After a CAD data and a parts library are combined to produce an inspection data, the set data for the inspection window is automatically corrected using the image of a bare board for a board to be inspected. In this correcting process, an inspection window based on the aforementioned inspection data is set on a bare board image, and then an image in the inspection window W4 making up a reference for setting other windows is binarized, and lands 35 on this binary image are detected. Further, on the basis of the detection result, the set position and size of land windows W1 for solder inspection are corrected, after which the set positions of other inspection windows W2 to W4 are corrected.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique of processing an image obtained of a board with parts mounted thereon (hereinafter referred to as "the parts mounted board") and inspecting the soldered state of parts on a board and the mounted state of parts and electrodes on the board, or in particular to a technique for producing inspection data for this type of inspection.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In carrying out this type of inspection automatically, it is necessary to set various inspection data (this setting process is hereinafter referred to as "the teaching") for each part on the board, including the set data for the inspection window corresponding to the particular part (including the data indicating the set position and the size of the window), a parameter required to extract an image pattern in the inspection window (binary threshold value, etc.), a program for processing the extracted image pattern (hereinafter referred to as "the inspection program") and a criterion for determining whether the result of the processes is proper or not.
Generally, an inspection window for a plurality of portions including a land, a part and an electrode is set for each type of component part. Also, the parameter, the inspection program and the criterion described above are set for each window (the data and the program set for each of these windows is hereinafter referred to as "the inspection reference data"). Further, the inspection data for each part is made into a file and registered in a memory of the board inspection apparatus (this file is hereinafter referred to as "the inspection data file")
In the conventional board inspection apparatus, a parts library with inspection data registered therein for each part type is registered. The user executes for each part the process of designating the mounting position of the part on a model board image in a satisfactory mounting state, and attaching at a designated position the inspection data read from the parts library. In this way, an inspection data file can be efficiently produced.
Further, the teaching can be automated using the board design data such as the CAD data. In this case, the control unit of the inspection apparatus extracts the mounting position and the item number data of the particular part from the design data, reads the inspection data corresponding to the item number data from the parts library and sets the inspection data at the mounting position (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 5-35849).
The lands on the board are required to be designed taking into consideration various factors including the mounting condition of the electrodes and the heat radiation of the board in operation. The land size, therefore, is different for a different design rule. Some makers have no unified design rule and have different land sizes for different boards. Even those makers having a unified design rule sometimes set a plurality of land sizes based on old and new rules, or set different land sizes for different board sizes. Further, manufacturers fabricating a board on consignment for a plurality of makers are required to produce and inspect boards having various sizes of lands in view of the fact that the design rule varies from one maker to another.
The parts library described above is produced using a board image based on a predetermined design rule. In the case where a board changed in land size due to a different design rule is inspected, however, the situation may not be met by the inspection data in this parts library. In such a case, according to the prior art, the inspection windows are displayed in superposed relation on the image of a reference board after producing an inspection data file, and the user is caused to correct the position and size of the window manually. This correcting job consumes a great amount of time (the correction of a single board may consume about one half of a day). Thus, the burden on the user increases, and the inspection cannot be started early.

Inspection data producing method and board inspection apparatus using the method


In one aspect, the invention relates to a double-sided, indexable milling insert comprising two rake faces, between which there extends a circumferential clearance face that, in transition to the rake faces, together with the same, forms peripheral cutting edges. Each rake face including lock means for rotationally securing the milling insert in one of several index positions. Along the periphery of the individual rake face, a plurality of tangentially spaced-apart cutting edges are formed, which individually rise at an acute pitch angle from a first end toward a second one. A rake surface is positioned radially inside the individual cutting edge following the cutting edge by rising from a lower boundary line to a crest, via which the same transforms into a declining shoulder surface, which serves as a rotationally securing lock means. In addition, each rake face comprises individual bearing surfaces, which are situated between pairs of adjacent rake surfaces and on a different level from the same. In a further aspect, the invention also relates to a milling tool that is equipped with one or more milling inserts.

This invention has its origin in milling tools that are equipped with double-sided, indexable milling inserts, i.e., milling inserts that in one and the same body, usually of cemented carbide, include a plurality of usable cutting edges, more precisely an equally large number of identical cutting edges along each one of the two chip faces of the milling insert. In comparison with single sided milling inserts having a positive macro geometry, double-sided and invertible milling inserts may be formed with a doubled number of cutting edges. A problem of double-sided milling inserts is, however, that inactive, unused cutting edges as well as unused bearing surfaces included in the up-turned chip face, are exposed to detrimental impact from the chips that are produced by the active cutting edge indexed forward at present. If the chips removed by the active cutting edge hammer against an adjacent, unused cutting edge, there is a risk of the micro geometry of the last mentioned one, e.g. cutting edge rounding, bevel angle and bevel width, being altered in a negative way. Moreover, a possible, surface-reinforcing coating may also be damaged and partly destroyed. Hammering chips may also bore into the unused bearing surface(s) included in the up-turned chip face of the milling insert. When the milling insert then is inverted, damage of the bearing surfaces may result in the support under the active cutting edge indexed forward becoming inferior (reduced and uneven support surface), which in turn may cause bending and/or tensile stresses, which breaks the milling insert. Damage of the milling insert as a consequence of hammering chips may accordingly bring about deteriorated dimensional accuracy and surface finish of the surfaces generated in a workpiece, and result in a shortened service life of the so milling inserts of the tool so far that damaged milling inserts have to be put out of operation prematurely. The fact that the service life of different cutting edges of one and the same milling insert, as well as of different milling inserts, may vary in an uncontrolled way causes difficulties for the users who, for their production, depend on a predictable and reliable production process in which all milling inserts included in the milling tool are consumed approximately simultaneously and are suitable for replacement at one and the same occasion.

Milling tool as well as a milling insert


The current disclosure provides binding polypeptides (e.g., antibodies), and effector moiety conjugates thereof (e.g., antibody-drug conjugates or ADCs), comprising a site-specifically engineered drug-glycan linkage within native or engineered glycans of the binding polypetpide. The current disclosure also provides nucleic acids encoding the antigen-binding polypeptides, recombinant expression vectors and host cells for making such antigen-binding polypeptides. Methods of using the antigen-binding polypeptides disclosed herein to treat disease are also provided.

Treatment of cancer is still a significant challenge for mankind. Although current standard therapeutics, including surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, have saved many patient lives, there is great demand for more effective therapeutics, especially target specific therapies with higher efficacy and greater therapeutic window. One of these target specific treatments employs antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) in which an antigen specific antibody targets a non-specific chemotherapy drug to the tumor site. These molecules have shown have efficacy and good safety profiles in a clinical setting. However, development of such therapeutics can be challenging as many factors, including the antibody itself and linkage stability, can have significant impact on tumor specificity, thereby reducing efficacy. With high non-specific binding and low stability in circulation, the ADC would be cleared through normal tissues before reaching the tumor. Moreover, ADCs with significant subpopulations of high drug loading could generate aggregates which would be eliminated by macrophages, leading to shorter half-life. Thus, there are increasing needs for critical process control and improvement as well as preventing complications such as the product aggregation and nonspecific toxicity from IgG.
Although ADCs generated according to current methods are effective, development of such therapeutics can be challenging as heterogeneous mixtures are often a consequence of the conjugation chemistries used. For example, drug conjugation to antibody lysine residues is complicated by the fact that there are many lysine residues (˜30) in an antibody available for conjugation. Since the optimal number of drug to antibody ratio (DAR) is much lower (e.g., around 4:1), lysine conjugation often generates a very heterogeneous profile. Furthermore, many lysines are located in critical antigen binding sites of CDR region and drug conjugation may lead to a reduction in antibody affinity. On the other hand, while thiol mediated conjugation mainly targets the eight cysteines involved in hinge disulfide bonds, it is still difficult to predict and identify which four of eight cysteines are consistently conjugated among the different preparations. More recently, genetic engineering of free cysteine residues has enabled site-specific conjugation with thiol-based chemistries, but such linkages often exhibit highly variable stability, with drug-linker undergoing exchange reactions with albumin and other thiol-containing serum molecules. Therefore, a site-specific conjugation strategy which generates an ADC with a defined conjugation site and stable linkage would be highly useful in guaranteeing drug conjugation while minimizing adverse effects on antibody structure or function.

