A method for producing an indium-tin-oxide sintered body comprising the steps of;

The present invention relates to a method for producing a high density indium-tin-oxide sintered body.
Indium-Tin-Oxide, indium oxide-tin oxide solid solution films are utilized as a transparent electrode of a plane display material for a liquid crystal display and the like because of high conductivity and excellent transparency.
As a method for forming an indium-tin-oxide film, there are listed a method in which an indium-tin-oxide powder is applied on a substrate, a method in which an indium-tin-oxide film is formed on the surface of a substrate by sputtering method using an indium-tin-oxide sintered target obtained by molding a raw material oxide powder and sintering the molded article, as well as other methods.
According to the method in which an indium-tin-oxide powder is applied on a substrate, the resulted film has high resistance and is not used as a practical transparent electrode. Consequently, almost all indium-tin-oxide films are produced by sputtering.
Regarding the sputtering method, a method using an In-Sn alloy as a target has been conventionally used, however, the resulted film had problems in controllability and reproducibility. Therefore, a method using an indium-tin-oxide sintered body as a target is dominantly used nowadays. However, a method for producing an indium-tin-oxide film by sputtering method using an indium-tin-oxide sintered body target heretofore had a problem that there is required an operation called cleaning in which the sputtering is stopped for taking out an indium-tin-oxide target and the nodule is excised, leading to decrease in productivity because of occurrence of blackening phenomenon on the surface of an indium-tin-oxide target called nodule.
It is known that occurrence of this nodule tends to occur in a low density indium-tin-oxide target and if a high density indium-tin-oxide target is used, occurrence of nodule is suppressed, cleaning process can be abbreviated, and productivity increases consequently.
As other problems of a low density indium-tin-oxide target, there are indicated a problem that resistance increases during sputtering leading to decrease in sputtering efficiency, a problem that ash called particle grows in a sputtering apparatus, and adheres on a substrate for an indium-tin-oxide film, leading to deterioration of an indium-tin-oxide film formed and breaking of a fine indium-tin-oxide film pattern, a problem that due to high resistance of a low density indium-tin-oxide target, productivity of sputtering is low, and when power supply is increased, abnormal discharge occurs and sputtering can not conducted in stable fashion, and the like.
Therefore, various suggestions have been conventionally made for enhancing the density of an indium-tin-oxide sintered body. For example, there is a method in which a high density indium-tin-oxide sintered body is obtained by sintering under pressure using a hot press method or hot isostatic press (hereinafter, abbreviated as HIP) method. However, in the hot press method and HIP method, only a non-uniform indium-tin-oxide target is obtained because tin oxide can not be made into sufficient solid solution and the resistance of an indium-tin-oxide target can not be decreased since temperature can not be increased in the method. Further, when the hot press method or HIP method is used, the price of a product increases due to an expensive equipment required.
There is also suggested a method in which indium-tin-oxide powders are sintered in a pressured oxygen gas atmosphere (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 3-207858), however, it has a problem that the price of a production is high since an expensive special equipment which can endure pressure is required for conducting sintering in a pressured oxygen gas atmosphere. Further, it includes problems regarding safety of a high pressure oxygen gas atmosphere, and the like.
There is also suggested a method in which indium-tin-oxide powders are sintered in an oxygen gas atmosphere under an atmospheric pressure (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 6-299344), however, it has a problem that a high density ITO sintered body can not be obtained.
Furthermore, there is also suggested a method in which a tin oxide powder having larger diameter is mixed with a fine indium oxidepowder (JP-A No. 6-183732), however, this method is not necessarily sufficient for achieving high density.
The object of the present invention is to provide a high density indium-tin-oxide sintered body which is excellent in property as a sputtering target and is industrially useful, in a method for producing an indium-tin-oxide sputtering target comprising molding an indium-tin-oxide powder and then sintering the molded one.
The present inventors have intensively studied for solving the above-described problems, and have found that increase in the density of the final sintered body is promoted when the partial pressure of moisture in an indium-tin-oxide sintering atmosphere is lower or the concentration of oxygen in an indium-tin-oxide sintering atmosphere is higher, and have completed the present invention.
Namely, the present invention provides a method for producing an indium-tin-oxide sintered body comprising the steps of;
molding a powder comprising indium, tin and oxygen, and
sintering the molded article in oxygen gas-containing atmosphere,
wherein the halogen content of the powder comprising indium, tin and oxygen is 0.02% by weight or less, the concentration of oxygen in the oxygen gas-containing atmosphere is 90% or more during the sintering, the partial pressure of moisture contained in the oxygen gas-containing atmosphere is 800 Pa or less during the sintering, and the molded article is maintained at a temperature in the range from 1500 to 1650xc2x0 C. for 1 hour or more for the sintering.
The present invention will be described in detail below.
As a powder comprising indium, tin and oxygen, a powder comprising indium, tin and oxygen which can be produced according to a method for producing an indium-tin-oxide powder described in JP-A No. 10-72253, a mixed powder of an indium oxide powder and a tin oxide powder, a mixed powder of an indium-tin-oxide powder and tin oxide powder, a mixed powder of an indium-tin-oxide powder and indium oxide powder and the like are listed. Hereinafter, these powders are abbreviated and called ITO or ITO powder in the present invention. These are made into molded articles by the following methods.
Said powder can be optionally selected so that the content of tin oxide in an ITO sintered body preferably from 1 to 50% by weight, more preferably from 2 to 20% by weight.
Said powder preferably does not contain halogen, and the halogen content of the powder is preferably not more than 0.02% by weight.
It is preferable to use said powder having a primary particle size calculated by BET specific surface area of the powder of preferably from over 0.05 xcexcm to 1 xcexcm or less, more preferably from over 0.1 xcexcm to 0.5 xcexcm or less.
It is preferable to grind said powder since the secondary particle may sometimes be larger due to coagulation. The central particle size calculated by particle size distribution after grinding is preferably not over 1 xcexcm.
As the grinding method, dry ball mill grinding, wet ball mill grinding, jet mill grinding or combination thereof can be used.
By using such preferable said powder, a high density ITO sintered body can be obtained which has a sintered body density of 7.10 g/cm3 or more and compacted to 99% or more of the true density (the true density of ITO is 7.16 g/cm3).
Then, said powder is molded into desired form, further sintered to obtain an ITO sintered body.
As a method for obtaining a molded article of said powder used in the present invention, various methods can be used, and there are listed, for example, dry press, cool isostatic molding press (CIP) and the like as the dry molding method, slip casting, deep casting and the like as the wet molding method, other injection molding methods and the like. In the case of the dry molding method, if a powder is previously made into a slurry and then made into a granule by spray dry and the like, such effects are obtained that operability in molding increases, a more uniform molded article is obtained, and the like.
In the molding, a dispersing agent for enhancing dispersibility of a powder, a binder for imparting shape keeping property, a releasing agent of easy unloading from a mold, a lubricant for reducing mutual friction of powders, and the like are added if necessary. As the dispersing agent, nonionic, cationic surfactants and the like, as the binder, polymers such as polyvinyl alcohol, polyethylene glycol, polymethylmethacrylate and the like, as the releasing agent, micro wax emulsion and the like, as the lubricant, glycerin and the like, are suitably used.
Thus obtained molded article of said powder is sintered and compacted. The sintering is an operation for mutual adhesion of powders by way of diffusion and requires high temperature, but can be conducted using a usual sintering apparatus such as an electric furnace and the like.
In sintering, the molded article is maintained at a temperature in the range from 1500 to 1650xc2x0 C. for 1 hour or more, preferably 3 hours or more.
Before sintering, the molded article is preferably maintained at a lower temperature than that in initiation of the sintering, namely at a temperature in the range from 1000 to 1300xc2x0 C. for 1 hour or more, further, 3 hours or more.
In the present invention, sintering is preferably conducted in an oxidizing atmosphere, namely, an oxygen gas-containing atmosphere, air having enhanced oxygen concentration, oxygen atmosphere and the like are listed and an atmosphere having an oxygen concentration of 90% or more is preferable, and an atmosphere having an oxygen concentration of 95% or more is more preferable. It is preferable that an oxygen gas-containing atmosphere in sintering contains no moisture, and regarding the moisture content, the partial pressure of moisture is 800 Pa or less, preferably 400 Pa or less, further preferably 200 Pa or less.
For reducing the moisture content of an oxygen gas-containing atmosphere in sintering, it is preferable to removed the remaining moisture and moisture adhered to a furnace wall, furnace material, heat insulation material and the like, by evacuation inside of an electric furnace. It is also preferable to reduce the amount of moisture in the atmosphere in an electric furnace by flowing an oxygen gas having low moisture content such as an oxygen gas filled in an oxygen bomb. There is also a method to reduce the amount of moisture dissolved in a gas by passing the gas through a desiccant and the like.
According to the method for producing an ITO sintered body of the present invention, a high density ITO sintered body is obtained, and when the instant sintered body is used as a sputtering target, reduction of nodule, improvement in sputtering efficiency, decrease in a particle, reduction of abnormal discharge, enhancement of quality of a formed ITO film, and the like can be achieved.
A compact high density ITO sintered body has excellent property as an ITO sputtering target and industrially useful.
A sputtering target for manufacturing a transparent conductive film such for a liquid crystal display (LCD) and the like is obtained by a usual method for producing an ITO target in which an ITO sintered body of the present invention is cut and polished, and bonded to a copper backing plate by indium solder.

