A method of operating a fuel cell includes the step of selectively connecting and disconnecting the fuel cell to at least one electrical load dependent at least in part upon at least one of a fuel cell voltage, a fuel cell current and a fuel cell temperature.

Automobiles emit hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide as a result of the combustion process. Automobile emissions are said to be a significant contributor to pollution. In order to reduce and/or eliminate such emissions automobile manufacturers have attempted to utilize alternative transportation fuels and/or alternative sources of power, such as, for example, fuel cells. Generally, fuel cells generate electricity by electrochemically combining across an ion-conducting electrolyte a fuel, such as hydrogen, carbon monoxide, or a hydrocarbon, and an oxidant, such as air or oxygen.
A fuel cell system typically includes a "stack" of individual fuel cells that are electrically interconnected in a series configuration. Thus, the number of cells in the stack, i.e., the number of cells connected together in series, determines the voltage that is produced by the stack. Each of the individual fuel cells within the stack produces a voltage that varies dependent at least in part upon the current being drawn from that cell and/or the stack. The voltage produced by a typical single cell varies from an open circuit voltage, such as, for example, approximately 1.0 Volts (V) at low or zero current loads to a lower limit, such as, for example, approximately 0.7 V, under high current loads. If the voltage produced by a cell drops below a minimum threshold, such as, for example, 0.6 V, an undervoltage condition exists that may result in damage to the cell, such as, for example, cell oxidation.
Since the voltage produced by each cell varies dependent at least in part upon the current load upon the cell, the voltage produced by the stack also varies dependent at least in part upon the current load. More particularly, due to the series interconnection of the cells in the stack, the variation in the voltage produced by the cells is cumulative, i.e., the stack voltage will vary in a manner that reflects the sum of the voltage variations of the individual cells within the stack. This cumulative effect on the stack voltage can be relatively substantial. For example, the voltage produced by a fuel cell having sixty cells may vary from approximately sixty volts to approximately forty-two volts.
Most electrical systems are designed to operate with a supply voltage that falls within a predetermined range. As described above, the voltage produced by a fuel cell stack may vary substantially. Thus, if a fuel cell system is to be used as a power source for such an electrical system the stack voltage must typically be regulated by a voltage regulating device or devices to ensure the stack voltage supplied to the electrical system remains within the voltage range required by the electrical system, independent of the voltage produced by the stack. As the amount of variation in the voltage produced by the stack increases a correspondingly greater amount of regulation is required in order to provide a supply voltage to the electrical system that is within the specified range. In order to provide adequate regulation of such a widely-varying voltage, voltage regulation or control devices that are relatively complex, costly, sizeable, and power consuming are required.
Therefore, what is needed in the art is a fuel cell system that substantially reduces damage and/or oxidation to the cells, such as, for example, due to an under voltage condition.
Furthermore, what is needed in the art is a method and apparatus that controls the output voltage of a fuel cell system while also controlling the operation of the fuel cell such that the fuel cell operates with improved efficiency relative to unregulated operation.
Moreover, what is needed in the art is a fuel cell system that generates a controlled and/or regulated output voltage.

Method and apparatus for controlling a fuel cell system


A light emitting diode includes: a substrate; a light-emitting epitaxial layer, from bottom to up, laminated by semiconductor material layers of a first confinement layer, a light-emitting layer and a second confinement layer over the substrate; a current blocking layer over partial region of the light-emitting epitaxial layer; a transparent conducting structure over the current blocking layer that extends to the light-emitting epitaxial layer surface and is divided into a light-emitting region and a non-light-emitting region, in which, the non-light-emitting region corresponds to the current blocking layer with thickness larger than that of the light-emitting region, thus forming a good ohmic contact between this structure and the light-emitting epitaxial layer and reducing light absorption; and a P electrode over the non-light-emitting region of the transparent conducting structure, which guarantees current spreading performance and reduces working voltage and light absorption.

After years of development, the light emitting diode has been widely applied in different fields like display, indication, back light and lighting. III-V group compound is the mainstream semi-conductor material for fabricating light emitting diode, in which, GaN-based material and AlGaInP-based material are most popular. Since the conventional P-type III-V group semiconductor material has poor current spreading performance, to enable even injection of current into the light-emitting layer, a transparent conducting layer is added over the p-type material layer. Among many materials as transparent conducting layer to improve current spreading effects like ITO, CTO, InO and ZnO, the ITO (Indium Tin Oxide) is most widely applied. The ITO film refers to indium tin oxide semiconductor transparent conducting film, and the ITO meets two index requirements, namely low resistivity and high light transmittance. In comparison to other transparent semiconductor conducting films, ITO has good chemical stability and heat stability.
Today, evaporation-deposited ITO tends to be replaced by sputtered ITO which has excellent performance and such advantages as voltage reduction and luminance improvement. However, the sputtered ITO has smooth surface that leads to a poor adhesiveness to the metal electrode. In particular, when above 250° C., thermal expansivity difference between the ITO and the metal electrode material gets larger, making stress between films increase accordingly, thus greatly reducing electrode adhesiveness.
In industry, main methods to solve such electrode dropping include roughening ITO film or adjusting film process parameters. These technologies, however, are still not perfect and have their own deflects. For example, the sputtered ITO microstructure generally comprises 30 nm-100 nm grains while wet roughening with solution is isotropic for each grain etching, therefore, the roughed surface remains flat. And adjustment of film process parameters, like sectional coating or reduction of rate in general, is difficult for it has to consider photoelectric parameter and electrode adhesiveness at the same time.

Light emitting diode and fabrication method thereof

Xiamen Sanan Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd.


A toy top playing apparatus for one person to play a toy top spinning game. A main body of the apparatus is provided with a display portion for displaying a game point, a play stage for spinning a toy top thereon, a dummy toy top simulating a toy top and arranged on the play stage, a sensor for detecting contact between the toy top and the dummy toy top, and a control section for processing the game point displayed on the display portion when the sensor detects the contact. The dummy toy top rotates on its axis, and a rotational direction thereof is controlled.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a toy top playing apparatus, and more particularly to a toy top playing apparatus by which a player can play a toy top spinning game by himself/herself by spinning a toy top.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there has been proposed a toy top playing table for spinning toy tops thereon so as to play a game, which can let players optionally select attacking or taking shelter by forcibly bringing a toy top into contact with a toy top of an opponent or moving the toy top away from the toy top of the opponent, so that a battle game using the toy tops is rendered exciting (see, for example, Japanese Utility Model No. 3082469). The toy top playing table is used at a time when the toy top is battling against the other toy top, and is structured such that a mounting table portion is arranged in a top surface of the play table, a top surface of a mounting plate mounting the toy top is arranged in a large circular opening formed in the center of the mounting table portion in such a manner as to be exposed, and the mounting plate can be rotated backward and forward by pushing and pulling a slide member.
The toy top playing table described above is structured such that an intention of the player can be reflected in the manner of battling, and an exciting game can be played. However, an opposing player is always necessary, and thus there has been a problem that only one person can not play the toy top spinning game.


Systems and methods for adaptation of content to mobile devices. A mobile device type can be identified based upon a request originating from the mobile device. Content can also be identified based upon the request. The content can be converted based upon the mobile device type and the converted content can be served to the mobile device.

This disclosure relates to advertising.
As the Internet has grown, online advertising has become a popular method by which advertisers can reach consumers. Online advertising provides opportunities for advertisers to target their advertisements to a receptive audience. Advertisements can be identified by one or more content servers in response to queries. The queries can, for example, include search engine queries.
Some advertising may not reach the intended target audience. For example, mobile communications devices can submit searches. However, web-based text advertisements may not format well for mobile communications devices and accordingly be displayed poorly/ineffectively if at all. Some conventional advertising systems sell mobile text advertising, however, these sales are performed independently of conventional web-based text advertising. Moreover, these conventional systems require creation of two separate advertisements if the advertiser desires to buy both mobile and web-based text advertisements because of the formatting differences between the media.

