A display controller which outputs a grayscale clock signal for specifying a change point of a pulse width modulated signal. The display controller includes: a grayscale clock generation section which generates a grayscale clock signal having first to Nth (N is an integer greater than one) grayscale pulses within a predetermined period starting from a reference timing; and first to Nth grayscale pulse setting registers for setting edges of the first to Nth grayscale pulses. The grayscale clock generation section sets an interval between the reference timing and an edge of the first grayscale pulse and an interval between edges of the (i−1)th grayscale pulse (2≦i≦N, i is an integer) and the ith grayscale pulse, based on values set in the first to Nth grayscale pulse setting registers, and outputs the grayscale clock signal having the first to Nth grayscale pulses.

The present invention relates to a display controller, a display system, and a display control method.
In recent years, a display device using an electroluminescence (EL) element has attracted attention. In particular, since an organic EL panel including an EL element formed by an organic material thin film is a self-emission type, a backlight becomes unnecessary, whereby a wide viewing angle is implemented. Moreover, since the organic EL panel responds at a high speed in comparison with a liquid crystal panel, a color video display can be easily implemented using a simple configuration.
The organic EL panel is divided into a simple matrix type and an active matrix type in the same manner as the liquid crystal panel. When driving a simple matrix type organic EL panel, a grayscale control can be achieved by pulse width modulation (hereinafter abbreviated as "PWM").
However, since the manufacturing technology of the organic EL panel is immature in comparison with the manufacturing technology of the liquid crystal panel, manufacturing variation occurs to a considerable extent. This causes variation in grayscale characteristics. Therefore, even if grayscale control is performed by PWM, a desired grayscale representation generally cannot be implemented, differing from the drive of the liquid crystal panel.
When displaying a color display using the organic EL panel, a color filter may be provided in the same manner as in the liquid crystal panel. However, this results in decrease in luminance, whereby the features of the organic EL cannot be fully utilized. On the other hand, a color display can be implemented by changing the emission color by selecting an organic material. In this case, the features of the organic EL can be utilized.
However, the grayscale characteristics of R, G, and B color components, which are color components that make up one pixel, vary to a large extent. Moreover, there is a significant difference in luminance between the color components of the organic EL element.

Display controller which outputs a grayscale clock signal


The invention relates to a method for reducing the overall power consumption of a parked vehicle, whereby said vehicle comprises a DC power network including two batteries connected in series and an equalizer circuit, whereby the equalizer circuit includes a DC/DC converter for converting an input voltage corresponding to the sum of the voltages of the two batteries into an output voltage to be applied to a first battery of the two batteries. The method consists in i) activating the DC/DC converter only when the State of Charge (SoC) of the first battery reaches a first level below the State of Charge (SoC) of the second battery; and u) keeping the DC/DC converter active until the State of Charge (SoC) of the first battery reaches a second level above the State of Charge (SoC) of the second battery.

Vehicles, such as trucks or buses, are conventionally provided with their own, on board, electrical system for supplying electrical energy to an electric motor for cranking the engine in order to start it and for operating the lights and accessories of the vehicle. Large engines, particularly diesel engines, require that a very high starting torque be developed by the starting motor. Thus, they have a high power requirement. Storage batteries for vehicles are conventionally manufactured in mass production having a 12V nominal battery voltage. Because of the savings of mass production techniques, such batteries are highly desirable for use on vehicles. Similarly, 12V lights and accessories are manufactured in high quantities and therefore are available most inexpensively.
However, cranking the ICE of a heavy-duty vehicle, such as a truck or a bus, requires a lot of energy. Therefore, such vehicles have been equipped with starting motors operating at higher voltage, e.g. 24V. These motors also are less massive than a 12V motor developing the same torque.
However, if the vehicle is operated with a simple 24V electrical system, it requires lights and accessories designed for 24V operation. This creates a problem because 24V electrical lights and accessories are not as conveniently available as their 12V equivalents and are more expensive because there is such a smaller demand and therefore less cost reduction from mass production and marketing. Additionally, 24V lights, particularly headlamps, have a shorter lifetime than their 12V equivalents.
A commonly adopted solution has been to provide 24V for cranking the engine but 12V for all the lights and accessories. One proposed method for doing this is to provide two duplicate electrical systems, one operating at 24V and the other at 12V. Such systems are expensive to install and to maintain because they require a duplicate investment in batteries, generators, regulators and the like as well as twice as many devices subject to failure and requiring repair.
A better option is to utilize two 12V batteries connected in series. The series voltage is utilized for cranking and the 12V power system is just tapped off across one of these batteries. The difficulty with that system is that one battery supplying the 12V voltage becomes discharged while the other does not.
Equalizers have been developed over the years to balance the voltages of the first and second batteries. The equalizer, comprising a DC/DC converter, is connected to the three battery terminals. It senses any reduction of the voltage of the 12V battery supplying power to the lights and accessories and supplies current to that battery from the other battery until the battery voltages are equalized.
In this respect, U.S. Pat. No. 6,271,645 B1 discloses a method for balancing energy levels between a first battery group and a second battery group in a battery pack. The method includes steps consisting in generating a first state of charge value indicative of a first energy level of said first battery group and a second state of charge value indicative of a second energy level of said second battery group and in controlling said first energy level responsive to said first state of charge value and said second state of charge value so as to balance the first and second energy levels.
Also, WO 2009/145709 A1 discloses a voltage conversion system, which includes a first and a second battery being connected in series with each other, and a converter having a converter input and a converter output, wherein the converter input is connected to at least one of the first and the second battery. The voltage conversion system further includes a voltage conversion system output being connected to one of the first and the second battery, and to the converter output, thereby producing a voltage conversion system output current. If there is a charging level unbalance, a first charging current is applied to the first battery and a second charging current is applied to the second battery, whereby the charging current is highest for the one of said first and second battery having the lowest charging level, for restoring the charging balance between the two batteries.
Eventually. WO 84/01475 discloses a DC power network comprising a series connected pair of batteries and an equalizer circuit for equalizing the voltages of said batteries. The equalizer circuit includes a regulated DC/DC converter for converting electrical energy to the voltage of a first one of said batteries from the sum of the voltages of said batteries. A first battery is connected between a ground terminal and a first phase terminal and the second battery is connected between said first phase terminal and a second phase terminal. In other words, the two batteries are serially connected between the ground terminal and the second phase terminal. The DC/DC converter comprises two input terminals formed by the second phase terminal and the ground terminal and two output terminals formed by the first phase terminal and the ground terminal. The DC/DC converter is controlled to apply a reference voltage to the output terminals. If the battery voltages are designed to be equal, then the reference voltage is equal to one-half the sum of the voltages of the two batteries.
A main problem with that system is that, when the engine is OFF (i.e. alternator OFF), the equalizing procedure leads to an extra consumption on the 24V network, which can be quite high (due to inherent consumption and efficiency).
This can be problematic if the vehicle is parked for a long time, e.g. one or two weeks.

Method for reducing the overall power consumption of a parked vehicle


A crop conditioner includes a frame mounting a bottom fixed roller and a top liftable roller. The top roller is liftable at each end on a pivot member tensioned by a tension link, a tension spring and a bell crank connected between the tension link and the spring. The bell crank is mounted on the conditioner frame for pivotal movement about a pivot axis which lies transversely to a line parallel to the pivot axis of the second roller so that the bell crank extends from the tension link to the tension spring in a direction outwardly of the radial plane of the roller pivot axis. The spring extends upwardly and forwardly from the bell crank pivot at a rear flange of the frame to an adjustment screw of the spring at a top flange of the frame immediately adjacent an adjustment of a bottom stop of the top roller.