Method for producing high density indium-tin-oxide sintered body


The present technology relates to a solid state image pickup device and a production method, a semiconductor wafer, and an electronic apparatus by which the yield can be improved. On a semiconductor wafer, a chip region in which pixels and so forth that configure a solid state image pickup device are formed and a scribe region are formed. In the scribe region, a measuring region in which an inspection circuit for measuring a property of the chip region and measurement pads are formed and a dicing line to be cut upon fragmentation of the semiconductor wafer are provided. The measuring region is positioned between the dicing line and the chip region. The present technology can be applied to a solid state image pickup device.

Upon production of a solid state image pickup device such as, for example, a CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) image sensor or the like, after a plurality of chips each of which is a solid state image pickup device are formed in a semiconductor wafer by stacking, the semiconductor wafer is fragmented by dicing.
A technology is known wherein, in order to measure a property of such a chip as described above to perform determination of whether or not the chip is good, a property of a chip is measured using an inspection circuit in a state in which a semiconductor wafer is not yet in a fragmented state.
For example, an inspection circuit that generates a signal for property measurement to be supplied to a circuit block of each chip and supplies the signal to the circuit block of the chip to measure a property and a technology for forming a pad connected to the inspection circuit in a scribe region of a semiconductor wafer have been proposed (for example, refer to PTL 1).

Solid state image pickup device and production method, semiconductor wafer, and electronic apparatus


A liquid-phase process is provided for the manufacture from glutaronitriles and related compounds of 2,6-diaminopyridine and related compounds, which are used industrially as compounds and as components in the synthesis of a variety of useful materials. The synthesis proceeds by means of a dehydrogenative aromatization process.

The compound 2,6-diaminopyridine ("DAP"), which is shown by the structural formula below
is a useful starting material for preparing monomers for rigid rod polymers such as described in WO 94/25506, as well as for dyes, metal ligands, medicines and pesticides.
It is well-known to prepare DAP by means of the Chichibabin amination reaction in which pyridine is reacted with sodium amide in an organic solvent. This is a complicated reaction requiring relatively severe conditions (e.g. 200° C. at elevated pressure). Additionally, handling sodium amide and isolating the desired product from this complex mixture are difficult operations to perform on a commercial scale.
Pyridine derivatives have also been synthesized through the conversion of acylic dinitriles (see, for example, GB 2,165,844; and U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,066,809; 4,876,348; 6,118,003; 4,603,207; 5,028,713; and 4,051,140). There are several examples of this type of transformation in the vapor phase and, to a lesser extent, in the liquid phase. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,876,348 teaches the ammoxidation of 2-methylglutaronitrile to 3-cyanopyridine. The two-step process involves the conversion of 2-methylglutaronitrile to a mixture of 3-methylpyridine and 3-methylpiperidine, followed by the vapor phase ammoxidation of this mixture with NH3 and O2 in the presence of a complex metal oxide to give the product 3-cyanopyridine.
A need thus remains for a process wherein, on an industrial scale, it would be possible to form pyridine derivatives in the liquid phase in the presence of a heterogeneous catalyst, which would facilitate separating and recycling the catalyst.

Process for the synthesis of diaminopyridines from glutaronitriles


A power system including an electrochemical device, a load device, a power generator, and a charge/discharge controller of the electrochemical device. The electrochemical device includes a positive electrode, a negative electrode, and a liquid electrolyte or a solid electrolyte. The charge/discharge curve of the electrochemical device has at least one step, and a given step of the at least one step has an inflection point. A voltage corresponding to the inflection point or a point adjacent to the inflection point is set as a threshold value, and the charge/discharge controller is configured to control charge/discharge of the electrochemical device such that the voltage of the electrochemical device approaches the threshold value.

