A method and apparatus for improving data integrity and density in an array of disk drives by synchronizing spindles prior to correcting for repeatable runout (RRO). The invention includes a drive control circuit for controlling synchronization, initiating runout cancellation calibration, and granting customer use of the disk drives. In a further aspect of the invention, rotation of the spindles is monitored for changes. The drive control circuit initiates resynchronization and recalibration of the runout cancellation for the disk drives in response to receiving an indication from the rotation detector that rotation of at least one of the spindles in the disk drives has changed. Initially, or after a change is detected, one of the disk drives is selected as a master and a synchronization signal is routed to each of the disk drives from the selected master drive for synchronizing the spindles in the disk drives. The rotation detector detects the addition and removal of a disk drive to the rack, and the addition and removal of a disk drive to or from the rack is equated with a change in the rotation of a spindle in the disk drives thereby triggering resynchronization of the spindles and recalibration of the runout.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to a method and apparatus for improving data integrity and density in rack-mounted disk drives, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for spindle synchronization to reduce drive-to-drive runout.
2. Description of Related Art
In a customer environment, disk drives are frequently mounted together in racks. Associated with these disk drives, a disk controller decodes servo data from either or both the dedicated and data surfaces so that the servo control may be modified, if necessary, to continuously maintain the position of the data head in alignment with a selected data track centerline. Nevertheless, several factors limit the alignment accuracy, and thus the maximum attainable data track density, of a disk storage device.
A most notable. mechanical disturbance is spindle "runout", or "wobble", which is the difference between the actual centerline of a track and the effective centerline presented to a head positioned a fixed distance from the mounting center of the disk. Runout may be caused by slight eccentricity in the mounting of the disk on its drive spindle or from vibrations transmitted through the racks from other disk drives. Runout caused by mounting eccentricity is substantially static and thus may be accounted for by calibration techniques that cancel the effect from this type of runout. Nevertheless, racks are designed by the customer without regard to the interaction between drives. As a result, runout induced by a neighboring drive's spindle motor presents a more difficult problem.
In a rack, some of the runout is due to the spindle motor of an adjacent drive and is not locked in time to the control. Currently, however, high end disk drives offer spindle synchronization. The spindle may be controlled so that each revolution starts at a fixed phase from a master pulse. The important consequence of this is that all the spindle motors are locked in time.
In a conventional spindle motor control system for a magnetic disk apparatus, an output signal from a crystal oscillator may be counted, and the count decoded by a decoder for detecting upper and lower limits of the rotation speed of each spindle motor to thereby control the rotation speed of each spindle motor. In addition, phase control may be performed by accelerating or decelerating the spindle motor in accordance with a phase relationship between a pulse generated at the center of a sector counter and a synchronizing signal input from an external controller so that the index pulse coincides with the synchronizing signal from the external controller.
In the above-described spindle motor control system for a magnetic disk apparatus, speed control is performed for each spindle motor within the range of upper and lower limits of the rotation speed of the spindle motor, and then synchronization between the respective spindle motors is controlled. Therefore, the rotation speeds of the plurality of spindle motors differ from each other and variations in rotation speed also differ from each other because loads acting on the motors are different. Therefore, it is difficult to maintain the rotation speeds and the phases of the plurality of spindle motors coincident with each other for a long period of time.
Attempts have been made to improve on the synchronization of the rotation of the spindles for a disk drive system. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,918,544, issued Apr. 17, 1990, to Ishizuka et al., entitled "MULTI-SPINDLE SYNCHRONIZATION CONTROL SYSTEM FOR MAGNETIC DISK APPARATUS", incorporated herein by reference, discloses a multi-spindle synchronization control system for a magnetic disk apparatus. The multi-spindle synchronization control system includes a plurality of magnetic disk units each for receiving a reference clock pulse to control rotation of a spindle motor. An index pulse is generated by detecting rotation of the spindle motor and a crystal oscillator generates a master clock having a predetermined frequency. A counter converts the master clock into a master index pulse that is generated upon each rotation of the spindle motor. A plurality of spindle synchronization control circuits are each connected to a corresponding one of the plurality of magnetic disk units for maintaining the rotation speeds and the phases of the plurality of spindle motors coincident with each other. Nevertheless, even though the rotation of the spindle motors may be synchronized, runout due to vibrations may still occur.
As mentioned above, techniques for compensating for runout in individual drives due to eccentric mounting have been developed. For example, during operation the runout from a drive's own spindle motor may be measured, and a repeatable runout (RRO) cancellation control may be used to cancel its effect. The runout will not change over time since both the motor drive and counteracting control are locked in time.
However, as mentioned above, some of the runout for a drive in a rack is due to the spindle motor of an adjacent drive. This runout is not locked in time to the control of the runout due to the drive's own spindle motor RRO cancellation. In fact, the runout will inevitably drift 180 degrees out of phase from the initial control. When this happens, the counteracting control may now be enhancing this component of runout instead of reducing it. This situation can in the extreme lead to hard errors due to excessive runout. As the track pitch decreases and the spindle speed increases, this effect will become even more deleterious.
One method to minimize drive-to-drive interaction is to improve the rack design, but this must be done by the customer. Accordingly, the customer will view this as an additional expense, and if the redesign is not required by all types of drives, drives requiring the redesign will be viewed as more expensive and therefore be less competitive.
A method that does not involve the customer is to constantly update the RRO cancellation control by monitoring the runout. But the drive-to-drive component can shift 180 degrees in less than a minute, so to keep pace with phase shift only the latest few revolutions can be used to calculate the control. With so little data, a good estimate of the runout is uncertain.
Further, only the fundamental of the spindle frequency is cancelled. The higher harmonics will still move in and out of phase with this method thereby increasing track squeeze and the possibility of reading old information while on track. Though not cancelled, with spindle sync the effect of the higher harmonics will stay constant from operation to operation, even after the rack is powered off and on again.
It can be seen then that there is a need for a method and apparatus for spindle synchronization and runout cancellation to reduce drive-to-drive runout.

Method and apparatus for spindle synchronization to reduce drive to drive runout

International Business Machines Corporation


In a network print environment in which printers of various residual amount outputting methods exist mixedly, in an information processing apparatus for monitoring a supplement of consumables which are used in the printer which can communicate via a communication line in order to recognize that consumables have properly and newly been supplemented in each printer, there is provided a mechanism having a discriminating unit for discriminating whether the consumables have newly been supplemented into the printer or not by a discriminating method according to the residual amount outputting method of the consumables of the printer.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an information processing apparatus, monitoring method and program, and a memory medium, in which management of a residual amount of consumables of an image forming apparatus such as printer, copying apparatus, or the like is made and management of a stock of the consumables is also made in accordance with the residual amount management.
2. Related Background Art
As a technique for managing a stock of toner cartridges which are used in OA apparatuses, according to a patent literature 1, there has been known a mechanism such that copying apparatus management devices connected to copying apparatuses in a one-to-one correspondence relational manner receive a toner empty signal and paper feed number data of each paper feed cassette from the copying apparatuses and update stock data of the toner cartridges, for example, in accordance with the reception of the toner empty signal.
As methods of outputting a toner residual amount or information corresponding to the toner residual amount from an image forming apparatus including the copying apparatus to an external apparatus, there have been known various outputting (detecting) methods such as method of outputting residual amount information of two, three, or more levels on the basis of an detection output of a sensor provided in the toner cartridge, method of outputting information indicative of the number of print sheets as a parameter of a consumption degree of the toner to the external apparatus, and the like.
[Patent Literature 1]
JP-A-08-152824
Since use of the image forming apparatus which adopts the various toner residual amount detecting methods and the methods of outputting the detected residual amount as described above is presumed in an actual office network environment, a mechanism such that the stock management can be made by unitarily managing the residual amount information, exchange of the toner cartridge, and the like in such an environment is demanded.

Information processing apparatus, monitoring method and program, and memory medium


A plunger moves from a retracted position to an extended position to engage a document which is on a receiving platform to push the document through an opening in the receiving platform and towards a stacking platform to stack the document on the stacking platform. The plunger moves from the extended position back to the retracted position to allow a biasing force which is acting on the stacking platform to press the document which has just been stacked on the stacking platform against the receiving platform. A supporting mechanism supports first and second plate members of the receiving platform for pivoting movement between a non-parallel position in which the plate members form a substantially wide V-shape to cup the document as the plunger pushes the document through the opening and onto the stacking platform, and a parallel position in which the plate members are substantially parallel to each other as the plunger moves back to the retracted position to allow the biasing force which is acting on the stacking platform to press the document which has just been stacked on the stacking platform against the receiving platform.

The present invention relates to stacking documents in a self-service environment, such as stacking checks which have been deposited at a check depositing automated teller machine (ATM), and is particularly directed to a document stacker apparatus and method of stacking documents such that the documents are stacked in sequence relative to each other.
In a typical known check depositing ATM, a user is allowed to deposit a check (without having to place the check in any deposit envelope) in a publicly accessible, unattended environment. To deposit a check, the user inserts a user identification card through a user card slot at the check depositing ATM, enters the amount of the check being deposited, and inserts the check to be deposited through a check slot. A check transport mechanism receives the inserted check and transports the check in a forward direction along a check transport path to a number of locations within the ATM to process the check.
If the check is not accepted for deposit, the check transport mechanism transports the check in a reverse direction along the check transport path to return the check to the user via the check slot. If the check is accepted for deposit, the amount of the check is deposited into the user's account and the check is transported to a document storage bin within the ATM. An endorser printer prints an endorsement onto the check as the check is being transported to and stored in the storage bin. Checks in the storage bin within the ATM are periodically picked up and physically transported via courier to a back office facility of a financial institution for further processing.
When the check is transported to the storage bin, the condition of the check may cause the check to crumple or curl up as the check moves into the storage bin. The tendency of the check to crumple or curl up as the check moves into the storage bin may depend upon how empty or full the storage bin is at the time the check is moving into the storage bin. The tendency of the check to crumple or curl up usually increases as the storage bin becomes fuller.
A number of problems may be created when the check crumples or curls up as the check moves into the storage bin. One problem is that a document jam may occur when subsequent checks are later diverted into the storage bin. Another problem is that the effective storage capacity of the storage bin may be reduced. The effective storage capacity of the storage bin may be reduced since a crumpled or curled up check usually takes up more storage space in the storage bin than a check which is neither crumpled nor curled up. Still another problem is that the order in which checks were received in the document storage bin may be lost. When the order is lost, additional time is usually required later at the back office facility of the financial institution to sort the checks back into the order in which the checks were received in the storage bin. It would be desirable to provide a type of storage bin in which deposited checks are reliably stacked in the order received, and in which the capacity of the storage bin is more fully utilized independent of the conditions of the deposited checks.

Document stacker apparatus and method of stacking documents


An ink composition is provided that includes a cationically polymerizable compound (a), a compound (b) that generates an acid when exposed to radiation, a colorant (c), and a salt of a weak acid having a pKa of 4 to 8 (d). There is also provided an inkjet recording method that includes a step of discharging the ink composition onto a recording medium, and a step of irradiating the discharged ink composition with radiation so as to cure the ink composition.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink composition suitably used for inkjet recording, an inkjet recording method, a printed material employing same, a lithographic printing plate obtained using the ink composition, and a process for producing a lithographic printing plate. More particularly, it relates to an ink composition suitable for inkjet recording that cures with high sensitivity upon exposure to radiation, can form a high quality image, has good storage stability, and does not degrade image quality or a substrate due to acid remaining in an image area after forming an image, an inkjet recording method, a printed material employing same, a lithographic printing plate obtained using the ink composition, and a process for producing a lithographic printing plate.
2. Description of the Related Art
With regard to an image recording method for forming an image on a recording medium such as paper based on an image data signal, there are an electrophotographic system, sublimation type and melt type thermal transfer systems, an inkjet system, etc. In the electrophotographic system, a process of forming an electrostatic latent image on a photosensitive drum by electrically charging and exposing is required, and the system is complicated; as a result, there is the problem that the production cost is high. With regard to the thermal transfer system, although the equipment is inexpensive, due to the use of an ink ribbon there is the problem that the running cost is high and waste material is generated. On the other hand, with regard to the inkjet system, the equipment is inexpensive and, since an image is formed directly on a recording medium by discharging an ink only on a required image area, the ink can be used efficiently and the running cost is low. Furthermore, there is little noise and it is excellent as an image recording system.
An ink composition that can be cured by exposure to radiation such as ultraviolet rays and, in particular, an inkjet recording ink (radiation curing type inkjet recording ink) are required to have sufficiently high sensitivity and provide a high image quality. By achieving higher sensitivity, a large number of benefits are provided, such as high curability toward radiation, a reduction in power consumption, longer lifetime due to a decrease in the load on a radiation generator, and prevention of formation of low molecular weight material originating from insufficient curing. Furthermore, higher sensitivity particularly improves the cure strength of an image formed using the ink composition and, in particular, the inkjet recording ink, particularly for the formation of a lithographic printing plate, and high plate life can be obtained.
Such an inkjet system of a type that is cured by radiation such as, for example, ultraviolet rays, generates a relatively low degree of odor and can be applied to recording on a recording medium that does not have quick drying properties or ink absorbing properties; the system has therefore attracted attention in recent years, and an inkjet ultraviolet-curable ink composition employing radical polymerization has been disclosed (ref., for example, JP-A-63-235382, JP-A-3-216379, JP-A-5-214280, JP-B-6-21256, and JP-B-6-62905; JP-A denotes a Japanese unexamined patent application publication, and JP-B denotes a Japanese examined patent application publication). Furthermore, for the purpose of providing an inkjet recording ink that enables an image having high adhesion to a recording medium to be recorded with high sensitivity without spreading, even for a support for which it is usually difficult to carry out direct recording by the inkjet recording method, and where the inkjet recording ink has little skin irritation or sensitization and has high safety, there has been proposed a composition containing a color material and a polymerizable compound comprising a group of specified radically polymerizable acrylate compounds (ref., for example, JP-A-2003-192943 and JP-A-2003-192944). These radically polymerizable inks have excellent curing speed and can form an image without spreading, but they have the problem that the adhesion to the recording medium is degraded due to volume shrinkage during curing.
Because of this, in order to improve the adhesion to the recording medium, cationically polymerizable ink compositions having a low shrinkage ratio during ultraviolet curing have been proposed (ref., for example, JP-A-9-183928). However, these cationically polymerizable inks do not have sufficient storage stability due to a reaction involving an acid generated over time, and this is a big barrier to their actual application. Because of this, as an attempt to improve the storage stability, there has been proposed a technique in which a basic compound or an agent that generates a base on heating is added (ref., for example, JP-A-2003-312121, JP-A-2003-341217, and JP-A-2004-91558), but it has been found that there is the new problem that, since the basic compound inhibits the function of an acid generated on exposure to light, the curing sensitivity of the ink is degraded. Because of this, there has been a desire for the achievement of storage stability and high sensitivity at the same time.

Ink composition, inkjet recording method, printed material, process for producing lithographic printing plate, and lithographic printing plate


The present invention relates to a method for preparing a functionalized graphene. The method for preparing a functionalized graphene according to the present invention can functionalize graphene by a simple method and does not use any other substance other than graphene and a salt containing a double bond, thereby enabling functionalization of graphene while exhibiting characteristics inherent to graphene.

Graphene is a semimetallic material where carbon atoms form an arrangement connected in a hexagonal shape by two-dimensional sp2 bonding while having a thickness corresponding to a carbon atom layer. Recently, it has been reported that the properties of a graphene sheet having one carbon atomic layer were evaluated, and as a result, it has been reported that the graphene sheet may show very excellent electrical conductivity of electron mobility of about 50,000 cm2/Vs or more.
In addition, graphene has the properties of structural and chemical stability and excellent thermal conductivity. Further, graphene consists of only carbon which is a relatively light element, and thus, easy to be processed in one-dimensional or two-dimensional nano-patterns. Due to such electrical, structural, chemical and economical properties, graphene is expected to replace a silicon-based semiconductor technology and a transparent electrode in the future, and especially, is possible to be applied to a flexible electronic device field due to excellent mechanical properties.
On the other hand, graphene tends to re-agglomerate due to its hydrophobic properties. Therefore, graphene does not disperse well in most organic solvents except for the solvents having similar surface energies such as NMP and DMF.
To solve these problems, by using an amphipathic dispersant, the hydrophobic portion of the dispersant is adsorbed on graphene surface and the hydrophilic portion can inhibit the aggregation of adjacent graphene to improve the dispersibility in a solvent. In the above method, since there is no chemical change of graphene itself, it is possible to maintain characteristics inherent to graphene, but there is a disadvantage in that it is difficult to maintain long-term dispersibility because the method is a physical bond.
As another method, there is a method of chemically bonding a compound for functionalization on graphene surface. Since the above method is a chemical bond, long-term dispersibility can be maintained, but there is a disadvantage in that a part of sp2 bond of graphene is changed to sp3 bond, and thus characteristics inherent to graphene are deteriorated, especially thermal conductivity and electrical conductivity are reduced. Furthermore, the above method has a problem that a complicated method is necessary for functionalization of graphene surface since the reactivity of graphene is low.
In this regard, the present inventors have conducted intensive studies on a method for functionalizing graphene, and found that graphene can be functionalized by a simple method of heat-treating graphene and a salt containing a double bond at a specific temperature as described later, thereby completing the present invention.

Method for preparing functionalized graphene


An apparatus for the time-gated optical examination of objects that are p of, embedded in or viewed through dense scattering materials is disclosed. In a preferred embodiment, the apparatus comprises: a light source for producing a first light pulse and a pump light pulse, each of the first and pump light pulses having a preselected pulse width at a preselected pump wavelength; a Raman generator for shifting the wavelength of the first light pulse to a preselected Stokes wavelength to form Stokes light; a first optical train for transmitting the Stokes light through the dense scattering material to obtain Stokes light comprised of a relatively small, image-bearing signal component including unscattered Stokes light or Stokes light with minimal deviation due to scattering, light followed in time by a relatively large amount of light scattered by the dense scattering material; a Raman amplifier; an optical system for transporting the Stokes light from the dense scattering material to the Raman amplifier; a variable delay path disposed between the light source and the Raman amplifier for varying the transit time of the pump pulse to cause the pump pulse to overlap in time with the signal component of Stokes light at the Raman amplifier, the Raman amplifier only amplifying the signal component of Stokes light that is overlapped in time by the pump pulse; and a two-dimensional detector for detecting the amplified signal component of Stokes light.