Hay conditioners generally include a pair of rollers mounted in co-extensive parallel relationship for rotation about respective axes with the crop arranged to pass between the rollers in a conditioning action.
Each of the rollers generally carries a plurality of longitudinally extending angularly spaced flutes which project outwardly from the surface of the roller. The rollers are spaced by a set distance at the nip such that the flutes intermesh generally without contact between the rollers. The intermeshing of the flutes causes the crop material to be bent as it passes between the rollers causing a cracking of the waxy surface of the crop stem.
It is necessary in such rollers to allow one of the rollers, generally the top roller, to move in a direction to increase the width of the nip by increasing the spacing between the axes of the rollers, to accommodate different amounts of crop material passing between the rollers and to accommodate obstacles such as stones and sticks which pass through without causing damage to the rollers. Generally this movement is provided by carrying each end of the top roller on a pivot arm or pivot plate which allows pivotal movement about an axis parallel to the axis of the roller together with a spring biasing system which applies tension to the top roller acting to close the nip while allowing each end independently to rise and lower in a floating action.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,188,461 (Fox) assigned to the present assignee and issued Mar. 13, 2007 discloses an arrangement of this type where the top roller is spring biased downwardly into contact with the crop by a pair of springs operating at opposite ends of the top roller. Each spring is mounted within a transverse beam across the conditioner. The springs extend from an inner end carried on a bracket attached to the beam to an outer end which carries a threaded rod which extends from the outer end of the spring to the outer end of a pivotal link. Thus the spring pulls inwardly holding the structure in the closed position. In the event that the link is pivoted outwardly by lifting of the end of the roller, the rod is moved outwardly thus tensioning the spring.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,022,219 (Knurr) assigned to Gehl and issued Jun. 11, 1991 discloses an arrangement of this type where a conditioner having first and second conditioning rolls, one of which is movably mounted, includes a mounting system for selectively urging the movable roll toward the other roll. The mounting system includes a pair of mounting plates adapted for placement one on either side of the movable roll, with the mounting plates being pivotally mounted to a frame. A hydraulically operated adjustment arrangement is connected to the mounting plates to relieve the biasing force exerted on the mounting plates, thus allowing movement of the movable roll away from the other roll to accommodate passage of a mass of material therethrough.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,896,483 (O'Halloran) assigned to Hay and Forage and issued Jan. 30, 1990 discloses a crop conditioner having a frame and first and second rolls each rotatable about an axis of rotation. A mounting assembly for the first roll includes a sub-assembly at each end of the first roll which permit the first roll to be pivoted relative to the second roll. Each sub-assembly has a mounting plate rotatably supporting one end of the first roll and supported on the frame for pivotal movement about a pivot axis which is generally parallel to and displaced from the axis of rotation of the first roll such that the axis of rotation of the first roll is movable relative to the axis of rotation of the second roll between a first position, a second position and a third position. The second and third positions of the first roll are progressively farther away from the axis of rotation of the second roll than the first position. A spring extending generally parallel to the axis of the rolls exerts a biasing force on the mounting plate through a cam plate to press the first roll toward the second roll. The spring and cam plate are arranged so that the biasing force has a magnitude which is less when the first roll is located between the second and third positions than when the first roll is located between the first and second positions.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,472,927 (Vogt) assigned to Deere and issued Sep. 25, 1984 discloses a hay conditioner of typical construction which discloses very schematically a spring for tensioning the top roll onto the bottom roll through a bell crank and a link. The upper roll is free to move upwardly in response to crops passing between the rolls, but its downward movement is limited to the stopped position selected by an adjustment link with the link extending upwardly to a free end that is accessible to receive a wrench.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,516,392 (McLean) assigned to Sperry New Holland and issued May 14, 1995 discloses a mower-conditioner having a pair of rotatable conditioning rolls where the bearings rotatably supporting each conditioning roll are recessed into the end of the conditioning roll.

Tensioning of the top roll of a crop conditioner


A parallel robot including a movable-section drive mechanism having a parallel mechanism configuration and operating to allow a movable section to perform a three-axis translational motion with respect to a base section; and a wrist-section drive mechanism operating to allow a wrist section to perform a rotational motion with respect to the movable section. The wrist-section drive mechanism includes a hollow outer holder connected to the base section rotatably about a first rotation axis; a hollow intermediate holder provided in the outer holder rotatably about a second rotation axis orthogonal to the first axis; a hollow inner holder provided inside the intermediate holder rotatably about a third rotation axis orthogonal to the second axis; a prime mover driving the outer holder to rotate about the first axis; and a transmission member received in the inner holder and linearly movable in a rotationally restrained state along a linear-motion axis orthogonal to the third axis, and connected at one end spaced from the inner holder to the wrist section through a universal joint. The transmission member operates to transmit a rotation of the outer holder about the first axis to the wrist section, and to allow the wrist section to perform a rotational motion about a fourth rotation axis orthogonal to the third axis.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a parallel robot.
2. Description of the Related Art
A parallel robot is provided, as a manipulator, with a so-called parallel mechanism in which a base section (or a stationary part) and a movable section (or an output part) are interconnected by a plurality of link structures arranged in parallel. In comparison with a serial robot such as an articulated robot, a parallel robot can easily ensure capabilities, such as high speed, high output, high accuracy, high stiffness, etc. In particular, in a parallel robot in which the movable section performs only a three-axis translational motion with respect to the base section, it is known that an auxiliary drive mechanism for controlling an orientation of a tool, such as a hand (also referred to as an end effector) mounted on the movable section, is provided in addition to a movable-section drive mechanism including the parallel link structures.
Japanese Examined Patent Publication (Kokoku) No. 4-45310 (JP4-45310B) describes a parallel robot provided, in addition to a movable-member drive mechanism (i.e., parallel link structures and link drive motors) having a parallel mechanism configuration and arranged between a base member and a movable member, with an auxiliary drive mechanism for rotating an operational member mounted on the movable member, which includes a motor disposed on the base member and a telescopic arm for transmitting the torque of the motor to the operational member. Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kohyo) No. 2002-532269 (JP2002-532269A) also describes a parallel robot similar to that of JP4-45310B. An auxiliary drive mechanism in the parallel robot of JP2002-532269A is configured by an extensible shaft having a telescopic structure configured by assembling an outer tube and an inner shaft together. A "tubular hard bushing" is provided inside the outer tube, as a bearing member for linearly guiding the inner shaft inside the outer tube.
Japanese Patent No. 4109062 (JP4109062B) describes a parallel robot provided, in addition to a carrying-element drive mechanism (i.e., parallel link structures and link drive motors) having a parallel mechanism configuration and arranged between a base element and a carrying element, with an auxiliary drive mechanism for rotating a holding element mounted on the carrying element, which includes a motor disposed on the base element and a variable-length shaft for transmitting the torque of the motor to the holding element. In contrast to the telescopic configurations described in JP4-45310B and JP2002-532269A, the variable-length shaft includes a pair of bars adjacent to and parallely offset from each other, in which the bars are configured to move linearly with respect to each other while maintaining a mutually parallel state under the guiding function of "slide bearing elements" provided respectively on the bars. JP4109062B clearly describes a configuration wherein the bars of the variable-length shaft are coupled respectively to the motor on the base element and the holding element, through respective Cardan joints.
As described above, an auxiliary drive mechanism for controlling the orientation of a tool mounted on a movable section of a parallel robot conventionally uses an essentially extensible rod-shaped member having a telescopic configuration (JP4-45310B and JP2002-532269A) or a linearly-shiftable parallel configuration (JP4109062B), as a transmission member for transmitting the torque of a motor to the tool. Thus, the transmission member can elongate and contract while smoothly following the three-axis translational motion of the movable section obtained by the parallel mechanism, and thereby can transmit the torque of the motor to the tool on the movable section when the movable section is located at a desired (or commanded) spatial position within the operational space of the movable section.
In the above-described conventional parallel robot, the transmission member configured from the extensible rod-shaped member provided in the auxiliary drive mechanism for controlling a tool orientation is connected respectively to the motor on the base section and the tool on the movable section directly or indirectly through respective universal joints. Therefore, when the transmission member operates to elongate or contract, a linear bearing component arranged between a pair of rod-shaped elements in the telescopic configuration or the linearly-shiftable parallel configuration (the "tubular hard bushing" of JP2002-532269A or the "slide bearing elements" of JP4109062B) may interfere with a universal joint component provided at the distal end of each rod-shaped element, so as to restrict the elongation/contraction stroke of the transmission member, and thereby, an operational space inherently provided for the movable section may be constrained. Further, the transmission member configured by assembling a pair of rod-shaped elements tends to generate relatively-large inertial force, and thus there is concern that the inertial force of the transmission member may affect the motion of the movable section. If the diameter of each rod-shaped element is reduced to inhibit the inertial force, there is concern that the stiffness or operational accuracy of the transmission member may be degraded.


An apparatus and method for cooling a granular material, such as a phosphate fertilizer, using ambient air is disclosed. The apparatus includes a cooling device and a conveyor assembly for feeding the material. The cooling device includes a rotatable assembly for receiving and spreading the material in the ambient air. The rotatable assembly is comprised of radiating fins with alternating recesses.

The present invention is directed to cooling granular or the like materials using ambient air, and more particularly to an apparatus and method for cooling a granular material, such as a phosphate fertilizer.
In fertilizer production, it is important that the freshly made fertilizer, such as diammonium phosphate (DAP), monoammoniumphosphate (MAP), etc, be cooled properly for an effective evaporation of the residual water from the fertilizer granules. Although the fertilizer coming out from the end of a production cycle is generally at a temperature of about 195.degree. to 210.degree. F. and appears dry, there is residual water inside each individual granule. Further, while the process of water migrating from inside a granule to its outside skin is continuous and ongoing, if the internal residual water does not have a way to escape, or if insufficient evaporation takes place, the apparently dry granules remain wet. If the fertilizer in this wet condition is allowed to be stored, the granules tend to stick together in a pile causing the fertilizer caking problem. Typically, freshly made fertilizer is stored in buildings, rail cars, or barges for shipping and handling, where the caking takes place.
In fertilizer industry, the caking problem could be severe in that it is not uncommon to break loose the piles of fertilizer using dynamite. It is known to have taken days, instead of minutes, to unload railcars and trucks due to the fertilizer caking. The caking of fertilizer not only is undesirable from the quality standpoint, but leads to unnecessary expenses that must be incurred under these circumstances.
In order to solve the caking problem, many dry product coolers have been designed. The most common cooler in fertilizer plants is the Countercurrent Rotary Drum Cooler. The other less commonly used devices include Fluid Bed Cooler, Heat Exchanger Fluidized Bed, and the Bulk Flow Plate Heat Exchanger. These coolers are huge and heavy, costly to build and install and to maintain and operate. A complete conventional cooling system is known to cost several million dollars.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 265,552; 764,805; 2,435,927; 2,458,357; 4,126,946; 4,187,988; and 4,205,792, are directed to various drying, cooling and distributing devices.
In view of the problems associated with conventional techniques, there is a need in the industry for an efficient method and device for preventing fertilizer caking which is simple in design, economical, easy to operate and inexpensive to maintain.