Site-specific antibody-drug conjugation through glycoengineering


A method and system for ballast water treatment is provided for a vessel with a ballast water tank system that pumps water from a local environment through a conduit into at least one tank on the vessel. The water contains aerobic micro-organisms from the local environment. Oxygen-containing gas is introduced into the water as it is pumped through the conduit. Living organisms are added into the water with the oxygen-containing gas introduced therein. As a result, the tank receives a mixture of the water with the oxygen-containing gas introduced therein and the living organisms added thereto. The living organisms are selected to consume (i) the aerobic micro-organisms, (ii) oxygen dissolved in the water, and (iii) food sources for the aerobic micro-organisms contained in the water. A vacuum is applied to the tank's ullage space at a point in time after the mixture is received in the tank.

Non-indigenous, nuisance and/or harmful species of aquatic micro-organisms are discharged into territorial waters by means of ballast water carried by ships from foreign ports. These micro-organisms are predominantly aerobic organisms that require oxygen throughout their life cycle, i.e., first as larvae or spores, then through their maturation process, finally as a mature organism. These aerobic micro-organisms obtain the necessary oxygen from "dissolved" atmospheric air present in the water contained in a vessel's ballast tanks. Dissolved air in water contains all the constituent gases present in the earth's atmosphere (including oxygen) that are not chemically bonded to the atomic elements of water. Therefore, the dissolved oxygen in water is freely available to sustain aquatic life.

“In-situ” ballast water treatment method and system


There is provided an ink sheet cartridge, which is provided with a cartridge body, a supply-side core tube, a takeup-side core tube, and spools detachably attached to end portions of the supply-side and takeup-side core tubes, respectively, and at least one intermediate connector that is interposed between at least one of the spools and corresponding one of the end portions of the supply-side and takeup-side core tubes. The corresponding one of the end portions at which the at least one intermediate connector is interposed id formed with a female engagement portion. The ink sheet cartridge further includes a male engagement member that is fitted into the female engagement portion from the outside so that the at least one intermediate connector is engaged with one of the supply-side and takeup-side core tubes having the female engagement portion.

The present invention relates to an ink sheet cartridge, and to an exchangeable ink sheet set which can be attached to the ink sheet cartridge.
In general, a thermal printer employs an ink ribbon cartridge which eases replacement of an ink ribbon, i.e., handling of the thermal printer. When the thermal printer is configured as a line printer, a wide ink sheet is used.
Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 2001-277627 discloses an ink sheet cartridge having the wide ink sheet. The ink sheet cartridge disclosed in this publication includes a supply core tube, a takeup core tube, and a cartridge body. Spools are attached to both ends of the supply core tube and the takeup core tube so that each of the core tubes is rotatably attached via the spools to right and left side walls of the cartridge body.
In the ink sheet cartridge, an intermediate connector is interposed between one of the spools and an end portion of the supply core tube. FIG. 18 schematically shows the intermediate connector 103 and one of the supply core tube 101 as a front view. As shown in FIG. 18, the intermediate connector 103 has a resilient pawl 104 which engages with a mating groove 102 formed at the end portion of the core tube 101. The resilient pawl 104 has an arm portion 104a and a pawl portion 104b.
The resilient pawl 104 has a form of a letter "L" and extends from a maximum diameter portion 103a of the intermediate connector 103 in an axial direction of the core tube 101. When the intermediate connector 103 is inserted into the end portion of the core tube 101, the resilient pawl 104 is also inserted into the mating groove 102. Then, the resilient pawl 104 engages with the mating groove 102.
The above mentioned configuration shown in FIG. 18 requires the intermediate connector 103 to connect the spool (not shown) to the core tube 101. Therefore, the configuration prevents a non-regular ink sheet (e.g., one provided by a non-regular vendor which is different from a regular vendor of the ink sheet cartridge having the configuration shown in FIG. 18) from being erroneously attached to the cartridge body (not shown in FIG. 18).

Ink sheet cartridge and exchangeable ink sheet set


A heliostat includes a pedestal, a transmission system, a heliostat frame assembly, and a mirror assembly. The heliostat frame assembly generally includes a first heliostat frame set and a second heliostat frame set mounted to the transmission system which is mounted upon the pedestal. Each heliostat frame set includes a stackable heliostat inner frame assembly and a stackable heliostat outer frame assembly. Each stackable heliostat inner frame assembly is identical and each stackable heliostat outer frame assembly is identical such that a multiple of heliostat inner frames and a multiple of heliostat outer frames are readily stackable in a nested arrangement for storage and transport.

The present invention relates to a heliostat structure, and more particularly to a stackable heliostat frame assembly which increases packaging efficiency during transport.
Heliostats are mirror structures that direct the sun's energy to a central receiver to produce electric power. The heliostat and central receiver are often referred to as a solar power tower system. A solar power tower system capable of producing 100 megawatts electric power may require approximately 40,000 16 ft×16 ft heliostats. These heliostats may be a significant cost of the solar power tower system.
Conventional heliostats include a heliostat frame and torque tube structure that are constructed on-site of the heliostat field. Such a field is typically located in hot desert conditions. Construction of conventional heliostats in this environment may further increase the on-site assembly costs.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a heliostat structure which is constructed in a manner which increases packaging efficiency for transport yet decreases on-site assembly costs.


A data transmission device for serial, synchronous transmission of data includes a master device and a slave device which can be linked by at least one data transmission line and a clock signal line. The master and slave devices can be linked by an additional ready signal line for transmitting a ready signal from the slave device to the master device. When the slave device has completed a data reading operation, a ready signal can be generated for the master device. The master device is able to initiate a further writing operation to the slave device only after receiving the ready signal from the slave device. Suppression of interference by the slave device may be enhanced.

The present invention relates to a data transmission device having a master device and a slave device connected via at least one data transmission line and one clock signal line.
Data transmission devices of the type mentioned at the outset are used today in many electrical devices. The data exchange, for instance, between different electrical switching devices gains more and more importance.
Information on programs and functions to be executed and on the devices themselves or on current device states are to be interrogatable at any time by any device at any place, and to be exchangeable among the devices. To this end, the devices are equipped down to the lowest functional levels with intelligence and corresponding device interfaces for the data exchange.
In the low-cost area, it is preferred to use serial data transmission types. This has the advantage that fewer signal lines are needed than in the case of a parallel data transmission. To keep the outlay of required hardware as low as possible, the data transmission should be implemented synchronously.
A serial synchronous data transmission between two stations requires at least one data line for bidirectional data transmission and one clock signal line or two data lines for unidirectional data transmission and one clock signal line. The clock signal line, which controls the entire signal flow between the stations, is of particular importance here. This clock signal is generated by a master device. A slave device which communicates with the master device has to adapt itself to this predetermined clock.
Known interfaces for these serial synchronous transmission types include: I2C (Philips), SPI (Motorola), Microwire (National Semiconductor), or the like. These interfaces are generally used for the data transmission between different components within one device.
If the intention is to implement such a serial synchronous data transmission between individual devices, measures have to be taken with respect to possibly occurring interference signals. To protect, in particular, the clock signal line from interference effects, provision is usually made for hardware interference suppression measures in the form of filters and screenings. In some cases, the interference immunity is supported by additional software interference suppression measures. Such software interference suppression measures are generally implemented via a repeated reading of the received information. To this end, the information is repeatedly read at intervals of about 5 to 20 μs (average duration of the interference effects) and evaluated via a majority decision (signals which are read in the majority of cases are rated as correct). To increase the interference immunity in this kind of interference suppression, the number of read operations is increased.
Interference suppression via hardware involves the disadvantage of a relatively large expenditure for hardware. Furthermore, digital software interference suppression is insufficient since only the master device which, in fact, generates the clock signal, is able to perform repeated read operations by delaying or halting the clock signal for the required (check) read time.

Device for synchronous transmission of data between a master device and a slave device


Methods and apparatuses presented herein control antenna connectivity for a wireless communication device as a function of rotation of a connector assembly plugged into the device, such as where an external antenna or cable includes the connector assembly. Assuming the device has a mating connector for the external antenna that changes the connections of internal and external antennas as a function of the connector mating depth, the method comprises configuring the wireless communication device and/or the external antenna with a mechanical feature that changes the mating depth between the device's and the antenna's mating connectors responsive to external antenna rotation. In one embodiment, a body portion of the external antenna retains the mating connector and includes a cam feature or other mechanical feature that engages an edge or surface of the device as the antenna is rotated, thereby pushing the antenna out from the device.