Recently, it has been investigated to use an electrochemical device and a power generator in combination as the power source for a portable electronic device, such as an information device, a communication device, a visual device, an audio device, or a still picture device, or an electric vehicle. When an electrochemical device and a power generator are used in combination, if the amount of power generated by the power generator is insufficient, power can be supplied from the electrochemical device to a load device, and if the amount of power generated by the power generator is excessive, the excessive power can be charged into the electrochemical device.
However, if the remaining capacity of the electrochemical device is small, when the amount of power generated by the power generator is insufficient, the electrochemical device cannot supply a necessary amount of power to the load device, so that the operation of a portable device or an electric vehicle becomes unstable. Also, if the remaining capacity of the electrochemical device is excessive, when the amount of power generated by the power generator is excessive, all the excessive power cannot be charged into the electrochemical device, so that energy is wasted. Therefore, in a power system including an electrochemical device, a load device, and a power generator, it is desired to constantly monitor the remaining capacity of the electrochemical device, and to keep the remaining capacity of the electrochemical device above a certain level.
Referring now to FIG. 1, a description is given of a method for monitoring the remaining capacity of an electrochemical device in a conventionally proposed power system. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a conventional power system (see Patent Document 1). The system of FIG. 1 has a fuel cell 30 as a power generator that supplies power to a load device 5. This system has a storage battery 60 as a back-up electrochemical device. Fuel produced by a reformer 20 is supplied to the fuel cell. A raw material of fuel is supplied to the reformer 20 from a raw material tank 101.
The output of the fuel cell 30 is produced by controlling various auxiliaries by means of an auxiliary controller 100. That is, the auxiliary controller 100 controls a reaction air blower 90 that supplies air to the cathode of the fuel cell, a combustion air blower 80 that supplies air to the burner of the reformer 20, and a raw material pump 70 that supplies the raw material of fuel from the raw material tank 101 to the reformer. The value of current outputted from the fuel cell is detected by an output current detector 170.
Meanwhile, the storage battery 60 is connected to a current detector 110 and a voltage detector 130. The current detected by the current detector 110 is integrated by an integrator 120. The detected voltage and the integrated current value are sent to a system controller 150. The system controller 150 is equipped with a memory 140, and the memory stores the target value of remaining capacity of the storage battery. The system controller 150 performs a calculation based on the detected voltage value, the integrated current value, the target value of remaining capacity, and the like, and controls the auxiliary controller 100 based on the calculated result. The current value detected by the output current detector 170 and the calculated result produced by the system controller 150 are sent to a data comparator 180, where they are compared with each other. Based on the compared result, a regulator 160, which controls a DC/DC converter 40, is controlled.
The above-described system can control the current supplied from the fuel cell to the storage battery and the load based on the remaining capacity of the storage battery. However, a circuit equipped with the current detector 110 and the integrator 120 is necessary, and the control method becomes complicated. The current detector is composed of a shunt resistor, a hall element or the like and thus costly.
FIG. 2 shows a charge/discharge curve of a common electrochemical device.
As shown in FIG. 2, the charge/discharge curve can be divided into three regions A to C. In the region B, a reversible charge/discharge reaction proceeds in the electrochemical device, but in the region C, there is a tendency of poor reversibility. It is thus preferred to utilize only the flat region B exhibiting stable output in a power system including an electrochemical device, a load device, and a power generator.
However, in the flat region B, the voltage hardly changes, so it is difficult to utilize only the voltage in order to monitor the remaining capacity of the electrochemical device. Also, if conditions such as a current value and ambient temperature are different, different voltage values are detected for the same remaining capacity. Further, even if the voltage of an electrochemical device is estimated by utilizing a parameter such as a current value, this is not useful for estimating the remaining capacity of the electrochemical device in the flat region of the charge/discharge curve. Accordingly, it is necessary to employ a method of integrating current values with respect to time (hereinafter referred to as current integration) to monitor the remaining capacity.
Also, when the B region is not completely flat and its inclination is gentle, utilizing only the voltage for monitoring the remaining capacity of an electrochemical device requires a high level of voltage detection accuracy. It also requires accuracy in detecting a parameter necessary for correction. However, trying to achieve such accuracy results in high costs. On the other hand, if the accuracy is poor, it is not possible to correctly monitor the remaining capacity based on the voltage. Therefore, current integration eventually becomes necessary to correctly determine the remaining capacity of the electrochemical device.
Meanwhile, if an electrochemical device is fully charged (until the remaining capacity becomes 100%) and the integrated current value is reset to 100%, this reset eliminates integration errors. Performing this operation periodically makes it possible to monitor the remaining capacity with relatively good accuracy.
In the case of the system of FIG. 1, when the electrochemical device is in a fully charged state or a fully discharged state, if the system controller 150 is caused to recognize the remaining capacity of the electrochemical device as 100% or 0%, the remaining capacity can be reset. With the remaining capacity after reset being stored, by starting integration of charge/discharge current of the electrochemical device, the measurement accuracy of the remaining capacity can be heightened.
It should be noted, however, that the amount of power consumed by the load device (energy demand) may vary constantly and is unpredictable. The operation of the load device may abruptly stop. In this case, if the electrochemical device is fully charged to make the remaining capacity to 100%, the electrochemical device is unable to absorb power generated by the power generator, so that the energy is lost. Such energy loss is particularly significant in a system including a power generator, such as a fuel cell, which needs considerable time to stop. Conversely, when the electrochemical device is fully discharged until the remaining capacity becomes 0% in order to reset the integrated current value, it is unable to cope with a rapid increase in the amount of power consumed by the load device. Also, if the system is stopped with the remaining capacity being 0%, the system may be unable to be started the next time.
For example, in the case of electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles, a full charge of the electrochemical device is avoided such that the electrochemical device can collect regenerative energy produced when the vehicle is decelerated. Also, a full discharge of the electrochemical device is avoided such that the electrochemical device can make up for a shortage of energy needed upon acceleration. In this way, the system continues to operate based on current integrals, voltage values and the like, without being able to make the remaining capacity to 100% or 0% to reset the remaining capacity.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. Hei 1-211860 (FIG. 1 and FIG. 3)

Power system and management method thereof


An interface seal for an electrical connector assembly that includes a housing and a seal retainer defining a seal recess and configured to couple to the housing, is disclosed. The interface seal includes a main body portion configured to substantially surround the housing to create a sealing interface, and an anti-rotation projection coupled to and extending from the main body portion. The anti-rotation projection includes (i) an engagement portion extending in a first direction and (ii) a connecting portion that couples the engagement portion with the main body portion and that extends in a second direction different from the first direction. The anti-rotation projection cooperates with the seal recess to inhibit movement of the interface seal with respect to the housing and seal retainer.

The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
Electrical connectors may be used to connect a plurality of electrical wires to various different structures, including, but not limited to, a printed circuit board, another connector, or an electrical module. Typically, the electrical connectors have a first connector and a second connector which are coupled together. The first connector may include a plurality of pins or terminals which pass into the printed circuit board or module, and the second connector may have a plurality of electrical wires for connection with the pins.
An interface seal may be used for sealing a joint between the coupled connectors, however, some interface seals may be easily rotated if the seal is accidentally touched or pinched during handling and assembly. Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an interface seal with anti-rotation features.

Anti-rotation seal for connector assembly


The invention discloses an integrated SCR metering injection system. The integrated SCR metering injection system includes a metering injection unit and a water heating unit for heating the metering injection unit. The metering injection unit includes a pump body, a membrane pump and a metering valve. The water heating unit includes a water inlet joint, a water inlet pipe, a water outlet pipe and a multi-section water circulation pipe communicated with each other. The water heating unit is used for heating the metering injection unit by heated engine cooling water, so that the heated engine cooling water passes by the metering injection unit directly to improve the recycling rate of energy.

With the increasing social requirement on environmental protection, our country has put more and more efforts into environmental protection and appropriate polices regarding vehicle emission have been put forward by relevant national departments, and especially, introduction of 'National Standard IV' results in more stringent control for vehicle emission, which means that the standard can be met only after 30%-50% of pollutant is reduced on the basis of 'National Standard IV', and 'National Standard IV' will come into force nationwide on 2012 in accordance with normal standard implementation procedure.
Now, it is acknowledged that the technology of selective catalytic reduction (SCR) has dominated among vehicle emission post-treatment technologies, that is, a reducing agent is quantitatively injected into an exhaust pipe by atomization and the primary harmful gas NOX in exhaust gas is converted through an SCR catalyst into nitrogen and water which are then discharged out, thus the purpose of exhaust purification is achieved, and this is also the commonest technical route for reaching the 'National Standard IV'.
An SCR system generally includes a liquid storage box, a metering injection unit, a nozzle and the like, however in the prior art, the modular units above are all independent of each other and the reducing agent in the liquid storage box and the metering injection unit is heated in an independent electric heating way or other heating ways, which consequently leads to complex connection between pipe and joint in the system, high possibility of leakage, complex structure under the independent electric heating way or other heating ways and low utilization rate of energy.