Adaptation of web-based text ads to mobile devices


In an error counting apparatus and method, there are provided a reproducing section for reproducing the optical disc and a counter for counting the error number of the pre-pit signal based on an output of the reproducing section. When it is detected that the reproducing section come up to the reproduction of the emboss portion, a counting operation of the counter is started in response to this detection. When it is detected that the reproducing section has reproduced the optical disc in the predetermined interval after the counting operation is started, the counting operation of the counter is stopped in response to this detection.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an error counting apparatus and method for counting the error number of pre-pit signals in the recording area containing the emboss portion formed on the optical disc.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the prior art, the DVD-RW (Digital Versatile Disc-ReWritable) is known as an example of the optical disc. In this DVD-RW disc, the lead-in area is provided prior to the data area. The control data zone is provided in this lead-in area. This control data zone is constructed by 192 ECC (Error Correction Code) blocks that consist of 176 control data blocks and 16 servo blocks. In this control data block, the control data are recorded by the deep emboss pits (readable embosses), and such control data cannot be rewritten but can be read. In the servo block, the shallow emboss pits (unreadable embosses) are recorded so as to make the reading of the land pre-pit possible in the situation that the rewrite of the control data is inhibited, as described later. In this case, please see the description of patent application Ser. No. 2000-78102 filed on Mar. 21, 2000 by the applicant of this application to know the details.
Meanwhile, the land pre-pit (LPP) signal indicating the address, etc. on the disc is recorded on the land track. In this case, the land pre-pit signal is not recorded on the land tracks, which correspond to the above 176 control data blocks, because such land pre-pit signal prevents the reading of the control data whereas the land pre-pit signal is recorded on the land tracks, which correspond to the above 16 servo blocks, to acquire the address of the subsequent data area.
By the way, it is stipulated in the DVD-RW format to satisfy the error rate of less than 3% in detecting the land pre-pit signal in the 16 servo blocks. Therefore, the disc manufacturer has to measure the error rate in this unreadable emboss portion. In the prior art, it is decided whether or not the disc can satisfy such standard, by supplying the pre-pit error pulse signal (indicating the error number) and the ECC block pulse signal (indicating the block number), which are output from the pre-pit signal decoder, to the dedicated counters respectively, then reading simply the counted values of respective counters with the eye, and then calculating the error rate.
However, since not only the unreadable emboss portion is constructed by the 16 ECC blocks (servo blocks) and is very short in length but also the land pre-pit signal is not recorded on the preceding readable emboss portion, the pre-pit error pulse signal is always output from the pre-pit signal decoder during the period when the readable emboss portion is reproduced. Therefore, it is very difficult to count precisely the error number from the beginning of the unreadable emboss portion. Also, it is possible to detect the error by monitoring the RF signal as the reproduced output with the eye via the oscilloscope, etc. However, it is difficult to execute such monitoring in the disc manufacturing step since the high skill is required for such monitoring.

Error counting apparatus for counting an error number of a pre-pit signal in an optical disc and method therefor


A method and apparatus for training a character detector based on weak supervision, a character detection system and a computer readable storage medium are provided, wherein the method includes: inputting coarse-grained annotation information of a to-be-processed object, wherein the coarse-grained annotation information including a whole bounding outline of a word, text bar or line of the to-be-processed object; dividing the whole bounding outline of the coarse-grained annotation information, to obtain a coarse bounding box of a character of the to-be-processed object; obtaining a predicted bounding box of the character of the to-be-processed object through a neural network model from the coarse-grained annotation information; and determining a fine bounding box of the character of the to-be-processed object as character-based annotation of the to-be-processed object, according to the coarse bounding box and the predicted bounding box.

In the field of Optical Character Recognition (OCR) character detection and recognition, since a single character-level annotation manner (e.g., character position annotation) needs to consume a lot of manpower and material resources, some current data sets in an open source real scenario are inclined to annotate an whole bounding outline of a whole word or a text bar, and text information of the whole word or the whole text bar. Such annotation manner eases annotation difficulty and costs to a certain degree, but brings about some negative influence, e.g., some typical character detection methods based on the character level cannot be effectively trained and adjusted based on these real scenario data annotated based on words and text bars. From the visual perspective, no matter how language types change, characters are the most fundamental units of words. Character detection methods based on character units are more likely to build a character detection engine under a general-purpose scenario (including horizontal, multi-directional, distorted and transmissive). Hence, a problem currently to be solved is to automatically generate character-based annotation information according to annotation information based on a word, text bar or line in the current annotation data set.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and apparatus for training a character detector based on weak supervision, system and medium

Baidu Online Network Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd.


A lock assembly a casing securely, releasably engaged onto a steering wheel of a vehicle. The casing includes a number of slots defined in a first portion thereof and a plurality of first holes defined a second portion thereof. A movable plate is mounted between the casing and the steering wheel and slidable relative to the casing. The movable plate includes a number of second holes defined therein for optionally aligning with the first holes in the casing. A locking device consisting of two hooked rods are provided to lock the casing and the movable plate in position.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an anti-theft lock assembly to be mounted to the steering wheel of a vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 5,676,001 issued on Oct. 14, 1997 discloses an anti-theft device engaged onto the steering wheel of a vehicle. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/937,794 filed on Sep. 25, 1997 discloses an improved design over the anti-theft device described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,676,001. The present invention is intended to provide a different design in this regard, which allows easy operation of the user for locking the steering wheel.

Anti-theft lock assembly for steering wheels

19, Sub-lane 24, Lane 8, Der-Yang 2 Street

Ho-Bi Village, Zen-Der Hsiang, Tainan Hsien


Embodiments of a securing system for plug connectors may have an adapter and a pair of housing parts, each with at least one plug place with a plug place interface for receiving the adapter whose exterior may have an adapter interface for positioning in the plug space. The adapter may have an interior geometry for receiving a plug connector. The exterior of the adapter and the plug place may form a primary securing means for securing the adapter in the respective plug place when the adapter is inserted into a defined plug position to secure the adapter in the plug place. Embodiments may include a secondary securing means, which can be plugged into the housing part up to a defined end position at which the secondary securing device to secure the plug connector in the adapter.

The fabrication of cables typically involves the conductors thereof being connected to a plug connector in order then, in a known manner, to be able to establish electrical connections with other cables or conductors which have corresponding plug connectors or mating plug connectors. A plug connector or mating plug connector may be a plug, a panel plug, a socket, a coupling or an adapter. The designation "plug connector" used in the context of the invention represents all variants.
Particularly plug connectors for the automotive industry or for vehicles have high demands placed on them in term is of their robustness and the security of the plug connections. A plug connection is thus at times required to withstand high loading, for example mechanical loading, and to remain closed in a defined manner such that the electrical connection is not unintentionally disconnected, for example during the operation of a vehicle. Guaranteeing the security is paramount particularly during the autonomous operation of vehicles and for assistance systems.
Furthermore, the number of plug connections to be installed in vehicles is constantly increasing, while the required plug connector systems are becoming ever more complex at the same time. What frequently occurs in practice here is that different types of plug connectors are integrated in a common module housing. A particular problem here is that the assembly of the different plug connector types to be integrated in a module housing can greatly vary in an application-specific manner, for example in dependence on the vehicle type. The personnel and economic outlay on design, production and assembly of the plug connector systems is therefore comparatively high, particularly for vehicles.
An object on which the present invention is based is that of providing an improved securing system for plug connectors received in an adapter.
A further object on which the present invention is based is that of providing an improved plug connector system for vehicles in which the plug connectors received in an adapter are reliably secured.
A further object on which the present invention is based is that of providing improved securing for a securing system for plug connectors or a modular plug connector system for vehicles.

Rosenburger Hochfrequenztechnik GmbH & Co. KG


Disclosed are an interactive system and method of controlling the same for achieving a task more efficiently. Items of data to be searched are stored in a memory (107) in a form classified according to prescribed classes, and a dialog controller (102) decides the order in which questions are presented to a user in order to narrow down the object of a search to data in a specific class. The questions are then presented to the user in the decided order by a question generator (103).