1. Technical Field
The present invention generally relates to antennas, such as external antennas used on wireless communication devices, and particularly relates to controlling antenna connectivity as a function of antenna orientation.
2. Background
Wireless communication devices, such as PC Cards, mobile terminals, etc., often make use of internal antennas and external antennas. For example, it may be convenient (or practically necessary) to include an internal antenna within a PC Card. Incorporation of the internal antenna makes the card more convenient to use in a laptop or other such system, and makes it more robust physically, as external antennas may be more prone to damage.
However, external antennas commonly offer better performance, e.g., greater gain or sensitivity, as compared to the internal counterparts. The reasons for these performance advantages are varied, but may include the ability to implement external antennas in a larger or more appropriate size, and the ability to space external antennas further away from parasitic coupling elements and active sources of interference.
While the mechanisms for detachably connecting external antennas to wireless communication devices are varied, a typical approach involves the use of complementary mating connectors on the device and the antenna. Known, non-limiting examples of such connectors include "SSMB" connectors, "MC Card Adapters," "MMCX Adapters", "MCX-Plug Adapters," and "RP-MMCX Adapters."
Whether or not these industry-standard connectors are used, a couple of features or characteristics are common to many types of (RF) mating connectors. First, the mating connectors included in the wireless communication devices may include or be associated with switching elements—e.g., spring fingers or other displaceable contacts—that actively connect an external antenna when it is plugged in and correspondingly disconnect the internal antenna(s). Conversely, such mating connectors reconnect the internal antenna(s) when the external antenna's mating connector is unplugged.
Another common characteristic is that the above types of mating connectors allow an external antenna to be rotated while it is plugged in. That characteristic actually is desirable in terms of reducing stresses on the mating connectors which is especially important with surface mount connectors and other potentially vulnerable mechanical/electrical configurations. However, external antenna rotation also can be problematic.
For example, the external antenna may offer performance improvements over the internal antenna only for a restricted range of orientations. In such cases, the external antenna's performance may degrade as it is rotated downward or otherwise away from its preferred angular orientation to the extent that its performance is inferior to the internal antenna. Other considerations, such as undesired antenna coupling, also may come into play with excessive rotation of the external antenna away from its preferred or nominal angular orientation.

Method and apparatus for controlling antenna connectivity as a function of antenna orientation


An image processing device first displays a first screen when first screen information is acquired. The image processing device displays a second screen when a screen change instruction is given from the user in a state in which the first screen is displayed on the display unit. The image processing device executes the image processing related to an object option when the target option is selected in a state in which the second screen is displayed. The image processing device displays the second screen including the option information when the second screen information is acquired after the image processing is executed.

The present specification discloses an image processing device capable of performing an image processing and a screen information supply server for supplying a screen information to the image processing apparatus.
It is known a service linking system including a multifunction device and a relay device. When one of plural types of services is selected by a user, the multifunction device executes various communications with the relay device to receive the selected service from a service providing device. For example, the multifunction device sequentially acquires an album owner input UI display command and an album name selection UI display command from the relay device. Accordingly, the multifunction device sequentially displays an album owner input UI and an album name selection UI. Also, the user can execute each setting related to the selected service (for example, input of the album owner name or selection of the album name) in each UI.

Image processing device and screen information supply server


A computer vision/image processing method generates a depth map. In one embodiment, the present invention provides a method of forming a relative depth map from at least three x-ray images of a patient taken from different perspectives. The method includes the steps of: (a) selecting one of the x-ray images as a reference image; (b) identifying corresponding objects within the reference image and the other images; (c) computing a disparity between the identified corresponding objects; and (d) generating the relative depth map from the disparities.

One embodiment of depth image formation is foreground extraction or background suppression that has been a topic in the composite photography and cinematography industry for many years. For instance, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,778,542 (issued Dec. 11, 1973 to L. C. Hanseman and entitled "Blue screen travelling matte system"), a blue screen travelling matte system is used to create special photographic effects. In this design, a particular selectable saturated color appearing in the simultaneous red, blue and green video output signals of an electronic color camera is sensed and removed from the video signals by electronic subtraction of the selected color. The output red, blue and green video signals derived from a second electronic color camera are substituted for the removed saturated color. The final composite red, blue and green video output signals therefore contain picture elements from both cameras, combined in a manner such that the specific saturated color from the first camera is completely eliminated and replaced by picture elements derived from the second camera. One of the limitations of this system is that a uniformly colored (blue, green, or any constant backing color) background is required in order to extract the region of interest (human figure, for instance, in a newscast). This requirement in turn demands a constrained, structured environment that would limit the usage of this technology to very controlled situations. Many variations of blue screen method have been developed over the years (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,812,214; 5,251,016; and 4,629,298) but they all have the same limitations mentioned hereinabove.
It is understood that the purpose of imposing the aforementioned background restrictions is to compensate for the lack of enough information in the background suppression process. If these restrictions are to be removed, other information must be included so that the problem is still solvable. For example, in Tsai et al. ("Segmenting focused objects in complex visual images," Pattern Recognition Letters, 19, pp. 929–940, 1998) the measurement of defocus of object edges in an image is used to separate complex foreground and background objects. Thus Tsai et al introduces the notion of spatial separation by looking at the degree of defocusing of the image objects. It is known that a two-dimensional planar intensity image is a perspective projection of a three-dimensional scene. It appears that the degrees of freedom of dimension are reduced from 3 to 2, but the spatial information in the third dimension seems lost in the course of projection. This lost spatial information is physically the distance (depth) from the scene to the sensing device, that is, the camera. In fact, the depth information is embedded in the original image pixel locations in that their locations are tightly related to the depth of the corresponding 3D scene. This spatial information, which is lost in the 2D projection, can be recovered by searching corresponding points (pixel locations) in a plurality of displaced intensity images of the scene.
FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary background suppression system equipped with a pair of cameras 11a and 11b that capture two color images: top image 13b and bottom image 13a. Notice that the contents in the two images, e.g., the respective person images 14a and 14b and computer images 15a and 15b, have a vertical dislocation if the edges of the image frames are aligned. This dislocation is called global disparity, and it is a function of the average distance of the scene from the camera. The system needs to find individual disparity corresponding to each visible surface point in the scene so that a depth image can be produced. The value of each pixel in the depth image will represent the distance from the corresponding scene point being projected to that pixel location. In foreground extraction situations, the depth image is usually displayed as a gray scale image 10 as shown in FIG. 1 although it could also be displayed as a color image if the gray scale is color-coded. The depth image 10 in FIG. 1 reveals that a person 17 is in the foreground with a higher gray scale and a computer 16 is in the background with a lower gray scale. Intuitively, the foreground can be separated from the background based on such depth values. The separation of foreground and background can lead to the formation of a foreground mask image 18 showing a depth mask 19. The mask 19 is then used to select the corresponding person region 21 of the bottom intensity image 13a, and thereby produce a foreground image. The same mask is also used in compositing images as shown in FIG. 2 where the person 21 is added to the scene of a door 31. In this case, the foreground mask image 18, with the person depth mask 33, is used to suppress a portion of the background in the door image 31, thereby generating an intermediate image 34 in which a portion 35 of the door 36 is blocked out so that a person region 21 may be substituted in its place in the resultant composite image 41. Notice that the suppressed background is not a constant backing color scene.
From another perspective, separating foreground and background is essentially an image segmentation task that is formidable without a model, especially where there is a complex background. For example, FIG. 3 presents a scene with a person 63 in the foreground and a face picture 62 in the background. Usually, a face model would be used to single out the person in the image. If so, the face picture in the background will still be classified as part of the foreground and be selected as well. However, with the help of depth information, background suppression for this kind of scene would be possible. Accordingly, using the depth information of a scene is an effective way to extract foreground or suppress background of the scene image. The key issues, however, are the acquisition and processing of the depth information. Conventional depth recovery algorithms (see S B Marianne and M. M. Trigged, "Region-based stereo analysis for robotic applications, "IEEE Trans. Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, 19(6): 1447–1464, 1989, and S. B. Marapane and M. M. Trivedi, "Edge segment based stereo analysis," SPIE Vol. 1293, Applications of Artificial Intelligence VIII, pp. 140–151, 1990) do not provide clear depth boundaries (depth discontinuities) that are needed in forming a clear foreground depth mask.
Another embodiment of depth image formation is 3D (three-dimensional) reconstruction of medical images. Dobbins et al ("Digital x-ray tomosynthesis: current state of the art and clinical potential", Phys. Med. Biol. 48 (2003) R65–R106) provides a review of x-ray tomosynthesis. Digital x-ray tomosynthesis is a technique for producing slice images using conventional x-ray systems. It is a refinement of conventional geometric tomography, which has been known since the 1930s.
In conventional geometric tomography, an x-ray tube and image receptor move in synchrony on opposite sides of the patient to produce a plane of structures in sharp focus at the plane containing the fulcrum of the motion; all other structures above and below the fulcrum plane are blurred and thus less visible in the resulting image. Tomosynthesis improves upon conventional geometric tomography in that it allows an arbitrary number of in-focus planes to be generated retrospectively from a sequence of projection radiographs that are acquired during a single motion of the x-ray tube. By shifting and adding these projection radiographs, specific planes may be reconstructed. While the methods reviewed in the Dobbins article can provide users with adequate 2D images, the methods do not produce meaningful 3D structures (depth information).
Accordingly, there exists a need for a method to provide clear depth boundaries so that a meaningful depth image, or map, can be formed.
One use is to provide an image composite system wherein a foreground depth mask (or a 3D structure) is formed by the means of analyzing the depth map of a scene. While this depth image, or map, can be used in the preferred embodiments of the present invention in connection with an image composite system, it should be recognized that such a depth image would be useful in a variety of situations, such as in the formation of virtual images. As such, an object is to provide a scene depth imaging system in which a scene depth map produced from a plurality of images provides meaningful depth data.


