A planter monitor system monitors, measures and displays a plurality of planter performance parameters. The system includes a display console, a plurality of row unit modules and a plurality of seed sensors. The system can be used with a wide variety of planters made by different manufacturers and on many different planter types. The system can accurately monitor a wide variety of seed types (e.g. both small and large) and a wide variety of seed planting rates (low and high) and any combination thereof which can occur within the wide scope of seed planting. The system calculates an error rate from a set of data, in graph form, representing experimentally determined actual seed rates versus seed rates as would be measured, thus allowing the operator to optimize seed population and distribution by adjusting the speed of the planter apparatus and/or the seed distribution system. The accuracy of the monitor system is not affected by the wide variety of environmental conditions, such as the presence of dirt and moisture, in which such planters must necessarily be used.

In general, a mobile planting apparatus is used in agricultural applications where manual seed planting would be impractical. The mobile planting apparatus is most often designed and dedicated to the particular application, since each type of seed usually will differ in physical characteristics, optimum plant spacing, optimum planting depth, etc. Thus there are different planters for corn (medium seed, low seed rate), potatoes (large seed, low seed rate), soybeans (very small seed, very high seed rate), etc.
The mobile planting apparatus is equipped with a control system and a seed delivery or distribution system. The control system controls the flow or supply of seeds fed to the distribution system, and the distribution system plants the seed or seeds at the proper seed spacing and depth. Because many mobile planting apparatus are able to plant a plurality of rows simultaneously, each planting apparatus usually incorporates a plurality of control and distribution systems, one set for each row.
Although a mobile planting apparatus of the type just described greatly increase the efficiency with which planting can be achieved, they do have some limitations. The most important limitation is that the operator receives no feedback concerning the planter performance. Accordingly, there is a need for a system which can monitor and display planter performance data control and distribution systems.
An example of an existing planter monitor system is the PC2 Planter Computer manufactured by Micro-Trak Systems, Inc., the assignee of the present invention, and which is described in "PC2 Planter Computer User's Manual," First Edition, Revision 1-1, December 1986, which is incorporated herein by reference. However, this planter monitor system is limited in the amount of performance data monitored and displayed.
There are several planter performance parameters of which there is a need for the operator to receive feedback. For example, it would be desirable to alert the operator in the case of a malfunction, such as if one of the seed delivery systems becomes blocked. Also, the system should display or identify the locality or region of malfunction.
There is also a need for a system which monitors a selected row or rows being planted to obtain a distribution record of the selected row or rows. This feature would allow the operator to identify intermittent malfunctions of the mobile planting apparatus in addition to the identification of total malfunctions.
There is also a need for a monitor which can calculate and display the deviation from the optimal seed population and distribution. Such a system must monitor the ground speed of the mobile planting apparatus and the performance of each row to calculate a seed rate, population or spacing, and which further compares the calculated performance with the optimal seed rate population or spacing and which displays the percent error deviation from the optimal performance. This feature would allow the operator to optimize seed population and distribution by providing the operator with the necessary information to make adjustments to the speed of the mobile planting apparatus and/or to the control and distribution systems of the mobile planting apparatus to arrive at the optimal seed population and distribution.
There is further a need for a generic monitoring system which can be used on many planters made by different manufactures and which can be used on many different types of planters (e.g. potatoes, corn or soybean planters). To accomplish this latter goal, the planter monitor system must be able to accurately monitor a wide variety of seed types (large and small) and a wide variety of seed planting rates (high and low) and any combination thereof which can occur within the scope of seed planting. Such a generic system would ensure that a minimum of modifications were required to adapt the monitoring system to fit any seed planting application.
Another drawback with existing planter apparatus and monitors is that cannot accurately monitor the performance across the wide variety of environmental conditions in which such planters must necessarily be used. The presence of dirt and moisture greatly reduces the accuracy of existing planter monitors due to the nature of the seed sensors used to detect seeds being planted. Another drawback to existing monitors is that there is very little if any flexibility in the manner in which existing monitors scan the planted rows. For example, while it may be desirous at some times to continuously and sequentially scan all planting rows and display the corresponding data, it may at other times be more advantageous to constantly view the performance characteristics of only a single row for a period of time, or still at other times to display only those rows which are planting out of certain specified limits.
Finally, it is desirable to make the monitoring system as "user-friendly" as possible. A user-friendly monitor system would include some type of display and user console for interacting with the operator. The display and user console would provide multiple types of user selected planter performance data in an easy to use format.


The present invention relates to methods and systems that define feature boundaries in a radiation sensitive medium on a workpiece using a diffraction-type micromirror array, extending to production of patterns and structures on a semiconductor substrate. Workpieces include lithographic masks, integrated circuits and other electronic and optical devices. Particular aspects of the present invention are described in the claims, specification and drawings.

The present invention relates to methods and systems that define feature boundaries in a radiation sensitive medium on a workpiece using a diffraction-type micromirror array, extending to production of patterns and structures on a semiconductor substrate. Workpieces include lithographic masks, integrated circuits and other electronic and optical devices. Particular aspects of the present invention are described in the claims, specification and drawings.
Two main types of radiant energy used to generate patterns for integrated circuit or device production are photon beam(s) and electron beam(s). Systems using multiple scanned photon beams are more generally available than systems using multiple electron beams. Photon or laser pattern generator systems usually are faster but less precise than e-beam systems. Multiple, relatively wide beams in a laser scanning system have different characteristics, than a single electron beam in a vector-driven e-beam system. Embellishments can be used in mask writing with a laser scanning system to compensate partially for the larger beam width of the photon beam.
For direct writing applications, photon-exposing radiation may be preferred, because an electron beam may adversely affect layer properties of the integrated circuit. Both at the substrate and in electron charge-trapping layers of the integrated circuit, electrons that pass through a resist layer that is being patterned may damage or change characteristics of the layer below the resist. These modified characteristics may have undesirable effects on device performance. Photon-based writing devices have the further advantage of generally being faster than electron beam devices.
These inventors are continuing development of a new kind of pattern generator that uses photon-exposing radiation. Instead of using one or more scanned laser beams, the new kind of pattern generator uses a micromirror array, in one embodiment, a spatial light modulator ("SLM"), and a pulsed illumination source to print so-called stamps across the face of a workpiece. The Graphics Engine application referenced above is one of several applications with overlapping inventors that disclose aspects of this new kind of pattern generator. These co-pending applications also teach that other kinds of micromirror arrays that may be used with pulsed illumination to print stamps.
The micromirror array under development relies on diffraction, rather than deflection, to produce contrast in the radiation sensitive medium. By use of diffraction, small movements of micromirrors induce scattering of radiation. The scattering corresponds to so-called destructive interference among components of radiation relayed from a single micro-mirror in an object plane. Apertures and other optical components translate the scattering into gray-scaled intensity variations in an image plane corresponding to the radiation sensitive medium on the workpiece.
A single micromirror in the object plane produces a Gaussian distribution of intensity in the image plane. By various approximations, the intensity distribution of a single micromirror affects an area generally corresponding to a 3×3 or 5×5 grid of micromirrors. Conversely, the intensity of exposing radiation at a spot in the image plane may depend on the orientation of 9 or 25 micromirrors in the object plane.
A radiation sensitive medium, such as resist, at the image plane has some thickness and some opacity. The top and bottom of the medium respond somewhat differently to the exposing radiation. This depends on the characteristics of the medium and the contrast at boundaries between areas intended to be exposed and unexposed. Poor contrast typically produces a trench with a wide top and a narrow bottom or a non-vertical sidewall, corresponding to an iso-exposure profile through the thickness of the medium. A non-vertical sidewall compromises the placement of a boundary, due to variations in medium thickness, in particular, after erosion in etch processes. The variations in medium thickness are large, compared to the allowed critical dimension variations. The sine of a 10 or 15 degree angle is 0.1736 or 0.2588, respectively, which indicates the degree to which non-vertical sidewalls make boundary placement is sensitive to medium thickness.
An opportunity arises to improve placement and/or contrast at boundaries. A range of micromirror operation may influence boundary placement, as may a transfer function between boundary placement and micromirror tilt. Calibration methods also may improve placement and/or contrast at boundaries.

Methods and systems for improved boundary contrast


Methods and system according to the present invention enable a highly streamlined and efficient fabric or textile sampling and design process particularly valuable in the design and selection of floor coverings, wall coverings and other interior design treatments. A digital library of fabric models is created, preferably including digitized full-color images and having associated a digital representation of positions that are located within and which characterize the models. Via an application implemented according to conventional software methods and running on conventional hardware having high resolution graphics processing capabilities, a user may navigate among the set of alternative models, and may modify the positions of the selected models to test out desired combinations of characteristics--such as poms or yarn ends, for models of floor coverings--and view the results in high resolution. In particular, and also according to the present invention, a method is provided for substituting colors in digital images of photographic quality, while preserving their realism particularly in the vicinity of shadows. The resulting samples or designs can be stored and transmitted over a telecommunications network or by other means to a central facility that can either generate photographic-quality images of the samples, or can directly generate actual samples of the carpet or other material of interest.

The selection or "sampling" of custom floor coverings and other fabrics has been attended by various inefficiencies that stem from the difficulty of visualizing new color configurations for those fabrics as they would really appear. Typically, sales representatives have been limited to the display and sale of only those models and color schemes they are able to carry along from site to site. Turning around a custom design sample, moreover, has been a time-consuming and expensive proposition. Before an accurate visualization of the sample is possible, it is necessary to select and specify a custom order, to transmit the order to a mill, to produce a corresponding sample at the mill by a labor-intensive process, and to await shipment of the sample. Even assuming a particular customer were able to visit a mill at which custom samples could be produced, the time and expense involved in experimenting with various color schemes and producing fabric and textile models would itself be prohibitive and could impose a limit on the range of options that a customer could explore. The variety of available models of floor coverings and other fabrics has proliferated as a result of improvements in fabrication technology, among other factors, which has increased the number of choices available to designers and other persons choosing custom carpet. This trend has further complicated the customer's decision process.
Rather than persisting with the arduous process described above, it would be vastly preferable for a sales representative to be able to visit a customer without needing to bring along the full panoply of models and colors, and yet still enable the customer to accurately visualize the gamut of possible design choices. Still more helpful would be an ability to permit the customer to independently vary the treatment (e.g., the color) of components of images of a floor covering or other fabric essentially at will, to store one or more representations of these variations, and specifications of samples embodying particularly promising design specifications, to quickly generate a set of alternative designs based on different models and with different color schemes, and to be able to compare and contrast the alternatives as a method of winnowing the set of design options to one of manageable size. Once a set of design alternatives has been chosen, it would greatly assist vendors as well as the customer to be able, in comparatively short order and in a convenient fashion, to perform a side-by-side comparison of the design alternatives. No such capability has been available, however.
Perhaps the most challenging obstacle to assisting in the design and selection of custom fabrics is presented by the sensitivity of the human eye (particularly the well-trained eyes of design professionals) to shortcomings in the predictive representations of custom articles. This sensitivity places a premium on the reality of the representation despite the variation of image parameters such as color. A system for representing and allowing the manipulation of high-resolution images therefore most preferably should provide an ability to manipulate parameters of a photographic image, and to do so with convenience and convincing results. Such a system should be able, for example, to modify the color and structure of components in a photographic image of a floor covering or other fabric, and, particularly, to do so in the vicinity of shadows or other factors that may tend to undermine the realism of the image when a color transformation has been requested. To date, however, capabilities of this sort have not been available.

Methods and systems for manipulation of images of floor coverings or other fabrics


A particulate detection system (1) for detecting the amount of particulates S in a gas under measurement EG includes a detection section (10), a drive circuit (210, 240), and a drive control section (225). The detection section includes a first potential member (31, 12, 13) maintained at a first potential PV1, a second potential member (14, 51, 53) maintained at a second potential PVE, PV3, and an insulating member (121, 77, 76) disposed between the first and second potential members. The system includes insulation test means (215, S3, 245, S5) for testing the degree of insulation between the first and second potential members. The drive control section includes drive permission/prohibition determination means S4, S6 for determining, on the basis of the degree of insulation tested by the insulation test means, whether to permit the drive of the detection section by the drive circuit.

Measurement of the amount of particulates contained in a gas is demanded in some situations. For example, exhaust gas discharged from an internal combustion engine (for example, a diesel engine or a gasoline engine) may contain particulates such as soot.
Exhaust gas containing such particulates is purified by means of collecting the particulates through use of a filter. Therefore, if the filter suffers breakage or a like failure, unpurified exhaust gas is discharged directly to the downstream side of the filter.
Therefore, there has been demanded a particulate detection system which can detect the amount of particulates contained in exhaust gas on the downstream side of the filter in order to directly measure the amount of particulates contained in exhaust gas or to detect a failure of the filter.
For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a particulate measurement processing method and apparatus. In the method disclosed in Patent Document 1, an ionized gas containing positive ions is mixed with exhaust gas which is introduced from an exhaust pipe into a channel and which contains particulates, so as to electrify the particulates, and the particulates are then released to the exhaust pipe. A current (signal current) which flows in accordance with the amount of the released, charged particulates is detected so as to detect the particulate concentration.
In such a particulate detection system, a detection section for detecting the amount of particulates generally includes a plurality of conductive members maintained at different potentials, and an insulating member for insulating these conductive members from one another.


A data storage system includes a plurality of disk drives for data storage. A storage server controls the reading and writing of data to the disk drives. The storage server can be tested prior to connecting the disk drives and other components of the data storage system by connecting ports of the storage server to other ports of the storage server. One of the connected ports is changed from an initiator to a target to simulate a the target state of a disk drive. The server can test itself at normal data transfer rates using the initiator-target pair just as if it was testing a normal server/disk drive connection, but without having to test the actual disk drive and without having to detect or distinguish any problems that may exist with the disk drive and its connection, or other components that may be in the loop.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of data storage and, more particularly, to testing components of a data storage system.
2. Related Art
In the context of computer systems, enterprise storage architectures provide mass electronic storage of large amounts of data and information. The frenetic pace of technological advances in computing and networking infrastructure—combined with the rapid, large-scale sociological changes in the way the way these technologies are used—has driven the transformation of enterprise storage architectures faster than perhaps any other aspect of computer systems. This has resulted in a variety of different storage architectures, such as, for example, direct attached JBODs (Just a Bunch Of Disks), SAN (Storage Area Network) attached JBODs, host adapter RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive/Independent Disks) controllers, external RAID controllers, redundant external RAID controllers, and NAS (Network Attached Storage). Each of these storage architectures may serve a special niche, and thus may differ significantly in terms of functionality, performance, cost, availability, scalability and manageability.
Enterprise architectures may utilize disk storage systems to provide relatively inexpensive, non-volatile storage. The multiple disk drives of the data storage system are connected to a server computer (or "nodes") via a fibre channel network in one exemplary system. The nodes, the disk drives, and the network must all be tested before the data storage system can be sent to a customer for day to day use. This can be quite a complicated process to test the overall functionality of the data storage system, as well as the individual components of the system.
Prior testing methods included either 1.) connecting external devices to the fibre channel network and exercising it with the regular I/O interface, or 2.) connecting the fibre channel connection to a single port in a "loopback mode." Each of these methods has its drawbacks. Testing with external devices involves reading and writing to the devices and allows high bandwidth testing. However, when connected to external devices, any failure or reduced performance that is detected cannot be solely attributed to the fibre channel connection. It may be due to a problem in any of the connected devices. Tracking down the problem takes significant time and effort and makes an automated procedure extremely complicated if not impossible. Connecting the port in loopback mode requires the use of a special diagnostic interface that can only be exercised at low bandwidths. Loopback mode also does not allow high bandwidth multi-threaded communication and testing.

Method of testing fiber channel ports in a storage server at full bandwidth without connection to external devices


A method for automatically configuring a local network in a windfarm is provided, the method including the steps of (a) automatically assigning an IP address to a device connected to the local windfarm network, (b) automatically receiving an identifier tag from the device, and (c) relating the automatically assigned IP address of the device to a specific wind turbine in the windfarm which is identified by said identifier tag.

Wind turbines for wind power generation are typically grouped into so-called windfarms or wind parks comprising from only a few wind turbines up to large numbers. Especially, large off-shore wind farms are projected comprising up to hundred wind turbines or more. Since during recent years regenerative wind energy production increased considerably, it is expected that the number of wind turbines in a wind farm will also increase.
Typically, wind farms have a centralized control unit that allows monitoring and control of the wind farm. Each of the wind turbines in a wind farm is connected to this centralized control via a windfarm local area network (LAN). Also, each of the turbines includes a number of devices like controllers, sensors or the like which are connected to the windfarm network. Typically, these devices are connected to a central switch of the wind turbine.
For the communication inside the windfarm LAN and also for communication with a host outside the windfarm, e.g. at a remote control center, typically the Internet Protocol standard (IP) is used. IP is a network layer protocol in the internet protocol suite and is an upper layer protocol that also provides globally unique addresses (e.g., MAC address for Ethernet) but two of these addresses will not necessarily be able to communicate to each other. IP adds a service on top of these data link layer protocols that provides the ability to uniquely identify with and communicate with any other device on the network.
Therefore, each device connected to the windfarm LAN requires an IP address for communication. In computer networking, an IP address (internet protocol address) is a unique number that devices use in order to identify and communicate with each other on a network utilizing the Internet Protocol standard (IP). Any participating network device—including switches, controllers, sensors—requires its own unique address.
In principle, there are two methods of assigning IP addresses to devices: dynamic and static. Dynamic IP addresses are assigned for a variable length of time. In order to use a dynamic IP address, a service such as Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is used to assign an address to the requesting network device. The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is a client-server networking protocol providing a mechanism for allocation of IP addresses to client hosts. However, if DHCP is used for allocating IP addresses in a windfarm network the correlation between devices and wind turbines is lost. Therefore, it cannot be determined to which specific turbine a device belongs and, accordingly, also which devices belong to the same turbine. However, it is important to reliably and correctly identify a specific wind turbine in a wind park and its built-in components.
For this reason, currently the network settings in a windfarm network are done manually. In particular, the static IP addresses are manually assigned to the devices according to a predetermined static numbering scheme. This work consumes a large amount of time and may need even weeks to be finished for large windfarms. Also, the manual assignment process is error-prone. In particular, it may happen that the same IP address is assigned twice or that no IP address is assigned to a component of a wind turbine.

Method for configuring a windfarm network


A method for optimal fueling of an engine is disclosed. The method includes determining a quantity of exhaust residuals in each cylinder among a plurality of cylinders in the engine. Further, the method includes determining at least one of an intake and exhaust manifolds temperature, at least one of an intake and exhaust manifolds pressure, and a quantity of a first fuel being injected to each cylinder, and calculating a characteristic temperature of each cylinder based on the quantity of exhaust residuals, at least one of the intake and exhaust manifolds temperature and pressure, and the quantity of the first fuel. The method further includes determining a substitution rate of the first fuel for each cylinder based on the characteristic temperature, and controlling at least one of the quantity of the first fuel, and a quantity of a second fuel being injected to each cylinder based on the substitution rate.

The present invention relates generally to engines and, in particular, to systems and methods for determining an optimal substitution rate of fuels, and controlling the fuels being injected to a plurality of cylinders of such engines.
Generally, engines such as dual-fuel engines are alternative internal combustion engines designed to run on more than one fuel each stored in separate vessels. The dual-fuel engines are known for various applications, such as generator sets, engine-driven compressors, engine driven pumps, mechanical machines, off-highway trucks and others. Such dual-fuel engines are capable of burning varying proportions of the resulting blend of fuels in the combustion chamber and the fuel injection and/or spark timing may be adjusted according to the blend of fuels in the combustion chamber.
The dual-fuel engines operating with a high fraction of non-premixed, direct injected fuel, such as diesel fuel, and with a less fraction of premixed fuel, such as natural gas may have uneven exhaust residuals between cylinders due to flow dynamics which may limit natural gas substitution in one or more cylinders. Such exhausts residuals may include pollutants such as carbon oxides (e.g., carbon monoxide), nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur oxides (SOx), and particulate matter (PM), which may be detrimental to the environment. The amount and relative proportion of these pollutants may vary according to the fuel-air mixture, compression ratio, injection timing, environmental conditions (e.g., atmospheric pressure, temperature, etc.), and so forth. Similarly, the dual-fuel engines operating with the high fraction of premixed fuel and with the less fraction of non-premixed fuel may be susceptible to knocking in each cylinder and may have peak cylinder pressure issue. Therefore, determination of an optimal substitution rate of certain amount of the heavy fuel with the lighter fuel using one or more known techniques may be difficult and unpredictable.
Thus, there is a desire for an improved system and method for engines operating on more than one fuel.

System and method for optimal fueling of an engine


The present invention provides an optical fiber of which a zero dispersion wavelength falls within a range of between 1,250 nm and 1,350 nm inclusive, transmission loss at 1,550 nm is equal to or less than 0.185 dB/km, chromatic dispersion at 1,550 nm is within the range of 19±1 ps/nm·km, a dispersion slope at 1,550 nm is equal to or less than 0.06 ps/nm2·km, an effective area Aeff is equal to or more than 105 μm2, a cable cutoff wavelength λcc is equal to or less than 1,530 nm, polarization mode dispersion is equal to or less than 0.1 ps/km1/2, and a loss when the optical fiber is wound on a mandrel having an outer diameter of 20 mm is equal to or less than 10 dB/m.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical fiber, a method for manufacturing same and an optical transmission channel. Particularly, the present invention relates to an optical fiber used in optical communications of a long-haul large-capacity transmission system using wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) technology, an unrepeated submarine optical cable system or the like, a method for manufacturing same, and an optical fiber and an optical transmission channel used in the wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) optical transmission.
2. Related Art
Usually, a wavelength used of an optical transmission signal on a single-mode optical fiber (SMF) for optical transmission is often in the vicinity of 1,300 nm (1.3 μm) or 1,550 nm (1.55 μm), while a wavelength used for a WDM transmission optical fiber is 1,550 nm (1.55 μm) where transmission loss decreases.
Recent yeas have seen development of a WDM transmission system as well as growing demands for suppression of non-linearity and suppression of dispersion.
In such a situation, there ha been proposed for long-haul large-capacity transmission fibers, a dispersion managed transmission channel comprising a combination of an optical fiber 1 provided at the anterior portion having an increased effective area (Aeff), positive chromatic dispersion and a positive dispersion slope and an optical fiber 2 provided at the posterior portion having negative chromatic dispersion and a negative dispersion slope, as shown in FIG. 1, to achieve lower residual dispersion as a whole.
In addition, an optical fiber having increased effective area (Aeff) is also utilized in an unrepeated submarine optical cable system used for communication between near-sea islands so as to suppress non-linearity.
Known as a manufacturing method of these WDM transmission single-mode optical fibers are some compositing methods such as a VAD (Vapor-phase Axial Deposition) method, an OVD (Outside Vapor Deposition) method, an MCVD (Modified Chemical Vapor Deposition) method and a method of combination thereof.
Further, as a method for increasing transmission capacity in optical transmission by use of an optical fiber, attention is focused on WDM optical transmission. Accordingly, much consideration has been made on optical fibers used in the WDM optical transmission.
Known as an optical fiber usable in the WDM optical transmission are a single-mode optical fiber (SMF) having zero dispersion wavelength in the vicinity of 1.3 μm, a non-zero dispersion shifted optical fiber (NZDSF) having no zero dispersion wavelength in the used wavelength range and the like. However, in these optical fibers, there is a problem of non-linearity such as self-phase modulation (SPM) or cross-phase modulation (XPM).
In order to solve the problem of non-linearity for the optical fibers described above, there has developed an optical fiber having a chromatic dispersion that is sufficiently far from zero and an increased effective area (Aeff). The effective area is expressed by the equation (MFD)2×π×k/4, where k is a constant number. An example of such an optical fiber is disclosed in Proceedings of the 1999 IEICE Electronics Society Conference, C-3-76 and C-3-77.
Such an optical fiber as disclosed in the above-mentioned proceedings has a chromatic dispersion of more than 20 ps/nm/km. Because of this chromatic dispersion, the accumulated dispersion is increased, which makes the optical fiber unsuitable for long-haul WDM optical transmission.

Optical fiber, method for manufacturing same and optical transmission channel


An asynchronous programming language that facilitates concurrent programming by utilizing futures, asynchronous calls, and joins on futures. For each of a client interface and a service interface of an asynchronous interface, respective models are automatically extracted. A behavioral contract is defined on the asynchronous interface. The client and service models are then passed to modular checking algorithm that checks to ensure that both the client and the service conform to the behavioral contract. The checking algorithm combines region-based type systems with model checking techniques to handle pointer aliasing in a sound manner.

Programming languages, for the most part, impose a synchronous view on an increasingly asynchronous world. In these languages, operations are totally ordered, so that, given a program's input data, the entire sequence of its computation is determined. However, for better or worse, computation is becoming increasingly asynchronous. At the lowest level, architectural innovation is increasingly focused on improving performance through increased concurrency, with approaches such as simultaneous multithreading or single-chip multiprocessors. Equally significantly, ubiquitous networks make collaboration among programs and users possible, but parallelism and communication introduce asynchrony.
Programming languages, despite the importance of asynchrony in reactive, event-driven, concurrent, or parallel applications, typically support asynchrony only through library mechanisms, such as threads, events, and synchronization, and provide no linguistic or error-checking features. Lack of support is a serious problem, as asynchrony makes the difficult task of programming even harder, since partially ordered behavior is harder to both understand and analyze and because nondeterminism obscures the cause of errors.
Thus what is needed is an improved asynchronous programming language, system or methodology that mitigates some of the aforementioned shortcomings of conventional languages.

Contracts and futures in an asynchronous programming language


An apparatus for agitating filters in a feed hopper from which the filters are fed pneumatically to a filter attaching machine. The hopper drive apparatus includes an independent drive and speed reducer mechanism that drives the filter agitators as long as the filter attaching machine receives filters. The agitation system uses a stand alone independent drive system that uses a timing belt to drive the agitators. This agitation system provides a means for operating with fragile, segmented charcoal filters in that the filters are permitted to move up and down more freely than with conventional agitation devices, allowing more room for incoming filters from the receiver and reducing damage to the filters and jamming of the filters in the transfer system.

This invention relates to the feeding of cigarette filters comprised of fiber, charcoal, or various combinations thereof to a cigarette making machine. More particularly this invention relates to the feeding of fragile filter elements such as charcoal filters to a cigarette making machine. Even more particularly this invention relates to the agitation of a cigarette filter hopper in the feeding of charcoal filters to a cigarette making machine.
The cigarette manufacturing industry utilizes automated machines to interconnect cigarette filter rods with tobacco rods. One method of joining the cigarette rods to the filters is by using a filter tip attachment machine by aligning the distal ends of a single filter rod with a pair of tobacco rods, wrapping the joint with tipping paper, and cutting the filter in the center forming two cigarettes.
In the manufacture of filter tip cigarettes prior to the feeding of filter rods into a filter tip attachment machine, a filter hopper is provided to store cigarette filters and is a source of supply for the filters when the filter attaching machine is operating. Moreover, in order to maintain a uniform supply of these filters into the feed end of a filter attachment machine, bins have been provided to maintain the agitation of the cigarette filters in the feed hopper so that uniformity of feed to the filter attaching machine is maintained. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,081,778 and 3,308,833 teach the use of an oscillating agitating flap mounted within the feed hopper which prevents the weight of the bulk of filters in the hopper to press on the region where the filters are discharged and also tends to break up the bridging of the filters over the discharge. U.S. Pat. No. 4,069,930 teaches a feed hopper including an agitator translatable in the hopper; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,063,633 teaches an agitator disposed within the hopper which is mounted to rotate or oscillate in order to break up clumps of rods which may form in the hopper.
Moreover, it has been known to employ a cam mechanism to the frame of a feed hopper or directly to the feed hopper wherein the cam oscillates the hopper in response to the operation of the mechanism for discharging the filter rods from the filter hopper.
Because of variations in the rate of production, the filter feed conveying equipment and hopper agitating equipment is routinely stopped and started for various reasons, such as when the quantity of filters exceeds a predetermined amount in the hopper due to a faster rate of supply than demand with the filter attachment machine. Since the supply of filter rods may be from a conveyor mechanism located several feet from the filter attachment machine, the number of rods in transit at any instant may be considerable. Thus, where the supply unit is stopped in response to a command from the filter tip attachment machine all of the filter rods in transit will continue to be delivered to the hopper which has been stopped from delivery of filters to the attachment machine.
Typically, these devices are adequate for feeding cigarette filters including a porous fiber filter element attached to the cigarette such as shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,498,488. However, carbon filled cigarette filters generally tend to be heavier, yet more fragile than porous fiber filter elements. Because charcoal filters are made in segments they tend to break when fed using conventional hopper feeding apparatus.
When charcoal filters are fed to the hopper via a pneumatic conveyor system after the agitator and hopper feed mechanism have been turned off due to a problem with the cigarette attachment machine, the charcoal filters will tear because of the extra pressure of the heavier "charcoal" filters already in the hopper. Also, the filter wrap for charcoal have a much higher friction ratio than standard filter wrap. Because the charcoal filters are made in segments the filters tend to tear and break during the feed process to conventional hopper filter dispensing system, when the filter attachment machine stops running because the conventional agitator systems are designed to stop running at the same time the filters are still being fed to the hopper through the pneumatic conveying system. Furthermore, when the agitator is not running the excessive weight from the charcoal filters cause the filters to lock up and jam the hopper instead of sliding across each other. Thus, the existing operation of conventional agitators presents a problem when feeding charcoal filters pneumatically.
The filter vibratory devices described in the aforementioned references are designed to utilize existing gear drive means and to run only in the event the filter attachment machine is running in order not to overfill the cigarette filter hopper. These agitating devices perform adequately using standard light weight, one piece, fibrous cigarette filters. However, pneumatic feeding of fragile, heavier, segmented charcoal filters by these aforementioned devices presents a problem in that the agitators tend to damage and tear apart the carbon filled filter elements resulting in jamming of the hopper feed mechanism, lost time, increased maintenance, and damaged material.
The present invention solves the problems associated with the agitation of fragile filters by providing a novel means to maintain a consistent flow of carbon filled filters through the feed hopper to the filter attachment machine regardless of the density or material of construction of the filter elements. The system allows the filter elements to move up and down and side to side within the hopper more freely without binding and allows more room for the incoming filters from the receiver. Moreover, the present invention utilizes a means to agitate the filter elements even when the filter attachment machine is not operating, but is still receiving filters from the pneumatic filter conveyors.

Apparatus for agitating cigarette filters in a filter hopper


A method and implementing system are described in which a tri-plate chip carrier is effective to significantly reduce electromagnetic signal radiation and provide enhanced noise immunity. The tri-plate structure includes a ground layer, a middle signal conducting layer upon which an integrated circuit is mounted, and a top reference potential layer. The middle layer includes groups of printed circuit conductors extending from the chip to the outer edges of the carrier. The top layer is arranged to have separate electrically isolated conducting areas for VDD and ground reference potential connections. The conducting areas are arranged such that each group of signal conductors in the middle signal layer has a ground potential area above it and a ground potential area below it to provide enhanced signal isolation and reduced electromagnetic radiation.

The present invention relates generally to information processing systems and more particularly to a methodology and implementation for signal transmission in an integrated circuit carrier package.
Subject matter disclosed and not claimed herein is disclosed and claimed in one or more of the following related co-pending applications, which are assigned to the assignee of the present application and included herein by reference:
Ser. No. 09/640,539;
Ser. No. 09/640,538; and
Ser. No. 09/640,512.
In digital computer assemblies, including integrated circuit (IC) or chip carrier packages, it has become common practice over the years to sandwich a logic signal (SIG) transmission line between two reference planes, i.e. between a power (VDD) reference plane and a power return ground (GND) reference plane, while transmitting the logic signal from a driver circuit to one or more receiver circuits. With regard to a chip carrier in particular, the minimum that a chip package carrier must supply to a chip mounted thereon is one or more power supply voltages (VDD), one or more ground returns (GND), and a sufficient number of signal (SIG) lines. Currently these requirements are furnished by means of sets of separate planes for VDD, SIG and GND connections to the mounted chip. In other words, a plane of signal lines is defined on a SIG plane that is positioned or xe2x80x9csandwichedxe2x80x9d between a GND plane and a voltage VDD plane. The semiconductor chip sits on top at the center of the package. The signal lines radiate outwardly from the chip area and connect to the card area below the carrier xe2x80x9csandwichxe2x80x9d which is made up of the three reference planes. De-coupling capacitors on the chip and the chip carrier between VDD and GND supply the electrical charge current at the low source inductance needed to drive fast transitions into the signal lines at the chip source end. While this construction has been satisfactory in the past, increasing operating frequencies of systems and chips has created problems with regard to signal isolation and noise immunity.
Thus there is a need for an improved chip carrier package design which provides greater signal isolation and noise immunity in systems and chips having high operating frequencies.
A method and implementing system are provided in which a tri-plate structure is arranged to include three substrate layers surrounding an integrated circuit chip which is mounted thereon. In an exemplary embodiment, the tri-plate structure includes a middle or signal layer, a first outer layer or top layer, and a second outer layer or bottom layer. The first and second outer layers are positioned on each side of the signal layer. The three layers are arranged on electrically insulative material and the three layers are sandwiched together to form a chip carrier. The chip is mounted on the middle layer or signal (SIG) layer and extends through an opening in the top layer. The middle signal layer includes bundles or groups of printed circuit conductors or lines to carry signals between the chip and the edges of the carrier device. The first outer layer includes electrically isolated and separate conducting areas or segments which are held at different system potentials, for example at ground (GND) and VDD power potential levels. The separate conducting areas on the top layer are separated by air gaps or by insulative material to provide adequate electrical isolation. The separate areas are arranged on the first outer layer relative to the signal conductors in the middle layer such that signal lines from the chip to the outer edges of the chip carrier in the middle layer are positioned under areas of ground potential in the first outer layer and above the grounded second outer layer which is positioned below the signal layer in the carrier device. Thus, each group of signal conductors in the middle layer between the chip and the outer edges of the carrier have a ground potential area or segment above each signal conductor group and also a ground potential layer below each signal conductor group. The tri-plate structure thus formed provides system electromagnetic radiation isolation and enhanced noise isolation and signal integrity. In the example, ground areas in the top layer are connected to the bottom ground potential layer through vias which pass through the middle layer. Also, vias are used to connect de-coupling capacitors between VDD areas in the top layer and the ground potential bottom layer.

Scalable high frequency integrated circuit package

International Business Machines Corporation


An analog audio mixing console is controlled over a standard TCP/IP connection using a HTTP session between a remote device, such as a personal digital assistant, and a networking circuit board installed in the audio mixing device enabling the audio mixing console to function as a HTTP server. The networking circuit board is programmed to accept programming statements, for example, JAVA commands and the audio mixing console is accessible and fully functional via the remote device.

Audio equipment, for example home stereo system equipment and professional recording consoles, includes controls for manipulating audio effects, including, for example, panning, busing, volume and equalization. As used herein, panning refers to manipulating the balance of an audio signal, for example, from a left channel to a right channel. Volume control, as used herein, generally refers to the ability to increase and decrease the level of an audio signal. Also as used herein, equalization generally means manipulating various frequency ranges of an audio signal. Many more audio effects, including, for example, reverb, digital delay and the like are well known in the art and included in audio equipment.
Audio engineers operate prior art mixing consoles by controlling, for example, a series of switches, sliders, knobs and buttons in order to invoke potentiometers and switches that implement desired audio effects. Prior art mixing console are essentially closed systems, requiring audio technicians to monitor and operate the physical controls situated on or near the audio mixing console.
Live concert performances, especially those involving significant amplification in large venues, require audio engineers and/or audio technicians (referred to herein generally as "audio engineers") to physically operate an audio mixing console in order to implement, for example, panning, equalization and volume control, and to obtain a quality mix of instruments and vocals in the many locations throughout the performance venue.
FIG. 1 illustrates an example live concert performance that utilizes a prior art audio mixing console. As shown in FIG. 1, music band 100 plays instruments that are amplified. An audio engineer 102 uses audio mixing console 104 to achieve a quality mix of the instruments comprising music band 100.
Audio effects that are controlled by the mixing console 104 comprise, inter alia, volume control 106, panning control 108, equalizer control 110, and bus volume controls 112.
Obtaining a quality mix using prior art mixing consoles 104 can be very time consuming, in part, because the audio engineer 102 must physically adjust the volume control 106, panning controls 108, equalizer 110 and other effects. Moreover, the mixing console 104 is typically situated at a central location within a performance venue, and, therefore, the audio engineer 102 only hears the audio mix of the music band 100 at the mixing console, and cannot hear the results of the mix from other locations within the performance venue. Accordingly, audio engineers 102 rely on feedback from other audio engineers who report on the quality of the mix from various locations within the performance venue. This problem is exacerbated by very large performance venues.
Since audio engineers 102 typically operate mixing consoles 104 at a central location where the audio mixing console 104 is located, many areas, especially those in a very large performance venue, for example, a sports stadium complex, may suffer from a low quality mix because the audio engineer 102 operating the mixing console 104 is not fully informed of the quality of the mix in those areas.
Therefore, the time required to produce a quality mix remains significant because of prior art mixing consoles 104. Furthermore, some venues, especially large ones with many thousands of seats, maintain areas which suffer from a poor quality mix throughout a live concert performance.


A system, method, and apparatus method for receiving one or more communications from a remote terminal, transmitted via a telephone exchange, the communications comprising telemetry data and voice data; selecting a call center from a plurality of call centers to receive a communication from the remote terminal, wherein selecting the call center is based at least in part on the telemetry data; sending a message from the service provider to the call center over a side-channel, the message comprising at least a portion of the telemetry data, and further comprising a request for a communication path to one of a plurality of operator stations connected with the call center; and sending the voice data to the one operator station over a public switched telephone network (PSTN) connection via the communication path requested.

Event communication correlation is the process of associating an event communication, such as an incoming telephone call from a customer, with additional information associated with the person, entity, or device from which the communication originates. Take for example a customer of a utility company calling to inquire about his utility bill. The utility company must correlate the incoming phone call with additional relevant information for the customer, such as the customer's account information. In this context, a historical "event communication correlation" process is described.
A call center such as the utility company has no advance notice that a customer will be calling, and thus cannot prearrange to correlate a phone call with relevant account information to service the phone call. When the customer's phone call does arrive, the utility company will receive little or no information describing the content of the phone call. In limited circumstances, the utility company may receive caller identification ("caller-ID") information describing the phone number of the originating location or ANI (automatic number identification) information, likewise describing the phone number of the originating location.
When an incoming phone call is received at the utility company, via the public switched telephone network ("PSTN"), it is generally placed into a hold queue. The customer's phone call remains in the hold queue with several other phone calls from other customers, each call waiting to be answered by the next available customer service operator ("operator"). Time in the hold queue varies from just a few seconds to many minutes and is unaffected by the urgency of the customer's phone call, the content of the phone call, the event triggering the necessity of the phone call, or any classification that the utility company has assigned the customer. The time a phone call remains in the hold queue is primarily affected by the ratio of operators servicing the hold queue to the number of connected phone calls.
Eventually, the customer's phone call moves to the front of the hold queue and is answered by the next available operator, just one of many operators at this particular call center representing the utility company. When the customer inquires about his bill, the operator must somehow correlate the customer with the appropriate account information associated with the customer. Stated differently, the operator must perform an event communication correlation method to associate the incoming communication event, the customer's phone call, with the customer's account information.
Historically, event communication correlation has been accomplished through the use of outdated and rudimentary techniques. One common method is by oral exchange and confirmation of unique data. For example, the operator may ask for one of several unique keys by which the customer's account information can be retrieved, examples of which include: social security numbers, company specific account numbers, customer addresses, and telephone numbers. The customer orally communicates the unique key to the operator, who manually enters the unique key into a database interface, and when successful, gains access to the customer's account information and can service the call.
Other historical methods of event communication correlation include the use of DTMF tones, ANI data, or caller-id data. DTMF stands for "dual tone multi-frequency" and is more commonly identified by its trademark "TOUCH-TONE." Event communication correlation applications make use of DTMF tones after a telephone call circuit has been established by use of a series of menus or DTMF data entry prompts.
Take for example the same utility company having received a phone call from a customer. Upon connection of the telephone circuit, instead of the customer being placed into a hold queue, the customer is prompted with a pre-recorded spoken message instructing him to select one of several menu options or to enter a unique key by which he may be recognized as a specific customer. The customer presses one or more keys on his telephone, which in turn generates and transmits corresponding DTMF tones that are received and interpreted by a DTMF decoder at the utility company's call center. When the customer correctly responds to the prompts and correctly enters a recognized unique key, such as an account number, the communication event has been "correlated" with the customer's account information.
A company or call center may further employ the use of ANI or caller-id information in an attempt to correlate communication events to additional relevant data. Using this method, a call center captures the customer's telephone number transmitted during the initial moments of the telephone call as caller-id info from a telephone carrier or as ANI information from an ANI service. The captured telephone number is then used as a unique key to correlate the customer's account information with the incoming communication event.
Unfortunately, each of the methods described above are inadequate for the modern needs of event communication correlation. The use of oral confirmation for correlating information is unacceptably slow and inaccurate. The use of DTMF tones is likewise unacceptably slow due the period of time it takes to either manually or automatically input and then transmit the DTMF tones to the DTMF decoder, during which time the customer must wait on the line for the event communication correlation process to complete.
The use of caller-id and ANI information is likewise inadequate as it suffers from a high rate of failure due to the incompatibilities of telecommunication equipment and telecommunication standards used to route a phone call from its origination point to a destination.
Historical wireless telephony devices serve only to exacerbate this problem, because as they "roam" on to foreign or non-preferred networks, they commonly require the use of a temporary telephone number by which they can communicate with destinations or other devices connected via the PSTN. This temporary telephone number causes any attempted event communication correlation process to fail as the temporary telephone number will not be correctly associated with the customer.
Some historical event communication correlation techniques for wireless telephony devices have employed the transmission of "in-band" data over the voice channel as audible signals encoded and transmitted at a wireless telephony device, such as an automobile, and received and decoded at a destination, such as a call center. For example, a historical telephonically enabled automobile can detect an air-bag deployment event and initiate a phone call to a predetermined call center. When the call center receives the phone call, it must correlate the incoming phone call with the appropriate account information related to the automobile in order to service the call. The automobile will then transmit a series of DTMF or other audible tones over the voice channel to the call center, which the call center decodes into identifying information used to properly correlate the phone call with associated account information. Unfortunately, this method of event communication correlation can be time consuming, and prevents voice communication between the call center and the occupants of the vehicle while the audible tones are being transmitted. Meanwhile, the occupants of the vehicle may be injured as the result of a car accident, disoriented, and desperately require help, but the call center cannot provide aid to the occupants until the lengthy in-band event communication process completes.
While telecommunication companies generally transmit the audible portion of a telephone call seamlessly, data describing the communication event, such as ANI and caller-id information, is often lost or corrupted during transmission. Furthermore, methods such as in-band event communication correlation are unacceptably slow for many applications. Because the prior art methods for event communication correlation are slow and unreliable, they are inadequate for modern event communication correlation needs requiring high rates of reliability and minimal delay.

System and method for event communication correlation


A bed frame center support assembly comprising a pair of parallel cross support members extending between two opposed side rails of a bed frame, a center support member extending between the cross support members and at least one leg assembly pivotally secured to one of the support members. The leg assembly may comprise a first leg pivotally secured to a vertical web of one of the support members, a plastic insert and a foot member. Alternatively, the leg assembly may comprise a first leg nestably secured to a second leg in order to increase the length of the leg assembly. A threaded foot is adapted to engage a bracket integrally formed in the bottom of either the first leg or the second leg further increasing the vertical adjustability of the length of the leg assembly.

A conventional bed frame has two opposed side rails extending between a footboard and a headboard. These side rails may be made of any material but are most often made of wood. The side rails often have a flat horizontal flange extending inwardly from a vertical portion. In order to support the weight of a box spring and mattress, a plurality of transversely extending wooden or metal slats often were inserted between the side rails and rested on the horizontal flanges of the side rails. However, such transversely extending slats often warped, twisted outwardly or deflected under the weight of the box spring and mattress placed on top of the rails. As wider span-size beds such as a queen size bed which is 60" standard width or a king size bed which is 76" standard width became more popular, the wooden slats had to become longer and wider. The problem of twisting or torquing slats increased and in addition, the two opposed side rails tended to twist or turn outwardly as well due to the weight placed on the slats.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,080,674 discloses a center cross bar extending transversely of two opposed side bed rails which eliminates the need for transversely extending slats. The center cross bar is provided with two vertically adjustable supporting leg assemblies, each leg assembly having a vertically adjustable glide or foot at the lower end thereof. The glides contact a floor or other supporting surface to support the cross bar so as to prevent sagging of a box spring placed thereon and prevent any vertical deflection, horizontal deflection and twisting or torquing of the opposed side rails of the bed frame. Such a vertically adjustable supporting leg assembly incorporated into a cross bar enabled the two opposed bed rails or side rails to be pulled into a snug engagement with a box spring over a substantial portion of the length of the box spring in order to provide a firm support for the box spring along the bottom side and center portion of the box spring without having to utilize transversely extending removable slats.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,203,039 discloses a cross bar adjustable in length as well as height adapted to extend between two wooden side rails of a bed frame. The cross bar has multiple legs which are pivotally connected to the cross bar and capable of pivoting upwardly into a nesting relation with the cross bar for ease of packaging and/or shipping. The legs are also capable of being pivoted downwardly and secured in an erect position. In addition, this patent discloses a cross bar which is adjustable in length because the cross bar comprises two nestable sections each comprising an "L" shaped angle iron. The sections may be pulled apart to increase the length of the cross bar to fit a king size bed and an overlapped, nested portion of the sections secured with a clamp and thumb screw.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,502,852 discloses an extensible leg for a bed cross bar similar to the legs disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,203,039. Like the legs disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,203,039, the legs disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,502,852 are adjustable in height and may be folded upwardly into a nested position inside the cross bar which has an L-shaped cross-sectional configuration. The leg disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,502,852 has an integral bracket formed on the free end of the leg which is formed from the material of the leg and defines a substantially square opening which retains a plastic bushing and a threaded foot which can be raised and lowered in order to adjust the height of the cross bar relative to the supporting surface or floor. Thus, the leg disclosed in this patent is easier to fabricate and less expensive to make than the leg disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,203,039.
However, in both the legs disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,203,039 and 5,502,852, the height which the leg can be adjusted is limited by the height of the threaded stem of the foot member. The threads of the stem of the foot member are adapted to engage a plastic insert received within either the square opening of the integral bracket formed on the free end of the leg (U.S. Pat. No. 5,502,852) or a separate bracket secured to the leg with rivets (U.S. Pat. No. 5,203,039). Therefore, the vertical adjustment of the cross bar is limited to approximately the height of the threaded stem of the foot member which is typically only a few inches. Therefore, the height of the side rails above the supporting surface is limited because the bottom of the threaded foot members must engage the supporting surface in order to properly support a box spring placed on the bed frame.
Therefore, it has been one objective of the present invention to provide an adjustable bed frame center support assembly having legs which may be adjusted in height more than heretofore known legs having adjustable heights.
It has been a further objective of the present invention to provide a bed frame center support assembly comprising two cross support members and one center support member each having one or more vertically adjustable legs.
It has been a further objective of the present invention to provide a leg assembly which may be pivotally secured to a support member having an "L" shaped cross sectional configuration and nested therein, the leg assembly comprising multiple pieces which may be removably secured to one another.


A method for operating a medical imaging system is provided. The method includes receiving an image data set of a region of interest in a first dimensional representation, reducing the dimensionality of the image data set to a second dimensional representation, selecting a feature of interest in the second dimensional representation, and generating an image of the selected feature in the first dimensional representation.

This invention relates generally to ultrasound systems and, more particularly, to methods and devices for controlling imaging in ultrasound systems.
At least some known ultrasound systems, for example, an ultrasound machine or scanner, are capable of performing three dimensional (3D) volume date acquisition and acquisition of the 3D data sets progressing over time (4D). Raw data and processed data of the 3D and 4D data sets may grow exponentially as multiple dimensional data are spanned. Large data sets can make managing and manipulating the data hardware intensive, such as requiring large amounts of random access memory (RAM), large disk storage, powerful microprocessors, and image handling chipsets. The large data sets also may make navigating though the data, locating an object of interest, and displaying a desired view of the object of interest cumbersome and difficult. Because the physical space on the ultrasound machine may be limited, it is often not possible to provide a real-time or offline 3D or 4D representation of the data available to the user at all times.
A common approach to managing the limited space for data and display capabilities is to use only a portion of the data, such as every Nth frame or image of a plurality of images that make up a data set. However, using only every Nth frame or image may result in the omission of data for which a user is searching. Additionally, allowing a user to view only a portion of the data may not represent the data in a manner familiar to the user.

Method and apparatus for controlling ultrasound system display


The image generating program makes the image generating device perform: setting a number of increase or decrease objects in at least one of a plurality of regions on a field having the plurality of regions divided from each other and connected to each other; generating a display image including a display corresponding to the field and the set number of increase or decrease objects; generating the display image in which an increase or decrease number corresponding to a selected level is set in the region within a predetermined area; generating the display image in which the number of increase or decrease objects is increased or decreased on a basis of the set increase or decrease number; and ending the stage when the number of increase or decrease objects set in each of the regions becomes a predetermined value as a result of the increase or decrease.

In related art, game devices that can execute game programs recorded on disk-shaped recording media and storage devices and game programs obtained from servers on networks and the like are known. Genres of such games include role-playing games, adventure games, shooting games, simulation games, puzzle games, and the like. Of these games, puzzle games are relatively easy in operations, and are thus liked by a wide variety of user groups irrespective of age.
There is a game known as such a puzzle game in which falling objects are rotated or moved and piled up on a game field, and the objects disappear when a predetermined condition is satisfied (see European Published Patent Application No. 1044706, for example, hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 1).
In the puzzle game described in this Patent Document 1, two "egg" blocks having a spherical shape and coupled with each other come falling onto the game field. Then, a user for example translates the two falling "egg" blocks to a left or to a right, rotates and moves the two falling "egg" blocks to the left or to the right, or makes the two falling "egg" blocks fall forcibly, and piles up the two "egg" blocks on the game field. When these two "egg" blocks fall onto the bottom of the game field or come into contact with blocks already piled up on the game field, the two "egg" blocks are broken, and other "egg" blocks adjacent to the two "egg" blocks are also broken. Thereby "contents" blocks appear. When a total of three or more "contents" blocks of a same kind are coupled with each other vertically and horizontally, all of the three "contents" blocks disappear.
In this puzzle game, when two "egg" blocks are made to fall while a predetermined button is pressed, the "egg" blocks can be piled up on the game field without being broken. Thus, when a plurality of "egg" blocks are piled up on the game field in advance such that three or more "contents" blocks are coupled to each other, and the "egg" blocks are broken by making other "egg" blocks fall onto the "egg" blocks in question, the "contents" blocks that appear can be made to disappear in a chain.

Image generation program, recording medium, information processing method, information processing device and information processing program for a puzzle game


Pieces of data are stored among storage devices based on a cycle value, which is computed for each storage device as the total capacity of all storage devices divided by the individual capacity of the storage device. Next, a storage device for a current piece of data is selected to be the storage device with the smallest key value; followed by determination of a new key value based on at least (a) the cycle value and (b) a sequence number of the current piece. After allocation, if the number of storage devices changes, reallocation is done similarly except that selection is first from a preferred set and only if the preferred set is empty then from a remainder set. Storage devices are placed in the preferred set if a piece of data would be outside a shadow (based on cycle value) of another piece pre-existing in the storage device.

Conventional data storage systems may include one or more data storage devices (e.g. disk drives) connected to a controller or manager. A logical volume manager (also called a logical disk manager) can be used to manage systems containing multiple data storage devices. The logical volume manager configures a pool of storage devices into logical volumes so that applications and users interface with logical volumes instead of directly accessing physical media. The logical volume manager divides each storage device into one or more partitions. Each partition can, and typically does, have a different length. When a logical volume is no longer needed, its partitions are deleted so that space on the disk drives is made available for another partition to be created. However if a new partition is larger than the available space, then the space cannot be reused for the new partition. If the new partition is smaller than the available space, then a portion of the free space will be used and an even smaller piece will remain free. Over time, this results in many small pieces of free space that cannot be reused. This problem is often referred to as "fragmentation."
U.S. Pat. No. 6,405,284 granted to Bridge on Jun. 11, 2002, and entitled "Distributing data across multiple data storage devices in a data storage system" is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. This patent describes an invention, in which, one feature of one embodiment is to divide each disk drive into many small fixed size pieces. During normal operation, storage space on a disk drive is allocated and freed in units of the fixed size pieces. Fragmentation is reduced or eliminated because all pieces are the same size. Another feature described in this patent is that each logical volume is made of pieces from many disk drives. The pieces of a logical volume are spread out as evenly as is practical so that two pieces on the same disk drive are far apart in the address space of the logical volume. Thus I/O load is spread evenly over all disk drives.
Prior art methods of allocating the pieces to disk drives (hereinafter, simply "disks") have certain disadvantages. For example, if pieces are allocated to disks in a round-robin fashion, then disks that are smaller run out of space faster than larger disks. In the following example, assume there are four disks, consisting of two disks D1 and D2 of 200 MB each and two disks D3 and D4 of 100 MB each. If one were to use round-robin scheme to allocate eight pieces (of 50 MB each), then the distribution results as shown in FIG. 1 and in the following table (wherein X1-X8 are the labels of the eight pieces).
D1D2D3D4X1X2X3X4X5X6X7X8AVAILABLEAVAILABLEN/AN/AAVAILABLEAVAILABLEN/AN/AIn the above table, D1 and D2 have space available whereas D3 and D4 do not have any available space (denoted as "N/A" because these disks are smaller). Therefore, the round-robin allocation causes D3 and D4 to become full although D1 and D2 are only half full.
Another method (called "sequential proportional") computes a weight for each disk, as the ratio of each individual disk's capacity divided by the total storage capacity of all disks. In the above-described example, the weights are as follows:
D1D2D3D41/31/31/61/6Next, the weights are multiplied by the total number of pieces, to decide how many pieces are to be allocated to each disk. So if there are twelve pieces of 25 MB each that are to be allocated, then D1 receives four pieces (X1-X4), D2 receives four pieces (X5-X8), D3 receives two pieces (X9, X10) and D4 receives two pieces (X11, X12) as follows.
D1D2D3D4X1X5X9 X11X2X6X10X12X3X7N/AN/AX4X8N/AN/AThe above distribution is more uniform across the disks because all disks become full at about the same time. But this method has the problem that when data is being accessed from the first disk D1, the remaining disks D2-D4 are kept idle which results in lower throughput than possible (if all disks were being accessed in parallel). Another problem with this method (as well as the round robin scheme) is that if a disk were to be dropped (e.g. if disk D4 is to be removed), then movement of D4's pieces to one of the remaining disks can result in an uneven distribution (wherein some disks have many more pieces than other disks). Hence an improved method for allocating pieces to disks will be useful.

Distributing data across multiple storage devices


An inverter is powered from a DC voltage whose instantaneous absolute magnitude is equal to that of the AC power line voltage except for being prevented from falling below a level equal to half the peak of the power line voltage. The inverter""s output is loaded via a series-tuned high-Q LC circuit. Two fluorescent lamps are loading the secondary winding of a transformer whose primary winding is connected across the capacitor of the LC circuit. The magnitude of the voltage present across the capacitor is normally limited by the loading of the fluorescent lamps. However, with the lamps removed, if not expressly prevented from doing so, the magnitude of the voltage across the capacitor will increase to a destructive level due to Q-multiplication. To prevent this, an auxiliary winding on the transformer is used for limiting the magnitude for the voltage across the capacitor by rectifying the output from the auxiliary winding and feeding the resulting DC to the inverter""s input; whereby the magnitude of the voltage across the capacitor will be limited to a level determined by the instantaneous magnitude of the DC voltage; which level is set such as to result in acceptable lamp starting while at the same time preventing any voltage-limiting from taking place at any time as long as the lamps are operating.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to series-resonant-loaded inverters, particularly as used for powering gas discharge lamps.
2. Description of Prior Art
In an inverter where a gas discharge lamp load is parallel-connected across the tank capacitor of a high-Q LC circuit that is resonantly series-excited by a high-frequency voltage output of the inverter, it is necessary to provide some means to protect against the high currents and voltages resulting due to so-called Q-multiplication whenever the lamp load is removed or otherwise fails to constitute a proper load for the LC circuit.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,370,600 to Zansky, circuit protection is provided by way of providing to the LC circuit an alternative load in the form of a voltage-clamping means; which voltage-clamping means acts to load the LC circuit during any period when the lamp does not constitute a proper load therefor.
The voltage-clamping is accomplished by rectifying the Q-multiplied voltage output of the LC circuit and by applying the resulting DC output to the inverter""s DC power source.
However, during any period when voltage-clamping does occur, a relatively large amount of power circulates within the electronic ballast means: from the inverter""s output, through the LC circuit, and back into the inverter""s DC power source by way of the voltage-clamping means.
An object of the present invention is that of providing overload-protection means in a tuned inverter.
This as well as other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description and claims.
AC power line voltage is rectified and filtered such as to result in a DC voltage whose instantaneous absolute magnitude is equal to that of the power line voltage except for being prevented from ever falling below about half of the peak magnitude of the power line voltage. A half-bridge inverter is powered from this highly rippled DC voltage. The inverter""s output voltage is loaded by way of a series-tuned high-Q LC circuit. Two fluorescent lamps are series-connected across the secondary winding of a transformer whose primary winding is connected across the tank capacitor of the LC circuit.
The magnitude of the voltage present across the tank capacitor is normally limited by the loading represented by the fluorescent lamps. However, with the lamps removed, if not expressly prevented from doing so, the magnitude of the voltage across the tank capacitor will increase to a destructive level due to Q-multiplication. To prevent this from happening, an auxiliary winding on the transformer is used for limiting the magnitude of the voltage across the tank capacitor by rectifying the output from the auxiliary winding and feeding the resulting DC to the inverter""s DC input. As a result, the magnitude of the voltage across the tank capacitor will be limited to a level determined by the instantaneous magnitude of the DC voltage; which level is set such as to result in acceptable lamp starting while at the same time preventing any voltage-limiting from taking place at any time when the lamps are indeed operating.
To limit internal power dissipation during periods when the lamps are not connected, the effective magnitude of the inverter""s output voltage is made to decrease in a time-delayed manner as a function of the magnitude of the current flowing from the auxiliary secondary winding.
The inverter is of the self-oscillating type and control of the effective magnitude of the inverter""s output voltage is effected by controllably heating the ferrite material of one of two saturable current transformers used in the feedback loop.

Series-resonant ballast having overload control


The smoke detecting apparatus of the present invention comprises a detection space (52) into which generated smoke is to be introduced; light-emitting means (2) for emitting a predetermined coded light pulse train into the detection space (52); light-detecting means (3) for detecting scattered light which is generated when the light emitted from the light-emitting means (2) is scattered by the smoke and generating an electric signal corresponding to the detected light; and control means (4) for generating a burst code signal composed of a pulse train coded with a reference pulse to the light-emitting means (2) and judging that the smoke exists in the detection space (52) when the pulse patterns of thus compared signals coincide with each other. According to this configuration, the apparatus can securely operate at the time of smoking and cannot detect when there is no smoke.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a smoke detecting apparatus and method for detecting smoke within an electrical equipment such as television.
2. Related Background Art
When smoke or fire is generated within an electrical equipment such as television, most of the inside of the electrical equipment may be burned before the smoke or flame comes out therefrom. In this case, not only the electrical equipment itself is burned down but also its vicinity is likely to catch fire. Known as a fire alarm system for detecting such smoke within an electrical equipment or the like in its early stage is a safety device for electrical equipment disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-Open No. 3-120640. This safety device comprises a smoke sensor for detecting smoke generated within an electrical equipment. When the smoke generated within the electrical equipment is detected by the smoke sensor, the electric power supplied to the electrical equipment is stopped in order to prevent a fire accident after the smoking.
In this safety device, however, there is a possibility that the smoke sensor may malfunction under the influence of electromagnetic noises from a number of parts such as electric circuits disposed within the electrical equipment. Also, there is a possibility that the smoke sensor may malfunction due to dust or the like which is floating by an air convection in the inner space of the electrical equipment causing by changes in temperature and the like therein.


A gunshot detection/security system for detecting dangerous events in a school or other building includes one or several pods placed throughout the building premises. Each pod includes a camera, a thermal camera, and an acoustic sensor for detecting video, images, heat signatures, and sound within a detection area for the respective pod. The sensor data is then analyzed to identify a dangerous event in the building, and provide alerts regarding the dangerous event via the pods or client computing devices of students/occupants in the building, administrators, parents, and emergency responders. A server computing device generates digital maps of the interior and exterior of the building having location information regarding the occupants of the building and a danger zone indicating the epicenter for the dangerous event.

In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the number of mass shootings and the number of injuries and fatalities caused by these mass shootings. When a mass shooting occurs in a school or other building, emergency responders such as police officers may be alerted of the mass shooting and may be provided with the name of the school or name of the building in which the shooting takes place. However, typically the police officers are not made aware of the location of the shooter within the building or the locations of other occupants relative to the shooter. Accordingly, police officers enter a building with little information regarding the whereabouts of the shooter or the whereabouts of other occupants who need to be evacuated from the building. Other emergency responders such as paramedics are also unaware of the locations of injured occupants who require immediate attention and may be suffering from life-threatening injuries.
Furthermore, many occupants in the building such as students and teachers are unaware of the location of the shooter within the building. As a result, they do not know whether they need to hide or can safely exit the building and/or which exits are safe.
Additionally, other dangerous events may occur in a building such as fires, gas leaks, water leaks, weapons, suspicious bags which may contain weapons, fights, vandalism, etc. While current systems may be used to alert occupants of some types of dangerous events such as a fire, the current systems require manual input such as pulling a fire alarm. Additionally, the current systems do not provide occupants and emergency responders with the precise location of a dangerous event, with escape routes for safely evacuating the building, and/or with the locations of injured occupants who require immediate attention.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Security system for detecting hazardous events and occupants in a building


A new cultivar of rose, ‘Te Jiao’, characterized by its upright, climbing habit, semi-glossy green foliage, its semi-double pink flowers, its repeat blooming habit even through hot weather, its disease resistance, and its vigorous growth habit with minimal seed production.

The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Rosa hybrida. The new rose will be referred to hereafter by its cultivar name, 'Te Jiao'. 'Te Jiao' is a climbing rose suitable for landscape plantings.
The new cultivar of climbing rose is a selection from a controlled breeding program conducted by the Inventors in Beijing, China with a focus on creating rose cultivars that perform well and bloom continuously in the hot summers in the northern region of China and also exhibit minimal seed production.
The new variety, 'Te Jiao', arose from a cross made in Beijing, China in 2005 between the female parent, 'Dortmund' (not patented) and the male parent, 'Beilinhong' (not patented). 'Te Jiao' was selected by the Inventors as a single unique plant from the resulting seedlings in May, 2006.
The new cultivar was first asexually propagated by the Inventors using softwood stem cuttings in Beijing, China in November, 2006. Asexual propagation using stem cuttings and tissue culture has determined that the characteristics of this cultivar are stable and are reproduced true to type in successive generations.


An embedded control system is provided, which includes a generically applicable computer module, display module, keyboard module, power supply module, and at least one input/output module. The display module is coupled to the computer module by a first communication bus, and the keyboard module is coupled to the computer module by a second communication bus. The power supply module is coupled to the computer module by a third communication bus, and the at least one input/output module is coupled to the power supply module and the third communication bus. The input/output module is adapted for coupling at least one additional input/output module to the third communication bus. The computer module automatically identifies the input/output modules on the third communication bus in response to applying power to the embedded control system. The system is adapted for different applications using software resident in the computer module.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to embedded controllers with integrated operator display, control, and electromechanical input/output connections and more specifically relates to electronic modules that are plugged together with an operating system and device drivers to quickly develop and produce control systems.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In much of the equipment today, small microcomputers called embedded controllers are used to perform various functions, such as operator input/output display, control of functions, and input/output connections to electromechanical devices. Currently, many of these devices are custom designed for each application. However, this method is time consuming and expensive. Therefore, it would be advantageous to assemble and stock pre-made modules that plug together such as operator input/output display modules, computer control modules, and input/output modules.
In much of the equipment today, small microcomputers called embedded controllers are used to control equipment. The embedded controllers have other devices attached, such as displays, keyboards, memory, analog-to-digital converters, and other I/O devices. These embedded controllers and external devices are time consuming to program. Therefore, it would be advantageous to have a system that contains an operating system and drivers to run the external devices, which would greatly reduce the time to implement a control application.
In much of the equipment today, small microcomputers called embedded controllers are used to perform various functions. Currently, many of these devices are custom designed from scratch for each application. This method is time consuming and expensive. Therefore, it would be advantageous to have an application template that would provide many of the basic functions common to all applications.
In some equipment today, programmable logic controllers (PLC) are used to control equipment. Expensive operator interfaces and keyboards may be attached, which enable the operator to input commands and display data. Therefore, it would be advantageous to have the operator interface and keyboard along with the drivers incorporated into the main embedded control.
In some equipment today, single board computers are used to control equipment. These computers do not contain all the components to control the equipment, such as displays, keyboards, or high-level electromechanical drivers. Therefore, it would be advantageous to have the operator interface, keyboard, along with the device drivers and electromechanical drivers, included in the embedded control system.
In some equipment today, personal computers are used to control equipment. These computers contain all the necessary hardware to implement a control. They have plug-in cards and different display options. These systems do not handle real-time applications very well and are expensive and require extensive programming. Therefore, it would be advantageous to have a low-cost embedded system that includes plug in-modules.
In some equipment today, timers and temperature and relay closure sequences are formed into recipes. These recipes are sometimes broken down into steps. Often, many steps make-up a recipe. These steps are usually set at the keyboard of the equipment. Therefore, it would be advantageous if the modular embedded control system included an infrared transceiver that allows recipe data to be transmitted to and received from standard handheld computers. This would allow a user to program the recipe of the equipment on the handheld computer off-site then, when on-site, send the data to the equipment via an infrared port or serial port. The user would then go to multiple sites and send the recipe data to other devices, which would save a considerable amount of time.
In personal computers today, bit maps are used to represent standard pictures. These bit maps are drawings that are formed by small square blocks. There are many standard bit map programs that are currently available. These bit map programs may be used to draw letters of the alphabet that are bolder and easier to read on a screen. Therefore, it would be advantageous to be able to draw characters of the alphabet in such a manner as to make them bold and/or different sizes and to have a program that can convert the bit map bold letters into an array that an embedded system can read and display.

Method and apparatus for modular embedded control system


A system and method for program counter and data tracing is disclosed. The tracing mechanism of the present invention enables increased visibility into the hardware and software state of the processor core.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to on-chip debugging, and more specifically to program counter (PC) and data tracing in embedded processor systems.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Computer systems process information according to a program that includes a sequence of instructions defined by an application program or an operating system. Typically, a program counter provides a series of memory addresses that are used by the processor for fetching instructions stored in the associated memory. In this process, the processor conveys the memory address to the memory over an address bus, and the memory responds over an instruction/data bus with the instruction stored in the addressed memory location. The instructions stored in the memory constitute the program to be executed.
Program development relies heavily on the verification of the instructions stored in memory as well as their corresponding execution. This task represents an ever-increasing burden due to the growth in software complexity and the increase in processor clock speeds. Typically, these debug efforts are supported by instruction tracing tools that generate a listing of executed instructions during the execution of a program.
Computer engineers rely on tracing results to gain a view of process and data states while the computer system is operating. Hardware engineers rely on tracing results to determine how new computer hardware architectures perform with existing operating systems and application programs. Finally, software engineers rely on tracing results to identify critical code segments and data structures.
In general, the cost of developing and debugging new software products can be a significant factor in processor selection. A processor's failure to adequately support software debug efforts can result in longer development times. This factor can easily reduce the processor's attractiveness to particular segments of the processor industry.
The increased control and flexibility in the generation of tracing data is particularly important for the embedded processor industry. In the embedded processor industry, specialized on-chip circuitry is often combined with a processor core. Embedded processors typically balance numerous design tradeoffs such as the number of I/O-port pins and the die size costs. A reduced I/O-port pin count results in lower bandwidth for trace data, therefore placing a premium on the efficiency of the tracing mechanism. This example is reflective of the embedded processor industry's general need for a set of efficient, low-cost, debugging tools.

Trace control from hardware and software