Interactive systems have been proposed for retrieving information or operating applications interactively by inputs from a keyboard or by input of voice. Such a system will be described taking as an example a recording programming system based upon spoken dialog utilizing voice recognition technology. If the name of a program desired to be preselected for recording is known exactly, then the name of the program can be preselected by voicing the name directly. For example, preselection programming can be performed through dialog of the following kind:
System: Say the name of the program you wish to preselect for recording.
User: News Ten (the name of the program).
System: Do you want to preselect "News Ten"?
User: Yes.
The objective can be attained by this give-and-take. In a case where the name of the program is not known exactly, the objective can be attained by voice entering the program attribute such as channel or broadcast time period and narrowing the candidates using the program attribute as a search key. The following is an example:
System: What is the time of the program you wish to preselect for recording?
User: 9:00 PM.
System: What is the name of the channel of the program you wish to preselect for recording?
User: Channel 11, Tokyo.
System: There are two programs at 9:00 PM on Channel 11, Tokyo. Do you wish to preselect Drama XX?
User: No.
System: Do you wish to preselect Weather Information?
User: Yes.
Thus there has been proposed an interactive system which, at the initiative of the system, narrows down the number of search items in stages by having the user answer questions posed by the system, thereby attaining the objective.
In a system-driven interactive system of the above-described kind, generally an expected value of the number of search items that will prevail after being narrowed down is utilized as selection criteria of questions for narrowing down the objects of the search. However, it is hard to narrow down efficiently by only using the expected value.
The above will be described taking the preselection of television programs for recording as an example.
First, assume a case where the TV programs are narrowed down by their broadcast times (e.g., two time periods, namely AM and PM). For example, for 200 TV programs, if the number of programs in the AM period is 100 and the number in the PM period is 100, then the next number of items searched can be narrowed down from 200 to 100 by asking whether the desired program is in the AM or PM period.
Next, assume a case where TV programs are narrowed down by category (e.g., two categories, namely news programs and other programs other than news programs). For example, for 200 programs, if the number of programs belonging to the first category (news) is 100 and the number of programs belonging to the second category (other than news) is 100, then the next number of items searched can be narrowed down from 200 to 100 by asking a single question in a manner similar to that above.
However, a problem arises if the numbers of programs belonging to the respective categories differ greatly from each other. For example, with regard to 200 programs, consider a case where there is only one program that belongs to the first category and 199 programs that belong to the second category. In this case, the expected value of the number of items to be searched after the question relating to category is answered is 100, which is no different from the above example. If it so happens that a news program has been specified by a single question, then the program can be finalized by this single question. In a case other than this, however, the 200 items to be searched is diminished by only one and, hence, there is little narrow-down effect. This means that a greater number of questions will be necessary, resulting in a longer time for the search.
With regard to voice recognition techniques, recognition performance varies depending upon the question because the recognition vocabulary available as candidates for answers differs depending upon the question presented to the user. Accordingly, in a case where a question in which an answer candidate contains similar words that are difficult to recognize is presented at the start, confirmation is laborious owing to erroneous recognition and, in the end, the search requires a long period of time.
For example, assume that the number of items to be searched is narrowed down from 200 to 100 by answering the question regarding AM or PM. Further, assume that the number of items to be searched is similarly narrowed down from 200 to 100 by answering the question relating to category.
In this case, the expected value and the systematic error are both the same and therefore one may consider that no problem will arise regardless of which approach is adopted. However, if the spoken answer to the AM/PM question and the spoken answer to the category-related question are compared, it will be seen that the former contains many words of similar pronunciation whereas the latter contains few words of similar pronunciation. In other words, a difference in pronunciation-related features appears. When misrecognition based upon voice recognition is taken into account, it will be understood that the number of items to be searched that can be narrowed down differs depending upon the nature of the question asked.

Interactive system, method, and program performing data search using pronunciation distance and entropy calculations


A safety cover for sockets includes a cover body having a recess in a first side thereof and two spaced blades extending outward from the recess and being perpendicular to the cover body. The blades are adapted to engage with two slits of a socket. A clip extends from the cover body and pivotable at an end thereof adjacent to the cover body. The clip includes a pair of substantially L-shaped members each with a flexible distal end extending toward each other to define a passage having width slightly less than that of a wire of the plug, such that the safety cover clips on the wire of the plug when not in use. The distance between the L-shaped members is less than that between the blades. The cover body includes two cutouts to allow a pivotal movement of the L-shaped members into the recess. The recess has two spaced protrusions extending outward from a periphery thereof which is opposite to the cutouts to retain the L-shaped members when the clip is stored in the recess.

The present invention relates to a safety cover for sockets.
In supplying electricity, sockets are useful in daily life and are generally exposed which sometimes causes accidents, such as electric shocks which are especially dangerous to children, as the sockets are accessible. Furthermore, dust and moisture in the air may cause the conductive plates mounted in the sockets to fail after a long term exposure to environment, especially when the sockets are installed outdoors.
Therefore, there has been a long and unfulfilled need for a safety cover for sockets to mitigate and/or obviate the aforementioned problems.


The disclosed process is for the recovery of cephalexin from a mixture containing cephalexin and 7-aminodesacetoxy cephalosporanic acid (7-ADCA), wherein a mixture of cephalexin and 7-ADCA, with a pH higher than 7, which apart from any solid cephalexin being present is homogeneous at a pH between 7 and 8.5, is subjected to a pH modification until a pH lower than 7.8 is reached, and the solid substance is recovered. The disclosed process is particularly suited for application to a reaction mixture obtained after the enzymatic acylation reaction of 7-ADCA with a phenylglycine derivative as an acylation agent. Pure cephalexin can thus be recovered in a simple manner.

In the preparation of cephalexin with 7-ADCA being acylated with a D-phenyl glycine derivative, the recovery of the cephalexin and the working up of the reaction mixture are difficult in general. Thus in WO-A-93/12250 for instance it is described that the acylation reaction never runs to completion and the ultimate purification of the final product is hindered because the acid/base properties and solubilities of certain components (in particular 7-ADCA and phenylglycine as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,003,896) differ little from those of the final product. As a result, coprecipitation occurs, so that impure cephalexin is obtained. In WO-A-93/12250 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,003,896 the use of a complexing agent such as naphthol is proposed. However, this entails the drawback that an additional substance alien to the process has to be added.
Another method to isolate cephalexin in pure form from a mixture containing cephalexin and minor quantities of 7-ADCA is described in JP-A-52111589. According to the method described in this Japanese publication, the mixture containing 7-ADCA and cephalexin is subjected to recrystallization in an organic solvent, for instance a mixture of dichloromethane, dimethyl sulphoxide and a lower alcohol, in the presence of an alkaline component, for instance disopropyl amine. This method, too, presents the drawback that substances alien to the process have to be added. Moreover, cephalexin losses of 18% occur in this purification method.


A transaction processing and authorization service. A transaction initiation message received from a source entity by the service may include one or more errors. The service may, in response to receiving an incorrect transaction initiation message, contact the source entity via a second communications channel and allow the source entity to correct the faulty transaction initiation message during the communication session. The service may allow the source entity to correct only incorrect or missing portions of the transaction initiation message, and thus the source entity may not be required to re-enter the entire message. Correction of the transaction initiation message may be performed as part of an authorization contact from the service to the source entity on a communications channel, and thus the correction may not require any extra communications attempts or sessions between the service and the source entity.

The Internet, sometimes called simply "the Net," is a worldwide system of computer networks in which a client at any one computer may, with permission, obtain information from any other computer. The most widely used part of the Internet is the World Wide Web, often abbreviated "WWW," which is commonly referred to as "the web." The web may be defined as all the resources (e.g., web pages and web sites) and users on the Internet that use the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) or variations thereof to access the resources. A web site is a related collection of web files that includes a beginning file called a home page. From the home page, the user may navigate to other web pages on the web site. A web server program is a program that, using the client/server model and HTTP, serves the files that form the web pages of a web site to the web users, whose computers contain HTTP client programs (e.g., web browsers) that forward requests and display responses. A web server program may host one or more web sites.
Web Services
Generally speaking, a Web service interface may be configured to provide a standard, cross-platform API (Application Programming Interface) for communication between a client requesting some service to be performed and the service provider. In some embodiments, a Web service interface may be configured to support the exchange of documents or messages including information describing the service request and response to that request. Such documents, or messages, may be exchanged using standardized Web protocols, such as the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), for example, and may be formatted in a platform-independent data format, such as eXtensible Markup Language (XML), for example.
Mobile Telephony
Mobile telephony has emerged alongside the Internet and the web, and the two technologies have crossed over and merged to form what is essentially a global communications and information network. Cellular telephones, for example, have become "digital", and continue to become more sophisticated. Today, many digital cell phones are capable of web access via their cellular service providers. Similarly, many web applications are capable of telephone communications to conventional phones and to mobile telephones. In addition, other technologies such as text messaging have emerged to enhance the capabilities and uses of mobile telephones and other personal electronic devices. Further, other personal electronic devices, such as Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) may provide mobile telephone links to the web, and user interfaces for accessing the web, along with text messaging and other information and communications capabilities. Thus, these devices are part of the emerging global communications and information network.
SMS
SMS (Short Message Service) is a service for sending messages of up to 160 characters (224 characters if using a 5-bit mode) to mobile phones. SMS does not require the mobile phone to be active and within range. An SMS message may be held until the target phone is active and within range. SMS messages may be transmitted within the same cell, or out of the cell to phones with roaming service capability. SMS messages may also be sent to digital phones from a web site, or from one digital phone to another. An SMS gateway is a web site that accepts SMS messages for transmission to cell phones within the cell served by that gateway, or that acts as an international gateway for users with roaming capability.
Various applications of the Internet, and of the web, involve electronic transactions, such as funds transfers. These applications involve the transfer of funds from one entity to one or more other entities. These applications range from transferal of funds between financial institutions to electronic payment by individuals for purchases of goods or services from e-commerce sites. With the merging of mobile telephony and other technologies and the web into an emerging global communications and information network, these other technologies have become part of the transaction process for many such applications. Security when initiating and performing such transactions on the emerging global communications and information network is an ongoing concern. One area of concern is in authorizing transactions involving the electronic transferal of funds from one entity's account to one or more other entities.
While embodiments are described herein by way of example for several embodiments and illustrative drawings, those skilled in the art will recognize that embodiments are not limited to the embodiments or drawings described. It should be understood, that the drawings and detailed description thereto are not intended to limit embodiments to the particular form disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope as defined by the appended claims. The headings used herein are for organizational purposes only and are not meant to be used to limit the scope of the description or the claims. As used throughout this application, the word "may" is used in a permissive sense (i.e., meaning having the potential to), rather than the mandatory sense (i.e., meaning must). Similarly, the words "include," "including," and "includes" mean including, but not limited to.