Integrated SCR metering injection system

SUZHOU POWERGREEN EMISSION SOLUTION SYSTEM CO., LTD


Isocyanate-free foamable mixtures suitable for filling construction voids and for other uses, comprise isocyanate-free, alkoxysilane-terminated prepolymers (A) which have a silane end group of the formula [1],

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to isocyanate-free foamable mixtures.
2. Description of the Related Art
Sprayable in-situ foams are used for filling hollow spaces especially in the building sector. Here, they are used, inter alia, for sealing joints, e.g. around windows and doors, and they act as excellent insulating materials and lead to good thermal insulation. Further applications are, for example, insulation of pipes or foaming of hollow spaces in various apparatuses and appliances.
All conventional in-situ foams are polyurethane foams (PU foams) which in the uncrosslinked state comprise prepolymers which have a high concentration of free isocyanate groups. These isocyanate groups are able to undergo addition reactions with suitable reactants even at room temperature, resulting in curing of the spray foam after application. The foam structure is generated by a volatile blowing agent being mixed into the still uncrosslinked raw material and/or by means of carbon dioxide formed by reaction of isocyanates with water. The foam is usually supplied from pressure cans and ejected under the intrinsic pressure of the blowing agent.
Compounds which are reacted with the isocyanates are alcohols having two or more OH groups, especially branched and unbranched polyols, or else water. The latter reacts with isocyanates to liberate carbon dioxide, as mentioned above, and form primary amines which can then add directly onto a further, not yet reacted isocyanate group. These reactions form urethane and urea units which, owing to their high polarity and their ability to form hydrogen bonds in the cured material, can form partially crystalline substructures and thus lead to foams having a high hardness, compressive strength and ultimate tensile strength.
Blowing agents used are usually gases which are condensable at a relatively low pressure and can thus be mixed in the liquid state into the prepolymer mixture without the spray cans having to be subjected to excessively high pressures. The prepolymer formulations further comprise additional additives such as foam stabilizers, emulsifiers, flame retardants, plasticizers and catalysts. The latter are usually organic tin(IV) compounds or tertiary amines. However, iron(III) complexes, for example, are also suitable here.
PU spray foams are produced both as one-component (1K) foams and two-component (2K) foams. The 1K foams cure exclusively by contact of the isocyanate-containing prepolymer mixture with atmospheric moisture. The carbon dioxide liberated during the curing reaction of the 1K foams can additionally aid foam formation. 2K foams consist of an isocyanate component and a polyol component which have to be intimately mixed with one another immediately before foaming and cure as a result of the reaction of the polyol with the isocyanates. An advantage of the 2K systems is an extremely short curing time of sometimes only a few minutes for complete curing to occur. However, they have the disadvantages that they require a more complicated pressure can with two chambers and are also significantly less comfortable to handle than the 1K systems.
The cured PU foams have, in particular, excellent mechanical and thermal insulation properties. Furthermore, they display very good adhesion to most substrates and have virtually unlimited stability under dry conditions in the absence of UV radiation. Further advantages are the nontoxic nature of the cured foams after all isocyanate units have quantitatively reacted, and their rapid curing and ease of handling. Owing to these properties, PU foams have been found to be very useful in industry.
However, PU spray foams have the critical disadvantage that the isocyanate groups can, owing to their high reactivity, also display extreme irritant and toxic properties. In addition, the amines which can be formed by reaction of monomeric diisocyanates with an excess of water are in many cases suspected of being carcinogenic. Such monomeric diisocyanates are present in addition to the isocyanate-terminated prepolymers in most spray foam formulations. For this reason, the uncrosslinked spray foam compositions are not without toxicological concerns before they are fully cured. Critical aspects here are direct contact of the prepolymer mixture with the skin and, in particular, a possible aerosol formation during application of the foam or vaporization of low molecular weight constituents, e.g. monomeric isocyanates. As a result, there is a risk of toxicologically unacceptable compounds being inhaled. In addition, isocyanates have a considerable allergenic potential and can, for example, trigger asthma attacks. These risks are increased by the fact that the PU spray foams are often used not by trained and practised users but by hobbyists and home handymen, so that correct handling cannot always be assumed.
As a result of the hazard potential of conventional PU foams and the associated compulsory labelling, the problem of seriously decreasing acceptance of the corresponding products by users has also occurred. In addition, empty or partly empty spray cans are classified as hazardous waste and have to be appropriately labelled and in some countries, e.g. Germany, even have to be made available for reuse by means of a costly recycling system.
To overcome these disadvantages, prepolymers for spray foams which contain only low concentrations, if any, of monomeric isocyanates have been described, for example in DE-A-43 03 848. However, such systems have the disadvantage that the prepolymers still have isocyanate groups, so that although such PU spray foams are better than conventional foams from a toxicological point of view, they are not unproblematical. Moreover, the acceptance and waste problems are not solved by such foam systems.
It would therefore be desired to have prepolymers which do not crosslink via isocyanate groups and are thus toxicologically acceptable available for the production of spray foams. These prepolymer mixtures should also make it possible to produce spray foams which in the cured state have similarly good properties, especially a comparable hardness, as conventional isocyanate-containing PU foams. In addition, one-component spray foam systems which cure exclusively by contact with atmospheric moisture have to be possible. They should at the same time display comparably trouble-free handling and processability including a high curing rate even at a low catalyst concentration. The latter is important especially because the organotin compounds generally used as catalysts are likewise associated with toxicological concerns. In addition, tin catalysts often also contain traces of highly toxic tributyltin derivatives. A prepolymer system which has such favorable curing properties that a tin catalyst can be entirely omitted would therefore be particularly advantageous.
Condensation-crosslinking silicone foams containing alkoxy-, acyloxy- or oximo-terminated silicone prepolymers have been described in the literature, e.g. in U.S. Pat. No. 6,020,389. Although such foamable mixtures are in principle suitable for producing 1K foams which at room temperature cure entirely as a result of the action of atmospheric moisture, such systems comprising purely silicone-containing prepolymers can only be used for producing elastic flexible to semirigid foams. They are not suitable for producing rigid, nonbrittle in-situ foams.
WO 00/04069 describes prepolymer formulations comprising alkoxysilane-terminated polyurethane prepolymers for producing rigid spray foams. These are polymers having a conventional polyurethane backbone which can be formed by reaction of customary diisocyanates with polyols. If an appropriate excess of diisocyanates is used in this first reaction step, isocyanate-terminated prepolymers are obtained. These can then be reacted with aminopropyltrimethoxysilane derivatives in a second reaction step to form the desired alkoxysilane-terminated polyurethane prepolymers. These prepolymers can condense with one another in the presence of water and a suitable catalyst with elimination of methanol and cure in this way. The water can be added as such or can come from contact with atmospheric moisture. Thus, both 1K and 2K foams can be produced using such a system.
The alkoxysilane-terminated polyurethane prepolymers described in WO 00/04069 have a spacer having 2-10 carbon atoms between the alkoxysilane chain ends and an adjacent urethane or urea unit. A disadvantage of this system is the only moderate reactivity of these silane-terminated polyurethane prepolymers. Relatively high concentrations of a tin catalyst are therefore required to achieve sufficiently rapid curing.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Isocyanate-free expandable mixtures exhibiting a fast hardening rate

Abstract: where                X and Y are each an oxygen atom, an N—R3 group or a sulfur atom,        R1 is an alkyl, cycloalkyl, alkenyl or aryl radical having 1-10 carbon atoms,        R2 is an alkyl radical having 1-2 carbon atoms or an ω-oxyalkylalkyl radical having a total of 2-10 carbon atoms,        R3 is a hydrogen atom, an alkyl, alkenyl or aryl radical having 1-10 carbon atoms or a —CH2—SiR1z(OR2)3-z group, and        z is 0 or 1,        with the proviso that at least one of the two groups X and Y is an NH function, and(B) blowing agents.


A microstrip or stripline structure (10) is disclosed. A dielectric substrate (11) of ceramic includes an area (14) having a different electromagnetic characteristic. The differing dielectric characteristic can be provided by an area (14) in the substrate having a reduced thickness. A transmission line (13) is disposed on one side of the substrate and is partially disposed on the area of reduced thickness. An opposed conductor, such as a ground plane (12), is disposed on the opposite side of the substrate. For a microstrip (20), two such substrates are utilized.