Apparatus and method for cooling a granular material using ambient air


A socket is adapted for electrically connecting a chip module and a printed circuit board, and the socket includes a main body having a base and a plurality of contacts arranged in the base for resiliently contacting with the chip module, wherein the base includes a foundation and two lateral sidewalls extending from the foundation; an upper lid movably connecting to the main body; and a lock member securing the upper lid and the main body together. Each of the two lateral sidewalls has a projection disposed on at least one corner of an upper surface thereof for abutting against the upper lid.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a socket, and more particularly to a socket adapted for connecting a chip module to a printed circuit board.
2. Background of the Invention
A conventional socket is generally used for connecting a chip module and a printed circuit board for electrical connection. The conventional socket, shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, includes an upper lid 1 and a lower lid 2 movably connected to each other, and further includes a base 3 received in the lower lid 2 for supporting a chip module (not shown) and a lever 4 pivoted to the upper lid 1 for securing the upper and lower lids 1 and 2, wherein the base 3 has a plurality of contacts (not shown) for electrically connecting the chip module.
When the chip module is disposed in the base 3, the upper lid 1 is covered, and the lever 4 is suppressed, the chip module can electrically connect to the socket. However, a bottom of the lower lid 1 will warp upwardly due to the unbalanced nature of the force acting upon it, so as to prevent the base 3a from being deformed. Therefore, the chip module will not connect to the socket very well.


Document processing systems and methods are presented in which one or more pages of a print job are segmented into two or more parts, with the first part being transferred and affixed to the printed medium prior to transferring and affixing the second part, in order to facilitate high TMA (pile height) printing while mitigating adverse retransfer, blur, fusing, and hollow character effects.

The present exemplary embodiment relates to document processing systems such as printers, copiers, multi-function devices, etc., and more particularly to mitigation of retransfer, blur, and hollow character effects in printing high toner mass per unit area (TMA) print jobs. Toner-based Xerographic printing systems often suffer from limitations regarding the transfer and fusing of high TMA images in which toner of several colors is to be transferred to a given portion of an image. For instance, hexachrome printing in systems that employ four or more colors can result in certain areas of an image requiring toner from four or more xerographic stations. Proposed systems may include six such stations/engines, for creation of two spot or gamut extension colors in addition to cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y) and black (K). A six color image is created on an intermediate transfer belt (ITB) in six successive transfer nips, one for each color separation. For areas in which most or all the toner colors are to be applied, however, the ITB will end up with a high pile of toner. Retransfer problems occur when toner on the intermediate belt is wholly or partially removed (scavenged) through interaction with downstream transfer nips, whereby the desired amount of one or more colors does not get transferred to the final printed sheet. Due to the physical interaction of the toner on the intermediate transfer belt and the xerographic stations, the retransfer problem worsens as the number of colors increases, with jobs requiring the use of a large number of colors leading to localized regions with high toner mass per unit area levels (high TMA). Retransfer defects may occur in halftones and solids, and in some cases is worst in halftones where there are highly localized high pile height regions, such as those on the order of 10's of microns. Retransfer can cause color shifts and a reduction of color gamut. Image blur, hollow character, and fusing defects such as poor fix and differential image gloss problems are also exacerbated by high TMA levels. Moreover, higher temperatures are often required to fuse high TMA images to the printed media, leading to decreased fuser roll life and increase run cost. At the same time, however, modern color printing quality requirements are constantly increasing, with customers demanding the improved imaging capabilities afforded by high TMA printing. Thus, there is a need for improved printing systems and techniques for high TMA printing to mitigate or avoid the aforementioned problems in multi-color printers and document processing systems.

Multi-color printing system and method for high toner pile height printing


A pin strap setting override system comprises logic configured to determine whether a pin strap setting for at least one feature of an integrated circuit (IC) is set to enable, the logic further configured to automatically override the enable pin strap setting if a flag stored in a memory indicates a disable setting for the at least one feature.

Integrated circuits (ICs), such as central processing units (CPUs) and other firmware ICs, have settings that are controlled using external switch settings such as pin straps. These settings may include oscillator speeds, initial configuration control and/or signal the enabling or disabling of various features. The pin straps are typically set to one of two values during the manufacturing of a computer system having such an IC by either introducing or bypassing a resistance, by using jumper connections and/or using other switch devices. During computer system power-up, a chipset or firmware reads the switch setting(s) and sets a configuration in the IC accordingly so that the IC operates with the selected feature(s). However, country-specific and/or other types of restrictions may prohibit using computer systems having a particular function disposed thereon, such as a security function. Although computer systems may be specially manufactured to accommodate and/or comply with such restrictions, building and tracking these specially-manufactured computer systems during the manufacturing process, and thereafter, is costly. Moreover, although a particular feature may be disabled using a pin strap setting, pin strap settings are not entirely tamper-resistant.

Pin strap setting override system and method

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


An analytical system for examining a body fluid and a method of operation of an analytical system, typically for blood sugar tests, including an exchangeable magazine (18) as a consumable, which includes a plurality of magazine units (24) that are each provided with at least one analytical aid (32, 34) and with a transport element (28), a hand-held device (12) having a magazine guide (16) for receiving the magazine (18), a transport mechanism (48) that engages on the transport elements so as to transport the magazine in steps in the magazine guide, including a positioning mechanism (50) for positioning an active magazine unit in a predefined functional position, wherein retaining means (52, 54) of the positioning mechanism can be brought into engagement with transport elements of the magazine.

The invention relates to an analytical system for examining a body fluid, typically for blood sugar tests, with an exchangeable magazine as a consumable, which comprises a plurality of magazine units that are each provided with at least one analytical aid and with a transport element, a hand-held device having a magazine guide for receiving the magazine, and a transport mechanism that engages on the transport elements typically arranged in a ring shape, so as to transport the magazine in steps in the magazine guide. The invention further relates to a method for the operation of an analytical system.
In portable hand-held systems for automatic collection and measurement of body fluids, magazines with a plurality of disposable measurement units are increasingly being used in order to improve user friendliness. Compared to conventional measurement devices, these involve increased outlay in terms of mechanical movements. In an attempt to minimize the overall size of such systems, the structures of the magazine and of the device, which have to match each other, are becoming ever smaller, even though the tolerances of the individual parts do not decrease on the same scale. There are therefore ever greater demands on the positioning. The individual miniaturized tests require both a high level of precision and accuracy in terms of the position relative to the evaluation system and also a high degree of robustness in terms of the stability of the position during the measurement. The latter applies especially in the case of electrically evaluated tests, because each movement of contacts through which current flows leads to signal noises, and this disrupts the evaluation or makes it completely impossible. However, optical systems are also extremely sensitive to changes of position during ongoing measurement. A further aspect to be taken into account is that the magazine, as a consumable, should remain limited to the structures and components essential for the test procedure, so that the production costs can be kept as low as possible.
An analytical system of the type in question with a magazine in the form of a circular disk is mentioned in WO 2010/094426. It is proposed there that the analytical system can have a corresponding transport device which interacts with transport elements of the magazine in order to further transport the magazine units. Said document also discloses a method for producing such a magazine, to which reference is here made.
Generally speaking, concepts that involve accommodating an annular magazine over the ring center in the device, and leaving the precision of the movements to the device parts, lead to a very complex and expensive configuration since, in addition to the inevitable dimensional deviations of the magazine disk itself, many other structures of the device, which likewise necessarily have dimensional deviations and in some cases also a degree of running play, are included in the tolerance chain of the positioning. The six degrees of freedom of movement of the magazine can thus be brought under control only with an unjustifiable amount of effort.
Proceeding from this, an object of the invention is to further improve the systems and methods proposed in the prior art and to ensure precise positioning of the test units and magazine units, such that the requirements in terms of mechanics and measurement are satisfied even in the case of considerable miniaturization. At the same time, the magazine should be able to be exchanged and also transported by simple means.

Analytical system for examining a body fluid and method for the operation of an analytical system


A method of managing recovery from an event in an electrical circuit leading to a loss of control of an inverter in the electrical circuit is disclosed, the method comprising sampling a parameter of operation before the event, monitoring for occurrence of the event, calculating an estimated value of the parameter at a time after the event based on an extrapolation of the monitored parameter and controlling the inverter using the estimated value of the parameter.