Method and apparatus for message correction in a transaction authorization service


In some example embodiments, there may be provided an apparatus. The apparatus may include a delay line including a plurality of cells; and tuning circuitry coupled to the delay line and configured to generate a first output and a second output to tune the delay of the delay line, wherein the first output tunes in aggregate the plurality of cells of the delay line, and wherein the second output tunes each of the plurality of cells separately. Related methods, systems, and articles of manufacture are also disclosed.

System-on-chip (SoC) integrated circuit architectures may include various circuit blocks (also referred to as sub-blocks). These sub-blocks may include on the same die one or more of the following: a radio transceiver, an analog-to-digital/digital-to-analog converter, a digital signal processors, and/or the like. These sub-blocks may operate using one or more clock or local oscillator (LO) signals to enable for example signal up/down conversion and/or synchronization.

All-digital delay-locked loop tuning method with randomized LSB-tuning


An optical lens system of a mobile camera is provided. The lens optical system includes: an optical lens in which one pair of incident surfaces corresponding to the divided view angles are adjacently arranged at the center portion, optical beams incident at the divided view angles being transmitted through respective off-axis lens systems; and one pair of image sensors separately arranged under both lower portions of the optical lens to receive the optical beams transmitted through the off-axis lens systems. As one pair of the image sensors is separately arranged on both lower portions of the optical lens, the images formed in the image sensors can be easily combined. Moreover, during the combination of the image, the disparity of the images can be prevented by the narrowed distance between the incident surfaces.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical lens system of a mobile camera. In the optical system of the mobile camera, optical beams incident at the divided view angles are incident on off-axis lenses arranged at the center portion of an optical lens, and image sensors are separately arranged on both sides of the optical lens. Due to the adjacent arrangement of the off-axis lenses, the disparity of the images can be minimized.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the recent development of mobile terminals such as portable phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs), the mobile terminals provide a phone call function and are used as a multi-convergence device having various functions. The most representative of the multi-convergence is a camera module. The resolution of the camera module changes from 300,000 pixels (VGA) to 700,000 pixels. Moreover, the camera module provides various additional functions, such as auto-focusing (AF) and optical zoom.
Generally, compact camera modules (CCMs) are applied to various IT devices, such as camera phones, smart phones, mobile communication terminals, and toy cameras. Recently, products using the CCMs to meet consumers' various tastes are increasingly put on the market.
The camera modules are manufactured using main parts of charge coupled device (CCD) or complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensors and lenses. Incident light transmitted through the lens is condensed by the image sensor and is stored as data in the memory. The stored data is displayed as an image through a display medium, such as liquid crystal display (LCD) or PC monitor.
Recently, with the development of digital technologies, the improvement of image compression/decompression technologies, and the technical improvement of peripheral devices of multimedia products, lenses for the mobile cameras have been continuously developed and researched for slim profile and miniaturization. To cope with these trends, mobile cameras are required which have the improved performance and the improved portability, as optical systems for ultraslim camera lenses are included therein.
According to the related art, coaxial lenses are widely used as the optical lenses of mobile cameras. In such a conventional coaxial lens, a plurality of rotationally symmetrical lenses are arranged in a longitudinal direction with respect to an optical axis. Therefore, there is a limitation in reducing the thickness of the longitudinally arranged lenses in the optical axis. Specifically, it is very difficult to achieve the miniaturization of the digital mobile devices because the whole length of the image sensor is determined at a level that is almost equal to the diagonal length of the image sensor.
To solve these problems, an optical lens system using prism lens and an optical lens system using a relay-type off-axis image forming lens have been proposed to achieve the miniaturization of the mobile device. An optical lens using a prism lens and an improved optical lens system using a divided off-axis lens system are disclosed in Korean Patent Application No. 10-2005-0073384, filed by the present applicant. Hereinafter, the optical lens and the improved optical lens system will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.
Referring to FIG. 1, the optical lens system using the prism lens includes a first prism 10, a second prism 20, a low pass filter (LPF) 4, and an image plane 3, thereby constituting an optical system of a mobile camera. A ratio of a whole length of the optical system to a diagonal length of an image sensor is in a range from 2.4 to 4.3. Therefore, the entire length of the optical system can be reduced within a very limited range.
As another example of the related art, the optical lens system using the off-axis image forming lens of FIG. 2 includes a first plane R1, a second plane R2, a third plane R3, a fourth plane R4, a fifth plane R5, and a sixth plane R6. Specifically, the first plane R1 is an aperture, the second plane R2 is a refraction plane on a coaxis with respect to the first plane R1, and the third plane R3 is a reflection plane inclined with respect to the second plane R2. The fourth plane R4 and the fifth plane R5 are reflection planes that are shifted and inclined with respect to the respective front surfaces. The sixth plane R6 is a refraction plane that is shifted and inclined with respect to the fifth plane R5.
In the integrated off-axis image forming lens system, however, the ratio of the whole length of the lens system to the diagonal length of the image sensor is in the range from 2.4 to 4.3. Therefore, there is a great limitation in securing a wide view angle in a single image sensor and reducing the entire thickness of the optical system.
Accordingly, in order to implement a wide angle of view and reduce the whole length of the optical system for the mobile camera, an additional optical lens system, as well as the lens system using the prism or the integrated off-axis image forming lens system, has to be implemented. An optical lens system using two or more off-axis lens systems is disclosed in Korean Patent Application filed on Aug. 10, 2005 by the present applicant. This optical lens system will be described in brief with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4.
FIG. 3 is a perspective view of an optical lens system according to the related art, and FIG. 4 is a sectional view of the optical lens system illustrated in FIG. 3. In the conventional optical lens system, the view angle is equally divided into more than two angles. The optical lens system includes a plurality of off-axis lens systems 100 and a single image sensor 120. The plurality of off-axis lens systems includes lenses provided on both sides, which transmit optical beams incident at the divided view angles. The single image sensor 120 receives the optical beams transmitted through the plurality of lens systems.
The single image sensor 120 includes unit pixels each receiving one of blue (B), red (R) and green (G) colors. The unit pixels are arranged alternately and regularly.
In the optical lens system, the image sensor 120 is disposed at the center portion of the optical lens having one pair of off-axis lens systems 100 symmetrically arranged on both sides. Therefore, the incident surfaces of the off-axis lens systems 100 have to be arranged on both sides. Consequently, as the distance of the incident surfaces becomes far, the disparity of the images according to the distance of the object occurs.
That is, when the perspective image as illustrated in FIG. 5 is captured, the distortion of the images occurs in the background indicated by a reference symbol "A" in the combination of the images formed through the off-axis lens system 100.

Optical lens system of mobile camera including optical lens and pair of image sensors


An interactive object property region displayable in a graphical user interface for an application program is disclosed. The interactive object property region is preferably automatically generated in response to a mouse pointer being moved over the object, but may also be affirmatively selected. Preferably, the region is initially positioned proximate to the object when generated. The interactive object property region, preferably a window, displays one or more properties of the selected object, and is interactive in the sense that the user can edit the displayed values in the region without the need to access further menu options in the graphical user interface. For example, in a preferred embodiment, the pointer can be moved from the object to the region to automatically change the displayed properties from a static display to an editable mode. Alternatively, the displayed property as soon as they are generated or can be editable upon affirmative selection.