First and second semiconductor wafers are bonded together, with at least one of the wafers having a first layer of silicon, an intermediate oxide layer and a second layer of silicon. The first silicon layer is initially mechanically reduced by around 80% to 90% of its thickness. The remaining silicon layer is further reduced by a plasma etch which may leave an uneven thickness. With appropriate masking the uneven thickness is made even by a second plasma etch. Remaining silicon is removed by a dry etch with XeF2 or BrF3 to expose the intermediate oxide layer. Prior to bonding, the semiconductor wafers may be provided with various semiconductor devices to which electrical connections are made through conducting vias formed through the exposed intermediate oxide layer.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention in general relates to reducing the thickness of certain semiconductor structures.
2. Description of Related Art
In the field of semiconductor device fabrication it is often desired to remove a semiconductor layer from an adjacent layer of other material. For example, the semiconductor layer may be of silicon and the adjacent layer may be of an oxide of silicon, such as silicon dioxide. This type of arrangement is found in an SOI (silicon on insulator) structure which includes a base layer of silicon adjacent to an intermediate layer of silicon dioxide and a top layer of silicon.
Several methods are used or have been proposed for the removal of the base silicon layer. These include plasma etching, grinding, lapping and wet chemical etching. Plasma etching has been demonstrated with fluorine and chlorine based etchants. These etchants however, have a relatively low selectivity to the oxide, for example 100:1. Otherwise stated, these etchants will etch through the silicon at a rate X, and through the silicon dioxide at a rate Y, where X/Y is 100. This makes it difficult to stop the etching process when the oxide layer is reached. Grinding and lapping leaves an objectionable and unacceptable rough surface leading to uneven subsequent etching.
Wet etches include the use of potassium hydroxide, tetramethyl ammonium hydroxide and hydrofluoric/nitric acids. Some of these etchants have a better selectivity to the silicon dioxide, however they attack the edges of the semiconductor structure, even if a protective coating is applied. This leads to objectionable rough edges and microcracks in the structure.
It is a primary object of the present invention to obviate the drawbacks of the conventional thinning processes currently used.

Method of thinning a semiconductor structure


A flexible shield for enclosing a hood of a hair dryer about the head of a person having her hair dried, the shield both advantageously guiding air over the head and also protecting the face from exposure to heated air. The shield comprises a substantially flat panel prior to installation. When installed, the shield assumes a generally tubular configuration open at both ends and also having a lateral opening for admitting the neck of the hood. The upper opening is constricted by a drawstring and the lower opening has an elastic band for automatically constricting about the head of the user. The lower opening is maintained closed by a heat resistant snap fastener. Optionally, the shield has perforations disposed throughout to exhaust air which would otherwise escape through the lateral opening.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a flexible combined air guide and shield used by a person drying his or her hair with a hooded hair dryer. The shield is a flexible tube placed over the hood and head of the user. It is secured at one end at the hair line of the user and at the other end drawn tight over the hood of the hair dryer.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Hood type hair dryers have come into widespread use in commercial salons for drying freshly washed and newly serviced hair. The hood partially covers the head and discharges heated air against the hair. This air flows from the top of the hood downwardly, eventually escaping through a gap existing between the head and the hood.
Despite their widespread acceptance, these dryers have certain problems. One is that there is a conflict between comfort and effectiveness. The greater the heat and air flow, the more effective the dryer will be. However, excessive heat or air flow or both may subject the skin and face of the user to excessive and potentially injurious heat. If the heat and air flow are reduced, or if the gap between the hood and the head of the user is widened, drying times will be extended.
A shield adapted to cooperate with the hood of a hair dryer is seen in U.S. Pat. No. 4,704,744, issued to Janice L. Myers on Nov. 10, 1987. The device of Myers comprises a visor extending entirely around the head, and disposed roughly at the hair line. The visor is held in place by straps passing over the head. By contrast, the present invention comprises a generally tubular member passing over both the hood and the head of the user.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,698,533, issued to James C. Brown on Jan. 8, 1929, illustrates a hair treating apparatus forming a tube open at two ends in a manner generally similar to that of the present invention. However, the present invention includes a lateral slot allowing passage of the supply air tube of the dryer through the novel shield, and is fastened by elastic at one end and a draw cord at the other, unlike the device of Brown.
Other flexible shields are seen in U.S. Pat. No. 1,023,677, issued to Gretel J. Pass on Apr. 16, 1912, U.S. Pat. No. 1,968,697, issued to Lillian C. McComb on Jul. 31, 1934, U.S. Pat. No. 2,568,399, issued to Faith Hope Kahn on Sep. 18, 1951, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,642,528, issued to Helen A. Dering on Jul. 1, 1997.
None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed.


A fishing reel includes a clicking mechanism that produces an audible indication when fishing line is payed out from a rotatable line spool. The audible indication is created by the interaction of a clicking member and a flexibly mounted tab. The clicking mechanism is constructed such that the audible indication will not occur as the crank handle is being turned by a user to retrieve the fishing line.

The present invention relates generally to fishing reels, and more particularly to clicking mechanisms for conventional trolling/bait cast fishing reels that produce an audible indication when fishing line is payed out.
Conventional trolling/bait cast fishing reels are known to include mechanisms that create a clicking noise when fishing line is payed out from the reel, such as when a fish takes a bait. This clicking noise is also audible, however, while the user reels in the fishing line. While the user typically has the option of disengaging the clicking mechanism, such disengagement will also prevent clicking during pay out. It is thus desirable to have a fishing reel employing a clicking mechanism that automatically creates a clicking noise while the fishing line pays out but does not when the fishing line is retrieved.

Fishing reel having improved pay out clicking mechanism


A method, and computer program product for providing dynamically tunneling over an unreliable protocol or a reliable protocol based on network conditions is presented. A connection between a source device and a destination device is established using a reliable protocol. An attempt is then made to utilize an unreliable protocol to communicate between the source device and the destination device. When the attempt to utilize an unreliable protocol is successful, then the unreliable protocol is used to transmit data between the source device and the destination device. When the attempt to utilize the unreliable protocol is unsuccessful, then the reliable protocol connection is used to transmit data between the source device and the destination device.

Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is one of the main protocols in TCP/IP (Internet protocol) networks. TCP enables two hosts to establish a connection and exchange streams of data. TCP guarantees delivery of data and also guarantees that packets will be delivered in the same order in which they were sent. TCP is referred to as a "reliable" protocol.
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is a protocol that supplies secure data communication through data encryption and decryption. SSL enables communications privacy over networks. SSL tunneling refers to the ability of a server to allow a client to establish a tunnel through the server directly to the Web server with the requested HTTPS object. Whenever a client browser requests an HTTPS object through the Server, SSL tunneling is used. SSL tunneling, since it requires a reliable connection, occurs over TCP.
Transport Layer Security (TLS) is the IETF standard version of SSLv3 with security improvements and corrections. TLS is a protocol that guarantees privacy and data integrity between client/server applications communicating over the Internet. The TLS protocol is made up of two layers: the TLS Record Protocol and the TLS handshake protocol.
The TLS record protocol is layered on top of a reliable transport protocol, such as TCP. The TLS record protocol ensures that the connection is private by using symmetric data encryption and it ensures that the connection is reliable. The TLS record protocol also is used for encapsulation of higher-level protocols, such as the TLS handshake protocol.
The TLS handshake protocol allows authentication between the server and client and the negotiation of an encryption algorithm and cryptographic keys before the application protocol transmits or receives any data.
User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is a connectionless protocol that, like TCP, runs on top of IP networks. Unlike TCP/IP, UDP/IP provides very few error recovery services, offering instead a direct way to send and receive datagrams over an IP network. UDP is therefore referred to as an "unreliable" protocol. UDP is used primarily for broadcasting messages over a network.
Datagram TLS (DTLS) is a protocol based on TLS that is capable of securing datagram transport (UDP for instance). DTLS is well suited for securing applications that are delay sensitive (and hence use datagram transport), tunneling applications (Virtual Private Networks or VPNs), and applications that tend to run out of file descriptors or socket buffers.
HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is the underlying protocol used by the World Wide Web. HTTP defines how messages are formatted and transmitted, and what actions Web servers and browsers should take in response to various commands. For example, when a user enters a URL in a browser, this sends an HTTP command to the Web server directing the web server to fetch and transmit the requested Web page.
Secure HTTP (HTTPS) is an extension to HTTP that supports various encryption and authentication measures to keep all transactions secure from end to end. HTTPS can comprise HTTP over TLS or TCP.
Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a network that is constructed using public systems such as the Internet but uses security mechanisms to ensure privacy and that only authorized users are allowed access.
SSL VPNs permit access to corporate resources securely. One of the advantages of SSL VPNs is the ability to connect from almost anywhere, including through firewalls and proxies. This is because SSL VPNs use the same protocols that are used for World Wide Web (WWW) access, and are able to use that infrastructure (e.g., proxies and firewalls) to its advantage.
Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) is a technology that allows persons to send and receive voice, fax and data information over a combination of a phone network and a digital communications network. In a VOIP environment voice signals are processed for transport over a packet network. The VOIP environment includes a pair of gateways, one at each end of the packet network. The gateways perform the compression and packetizing necessary to accomplish VOIP. The voice signal is received by a first gateway, where the voice signal is then compressed and packetized. The packets are sent out on the packet network. The packets are received by the second gateway from the packet network. The second gateway converts the packets back into a voice signal.
Traditionally systems which are used for providing VOIP functions, video, file transfers, real-time and non-real time data transfer typically use a single protocol. A system may use SSL over TCP to connect between a source and destination device and to transmit data between the devices. Other conventional systems providing the same functions may use DTLS over UDP.

Method for dynamically tunneling over an unreliable protocol or a reliable protocol, based on network conditions


A method, process and system for performing content augmentation of personal profiles includes (a) building a user history of a plurality of augmented content information of relevant TV programs; (b) analyzing user queries and determining a degree to which the user queried for additional content information; (c) inferring values about the user from user queries for additional content information so as to augment the additional content information; (d) updating the augmented content information to at least one of the user history, Internet and specialized databases; (e) linking individual ones of the plurality of augmented content information to each other; and (f) determining inferences about the user's interests and preferences based on the linkage of the plurality of augmented content information. The updating of the augmented content information includes segmenting and indexing of multimedia content. A feedback system is created where user queries for more information and purchases from the Internet and specialized databases will result in additional augmented content information about the particular user.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to systems used to generate, update and transform TV personal preference profiles. More particularly, the present invention relates to a content augmentation system.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the prior art, there are known personal profiles technology systems, such as TiVo™ related personal digital recorder systems. In such prior art systems, a user must explicitly input program preferences in order for the system to record whole TV programs and recommend future programs. Such technology is referred to in the art as "pull" technology that is used in the personal digital recorders. Such pull technology is limited to the inputs provided by the user, or possibly prompted by the system. Also, it is difficult to know truly to what degree a user would like or dislike a particular program based on the personal preference previously input, because there are many different nuances as to what can make a user like or dislike a particular program, and also affect to what degree their likes or dislikes can be quantitatively anticipated.
One issue, for example, is that while a person might signify a personal preference for watching "western" movies, that person might have a dislike for a particular actor or actress, or the story line of a particular movie that might not be recognized as a western by a system using only explicit user inputs. Moreover, as a program can run anywhere from several minutes to several hours, it could be difficult to ascertain what in the program is actually liked or disliked, based on personal profiles created by pull technology.

Content augmentation based on personal profiles


A back support includes a base, a seat, and a back frame pivoted to the base. The seating unit has a flexible back (i.e., back shell) supported on the back frame and having stiff upper and lower sections connected by a forwardly protruding flexible lumbar section for providing lumbar support to a seated user. A spring mechanism is connected to the back frame and to a center lower edge of the flexible back. The spring mechanism biases the flexible back to bias the lumbar toward a forwardly protruding shape to provide optimal lumbar support when in the upright position and also during recline of the seated user.

The present invention concerns seating units having a reclineable back, and more particularly concerns seating units having a reclineable back with flexible lumbar region.
A synchrotilt chair is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,050,931 (to Knoblock) having a base assembly with a control, a reclineable back pivoted to the control, and a seat operably mounted to the back and control for synchronous motion as the back is reclined. This prior art chair incorporates a semi-rigid flexible shell that, in combination with the chair support structure, provides a highly-controlled postural support during the body movements associated with tasks/work (e.g., when the back is in an upright position) and during the body movements associated with recline/relaxation (e.g., when the chair is in a reclined position). This prior art chair moves a seated user's upper body away from the user's work surface as the user reclines, thus providing the user with more area to stretch. In fact, moving around in a chair and not staying in a single static position is important to good back health in workers whose jobs require a lot of sitting. However, users often want to remain close to their work surface and want to continue to work at the work surface, even while reclining and relaxing their body and while having continued good postural support. Further, workers often want to selectively choose the amount of maximum recline. In other words, workers often want to lean backward (i.e. recline) a small amount in an intermediate recline position, and yet simultaneously stay an appropriate distance from their work surface. also, workers prefer not to "fight" with the chair to stay in the intermediate partial-recline positions.
Modern customers and chair purchasers also demand a wide variety of chair options and features, and a number of options and features are often designed into chair seats. It is important that such options and features be incorporated into the chair construction in a way that minimizes the number of parts and maximizes the use of common parts among different options, maximizes efficiencies of manufacturing and assembling, maximizes ease of adjustment and the logicalness of adjustment control positioning, and yet that results in a visually pleasing design.
Accordingly, a chair construction solving the aforementioned problems is desired.


A folding artificial Christmas frame adapted to be mounted onto a vertical structure, such as a wall, a door or the like. The frame includes a generally triangular top frame portion that is hingedly connected to a bottom frame portion having a generally truncated triangular shape. The top and bottom frame portions may be folded together to facilitate storage.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to artificial Christmas trees and, in particular, to a new and improved folding frame for an artificial Christmas tree which may be mounted on a wall, door, or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is frequently necessary during the Christmas season to rearrange furniture in order to provide space for a Christmas tree, whether it be real or artificial. This rearrangement sometimes requires that furniture be placed in undesirable locations to provide space for the tree. In order to solve this problem, a variety of Christmas trees have been created which are mounted on a wall, door, or the like.
However, many of these artificial trees are either to bulky to be easily stored, or breakdown into numerous parts which are inconvenient to handle and may easily be misplaced. Therefore, there is a need for a folding artificial Christmas tree frame which may mounted on a vertical structure, such as a wall, adorned with a wide variety of decorations, and folded for easy storage.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,409,745 discloses an Artificial Christmas Tree having a vertical trunk with a plurality of openings therein for receiving removable, flexible branches. The branches may be arranged in a configuration which allows the tree to be placed against, and attached to, a vertical surface, such as a wall. U.S. Pat. No. 5,307,252 discloses a Wall Supported Christmas tree comprising the front half of a Christmas tree attached to a rigid, planar support surface which may be attached to a wall or the like.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,612,218 discloses an Artificial Christmas Tree comprising a rigid, planar support surface with a plurality of mounting holes therein for receiving flexible branches. The Christmas tree may be mounted on a vertical surface, such as a wall or the like.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,511,607 discloses a Window Mounted Christmas Tree comprising a resiliently mounted upright support member which mounts between the top and bottom of a window frame. The support member has a plurality of openings therein for receiving flexible branches.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,109,036 discloses an Artificial Christmas Tree having an upright trunk with a plurality of holes therein for receiving flexible branches. The tree may be secured to a wall by a threaded fastener.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,857,748 discloses a Christmas Tree Assembly comprising a rigid, triangular backing plate which may be mounted on a vertical structure, such as a door. A vertical trunk having a plurality of holes therein for receiving flexible branches is attached to the backing plate.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,027,671 discloses a Wall Mounted Simulated Christmas Tree including an upright trunk for supporting a plurality of rigid branches.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,864,192 discloses a Simulated Christmas Tree that has a large rectangular backing plate having a series of arcuate wire members connected by radially extending wire members and upwardly extending wire members all in a configuration to simulate a Christmas tree.
None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed.