An inverter is a form of converter of electrical energy. For example, the inverter can be arranged as part of a system for controlling the flow of power between a d.c. power supply and an a.c. power system. An inverter will typically comprise a bank of power switching devices, such as insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBT's) and their anti-parallel diodes. The inverter is controlled by a microprocessor-based control unit which implements a control algorithm for the inverter. For example, power supplied from photovoltaic (PV) panels is fed to an a.c. power system such as an electrical grid network through an inverter that converts the d.c. output of the PV panels into a.c. power for the grid. In a particular application where the d.c. connections of an additional inverter supplying a motor are connected to create a drive that allows bidirectional power flow.
Inductors are arranged between the inverter phase outputs and the a.c. power system to limit the harmonic currents that would be created due to the switching operation of the inverter. An additional switching frequency filter is often present as well to limit the harmonic voltage distortion to an acceptable level at the point of connection with the a.c. power network.
Transient voltage changes can occur in an a.c. power system for various reasons, such as faults or the sudden connection of addition of equipment to the system. The inductors serve to limit the resulting transient current flowing between the a.c. power system and the inverter. An over-current protection system is usually provided to disable the switching devices in the inverter if the current flowing through the inverter exceeds a specific level above which the inverter may be damaged. A sufficiently large voltage transient in the a.c. power system may produce a current transient that is large enough to trigger the over-current protection system. However, disabling an inverter is seen as a last resort due to the time taken for the inverter to resynchronise itself to the supply and then undergo a restart procedure. It is not usually practicable to significantly increase the control bandwidth of the inverter control system to limit current transients so that the over-current trip is not activated with all possible voltage transients, and so the method conventionally used to ensure that the inverter remains active during a voltage transient in the a.c. supply is to increase the inductance between the a.c. supply and the inverter. In this way the transient current between the a.c. supply and the inverter can be limited, even with the worst case supply voltage transient, so that the over-current protection system is not activated except in the most severe of circumstances, such as a fault within the inverter system. Nevertheless, the impedance required to achieve this is larger than would be required for normal inverter operation. Large inductances are both bulky and expensive, and to be avoided if at all possible.

System and method for managing recovery of control in an electrical system


A computer-implemented method, computer program product, and computer system for intelligently provisioning cloud information services. The computer system determines a target computing zone based on location constraints defined in service processing rules, in response to receiving service request. The computer system determines whether a merger or a split is needed, based on a score for the resources, scores for the respective processing nodes, and operational metadata. The computer system determines whether request processing constraints defined in the service processing rules allow the merger or the split. The computer system processes, in the target computing zone, the service request with the merger or the split, in response to determining that the merger or the split is needed and in response to determining that the request processing rules allow the merger or the split.

Today, consumers of information services in a cloud infrastructure expect that certain Quality of Service (QoS) is fulfilled. The information services wrap ETL (Extract, Transform, and Load) functions, such as address standardization, matching and de-duplication, transcoding, cross-referencing, transformation, or cleansing into re-usable services. An ETL function (also known as a job) usually includes a number of operators, such as database connectors, pivot operators, standardization operators, etc. From a cloud service provider perspective, the challenges in information services are the following. (1) One challenge is atomicy. Some tasks (such as de-dublication) are set operations, which cannot be split. Other tasks (such as address standardization) are individual record operations. Since each service call has a service call processing overhead, it will be beneficial if this overhead is not paid more often then necessary. Thus, it will be ideal that these individual record operations are grouped together for batch processing, as long as the response time QoS is not violated. A service call processing overhead can be substantial, because each ETL operator memory has to be allocated even if just a single row is processed. The memory consumption can be substantial. Tests with a state-of-art ETL system reveal that 12 GB of memory can be easily exhausted with approximately 150 ETL operators. (2) Another challenge is processing locations. In a cloud environment, particularly for large volumes of data, the processing locations matter. For the processing locations, there are only two options. One of the options is that the data is transferred to the processing locations; the other is that processing tasks come to locations where the data resides. In an example of data profiling, if a source system has several TB of data, it will be impractical to move it to the cloud service provider location because the transfer time will be too long; however, if the location of the data and the profiling task are far away from each other in network terms (e.g., throughput, geography, firewalls, etc.), the processing time will be long.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Intelligently provisioning cloud information services

International Business Machines Corporation


Described herein are systems and methods for providing context-sensitive data security, for business application performance optimization. In accordance with an embodiment, the system can be used together with a Role Based Access Control model. Data security predicates can be made context-sensitive, by taking into account the context in which an end-user is navigating an application. By providing context-sensitive data security in this manner, the complexity of database queries can be reduced, and the underlying relational database management system can create better-optimized execution plans.

The importance of data security in enterprise business applications has risen sharply in recent years, particularly in view of newer regulations regarding data privacy, and the increased popularity of cloud-based environments. Controlling who has access to a particular set of data in a business application environment is a key concern while implementing security in such environments.
One of the common means of controlling data access is Role Based Access Control (RBAC), which has become a de facto industry standard, and which has been adopted and implemented by many business application vendors.
However, although there has been much research directed to the implementation and security benefits of RBAC, there has been less research on the impacts of such a data security model on the performance and scalability of business applications. Many commercial business applications use a relational database at the back-end, with processing of data managed through structured query language (SQL) queries. The performance of such SQL queries often dictates the performance and scalability of the application, among other factors.

Systems and methods for context-sensitive data security for business application performance optimization


An apparatus for determining the effective case-hardening or nitriding depth of a steel component comprises a measuring head, including a laser source generating a variable frequency radiation for the scanning of pre-determined portions of the component to be measured; an infrared detector, configured so as to detect infrared radiation generated by the component to be measured; and computing means of spectra of the infrared radiation received; and an evolventimeter, connected to the measuring head and including first computing means suitable for computing a hardness profile of the component to be measured on the basis of a launch profile and spectra of the infrared radiation received and second computing means suitable for computing the effective case-hardening depth from the hardness profile computed.

As is known, some applications require high hardness steel gears. For this purpose, the steel undergoes a hardening process consisting of a phase of case-hardening or nitriding of the surface and subsequent thermal treatment of the steel component. This process achieves a partial structural transformation of the steel from austenite to martensite, the grains of which make the steel harder. From a thermal point of view, the presence of grains of martensite inhibits the transport of heat due to the high thermal contact resistance at the edge of the grain.
The macroscopic result is that as the martensite content increases, the hardness of the steel increases and the conductivity and thermal diffusivity decrease. The case-hardening and/or nitriding depth is a gear design requirement and it must therefore be measured at the testing stage.
Currently, to evaluate the hardness of the samples at the end of the hardening process, the effective case-hardening or nitriding depth is measured both after the thermal treatment and downstream of the further steel machining phases, typically downstream of the final gear grinding operation.
For this purpose, after the thermal treatment, the hardness profile is determined using a durometer on the central section of a cylindrical test piece which accompanies the batch during case-hardening or nitriding; after the final grinding, the hardness profiles are determined on the tooth sides, on the root radius, on the top land and on the end face, of three teeth arranged at 120° and on the gear bearing track.
In both cases, before determination of the hardness profiles by means of the durometer, preliminary operations are necessary which entail sectioning of the gear and cylindrical test piece, enclosure in resin and polishing.
The current method for determining the hardness is disadvantageous, since it is of the destructive type and entails sectioning of the gear. Furthermore, it is costly and lengthy, due to the presence of a series of preliminary operations for preparation of the samples to be measured.
The article "Reconstruction of depth profiles of thermal conductivity of case hardened steels using a three-dimensional photothermal technique", by Hong Qu and others, Journal of Applied Physics, vol. 104, no. 11, Jan. 1, 2008, p. 113518 describes a method for determining the effective case-hardening depth. In particular, the method described entails a non case-hardened sample and a plurality of case-hardened samples having known and different effective case-hardening depths. Furthermore, a laser source transmits electromagnetic radiation excitation, at variable frequency, to each case-hardened sample; therefore, each case-hardened sample generates an electromagnetic radiation in response. According to the method, a spectrum is furthermore determined for each case-hardened sample; this spectrum is equal to the difference between the phase of the electromagnetic response radiation generated by the case-hardened sample considered and the phase generated by the electromagnetic response radiation generated by the non case-hardened sample, this difference being a function of the frequency of the electromagnetic excitation radiation. For each spectrum a corresponding minimum and the corresponding frequency at which this minimum occurs are therefore computed; in this way, the number of minimum frequencies will correspond to the number of case-hardened samples. A calibration function is then determined, which correlates the minimum frequencies with the effective case-hardening depths of the corresponding case-hardened samples. The electromagnetic radiation excitation is then transmitted to the unknown sample, so that the unknown sample generates a respective electromagnetic response radiation. A further spectrum is subsequently determined, equal to the difference between the electromagnetic response radiation phase generated by the unknown sample and the electromagnetic response radiation phase generated by the non case-hardened sample, this difference being a function of the frequency of the electromagnetic radiation excitation. Lastly the minimum of this further spectrum is determined, and the corresponding frequency at which this minimum occurs. By comparison between the minimum frequency of the unknown sample and the above-mentioned calibration function, the effective case-hardening depth of the unknown sample is estimated.
Although the method described is of the non-destructive type, it provides results that depend largely on the precision with which the minimum frequencies of the known case-hardened samples are determined. Unfortunately, however, determination of the minimum frequencies may be imprecise and therefore the calibration function may not be accurate. Furthermore, the calibration function has a high slope; consequently, the inevitable inaccuracies in determination of the minimum frequency of the unknown sample entail considerable variations in the effective case-hardening depth determined.