1. Field of the invention
The present invention relates to imaging devices and particularly to an apparatus and method for the time-gated optical examination of objects that are part of, embedded in or viewed through dense scattering materials using stimulated Raman scattering.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Images of objects that are part of, embedded in, or viewed through a medium in which a significant amount of multiple path scattering occurs are usually blurred or otherwise degraded in resolution or completely obscured because the different paths over which the scattered radiation travels causes the image to appear to arise from more- than one location within the scattering medium. There are several methods that can be used to overcome this problem, with each having certain disadvantages.
A first method involves the spatial filtering of the image to include only those rays that are not deviated too far from the axis of the optical system. The limitations of this first method occur because the spatial frequencies of the scattered radiation can overlap those required to form the image of the object. Either the resolution with which the object can be imaged is limited, or the scattered radiation cannot be filtered out effectively.
A second method of overcoming the blurring of the image is to time gate the transmitted signal so that only the earliest light that emerges from the scattering medium is recorded by a detector. This "first light" either is not scattered, or is scattered over a relatively short path compared to light that emerges later, and therefore provides the least amount of image degradation. The degree of improvement provided by this second method depends on the length of the scattering path over which the detected signal is integrated, which, in turn, is determined directly by the duration of the time gate. In general, the shorter the time gate, the better the image, down to some characteristic time that is determined by the scattering characteristics of the medium. Imaging through dense scattering materials, such as biological tissue, or solids or liquids that appear translucent or even opaque to the unaided eye can require gating times of the order of 10 picoseconds or less.
There are several techniques currently used to perform such time-gated imaging measurements, including various forms of electronic gating and optical gating. Electronic gating can be accomplished either by gating a photoelectric image tube directly, or by switching some other part of the photoelectric detection circuit. These techniques are currently limited to gating times of the order of 50-100 picoseconds (psec) or longer, corresponding to minimum scattering paths of the order of 1.5-3 centimeters (cm) by the limitations of available electronic switching devices.
Another technique involves the use of picosecond or femtosecond pulses for illumination of the object, followed by an optical gating technique to provide the time resolution. Such techniques can provide time gates in the picosecond or subpicosecond regime, depending on the length of the optical pulse. For comparison with electronic gating methods, a time gate of 100 femtoseconds corresponds to a scattering path of 0.003 cm.
One gating technique suitable for picosecond or femtosecond pulses is holography, in which the image is detected only by a coincidence between the illumination pulse and a reference pulse of the desired length. Conventional holography, in which the image is recorded on high resolution photographic film, requires a substantial amount of light in the transmitted signal to interfere with the reference pulse to establish the holographic record. It thus limits the extinction in the sample that can be accommodated. Electronic holography, in which the fringes are detected with a sensitive two-dimensional camera and the hologram is reconstructed through computer analysis, overcomes the sensitivity problem, allowing greater attenuation in the sample. However, all of the transmitted light is recorded at the detector. If a large fraction of the transmitted light is contained in the non-image bearing tail that is delayed through scattering, the interference fringes that form the hologram will be washed out, and the noise in the image will be increased until the image is totally obscured.
Holography can also be accomplished with broad-band, long-pulse laser light, in which the gate time is determined by the inverse of the bandwidth of the light. This approach provides subpicosecond gate times without the need for subpicosecond technology. However, as it has been applied to date, it suffers from the same disadvantages described above for picosecond holography: large signal requirements and relatively low contrast between the image-bearing portion of the transmitted light and the non-image-bearing tail.
Another technique for short pulse gating is the use of a Kerr shutter, in which the transmission of light through a cell between crossed polarizers is controlled by a second pulse of light. The gate times for this approach can be of the order of picoseconds, depending on the duration of the controlling light pulse and the response time of the active medium in the Kerr gate. This technique suffers from limitations in contrast because of leakage of the wrong polarization through the polarizers, and losses in the Kerr gate because the transmission is less than 100%. Contrast can be increased by cascading gates, but only at the expense of overall transmission. The loss of transmission can be especially detrimental for viewing through highly attenuating samples in which there is a limit on allowable irradiation levels, such as for living tissue.
Image amplification with picosecond time-gated amplifiers have also been described in the prior art. These amplifiers have been based on dye amplifiers pumped by picosecond laser pulses. By themselves the dye amplifiers have relaxation times of the order of several nanoseconds and, therefore, gating times of the same order of magnitude. Picosecond gating times were achieved by raising the dye concentration and pumping level to such a degree that substantial radiation from the upper laser level occurs, leading to population "dumping" and reduced lifetime of the upper state. The limitations of these amplifiers are that the high level of fluorescence necessary to produce the short gating time contributes a background on top of the amplified image, limiting the sensitivity and increasing the noise level. The amplifiers have had gains of only 100 to 1000, limiting the degree of contrast with the delayed light. Finally, fundamental considerations of the noise level of amplifiers show that the minimum noise level occurs when the time-bandwidth product .DELTA..nu..DELTA.t=1. The dye fluorescence is radiated over the full bandwidth of the dye amplifier, of the order of 500 cm.sup.-1 . As a result, for gating times of the order of 10 picoseconds, the time-bandwidth product is in excess of 100, increasing the minimum noise value by the same factor.
Several other techniques are also possible. Streak cameras can be used to record the image. Time resolutions down to 2 picoseconds are currently possible. However, only a one-dimensional image is obtained, requiring scanning to produce a two-dimensional image. In addition, the streak cameras are of limited sensitivity, limiting their utility in detecting low-level signals. Another approach that uses time-gating involves the technique of four-wave mixing. In this approach the signal beam impinges on a non-linear medium that is being irradiated with co-propagating picosecond light pulses. Conversion of the signal light takes place only while the gating pulse is present. The main drawback to this approach is the combination of low conversion efficiencies associated with the conversion process (10% or less), coupled with limitations on the allowable illumination signal as set by the ANSI standards for irradiation of living tissue. Four-wave mixing using phase conjugation has also been suggested. The disadvantage of this technique is that, while phase conjugation can correct refractive distortion, it does not correct for scattering distortion due to fundamental considerations.
Non time-gating techniques also include the use of holographic recordings using spatial correlation to discriminate against the non image-bearing light. This approach has the same limitations due to low contrast with non-correlated light as discussed above for holography. Finally, use may be made of absorption in the sample to attenuate the longer paths associated with the multiple scattered light. This can work in materials that are highly absorbing, but not for materials that are primarily scattering rather than absorbing.

Time-gated imaging through dense-scattering materials using stimulated Raman amplification

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy


In an inertial sensor that includes an angular rate detection circuit having a structure synchronized with a resonant frequency of an angular rate detection element, an object thereof is to realize an angle output having high accuracy with less integration error in an integration circuit for detecting an angle. The inertial sensor includes an angular rate detection element chip C1 that has a mechanical structure for angular rate detection; and a signal processing LSI chip C2 that is angular rate detection circuit for detecting an angular rate from the angular rate detection element chip C1. The signal processing LSI chip C2 calculates an angle by sampling a signal obtained from the angular rate detection element chip C1 at a discrete time synchronized with a drive frequency of the angular rate detection element chip C1.

An inertial sensor is one application example of a device manufactured by using a semiconductor micro-fabrication technology which is called micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS). Because an MEMS inertial sensor is manufactured by using a semiconductor process, a large number of detection elements can be made in parallel. This leads to a lower price of the inertial sensor which was conventionally a high price and realizes an in-vehicle inertial sensor.
In particular, there is an application of an inertial sensor for detecting an inclination of a vehicle body. That is, there is an application to a safety device that protects a passenger from injury by detecting and controlling a roll inclination of the vehicle body and a pitch inclination, and activating the safety device.
In general, there are two methods of detecting an inclination. First, since the gravity is always 1 g (9.8 m/s2) in a vertical direction, there is a method of obtaining an inclination by calculating an inverse trigonometric function from an output of an accelerometer. If there is an accelerometer of at least 1 axis, the method can be realized, but in the inverse trigonometric function, a sensitivity difference generated by the angle of the inclination is large (for example, in a Sin function, an inclination is large with respect to an angle change near an angle of 0 degrees, but the inclination is small with respect to the angle change near an angle of ±90 degrees). Therefore, the inclination is often obtained from a ratio of a two-axis accelerometer.
However, there is a problem in using the above-described method as an in-vehicle inclination detection sensor. That is, when the vehicle body is running on a curve or accelerating, a centrifugal force is generated so that the acceleration other than the gravity is applied to the sensor. In this case, it is impossible to obtain an accurate inclination by the calculation method based on the inverse trigonometric function assuming that in the acceleration applied to the sensor, a sum of each axis is 1 g.
On the other hand, as another method, there is a method of time-integrating an angular rate. Since the unit of the angular rate is degree/second, it is possible to detect an angle (direction) at which the sensor is inclined by time-integrating an output of a rate gyroscope.
For example, PTL 1 is available as a background art of the present technical field. In PTL 1, an attitude angle measuring apparatus, which obtains an attitude angle by time-integrating a signal having a higher reliability among the angular rate estimation results obtained by signal processing an output of the rate gyroscope and an output of the accelerometer, is disclosed.
In addition, as a configuration example of an angular rate detection element and a detection circuit for detecting the angular rate, there is an example disclosed in PTL 2.


An automated system collects information related to various factors that affect fuel costs, and determines an optimal amount of fuel to be loaded on an aircraft. Information related to an aircraft's fuel efficiency is collected from the aircraft; price information is collected for the stops made by the aircraft; and flight plan information is collected for each flight. The collected information is used to determine or estimate the fuel requirements of the aircraft and an optimal amount of fuel to load onto the aircraft at a location.

Fuel costs are a significant factor in operating airplanes, it also can be very dynamic. The fuel consumption rates of individual airplanes can vary, even among aircraft of the same model and using the same model engines. Determining the actual fuel consumption efficiency of individual airplanes can be difficult due to the various factors that can affect fuel consumption such as, for example, environmental wind direction and speed, temperature, altitude, etc. Many of these factors are dynamic and change during flight. In addition, the cost of fuel may vary from location to location. Thus, an aircraft making a "circuit" of flights to various locations may incur fuel costs that vary on a cost per unit basis. Thus, in addition to the fuel efficiency of the aircraft and engines, the fuel costs can also depend on the price of the fuel (i.e., price per unit) at the various locations.

Automated fueling information tracking and fuel hedging


Exemplary embodiments of the invention include replaceable printing consumables with a variety of features that facilitate intuitive installation of the consumables in printers. The features may be utilized in various combinations to provide multiple, consistent visual cues to a printer user regarding the proper installation of the consumable. The consumables may be, for example, ink containers for inkjet printers.

Printing systems, including inkjet printers, are well known in the art. Inkjet technology enables the printing of text and images by depositing very small droplets of ink onto a print medium, such as paper. Inkjet printheads are typically secured to a scanning carriage that traverses the print medium in a direction transverse to the direction of travel of the print media through the printer. Each printhead includes multiple tiny ink ejection elements formed in a substrate that are selectively "fired" by electrical signals, causing droplets of ink to be ejected in a controlled fashion onto the print medium.
Inkjet printers typically utilize replaceable ink supplies, which may be either integral with the printheads (in the form of "print cartridges"), or separate from the printheads (sometimes referred to as "separate ink and silicon"). When the printheads are integral with the ink supplies, the printheads are replaced each time new ink supplies are installed in the printer. When separate from the replaceable ink supplies, the printheads may be permanent or semi-permanent, with an ink delivery system routing ink from the supplies to the printheads. Since printheads are relatively expensive, "separate ink and silicon" configurations typically allow for a lower total cost of printer ownership.
If permanent or semi-permanent printheads are used, the replaceable ink supplies may be located remotely from the printheads and off the scanning carriage (referred to as "off-axis"). Locating the ink supplies off-axis reduces the scanning carriage mass and swept volume, which typically allows for mechanically simpler and more compact printer systems.
Printers are commonplace in business settings, and have long been used to print office documents. More recently, printers have become a common accessory to home computers. As printers become less expensive and more capable, a general trend has been for printers to increasingly move into new areas where the users are less familiar with business machines and may not be technically savvy. For example, a grandparent with no previous familiarity with computer equipment may now acquire a printer for use with a digital camera for printing vacation snapshots.
Individuals who have used printers or other office equipment for many years are generally familiar with the appearance of the printer consumables and with the installation procedures, and are therefore not intimidated by the prospect of having to periodically replace the consumables. In some of the newer printer markets, however, such as printers for use with point-and-shoot digital cameras, unfamiliarity with replacement procedures and the unfriendly, industrial appearance of the consumables can be impediments to adoption of the technology.
Other trends that can make maintaining a printer a daunting task for an unsophisticated user include the use of an increasing number of different ink colors for printing photographs, and the use of separate ink supplies for each ink color. Early color printers typically used three primary colors and black for printing color images; newer photograph-quality printers may use six or more ink colors to provide an improved image quality. Many earlier color printers utilized a single cartridge to contain all three of the primary color inks; separate ink supplies for each color are generally perceived to provide greater value since there is less potential for unutilized ink. A printer user may thus need to maintain a printer with six or more separate ink supplies.
There is thus a need for replaceable printing consumable with features facilitating intuitive installation by a user.

Replaceable printing consumable with features facilitating intuitive installation by a user

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


Certain exemplary embodiments provide a method, comprising: for each of a plurality of subscribed services associated with a subscriber endpoint in a communications network, for a connection associated with the subscribed service: determining a current QOS metric; and utilizing the current QOS metric and historical QOS metrics for the subscribed service, adjusting a QOS-affecting variable to change a future QOS metric.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,335,927 (Elliott), which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety, allegedly cites that "[t]elephone calls, data and other multimedia information is routed through a hybrid network which includes transfer of information across the internet. A media order entry captures complete user profile information for a user. This profile information is utilized by the system throughout the media experience for routing, billing, monitoring, reporting and other media control functions. Users can manage more aspects of a network than previously possible, and control network activities from a central site. The hybrid network also contains logic for responding to requests for quality of service and reserving the resources to provide the requested services." See Abstract.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,343,313 (Salesky), which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety, allegedly cites an "improved networked computer communications system handles arbitrary streams of data, and transports at varying speeds those streams where intermediate updates can be dropped if they are obsoleted by later arriving data updates, optimizing the utilization of network and node resources. Complex buffering by system server software allows distributed, parallel, or redundant processing, transmission, and storage for performance, reliability, and robustness. Various parameters of the system can be monitored, and the system can be reconfigured automatically based on the observations. Varied techniques reduce the perceived end-to-end latency and take advantage of software and hardware capabilities that assets connected to the system may possess. One conferencing system allows conference participants to share all or a portion of the display seen on their computer screens. The conferees may be at sites removed from each other, or may view a recorded presentation or archived conference at different times. Conference participants are either "presenters" who can modify the display or "attendees" who cannot modify the display. A pointer icon, which can be labeled to identify the conferee, is displayed on the shared image area. Each conferee can modify the position of his or her own pointer, even when not presenting, so that every participant can see what each conferee is pointing to, should a conferee choose to point to an element of the display. These and other features apply to other data streams shared in the conference or in meetings where there is no shared-image data stream." See Abstract.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,049,694 (Kassatly), which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety, allegedly cites a "terminal for use in a multi-point video conference system that includes a plurality of terminals connected to each other via a network, the terminal includes a compressor for packetizing video data inputted from a video camera, and outputting packetized data to the network. A decompressor receives a plurality of packets transmitted from other terminals via the network in a time sharing manner, and decompresses the received packets in an order of reception. The decompressor outputs decompressed video information. A plurality of storage elements store the decompressed video information in a frame unit. The contents stored in the storage elements are displayed on a display. A switch changes over the contents of the storage elements to supply the display." See Abstract.

Method and system for dynamically adjusting QOS


Bottles made of metallocene polypropylene (mPP) for storage and dispensing reservoirs for fragrance compositions, in particular fragrance oils, are described. The mPP bottles can be used in warmer units for slow release dispensing of the fragrance therein. The metallocene polypropylene bottles can be produced by extrusion or injection blow molding, injection molding, injection stretch blow molding (single or two stage), or other suitable molding process. The mPP bottles may optionally have at least one barrier coating layer and/or adhering layer. The mPP bottles may optionally be fluorinated. The mPP bottles have good clarity and possess the required physical properties needed when the bottles are filled on a production line.

Blow-molded flexible containers, injection-molded hollow bodies, films, coatings and sheets made from metallocene polypropylene are known in the art. Fragrance containers made from polypropylene are also known.
For example, known in the prior art is Winckels, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2003/0209566 A1, which discloses a packaging product for gel or cream cosmetics. The packaging product has a flexible container or pot and a rigid casing around the pot. The flexible container may be a polypropylene obtained by metallocene catalysis. The rigid structure may be of a thermoplastic material, such as polypropylene.
Also known in the prior art is Winckels, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2003/0183639 A1, which discloses a multiple part deformable container for gel or cream cosmetic products wherein the deformable part of the container can be made from metallocene polypropylene.
Also known in the prior art is Eckstein et al, U.S. Pat. No. 6,645,641 B2, which discloses polymeric materials useful in making packaging structures such as films, sheets, lid stocks, pouches, tubes and bags. The structures can be single or multiple layer structures. The layers can be made from propylene catalyzed with a single site catalyst such as metallocene. The dispensing containers disclosed are collapsible.
Also known in the prior art is Winckels, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2005/0045668 A1, which discloses a pot for packaging gel or cream cosmetic products. The pot is designed with two dispensing apertures. When the product has a paste-like consistency and does not flow by gravity, preferably the pot includes at least one elastically deformable wall. The deformable wall can be made from a polyolefin obtained by metallocene catalysis, e.g. metallocene polypropylene.
Also known in the prior art is Schram et al, U.S. Pat. No. 6,786,427 B2, which discloses replaceable liquid reservoirs which contain liquids to be dispersed in atomizer devices. The reservoir can be a bottle molded of hard plastic such as polypropylene.
Also known in the prior art is Grasmeder et al, U.S. Pat. No. 6,537,478 B1, which discloses polymers of propylene obtained by metallocene catalysis useful in injection molding various articles.
Also known in the prior art is Dunaway, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0152842 A1, which discloses polyolefin blend compositions and products produced therefrom, e.g. blow-molded bottles. The polymer blend composition includes polypropylene and metallocene-produced low density polyethylene. The polypropylene can be produced using any conventional polymerization process with any suitable catalyst, e.g., Ziegler-Natta or metallocene catalyst. Examples of blow-molded containers made with the polymer blend are detergent bottles, soft drink bottles, jars and storage drums. Other articles produced include films, coatings and flexible packaging.
Also known in the prior art is Fritze, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0094468 A1, which discloses a freeze resistant water filter. Filter cartridge structures were made of rigid polyolefin polymers such as polypropylene. These polymers, however, are described as becoming brittle in the freezing range. The filter housing is made of an increased elasticity polyolefin polymer, such as metallocene polypropylene.
Also known in the prior art is Gurumus et al, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2002/0077394 A1, which discloses a composition containing a polypropylene prepared by polymerization over a metallocene catalyst and a specific hindered amine light stabilizer system.
Also known in the prior art are U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,591,395, 5,647,053, 5,903,710, 5,909,845, 5,976,503, and 6,123,935, which disclose air freshener devices and each, except the '395 patent, disclose that the container or housing of the device can be made of polypropylene.
Also known in the prior art are U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,314,915, 4,411,829, and 4,434,306, which disclose fragrance oil compositions.
Also known in the prior art are U.S. Pat. No. 6,727,332 B2, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0044106 A1 and European Patent Application Nos. 1 422 249 A1, 0 537 130 A1, 1 169 356 B1, and 1 189 985 B1, which disclose a preparation of metallocene polypropylene.

Bottles made from metallocene polypropylene for delivery of fragrances


A developing roller has a surface layer composed of a binder resin having an SP value in the range of 7.5 to 9.0, and roughness-imparting particles made from a resin having an SP value that has a difference from the SP value of the resin of 2 or less in the absolute value thereof. The roughness-imparting particles are dispersed in the binder resin. A developing device is provided with the developing roller. An image-forming apparatus is provided with the developing device equipped with the developing roller.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a developing roller, a developing device and an image-forming apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in an electrophotographic printer, the surface of a photosensitive drum is evenly charged by a charging roller. Next, an electrostatic latent image is formed on the surface of the photosensitive drum by an exposing device, and toner is adhered to the electrostatic latent image by a developing device, so that the electrostatic latent image is visualized to form a toner image. Moreover, the toner image is transferred onto a medium by a transferring roller, and fixed thereon by a fixing device.
In the developing device, a mono-component developer containing only the toner is preferably used from the viewpoint of miniaturization of the device. In the developing device of this kind, a developing roller, which transports the toner to a developing area, is made in contact with, or brought close to the photosensitive drum so as to freely rotate thereon. Here, a supply roller that supplies the toner to the developing roller is made in contact with the developing roller so as to freely rotate thereon. Moreover, a blade that regulates the toner on the developing roller is placed with its tip being made in contact with the surface of the developing roller. In the developing device having this structure, the toner, housed in a toner cartridge, is supplied onto the developing roller by the supply roller, and the toner thus supplied is formed into a thin-film state by the blade in accordance with the rotation of the developing roller, and charged with a predetermined polarity to form a toner layer. The toner of the toner layer is transported to a developing portion between the developing roller and the photosensitive drum, and is electrostatically adhered onto the electrostatic latent image on the photosensitive drum, so that the electrostatic latent image is visualized to form a toner image.
With respect to the developing roller, in general, those having a resin layer on the surface are used, and organic or inorganic fine particles are dispersed in the resin layer so as to improve the toner transporting property.
For example, a developing sleeve, which has a coat layer on its surface, and has conductive inorganic fine particles contained in the coat layer, with fine concave and convex portions being formed on its surface, has been reported (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-160738). However, in the case when such a developing sleeve is used for a long time, the convex portions on the surface, formed by the conductive inorganic fine particles, are worn to cause the problem that the particles relatively easily come off from the surface. The separation of the particles causes a failure to provide sufficient toner charging property and transporting property. Moreover, the charging stability against environmental variations is lowered. In the case when the charging stability against environmental variations is lowered, since the change in the quantity of charge in the toner becomes extremely high due to variations in the ambient environment, the developing property is lowered, failing to provide sufficient image density to cause fogging and image irregularities. Therefore, a mechanism, such as a system to be used for measuring the ambient environmental factors (temperature, humidity and the like) so as to stabilize the developing property, is required, resulting in the problems of bulky devices and high costs due to an increase in the number of parts.
Here, for example, a developer-supporting member having a coat layer on its surface, with concave/convex portion-imparting particles indefinite in shape being contained in the coat layer, has been reported. However, such a developer-supporting member results in the problem that the particles are aggregated on the surface thereof. When the particles are aggregated, concave/convex irregularities occur on the surface to cause unevenness in the image density. Moreover, the problem of insufficient charging stability against environmental variations is also caused.

Developing roller having specific surface layer, developing device provided with the developing roller and image-forming apparatus provided with developing device equipped with the developing roller

Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.


In an image pickup apparatus, timer 2 starts a time measuring operation when a shutter button is pressed. When a time T1 is measured by timer 2, the image from CCD 1 is output as a background image to a background image buffer 4. In addition, when a time (T1+T2) is measured by timer 2, the image from CCD 1 is output as a normal image to a region extracting portion 5 and image compressing portion 6. The background image mainly refers to an image only including a background. The normal image mainly refers to an image with an object of interest arranged in front of the background.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to image pickup apparatuses such as electronic still cameras and digital video cameras, and more particularly, to an image pickup apparatus for taking an image including only a background image but not an object and an image including the object.
2. Description of the Background Art
Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 10-21408 discloses, for example as a conventional image pickup apparatus of this type, a technique of automatically extracting an object region from a moving image with stable accuracy and at a high speed independently of the shape of the object and the characteristic of image data by using a background image and an object image.
In the conventional example, the object image and the background image are taken in the same mode so as to minimize a difference between image data corresponding to the background. After the images are taken, differential data of the background and object images is produced. Further, the differential data is averaged and subjected to a process utilizing a threshold value. Thereafter, the region of the object is extracted based on the difference between the image data of the background and object images. The extracted image data are compressed, encoded, and recorded.
However, in general cases including the above mentioned example, a shutter must be pressed twice to input (take) background and object images. If an image pickup apparatus is fixed by a tripod or the like, the pickup apparatus slightly moves when pressing the shutter. This results in a problem that the background image and a portion of the object image corresponding to the background do not completely match.
To avoid this problem, a background without any pattern, such as a plain colored wall, has often been used. In this case, an adverse effect due to the slight movement of the image pickup apparatus can be avoided. However, it is extremely difficult to prepare a plain colored background for normal, and especially outdoor picture taking.
The image pickup apparatus may be designed such that the shutter can be pressed by a remote controller. However, this increases the cost of the image pickup apparatus and results in another problem that the remote controller must be carried on.
Another possible approach is that the shutter is pressed by a release as in a normal optical camera. However, even if the shutter button would not be directly pressed, the image pickup apparatus may still be moved slightly due to connection to the release, thereby causing another problem that a person other than the object is required for picture taking.

Image pickup apparatus capable of selecting output according to time measured by timer


There is provided a storage system capable of handling a large amount of control data at low cost in high performance. The storage system includes a cache memory for temporarily storing data read/written between a host computer and a disk array, a CPU for making a control related to data transfer, and a local memory for storing control data utilized by the CPU. The disk array has a first user data storing area for storing user data and a control data storing area for storing all control data. A control unit has a virtualization unit for allocating a memory space of the control data storing area to a virtual address accessible from the CPU, reading the control data specified by the virtual address to a physical address of the local memory, and transferring the control data to the CPU.

This invention relates to a storage system for storing data in a plurality of disk drives.
There has been known a so-called storage system, whose subsystem is composed of a disk array composed of a plurality of disk drives, for storing data to the disk array.
The storage system is composed of a host interface, a disk interface, a cache memory, a control unit, and a switch for connecting them. The control unit is composed of a processor and a control memory for storing control data of the processor for example. The storage system is connected with a host computer via the host interface and with the disk array via the disk interface. The storage system is composed of the host interface for connecting with the host computer, the disk interface for connecting with the disk array, the cache memory for quickly executing data access to/from the disk array, a CPU for controlling the storage system, the switch for connecting each unit within the storage system, the control memory for storing data required by the CPU in making the above-mentioned control, and a bus used by the CPU in accessing the memory.
Large corporations typified by banks, security companies, telephone companies, and the like are inclined to cut costs required for operations, maintenances, and administration of computer and storage systems by centralizing within a data center the computer and storage systems conventionally scattered at various places. Therefore, it is now required to manage a larger scale data by one storage system.
Still more, due to multi-functioning of the storage system, a rate of control data tends to be larger as compared to user data actually sent from the host computer.
Up to now, there has been known a storage system in which whole control data is stored in a control memory of a control unit independent of a cache memory as disclosed in JP 2004-240949 A for example.
Meanwhile, there has been known a storage system using a general purpose server that has a dedicated interface and a hard disk as destinations in saving the control data and that is capable of handing control data whose volume is larger than a capacity of a control memory as disclosed in "The IBM Total Storage DS8000 Series Concepts and Architecture" Page 64, Line 6, "online" Retrieved on Aug. 31, 2006, Internet, (http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redbooks/pdfs/sg246452.pdf.)

Storage system for virtualizing control memory


First, second, third and fourth lens groups of a zoom lens portion are arranged on an optical axis in order from an object to be imaged side toward an electronic imaging device. The first lens group has a negative refracting power and a fixed position on the optical axis. The second lens group has a positive refracting power and is moved along the optical axis to effect focusing. The third lens group has a positive refracting power and is moved along the optical axis during a magnification change. The fourth lens group has a fixed position on the optical axis. An angle of incidence of a ray of a maximum image height when the zoom lens portion is in a state at a telephoto end is not greater than the angle of incidence of the ray of the maximum image height incident on the electronic imaging device when the zoom lens portion is in a state at a wide angle end. The angle of incidence of the ray of the maximum image height incident on the electronic imaging device when the zoom lens portion is in the state at the telephoto end is not smaller than 5°.

The present invention relates to an imaging apparatus having an electronic imaging device.
On the occasion of imaging with an electronic imaging device, telecentricity on the image side becomes important unlike imaging with a film. Telecentricity means that the principal ray of a pencil of light to each image point becomes almost parallel to the optical axis after being emitted from the final surface of an optical system. That is, it means that the principal ray of the pencil of light to each image point intersects with the image surface almost perpendicularly.
The reason why the telecentricity on the image side becomes important in the electronic imaging device is that oblique incident light is disadvantageously shaded by the aperture of the pixel since the aperture of each pixel of the electronic imaging device is located at a position slightly away from the photodetection portion, causing a reduction in fill factor.
In recent years, a method for increasing the fill factor than that on the actual photodetection surface by arranging a microlens array on the surface of the electronic imaging device is adopted.
A method for preventing the fill factor from being reduced even if the angle of incidence of the ray to the image surface is increased by scaling the microlens, i.e., by arranging the microlens in a position shifted from the position of each pixel in conformity to the angle of incidence of the ray is adopted. The scaling of the microlens can cope with up to an angle of incidence of about 25°.
For example, JP 2005-57024 A proposes a method for providing a flattening film on a plurality of microlenses corresponding to a plurality of photodetectors and suppressing the reduction in fill factor by shifting the positions of the plurality of microlenses from right above the corresponding photodiode toward a center portion as they are located apart from the center portion of the photodetection surface to end portions.
However, since the angle of incidence to the image surface of the ray differs depending on the focal distance, the angle of incidence of the ray to the image surface is disadvantageously changed by the zoom position in the zoom lens where the focal distance changes.
In general, an exit pupil position is located away from the image surface at a telephoto end, and the ray is incident on the photodetection surface almost perpendicularly. In contrast to this, the exit pupil position is located closer to the image surface at a wide angle end, and therefore, the ray of a maximum image height is incident at a large angle on the image surface.
Therefore, a difference in the angle of incidence of the ray of the maximum image height on the image surface between the telephoto end and the wide angle end is consequently increased, and this cannot be managed by the scaling of the microlens.
If the difference in the angle of incidence of the ray of the maximum image height on the image surface between the telephoto end and the wide angle end becomes large, a shift in an image formation position on an imaging device occurs between the telephoto end and the wide angle end, and this causes a blur and the like.
Therefore, it has conventionally been a problem of the zoom lens to bring the angle of incidence of the ray at the wide angle end, at which the exit pupil position is located near the image surface, incident on the image surface close to perpendicular to the surface.
Particularly in recent years, there is a demand for reducing the size of the lens, and it is indispensable to shorten the length of the entire lens. In contrast to this, the length of the entire lens is disadvantageously increased when the exit pupil is set away from the image surface in order to bring the angle of incidence of the ray at the wide angle end close to perpendicular. Therefore, it is more difficult to make the angle of incidence of the ray at the wide angle end perpendicular.


A process for providing a phase synchronization of a pilot aided carrier of an input digital signal z(k), the signal z(k) having signal fields of Ls symbol signals, namely a block of LP pilot symbol signals ZP(k) and a data field of (Ls−LP) data symbol signals Zd(k), and characterized for each signal field (l) by:                extracting the pilot symbol signals ZP(k) and        calculating an unwrapped phase estimate {circumflex over (θ)}(lLs) over the pilot block of said signal field (1) and:        interpolating said unwrapped phase estimates of successive signal fields (l, +1 . . . ) with a Wiener interpolator having M taps to obtain interpolated phase estimates having a Minimum Mean Square Error;        providing linear interpolation between said interpolated phase estimates to obtain phase correction estimates ({circumflex over (θ)}(ks)) over the data field of said signal fields;        calculating from said phase correction estimates ({circumflex over (θ)}(ks)) a phase correction (e−j{circumflex over (θ)}(ks)) to be applied to said signal Z(k).

It has been shown in the article by A. GINESI and R. DE GAUDENZI "Carrier Phase Synchronization Techniques for Broadband Satellite Transmissions" DVB-S2 Technical doc, Geneva, 21 Mar. 2003 that classical techniques for carrier phase recovery in the presence of a strong phase noise as the one specified by the DVB-S2 committee, are not effective as they are affected by both excessive jitter as well as cycle slips. Other pilot aided techniques, as described in the publication by HUGHES Networks Systems "Carrier Synchronization Solution for DVB-S2 Modem" DVB-S2 Technical doc, Geneva, 15 Jun. 2003 are more effective but they are much more complex and yet have to show a feasibility over the whole signal-to-noise ratio range required by the DVB-S2 applications.

Process for providing a pilot aided phase synchronization of carrier


According to one embodiment, the transparent electrode laminate includes a transparent substrate and an electrode layer which is formed on the transparent substrate and includes a three-dimensional network of metal nanowires. The electrode layer includes a first conductive region and a second conductive region adjacent to the first conductive region. Surfaces of the metal nanowires in the first conductive region are reacted to form reaction products. Surfaces of the metal nanowires in the second conductive region are unreacted. The second region has conductivity higher than that of the first conductive region and an optical transparency.

When a transparent electrode such as ITO is applied to a device, patterning is needed. Since a transparent electrode formed of ITO with high conductivity has a large film thickness, a difference in height generated by etching becomes large. In a device in which an ultra thin film having a thickness of about 10 to several 10 nm is laminated, such as an organic solar cell or an organic EL device, defects such as short circuits at end portions are easily caused.
A transparent electrode formed by using metal nanowires such as silver nanowires has been recently suggested. A thickness of 100 nm or more is necessary to ensure a desired surface resistance in the transparent electrode formed by using metal nanowires. When the transparent electrode formed by using metal nanowires is patterned by etching, a large difference in height is caused similarly to the case of ITO. This leads to defects when an ultra thin film device is produced.


A non-iterative 3D processing method and system is disclosed for generic noise reduction. The 3D noise reducer is based on a simple conversion of the five types of noise to equivalent additive noise of varying statistics. The proposed technique comprises also an efficient temporal filtering technique which combines Minimization of Output Noise Variance (MNV) and Embedded Motion Estimation (EME). The proposed temporal filtering technique may be furthermore combined with classical motion estimation and motion compensation for more efficient noise reducer. The proposed technique comprises also a spatial noise reducer which combines Minimum Mean Squared Error (MMSE) with robust and effective shape adaptive windowing (SAW) is utilized for smoothing random noise in the whole image, particularly for edge regions. Another modification to MMSE is also introduced for handling banding effect for eventual excessive filtering in slowly varying regions.

The existing literature and/or patents on noise reducing techniques are abundant. Image de-noising techniques may be classified as spatial or temporal ones or a combination of them. Spatial techniques relate generally to some coring techniques applied to high frequency part of a considered image. Temporal de-noising techniques relate to temporal coring techniques applied mainly in detected or estimated still parts of a picture. Image de-noising techniques may be classified as spatial or temporal ones. A series combination of the spatial and temporal techniques, easier to do than a true 3D processing, is possible and may be of advantage. In the following, the general trend of the subject will be reviewed and the specific spatial or temporal exiting noise reducers will be considered in some details.
The spatial noise reducing techniques may be applied to either still pictures or to a sequence of images. In general, the spatial noise reducing techniques may be divided further into three categories.
In the first category, the spatial nonlinear filters are based on local order statistics. These techniques may be found, for example, in A. R. Weeks Jr., "Fundamentals of Electronic Image Processing", SPIE Optical Engineering Press, Bellingham, Wash., 1996 or I. Pitas, and A. N. Venetsapoulos, "Nonlinear Digital Filters: Principles and Applications", Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston, 1990. Using a local window around a considered pixel, these filters are working on this set of pixels ordered now from their minimum to their maximum values. The median filter, the min/max filter, the alpha-trimmed mean filter, and their respective variants may be classified in this category. These filters work well for removing impulse like salt-and-pepper noise. For the small amplitude noise these filters can blur some details or small edges.
In the second category, the coring techniques are applied in another domain different from the original image spatial domain. The chosen domain depends partly on the noise nature. The U.S. Pat. No. 4,163,258 uses the Walsh-Hadamard transform domain; meanwhile, the U.S. Pat. No. 4,523,230 suggests some sub-band decomposition. Finally, the homomorphism filter, working in logarithmic domain, is the classical one for removing multiplicative noise and image shading from an image.
In the third category, the filters are locally adaptive and the noise removing capacity is varying from homogenous regions to edge regions.
The well-known filter in this category is the minimum mean square error (MMSE) filter proposed originally by J. S. Lee in "Digital image enhancement and noise filtering by use of local statistics", IEEE Trans. on PAMI-2, March 1980, pp. 165-168. The filtered pixel output is additively composed of local mean value and a pondered difference of the noisy pixel and the local mean intensity values. The optimum weight, which corresponds to a kind of coring technique, may be determined for additive noise by the local variance ratio of the true clean image and the noisy one. The minimum mean square error filter removes noise well for homogenous regions and reserves the image edges. However, the noise essentially remains in edge or near edge regions. Moreover, the optimum weight is changing for other types of noise.
A relationship of Lee's filter and recent Anisotropic Diffusion techniques may be shown by Y. Yu and S. T. Acton in "Speckle Reducing Anisotropic Diffusion", IEEE Trans. on Image Processing, vol. 11, November 2002, pp. 1260-1270.
In P. Chan and J. S. Lim, "One dimensional processing for adaptive image restoration", IEEE Trans. on ASSP-33, February 1985, pp. 117-126, there is presented a method for noise reducing in edge regions. The authors have proposed the use, in series, of four (4) one-dimensional minimum mean square error filters respectively along 0°, 45°, 90° and 135° directions. The obtained results are impressive for large variance noise. For small noise, the filter can blur however some image edges. Moreover, the noise variance output at each filter stage is to be costly estimated.
For the same purpose, in J. S. Lee, "Digital image smoothing and the Sigma filter", Computer Vision, Graphics, and Image Processing-24, 1983, pp. 255-269, the author has proposed a Sigma filter. For noise removing, the filter calculates, in a local window of 5×5 dimensions, the mean value of similar pixel intensities to that of the central considered pixel. For small noise, the Sigma filter works well, except small image details and some pixels with sharp spot noise. For the latter, J. S. Lee has suggested also, in a heuristic manner, the use of immediate neighbor average at the expense of some eventually blurred picture edges.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,573,070 discloses a Sigma filter for a 3×3 window. The author has combined, in a single configuration, the Sigma filter, an order statistic filter and a strong impulse noise reduction filter.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,633,683, a Shape adaptive Windowing combined both minimum mean square error and Sigma Filter techniques, is disclosed. However, introduced banding artifact effect in slowly varying regions and generic minimum mean square error structure for some usual types of noise are not considered.
The temporal filter is generally applied for a sequence of images in which the noise component is supposed to be non-correlated between two or many successive images. The temporal filtering techniques are based essentially on motion detection (MD) or motion compensation (MC). The filter structure may be IIR (infinite impulse response) or FIR (finite impulse response) filter with frame delay elements. In general, the temporal techniques perform better than spatial ones. The system cost is due essentially to the frame memory and the motion estimation. The temporal de-noising techniques may be found, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,161,018, 5,191,419, 5,260,775, 5,404,179, 5,442,407, 6,061,100 and in G. Wischerman, "The Digital Wetgate: A Third-Generation Noise Reducer", SMPTE Journal, February 1996, pp. 95-100.
From a theoretical standpoint, a class of these noise filtering techniques based on well established M C Kalman filtering is proposed for spatio-temporal domain in Kim and Woods, "Spatio-temporal adaptive 3-D Kalman filter for Video", IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, Vol. 6, No. 3, March 1997. However, 3D Kalman filter is not convenient for high speed implementation or abrupt scene change. Katsaggelos and al. in "Adaptive Image Sequence Noise Filtering Methods", SPIE Vol. 1606 Visual Communication and Image Processing 1991, pp 716-727, have proposed two approaches for non stationary filtering of image sequences: a separable adaptive recursive motion compensated filter composed of three coupled 1-D estimators and a temporal non-linear filtering approach without motion estimation. M. K. Ozkan et al. in "Adaptive Motion Compensated Filtering of Noisy Image Sequences", IEEE Trans. on Circuit and Systems for Video Technology, Vol. 3, No. 4, Aug. 1993, pp 277-290 have suggested the use of adaptive weighted averaging filter for claiming to overcome presence of edge, inaccurate motion estimation and scene change. Boo and Bose in "A motion-compensated spatio-temporal filter for image sequences with signal dependent noise", IEEE Trans. on Circuit and Systems for Video Technology, Vol. 8, No. 3, June 1998, pp 287-298 have proposed a MC spatio-temporal filter using groups of frame and LMMSE in a transform domain.
The most interesting for the present invention is the second approach of Katsaggelos and al.: a temporal non-linear filtering approach without explicit motion detection or estimation. However, their approach is costly in implying five frame memories and an inversion of matrix.
U.S. Patent Application No. 2001/0019633 discloses using a kurtosis of the noise as a metric for estimating the type of noise and applied either median filter or spatio-temporal filter in function of noise discrimination.

Apparatus and method for adaptive 3D noise reduction


The present invention aims at improving the performance of a compression function in a storage system, and solves the prior art problem of having to decompress a whole compression unit even if a read request or a write request targets only a portion smaller than the compression unit, causing increase of overhead of decompression processing and elongation of processing time, and deteriorating performance. The present invention prevents unnecessary decompression processing and reduces the overhead of processing by suppressing the range of decompression processing to a minimum portion according to the relationship between the read/write request range and the compression unit.

The amount of data generated in companies or by individuals is rapidly increasing year by year. Especially in companies, there are demands to cut down costs related to media for storing confidential data and other data safely or to cut down management costs.
Some storage systems are provided with a deduplication function or a compression function as functions for cutting down the actual amount of stored data itself.
First, the deduplication function of a storage system generally detects duplicated data in file units or specific data length units, and reduces the amount of data by not storing duplicated data. Such deduplication function is considered to be effective for storage systems used for backup purposes based on such characteristics.
Further, the compression function of a storage system generally divides the data within the volume into given lengths, and compresses the data within each given length so as to compress the whole data within the volume to thereby cut down the capacity. In the present specification, the division of data in a given length is called a compression unit.
The merit of the function for reducing the amount of stored data itself is, of course, the reduction of media costs due to the reduction of the amount of data. On the other hand, the demerit of such function is the deterioration of access performance to the data. Especially in the compression function, when a data read request targeting compressed data is received, the data must be decompressed via compression units, according to which the data read performance is deteriorated due to overhead of decompression processing. Further, when an update request targeting the compressed data is received, the whole data must be decompressed to have the update data overwritten thereto, and the data must be compressed again via compression processing for storage. Therefore, the update performance is deteriorated due to the overhead of the decompression processing and the compression processing.

Method for decompressing data in storage system for write requests that cross compressed data boundaries


An electrically operable door latch employs a permanent magnet for retaining an appliance door closed against the force of a resilient seal. An electromagnet bucks the magnetic attraction of the permanent magnet allowing the latch to be electronically releasable. A simple mechanism and inherent force limits are obtained by a direct magnetic attraction between a strike plate and the latch, one on the door and one on the housing.

The present invention relates generally to appliances such as dishwashing machines and more specifically to a door latch for such appliances.
A residential dishwasher may provide a washing chamber holding racks into which soiled dishes may be placed. A door may close the chamber and may include a gasket sealing the door against the leakage of hot water sprayed on the dishes during the washing process.
In order to hold the gasket properly compressed, the door may have a latch assembly, for example, a hook interconnecting the housing and door and lever system for providing mechanical advantage to compress the gasket when the lever is moved. Such latch systems are complicated and can be expensive to manufacture and cumbersome to use.


Filter rods for use in the manufacture of cigarette filter elements are provided, with each rod having a longitudinal axis and incorporating a generally longitudinally extending filter material and a generally longitudinally extending strand within that filter material. A filter making unit receives a continuous supply of a filter material, and forms the filter material into a gathered composite having a continuous cylindrical shape. A continuous supply of a strand (e.g., colored thread) is provided and is introduced into the filter material gathered composite in the tongue of the filter making unit. The filter material and continuous strand positioned therein are formed into a continuous rod having the strand material laterally positioned within that rod, and the continuous rod is subdivided at pre-determined longitudinal intervals to provide a plurality of rod portions.

1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention relate to apparatuses and methods for manufacturing smoking articles, and components of smoking articles, such as filter elements. In particular, embodiments of the present invention relate to apparatuses and methods for inserting material within the filter material component that is used for the manufacture of a filter element for a smoking article, such as a cigarette.
2. Description of Related Art
Popular smoking articles, such as cigarettes, have a substantially cylindrical rod shaped structure and include a charge, roll or column of smokable material such as shredded tobacco (e.g., in cut filler form) surrounded by a paper wrapper thereby forming a so-called "smokable rod" or "tobacco rod." Normally, a cigarette has a cylindrical filter element aligned in an end-to-end relationship with the tobacco rod. Typically, a filter element comprises cellulose acetate tow plasticized using triacetin, and the tow is circumscribed by a paper material known as "plug wrap." A cigarette can incorporate a filter element having multiple segments, and one of those segments can comprise activated charcoal particles. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,537,186 to Veluz; PCT Publication No. WO 2006/064371 to Banerjea; and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/226,932, filed Sep. 14, 2005, to Coleman III, et al.; each of which is incorporated herein by reference. Typically, the filter element is attached to one end of the tobacco rod using a circumscribing wrapping material known as "tipping paper." It also has become desirable to perforate the tipping material and plug wrap, in order to provide dilution of drawn mainstream smoke with ambient air. Descriptions of cigarettes and the various components thereof are set forth Tobacco Production, Chemistry and Technology, Davis et al. (Eds.) (1999). A cigarette is employed by a smoker by lighting one end thereof and burning the tobacco rod. The smoker then receives mainstream smoke into his/her mouth by drawing on the opposite end (e.g., the filter end) of the cigarette.
Various attempts to alter the visual attributes of cigarettes have been proposed. For example, there have been attempts to alter the color of the wrapping materials that provide the wrapping material of the tobacco rod (e.g., cigarettes marketed under the trade name "More" by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company possess cigarette rod wrapping papers exhibiting a brown color) and tipping materials used to attach the tobacco rod to the filter element (e.g., tipping materials have been printed so as to possess a "cork" appearance and/or to possess at least one circumscribing ring). In addition, there have been attempts to alter the appearance of the filter elements of cigarettes. See, for example, the types of cigarette filter element formats, configurations and designs set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 3,596,663 to Schultz; U.S. Pat. No. 4,508,525 to Berger; U.S. Pat. No. 4,655,736 to Keith; U.S. Pat. No. 4,726,385 to Chumney, Jr.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,807,809 to Pryor et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,025,814 to Raker; each of which is incorporated herein by reference.
The sensory attributes of cigarette smoke can be enhanced by applying additives to tobacco and/or by otherwise incorporating flavoring materials into various components of a cigarette. See, Leffingwell et al., Tobacco Flavoring for Smoking Products, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company (1972). For example, one type of tobacco flavoring additive is menthol. See, Borschke, Rec. Adv. Tob. Sci., 19, p. 47-70, 1993. Various proposed methods for modifying the sensory attributes of cigarettes include certain filter elements that may be used for adding flavor to the mainstream smoke of those cigarettes. U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2002/0166563 to Jupe et al. proposes the placement of adsorbent and flavor-releasing materials in a cigarette filter. U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2002/0020420 to Xue et al. proposes the placement of fibers containing small particle size adsorbents/absorbents in the filter. U.S. Pat. No. 4,941,486 to Dube et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 4,862,905 to Green, Jr. et al., which are incorporated herein by reference, propose manners and methods for the placement of a flavor-containing pellet in each cigarette filter. Other representative types of cigarette filters incorporating flavoring agents are set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 3,972,335 to Tiggelbeck et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,082,098 to Owens, Jr.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,281,671 to Bynre; U.S. Pat. No. 4,729,391 to Woods et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,768,526 to Pryor; U.S. Pat. No. 5,012,829 to Thesing et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,387,285 to Rivers; and U.S. Pat. No. 7,074,170 to Lanier, Jr. et al.; each of which is incorporated herein by reference. See, also, the types of cigarette filter technologies that are discussed in the background art section set forth in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0261807 to Dube et al.; which is incorporated herein by reference.
It would be highly desirable to provide a smoker with the ability to enhance his/her smoking experience, such as can be accomplished by providing a filtered cigarette possessing a filter element having particular design features. That is, it would be desirable to provide a cigarette possessing filter components that are employed in a manner such that the filter element is aesthetically pleasing. It also would be desirable to provide such a filter element possessing selected design features that can be modified or otherwise controlled. In addition, it would be desirable to provide a filter element for a cigarette that is capable of enhancing the sensory attributes of the mainstream smoke (e.g., by flavoring the mainstream smoke) produced by that cigarette.

Equipment and associated method for insertion of material into cigarette filters


A semiconductor memory device includes memory cells; word lines connected to gates of the cells; n bit lines connected to the memory cells; sense amplifiers connected to the bit lines; refresh cells provided to correspond to the word lines, respectively, and provided to correspond to k bit lines, where k is a natural number smaller than n, one of the refresh cells storing therein refresh data indicating whether to perform a refresh operation on k memory cells out of the plural memory cells connected to a corresponding word line out of the plural word lines and connected to the k bit lines, respectively; a refresh sense amplifier reading the refresh data; and a refresh selection part provided to correspond to the refresh sense amplifier, and selecting whether to perform the refresh operation on the k memory cells according to the refresh data read by the refresh sense amplifier.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor memory device.
2. Related Art
In recent years, there has been known an FBC (Floating Body Cell) memory as a semiconductor memory device expected to replace a DRAM. The FBC memory is configured to include field effect transistors (FETs) including floating bodies (hereinafter, also "bodies") on an SOI (Silicon On Insulator), respectively. The FBC memory stores data "1" or data "0" in each FBC according to the number of holes accumulated in the body thereof.
It is assumed, for example, that each memory cell is constituted by an NMOS, a state in which the number of holes accumulated in the body of the memory cell is large is data "1", and a state in which the number of holes accumulated in the body thereof is small is data "0". For the sake of convenience, the memory cell storing therein data "1" is referred to as ""1"cell" and the memory cell storing therein data "0" is referred to as ""0" cell", hereinafter. In the FBC memory, holes are accumulated in the body of each "0" cell through a source or drain diffusion layer, resulting in a "1" cell, or accumulated holes are emitted from the body of each "1" cell through the diffusion layer, resulting in a "0" cell. To deal with this, it is necessary to perform a refresh operation of reading data from each memory cell once and writing back data logically identical to the data to the memory cell.
However, in the conventional refresh operation, word lines are selected in order of addresses thereof, and the memory cells in all columns connected to each of the selected word lines are subjected to the refresh operation. Namely, the conventional refresh operation is performed regularly on all memory cells in a memory cell array irrespectively of whether each memory cell is good. The memory cells differ in data retention time depending on leakage characteristics and the like of their diffusion layers. Therefore, to refresh all the memory cells uniformly in a certain cycle means to consume unnecessary power in the refresh operation.


An optical pickup according to the present invention includes an integrated circuit element (LDD) 5 for driving first, second, and third semiconductor lasers 3, 4, and 5. The LDD 50 is shaped so as to have a rectangular principal face surrounded by one side, with a plurality of input/output pins being arranged along each side. The plurality of input/output pins include a first pin group connected to a blue-violet laser 5 whose oscillation wavelength is the shortest, a second pin group connected to a red laser 4, and a third pin group connected to an infrared laser 3. The wiring structure of the optical pickup includes a first transmission line 41 for connecting the first pin group to the blue-violet laser 5, a second transmission line 33 for connecting the second pin group to the red laser 4, and a third transmission line 31 for connecting the third pin group to the infrared laser 3, where the first transmission line 41 is shorter than both the second and third transmission lines 31 and 33. Of the rectangular principal face of the LDD 50, the side along which the first pin group is provided is orthogonal to the side along which the second pin group is provided or to the side along which the third pin group is provided.

In a recording/reproduction apparatus for optical disks, in order to read data from an optical disk or write data to an optical disk, it is necessary to access a desired position on the optical disk with an optical pickup. An optical pickup includes: a light source for emitting a light beam; an objective lens for converging the light beam onto an optical disk; and photosensitive elements for outputting electrical signals based on the light beam having been reflected from the optical disk.
A semiconductor laser is used as a light source in within the optical pickup. The semiconductor laser operates with a driving current which is supplied from the laser driving circuit, and is able to emit laser light at an intensity which is in accordance with the driving current.
If a portion of the laser light that has been reflected from the optical disk enters the semiconductor laser, the oscillation state of the laser is disturbed, thus resulting in problematic fluctuations of the intensity of laser light. Such fluctuations in laser light intensity that are caused by the returned light are referred to as "return light noise". In order to reduce this return light noise, it is practiced to superpose a high-frequency signal on the driving current for the semiconductor laser so as to cause the semiconductor laser to oscillate in multi modes (high-frequency superposition).
In performing a high-frequency superposition, it has been proposed to employ impedance matching elements to reduce power loss of the high-frequency signal, thus realizing good signal reproduction characteristics (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2002-230812