Pop-ups (also known as balloons or tips) are known in the art and are used in Microsoft Windows® application programs and in computer aided drafting application programs, for example. Referring to FIG. 1, a graphical user interface 10 of the prior art has a canvas 12 displaying a plurality of objects. In the present example, the interface 10 is a drawing program for building a form, and the objects on the canvas 12 include boxes, fields, text, etc. As shown in FIG. 1, a user has used a mouse pointer 14 to select and highlight an object 16, in this example a box, and a pop-up 20 according to the prior art is displayed adjacent the pointer 14, which comprises a displayable element or window within the graphical user interface 10. The pop-up 20 provides information about the selected object 16. For example, the pop-up 20 in FIG. 1 shows the object's X-Y coordinates on the canvas 12.
When working with the graphical user interface 10, the user may wish to change a property (size, height, width, color, X-Y coordinates, font, etc.) of the selected object 16. However, the pop-up 20 is static, and the user cannot interact with the pop-up 20. In addition, the pop-up 20 typically disappears immediately after the user moves the mouse pointer 14 away from the object 16 or soon afterwards. To change a property of the selected object 16, the user must affirmatively select an option of the graphical user interface 10 using, for example, a menu. Referring to FIGS. 2A-2B, typical menu operations are illustrated that allow a user to access and change property information of the selected object 16. In one type of menu operation shown in FIG. 2A, the user, after highlighting the object in question, accesses a dropdown menu 18 on the toolbar of the interface 10 using the mouse pointer 14. In another type of menu operation shown in FIG. 2B, the user accesses a dropdown menu 19 after right-clicking with a mouse on the selected object 16.
On these menus 18 or 19, the user typically selects "properties . . . " with the mouse pointer 14, and a dialog box 22 is thereafter displayed on the canvas 12. The user can then change properties of the selected object 16 using text fields in the dialog box 22. As shown in FIGS. 2A-2B, the dialog box 22 can be "docked," meaning that the dialog box 22 can be fixed in a set persistent position on the canvas 12 (usually to the side), although such prior art dialog boxes have also been made moveable and non-persistent on the canvas. Such dialog boxes 22 are typically used in drawing programs, such as Adobe Illustrators, and several of such dialog boxes can be opened and docked at one time on the canvas 12. The docked dialog box 22 must be independently closed to remove it from the canvas 12, such as by selecting the "X" button at the top of the box. Furthermore, the dialog boxes 22 occupy valuable space of the canvas 12 by overlapping existing objects on the canvas 12 or by reducing the size of the canvas 12 to fit the docked dialog box 22 in the interface 10.
To enter changes to properties of the selected object 16, the user must move the pointer 14 from the selected object 16 to the dialog box 22 and edit a property value in fields of the dialog box 22. To continue working with the objects in the canvas 12 after such editing, the user must then move the pointer 14 back to the objects displayed on the rest of the canvas 12. If the user selects another object 16 in the canvas 12, the dialog box 22 typically remains docked in the canvas 12 and changes to reflect the properties of the newly selected object 16. Again however, the user must move the pointer 14 from the selected object 16 to the dialog box 22 to change a property, and then move the pointer 14 to the objects to continue working.
Using the conventional menu operations and dialog boxes 22 to change object property information as described above can inconvenience the user. For example, changing properties of a selected object requires repeated selection of objects and movements to and from the dialog box 22 to enter changes. In addition, the dialog box 22 obscures the view of the canvas 12 and must be independently closed to remove the box 22 from the canvas 12.
The subject matter of the present disclosure is directed to overcoming, or at least reducing the effects of, one or more of the problems set forth above.

Interactive object property region for graphical user interface


A liquid crystal display device includes an electrode substrate, a liquid crystal layer with no twist, a first retardation plate, a second retardation plate, polarizing plates, and a color filter. The first and second retardation plates have slow axes that are parallel or perpendicular to the alignment direction of liquid crystal molecules. The product of the refractive anisotropy Δn of the liquid crystal layer and the thickness d of the liquid crystal layer, the retardation R1 of the first retardation plate and the retardation R2 of the second retardation plate satisfy at least one of the relational expressions:530 nm≦Δnd+R1+R2≦570 nm,−20 nm≦Δnd−R1−R2≦20 nm,255 nm≦Δnd−R1+R2≦295 nm, and255 nm≦Δnd+R1−R2≦295 nm.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display device that effects display, making use of at least one of backlighting and ambient lighting.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, liquid crystal display devices have been applied to a variety of fields including notebook PCs, monitors, car navigation systems, medium-sized and small-sized TVs, and mobile phones. In particular, a reflection-type liquid crystal display device requires no backlight, and has advantages such as low power consumption, thinness and lightness. To make use of these advantages, it is now under consideration to apply the reflection-type liquid crystal display device to a display for a portable device such as a mobile PC.
A reflection-type liquid crystal display device effects display by making use of ambient light. Like paper, the luminance of the display screen varies depending on the environment of illumination. In particular, nothing is visible in darkness. To solve this problem, special attention has recently been paid to a liquid crystal display device that uses a built-in light source as an auxiliary light source in a case where the ambient illumination environment is dark. Examples of this type of liquid crystal display include a backlit semi-transmission-type liquid crystal display device, wherein a built-in light source is disposed behind the display screen, and a frontlit reflection-type liquid crystal display device, wherein a built-in light source is disposed in front of the display screen.
In each of these liquid crystal display devices, in order to realize reduction in thickness and weight, while reducing power consumption, it is necessary to increase the efficiency of use of light as much as possible. Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2000-193962 (Patent No. 3015792), for instance, proposes a method which uses a polarizing reflection element such as a cholesteric liquid crystal as a reflection layer with high reflection efficiency. A cholesteric polarizing reflection element reflects circularly polarized light in a specific direction, which is included in the light incident on the reflection layer. Since the wavelength range of reflected light varies depending on the helical pitch of the cholesteric liquid crystal, light only in the desired wavelength range can be reflected by stacking a plurality of cholesteric liquid crystal layers with different pitches. In particular, by stacking six or more cholesteric liquid crystal layers, most of the light in the visible light range can be reflected. In this kind of cholesteric polarizing reflection device, compared to an ordinary metal reflection layer of, e.g. aluminum, the amount of absorbed light is small and the light use efficiency is high. The liquid crystal display device that uses the above-described polarizing reflection element can control the transmittance/reflectance of the polarizing reflection element. Thus, a semi-transmission-type liquid crystal display device with high light use efficiency can be provided.
On the other hand, reflection-type liquid crystal display devices or semi-transmission-type liquid crystal display devices, which can be formed of substantially the same material as conventionally used transmission-type liquid crystal display devices, have many merits such as sharing of equipment, reduction in cost of components and reduction in cost of development. These devices have already been put to practical use in mobile phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs). However, these reflection-type or semi-transmission-type liquid crystal display devices have lower light use efficiency than the liquid crystal display device that uses the above-described polarizing reflection device. Consequently, the reflection-type or semi-transmission-type liquid crystal display device has insufficient display characteristics, or consumes much energy in order to operate the light source with high luminance. In particular, in the semi-transmission-type liquid crystal display device, it is difficult to realize both transmission display characteristics and reflection display characteristics with sufficiently high light use efficiency.
Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 11-242226, for instance, proposes various liquid crystal display modes as means for solving the above problem. For example, in a semi-transmission-type liquid crystal display device using a homogeneous mode, pixels are divided into a transmissive region and a reflective region which have different cell gaps, thereby to enhance the light use efficiency. In the homogeneous mode, since the liquid crystal molecules are aligned in the same direction, the structure is simple and optical compensation can easily be effected by using a retardation plate, etc. Therefore, display with high contrast and a wide viewing angle can be realized.
It is confirmed, however, that in the homogeneous mode, compared to a twisted nematic (TN) mode, etc., the variance in optical characteristics is large when there is a variance in the cell gap or retardation plate. It is necessary, therefore, to manage the cell gap, which corresponds to the transmissive/reflective regions, with a small margin in the manufacturing process, and to strictly manage the optical characteristics of the structural components. This poses serious problems in manufacture.