Transmission line structures, such as resonators or filters, can be formed on dielectric substrates. For example, conventional stripline or microstrip resonators typically utilize a substrate which can be a ceramic or another dielectric material. For microstrip construction a metallized runner is formed on one side of the substrate with a ground plane on the other side. The stripline configuration utilizes two such structures with ground planes on the outside and the runner therebetween. A number of factors, including the dielectric constant of the substrate, the thickness of the substrate, and the length and width of the runner determine the resonant frequency of the resonator. Practical resonators and filters for high frequency, such as above 1 GHz, can be readily constructed utilizing such techniques with resonator lengths under 2 cm. It can be difficult to provide filters for lower (e.g. VHF) frequency ranges in a similar size using a similar manufacturing process. Various techniques, such as widening the capacitive end of the line or using a serpentine layout to increase the line length having been utilized to reduce the physical length required for resonance. These approaches require increased surface area of the substrate, and generally degrade the quality of the resonator.
Another approach, to resonate a transmission line filter at a lower frequency, involves the use of a lumped capacitive element, such as a chip capacitor which is connected to the transmission line structure. A disadvantage of this approach is that it is not readily tuneable. When a lumped capacitive element is not utilized, the frequency of a resonator can be readily trimmed by removing portions of the ground plane element disposed opposite to the capacitive end of the line. When a substantial portion of the capacitance is supplied by a lumped element, the removal of the ground plane has minimal effect on the capacitance, and hence, the resonant frequency of the resonator.


An audio identification method and apparatus are disclosed within the technical field of audio processing technology. The audio identification solution includes obtaining an original pitch sequence of a to-be-identified audio, where the original pitch sequence is used to indicate a frequency of the to-be-identified audio at each time point. The audio identification solution further includes dividing the original pitch sequence into a plurality of pitch sub-sequences, respectively identifying the original pitch sequence and the plurality of pitch sub-sequences, and combining the identification results. In doing so, the audio identification solution obtains a final identification result by dividing a long pitch sequence into a plurality of short pitch sequences, thus respectively identifying the long pitch sequence and the plurality of short pitch sequences, and combining identification results.

With continuous development of network application technologies, functions of music playback applications also become increasingly improved, with humming identification being one newly developed function.
In a humming identification system, a user enables a humming identification function of a music playback application in a terminal, and hums a piece of music to a microphone of a computing device executing the music playback application. Then, the computing device extracts a pitch sequence of a portion of the recorded humming voice, and then sends the pitch sequence to a server. The server compares the pitch sequence with a pitch sequence of a song stored in a song library, searches the song library for a song that best matches the pitch sequence, and returns a searching result to the computing device.
However, the humming identification system has been found to include the following technical problems. For example, when a user hums only a short portion of a song's melody, the short portion of the song's melody may not satisfy a shortest length requirement for existing humming identification system to accurately analyse and identify a matching song. Therefore, the user is required to hum the melody for a long period of time, which is not helpful when the user does not know more of the melody, which results in lowered accuracy the longer the user is asked to hum. Consequently, the accuracy of the humming identification is relatively low.

Audio identification method and apparatus, and computer storage medium

TENCENT TECHNOLOGY (SHENZHEN) COMPANY LIMITED


In a method to control a printer or copier, a color measurement unit is provided for determining a measurement value of a print marking in a measurement region of color measurement unit. The print marking is printed on the printing substrate web. In addition a positioning marking is also printed on the printing substrate web in a predetermined position relative to the print marking in order to determine a relative position between the print marking and the measurement region of the color measurement unit. The positioning marking comprises at least two partial regions printed in different colors, the partial regions being formed such that a determined color value of the positioning marking changes given a movement of the measurement region of the color measurement unit transverse to a movement direction of the printing substrate web. A real color value is determined with the color measurement unit if the measurement region of the color measurement unit is arranged in a region of the positioning marking. A relative position between the print marking and the color measurement unit is determined depending on a real color value. The measurement value of the print marking is determined and the printer or copier is controlled depending on the measurement value of the print marking.

The disclosure concerns a method to control a color printer or color copier in which at least one print marking to control the color printer or color copier is printed on a printing substrate web moving in the movement direction. With the aid of a color measurement sensor unit in a measurement region of this color sensor unit a measurement value of the print marking is determined if the print marking is arranged in the region of the measurement region of the color measurement sensor unit. The controller of the color printer or color copier then takes place depending on this measurement value.
A widespread method to monitor the print quality of a color printer or color copier is, for example, to print markings in the margin region of the printing substrate web in addition to the actual print image, and to detect these with the aid of sensors. Conclusions about the state of the color printer or color copier can be drawn via the information obtained in these measurements. In particular, multiple print markings are applied in the different print colors that are used, wherein the information obtained from them is used for a color regulation (closed loop color monitoring).
For this, the applied print markings for a color sensor unit are detected. This color measurement sensor unit exposes the printing substrate web and calculates a measurement value from the measured reflections integral over a measurement region of the color measurement sensor unit. This measurement value—in particular a color value—is then compared with the preset desired values. The color regulation then takes place depending on the result of this real/desired comparison.
A requirement for a correct color measurement is that—as shown in FIG. 1—the measurement region 12 of the color measurement sensor unit 14 is situated completely on the print marking 16 applied on the printing substrate web 10. In contrast to this, if the measurement region 12 is arranged alongside the print marking 16 (as shown in FIG. 2) or is positioned only partially on the print marking 16 (as depicted in FIG. 3), although the color measurement sensor 14 delivers a measurement value it does not correspond to the actual quality of the print marking 16. Since the unprinted printing substrate is measured as well in this case, at least in part, the integral measurement value determined across the entire measurement region is adulterated. An incorrect color value measurement thus takes place.
Various methods are known in order to avoid such a false measurement. One possibility is to provide an additional optically resolving sensor unit (a camera, for example) in addition to the color measurement sensor unit that is not optically resolving, with the aid of which additional optically resolving sensor unit the position between the color measurement sensor unit and the print marking can be determined. The information obtained in such a manner about the relative position between the color measurement sensor unit and the print marking can then be taken into account in the evaluation of the obtained measurement values.
An additional possibility is that the print markings and the color measurement sensor unit are manually positioned by the operator. The print markings are hereby applied widely such that deviations due to printing substrate web travel fluctuations do not lead to incorrect measurements, and thus do not lead to a malfunction. In this it is disadvantageous that such wide print markings require a great deal of toner or ink and are space-intensive, and limit the effective usable print width.
A method to control a printer is known from the document U.S. Pat. No. 8,107,838 B2, in which print markings are applied to the printing substrate web and a time signal is detected with the aid of a sensor. A maximum value and a minimum value of this sensor signal are determined, based on which a plausibility check of the obtained results is implemented.
The document DE 10 2008 049 908 A1 describes a method to generate a detection signal by means of a detection device to detect a print marking located on a printing substrate web. The detection signal is hereby determined from at least two different color signals.

Method to control a color printer or color copier with the aid of additional printed positioning markings


An electronic control unit includes a plate-shaped control board, a long pillar-shaped battery pack, a fixing frame that includes a juxtaposing and mounting part, to which the control board and the battery pack are fixed, and a housing that includes an opening portion and a back side holding portion to accommodate the control board and the battery pack. The juxtaposing and mounting part is inserted into the opening portion. The fixing frame is fixed to the opening portion. The back side holding portion holds the juxtaposing and mounting part at an inner back side of the housing opposed to the opening portion. The back side holding portion includes a protruding portion protruding toward the opening portion at a position away from a bottom surface of the housing on the inner back side of the housing. The juxtaposing and mounting part includes a tip portion in a direction of the insertion of the juxtaposing and mounting part into the housing. The tip portion has a curved shape that is urged from its upper side by a lower surface of the protruding portion and that is urged from its lower side by the bottom surface of the housing on the inner back side of the housing.