A mobile environment-controlled unit, such as an over-the-road compartment trailer, having an environmental-control system, such as a refrigeration unit, powered by an alternator and having a high-voltage alternating current (AC) bus. The unit incorporates a high resistance ground scheme and can incorporate a solid-state input module to detect phase-chassis faults. This combination provides an improvement in protection for mobile applications that cannot have a voltage reference (or neutral point) solidly connected to earth ground.

Embodiments of the invention relate to a mobile environment-controlled unit, such as an over-the-road compartment trailer, having an environmental-control system, such as a refrigeration unit, powered by an alternator and having a high-voltage alternating current (AC) bus. Other embodiments of the invention relate to a vehicle having an alternator and a high-voltage AC bus.
Stationary high-voltage applications typically include a grounding and protection scheme. However, mobile high-voltage applications cannot rely on the same grounding and protection schemes as stationary high-voltage applications.
One scheme for a mobile high-voltage application is an open-circuit neutral-chassis connection to limit fault current. However, this scheme fails to limit voltage spikes during intermittent phase-chassis faults, which can damage equipment and lead to cascading failures.
Another scheme for a mobile high-voltage application is a short-circuit neutral-chassis connection. However, this scheme provides insignificant protection unless incorporated with a ground fault current interrupter (GFCI or GFI) device. This scheme is somewhat imprecise to implement, and can lead to either nuisance trips (affecting reliability) or imprecise thresholds (leading to potential personnel safety).

Vehicle or environment-controlled unit having a multiphase alternator with a protected high-voltage bus


