A cannula and method provide manually manipulable orientation of a dissection probe carried eccentricity on the cannula for rotational and translational positioning relative to the field of view of an endoscope at a distal end of the cannula. Rotation of the cannula at fixed axial position relative to the endoscope, and rotational and translational positioning of the dissection probe relative to the distal end of the cannula provide wide-area access within the surgical site for bluntly dissecting connective tissue surrounding a vessel of interest being harvested.

Certain known dissection devices include a ring or hook attached to a shaft that extends axially for operation as a dissection tool. Such dissection tools engage a vessel to be dissected, e.g., the saphenous vein, and are pushed and pulled to separate the vessel from surrounding connecting tissue. Devices of these types are disclosed in the literature (see, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,591,183 and 5,601,581).
Such devices commonly looped around a vessel during its dissection within narrow confines of a small working cavity about the vein. As vessel branches and tributaries are encountered, the ring or loop may have to be removed from the working cavity and reintroduced at a position on the other side of the branch or tributary in order to avoid avulsing such side branches. Since a harvested vessel such as the saphenous vein will be required to withstand arterial pressure without leakage (e.g., in coronary artery bypass surgery), such side branches or tributaries are ligated with sutures or vascular clips to prevent leakage. If avulsion of a side branch occurs close to the surface of the harvested vessel, the resultant defect in the harvested vessel must be repaired, typically with multiple stitches of fine suture. Such repair is tedious and the suture repair may decrease lumen size of the bypass, leading to premature occlusion.
Manipulating such known ring and hook type dissection probes about a vessel of interest is made more difficult by the limited space available within a working cavity at the surgical site. Although the ring or hook may be lifted to disengage from the vessel, if the vessel lies near a margin or boundary of the working cavity then insufficient space may be available to enable the ring or hook to be disengaged from the vessel. Continued effort to disengage the dissection ring may lead to side branch avulsion or injury to the vessel of interest attributable to lacerations and excessive stretching.


An ultraviolet sensor that may include a group of serially connected photovoltaic diodes of alternating polarities; a selective blocking portion that is configured to prevent ultraviolet radiation from reaching photovoltaic diodes that belong to the group and are of a first polarity, while allowing the ultraviolet radiation to reach photovoltaic diodes that belong to the group and are of a second polarity; and an interface for providing an output signal of the group, the output signal is indicative of ultraviolet radiation sensed by the photovoltaic diodes that belong to the group and are of the second polarity.

There is increasing interest in ultraviolet (UV) sensors for a variety of applications. For example, measuring the UV index of solar radiation became more popular due to the increase of awareness of people to the exposure to UV radiation, justified by the increase in ground-level ultraviolet radiation due to ozone depletion effects in the atmosphere.
Portable devices supplied with UV sensors (e.g. mobile phones) would allow measurements of integral exposure to UV radiation and also new functions, such as proximity and motion control, UV communication, etc.
Special importance have UVC sensors used in sterilization devices for disinfection from germs and viruses. Their importance increased after it was shown that COVID-19 can be destroyed with UVC radiation.
UV sensors can be fabricated from compound materials, such as SiC and GaN, but such devices are expensive and it is difficult to integrate them with Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) electronics. Silicon photo sensors on bulk silicon usually have poor sensitivity in UV spectral range compared with sensitivity to visible light.
The known solution that allows fabricating silicon UV sensors is using Silicon on Isolator (SOI) wafers with thin (typically below 0.5 um) device layer.
UV sensors with SOI wafers employ special electronic circuit to subtract a response from visible light from the total photo-response of the sensor and thus measure the UV component only.
These UV sensors with SOI wafers use single photovoltaic diodes with combinations of different filters (absorbing films). Single photovoltaic diodes generate very small voltages at low light intensities (at the level of microwatt/cm2) and thus two-channel amplifiers with high gain are required that additionally complicate the sensor design.
The known approaches have limitations in distinguishing UV radiation from visible/IR background using silicon devices.
There is a growing need to provide a UV sensor that has increased selectivity.
According to an embodiment of the invention there may be provided a UV sensor and a method for sensing UV radiation.
It will be appreciated that for simplicity and clarity of illustration, elements shown in the figures have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements may be exaggerated relative to other elements for clarity. Further, where considered appropriate, reference numerals may be repeated among the figures to indicate corresponding or analogous elements.

Ultraviolet sensor and a method for sensing ultraviolet radiation


The present method renders scanlines of an image to an output device in a memory efficient manner. The image is defined by a number of order objects, each of which is independently stored. The procedure determines on a scanline basis the objects which influence the particular scanline and accumulates the rendering effect of the objects necessary for returning the scanline. Once a scanline is returned, the procedure is repeated. Objects are only partially rendered as required to pass on the necessary information as input for the next object. This approach maintains the independence of the objects, allows interaction of objects, allows output to high resolution output devices in a memory efficient manner, and allows each object to be reproduced at the best resolution.

There are a number of computer graphic programs which store various objects and use these objects to render the final image. Generally, these computer programs can be divided into vector based graphic programs or bitmap based programs. COREL DRAW.TM. is primarily vector based whereas PHOTOSHOP.TM. is essentially bitmap based. These known graphic packages allocate enough temporary storage for the entire rendered image and then render each object, one by one, into that temporary storage. This approach fully renders lower objects prior to rendering upper objects. The programs require substantial memory in rendering the final image. Some programs use layers to allow flexibility in changing the final image, however, each layer is effectively a duplicate bitmap the resolution of the original base bitmap. Layers add flexibility in changing the design or returning to an earlier design, but substantial additional memory is required.
The final image of graphic packages is typically sent to a raster device for output, which renders the image on a scanline by scanline basis. The final image is defined by a host of scanlines, each representing one row of the bitmap image. Raster devices include printers, computer screens, television screens, etc.
Vector based graphic programs, such as COREL DRAW.TM., produce a bitmap of the final image for the raster device. Similarly, the graphic program PHOTOSHOP.TM. produces a bitmap of the final image.
Vector based drawings tend to use little storage before rendering, as simple descriptions often produce largely significant results. Vector drawings are usually resolution independent and they are typically made up of a list of objects, described by a programming language or by some other symbolic representation. Bitmap images, in contrast, are a rectangular array of pixels wherein each pixel has an associated colour or grey level. This type of image has a clearly defined resolution (the size of the array). Each horizontal row of pixels of the bitmap is called a scanline. Bitmaps tend to use a great deal of storage, but they are easy to work with because they have few properties.
There remains a need to provide an improved method of defining an image and the interaction of its components as well as a better procedure for rendering an image to various output devices at various resolutions.


An electronic device requires an electronic component to be mounted for the purpose of static shielding. The mounting of such an electronic component raises a problem of avoiding thermal stresses and cracks generated due to the difference between the coefficients of linear expansion of component materials. A positioning recess, a joining-substance thickness ensuring recess, a joining-substance thickness ensuring projection, etc. are formed in a combined manner in an electronic component mount portion of each of leads, whereby spreading of cracks generated in the joining substance can be suppressed and reliability can be improved. Filling a sealing material so as to seal and restrain the electronic component mounted in the electronic component mount portion without leaving voids contributes to further suppressing spreading of cracks generated in the joining substance and ensuring more improved reliability of the joining substance.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to general electronic devices including an airflow sensor, a rotation signal sensor, an angle sensor, and an igniter, as well as a pressure sensor. More particularly, the present invention relates to a structure for mounting, in a package case integrally molded with leads, an electronic circuit for issuing an output signal and an electronic component for reducing an electric disturbance.
2. Description of the Related Art
As disclosed in JP-A-11-145180, there is known a method of preventing a position shift of an electronic component by forming a recess for positioning of the electronic component to be mounted.
On the other hand, for example, a capacitor with a lead wire is also known which is used as an electronic component for reducing an electric disturbance. However, such a capacitor has problems that its relatively bulky shape impedes a size reduction and the component is easily susceptible to an electric disturbance because the lead wire acts as an antenna. It is therefore desired to employ a smaller-sized device, e.g., a smaller-sized chip capacitor or chip inductor.


A tape cartridge including a tape capable of recording and reproducing a high accuracy servo signal, by preventing a deformation of the tape by preventing turning up of a front end portion of a tape when the front end portion is adhered to a reel hub. The tape cartridge includes the tape, a single reel having a reel hub around which the tape is wound and a cartridge case in which the reel is installed, and the front end portion of the tape is adhered to the reel hub, and each corner of the front end portion of the tape is chamfered and chamfers are formed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a tape cartridge of a single reel type.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in a single reel type tape cartridge, a tape has been wound around a hub of a reel contained in a cartridge case at the last stage of assembly. Since it is necessary to adhere one end portion (a front end portion) of the tape stably to the hub when winding starts, in order to wind the tape soundly around the hub, various methods for adhering the tape to the hub have been proposed. Hereunder, the adhering methods are described, referring to FIG. 7 and FIG. 8. FIG. 7A shows a cross-section of a transport means for a tape front end; FIG. 7B is a plane view of the transport means for the tape front end, viewing FIG. 7A along a direction A; FIG. 7C is a view illustrating a condition of adhering a tape around a hub after the state of FIG. 7A; and FIG. 7D is a side view viewing FIG. 7C along a direction B. FIG. 8A and FIG. 8B are views, illustrating a conventional tape cartridge, wherein FIG. 8A is a plane view of a tape reel and FIG. 8B is an enlarged view of a deformed part of a tape wound to a tape reel.
For example, a tape winder described in Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2004-70005, includes a cartridge support unit which holds a cartridge containing a reel without a magnetic tape (tape hereinafter) wound thereon, and a tape introduction unit which introduces a tape into the cartridge. Referring to FIGS. 7A to 7D, the tape introduction unit 122 includes a suction part where a tape MT is sucked, and an applicator 128 where a liquid such as alcohol is applied to a hub surface of the reel, as shown in FIG. 7 A and FIG. 7B, respectively. Further, flanges 105A (omitted in FIG. 7C) and 105B are placed along both sides of a hub H, as shown in FIG. 7C and FIG. 7D. Then, through inserting the tape introduction unit 122 sucked with the front end of the tape MT into the inside of the cartridge, the tape winder applies alcohol along the hub surface using the applicator 128, firstly. Then, the tape winder adheres the tape MT to the hub, by contacting the tape to the hub surface applied with alcohol. Then, the tape winder winds up the tape MT around the hub, by rotating a reel CR (refer to FIG. 8) in a reel drive unit.
A front end portion of a tape may sometimes turn up over the hub when the tape is adhered to the hub, due to a difference in stretch properties between an upper face and a lower face, or due to core set. Therefore, according to the tape winder described in Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2004-70005, if either an amount or a width of alcohol being applied is not satisfactory, the front end corner 125 of the tape MT may turn up as shown in FIG. 7C and FIG. 7D, because the front end portion of the tape MT would not be adhered completely to the surface of the hub H.
If the front end corner 125 turns up when the tape MT is adhered to the hub H, a small crevice S for the turned-up height of the front end corner 125 may be formed between the hub H and the tape MT, as illustrated in the enlarged view of part A in FIG. 8. Due to the winding force of the tape, accumulated with increasing winding turns of the tape over the crevice S, the crevice S will collapse and then small surface waviness will be formed in the vicinity of the crevice S, which will bring a radial deformation along a radial direction of the tape.
This radial deformation of the tape MT has been a cause of some error such as recording miss which appears in magnetic record reproduction, because of the instability of track positioning which is generated by variation of the tape position along width direction when feeding the tape from the reel CR.


Encrypted communications is made to appear to be normal text so as to avoid undue attention to either the sender or recipient. Information can be hidden or embedded in innocuous documents using steganography wherein the information is masked within a larger document. Other approaches would translate the ciphertext into a form of normal looking text that would in effect be gibberish but would use normal words in at least one native language. There are many tradeoffs and benefits to be considered when attempting any form of encrypted communications.

With the proliferation of inexpensive handheld communications devices such as mobile phones, texting has become a popular way to communicate. Based on the "Short Message Service" ("SMS") standardized by GMS wireless telephone network carriers worldwide since the mid-1980's, texting involves sending a message containing a maximum, relatively small number of characters (for example, 140 bytes or 160 7-bit characters in one non-limiting scenario) per message based on standard alphabets. Other data messaging services such as Twitter similarly constrain message length e.g., to 140 characters. Certain other messaging standards such as MMS permit transmission of a variety of other data such as multimedia.
Short messaging offers numerous advantages in terms of transport efficiency, succinctness and convenience, but there can be problems with security. Most short messages are sent and received in unsecured form. Interception by unauthorized people and spoofing are two of the problems that can arise from insecure short messaging. Hacking of insecure text messaging has caused numerous high-profile scandals and information leaks. Additionally, texting could be a valuable tool for law enforcement, the military and other government agencies if adequate end-to-end security could be provided.
While it would be highly desirable to secure short messaging, there are challenges to doing so. In particular, the short length, insecurity of the communications networks used to transport the messages and the relatively low processing power available on many devices commonly used to exchange short messages all present obstacles to introducing secure SMS or other secure short messaging.
Most secret or secure messaging is based on the concept of a "shared secret" that only the sender and receiver know. Such a shared secret can be a code book, a cryptographic key for the day or the session, a pseudorandom cryptographic key generated independently by each of the sender and the receiver based on shared "seed" data, or a variety of other mechanisms.
The output of a strong cryptographic process based on the aforementioned "shared secret", is potentially a stream of information that is unintelligible, unless one has access to the keys used to encode the data. For example, the message "The lazy fox jumped over the brown dog" when encrypted might appear as something like "{umlaut over ( )}PGPÁÁN {53¢ ¢æó ÿl,0 ′ã"FEã+‡yø°ê¾Ëœ‡ CoÏ%T+Ò?+ÿ/[t ò ˜"". Such an encrypted message—which does not appear to be any natural language and thus discloses to any reviewer that it is a "machine" or coded construct rather than a natural communication between two human beings—cannot be converted into intelligible form except by someone with appropriate decryption software/algorithm and a secret and/or shared decryption key.
In some contexts, sending a stream of undecipherable information that resembles no natural language in common use today may itself may be a tip off that an encryption process is being used, especially if one is using a communications medium that is rarely encrypted. For instance, if one is sending a textual based message via SMS, intervening systems between the communicating peers may be set up to scan for certain patterns of data or words. Since the encrypted stream may not appear to fit within acceptable parameters of potential listening parties or devices, the encrypted data stream may be flagged for additional analysis or disallowed altogether, ultimately alerting other entities to the fact the peers are communicating in a secure fashion. An attacker might be able to look for messages whose content indicates it has been encrypted, and concentrate on trying to break them—or apply so-called "traffic analysis" techniques to the encrypted messages in an attempt to learn something about the sender, the receiver or the messages they are exchanging. As one example, the mere knowledge that a secure message has been sent at a certain time from a certain place may in itself be valuable information even if the message content has not been exposed or decrypted.
Those skilled in the art are aware of so-called "steganography" ("hidden writing") for hiding messages. Steganography is commonly understood to be the practice of hiding a message or picture, often within a larger message or picture. A picture that contains an embedded message or picture can often be indistinguishable to even the most sophisticated user. For example, during WWII, spies photographically created miniature messages in the form of "microdots" that were then adhered to ordinary documents such as newspapers or typewritten letters. The microdots masqueraded as periods or other punctuation marks in these ordinary documents. Other more ancient examples of hiding messages include writing on wooden tablets that are then covered by wax, and the use of invisible inks.
There are more modern, computer age examples of steganography. For example, it is known to hide a message within a color image. A color picture as stored and processed by computer is typically encoded as an RGB image with each pixel in the image (consisting of the three colors (Red, Blue and Green)) represented by an eight-bit number. Replacing the low-order bit of each of the three colors with a bit representing a bit of the desired text to be hidden will make virtually no change to the image as seen by a user. Another known but more complex steganography technique alters the relationship between the Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) coefficients in a compressed (e.g., JPEG) image in a way that encodes a hidden message.
Steganographic techniques are also commonly used to embed watermarks or copyright information. Such techniques can be used to watermark audio and video files. Basically, today, anything in the digital age can be watermarked. Individual watermarking, for instance, can be used in a forensic analysis to provide an audit trail of where a pirated video originally came from.
A discussion of the techniques of steganography can be found in Stefan Katzenbeisser's book "Information Hiding Techniques for Steganography and Digital Watermarking" (Artech House 2000), incorporated herein by reference. The book discusses many of the aspects of information hiding. It surveys recent research results in the fields of watermarking and steganography, two disciplines generally referred to as information hiding. The book begins with an introduction to the field of information hiding, discussing the history of steganography and watermarking and possible applications to modern communication systems. Katzenbeisser introduces a model for steganographic communication (the 'prisoners problem') and discusses various steganographic protocols such as pure steganography, secret key steganography, public key steganography and supraliminal channels). He further discusses several information hiding methods useable for steganographic communication, among them substitution systems, hiding methods in two-color images, domain transform techniques, statistical steganography, distortion and cover generation techniques. In the steganalysis section, Neil F. Johnson introduces the concepts of steganalysis—the task of detecting and possibly removing steganographic information. Included is also an analysis of common steganographic tools.
Further in the book, an introduction to watermarking techniques and the requirements and design issues for watermarking software is discussed. A survey of current watermarking techniques presents several design principles for watermarking systems, among them the choice of host locations, psychovisual aspects, the choice of a workspace (DFT, DCT, wavelet), the format of the watermark bits (spread spectrum, low-frequency watermark design), the watermark insertion operator and optimizations of the watermark receiver.
The robustness of copyright marking systems is discussed along with the issue of watermark robustness to intentional attacks. The chapter includes a taxonomy of possible attacks against watermarking systems, among them protocol attacks like inversion, oracle attacks, limitations of WWW spiders and system architecture issues.
A chapter on fingerprinting discusses principles and applications of statistical fingerprinting, asymmetric fingerprinting and anonymous fingerprinting. Copyright on the Internet and watermarking is finally discussed and watermarking systems from a legal point of view and addresses various other aspects of copyright law on the Internet.
Obviously, there is considerable art in place for steganography. One such use of steganography is "Digimarc for Images". This particular method is often available to end users in photo editing applications such as Photoshop. Digimarc allows the user to watermark a photo with embedded attributes such as "do not copy", "adult content" etc. This information is passed along within the picture. Other software that is used to copy, print or view the image can utilize the embedded information to restrict a user's right to the picture.
The above technique can effectively hide a message or picture in a larger picture at a ratio of 8:1 and is thus inefficient for most information. Every time a user would want to send a steganographic text message, for example, a user would be sending thousands of bytes in the form of an image just to send a few bits of "payload" information. It may also be deduced by an adversarial party that the user's predilection to sending pictures was in fact a method to mask the true meaning of the communications.
Thus, it is not readily apparent how steganography could be used to hide SMS ciphertext.
We have determined that, in certain circumstances such as SMS or other short messaging, it would be desirable to further encode the enciphered data into another format that disguises the fact that the message was encrypted in the first place.
The exemplary illustrative non-limiting technology herein provides non-limiting steganographic processes and algorithms that allow for a lightweight peer-to-peer exchange of disguised cryptographic information masquerading as unencrypted natural language messages over insecure communications links.
The exemplary illustrative non-limiting light-weight technology herein can be used to implement secure technology using a small amount of computational power of the type available on low-cost portable, mobile or any other end-to-end devices (e.g., any embedded processing technology) and within limited message length constraints. For example, the exemplary illustrative non-limiting technology provides a reduced or minimal message encapsulation having low consumption of available message payload.
In simple terms, an illustrative algorithm can be used to obfuscate encrypted data content in SMS, Twitter or other short messaging. Furthermore, this technology can be used to disguise or pass off as natural language messages, any message oriented communications such as MMS, picture messages, email messages, other text documents/attachments, command and control messages, alerts messages, machine to machine messages, etc. on a variety of platforms.
Alternatively or in addition, rather than adhering to any particular standardized dictionary, dictionaries and/or text transformation algorithms used to convert enciphered text into text masquerading as natural language messaging can be employed that convert enciphered text to non-standard abbreviated or otherwise stylized text that is, to all but highly specialized human and/or machine analysis, essentially or substantially indistinguishable from commonly used texting vernacular in common use by modern texters such as teenagers. Since many natural language vernacular texts composed by teenagers will be gibberish to most adults and to any machine processes trained or programmed to recognize standard English, in addition or alternatively, the non-limiting techniques used herein can take advantage of the proliferation of a non-standard texting vernacular that defies analysis by standardized machine spell and grammar checking to provide text transformations yielding outputs that are statistically and/or otherwise indistinguishable from such texting vernacular in terms of word order (or lack thereof), misspellings, abbreviations, lack of punctuation, general style and other characteristics.
One example non-limiting target platform with which the present technology can be useful is RIM's Blackberry devices, Apple iPhones and iPads, Google Android based devices or any desired SMS or other short or other messaging platforms.

Hiding ciphertext using a linguistics algorithm with dictionaries


A grayscale color electronic paper have a plurality of pixel structural units, each of them has a base color layer and a grayscale adjusting layer. The base color layer is able to display two or more colors. Colors displayed by the grayscale adjusting layer corresponds one-to-one to the colors displayed by the base color layer. The base color layer and the grayscale adjusting layer have respective driving structures. The base color layer can display colors such as black, white, red, green, blue, cyan, magenta and yellow; and the grayscale adjusting layer has multi-level grayscales, and each level of the gray scale has a steady state at a zero electric field.

There are many technical solutions for a color electronic paper, according to the material type, the color mode can be divided into cholesteric liquid crystal, optical filter type, color particle type and electrowetting type; and according to the structure, the color mode can be divided into surface color mixing, three-layer superimposed color mixing and three-dimensional color mixing, etc. The main problems of the color electronic paper are narrow color gamut, low level of the grayscale and high cost. Regarding to the existing color mode technology solution, the particle type and the cholesteric liquid crystal are relatively mature, but the above three problems still cannot be solved at the same time. The deficiency of displaying the grayscale by the particle type is poor repeatability, especially in a single pixel, the types of color particle are increased, and the motion form is sensitive to temperature and waveform change under the action of an electric field. The main problems of three-layer superposition of the cholesteric liquid crystal are high cost and low reflectivity of black and white. The cost of the three-dimensional color mixing is relatively low, but the actual application requirement is still high, thereby limiting the application thereof in low-cost field. In order to obtain a wider range of applications, it is necessary to invent a new color electronic paper mode that comprehensively solves the problems of color gamut, grayscale and cost.


A touchless, digital electrical switch includes at least one sensor that is oriented or associated with other elements in such a way as to detect substantially vertical sweeping, or switching, motions. When an intended switching motion is sensed by the optical sensors within a predetermined period of time, loads are switched and the status of a switch is communicated to other switches, if any, along the same circuit (i.e., the “position” of the switch is changed). An indication of the “position” of the switch may be provided by way of a visual indicator. An acceptable switching motion may also result in an audible “click” or other signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to touchless electrical switches and, more specifically, to touchless electrical switches that operate by mimicking the operation of conventional, two-way switches.
2. Background of Related Art
Electrical switches have long been used to enable an individual to open or close electrical circuits and, thus, to turn electrically operated apparatus on and off (e.g., wall-mounted light switches are useful for turning lights on and off, as well as for controlling whether or not power is provided to wall-mounted electrical sockets). Electrical switches (e.g., dimmer switches) may also be configured to control the amount of power that is provided to an electrically operated apparatus.
Two-way electrical switches typically have two positions, an "on" position, in which power is provided to an electrically operated apparatus in communication and under control of the switch, and an "off" position, in which power is not provided to the electrically operated apparatus. Conventional, wall-mounted light switches are an example of such two-way electrical switches. A typical conventional, wall-mounted light switch may be oriented in a somewhat upwardly facing direction or in a somewhat downwardly facing direction, with one such direction comprising the "on" position and the other direction comprising the "off" position. Orientation of the switch is effected manually, typically with the fingers of a user of the electrically operated apparatus.
Although conventional wall-mounted electrical switches are practically ubiquitous, they do not provide a "state-of-the-art" feel in modern environments. The use of moving parts in manually operated electrical switches is also somewhat undesirable, as moving parts tend to wear over time and may require maintenance or replacement of the entire switch. Moreover, since such electrical switches are operated by users' hands, they may collect oils and dirt and, thus, require occasional cleaning. Additionally, the exterior surfaces of conventional electrical switches may become contaminated with undesirable substances, such as viruses and bacteria, which may be transferred to others who subsequently use or touch the contaminated surfaces of such conventional electrical switches.
Further, due to the mechanical nature of conventional electrical switches, an electrical arc, or spark, is typically generated as conventional electrical switches are used. While the generation of a spark is usually not problematic in most environments, sparks have been known to result in fires. Moreover, the use of conventional electrical switches is limited in volatile environments, where the result of a spark could be explosive.
Hands-free electrical switches, which lack many of these undesirable features, are also known. Such switches are typically controlled by motion sensors, which may sense any type of motion close to the switch or any type of motion a relatively far distance therefrom. Typically, motion-sensing electrical switches include a single motion sensor. The motion sensor may be configured to cause the switch to both provide power to (turn "on") or terminate the supply of power to (turn "off") an electrical apparatus in communication therewith. Alternatively, a motion-sensing electrical switch may just cause the switch to supply power to an electrical apparatus in communication therewith. Some hands-free, motion sensing electrical switches also include manual "on/off" buttons, which may be depressed to turn an electrical apparatus on or off when the motion sensor does not provide the desired electrical switching function.
While motion-sensing, hands-free electrical switches lack many of the undesirable features of conventional, manually-operated electrical switches, they also lack many of the endearing features of conventional, manually-operated electrical switches. In particular, hands-free electrical switches do not provide a user thereof with a readily perceivable indication of the orientation of the switch. Moreover, while hands-free electrical switches sense a user's motion to turn on or off, they typically employ only a single sensor and, therefore, cannot distinguish between arbitrary motion and the type of motion that is intended to turn the electrical switch on or off.
The inventors are unaware of any hands-free switches that operate in a manner that is capable of distinguishing between motion which is intended to turn them on or off and arbitrary motion, and of hands-free light switches which require that the operation of conventional, wall-mounted electrical switches be mimicked.


The present invention relates to methods and arrangements for browsing documents stored in a database or several databases. At least one of said documents is including references to other documents and/or files in the database or several databases. The browsing comprises steps for retrieving of a desired document from the database(s) as response to a request for that document by browsing means, a dynamic transforming of the references of said retrieved document from a special syntax to a form said browsing means is capable of understanding, and transmitting the referenced documents and/or files to said browsing means.

There are several known techniques for storing a large number of documents in a database. A single document in the database may contain references to other documents and for instance to image (graphics) files and/or sound files of the same or even to a separate database.
An example of the kind of document stored in such a database is an HTML document (HyperText Markup Language) ie. the "hyperdocument", which is widely used in an Internet environment. The "Internet" is a worldwide network of computers capable of communication with each other by means of a suitable protocol, such as TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol). During recent years the use of the Internet has expanded rapidly, especially after the introduction of so called Web browsers which allow a simple graphical user interface based (GUI) access to network servers supporting HTML documents.
Typically, a database of HTML documents is stored on a Web server connected to the WWW (World Wide Web). The WWW can be understood in turn as a collection of servers connected to the Internet, which utilise so-called HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP). This HTTP in turn utilises said HTML standard page description.
It is possible to browse separate documents in given locations by a suitable terminal device, ie. a "Web browser", which can consist of a microcomputer or a workstation. When the Web browser is connected to the WWW, a Web server receives an URL (Uniform Resource Locator) request from the browser, decodes the URL, handles the document files and sends the requested files to the Web browser.
It is also possible to browse documents locally, ie. in a local file system of a data processing device which may not be connected to the WWW—i.e. a so called stand-alone data processing device. In this case, the document address (ie. a local file path) is given to the local file system which then retrieves the file for the browser. By using relative document references it is possible to transfer the whole document collection to a different location without any modifications to the documents itself.

Method and arrangement for browsing documents in a database


An electrical device with component heat dissipation, particularly a switching and control device for motor vehicles, includes a circuit board arranged in a package. The circuit board is equipped with electrical components, whose heat energy can be dissipated onto the circuit board, and a plug-in connector which has a connecting part connected with the circuit board and a plug-in connector base arranged adjacent to a circuit board surface. The circuit board rests on heat-conductive support surfaces formed inside on the package, and the device has a wedge whose bottom wedge side surface rests against the circuit board surface and whose opposite side engages with a bearing surface on the package in order to press the circuit board against the support surfaces.

Known switching and control devices have power components arranged on a circuit board, for example for switching high currents, and these must be cooled because of the great amount of heat developed. For this purpose, a heat emission surface of the power component is connected with thermal conductivity to the circuit board, which acts as a cooling element. In this manner, the circuit board absorbs part of the heat energy of the components, and thereby increases the heat emission surface of the components, so that the heat energy can be emitted to the ambient air. Because of the increasing miniaturization of power components, for example using SMD technology, and the related high component density on the circuit board, circuit board cooling is often not effective enough.
It is an object of the present invention to further develop a device of the type stated initially, in such a way that the power components which are arranged in the electrical device can be reliably cooled.

Electrical device having component heat dissipation


An insulation bushing assembly for use with an exhaust gas sensor. The insulation bushing assembly includes an insulation bushing having a passageway defining a surface, and a contact plate assembly having a contact plate coupled with the insulation bushing. A resilient member extends from the contact plate and into the passageway. The resilient member is engageable with the surface of the passageway such that the member is deflected by the surface from an undeflected position with respect to the contact plate to a deflected position with respect to the contact plate to retain the contact plate assembly in engagement with the bushing.

Exhaust gas sensors are well known in the automotive industry for sensing the oxygen, carbon monoxide, or hydrocarbon content of the exhaust stream generated by internal combustion engines. Stoichiometric or "Nemst"-type oxygen sensors (a widely used type of exhaust gas sensor) measure the difference between the partial pressure of oxygen found in the exhaust gas and oxygen found in the atmosphere. By determining the amount of oxygen in the exhaust gas, the oxygen sensor enables the engine control unit ("ECU") to adjust the air/fuel mixture and achieve optimal engine performance. Other types of exhaust gas sensors that operate based on different principles are also known and widely used in the automotive industry.

Insulation bushing assembly for an exhaust gas sensor


A tuner down-converts a Radio Frequency (RF) wireless signal and outputs the converted signal. The tuner compensates for a TOP depending on a temperature and: detects a received signal strength depending on a RF output of the tuner and transmitting the detected strength to a gain control unit; measures an operating temperature of the tuner and transmits the measured temperature value; receives the measured temperature value to compare the received temperature value with a reference TOP value, compensating compensates for the TOP value depending on variation in temperature and outputting outputs the compensated value; and receives the compensated value to control the RF output based on the TOP value and the received signal strength.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to temperature compensation of a tuner, and more particularly, to a tuner in which Take-Over Point (TOP) is compensated for according to a temperature.
2. Background of the Related Art
FIG. 1 shows the construction of a tuner according to the related art.
FIG. Shows a tuner (receiver) 1 according to the related art.
After a received signal passes through an antenna 2, a bandpass filter 3 located at the front end of a first (variable) amplification stage 4 selects a desired frequency band (e.g., WCDMA/GSM, etc.).
The bandpass filter 3 can be a part of a dual filter shape such as duplexer mode including a transmission-side bandpass filter.
A mixer 5 down-converts the filtered signal into a zero Intermediate Frequency (IF) by using an orthogonal local oscillator signal (6) (whose phase is shifted by 90 degrees), which is tuned by a RX synthesizer 7 of a carrier frequency of a received channel.
The down-converted signal is adapted to bandpass filters 8, 10 and a filter 9. In a digital communication system, this information is converted into digital form by an A/D converter 11 and is then digitally filtered (12).
Channel decoding (13) and other digital functions necessary to recover received information are performed after the operation by the A/D converter (11).
A gain control function is an important function in that a range of an input signal is extended such that it can be used in all kinds of tuners. A signal of a Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) block 14 is supplied to a gain control logic block 15 that maintains a received signal to a desired level by controlling the gains of the amplifiers 4, 8 and 10.
In the conventional tuner, however, a Radio Frequency (RF) gain can be kept constant by the gain control unit and the RSSI. A TOP in which a RF gain falls depending on variation in temperature outside the tuner is varied. Due to this, a problem arises because a signal to noise (S/N) ratio is not kept constant.

Tuner for compensating for take-over point depending on temperature


An adjustable mounting system to secure a magnifying glass to a point of attachment and enhance adjustability of the system to enable the magnifying glass to be oriented towards a magnification target is provided. The mounting system includes a support member detachably coupled to the point of attachment by a fastener, a cap rotatably mounted to the support member and able to enable an arm to slidably adjust relative to the cap, and a bracket rotatably mounted to an end of the arm and secured to the magnifying glass. The cap, arm and bracket are each adjusted to a desired position to enable the magnifying glass to be directed towards the magnification target.

The embodiments herein relate generally to mounting devices for magnifying glasses.
Magnifying glasses are useful tools that allow individuals to closely examine details of a target of interest or provide a means for focusing artificial or natural light therein. This is useful in a variety of applications such as when a botanist is interested in studying the texture and shape of a plant's leaves, when a camper in an outdoor environment needs to heat or ignite a pile of leaves to start a fire, or an alternative purpose desired by a user.
Magnifying glass mounting devices are desirable because they allow users to operate them in a hands-free manner. This enables the user to complete a variety of tasks simultaneously while using the magnifying glass. Current magnifying glass mounting devices are designed to be mounted to fixed structures such as tables and other flat surfaces. However, these devices are limited because they cannot be used in the absence of a flat surface. This renders the devices ineffective and/or unusable in the presence of alternative natural and man made structures such as posts, tree limbs, machine components, braces, arms, legs, or other rodlike structures. In addition, these mounting devices are limited in their adjustment degrees and points, which make it difficult for users to focus the magnifying glass on a target.
As such, there is a need in the industry for a magnifying glass mounting system with enhanced adjustability and versatility for mounting to a variety of fixed structures.

Adjustable magnifying glass mounting system


A system and method for reducing latency includes receiving at a gateway time division multiplexed data from multiple sender devices, the time division multiplexed data including payloads. The method also includes a generated packet that includes the payloads from the received time division multiplexed data from the multiple sender devices. The method also includes indicating in the generated packet a destination indication associated with at least some of the payloads of the received time division multiplexed data and forwarding the generated packet to a media server.

Media services play an important part in telecommunication systems such as call centers, traditional public switched telephone network (PSTN) switches, and conferencing servers. The convergence of IP technology with telecommunication networks uses media services provided from the Internet to users either in the IP network or in another network. Many types of media services can be deployed.
Media services provided across multiple types of networks, e.g., calls traveling from the Internet to another network can experience unacceptable delay. A portion of the delay is due to the use of a gateway (e.g., a media gateway) and media server that connect the networks. A media gateway, e.g., circuit switch, IP gateway, or channel bank that converts data from a format required for one network to the format required for another network.

Data transport between a media gateway and server


A display controller includes a data bus interface which transfers data to the display controller from external sources. A modulation data register coupled to the data bus interface receives a first quantity of modulation data through the data bus interface. A decoder coupled to the modulation data register receives the first quantity of modulation data and decodes graphics data according to the first quantity of modulation data in order to generate display data. A modulation data address counter counts quantities of modulation data that are transferred through the data bus interface and generates a load modulation data signal when a preprogrammed total quantity of modulation data has been transferred through the data bus interface. A method used by a display controller of accessing modulation data from an external memory is also disclosed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to display controllers, and more particularly, to a display controller capable of accessing an external memory for gray scale modulation data.
2. Description of the Related Art
One commonly used type of display panel is a liquid crystal display (LCD) panel. An LCD display panel is a rectangular grid of rectangular or square dots. Acting as a thin double-paned window, the LCD grid is actually transparent electrodes laid out in horizontal rows on one thin pane, and in vertical columns on the other. The liquid crystal formula trapped in between the panes reacts to an electrical field applied to each electrode in the rows and columns. This reaction rotates the polarization of light transmitted through the LCD display. Polarizing layers outside the panes cause the dots to appear light or dark as the polarization changes. There are small gaps between the rows and columns, giving each dot a clear definition.
The display is controlled by continuously feeding dot data to the display. The data is organized into individual pixels, rows of pixels, and full-page frames. Pixels are the individual data dots or bits. These bits are put together into rows. A set of rows makes up a frame. A frame is one full page of the display. LCD data is continuously sent to the LCD panel to refresh the display frame.
Since most LCD displays have no on-board frame buffer memory, the display data must be continuously refreshed. To get a stable, flicker-free image, the display data is sent to the panel at a frame refresh rate (referred to herein as the "frame rate") which falls within a range normally specified by the LCD panel manufacturer. An LCD panel manufacturer may specify, for example, that best results are obtained, i.e., a stable, flicker-free image, when the display data is sent to the panel 60 to 70 times per second, or 60 Hz to 70 Hz.
An LCD controller is typically used to coordinate the transfer of display data to an LCD panel. Two important functions performed by an LCD controller are: 1) gray scale modulation, and 2) sending display data to the display panel within the specified frame rate range.
In order to create an image on an LCD screen, each pixel is constantly being refreshed at the frame rate. If only two different colors are needed, i.e., on (white or bright) and off (black or dark), a zero is always sent for white and a one is always sent for black. For example, assuming that each pixel is refreshed 60 times per second, i.e., a frame rate of 60 Hz, if a pixel is white, the value of zero will be sent 60 times for each second (for that bit), and if the pixel is black (or dark), a one will be sent for 60 times. In this scenario the graphics data (the one and zeros indicating white and black) can basically be fed directly to the display.
However, when more than two colors are needed on the LCD screen, gray scale modulation is performed to create an LCD image that appears to be stable and appears to be some shade between on (white or bright) and off (black or dark). Gray scale modulation is a process of sending a value of one to the screen for a percentage of the time to create a pixel that is light or dark gray. The rate at which the pixels are turned on and off determines how light or dark they appear. For example, if a one is sent for 45 times, and a zero is sent for 15 times (during the 60 Hz refresh), a dark gray will appear on the screen. If a one is sent for 15 times, and a zero is sent for 45 times, a light gray will appear.
In general, an LCD controller receives graphics data and then generates and provides the appropriate ones and zeros to the display panel which are needed to display the specified shade of gray for each pixel in the frame. Because of the nature of LCD displays, gray scale modulation is done in a temporal (or time) and spatial modulated way. The term "temporal" refers to the frequency at which individual pixels are turned on and off. The term "spatial" refers to the relationship of one pixel to an adjacent or nearby pixel. Specifically, in order to prevent flickering, adjacent pixels of the same gray value will be modulated at different frequencies. Thus, the brightness of each pixel in the display is determined by the temporal modulation of the applied voltage pulses to the respective pixels.
Previous LCD controllers performed such temporal modulation by manipulating the graphics data with a fixed algorithm. One available LCD controller uses another set of data, referred to herein generally as gray scale modulation data, in conjunction with the graphics data to perform temporal modulation. That LCD controller includes two on-board registers for holding the gray scale modulation data. The gray scale modulation data is initially supplied to the LCD controller by a CPU. When more gray scale modulation data is needed, the LCD controller interrupts the CPU so it can update the on-board registers. Numerous interrupts, however, reduces the efficiency of the CPU. The number of interrupts can be reduced by increasing the number of registers in the LCD controller that are used to hold gray scale modulation data. However, this has the undesired effect of increasing the LCD controller die size.
Thus, there is a need for an LCD controller which has access to an increased quantity of gray scale modulation data in order to decrease CPU interrupts, but which does not have an increased die size.

Display controller capable of accessing an external memory for gray scale modulation data


A television control system for controlling different models of hospital televisions, has an input device for receiving an input from a person, and a controller for interfacing with hospital televisions. The controller generates control signal clusters reflective of the input, and the clusters include a plurality of sequentially-generated, individual control signals for specific operational functions of a plurality of different models of hospital televisions.

Televisions (TVs) manufactured for use in health care facilities, such as within hospital rooms, are specifically designed for use within those environments. In the past, such televisions have been designed to meet certain requirements regarding safety and control. However, such hospital TV control has always been subject to an informal control standard directed to the patient operation of the TVs from a hospital bed rail control or a pillow speaker. The term "pillow speaker" is generally used to refer to a device associated with a hospital bed which provides an audio speaker and volume control for a television, along with capabilities for communicating with the nurse, controlling lighting, and other such features. The pillow speaker is generally a detached unit connected by a cord to the bed or to an interface plug in the wall.
While available hospital TVs and their associated controls provide a basic viewing experience, they suffer from several significant drawbacks.
Historically, the control of hospital TVs has been severely limited and has generally consisted of a single button control which turns the television ON and OFF and changes the channel. Separate volume control buttons are used for raising or lowering the volume of the television. For example, such TVs are turned ON by pressing the TV button. Then, each subsequent depression of the TV button changes the channel UP to the next available viewing channel. When all the available channels are displayed in sequence, the television then turns OFF. Depressing the TV button again turns the television back ON and prepares it again for moving UP through the channels. The patient or other person controlling the TV can only progress upwardly through the channels. If a desired channel is passed, the patient has to progress all the way through the channel selections, has to turn the TV OFF and then ON again, and finally has to move up slowly through the channels, being careful to again not pass the desired channel. Furthermore, a patient cannot turn the TV OFF at a selected channel and then turn it back ON at that channel. The TV always comes back ON at the same channel and the patient has to again search for the channel they were previously viewing.
Such scenarios are not only frustrating and a waste of the patent's time, but also may unduly and undesirably aggravate the patient, whose health may not be at its best. While such control may have been at least sufficient when only a few channels were available for viewing, the latest TV technology requires additional control for accessing a large number of additional channels and operating an expanded set of TV features and functions. For example, it is desirable to turn the television ON and OFF and have it remain at the channel which was last selected. Furthermore, it is desirable to move UP or DOWN through the available channels at random. Still further, it is desirable to access a number of other TV features, such as display menus or channel viewing guides. Newly available hospital TVs, often referred to as code-driven TVs, are capable of being functionally controlled as desired and discussed above. However, current hospital TV control technology is usually only able to provide the limited control that has traditionally been available with a hospital TV and often cannot take full advantage of the code-driven TV technology.
Another significant drawback of available hospital TV control technology is that each bed and pillow speaker associated with the bed must be configured to control a specific brand/model of hospital TV. There are currently at least three major manufacturers of hospital TVS. To control a specific TV brand/model from a hospital bed and pillow speaker, the bed and pillow speaker have to be specially manufactured and configured for that TV model.
As such, a hospital or other health care facility has to know which beds are going to go with which TV models, and the manufacturer of the beds has to tailor and configure the bed operation for the specific TV model. Oftentimes, such configuration is required in the field, which further increases the manufacturing costs associated with each bed. After the beds and TVs are installed, a bed cannot be moved to a room having a different TV model than the one for which it is manufactured and configured. Otherwise, the TV cannot be controlled from the bed. As may be appreciated, this presents significant logistical problems for the hospital in setting up a hospital room. Furthermore, it presents delays in implementing a bed into a room, because if the bed and TV do not communicate, then the hospital has to obtain a different bed, or a different TV model or has to have the bed reconfigured for the specific TV model available.
The present hospital TV control scenario is also unsuitable for hospital bed manufacturing. Manufacturers have to keep different beds in inventory, or have to specifically tailor or retrofit each bed to the customer's TV demands. Such retrofitting is often done by the bed manufacturer in the field. This is not only costly in the way of increased inventory costs and post production modifications, but it also creates another issue for manufacturers' Customer Service Departments to handle.
Furthermore, not only do the above problems and drawbacks arise when a new hospital room is being set up, but they will again occur if there is a malfunction in the bed, in the TV, or both. Replacement beds or TVs cannot simply be taken from other rooms unless the hospital only has one type of bed and one model of television.
Any solution to the above drawbacks in current TV control technology must not only take into account the newer code-driven hospital TVs, but must also be compatible with older TV s that will probably remain in a particular hospital until they malfunction or the hospital makes a determination to upgrade to newer TVs. Given the interest in rising health care costs, the former situation may occur before the latter.
Radio capabilities are also usually available with some hospital TVs. In the past, the bed rails and pillow speakers have had separate, generally single button, RADIO controls for turning the radio ON and OFF and changing the radio channels. Furthermore, radio control was limited like the TV control. Therefore, any suitable solutions to the drawbacks of the current TV control technology should also be capable of utilizing available radio features of a television, whether an older TV model or a newer, code-driven model.
Accordingly, it is an objective of the present invention to address the drawbacks in available hospital TV control scenarios, and to provide an improved TV control system for medical and health care facilities, such as hospitals.
It is a further objective of the present invention to provide a TV control system which adapts to TV models from a variety of different manufacturers.
To that end, it is still a further objective of the present invention to have a bed- dedicated TV control unit and bed which may be moved between areas in the hospital without being dependent upon the model of TV with which it is interfaced.
It is another objective of the present invention to provide expandability of TV control functions in a hospital for easily accessing additional channels and addressing additional features available with current TV technology.
It is still a further objective to provide expanded control capabilities for newer hospital TVs while at the same time maintaining compatibility with older TVs which are currently in place in various hospitals.
It is another objective to provide suitable radio control within the TV control system.
These and other objectives will become more readily apparent from the Summary of the Invention, Brief Description of the Drawings, and Detailed Description of the Invention, below.

Television control system for universal control of hospital televisions


A solid cosmetic composition includes (i) an outer layer having (a) a hard vegetable butter in an amount of 10 to 45 wt. % based on the outer layer, and (b) a soft vegetable butter in an amount of 55 to 80 wt. % based on the outer layer. The composition also includes an (ii) inner core which is (a) a soft vegetable butter composition; (b) a fondant; or (c) a liquid cosmetic.

The present invention relates to products particularly those for use in contact with the human body.
A cosmetic product which has been increasingly popular is massage bars. These products contain a solidified oil or fat moulded into a product which may be held easily in the hand. Alternatively a larger sized product may be made from which a small piece may be broken and then used. In use, the massage bar is applied to the skin of the recipient either as a complete bar or by breaking off a small piece of product which is then applied to the skin. These solid products are both popular for home use and for application by a professional masseur.
Products are known where some or all of the massage bar product is formed from fats having a relatively high solid fat content. If correctly manufactured, these fats which are firm and solid at room temperature will melt on contact with skin. However, such melting may require prolonged contact with skin. During this period of prolonged contact, the user being massaged is subject to the unpleasant feeling of hard fat in a solid form being applied to the skin.
In view of the above disadvantages in the use of hard massage bars, many users find it desirable to buy massage bars which melt easily and which are immediately soft to the touch and on the skin. This could of course be provided with by formulation of a massage bar containing a high proportion of soft fats with relatively low melting points. However such formulations would be difficult to deliver without the use of packaging. Packaging is to be avoided for reasons of cost but most importantly for the protection of the environment.
The present invention seeks to provide a solid cosmetic product which may be used as a massage bar and which allows for immediate contact with the skin without the user being massaged with hard solid fat which takes a significant period to melt when contacted with the skin.

Cosmetic composition and method for making the same


A scanner device and an image forming apparatus, each having a shading correction unit are disclosed. The shading correction unit is implemented by a lens block, including a fixer and a wall. The fixer fixes a position of the lens block. The wall, connected to the fixer at a connecting point, has an opening. The minimum distance between the circumference line of the opening and the connecting point is larger than a thickness of the wall.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to shading correction, and more particularly to shading correction used in a scanner device or an image forming apparatus.
2. Discussion of the Background
The quality of a scanned image is affected by a number of factors. In one example of such a factor, a lens is incorporated in a scanner device to project light reflected by an original document onto an image sensor, such as a charged coupled device (CCD). However, due to vignetting of the lens, light transmitted through the center portion of the lens is of higher intensity than light transmitted through the edges of the lens. As a result, the corners of the scanned image appear to be darker than the central portion of the image. In another example of such a factor, non-uniform illumination of a light source, which is incorporated in a scanner device, may cause variations in brightness of the scanned image.
In order to improve the quality of the scanned image, a scanner device is usually provided with a shading correction unit, capable of applying shading correction to light reflected from an original document.
FIG. 1 illustrates a lens block 100, which is incorporated in a background scanner device. The lens block 100 is provided with a mask 102, which is defined by the circumference line of a bone-shaped opening made at a central portion of the lens block 100. The lens block 100 is fixed on a lens block stay (not shown) via a fixer 101, which is a side edge portion of the lens block 100.
The mask 102 includes two shading portions 102a facing each other, and two connecting portions 102b facing each other. The shading portions 102a partly cover a central light flux 103. The connecting portions 102b connect the shading portions 102a, without covering any portion of side light fluxes 104 and 105. With this configuration, as shown in FIG. 1, the mask 102 can function as a shading correction unit.
However, the shape of the mask 102 creates another problem. As shown in FIG. 1, the distance D1, which is a minimum distance between the connecting portion 102b and the fixer 101, is reduced. This causes the lens block 100 to easily oscillate. This further causes the problem of pixel shifting or color shifting, especially when the size of the lens block 100 is relatively small.

Scanner device and image forming apparatus


The present system and method provides a cross-current compensation control system that provides for improved load sharing performance during the parallel operation of multiple generators through use of a Proportional Integral PI controller or a Proportional Integral Differential PID controller eliminating steady state error in reactive current sharing, with such providing a stable and robust response with uncertain variations of equipment in the power system through improved cross-current compensation when various system parameter uncertainties exist.

The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Multiple generators or generator sets (gensets) are often operated in parallel to improve fuel economy and the reliability power generation of a power supply. Fuel economy is improved with multiple paralleled generators by selecting only sufficient generators to carry the load demand at any given time. By operating each generator near its full capacity, fuel is utilized efficiently. Each of the multiple generators provides an output power to a connected generator transformer that then connects the generator output to the power grid or load. Each generator's transformer transforms the received power to the desired or specified grid or transmission line power.
An automatic voltage regulator (AVR) is an electronic device used to provide precise, regulated generator voltage when a generator is at no load and when changing loads on the generator. In many implementations, an AVR is used to control the reactive operations of the generator by providing and adjusting the generator field power such as the excitation power. Since the AVR controls only the reactive power, this disclosure only addresses the control of the reactive power even though the generators produce both real and reactive power. As such, and for simplifying this disclosure, real power is assumed to be zero unless otherwise stated. In many implementations, an AVR is used to control the operations of the generator by providing the generator field power such as excitation voltage to an exciter or other generator component for controlling the reactive power output of the generator power. The generator field power, such as excitation voltage, is often a DC voltage and is provided to the generator field power or excitation input of the generator, for powering the generator field so that generator produces an output terminal voltage VT that has a fixed or stable reactive current regardless of the real power being drawn by the grid load at any particular time during operation. When generators are connected together in parallel operation, a parallel compensation element is required to assist each generator's AVR in controlling the generator's reactive loads as addressed in IEEE
Std. 421.5-2016, IEEE Recommended Practice for Excitation System Models for Power System Stability Studies.
As noted, each generator includes a generator field input for receiving a generator field input voltage or power that is typically provided by the AVR. Typically, the generator field input voltage is an amount that is a predetermined reference generator field voltage amount, which is also commonly referred to as the voltage set point, such as by way of example can be 12 volts DC. The AVR can receive a base generator field power such as 12 volts DC from a local DC power source, from which the AVR derives the determined reference generator field voltage. Alternatively, the AVR can obtain or derive a desired or determined generator power from an input power such as obtained from an output of one or more of the generators or locally. Regardless of how the reference generator field voltage is obtained by the AVR, the AVR's generated generator field voltage (or power) is provided to the generator field or excitation field of the generator, which controls the input to the main field of the generator and that results in the generation of the generated output power or terminal voltage VT of the generator.
Generally, a basic AVR senses the output terminal voltage VT of a generator and compares it to a reference voltage VREF. Based on such comparison of these two voltages, the AVR produces the generator field input voltage that is an adjusted generator field value. The value is adjusted up or down from the predetermined generator field input voltage that results in a change of control of the generator and therefore a change in the output terminal voltage VT. Two or more generators operating in parallel to supply a common load operate in a similar manner, each with their own associated AVR and predetermined reference generator field voltage. If the terminal voltage VT in an open-circuit mode of operation is exactly the same on all generators, the generators divide the load equally between themselves. Any small difference between terminal voltages VT at the outputs of two or more generators results in unbalanced load division or, in the extreme situation, the creation of an undesirable circulating current.
In practice, the precise matching of output terminal voltages VT of two or more generators is not possible, and as such some amount of circulating current or load unbalance results from the voltage mismatch. To address these issues, two forms of multiple generator control have been developed to address mismatches in the output terminal voltages VT of multiple generators, both of which are referred to as parallel compensation methods as addressed in Rubenstein, A. S., and W. W. Wakley, "Control of reactive kVA with modern amplidyne voltage." The most commonly used type of paralleling compensation is parallel droop compensation, which is also referred to as reactive droop compensation, or simply "Droop compensation." The other type of parallel compensation is cross-current compensation (hereinafter "CCC"), which is also referred to as reactive differential compensation.
Droop compensation is utilized to "droop" the voltage profile with increasing reactive power output of the generator. When two generators are operated in parallel, utilizing their droop curves, the reference generator field voltage (or voltage set points) as provided by their respective AVRs are adjusted to generator field values to provide for proportionally sharing of the reactive load. A droop compensation control circuit and method reacts to any imbalance in the terminal voltages produced by the generators. Such generator field controls the droop compensation to change the generator field input values of their respective AVRs in a direction to bring the load back into balance between the multiple generators. When droop compensation is used as an input to each AVR of two or more parallel generators, each parallel droop compensation circuit or element as provided to each generator's AVR is independent of the others, and each magnitude of the change of the adjusted generator field value from the predetermined reference generator field voltage for each generator depends upon the magnitude of the load and power factor.
In the second parallel compensation method, in order to prevent the terminal voltage VT from increasing or decreasing as a function of a change in the power factor of the load, a cross-current compensation CCC element is used as an input to the AVR for controlling the determination of the adjusted generator field value as provided to the generator field input of the generator and therefore operation of the generator. CCC is a method that allows two or more paralleled generators to share a reactive load. A representation of the reactive current Id of each generator is established by the secondary wiring of the compounding current transformers ("CCT" or "CTs) of all the generators that are in parallel. A typical conventional CCC control wiring configuration for two generators is shown in FIG. 1. The difference between the reactive currents of these two illustrated generators is estimated from this configuration. As shown, the prior art system CCC control system 100 includes a power generation circuit 102 that has two or more generators 104, forming a generator set or genset 104, which in this example reflects two generators GEN A 104A and GEN B 104B. Each has a generator field 118, (118A, 118B), and a generator field input 106, (106A, 106B), for receiving the generator field voltage or power EF from an AVR 124, shown as 124A, 124B, via output 125, shown as 125A, 125B, respectively. The generator field 118 receives the generator field input 106 for varying an operation of the generator 104 that varies the reactive output power and terminal voltage VT generated by the generator 104. Each generator, GEN A 104A and GEN B 104B, has a power generation output 112, (112A. 112B) that provides generator output power. Such output power includes reactive power, which includes a terminal voltage VT, shown as VTA, VTB, and reactive current IdA, idB, both respectively.
The generated reactive power of each generator 104A, 104B as represented as idA and idB, respectively, as well at terminal voltages VTA, VTB are provided to a compounding transformer CT 114, shown as 114A, 114B, respectively. After CT 114, generated power is then provided to the system output 108, which provides the generated power Q to the grid load 110. As addressed above, each generator 104A, 104B is controlled by its generator field or excitation system 122A, 122B with CCC loop A based on the received generator field power EFA and EFB for controlling each associated generator 104A, 104B, respectively.
The conventional CCC control system 120 of FIG. 1 provides the generator field voltage EFA and EFB to the generator field inputs 106A, 106B for powering the operational control of the generator fields 118A, 118B. The generator field control system 120 as shown by way of example in FIG. 1 typically includes a CCC element 122, shown as 122A, 122B, each of which includes an AVR 124, such as AVR 124A and AVR 124B, respectively, as well as reference voltages VREFA and VREFB as provided by reference voltage sources 126A, 126B, respectively.
Equal current develops through the CTs 114A, 114B of the circuit 102 in parallel when the multiple generators 104 in the power generation circuit 102 are identical. It should be noted that when referring to the CT's, the common control is with reference to the secondary current in the secondary wirings of the CTs, which is the reference as described herein unless otherwise stated. When the generators 104, such as 104A and 104B, are not of equal size, the level of the cross-current to be controlled by each AVR 124A, 124B must be adjusted individually based on the rating of each generator 104A, 104B. Generally, the CTs are selected to provide the same secondary current in each CT.
Each AVR 124 receives a reactive current input CCCT+ from the input side of the associated CT 114 and output CCCT− from the output side of the compounding transformer CT 114 as shown in FIG. 1. The conventional cross-current compensation CCC, also referred to in the art as reactive differential, is provided so that the two or more generators 104A, 104B that are in parallel can equally share the reactive load 110. The secondary wirings of all CTs 114 for each parallel generator 104 are connected. The current flow IR will be the difference of the current that commonly flows through both CT's 114A and 114B.
Each AVR 124A, 124B produces a reference generator field voltage for each generator's generator fields 118 that is a function of the generator's produced reactive power Q. This reference generator field voltage for a generator 104 is used to regulate the generator field voltage EF that is provided to generator field control input 106 to each generator field 118 of each generator 104. Ideally, the reference generator field voltage produced by an AVR 124 is selected (or predetermined) so that the reactive power difference of the generators 104A and 104B is zero.
Each of the resistors shown in FIG. 1 is used to set the burden and may be determined or adjusted to suit the application or implementation.

Advanced cross current compensation system and method for enhancing reactive current sharing in power generation having multiple generators


A bathtub chair is a planar support having a base rising upward to a first crest, extending downward therefrom to a though, rising upward therefrom to a second crest, and extending downward to a foot. The front base and rear foot are provided with a non-skid surface. An upper surface of the chair is provided with a non-skid cushion. An adjustment mechanism in the rear support base can be utilized to modify the tilt angle of the chair. The lower curve supports an occupant's legs and the larger curve supports the occupant's back and head. Maintaining the child's position minimizes water and soap flowing onto the child's face and eyes during washing.

The act of washing a child's hair in a bathtub is hectic for both the child and care giver. Many children have a fear of shampoo getting in their eyes which causes an undo amount of movement on their part. This causes the care giver to mildly restrain the child for their safety, but this makes the act of washing the child's hair even more difficult. Additionally, the bathtub is hardly known for its comfort. After all, it is basically nothing more than a box, made of hard material, and filled with water. If the child wishes to recline in a standard tub, they must rest their head on an edge, and let their back and spine hang unsupported. Children who are in this environment are also known to slip and slide about, perhaps falling down, or hitting their head. At the very least, a parent or care giver who tries to shampoo the child's hair is almost guaranteed to get as wet as the child. Accordingly, there exists a need for a means by which a child's hair can be shampooed in a bathtub, while providing greater comfort and safety for both the child and the care giver.


In an information retrieval application, a system and method for detecting content holes. A content body is parsed into a plurality of concepts nodes, including a first concept node. A percentage of successful service interactions is determined as a function of concept node and, if the percentage of successful service interactions at the first concept node is below a predefined threshold, a content hole is flagged.

People have increasingly turned to the Internet for the answers to their questions. Such an approach is encouraged by companies; web site support is considerably less expensive than telephone or on-site support. The ability of a company to successfully direct customers, employees and other information seekers to their web site, however, is a function of the amount of success customers expect to meet when they access the site.
In a customer service environment, for example, customers expect prompt and correct answers to their information requests. These information requests may relate to problems with products the customer has purchased, or to questions about products they may decide to purchase in the future. In most cases, the answer to the customer's question exists somewhere within the enterprise. In other cases, the answer may have existed in the enterprise at one time, but is no longer there. The challenge is to find the best answer, helpful content, service, or expert, and to provide it to the customer in a timely manner.
Typical approaches to providing support information to customers on the Internet depend on either a static structure (e.g., predefined hyperlinks) for customers to navigate to the information they need, or simple "lookup" facilities for finding documents or products. Representative "lookup" facilities include database searches and full-text searches for keywords appearing in documents or in product descriptions. These types of approaches are typically not tailored to the additional needed clarifications and the customer (i.e., no personalization) and do not typically engage the customer in a multiple step interaction (no conversational dialog), wherein the information is elicited from the customer.
Other current approaches for providing support information to customers, such as case-based reasoning systems and expert systems, provide a multiple step interaction with customers. They require the business, however, to set up very complex "case" structures or expert-system rule sets that define the problems and their resolutions in great detail. These approaches are often brittle; it is typically very costly for the business to add new rules and cases to these systems.
Still other Web-based systems check for particular textual content without the advantage of context or domain knowledge. Consequently, they generally do not reliably and consistently return the desired information. This is at least partly due to the fact that language is inherently ambiguous. Another factor, however, is because a single concept may be expressed in any number of ways using numerous and unrelated words and/or phrases. By simply searching for specific key words, the typical search engine fails to identify other alternatives that may also be helpful.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/594,083, entitled "System and Method for Implementing a Knowledge Management System," describes a system and method for parsing documents into a series of concepts and tying the concepts to taxonomies. Queries, too, are parsed into a series of concepts and marked, for instance, with tags reflective of their taxonomy. The query and its tags are then used to search for documents relating to the query. The result is a list of documents which more closely matches the question being asked.
As noted above, the Internet has emerged as a preferred mechanism for making information available in a low cost manner. People both within and external to particular organizations are encouraged to access that organization's web site to retrieve answers to their questions. Ideally, the person accessing the web site receives the correct answer. An organization is, however, incapable of measuring the ability of a user to retrieve the correct answer without the use of metrics to measure satisfactory and unsatisfactory outcomes.
What is needed is a system and method for measuring the quality of information retrieval to help guide an organization's efforts in improving the web self-service system.

System and method for measuring the quality of information retrieval


A single cell for SOFC operating at low temperatures, is provided, including a first solid electrolyte with oxide ion conductivity at 800° C. of 0.015 S/cm or more and bending strength of 600 MPa or more, a fuel electrode and bonded to one side of the first electrolyte, comprised of a cermet of a catalyst and a second solid electrolyte with a conductivity of 0.08 S/cm or more, and an air electrode bonded to the other side of the first electrolyte comprised of a compound of first perovskite type oxide with a third solid electrolyte. The electrodes are coated with fuel and air electrode contact layers, respectively.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a single cell for a solid oxide fuel cell operating at low temperatures, more particularly to a single cell for a solid oxide fuel cell operating at low temperatures which is suitable for a distributed power source, a cogeneration system or the like in urban areas.
2. Description of Related Art
A solid oxide fuel cell (hereinafter referred to as an "SOFC") is a fuel cell in which a solid electrolyte exhibiting oxide ion conductivity is used as an electrolyte. In the SOFC, since the electrolyte is solid, there is no problem of dissipation of the electrolyte, and long life can be expected. Further, as an operating temperature is as high as about 1000° C., the utility value of waste heat is high. Furthermore, as an output power density is high, the SOFC can be expected to be compact and of high efficiency.
In general, structures of this kind of SOFC are broadly divided into those of planar type, tubular type, and integral type. Among them, the planar type SOFC has advantages of high generation efficiency because internal resistance is comparatively low, and of high output power density per unit volume because thin cells are stacked.
The planar type SOFC is further broadly divided into those of a self-supporting electrolyte film type and a supported electrolyte film type. The former one ordinarily has a structure in which a plurality of single cells are stacked via a separator, wherein a fuel electrode supplied with a fuel gas such as hydrogen and city gas is bonded to one side of a planar self-supporting solid electrolyte, and an air electrode supplied with an oxidant gas such as air and oxygen is bonded to the other side of the solid electrolyte.
For the solid electrolyte used in a single cell for the SOFC, yttria-stabilized zirconia (hereinafter sometimes referred to as "YSZ") is conventionally used. However, YSZ is of high internal resistance and shows low oxide ion conductivity. Therefore, recently, in view of improving output power density or the like of the SOFC, attention has been directed at scandia-stabilized zirconia (hereinafter sometimes referred to as "ScSZ") with oxide ion conductivity higher than YSZ, and various researches have been conducted.
In addition, generally, for a fuel electrode material, a cermet of Ni and YSZ containing 8 mol % Y2O3 (hereinafter sometimes referred to as "Ni-8YSZ") or the like is used. For an air electrode material, (La, Sr) MnO3 or the like is used. For a separator material, LaCrO3 or the like is used.
The present applicants have confirmed through researches that since ScSZ of a tetragonal crystal shows high oxide ion conductivity and is excellent in mechanical characteristics such as strength and toughness, the single cell using this as the solid electrolyte and the SOFC made by stacking a plurality of the single cells show excellent generating performance and reliability (see Japanese Patent Application Unexamined Publication No. 2004-055326).
However, though the above single cell and SOFC are excellent in generating performance and reliability withstanding practical use, the operating temperature is still as high as the order of about 950° C. Therefore, more improvements have been required for achieving low-temperature operation.
This is because, if operating characteristics at low temperatures can be improved without sacrificing the generating performance and reliability, great promise is shown for early commercialization.
Incidentally, in order to achieve the low-temperature operation with the above single cell and SOFC, materials suitable for the low-temperature operation should be respectively selected for the constituting members. However, depending on the combination of the materials, the generating performance and reliability could be contrarily impaired.
Further, in the single cell and SOFC, different types of constituting members are bonded to or bought in contact with each other, i.e., the solid electrolyte and the electrodes are bonded to each other and the electrodes are brought in contact with the separators. Therefore, not only material properties of the respective constituting members but also an interaction between the different types of members must be fully considered.
As mentioned above, for the single cell and SOFC, it is important to make comprehensive developments in consideration of the material properties of the respective constituting members and the interaction between the different types of members. Especially, in order to improve cell performance under disadvantageous conditions for the single cell and SOFC, i.e., the low-temperature operation, development techniques as mentioned above take on more importance.


A method includes providing a photonic wafer that includes an electrical layer and a layer disposed on a substrate. The layer includes at least one optical waveguide that is disposed between the electrical layer and the substrate. The method also includes removing a portion of the substrate underneath the at least one optical waveguide and forming an end-face coupler. A portion of the end-face coupler is within the removed portion of the substrate. The end-face coupler transmits an optical signal to, or receives an optical signal from, an external optical device.

Coupling light between optical fibers and integrated optical chips presents significant challenges. The diameter of the light profile in optical fibers is much larger than in integrated optical waveguides. The larger diameter beam cannot be routed through the chip as electrical layers in the chip would interfere with the light propagation. For example, some optical chips use end-face couplers positioned at an end facet of the chip to receive light into a waveguide within the chip. The coupler may include a spot size converter that transitions the light between the optical fiber and the waveguide. Conventionally, the spot size converter is positioned above the waveguide, in a space that is typically used by the electrical backend layers. The electrical backend is a layer stack of dielectrics housing multiple metal lines and connections used to provide power and electrical signal routing within the Photonic Integrated Circuit (PIC), and may include interfacing with optical devices.
To facilitate understanding, identical reference numerals have been used, where possible, to designate identical elements that are common to the figures. It is contemplated that elements disclosed in one embodiment may be beneficially used in other embodiments without specific recitation.

End-face coupling structures underneath a photonic layer


A sliding assembly may include a supporting frame having a proximal end and a distal end, a sliding frame partially inserted to the supporting frame, and a supporting member disposed between the supporting frame and the sliding frame to prevent the supporting frame from directly contacting the sliding frame, wherein the sliding frame is configured to move relative to the supporting frame.

1. Field
At least one example embodiment relates to a sliding assembly and/or a motion assistance apparatus including the sliding assembly.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the onset of rapidly aging societies, a number of people may experience inconvenience and/or agony from joint problems, and interest in motion assistance apparatuses that may enable the elderly or patients with joint problems to walk with less effort is growing. In addition, motion assistance apparatuses that may increase muscular strength of human bodies may be in development for military purposes.
In general, motion assistance apparatuses for assisting motion of lower parts of bodies may include body frames disposed on trunks of users, pelvic frames coupled to lower sides of the body frames to cover pelvises of the users, femoral frames disposed on thighs of the users, sural frames disposed on calves of the users, and/or pedial frames disposed on feet of the users. The pelvic frames and the femoral frames may be connected rotatably by hip joint portions, the femoral frames and the sural frames may be connected rotatably by knee joint portions, and the sural frames and the pedial frames may be connected rotatably by ankle joint portions.
The motion assistance apparatuses may include active joint structures including hydraulic systems and/or driving motors to drive each joint portion to improve muscular strength of legs of the users. For example, motors to transmit driving power may be attached to the hip joint portions and/or the knee joint portions, respectively.

Sliding assembly and motion assistance apparatus including the same