Apparatus and method for determining the effective cementation or nitriding depth of steel components, in particular gears


A modular split-axis stage is used to inspect and/or repair large flat glass media suitable for LCD/TFT applications. Low-precision air table sections are detachably mounted to a centrally located, high-precision granite inspection/repair section. Glass media held by a vacuum contact is transported on air cushions from the up-web air table to the central inspection/repair section. Vacuum nozzles integrated with porous medium pads precisely control the height of the flexible media above the central section during inspection or repair. Embodiments includes structures in which the media is either stationary or moving during inspection/repair. A first media can be loaded/unloaded while a second media is undergoing inspection or repair in a pipelined operational mode.

This invention relates to methods and apparatus for handling large flat and generally very thin flexible objects, and specifically to methods and apparatus for transporting, supporting, positioning, and constraining, with high mechanical precision, large flat flexible media. More specifically, this invention relates to the use of such transport and constraint mechanisms and techniques for automated optical inspection (AOI), electrical functional inspection (e.g., Voltage Imaging or VI) or automated repair (AR) of large flat, flexible and possibly patterned media, such as glass panels deposited with structures used to form thin film transistor (TFT) arrays (which are the main active component of liquid crystal flat panel displays (LCD). Although the invention is applicable to the general case of inspection of any flat flexible media, it is particularly useful for the high throughput, in-line inspection of glass plates of TFT/LCD panels at various stages of production.
During the manufacturing of LCD panels, large clear sheets of thin glass are used as a substrate for the deposition of various layers of materials to form electronic circuits that are intended to function as a plurality of separable, identical display panels. This deposition is usually done in stages where in some stages, a particular material (such as metal, Indium Tin Oxide (ITO), Silicon, Amorphous Silicon etc.) is deposited over a previous layer (or upon the bare glass substrate) in adherence to a predetermined pattern. Each stage may also include various other steps such as deposition, masking, etching, and stripping.
During each of these stages, and at various steps within a stage, many production defects may occur, that have electronic and/or visual implications on the final performance of the LCD product. Such defects include but, are not limited to: circuit shorts, opens, foreign particles, miss-deposition, feature size problems, over and under etching. The most common defects, shown in FIG. 1, include: metal protrusion 110 into ITO 112, ITO protrusion 114 into metal 116, a so-called mouse bite 118, an open circuit 120, a short 122 in a transistor 124, and a foreign particle 126.
In the preferred application domain such as the inspection and repair of TFT LCD panels, the defects subject to detection and repair can be as small as several microns in size, placing demanding defect detection limits on inspection and repair systems. Moreover, mere detection of defects is insufficient. Detected defects must also be classified as process defects, i.e. minor imperfections which do not undermine the performance of the finished product but are an early indication of the array manufacturing process drifting out of optimum conditions; reparable defects, which can be repaired, thus improving the array production yield; and finally killer defects, which disqualify the TFT array from further use.
Achieving this level of detection and classification often requires a two stage imaging process. An initial comparatively low resolution imaging process is used in a fast detection mode to detect a number of points of interest—POI (or defect candidates) over the entire surface inspected. A second comparatively high resolution imaging process is used to review and further image these POIs as part of a high resolution image analysis and classification process. Such systems require a very high degree of mechanical precision as will be explained below in relation to FIGS. 2 and 3.
FIG. 2 illustrates the six degrees of freedom for any object in motion in three-dimensional space: namely, linear motion along the three orthogonal axes as well as rotation around any of these axes. This framework is valid for all moving elements in a typical surface inspection system. Motion along each of these degrees of freedom may be intentional (due to actuation) or unintentional (due to mechanical inaccuracy in the system). For example, as an object is linearly translated along the y-axis, there may be a uncontrolled roll around the y-axis, a yaw around the z-axis, and a pitch around the x-axis. Usually, a mechanical stage translates or rotates an object along selected degrees of freedom while attempting to constrain the object from translating or rotating along the remaining ones. However, due to the inability to achieve perfect mechanical control, the uncontrolled movements along any of these remaining degrees of freedom lead to the system exhibiting a reduced mechanical precision. The mechanical precision of such a system can often be characterized by the accuracy, the repeatability, and the resolution. Accuracy measures how closely a mechanical positioning system can approach the instructed target position in the steady state. The repeatability on the other hand, measures how close the final steady state positions are to each other on repeated attempts to move to the same target position, possibly from different initial positions. The resolution is defined as the smallest incremental motion possible along a given degree of freedom.
FIGS. 3A and 3B illustrate a simplified example inspection system for large area flat media, which is one focus of the present invention. The system may be transformed into a repair instrument by changing the payload on the illustrated gantry 316. In this particular configuration, a low and high-resolution optical inspection task is explained. In a typical system, there are multiple low-resolution inspection cameras (typically each with 3.0–15.0 μm/pixel object plane resolution) that are part of a low resolution system 312 and one or more high resolution inspection cameras (typically each with 0.5–1.0 μm/pixel object plane resolution) that are part of a high resolution system 310.
Flat media 318 under inspection is transported over a precision surface 320 approximating a plane with tight flatness specifications. For example, ±2.0 μm z-axis variation over 1 m is achievable. The low resolution imaging system 312 and the high resolution imaging system 310 are mounted by means of precision gantry 316 over the surface. The mechanical stage is designed so that either of the imaging systems can be used to image any arbitrary point on the media surface 318. Furthermore, the imaging system requirements, such as focal length and depth of field dictate that the distance from the imaging system to the surface is controlled during the imaging process to within 1.0 μm to assure that the depth of field limitation of ±1.5 μm is not violated. There are multiple means of achieving this positional control. For example, one can let both imaging modules remain stationary in the x-axis and y-axis and move the media to be inspected 318 over the surface 320 while having z-axis actuation on the imaging modules to control focus. An alternative is to have only y-axis motion on the media to be inspected while incorporating x-axis and z-axis actuation into the imaging modules. Still another alternative is to have the media to be inspected completely stationary while having a moving gantry 316 over the surface 320. Note that each of these configurations will shift the precision requirements onto another part of the stage, will impact the size of the stage and will also result in a particular distribution of mechanical complexity within the system.
To illustrate how mechanical precision affects the system operation, assume that the system operation consists of the x-axis and y-axis scanning motion 322 of the media to be inspected over the surface 320. Also assume the typical configuration of a line scan low resolution imaging module and an area scan high resolution imaging module. In such an inspection system, the following requirements on mechanical precision are present:
The field-of-view (FOV) of both the low resolution and the high resolution imaging modules, combined with the need to cover the entire surface of the media in multiple passes, necessitates high resolution for the x-axis position control and very high rotational stiffness around the z-axis. For example, 0.5 μm/pixel high resolution imaging using a particular line-scan camera would result in 0.4 mm x-axis FOV. This in turn would require a defect point of interest to be positioned with better than ±0.1 mm positional accuracy to within the camera FOV. The time-domain-integration (TDI) line scan imaging devices often used in low illumination intensity applications also require a consistent y-axis scanning speed to prevent image blurring. For example, a 96 stage TDI camera for a fixed integration time would suffer from one pixel image blurring from approximately 1% speed variation along the direction of scan
The limited depth of field of the imaging systems, in particular for the high resolution imaging module, requires that the distance from the inspected surface to the imaging module be tightly controlled. This distance is, for example, ±1.5 μm for a typical high resolution system with 0.5 μm object plane resolution. This requires tight accuracy and repeatability in z-axis positioning and high rotational stiffness around the x and y-axes.
In order to dispatch the high resolution imaging module to the POIs indicated by the low resolution imaging module, high accuracy and repeatability is required for the x-axis and y-axis motion. Also, there should be a known stable positional relationship between the low and high resolution modules.
In practice, apart from the aforementioned positional accuracy and repeatability requirements, there may be more complex relationships involved. For example, in an optical imaging system, any misalignment of the optical axis from vertical may cause a z-axis positional change to affect the x-axis and y-axis positioning accuracy of the field of view of the imaging module.
When an application requires a high mechanical precision, the widely adopted method of providing this precision is to use a massive granite base plate and associated stiff gantry (often from granite) supporting a rigid chuck. Over the reference flat surface provided by the granite, the chuck is levitated on air bearings and is actuated by means of linear servo motors and linear encoders. The chuck usually uses vacuum as the means to constrain the media being processed to the chuck surface. This approach has been especially used for the inspection of silicon wafer integrated circuits and has also been adopted for the inspection and repair of the glass plates deposited with TFT/LCD panels.
In this configuration, the precision machined granite base plate and stiff gantry provide a precision reference frame with high stiffness and flatness. The vacuum chuck holds the flexible media to be inspected and imposes the required flatness constraints. The chuck performs a precisely controlled motion over the granite support surface. Air bearings are the best known means of constraining free movement into a single axis. They provide an inherent averaging property due to the fact that the moving shuttle does not exactly follow the imperfections of the supporting guide but on the air cushion, which produces averaging. This results in much lower linear and angular errors for the shuttle as compared to the errors implied by those supporting surfaces. The linear servo motors in combination with linear encoders provide the necessary motion precision along the actuated motion axis.
This x-y-z stage configuration employing a granite base plate, vacuum chucks, air bearings, and linear encoders is a stable platform and is adequate for numerous applications. It has been successfully used in AOI and in electrical functional inspection of silicon wafer integrated circuits, which is believed to be the most demanding application domain. Although the concept has also been extended to the AOI and electrical functional inspection of the glass plates deposited by TFT/LCD panels, limitations in this particular domain have been the weight and size. The maximum feasible size achievable by this configuration is primarily limited by the weight and size of the required monolithic granite base plate which can be feasibly manufactured, stored, transported and installed.
In the primary application domain of interest, the inspection of TFT/LCD glass plates, the size of the glass plates is constantly increased as the industry strives for larger and thinner glass. With the increased size of the media to be inspected, the needed size of the stage to transport, position, and constrain the media grows proportionally. For Generation 5 (˜1,100 mm×1,300 mm glass) plate sizes, the direct scaling of the aforementioned configuration gradually ceases to be feasible. This is due to the weight, shape, and size of the instrument, which exceed the typical truck and plane cargo space capacity. (e.g., the maximum allowance for the bulk load of a commercial cargo plane is approximately seven tons while the for Generation 6 (˜1,500 mm×1,850 mm glass) plate sizes, the weight of the stage is predicted to be 11 tons.) The result is an exponential increase in the cost of transporting the instrument to its final destination.
In the past, the conventional method of providing the necessary mechanical precision was based on techniques in the silicon wafer integrated circuit inspection application domain. However, with the increasing size of the media panels to be inspected, this approach quickly becomes impractical due to the unmanageable size of the stage and the escalating cost that arises.
In the prior art, there are many applications where conveyor systems to transport and constrain media are proposed for the purposes of inspection or other processing of flat media. These include but are not limited to:
U.S. Pat. No. 6,367,609 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,223,880 both to Caspi et al. describe a conveyor system with the aim of changing the direction of media to be processed to divert it into an inspection or processing apparatus where the media is constrained using a vacuum chuck or similar means. The patents address the issue of transporting and handling of flat media on a production line for the purposes of processing or inspection. However, the patent does not address the required complexity and precision requirements and the associated cost implications of the inspection/processing station. This is one of the primary objects of the present invention. Also, the described conveyor apparatus uses primarily belt driven actuation for transporting the media.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,730,526 to Pearl et al. describes a conveyor system for supporting and transporting sheet media for the purposes of processing of the sheet media. The invention discloses a vacuum constraining mechanism with distributed vacuum pads distributed among the conveyor so that vacuum constraint happens together with the transportation and possible processing of the sheet media. The invention is especially useful for tooling applications such as cutting and is not applicable to the present application domain because of differing precision requirements.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,145,648 to Teichman et al. describes a conveyor arrangement for the purposes of PCB inspection, where a continuous conveyor extends from a loader zone to an unloader zone and passes by an inspection zone for the purposes of inspecting the articles traveling on the conveyor. The primary feature of the described invention is to operate the loader and unloader robots in a coordinated way, avoiding disturbance of the inspection process when the article is being inspected by the inspection apparatus.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,486,927 to Kim describes an LCD module testing apparatus with an index feeding stage for transferring the LCD modules from a LCD stack to a work table mounted on a main frame of the testing apparatus. The testing system is based on aligning the LCD module, placing it on electrical probe pins, and constraining it there mechanically for performing the test. The system does not attempt to handle, test, and repair the large size media sheets on which the LCD panels are deposited and hence is not applicable to the application of the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,374,021 to Kleinman describes a vacuum holder to be particularly used in a vacuum table arrangement. The invention specifically addresses the issue that when the vacuum table area is large and a major area is not covered by the article being held by the vacuum, suction openings cause the waste of vacuum. The invention proposes vacuum openings with a valve structure, which closes when no article is present on top of the valve.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,141,212 to Beeding describes another vacuum chuck concept which uses a foam surface to support sheet media during cutting operations. The open cell foam passes the effect of vacuum from the underlying vacuum surface to the media being held and is cut by the cutting apparatus along with the media. The underlying vacuum surface is therefore kept intact during this operation.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,797,317 to Lahat et al. describes a universal chuck concept for holding plates of varying sizes. The invention uses a means to mechanically hold the plates from the edges and primarily applies to small sized plates (e.g. silicon wafers), such as those typically used in the manufacturing of semiconductor devices.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,056,765 to Brandstater describes a means to constrain the flat media being processed or inspected by the use of an immobilizing device acting from the top of the media, which presses the media down without contact using an air-cushion effect. The media is hence flattened against the inspection surface by the immobilizing device, which is still free to move with respect to the flat media and the table. The invention in particular applicable for printed circuit inspection.
Contributions from the other application domains such as paper copiers include the U.S. Pat. No. 6,442,369 to Swartz et al., which describes an air cushion means of loading the media sheets from the top. The load imposes non-contact z-axis flatness on the sheets while the sheets are pressed against a conveyor for transportation. The sheets are constrained and moved by the underlying conveyor while being free to move with respect to the air cushion load.
Another earlier invention, U.S. Pat. No. 5,016,363 to Krieger, describes a vacuum and air cushion arrangement for transporting and at the same time drying a wet continuous web of media, in particular paper. However, no attempt is made to constrain the flatness of the conveyed media.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,913,268, Jackson et al. describe pneumatic rollers, which utilize alternating vacuum and air cushion operation to gracefully transport and transfer sheet paper media between the rollers of a processing instrument, in particular for the purposes of printing on the media.
Despite these contributions in related application domains, the primary approach to designing a high precision mechanical stage remains the monolithic granite approach. This popular approach has been in the public domain and shared by a number of manufacturers of inspection/repair systems for both silicon wafer integrated circuits as well as for glass plates deposited with TFT/LCD panels.