A unified web-based voice messaging system provides voice application control between a web browser and an application server via an hypertext transport protocol (HTTP) connection on an Internet Protocol (IP) network. The application server executes the voice-enabled web application by runtime execution of extensible markup language (XML) documents that define the voice-enabled web application to be executed. Each voice application operation can be defined as any one of a user interface operation, a logic operation, or a function operation. Each XML document includes XML tags that specify the user interface operation, the logic operation and/or the function operation to be performed within a corresponding voice application operation, the XML tags being based on prescribed rule sets that specify the executable functions to be performed by the application runtime environment.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to generating and executing voice enabled web applications within a hypertext markup language (HTML) and hypertext transport protocol (HTTP) framework.
2. Description of the Related Art
The evolution of the public switched telephone network has resulted in a variety of voice applications and services that can be provided to individual subscribers and business subscribers. Such services include voice messaging systems that enable landline or wireless subscribers to record, playback, and forward voice mail messages. However, the ability to provide enhanced services to subscribers of the public switched telephone network is directly affected by the limitations of the public switched telephone network. In particular, the public switched telephone network operates according to a protocol that is specifically designed for the transport of voice signals; hence any modifications necessary to provide enhanced services can only be done by switch vendors that have sufficient know-how of the existing public switched telephone network infrastructure.
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the existing public switched telephone network. As shown in FIG. 1, the public switched telephone network 10 includes a wireline subnetwork 12, a wireless subnetwork 14, and a time division multiplexed (TDM) backbone subnetwork 16 configured for transporting voice data and other data between user devices 18 according to the existing public switched telephone network protocols. The subnetwork 16, for example, includes interexchange trunks for transporting voice data between interexchange carriers and/or local exchange carriers.
As shown in FIG. 1, the wireline subnetwork 12 includes telephony application servers 20 configured for providing voice applications 22 such as subscriber profile management, voice mail, call forwarding, etc. for the user devices 18a, 18b, and 18c coupled to the wireline subnetwork 12. As recognized in the art, the telephony application servers 20 include advanced intelligent network (AIN) components such as services control point (SCP) directories and service nodes (SN) configured for controlling the telephony applications 22. The wireline subnetwork 12 also includes telephony access services 24 configured for providing the user devices 18a, 18b, and 18c access to the wireline subnetwork using, for example, analog twisted pair connections or ISDN connections to a central office. The user devices 18a, 18b, and 18c, illustrated as a cordless telephone 18a, a fax machine 18b having a connected telephone, and an analog telephone 18c, are referred to herein as xe2x80x9cskinny clientsxe2x80x9d, defined as devices that are able to interface with a user to provide voice and/or data services (e.g., via a modem) but cannot perform any control of the application 22 or the protocol used to interface with the wireline subnetwork 12.
The wireless subnetwork includes wireless application servers 26, and wireless access services 28 for providing wireless voice and data services to the wireless user devices 18d, 18e, and 18f. The wireless user devices 18d, 18e, and 18f, illustrated as a cellular telephone (e.g., AMPS, TDMA, or CDMA) 18d, a handheld computing device (e.g., a 3-Com Palm Computing or Windows CE-based handheld device) 18e, and a pager 18f, interact with the wireless application 30 based on respective wireless protocols controlled by the wireless access services 28. The wireless application servers 26 control wireless services such as home location register (HLR) management, and service node (SN) telephony applications. xe2x80x9cTiny clientsxe2x80x9d are distinguishable from skinny clients in that the tiny clients tend to have even less functionality in providing input and output interaction with a user, and may not be able to send or receive audio signals such as voice signals at all. Examples of tiny clients include wireless user devices 18d, 18e, and 18f, as well as function-specific terminal devices. Note that tiny clients tend to be one-way (receive-only or transmit-only) devices.
In both cases, however, both skinny clients and tiny clients have no control of the respective applications 22 and 30 that are running within the respective networks. Rather, the applications 22 and 30 are executed exclusively by the servers 20 and 26. Moreover, both skinny clients and tiny clients have no control of the access protocol used to access the respective subnetworks 12 and 14; hence, the skinny clients and tiny clients are currently incapable of initiating access to another network using an alternative protocol, for example Internet protocol (IP). Consequently, the skinny clients and tiny clients rely exclusively on the service nodes of the servers 20 and 26 to provide the voice application services programmed in the applications 22 and 30, respectively. Although this exclusive control of the applications 22 and 30 by the servers 20 and 26 is advantageous in maintaining control over quality of service and reliability requirements, the applications 22 and 30 can only be developed and maintained by programmers having sufficient know-how of the public switched telephone network infrastructure. As a result, programmers familiar with open standards such as IP are unable to provide contributions in enhancing the applications 22 and 30 due to the limitations of the public switched telephone network paradigm.
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating the web client-server paradigm of an open standards-based IP network 40, such as the World Wide Web, the Internet, or a corporate intranet. The IP network 40 provides client-server type application services for clients 42a and 42b by enabling the clients to request application services from remote servers using standardized protocols, for example hypertext transport protocol (HTTP). The web server application environment 46 includes web server software, such as Apache-based software available from The Apache Software Foundation, implemented on a computer system attached to the IP network 40. Applications 48 are composed of HTML pages, logic, and database functions. In addition, the web server 46 may provide logging and monitoring capabilities.
When the application 48 is written by an application designer, pages are created using an editor. Logic and functions are written in a programming language, such as C, C++, Java, etc. These applications are compiled or interpreted and are invoked through a web server facility such as a Common Gateway Interface (CGI). Hence, pages may be created dynamically by the application 48 as it is executing.
The client 42a, for example, is a stand-alone personal computer or workstation that has its own application 44 for providing its own application services. The client 42a can access the remote web application server 46 that executes the application services 48 via an IP-based packet switched network 50 using either remote access services 52 or local area network access services 54, if available. Similarly, the client 42b having only a browser 56 can also enjoy the services of the applications 44 and 48 by accessing the respective computers 42a and 46.
The clients 42a and 42b, referred to herein as xe2x80x9cfat clientsxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cthin clientsxe2x80x9d, respectively, have the distinct advantage that they can initiate requests using IP protocol to any connected web server 46 to execute part or most of the applications 48 on behalf of the clients. An example of a fat client 42a is an e-mail application on a PC that knows how to run the application 44 and knows how to run the IP protocols to communicate directly with the messaging server via the packet switched network 50. An example of a thin client 42b is a PC that has a web browser; in this case, the web browser 56 can use IP protocols such as HTTP to receive and display web pages generated according to hypertext markup language (HTML) from server locations based on uniform resource locators (URLs) input by the user of the PC.
Hence, the web server paradigm enables the clients 42 to access any web server on the IP network 40. Moreover, the use of open protocols such as HTTP and HTML enable any client 42, regardless of its configuration, to access an HTML web page from a server that has no knowledge of the configuration of the requesting client; if the HTML web page received by the client includes information such as a specific HTML tag that is not recognizable by the browser 56, the browser 56 can merely ignore the unrecognized HTML tag.
Efforts have been made to integrate the telephony applications 22 and 30 directly onto the IP network 40 by developing protocol translators that provide a termination between the telephony applications servers 20 and 26 and the web application servers 46. One such proposal is referred to as voice over IP, where telephony data from the telephony applications 22 and 30 are repackaged into IP packets for transmission across the IP network 50. These efforts, however, still require programmers who have substantial know-how of the telephony applications 22 and 30 and the public switched telephone network infrastructure. Moreover, the repackaging of telephony data into IP packets creates substantial problems in transmission of the telephony data, since the transport of IP data packets is not sequential and synchronous, as required for the voice applications.
Another attempt at performing voice applications over an IP network involves rewriting the telephony applications 22 and 30 as scripts in extensible markup language (XML), and sending the XML scripts over the IP network to an interpreter that is coupled to a telephone. The interpreter then plays the received XML scripts for the telephone. However this approach merely transfers some application functionality from the telephony applications 22 and 30 to the interpreter, and still requires telephony application engineers to write XML scripts of the applications 22 and 30. Hence, the IP network is used only for transporting the XML scripts, and does not take advantage of the open standards-based flexibility of the IP network that has provided enormous growth in web infrastructure and Internet commerce.
As described above, the efforts to date at extending the voice applications 22 and 30 from the public switched telephone network to the IP network 40 have had limited success, primarily because the telephone protocols used in development of the applications 22 and 30 do not operate under the same paradigm as the IP network 40. For example, the telephony applications 22 and 30 are state aware, ensuring that prescribed operations between the application servers 20 or 26 and the user devices 18 occur in a prescribed sequence. For example, operations such as call processing operations, voicemail operations, call forwarding, etc., require that specific actions occur in a specific sequence to enable the multiple components of the public switched telephone network to complete the prescribed operations.
The applications 44 and 48 running in the IP network 40, however, are state-less and transient in nature, and do not maintain application state. These applications 44 and 48 are state-less because application state requires an interactive communication between the browser and back-end database servers accessed by the applications 44 and 48. However, an HTTP server provides asynchronous execution of HTML applications: the applications 44 and 48, in response to reception of a specific request in the form of a URL from a client 42, instantiate a program configured for execution of the specific request, send an HTML web page back to the client 42, and terminate the program instance that executed the specific request. Hence, all active information about the HTML page or application processed is cleared, with the exceptions of log data.
Although application state information could be passed between the browser 56 and a web application 48 using a data file referred to as a xe2x80x9ccookiexe2x80x9d, some users prefer not to enable cookies on their browser 56; in addition, the passing of a large amount of state information as would normally be required for voice-type applications between the browser 56 and the web application 48 would substantially reduce the bandwidth available for the client 42, rendering use of the cookie infeasible for voice enabled web applications. Moreover, the use of a cookie is especially infeasible if user specific attributes also needed to be passed between the web application server 46 and the browser Hence, the above-described problems associated with the IP network 40 result in substantial difficulties in attempting to write and manage web voice applications. The nature of voice applications, due to the limitations of input/output capabilities, results in the application 48 needing to do more processing to maintain the user interface as simple as possible. Moreover, the necessity of a standard development environment to write the application in a programming language such as C, C++, PERL, Java, etc., limits the flexibility of the application developer in developing an efficient application suitable for voice applications. Finally, web applications are visual by their nature and lack robust audio content and control, and web servers and their corresponding programming environment do not have a means to simplify the audio content and control.
There is a need for an arrangement that enables voice applications to be easily defined and processed on an IP packet switched network using the open standards-based flexibility of the IP network.
There is also a need for an arrangement that enables voice applications to be developed by individuals that do not have expertise in the public switched telephone network. For example, there is a need for an arrangement that enables voice applications to be defined and processed by web programmers using open protocol standards.
There is also a need for an arrangement that enables voice applications to be implemented using an IP network, without the necessity of the public switched telephone network.
There is also a need for an arrangement that enables unified voice messaging services to be provided via an IP network to a web browser, where voice enabled web applications can be written and implemented without the necessity of a programming language development environment. In particular, there is a need for an arrangement that enables simplified voice application definition and processing using a document-based application development environment.
There is also a need for an arrangement that enables voice applications to be easily developed and customized by individuals that do not have expertise in programming languages. In particular, there is a need for an arrangement that enables individuals to easily design and customize voice applications without modifying programming code.
These and other needs are attained by the present invention, where a voice-enabled web application is defined using extensible markup language (XML) documents that define the voice application operations to be performed within the voice application. Each voice application operation can be defined as any one of a user interface operation, a logic operation, or a function operation. Each XML document includes XML tags that specify the user interface operation, the logic operation and/or the function operation to be performed within a corresponding voice application operation, the XML tags being based on prescribed rule sets that specify the executable functions to be performed by the application runtime environment. Each XML document may also reference another XML document to be executed based on the relative position of the XML document within the sequence of voice application operations to be performed. The XML documents are stored for execution of the voice application by an application server in an application runtime environment.
Hence, the XML document, which can be written using a conventional editor or word processor, defines the application to be executed by the application server within the runtime environment, enabling voice enabled web applications to be generated and executed without the necessity of programming language environments.
According to one aspect of the present invention, a method is provided in an executable system for defining an executable voice application. The method includes defining a sequence of voice application operations to be performed by the voice application, each voice application operation corresponding to at least one of a user interface operation, a logic operation, and a function operation. The method also includes generating extensible markup language (XML) documents for the voice application operations, respectively, using a prescribed rule set for each of the user interface operation, the logic operation, and the function operation. The rule set specifies executable functions to be performed by an application runtime environment for the corresponding operation. The generating step includes providing at least one XML tag that specifies a corresponding one of the user interface operation, logic operation, and function operation in accordance with the corresponding rule set. The generating step also includes selectively including in each XML document a reference to another one of the XML documents based on the sequence of voice application operations and the corresponding rule set. The XML documents are then stored for execution of the voice application by an application server in the application runtime environment. Hence, web based voice applications can now be developed using open-source XML document development tools such as forms-based document development systems, as opposed to development environments that require compiling applications written in programming languages such as C, C++, PERL, Java, etc. Hence, voice enabled web can now be developed by individuals without the necessity of programming language experience.
Another aspect of the present invention provides a system configured for generating a voice application. The system includes a computer-based system configured for generating extensible markup language (XML) documents for a defined sequence of voice application operations to be performed by the voice application, respectively. Each voice application operation corresponds to at least one of a user interface operation, a logic operation, and a function operation using a corresponding prescribed rule set, the rule set specifying executable functions to be performed by an application runtime environment for the corresponding operation. Each XML document includes at least one XML tag that specifies a corresponding one of the user interface operation, logic operation, and function operation in accordance with the corresponding rule set. Each XML document may also include a reference to another one of the XML documents based on the sequence of voice application operations and the corresponding rule set. The system also includes a storage medium configured for storing the XML documents for execution of the voice application by an application server in the application runtime environment.
Additional advantages and novel features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and in part will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned by practice of the invention. The advantages of the present invention may be realized and attained by means of instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

Arrangement for defining and processing voice enabled web applications using extensible markup language documents


Methods, systems, apparatuses, and computer program products are provided for automatically determining a home realm. An authentication request receiver interface may receive a request to access a resource and a device identifier from a client device. An authenticator may be enacted in response to receiving the request to access the resource that includes a home realm discoverer and an authentication user interface (UI) provider. The home realm discoverer may determine, based at least on the device identifier, the home realm from a plurality of realms. The authentication UI provider may provide, to the client device, an authentication UI via which a flat-name username can be submitted. Based at least on a flat-name user name and the determined home realm, access to the resource may be granted. In this manner, a user may input a flat-name username during sign-in, rather than inputting a realm or an entire e-mail address.