A pad mounted resistivity imaging device includes at least one transmitter and two or more arrays of receivers. Analysis of the received signals is done using either amplitude and phase differences between the arrays of receivers, or by analyzing amplitude and phase differences between the transmitters and the receivers. With operating frequencies in excess of 10 MHz, high resolution images of boreholes are obtained.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to explorations for hydrocarbons involving electrical investigations of a borehole penetrating an earth formation. More specifically, this invention relates to highly localized borehole investigations for obtaining an image of the borehole wall using induction logging.
2. Background of the Art
Electrical earth borehole logging is well known and various devices and various techniques have been described for this purpose. Broadly speaking, there are two categories of devices used in electrical logging devices. In the first category, a measure electrode (current source or sink) are used in conjunction with a diffuse return electrode (such as the tool body). A measure current flows in a circuit that connects a current source to the measure electrode, through the earth formation to the return electrode and back to the current source in the tool. Such devices are referred to as galvanic sensors. In inductive measuring tools, an antenna within the measuring instrument induces a current flow within the earth formation. The magnitude of the induced current is detected using either the same antenna or a separate receiver antenna. The present invention belongs to the second category.
Obtaining an image of a borehole wall has hitherto been accomplished primarily by using galvanic sensors. Ajam et al (U.S. Pat. No. 4,122,387) discloses an apparatus wherein simultaneous logs may be made at different lateral distances through a formation from a borehole by guard electrode systems located on a sonde which is lowered into the borehole by a logging cable. A single oscillator controls the frequency of two formation currents flowing through the formation at the desired different lateral depths from the borehole. The armor of the logging cable acts as the current return for one of the guard electrode systems, and a cable electrode in a cable electrode assembly immediately above the logging sonde acts as the current return for the second guard electrode system. Two embodiments are also disclosed for measuring reference voltages between electrodes in the cable electrode assembly and the guard electrode systems
Techniques for investigating the earth formation with arrays of measuring electrodes have been proposed. See, for example, the U.S. Pat. No. 2,930,969 to Baker, Canadian Pat. No. 685,727 to Mann et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,468,623 to Gianzero, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,502,686 to Dory et al. The Baker patent proposed a plurality of electrodes, each of which was formed of buttons which are electrically joined by flexible wires with buttons and wires embedded in the surface of a collapsible tube. The Mann patent proposes an array of small electrode buttons either mounted on a tool or a pad and each of which introduces in sequence a separately measurable survey current for an electrical investigation of the earth formation. The electrode buttons are placed in a horizontal plane with circumferential spacings between electrodes and a device for sequentially exciting and measuring a survey current from the electrodes is described.
The Gianzero patent discloses tool mounted pads, each with a plurality of small measure electrodes from which individually measurable survey currents are injected toward the wall of the borehole. The measure electrodes are arranged in an array in which the measure electrodes are so placed at intervals along at least a circumferential direction (about the borehole axis) as to inject survey currents into the borehole wall segments which overlap with each other to a predetermined extent as the tool is moved along the borehole. The measure electrodes are made small to enable a detailed electrical investigation over a circumferentially contiguous segment of the borehole so as to obtain indications of the stratigraphy of the formation near the borehole wall as well as fractures and their orientations. In one technique, a spatially closed loop array of measure electrodes is provided around a central electrode with the array used to detect the spatial pattern of electrical energy injected by the central electrode. In another embodiment, a linear array of measure electrodes is provided to inject a flow of current into the formation over a circumferentially effectively contiguous segment of the borehole. Discrete portions of the flow of current are separably measurable so as to obtain a plurality of survey signals representative of the current density from the array and from which a detailed electrical picture of a circumferentially continuous segment of the borehole wall can be derived as the tool is moved along the borehole. In another form of an array of measure electrodes, they are arranged in a closed loop, such as a circle, to enable direct measurements of orientations of resistivity of anomalies.
One major drawback with the use of contact devices injecting electrical currents into a wellbore arises when oil-based muds are used in drilling. Oil-based muds must be used when drilling through water soluble formations: an increasing number of present day exploration prospects lie beneath salt layers. Oil has a high electrical resistivity and even a thin film of oil can greatly reduce the effectiveness of conduction-based devices for determination of formation resistivities.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,714,014 to Evans et al. having the same assignee as the present application and the contents of which are fully incorporated herein by reference, teaches an apparatus and method based on the use of high frequency measurements for injecting measure currents into the formation. One embodiment of the device and method taught in Evans uses a carrier frequency that is sufficiently high to capacitively couple the measure electrodes to the formation through the nonconducting mud. By modulating the carrier current at a frequency used in prior art resistivity imaging devices, it is possible to get measurements of formation resistivity with relatively minor changes in the hardware of prior art resistivity devices used with water based muds, the main modification being a modulator for producing the measure currents demodulator for demodulation of the measure currents.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/616,857 of Chemali et al., having the same assignee as the present invention and the contents of which are fully incorporated herein by reference, teaches a measurement-while-drilling apparatus and method in which transmitters and receivers are mounted on stabilizers. At the operating frequencies of the Chemali device, the apparatus can be used with oil based muds. A hardfacing is used to reduce wear and to keep the transmitter and receiver antennas at a desired distance from the borehole wall. Azimuthal and vertical imaging is possible due to the fact that (i) measurements are made by a rotating sensor on the MWD device, giving azimuthal coverage, and, (ii) the relatively low rate of axial movement (ROP) of a MWD device. For wireline applications, simply mounting the sensor of Chemali on a wireline logging sonde would not be adequate to provide adequate resolution for imaging applications. The present invention fills a need for an inductive wireline imaging tool.

Apparatus and method for wireline imaging in nonconductive muds


The light beam scanning method and apparatus perform light beam scanning of a cylindrical internal surface scanning type, a cylindrical external surface scanning type, and a plane scanning type, where when a sheet-like object to be scanned is scanned by a light beam emitted from a light source, at least one of lateral displacement and longitudinal displacement of a light beam and aberration in an optical system is compensated by controlling a wave front of the light beam with a wavefront control device. Also, when the lateral displacement, longitudinal displacement, and the aberration are caused by change of an environmental temperature, it is possible to measure the environmental temperature and to perform compensation through the control of the wave front by the wavefront control device based on the measured environmental temperature. Also, when scanning is performed using a plurality of light beams, it is possible to align scanning positions of the plurality of light beams in an auxiliary scanning direction in a parallel manner by displacing the scanning positions through the control of the wave front of at least one light beam using the wavefront control device.