High precision gas bearing split-axis stage for transport and constraint of large flat flexible media during processing


The processing system controller is utilized in a mail processing system. The processing system controller provides process control over a plurality of processing subsystems which operate on a mailpiece traversing the processing system. The processing subsystems employing a plurality of prime movers controlled by the processing controller. The processing system controller includes a motor controller in bus communication with the prime movers for control of the prime movers. Sensors monitor the operating conditions and parameter of each subsystems and are in bus communication with a sensor controller. A random access memory (RAM) is in bus communication with the motor controller and the sensor controller. The motor controller and the sensor controller are programmed such that the motor controller can read from the RAM and the sensor controller can write to the RAM. The motor controller reads from the RAM at discrete time intervals and the sensor controller writes to the RAM at other discrete time intervals.

This invention relates to mail processing systems and, more particularly, to a mail processing system controller for real time system control and having the ability to interface with a plurality of peripheral devices.
Conventional mail processing system are generally custom configured to suit the particular user's need from an array of individual system of varying system performance specifications. These systems are virtually pieced together based on suitable performance specification matching and caused to operate in a generally sequential manner by the use of "Go - No Go" signals. It is also known to provide a very limited interface between the mail processing system indicia meter to a personal computer. Generally, this type of interface is non-interactive allowing for communication only from the mailing machine to the personal computer whereby limited accounting information is obtainable. Another limited interface presently known is non-interactive communication interface from a scale to the meter.
The primary obstacle to full control integration of mail processing systems, that is, placing the mail processing systems total functionality under real time microprocessor control is the relative large amount of high speed data processing capability necessary for integrated control of the system component and, further, the large amount of shared data which would be required to pass to and from the microprocessor controller in real time from the system components. A still further obstacle has been to provide such a system controller with an open architecture suitable for accommodating a variety of system configurations and. even further, which will interactively accomodate a variety of peripheral devices The afore represents severe constraint within the cost realities of such a controlled system. That is, utilizing conventional technology to endow a mail processing system with such microprocessor controlled capability has generally been considered cost prohibitive.


A nonwoven fabric includes mixed fibers having different fiber diameters. A group of fibers having a fiber diameter of 5.0 μm or less (fiber group A) is present at a volume fraction of 20 to 80 vol %, a group of fibers having a fiber diameter of 50.0 μm or more (fiber group B) is present at a volume fraction of 1 to 40 vol %, and a group of fibers having a fiber diameter of more than 5.0 μm and less than 50.0 μm (fiber group C) is present at a volume fraction of 0 to 79 vol %. The ratio of the median fiber diameter (B′) of fiber group B to the median fiber diameter (A′) of fiber group A (B′/A′) is 35 or more.

Air filters have been used to remove pollen, dust, and the like in the air. Air filters use filter media, which are often made of nonwoven fabrics. Nonwoven fabrics are produced by various processes, and among them melt-blowing process is widely employed for the production of filter media for air filters, battery separators, and the like. Melt-blowing process is generally a process in which hot-air blows a thermoplastic polymer extruded from a spinneret to form fine filaments and the filaments self-bond together into a fiber web. As compared with other production processes of nonwoven fabrics (e.g. spun-bonding), melt-blowing process has the advantages of requiring no complicated operations and being capable of easily producing fine fibers several micrometers to several tens micrometers in diameter.
Air filters are required to have performance such as capabilities of collecting a large amount of fine dust (high collection efficiency) and of exhibiting low resistance to airflow passing through the air filters (low pressure drop). For providing a filter medium exhibiting a high collection efficiency, a nonwoven fabric formed from fibers having a small fineness is suitable. However, the structure of such a nonwoven fabric is likely to easily collapse, which increases the fiber density resulting in an increased pressure drop. For providing a filter medium exhibiting a low pressure drop, a nonwoven fabric formed from fibers having a large fineness is suitable. However, the fiber surface area of such a nonwoven fabric decreases resulting in a decreased collection efficiency. Thus, a high collection efficiency is incompatible with a low pressure drop.
For solving the above problems, an attempt has been made to simultaneously satisfy a high collection efficiency and a low pressure drop by utilizing not only physical properties but also electrostatic properties through electret treatment of a nonwoven fabric.
For example, a method for producing an electret nonwoven fabric has been proposed, the method comprising bringing a nonwoven fabric in contact with a ground electrode, and applying a high voltage to the nonwoven fabric with a non-contact voltage applying electrode, while moving the ground electrode that carries the nonwoven fabric, thereby performing continuous electret treatment (see Patent Literature 1). In this method, electrons are injected into the nonwoven fabric, ions are transferred, and dipoles are oriented. As a result, polarization is induced and a charge is imparted to the nonwoven fabric.
Another proposed method comprises adding an additive to fibers to be formed into a nonwoven fabric, thereby producing a nonwoven fabric exhibiting a high collection efficiency and a low pressure drop. For example, a heat resistant electret material has been proposed, the heat resistant electret material being made of a polymer material containing at least one stabilizer selected from a hindered amine stabilizer, a nitrogen-containing hindered phenol stabilizer, a metallic salt-hindered phenol stabilizer and a phenol stabilizer and having a trapped charge of 2.0×10−10 coulomb/cm2 or more as determined by thermally stimulated depolarization currents at a temperature of 100° C. or higher (see Patent Literature 2).
Still other proposed methods include a production method of a meltblown nonwoven fabric comprising mixed filaments made of different polymers with different characteristics (Patent Literature 3) and a production method of a nonwoven fabric in which fine fibers and coarse fibers are mixed so as to reduce the collapse of the nonwoven fabric structure and thereby to suppress an increase in pressure drop (see Patent Literature 4 and 5). However, Patent Literature 3 describes no specific combination of fiber diameters suitable for filters. Patent Literature 4 describes that a mixed-fiber nonwoven fabric in which fibers having different fiber diameters of 1 to 10 μm are appropriately mixed and dispersed is suitable for filters. However, a mixed-fiber nonwoven fabric comprising only fibers having a fiber diameter of less than 10 μm failed to achieve a sufficient effect of suppressing an increase in pressure drop especially when used as a filter medium for air filters. Patent Literature 5 discloses a method in which fibers having fiber diameters of more than 10 μm are mixed. However, the method requires a high mass per unit area in order to achieve a sufficient collection efficiency and thus the production cost for a filter medium will increase.
As described above, there has been no method capable of achieving good balance between the collection efficiency and the pressure drop and capable of producing an inexpensive filter medium.

Mixed-fiber nonwoven fabric and filter medium using the same


A differential power transmission device used for digital audio tape recorders and video cassette tape recorders. The device comprises a connecting gear adapted to move vertically for selectively engaging with a driving pulley gear, so as to selectively transmit the rotation force of the pulley gear to a driven gear. A vertical pivot member is provided for vertically moving the connecting gear so as to engage it with the pulley gear, so that the driven gear is driven by the rotation force of the pulley gear transmitted via the connecting gear. With this arrangement, the rotation force of the pulley gear can be more surely transmitted to the driven gear, without any malfunction.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention realtes to a differential power transmission device for tape recorders such as digital audio tape recorders and video cassette tape recorders, and more particularly to a differential transmission device wherein the rotation force of a drive motor can be more surely transmitted to a driven gear.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Referring to FIGS. 1A and 1B, there is shown a differential power transmission device generally used for tape recorders such as digital audio tape recorders(hereinafter, referred to as DAT) and video cassette tape recorders(hereinafter, referred to as VCR). As shown in the drawings, the differential power transmission device comprises a pulley gear 4 rotatably mounted to a shaft 2 fixed to a main base 1 of a recorder deck body(not shown) and adapted to receive the drive force of a drive motor(not shown) by means of a belt 3 connected between the pulley gear 4 and the shaft of the drive motor, an upper gear 6 fixedly mounted to a shaft 5 rotatably mounted to a second main base 1' of the recorder deck body, the upper gear having a large diameter gear portion 6a always engaging with the pulley gear 4 and a small diameter gear portion 6b, a lower gear 7 rotatably mounted to the shaft 5 and having the same diameter as that of the small diameter gear portion 6b of the upper gear 6, and a driven gear 9 rotatably mounted to a shaft 8 fixed to one side of a third main base 1" of the recorder deck body, the driven gear always engaging with the lower gear 7. A boss 12 is rotatably mounted to a shaft 10 fixed to the other side of the third main base 1". The boss 12 has at its lower portion a support plate 11 which is provided at its opposite sides with engaging pieces 11a and 11b. Around the boss 12, a torsion spring 13 is fitted and supported at its both ends to engaging pieces 11a and 11b, respectively. To one side of the support plate 11, namely the engaging piece 11b, a tension coil spring 14 is connected which is adapted to always urge the support plate 11 to rotate about the shaft 10 in clockwise. The differential power transmission device also comprises a connecting gear 16 rotatably mounted to a shaft 15 fixed to the protion of support plate 11 opposite to the engaging piece 11b. The connecting gear 16 is selectively engaged with both the small gear portion 6b of the upper gear 6 and the lower gear 7, so as to transmit the rotation force of the pulley gear 4 to the driven gear 9. To the rear portion of the recorder deck body, a middle plate 17 is fixedly mounted. to which an operating plate 18 is mounted to reciprocate laterally. The operating plate 18 has at its one end a foot piece 18a.
The conventional differential power transmission device having the above-mentioned construction is designed to transmit the drive force of drive motor to the driven gear 9, only when the transmission is required. Under the condition that the foot piece 18a is disposed apart from the end 13b of the torsion spring 13, as shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, the support plate 11 is urged to rotate about the shaft 10 in clockwise, by virtue of the tension force of the tension coil spring 14. As a result, the connecting gear 16 is maintained to be disengaged from both the small gear portion 6b of the upper gear 6 and the lower gear 7, thereby preventing the drive force of drive motor from being transmitted to the driven gear 9.
As the operating plate 18 is moved in the direction indicated by the arrow A in FIG. 1A, according to an operation mode reversal from the above-mentioned condition, the operating plate 18 pushes the end 13b of the torsion spring 13 by its foot piece 18a. At this time, the shifted amount of the torsion spring 13 functions as the force rotating the support plate 11 about the shaft 10 in anti-clockwise. As a result, the connecting gear 16 is engaged with both the small gear portion 6b of the upper gear 6 and the lower gear 7, so that the rotation force of the pulley gear 4 can be transmitted to the driven gear 9, via the upper gear 6 and the lower gear 7.
In the power transmission device, however, the small gear portion 6b of the upper gear 6 and the lower gear 7 which are simultaneously engaged with the connecting gear 16 may not be aligned with each other, as shown in FIG. 3, thereby interfering with their smooth engagement with the connecting gear 16. As a result, the upper gear 6 may be idly rotated.

Differential power transmission device for tape recorders


A vehicle seat comprises a frame member provided on a floor of a vehicle, a seat part such as a seat cushion detachably attached to the frame member, a mechanical connector device provided on the frame member and the seat part for detachably attaching the seat part to the frame member; and an electric connector device provided on the frame member and the seat part for electrically connecting an electric component provided on the seat part to an electric component provided on the frame member.

A vehicle seat disclosed in JP2010-253182A is provided with a seat cushion and a seat back, and each of the seat cushion and the seat back is formed by a central part, and a pair of side parts which are interchangeable. By selecting the side parts of the seat cushion and/or the seat back, the vehicle seat can be adapted to the need of a user. Also, if the side parts are worn or damaged, they can be replaced with new ones.
However, according to this prior art, replacing and installing side parts require some work. Also, if the seat contains any electric device, replacing or installing side parts requires rewiring of the electric device. This also complicates the replacing or installing work.
Therefore, there is a need for a novel vehicle seat that can be adapted to the need of a user in a simpler manner.
In a vehicle seat disclosed in JP2009-19230A, the shape and the softness of a support surface of the vehicle seat can be adjusted. A plurality of air bladders are incorporated in the seat cushion and the seat back and pressure sensors are arranged over a support surface of the vehicle seat. The air bladders are connected to an air pump, and a control device controls the air pressure supplied to each air bladder by supplying an appropriate pressure from the pump to each air bladder according to the output signals of the pressure sensors.
According to this prior art, in order to adjust the distribution of softness finely over the support surface, it is necessary to arrange a large number of small air bladders over the entire area of the support surface. Therefore, piping for the air bladders becomes highly complex, and supplying air pressure to each bladder requires a highly complex control arrangement.
Therefore, there is a need for a novel vehicle seat that can adjust the distribution of the softness of a support surface thereof in a simpler manner.
For environmental considerations, various systems of car pooling or ride sharing have been proposed. In a car sharing system proposed in JP2014-215670A, fellow passengers are selected from those who trust one another. Trustworthiness is evaluated on the basis of personal relationships which may be manifested in the listing of addresses in a personal terminal device of each user. If a subject user's address is listed in the personal terminal of a first user, the subject user and the first user may be considered to be trustworthy of each other by a first degree. If a subject user's address is listed in the personal terminal of a first user, and the first user's address is listed in a second user, the subject user and the second user may be considered to be trustworthy to each other by a second degree.
This system preferentially selects users who are relatively familiar to each other, but this does not ensure that the two users are on a friendly term or able to sit together comfortably.
Therefore, there is a need for a passenger selection system that can select fellow passengers in a ride share system so as to optimize of the comfort of each passenger.

Vehicle seat and passenger selection system


Methods for three-dimensional projecting and backprojecting rays with respect to voxels/detector bins to attenuate/eliminate high-frequency artifacts, are disclosed. A distance-driven technique wherein the transitions of the voxels and the detector bins are respectively projected onto a predetermined plane. This projection allows a determination of the contribution of each of the voxels/bins for each of the bins/voxels with lower computation time and improved artifact free images.

The present invention relates generally to the processes of reprojection-backprojection, and more specifically, to reprojection-backprojection techniques/algorithms that includes new interpolation and data access schemes that result in better speed, lower artifacts. lower noise and higher spatial resolution than existing techniques.
In computed tomography, the operation that transforms an N-Dimension image into an N-Dimension set of line integrals is called the forward projection or reprojection. The most evident example of this operation is the physical process that generates an X-ray image of an object. After logarithmic conversion, an X-ray image is well approximated as the line integral projection of the distribution of the object's linear attenuation coefficient. In practice, a forward projector is required for tomographic simulations or when performing iterative reconstruction.
The transpose operation is called backprojection. This is used in filtered backprojection and in iterative reconstruction, which form the bulk of today's reconstruction algorithms.
Many methods for reprojection and backprojection exist. In one method each X-ray beam is represented by a line and the intersection length of each line with each pixel is used as weight factor. Another technique performs linear interpolation between two pixels for each row or column that the X-ray beam intersects (see FIG. 1). The latter two methods are ray-driven methods.
In the projection case, all projection lines are looped over, and for each projection line the image weighting and summing image pixel values are run through in order to approximate a ray-integral. The backprojection is defined as the transpose operation: the weight factors remain the same, but the detector values are weighted and assigned to the image pixels.
Another technique is the pixel-driven approach, which is typically used in filtered backprojection (see FIG. 2). All image pixels are looped over, and for each image pixel a line is drawn connecting the source and the image pixel. The intersection of that line with the detector array is then determined. Linear interpolation is performed between the two detector values nearest to the intersection point and the result is assigned to the image pixel. The reprojection operation is defined as the transpose operation. The weights for the left and right detector bin are given by
                                                                        ω                l                            =                                                                    d                    r                                    -                  d                                                                      d                    r                                    -                                      d                    l                                                                                ω                r                            =                                                d                  -                                      d                    l                                                                                d                    r                                    -                                      d                    l                                                                                Eqn                                                            (          1          )                    where d is the location of the intersection, dr and dl, are the first detector bin centers to the right and to the left of the intersection.
Other approaches exist, such as methods based on spherical basic functions and methods using nearest-neighbor or no interpolation.
The reprojection and backprojection operations are a computationally intensive but essential part of simulation and reconstruction techniques such as those used in CT or the like. Most existing approaches can be subdivided into ray-driven and pixel driven methods. One drawback to both the ray-driven and pixel driven methods resides in the fact that they introduce artifacts, the first one (viz., the ray driven method) in the backprojection and the latter (viz., the pixel driven method) in the reprojection. Another drawback to both methods resides in the percentage of the data used in each view reprojection/backprojection.
For example, in the case of a ray-driven projection of an image with pixels that are much smaller than the detector bin size, only a fraction of the pixels contributes to the projection at that angle. The same is true for the opposite case of the pixel driven backprojection. In iterative reconstruction, where both a reprojection and backprojection method are required, a combination of a ray-driven reprojection and pixel-driven backprojection could be considered to circumvent previous problems. However, even while this is possible, it is often preferred to use a matched reprojector-backprojector pair. In fact, an important criterion in choosing a reprojector-backprojector approach is speed.
The two main limiting factors on speed are arithmetic complexity and data access time. For the ray-driven approach, the arithmetic is relatively simple. It is therefore much faster than the pixel driven approach for small data sizes. At larger data sizes however, the data access time becomes more important and at this stage the pixel-driven approach starts to benefit from its sequential image access time while the ray-driven approach more or less accesses the data randomly. For the 3D cone-beam case, data sets become even larger and therefore data access time gains importance.
For further disclosure pertaining to these techniques and the types of apparatus which are used in connection therewith, reference may be had to U.S. Pat. No. 5,848, 114 issued on Dec. 8, 1998 in the name of Kawai et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 6,351,514 issued in the name of Besson on Feb. 26, 2002; U.S. Pat. No. 6,339,632 issued in the name of Besson on Jan. 15, 2002. The contents of these patents are hereby incorporated by reference thereto.

Three-dimensional reprojection and backprojection methods and algorithms for implementation thereof


A PON system capable of utilizing the bandwidth of an optical transmission channel in the PON section. In a PON system including an OLT and a plurality of ONUs, the OLT has: a downstream frame processing unit that removes at least part of the header information in a layer 2 header from a downstream frame received from a wide area network, and converts the remaining frame portion into a frame having a header specific to the PON section; and a downstream frame processing unit that extracts a downstream frame portion to be transferred to a user terminal, from a received frame from a PON, and adds the layer 2 header information deleted in the OLT.

As the Internet has become widely used and information services are provided through networks, the communication network occupies an important place in social infrastructure. With the increase in Internet access from homes and business locations of companies, faster and higher-capacity access lines are increasingly required that interconnect these communication sites and the communication stations of carrier networks.
As one of the access networks to be connected to a wide area network such as the Internet, there is a passive optical network (PON) in which a plurality of subscriber terminals can share an optical fiber. The PON systems are each installed at a user's site, and each system includes a plurality of optical network units (ONU) containing one or plural user terminals, and an optical line Terminal (OLT) connected to these ONUs via optical fiber networks. Optical fibers connected to the OLT are joined with branch optical fibers connected to each ONU by means of an optical splitter (optical coupler), and the optical transmission channel between the optical splitter and the OLT is shared by a plurality of ONUs (user terminals), thereby reducing the optical fiber installation cost substantially.
Known PON systems include the B-PON (Broadband PON) wherein information is transmitted by fixed-length ATM cells over the optical fiber section (PON section), the G-PON (Gigabit PON) enabling a fast data transfer on the order of gigabits, and the GE-PON (Gigabit Ethernet PON) suitable for an information transmission by Ethernet frames that is becoming popular for LANs and metro-networks.
The G-PON and the GE-PON allow variable-length frames to be transferred in the PON section, and their standardization and technological assessment is being made by the ITU-T and the IEEE respectively. ITU-T recommendations on the G-PON include the non-patent documents 1 through 3 below, wherein the GEM (G-PON Encapsulation Method) frame specification is defined as a transmission frame specification for transferring common variable-length frames, not restricted to Ethernet frames, in the PON section.
In a PON system, downstream frames from OLT to ONU are branched into plural branch optical fibers by a splitter to be delivered to all ONUs. Each ONU determines whether or not a received PON frame is one to be processed by itself, based on the destination identification information in the header (such as a GEM header), of the received PON frame. Upstream frames from ONU to OLT are multiplexed into the OLT-side optical fiber by an optical splitter. In upstream communications, in order to prevent overlapping of frames on the optical fiber, the TDMA scheme is employed that causes each ONU to send frames during a transmission time interval allocated by the OLT.
As can be understood from the above configuration, the PON system can be an access network suitable for delivering the same service information to a plurality of user terminals by multicasting it from the OLT. Accordingly, for the triple-play service (broadcasting, telephone, and data communications), which is drawing attentions recently, particularly for the broadcasting industry seeking to enter into the network business, the PON system plays an important role as an access network.
Non-patent document 1: ITU-T G.984.1 "Gigabit-capable Passive Optical Networks (GPON): General characteristics"
Non-patent document 2: ITU-T G.984.2 "Gigabit-capable Passive Optical Networks (GPON): Physical Media Dependent (PMD) layer specification"
Non-patent document 3: ITU-T G.984.3 "Gigabit-capable Passive Optical Networks (GPON): Transmission convergence layer specification"