When signing into an application to access a resource, users typically need to enter a set of credentials, such as a username and password, that will be authenticated by the application. In one conventional example, the application may interact with an identity system for managing such credentials and providing an interface through which credentials of a user may be validated. In many instances, a username may comprise a phone number or an email address because such username types are considered to be globally unique. In other examples, usernames may comprise flat-name usernames, such as a short sequence of characters and/or numbers (e.g., the first name of a user or an employee identification number for a given employee of an organization). Flat-name usernames provide convenience for users because flat-names are typically shorter than global usernames (e.g., email addresses), and therefore can be easier to remember and input while attempting to sign into an application. However, flat-name usernames are not designed to be globally unique, but rather are unique only in a particular realm, such as the application's namespace or within a particular organization.
While flat-name usernames allow different users in different organizations to share the same username (e.g., "alice"), such flat-name usernames may be problematic for certain multi-realm implementations where a single service provider may provide authentication services for a plurality of different organizations. For instance, in some multi-realm applications, users from multiple different organizations may access resources associated with their respective organizations by interacting with the same service provider. However, since flat-name usernames are only unique within each organization and not therefore not necessarily unique across different organizations, users of such multi-realm applications typically must enter a different or longer username (such as an entire email address) that is globally unique or visit a webpage tailored to a user's particular organization to enable the service provider to appropriately authenticate a user's credentials. Such techniques, however, require users to remember and input either a long login string or the address of the organization-specific website during a sign-in process, which can be cumbersome.

Home realm discovery with flat-name usernames


A method for developing ratings of the environmental sensitivity of vehicles and vehicle manufacturers and for communicating such ratings to consumers, manufacturers and other interested parties. The method utilizes the Internet for acquiring data and disseminating information and identifies vehicles available on the market to consumers with an environmental performance rating based upon a rating algorithm. Trophies are awarded in recognition of the top rated vehicles and manufacturers in regard to environmental sensitivity. The rating system and the identification of the award winners is communicated to consumers and to stake-holders such as the manufacturers, special interest groups and governmental agencies.

This invention addresses a longstanding need in industry for improved environmental related communications between a business entity and the public which, of course, includes prospective consumers of the products or services offered by the industry. The use of the Internet provides a new and creative approach that enhances the effectiveness of this invention above the traditional use of other media. This approach often entails communications with organizations such as special interest groups, consumer advocate groups, the media, organizations such as retailers in the relevant channels of trade and the like. As used herein, the term "industry" includes any branch of trade, business, manufacture, service provider, agriculture, labor union, whether profit or non-profit, such as the automobile industry, telecommunications industry, health care industry, educational organizations, etc.
The federal and state governments have promulgated regulations intended to sustain the environment by requiring industry, especially the automotive industry, to meet specific standards in product performance and in certain aspects of manufacturing operations. This has resulted in complex laws and regulations pertaining to air pollution and fuel consumption which tend to be somewhat arbitrary and inconsistent with the demands of the market place. The results are not effectively communicated to the consumer for serving as an aid in selection of a new vehicle. The governmental approach to sustaining the environment leaves much to be desired and lacks any element of a market-driven system.
The annual publication "ACEEE's Green Book" (hereafter Green Book) by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, Washington, D.C., lists certain ratings for detailed vehicle descriptions in respect to environmental performance. The rating system used for the publication is not compatible with industry or consumer needs.
The Green Book reports a "Green Score" on a scale from zero to 100 for certification vehicle configurations used by the government to determine compliance with applicable standards. The vehicles are grouped by class, i.e. type of body style, such as midsize car, minivan, standard pickup and so on. A summary of ratings indicating the top-rated certification vehicle configurations in each class is tabulated using five symbols based on a certification vehicle configuration's rank within its class. The tabulation also shows the Green Score for each of the certification vehicle configurations. The Green Score is based on official emissions and fuel-economy test results, other specifications reported by automobile manufacturers.
The Green Book rating and reporting of the environmental performance of certification vehicle configuration is not a market-driven system for sustaining the environment because it is not compatible with the way auto manufacturers advertise and sell their products or the way consumers gain awareness. The consumer and manufacturer focus is at the brand/model level not the certification vehicle configuration level. The creation of the environmental performance ratings in a timely manner at the brand/model level, rather than the certification vehicle configuration level is a non-trivial matter.
The Green Book is released half way through the model year thereby limiting its impact to those buyers in the later half of the model year. In most cases a consumer can not order a vehicle based on the way the Green Book describes them. According to the Green Book, the only way the a customer can be sure they are considering a vehicle the Green Book has rated is to lift the hood of the actual vehicle under consideration and check the emissions compliance label physically installed on the vehicle. In general, the information in the Green Book is as complicated as the government regulations that generated the certification data used in the ratings.

Communication system and method for sustaining the environment by using the internet

Environmental Performance Research Institute, L.L.C.


Human and mouse TREK-1 potassium transport proteins are disclosed as well a method for using potassium transport proteins for identifying substances having anesthetic properties, such as producing a safe, reversible state of unconsciousness with concurrent amnesia and analgesia in a mammal upon inhalation, in a method comprising (a) contacting the test substance with a mammalian potassium transport protein, wherein said potassium transport protein exhibits outward-going potassium rectification; and (b) determining the potassium transport activity of the potassium transport protein, wherein an activation of potassium transport is indicative of the test substance having anesthetic properties.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method for identifying substances that are capable of acting as anesthetics.
2. Background of the Related Art
Volatile anesthetics are a remarkable class of agents producing a safe, reversible state of unconsciousness with concurrent amnesia and analgesia. They have hyperpolarizing action on mammalian neurons. They activate an inhibitory synaptic K+ current (IK(An)) in molluscan pacemaker neurons which has been proposed to have an important role in general anaesthesia.
Volatile anesthetics hyperpolarize frog motor neurons, rat hippocampal neurons, guinea pig thalmic neurons and human cerebral cortex neurons. Therefore, it has been proposed that the molecular mechanism of volatile anesthetics involves an action on a specific class of K+ channels. The fact that a particular inhibitory synaptic K+ current, IK(An), reversibly activated by volatile agents is present in anesthetic-sensitive molluscan pacemaker neurons, but absent in insensitive neurons has made it a very attractive candidate as a target for these important pharmacological agents. IK(An) behaves as a background channel; it is not voltage-gated, it activates immediately, and it does not inactivate with time. IK(An) obeys the Goldman-Hodgkin-Katz constant field equation and is resistant to the classical K+ channel blockers, tetraethylammonium and 4-aminopyridine.
We recently identified a novel family of mammalian K+ channels with a unique structural motif consisting of two pore domains in tandem and four transmembrane segments. The four members in this family have been classified as TWIK-1, TASK, TREK-1, and TRAAK, which are shown in FIG. 1A. TWIK-1 has been previously shown to dimerize, implying that a functional channel is formed by at least two subunits. Heteromultimerization does not occur between the four members of this novel family as tested in Sf9 cells expressing various combinations of these channels (unpublished data). Three members of this family, mouse TREK-1, mouse TRAAK, and human TASK, encode for background outward-going K+ rectifiers with properties resembling those of IK(An). TRAAK and TREK-1 are directly opened by arachidonic acid and other polyunsaturated fatty acids, while TASK encodes a resting K+ channel which is controlled by external pH variations near physiological pH. TREK-1 and TASK are expressed in many tissues and are particularly abundant in the brain and in the heart, whereas TRAAK is selectively expressed in the central nervous system. Neuronal expression of these channels is detected at high levels in the cortex, cerebellum, hippocampus and olfactory bulb, and cardiac expression is detected in both the myocardium and connective tissues.

Method for the identification of anesthetics

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique