a voltage denoted by VF′ is held based on the timing of the sampling operation, and the output voltage VH of the drive voltage source 6 is controlled based on the thus held voltage VF′.
Since the voltage VM used for the precharge is created based on the output voltage VH from the drive voltage source 6, next, a precharge voltage VM lower than that shown in FIG. 9 is created based on the held voltage VF′ shown in FIG. 8. Accordingly, the luminance of the light-emitting elements does not drop instantly but drops stepwise as shown in FIG. 10. Thus, a problem is arisen in that the gentle change of luminance as described above is felt unnatural by a user. Note that t1, t2, and t3 in FIG. 10 show timing at which sampling operations are executed, and c shows sampling intervals.
Thus, the above problem is also arisen similarly when the luminance is risen. Further, it is also arisen when the light-emitting elements are driven by the constant currents without executing the above precharge. Furthermore, the above problem is not limited to the case in which the light emission luminance is changed while the display panel is being lit but a similar problem is also arisen when, for example, the display panel starts to be lit.
The above phenomenon is caused by the timing of the sampling hold. Accordingly, it is conceived to execute the sampling hold at timing of short intervals. However, when the sampling hold is executed at the timing of the short intervals, a drive power necessary to the sampling hold operation and a held voltage are discharged each time the sampling hold operation is executed, thereby a power is wasted. Therefore, when for example, the drive method is used in mobile terminals, and the like, the power of batteries are wasted, and thus this drive method is not preferable.

Drive method of light-emitting display panel and organic EL display device


Provided are acceleration sensor, geophone and seismic prospecting system with high sensitivity and low power consumption. The acceleration sensor includes a mass body displaceable with respect to a rotation shaft. The acceleration sensor includes a first AC servo control facing a first symmetrical region of the first movable portion, a second AC servo control electrode facing a second symmetrical region of the second movable portion, and a DC servo control electrode facing an asymmetrical region of the second movable portion. A first AC servo capacitive element is formed by the first movable portion and the first AC servo control electrode, a second AC servo capacitive element is formed by the second movable portion and the second AC servo control electrode, and a DC servo capacitive element is formed by the second movable portion and the DC servo control electrode.

Published Japanese Patent Translation No. 2010-517014 (PTL 1) discloses a technology relating to a capacitive accelerometer having a seesaw structure. Specifically, disclosed in a movable element structure in which sensing electrodes are arranged to be symmetric with respect to a rotation shaft, and actuation electrodes are arranged to be far from the rotation shaft as viewed from the rotation shaft.

Acceleration sensor, geophone, and seismic prospecting system