The present invention relates to a light beam scanning method and apparatus.
In more detail, the present invention relates to a light beam scanning method and apparatus that realize high-precision light scanning by compensating for an error in a condensing spot position due to lateral displacement of a light beam and longitudinal displacement (defocus) of the light beam caused by various factors and degradation (blurring) in a condensing spot shape due to aberration in an optical system. That is, the present invention relates to a light beam scanning method and apparatus that uses a light scanning technique with which there is performed high-quality image recording or high-precision image reading.
In particular, the present invention relates to a cylindrical internal surface scanning type light beam scanning method and apparatus that use a light scanning technique with which during cylindrical internal surface scanning type light beam scanning, there is compensated for at least one of lateral displacement of a light beam, longitudinal displacement of the light beam, and aberration in an optical system caused by various factors and there is performed high-quality image recording or high-precision image reading.
Also, the present invention relates to a cylindrical external surface scanning type light beam scanning method and apparatus that use a light beam spot compensating light scanning technique that realizes high-precision light scanning by compensating for at least one of lateral displacement of a light beam, longitudinal displacement of the light beam, and aberration in an optical system caused by various factors or the changing of an environmental temperature, with the cylindrical external surface scanning type light beam scanning method and apparatus being suitably applicable to any optical recording head such as a CTP (Computer to Plate), an image setter, or a DDCP (Direct Digital Color Proofer). Alternatively, the present invention relates to a light beam scanning method and apparatus that use a light beam spot temperature compensating light scanning technique that is suitably applicable to any of the light recording heads described above.
Also, the present invention particularly relates to a cylindrical internal surface scanning type light beam scanning apparatus that functions as a cylindrical internal surface scanning type image recording apparatus that records an image by performing main scanning on a recording medium, such as a photosensitive material, held on a cylindrical internal surface using a plurality of light beams modulated in accordance with image information.
There have been developed light beam scanning apparatuses such as a light beam reading apparatus that performs the reading of an image using a light beam and a laser printer that records an image by guiding a light beam from a laser or the like, onto a recording medium using a scanning optical system and by exposing the recording medium through the scanning of the light beam. These light beam scanning apparatuses include, in the category thereof, a flat bed type that scans a laser beam on a plane-shaped recording medium, a cylindrical external surface scanning type (external surface cylinder type (outer drum type)) that scans a laser beam on a recording medium placed on an outer peripheral surface of a rotating drum, and a cylindrical internal surface scanning type (internal surface cylinder type (inner drum type)) that scans a laser beam on a recording medium placed on the inner peripheral surface of a drum.
Among these, the inner drum type light beam scanning apparatus does not suffer from the peeling of a recording medium during recording and excels in high-speed scanning ability, cost efficiency, and the like. Also, the quality of a recording light beam is high, so that the inner drum type light beam scanning apparatus is widely used.
A conventional inner drum type light beam scanning apparatus is shown in FIG. 20. As shown in FIG. 20, the inner drum type light beam scanning apparatus 500 is basically constructed of a drum 504 on whose cylindrical internal peripheral surface there is placed a recording medium (recording sheet) 502 on which an image or the like is to be recorded, a light source (laser beam generator) 506 that generates a laser beam L, and a laser beam scanning portion 508 that is disposed concentrically with the center axis of the drum 504 and scans the laser beam L on the recording medium 502.
The laser beam scanning portion 508 includes a condensing lens 510 that is set on the same optical axis as the laser beam L, a light deflector (spinner) 512 that has a reflection surface set at an inclination angle of substantially 45° with respect to the incident direction of the laser beam L, and a motor 514 that rotationally drives the spinner 512 about the optical axis of the laser beam L.
The laser beam L outputted from the laser beam generator 506 is then condensed by the condensing lens 510, is reflected by the reflection surface of the spinner 512 that is rotated by the motor 514 at high speed, and is guided onto the recording medium 502. During this operation, the laser beam L is scanned (main-scanned) by the rotating spinner 512 while rotating on the recording medium 502 at high speed. Also, the laser beam scanning portion 508 is moved for auxiliary scanning in a direction shown by the arrow X in the drawing by an unillustrated traverse that moves for auxiliary scanning. In this manner, an image or the like is recorded on the recording medium 502.
In the inner drum type light beam scanning apparatus, however, there is a problem in that because the spinner that is a deflector is rotated, its reflection surface is distorted by a centrifugal force, the wave front of the laser beam that scans the recording medium is distorted, and the quality of a recorded image is lowered.
In view of this problem, U.S. Pat. No. 5,907,153 discloses a technique of compensating for distortion in a reflected beam caused by distortion in the reflection surface due to the rotation of this spinner using an optical path length compensating device of a transmission type or a reflection type.
That is, as shown in FIG. 21, in the light beam scanning type image recording apparatus, a laser beam generated from a laser diode 601 connected to a modulator 602 and passed through a light level controller 603 is reflected by a compensating device 604, passes trough a beam expander 605, a resolution selector 606, a focusing lens 607, and the like, is reflected by a reflection surface 610 of a rotating spinner 611, and is scanned on a recording medium 608 placed on the internal surface of a cylinder 609, thereby recording an image or the like. During this operation, there is made an attempt to compensate for aberration or distortion caused by the rotation of the spinner 611 with this compensating device 604.
As shown in FIG. 22, the compensating device 604 includes an electrode 615 and a piezo device 614 that are disposed under a plane-shaped mirror 613. As shown in FIG. 23, the compensating device 604 further includes electrodes 616A to 616L that are divided into 612 portions ant are disposed in a circumferential manner under the electrode 615 and the piezo device 614. As shown in FIG. 21, the electrodes 615 and 616A to 616L are controlled by a memory 619, a microprocessor 618, and a voltage source 620.
Also, by deforming the piezo device 614 through the control of the electrodes 616A to 616L in synchronism with the rotation of the spinner 611, the distortion in the laser beam caused by the spinner 611 is compensated for through the deforming of the mirror 613.
However, as causes of the degradation in the quality of a recorded image or the degradation in a figure accuracy of image reading, aside from the aforementioned distortion in the laser beam, there are cited the increase of a spot diameter, the degradation in a condensing spot shape such as the collapse of a spot diameter, and lateral displacement of a light beam where the position of a dot for recording an image is shifted from a target position (that is, an error in the condensing spot position). The cause of the degradation in the condensing spot shape and the error in the condensing spot position is not limited to the aforementioned distortion in the rotating spinner. That is, in addition to causes resulting from the spinner, there are cited, for instance, causes resulting from longitudinal displacement (defocus) of a light beam, aberration in an optical system, and the like. The causes due to the spinner are dynamic, while the causes due to the aberration in the optical system are caused by a lens itself or the combination of lenses and are static. Also, in addition to the above, there are cited causes such as an error from the roundness of the drum (eccentricity of the drum or a cylindrical error), a deviation of a traverse that is moved for auxiliary scanning from a straight line property, a mismatch between the moving direction of the traverse and the center line of the drum (parallel shifting or crossing), or a variation in the thickness of a recording medium.
Here, in short, the degradation in the condensing spot shape refers to longitudinal displacement (defocus) of a laser beam in an optical axis direction (z direction), the increase of a spot diameter due to aberration in an optical system, and the collapse of a spot shape. Also, the error in the condensing spot position refers to displacement of the recording position of a laser beam on the recording medium (in the x and y directions).
Up to now, in order to circumvent the degradation in the condensing spot shape caused by the aforementioned various factors (hereinafter represented by the longitudinal displacement of the light beam and the aberration in the optical system) and the error in the condensing spot position (hereinafter represented by the lateral displacement of the light beam) and in order to obtain high-quality recorded image, there is no choice other than relying on high-precision processing or high-precision adjustment, which eventually leads to a problem in that the cost of the apparatus is increased.
Incidentally, as described above, as one light beam scanning apparatus, there is a cylindrical external surface scanning type light beam scanning apparatus.
As described above, this apparatus is also referred to as the outer drum type. In this apparatus, a recording beam is imaged on a recording medium wound around the external peripheral surface of a drum (recording drum) that rotates at constant speed, and at the same time, a scanning optical system is moved for the auxiliary scanning in the rotation axis direction of the drum, thereby scanning the recording medium with a light beam.
Up to now, there has been known that in the outer drum type light beam scanning apparatus, the lateral displacement of a recording light beam, blurring due to aberration in the optical system, and longitudinal displacement of the recording light beam are caused by various factors to be described below and image quality is degraded.
For instance, due to the eccentricity or distortion in a cylindrical direction caused during the manufacturing of a drum, a variation in the thickness of a recording medium, such as a plate or a film, wound around the drum external peripheral surface, and the like, there occurs lateral displacement of a light beam or longitudinal displacement of the light beam on a recording surface while the drum is making one rotation.
Such lateral displacement of the light beam on the recording surface is also caused by the distortion or bending in a rail of an auxiliary scanning mechanism that has the scanning optical system perform auxiliary scanning, the bending in an exposure surface plate, an error in the auxiliary scanning sending speed due to an error in a lead pitch of an auxiliary scanning ball screw of the auxiliary scanning mechanism, or the like.
Further, shifting of a figure is caused by displacement of a recording beam caused during the spiral exposure using a multi-beam. As described above, due to various factors, there occur lateral displacement of a recording beam and degradation in image quality such as figure accuracy. Up to now, these problems have been coped with only by processing each construction element, such as a drum, with high precision. This means that there has been taken no effective measure.
Also, in the case of the CTP or the like, a plate made of aluminum is wound around the external surface of a drum. During the rotation of the drum, this plate is pulled outwardly by a centrifugal force and is placed in a state where the plate is floated from the drum external surface, which causes longitudinal displacement. Alternatively, in the case where minute dust is sandwiched between a recording medium, such as a plate or a film, wound around the drum external surface and the drum external surface, the recording medium is floated from the drum external surface at a corresponding position and there occurs longitudinal displacement in a like manner. Further, if the rail of the auxiliary scanning mechanism (traverse) for moving the scanning optical system for auxiliary scanning in the rotation direction of a drum is distorted or bent, there occurs longitudinal displacement in accordance with the auxiliary scanning.
Up to now, such longitudinal displacement is compensated for by moving the position of a lens system for imaging light emitted from a light source.
As shown in FIG. 24, for instance, a light beam emitted from a light source 700 is guided onto a recording medium 708 wound around the external surface of a recording drum 706 through a first lens group 702 and a second lens group 704. In an exposing apparatus that performs scan exposure, the second lens group 704 is moved as indicated by the broken line in the drawing. Thus, the aforementioned longitudinal displacement is compensated for, thereby correcting the point of a recorded image.
Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 25, by moving the whole of the optical system including the light source 700, the first lens group 702, and the second lens group 704, the longitudinal displacement is compensated for.
However, there is a problem in that if there is made an attempt to compensate for the lateral displacement of a light beam by relying on the high-precision processing of a drum and the like, the product price is raised.
Also, as described above, with the method with which the longitudinal displacement of a light beam is compensated for by moving a lens group and the like, there are moved the heavy-weighted lens group and the like, so that it is impossible to expect high-speed response, and for instance, it has been extremely difficult to compensate for longitudinal displacement resulting from the aforementioned causes such as dust. Also, the lens group is mechanically moved, so that there is a danger that vibrations caused by the mechanical moving exert an adverse effect on recording accuracy.
Consequently, in order to eliminate the lateral displacement or longitudinal displacement of a light beam, it has conventionally been required to process each construction element like a drum with high precision, to add a device that removes dust and the like, and to take other measures, which causes a problem in that the price of a product is raised.
Also, there has conventionally been known that if an environmental temperature is changed during the light scanning in these light beam scanning apparatuses, lateral displacement of a recording light beam (displacement of a recording position on the recording medium surface) and longitudinal displacement of the recording light beam occur due to various factors to be described below, which leads to the degradation in image quality.
In the case of the outer drum type, for instance, the lateral displacement and longitudinal displacement of a recording beam are caused by the degradation in figure accuracy, such as the magnification accuracy or registration accuracy, caused by the expansion or the shrinking of a drum in its diameter direction due to the changing of the environmental temperature, the elongation of a surface plate supporting the drum or an auxiliary scan exposure head in the optical axis direction, or the like.
In the case of the inner drum type, the lateral displacement of the recording beam is caused by the shrinking in the drum diameter direction due to the changing of the environmental temperature, tilt of a lens, displacement of a spinner mirror, or the like. Also, longitudinal displacement of a recording beam is caused by the changing of a focal distance of a lens glass material due to the changing of the environmental temperature, the shrinking in the drum diameter direction, the changing of the position of a spinner in the optical axis direction, or the like.
Also, in the case of a flat bed type, lateral displacement of a recording beam is caused by displacement of a light deflector due to the changing of the environmental temperature, the elongation of a flat bed, the tilt shifting of a long mirror, or the like. Also, longitudinal displacement of a recording beam is caused by the fluctuations of a distance between lenses on an optical surface plate due to the changing of the environmental temperature, the changing of a focal distance of a lens glass material, the displacement of a long mirror in the optical axis direction, or the like.
Such lateral displacement of a recording beam due to various factors resulting from the changing of the environmental temperature has conventionally been compensated for by processing each construction element, such as a drum, with high precision.
Also, the longitudinal displacement of a recording beam due to the changing of the environmental temperature is coped with by moving the position of a lens system for imaging light emitted from a light source or by selecting an appropriate glass material for a lens.
For instance, as a method of compensating for the longitudinal displacement of a recording beam, in the case of the outer drum type, as shown in FIG. 24, light emitted from the light source 700 is converted into parallel light using the first lens group 702, this parallel light is condensed by the second lens group 704, and the condensed light is imaged on the recording medium 708 wound around the external peripheral surface of the drum 706. During this operation, in the case where there occurs longitudinal displacement of the recording beam due to the changing of the environmental temperature, as indicated by the broken line in the drawing, the longitudinal displacement is compensated for by moving the position of the second lens group 704.
Also, as a method of compensating for the longitudinal displacement, in the case of the inner drum type, as shown in FIG. 26, a laser light emitted from the light source (LD, laser diode) 710 is guided to the spinner 720 through the lenses 712, 714, 716, and 718 and the like, is reflected by the reflection surface of the spinner forming an angle of substantially 45° with respect to the optical axis, and is imaged on the recording medium 722 placed on a drum (not shown). During this operation, in the case where there occurs longitudinal displacement of a laser beam due to the changing of the environmental temperature, by selecting an optimum glass material for the lens 718 that is closest to the spinner 720 in the drawing, the longitudinal displacement is compensated for.
However, if there is made an attempt to compensate for the lateral displacement of the recording beam due to the changing of the environmental temperature by relying on the high-precision processing of a drum and the like, there occurs a problem in that the price of a product is raised.
Also, with the aforementioned method with which the longitudinal displacement of the recording beam due to the changing of the environmental temperature is compensated for by moving the position of the lens system, heavy-weighted lenses are mechanically moved, so that there is a danger that vibrations generated by the mechanical moving exert an adverse effect on recording accuracy, which causes a problem in that there is a fear of the stability of the system being lacked.
Further, with the aforementioned method with which the longitudinal displacement is compensated for by a lens glass material, there occurs a problem in that a certain restriction is put on the glass material for the lens, there occurs the lowering of the beam quality (degradation in the beam diameter or the like), and the price of a product is raised depending on the glass material for the lens.
Also, the degradation in the condensing spot shape of a light beam is caused not only by longitudinal displacement of a light beam but also by aberration in a scanning optical system or the like. Also, as a result of the changing of the shape or the characteristics of the lens glass material itself used in a scanning optical system due to the changing of the environmental temperature, the aberration in the scanning optical system also changes and the degradation state of the condensing spot shape changes. There is a problem in that in order to cope with such degradation in the condensing spot shape due to the aberration in the scanning optical system and the like and the changing of the degradation state, there is taken no effective measure other than the use of a high-priced lens glass material with less aberration.
Also, as described above, in a light beam scanning apparatus, as an image recording apparatus that records an image on a recording sheet like a recording material using a laser beam, there are used a plane scanning (flat bed) type image recording apparatus that performs recording by irradiating a laser beam onto a plane-shaped recording sheet that is conveyed for auxiliary scanning in the main scanning direction, a cylindrical external surface scanning (outer drum) type image recording apparatus that performs recording by irradiating a laser beam on a recording sheet stuck on the external peripheral surface of a rotating drum, a cylindrical internal surface scanning (inner drum) type image recording apparatus that performs recording by irradiating a laser beam on a recording sheet stuck on the cylindrical internal surface, and the like.
Among these, the inner drum type image recording apparatus has come to be frequently used because a recording sheet is stuck on the internal surface of a cylinder so that there occurs no peeling of the recording sheet during recording, the size accuracy of an image to be recorded is high, and this recording apparatus is excel in the high-speed scanning property, cost efficiency, and the like.
As described above, in the inner drum type image recording apparatus, for instance, a light scanner (spinner), whose reflection surface is set at an angle of substantially 45° with respect to the incident direction of a laser beam, is disposed on the center axis of a cylinder and this reflection surface is rotated about the center axis, thereby scanning the laser beam on the recording sheet.
Incidentally, in the inner drum type image recording apparatus constructed in this manner, there is made an attempt to improve the recording speed by performing scanning using a plurality of laser beams. In this case, if the plurality of laser beams are simply made incident on a light scanner, it is impossible to have the laser beams scan on a recording sheet in a straight manner. Consequently, it becomes impossible to perform precise image recording. If scanning lines are formed on a recording sheet using three laser beams #1 to #3 arranged in parallel at regular intervals, for instance, aside from a scanning line formed by the laser beam #2 that is made incident on the rotation center of the reflection surface, bent scanning lines are formed on the recording sheet by the laser beams #1 and #3 that are made incident off the rotation axis of the reflection surface, as shown in FIG. 27.
This bending of a scanning line is caused by the rotation of the reflection surface that has been set at an angle of substantially 45° with respect to the incident direction of the laser beam.
That is, as shown in FIGS. 28A to 28C, a light scanner 802, whose reflection surface 804 is set at an angle of substantially 45° with respect to the incident directions of the laser beams #1 to #3, is disposed on the center axis 806 of the cylinder and the reflection surface 804 is rotated about the center axis 806. As a result, in the case where the laser beams #1 to #3 are scanned on a recording sheet, when the reflection surface 804 of the light scanner 802 is set in the direction of FIG. 28A (the minor axis of the reflection surface 804 coincides with the Y axis), three laser beams #1, #2, and #3 that are made incident on the minor axis of the reflection surface 804 under a state where these laser beams are parallel to the Z axis are reflected along the X-Y plane, and reach the recording sheet S under a state where these beams advance on the same scanning line. Also, when the reflection surface 804 is rotated from the state shown in FIG. 28A by 90° and is placed in a state shown in FIG. 28B, the laser beams #1, #2, and #3 are reflected along the Y-Z plane and reach the recording sheet S under a state where these laser beams #1, #2, and #3 are separated from each other. When the reflection surface 804 is further rotated from the state shown in FIG. 28B by 90° and is placed in the direction shown in FIG. 28C, the laser beams #1, #2, and #3 are reflected along the X-Y plane again and reach the recording sheet S under a state where these beams advance on the same scanning line.
The positions of the laser beams #1, #2, and #3 on the reflection surface 804 that are made incident on the surface 804 in this manner fluctuate due to the rotation of the light scanner 802, so that aside from the scanning line formed by the laser beam #2 that is made incident on the rotation axis of the reflection surface 804, there are formed bent scanning lines on the recording sheet S, as shown in FIG. 27.
Incidentally, in order to cope with this problem in that scanning lines are bent, JP 08-130612 A discloses an inner drum type image recording apparatus that is capable of forming a scanning line that is parallel to the main scanning direction through the deflection of each laser beam that is made incident separately from the rotation axis of the reflection surface 804 using an acoustic optical device or an electrooptical device.
However, the acoustic optical device and the electrooptical device are extremely high-priced elements, so that there arises a problem in that the inner drum type image recording apparatus will cost much.
Also, in the case where the scanning position on the recording sheet S in the main scanning direction and the auxiliary scanning direction is displaced, it is required that a plurality of acoustic optical devices and electrooptical devices are used for one laser beam, which causes a problem in that the cost is further increased.

Light beam scanning method and apparatus compensating for defects


A vibrating and twinkling device which may mounted upon an appearance member for stationery or textile products includes a circuit element, light emitting diodes, power supplies, a vibrating switch, and a transparent encapsulation body. The circuit element includes a circuit board and a circuit control element. The light emitting diodes are mounted on and electrically connected to the circuit board. The power supplies electrically connect with the circuit element for supplying power. The vibrating switch electrically connects to the circuit board. The transparent encapsulation body covers the circuit element, the light emitting diodes, the power supplies, and the vibrating switch. Thereby, the vibrating and twinkling device is waterproof. When the vibrating switch is vibrated, the light emitting diodes can be driven to glow and twinkle, which offers splendid effects when the stationery or textile product is used.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vibrating and twinkling device, and more especially to a vibrating and twinkling device for stationery or textile products.
2. Description of the Prior Art
People's curiosity of pursuing new things prompts them to try to change their lives and experience all kinds of distinctive feelings. Shoes with vibrating and twinkling devices have the effects of attracting the attention of people due to the glow and twinkle as the wearer walks.
However, as the novelty wears off, shoes with vibrating and twinkling devices become passe and unfashionable. Furthermore, with the development of technology, related industries are pursuing the objectives of improving the vibrating and twinkling device structure and application to allow the vibrating and twinkling devices to be used in things other than shoes. Additionally, it is worth mentioning that most vibrating switches for the vibrating and twinkling devices make the circuits conduct via swinging contact of springs mounted inside the shoe. If the amplitude of vibration of the vibrating switches is too small, the circuits will not conduct and produce twinkling effects.
Hence, the inventors of the present invention believe that the shortcomings described above are able to be improved and finally suggest the present invention which is of a reasonable design and is an effective improvement based on deep research and thought.