Conventionally, as a protective case for protecting a control board from outside dust and dirt and rain drops has been generally used a case of the type in which: support rails are provided on the left and right peripheral walls of a housing for housing the control board; the control board is inserted into the housing along the support rails; and the housing is fixed with a cover (for example, see Patent Document 1).
Further, there has been considered a structure in which, in place of the support rails, a plurality of protruding parts (ribs) are formed on the peripheral wall of a housing alternately in a depth direction of the housing at a spacing corresponding to a designed thickness of the upper and lower surfaces of the control board, whereby even if the control board is formed in a thickness a little larger than a specified spacing of the protruding portion, the control board is bent and inserted along the ribs, thereby being surely fixed in the housing (for example, see Patent Document 2).

Electronic control unit and protective case


A heating device for heating a yarn, in particular in a texturing machine. The heating device comprises a thin-walled heating tube, which can be evenly heated on its circumference by a heating jacket. Fitted within the peripheral wall of the heating tube is an insert, which forms a yarn channel extending between a yarn inlet and a yarn outlet for guiding the yarn. The insert is formed by a special section rail that is open along one long side, and fitted with its opposite long side to the wall of the heating tube. As a result, the yarn channel is formed between the open long side of the special section rail and the wall of the heating tube, so that it is possible to supply heat to the yarn channel directly via the wall of the heating tube.

The invention relates to a heating device for heating a yarn, in particular in a yarn texturing machine.
For texturing a synthetic filament yarn, it is known to heat the yarn in a texturing machine by means of a heating device for texturing and drawing and for subjecting the yarn to a shrinkage treatment. As a function of the process step, different heating devices have been developed, which produce an optimal heating of the yarn in the particular process. Thus, for obtaining a high relaxation effect in the yarn during the shrinkage treatment, it is necessary that the yarn advance through the heating device as much as possible under no tension. For this process step, especially such heating devices have proved successful, in which the yarn advances through a yarn channel that is provided within a heating tube. Heating devices of this type are known, for example, from DE 23 48 371, or DE 31 01 925 A1. In these heating devices, the heating tube is formed by a thin-walled tube, which is surrounded by a heating jacket that is filled with a heat transfer medium. For guiding the yarn, the heating tube accommodates a tubular insert, which includes a yarn channel. In this process, the yarn is heated by convection, preferably in a noncontacting relationship. However, devices of this type are also known for heating the yarn in contacting relationship.
Basically, with such heating devices there arises the problem that the heat generated on the circumference of the wall of the heating tube by the condensation of the heat transfer medium, must be guided through the wall of the heating tube and through the wall of the insert for entering the yarn channel. To this end, it is necessary to fit the tubular insert into the heating tube as tightly as possible without leaving any gaps, so as to avoid heat transfer losses. However, since it is preferred to mount the inserts in the heating tube in an exchangeable manner, it is, for example, not possible to press them in for obtaining narrow gaps and satisfactory heat transfers.
When texturing and drawing yarns, it is preferred to use heating devices, as are disclosed, for example, in EP 0 412 429 A1 and corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 5,148,666. During the texturing and drawing processes, the yarns advance under a high tension while being heated. In this connection, the yarns exhibit natural dynamics, so that the yarn guidance becomes an exacting task. Heating devices of this type are preferably constructed as high-temperature heaters, in which the yarns advance in a heating groove with yarn guide elements. The sides and the bottom of the heating groove are heated by resistance elements, with the heating surface having a temperature that is above the melt point of the yarn material. For this reason, the yarns are kept at a distance from the heating surface. However, to heat a yarn in a tension free state, such heating devices are barely suitable, since each unintended contact with one of the heating surfaces directly results in damage to filaments of the yarn.
It is therefore an object of the invention to further develop a heating device of the foregoing type for heating a yarn, in particular during a shrinkage treatment in a texturing machine, such that it permits transferring heat into the yarn channel with the least possible losses.
A further object of the invention is to achieve in the yarn channel the highest possible yarn temperatures while using the energy generated by a heating jacket.


A self sealing flexible elastomeric valve is disclosed. The valve can be used to seal a trocar device from loss of gas pressure during a laparoscopic surgical procedure when a surgical instrument is inserted therethrough as well as when no instrument is inserted. The preferred one piece valve includes a flange having an aperture, and a cylindrical wall section which extends to a pair of mutually opposed sealing wall sections defining a generally S-shaped slit. This slit configuration at the end of these wall sections define the sealing surfaces. The flange preferably includes a concentrically dome shaped region with the aperture centrally displayed. The valve also is preferably composed of a silicone rubber. The valve has the advantages of simplicity of manufacture and assembly and the ability to provide an adequate seal against the surface of any surgical instrument inserted through it. Also, the improved valve will require a small amount of force to insert instruments and will resist eversion of the valve walls when instruments are withdrawn. A trocar assembly incorporating the sealing valve as described above is also disclosed.

This invention relates generally to a self sealing valve which provides and maintains a seal when an instrument or device is inserted through, or withdrawn from, the valve. More specifically, it relates to a flexible, elastomeric self sealing valve especially well suited for use with surgical instruments, such as trocar assemblies necessary for numerous laparoscopic surgical procedures.
Sealing devices for trocar assemblies are an important aspect of the design of instruments used in laparoscopic surgical procedures. A laparoscopic surgical procedure utilizes several small puncture openings, mainly in the abdominal wall, to allow insertion of specialized surgical instruments instead of one large incision in a traditional open surgical procedure. The laparoscopic procedure is becoming widely accepted because of its many advantages such as: less trauma to the patient, shorter recovery time, reduced adhesions, and post operative pain. The laparoscopic surgical technique requires inflation of the abdominal cavity to lift the abdominal wall from the internal organs to create working space for the surgeon and to introduce light generating and optical viewing instruments.
During the laparoscopic surgical procedure, the internal gas pressure must be maintained in order to successfully complete the procedure. In order to maintain the internal gas pressure while instruments are passed into and out of the openings in the abdominal cavity, sealing devices are required for both the instruments and for the trocar assemblies used to make and maintain the small openings. It is desirable for such sealing devices to seal any opening within the trocar assembly when the obturator, which is the puncturing component of the trocar assembly, is withdrawn after puncturing the abdominal wall. It is also desirable to seal when other surgical instruments are inserted through the trocar cannula, which is the hollow tube of the trocar assembly remaining in the puncture opening throughout the remainder of the surgical procedure. Additionally, it is desirable that the seal device produce a small amount of resistance to the insertion force of surgical instruments passing through the trocar cannula. Furthermore, it is desirable that the sealing device maintain gas pressure in the abdominal cavity, despite numerous insertions and withdrawals of surgical instruments through the trocar cannula.
Current sealing devices for laparoscopic instruments are typified by particular valve designs such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,224,952. This design includes a spring loaded valve in combination with a sealing gasket to conform to the cross section of the surgical instrument inserted through the trocar. This two part valve assembly performs adequately as a seal but may be more complex than truly desired. U.S. Pat. No. 5,141,498 shows at least three flexible leaflets, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,424,833 shows a sponge type valve with three connecting slits. Multiple leaflet and multiple slit valves may seal well when a surgical instrument is not inserted through them but will tend to create gaps around inserted instruments having circular cross sections and will also tend to cause eversion of their sealing surfaces when the instruments are withdrawn. Eversion of the sealing surfaces is likely to cause gaps between the sealing surfaces resulting in gas leakage through the seal. U.S. Pat. No. 5,242,412 shows a duck bill valve design applied to a trocar device. This design provides a straight single slit to seal against a surgical instrument. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,475,548; 4,809,679; and 4,143,853 show single slit designs also. A single slit valve is also subject to a lack of conforming to circular shapes and to eversion upon withdrawal of surgical instruments.
Variations of the single slit design are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,798,594; 4,177,814; and 4,673,393. The variations shown in these patents encompass three slits radiating from the seal center and possess similar characteristics as the single slit regarding sealing around circular instruments and eversion. Other surgical valves include specialized designs typified by heart valves shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,364,127; 3,861,416; and 4,222,126. These valves are designed to allow one direction flow of heavy liquids and include at least three flaps. Such valves are not intended to seal around surgical instruments against loss of gas pressure.
A study of these references indicates a need for a simpler one piece sealing valve assembly for use in trocars to seal against gas pressure during a laparoscopic surgical procedure. In addition, it is desirable to have a one piece assembly with a simple design which would not require an excessive force to insert an instrument through it and would resist eversion of the sealing edges once the surgical instrument is withdrawn.

Self sealing flexible elastomeric valve and trocar assembly for incorporating same


An air conditioner includes: a heat source unit including a compressor and a heat source-side heat exchanger; and a plurality of utilization units each including a decompressing device and a utilization-side heat exchanger. The utilization units are connected in parallel to the heat source unit to form a refrigerant circuit. The air conditioner performs a cooling operation using the heat source-side heat exchanger as a condenser and the utilization-side heat exchanger as an evaporator. The air conditioner further includes: a detection sensor that detects a state of air related to a required capacity of each of the utilization units; and a control apparatus that acquires the required capacity of each of the utilization units based on a detection result of the detection sensor.

In a large continuous space of, for example, a factory, a spot-type air conditioner is used. This air conditioner individually cools or heats a plurality of work areas in order to provide workers in each work area with a comfortable environment. For example, Patent Literature 1 includes a plurality of indoor units installed in respective work areas, a single outdoor unit that circulates refrigerant through the indoor units, and a control panel that controls operations of the indoor units and the outdoor unit, and is configured to blow out temperature-controlled air from each indoor unit to workers.

Air conditioner including a plurality of utilization units connected in parallel to a heat source unit


An apparatus and method for detecting the location of a moving body. The apparatus may include a speaker configured to intermittently generate a pulse signal to a detection space and a microphone array configured to obtain a reflected sound of the pulse signal that is generated in the detection space. The location of a moving body is estimated by extracting a change of a sound field from the reflected sound. The present invention can be applied to an apparatus for detecting a moving body without any side effect because the location of a moving body can be accurately detected up to an angle and distance. Furthermore, the present invention can be applied to various application apparatuses, such as a lighting apparatus, an air conditioning apparatus, a security apparatus, and a parking lot management apparatus because there is no problem in health and there is no side effect in application.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to an apparatus and method for detecting the location of a moving body, and a lighting apparatus, an air conditioning apparatus, a security apparatus, and a parking lot management apparatus using the apparatus and method.
2. Related Art
Existing sensors for detecting the location of a moving object may include, for example, an infrared sensor, an ultrasonic sensor, and a camera.
An infrared sensor detects a change of heat generated from a moving body and is used for the detection of the human body and location prediction. First, the infrared sensor is problematic in that it does not detect a moving body if a temperature of the moving body becomes similar to a surrounding temperature over time after the moving body enters a specific space and it may be applied to only animals including persons. Second, the ultrasonic sensor is problematic in that it is too sensitive to the spatial characteristics of space because the wavelength of an operating signal is very small. For example, if a carpet or a curtain is present in a house, an error in which a moving body is not detected may occur because an ultrasonic signal is easily absorbed by the carpet or curtain. Although the ultrasonic sensor uses high power in terms of ultrasonic waves, there is a difficulty in scanning a wide space. Third, a camera may be ideally used to detect the location of a person, but is problematic in that a specific luminous intensity must be maintained within a detection space in order to detect the location of a person.
Korean Patent Application No. 10-2010-0124374 has proposed a method of detecting a moving body using a sound by taking the problems into consideration. The cited invention proposes a technology in which changes of sound imaging are compared with each other using a continuous sound that is illustrated as a pink noise, a white noise or a sine wave and the location of a moving body is estimated. Although sound imaging is performed on the continuous sound using the technology, there is a problem in that the angle and location of the moving body are not accurately detected. Furthermore, there is a problem in that if a two-dimensional microphone is used, a sound image of a detection space including a single three-dimensional plane is not obtained.

Apparatus and method for detecting location of moving body, lighting apparatus, air conditioning apparatus, security apparatus, and parking lot management apparatus

GWANGJU INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY


The present invention provides a radio transmitter having a digital modulator that further includes logic for continuous amplitude and continuous phase modulation switching in an RF transmitter intended to support both frequency shift keying (FSK) and phase shift keying (PSK) modulation techniques in a smooth and continuous manner that does not violate spectral mask requirements. The invention supports continuous modulation switching both ways, i.e., from FSK to PSK and from PSK to FSK. In operation, the radio transmitter initially operates in a first communication mode, transmitting communication signals to a remote agent according to a first modulation technique at a first data rate and then transitions to the second modulation type at a second data rate without spectral mask violation.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to wireless communications and, more particularly, wideband wireless communication systems.
2. Related Art
Communication systems are known to support wireless and wire lined communications between wireless and/or wire lined communication devices. Such communication systems range from national and/or international cellular telephone systems to the Internet to point-to-point in-home wireless networks. Each type of communication system is constructed, and hence operates, in accordance with one or more communication standards. For instance, wireless communication systems may operate in accordance with one or more standards, including, but not limited to, IEEE 802.11, Bluetooth, advanced mobile phone services (AMPS), digital AMPS, global system for mobile communications (GSM), code division multiple access (CDMA), local multi-point distribution systems (LMDS), multi-channel-multi-point distribution systems (MMDS), and/or variations thereof.
Depending on the type of wireless communication system, a wireless communication device, such as a cellular telephone, two-way radio, personal digital assistant (PDA), personal computer (PC), laptop computer, home entertainment equipment, etc., communicates directly or indirectly with other wireless communication devices. For direct communications (also known as point-to-point communications), the participating wireless communication devices tune their receivers and transmitters to the same channel or channels (e.g., one of a plurality of radio frequency (RF) carriers of the wireless communication system) and communicate over that channel(s). For indirect wireless communications, each wireless communication device communicates directly with an associated base station (e.g., for cellular services) and/or an associated access point (e.g., for an in-home or in-building wireless network) via an assigned channel. To complete a communication connection between the wireless communication devices, the associated base stations and/or associated access points communicate with each other directly, via a system controller, via a public switch telephone network (PSTN), via the Internet, and/or via some other wide area network.
Each wireless communication device includes a built-in radio transceiver (i.e., receiver and transmitter) or is coupled to an associated radio transceiver (e.g., a station for in-home and/or in-building wireless communication networks, RF modem, etc.). As is known, the transmitter includes a data modulation stage, one or more intermediate frequency stages, and a power amplifier. The data modulation stage converts raw data into baseband signals in accordance with the particular wireless communication standard. The one or more intermediate frequency stages mix the baseband signals with one or more local oscillations to produce RF signals. The power amplifier amplifies the RF signals prior to transmission via an antenna.
As is also known, the receiver is coupled to the antenna and includes a low noise amplifier, one or more intermediate frequency stages, a filtering stage, and a data recovery stage (de-modulator). The low noise amplifier receives an inbound RF signal via the antenna and amplifies it. The one or more intermediate frequency stages mix the amplified RF signal with one or more local oscillations to convert the amplified RF signal into a baseband signal or an intermediate frequency (IF) signal. As used herein, the term "low IF" refers to both baseband and intermediate frequency signals. A filtering stage filters the low IF signals to attenuate unwanted out of band signals to produce a filtered signal. The data recovery stage recovers raw data from the filtered signal in accordance with the particular wireless communication standard. Alternate designs being pursued at this time further include direct conversion radios that produce a direct frequency conversion often in a plurality of mixing steps or stages.
The various above described technologies are being utilized in a wide range of applications including the aforementioned wireless local area networks that are formed according to I.E.E.E. 802.11(a), 802.11(b), 802.11(g) and Bluetooth standards among others. As these standards evolve, however, there are multiple design pressures that sometimes are in conflict. For example, there is always demand for increasing levels of speed, reliability and more generally, data throughput. Continuous bit rate data, for example, streaming data, push the envelope of technical ability and performance.
As technologies evolve, there further is a need to maintain compatibility between newer and older technologies. Such compatibility is problematic, however, when a change in fundamental physical layer technology is made to satisfy the demand for increased speed and throughput. One example of this type of migration from one type of physical layer (layer 1) technology is seen in Bluetooth. The Bluetooth standards originally called for data rates of 1 million bits per second (Mbps) utilizing frequency shift keying modulation techniques. Newer releases of the Bluetooth standard, however, call for data transmission rates of 2 and 3 Mbps utilizing phase shift keying modulation techniques. Thus, while the fundamental modulation techniques are different, there is also a Bluetooth requirement for radio transceivers to maintain backwards compatibility. At the same time, there also exist spectral mask requirements that cannot be violated even for the instant of switching from one modulation type to another. It is known, however, that abruptly changing from one modulation type to another can result in spectral mask violations. Thus, the need for the invention arises from the requirement that during the transition between the two modulation formats, the transmitted RF spectrum comply with strict spectral mask limitations set by the applicable regulatory bodies. Typically, such requirements cannot be met when modulation switching occurs with abrupt, discontinuous waveforms. A need exists, therefore, for a radio transmitter that can transition from one modulation technique to another in a continuous, smooth manner that does not violate spectral mask requirements.

RF transmitter architecture for continuous switching between modulation modes


The present invention relates to an espresso coffee machine designed for a low-voltage vehicle that includes a water tank connected to a pump for pumping the water to a heating element which is itself connected to a brewing head in which a cartridge of coffee is brewed, a moveable closure for closing the head with a mechanism for moving the closure from an open position to a closed position and vice versa, a coffee dispensing pipe associated with the closure and a connection for the electric power supply, in which machine the heating of the heating element is switched off or reduced when the pump is running.

The present invention relates to an espresso coffee machine designed for a low-voltage vehicle, such as a car, a boat, a caravan or other fixed or mobile cabin.
The prior art already includes espresso coffee machines that can be used in cars. U.S. Pat. No. 6,062,127 relates to an espresso coffee machine that can be used in a car. The problem with this type of device is that the coffee is obtained in the receptacle by virtue of the fact that the water begins to boil and the coffee is brewed by the steam. This has at least two consequences: in the first place it produces overheated coffee because the temperature of the brewing water is between 100 and 120° C., and secondly, in order to add water to the tank the whole machine must be opened and then closed, necessitating very inconvenient handling on the part of the consumer. Thus, there is a need for improvements in these type devices, and one is provided by the present invention.


A golf training device comprises two shatter-resistant mirrors. A striking mirror is held in a horizontal position in the hitting area and is used as a striking mat for hitting golf balls. A second, adjustable mirror is positioned above the striking mirror. The adjustable mirror can be moved relative to the striking mirror and has means for adjusting the tilt angle of the adjustable mirror. Together, the two mirrors can be used to create the effect of a single virtual mirror lying beneath the ground surface so that the golfer can see his swing plane from along the edge of the plane of his swing as he hits the ball.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a golf swing monitoring device and particularly to a device that permits a golfer to see his swing from along the edge of the plane of the swing.
2. Background of the Prior Art
Golf is a game in which form is emphasized over athletic ability. It is generally thought for a golf club to move a golf ball along a desired or intended line to a target, the head of the golf club first must strike the golf ball while traveling in a curved path at a point tangential to the desired line, and second the plane of the golf club must be normal to the vertical plane of intended flight. Proper alignment throughout the swing is essential to obtain any degree of success in playing golf. The second requirement is generally met by maintaining a proper grip on the golf club throughout the swing. The first requirement is best achieved by maintaining the golf club in a proper plane through the swing.
Failure to maintain the golf club in the proper plane through the swing has generally resulted from either starting the golf club in motion in an improper plane, or from movement, either lateral or vertical, of the center of rotation of the golfer's swing due to the effort of the backswing.
Repetitive practice is very effective in developing a correct golf swing. However, to practice with the wrong form serves only to foster bad habits. Nevertheless, it is extremely difficult for a golfer to correct or improve his own "swing" because he needs another person, preferably a professional instructor, to watch him while he is hitting the ball.
The need to eliminate bad habits has prompted the popular use of video cameras to record player's swings. Practice techniques using video cameras have very limited effectiveness, however, because the golfer cannot observe himself while he or she is being recorded and must wait until later to analyze and adjust his or her stroke. There is a need for a device that provides real time visual feedback on the condition of the golfer's swing from address to follow-through so that immediate corrective action can be taken by the golfer.
Many different forms of golf training aids have been proposed previously. British Pat. No. 1,258,018 of Devac Inc. describes a golf club practice swing guide comprising a mechanical assembly of pivoted arms mounted on an upright post, one end of one arm being adapted to be clamped to the shaft of a golf club. For the purpose of assisting the golfer to note and correct errors in stance and swing, a square mirror is adjustably mounted on the upright post so that the golfer can view his actions and see how he is swinging the golf club as well as feeling from the mechanical assembly whether he is swinging improperly. However, when the guide is in use, the upright post holding the mirror is located opposite the golfer on the far side of a mat on which a golf ball to be hit is placed. Therefore, in order to look in the mirror, the golfer must raise his eyes from the ball to the mirror beyond it. Thus, apart from the artificiality of swinging a club attached to an elaborate mechanism, the swing guide of British Pat. No. 1,258,018 would also tend to distract the golfer from keeping his head down and his eyes on the ball.
Other prior art patents, such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,000,261; 3,097,437; 3,110,495; 3,917,278; 4,181,307; 4,383,687; 5,116,058; 5,297,796; 5,348,304; 5,458,340; 5,842,931; 6,592,376; 7,048,638; and 7,048,641 have permitted a golfer to observe the swing of the golf club. So far as is known, no apparatus has been provided in the prior art to permit a golfer to directly observe golf club motion from the edge of the plane of the golf swing during the swing of a golf club.

Device for visualizing and practicing a correct golf swing


A method for locally gripping and holding a thin, flexible panel having a complex, nondevelopable shape. The method includes placing a first surface of the panel against a three-point support system without deforming the surface; applying a plurality of suction cups which are mobile with respect to a reference support onto the surface in an area of the surface to be supported; locking each suction cup in a gripping position with respect to the support without locally deforming the surface of the panel. A device for localized gripping and holding of a thin, flexible panel having a complex, nondevelopable shape is also disclosed.

Because, on the one hand, of the flexibility and, on the other hand, of possible irregularities in the thickness of such parts, which will hereafter be generally referred to as "panels," problems in aligning surfaces of these panels can occur during various processes, such as machining, measurement and, generally, at any time when it is necessary to have a temporarily precise and stable alignment for at least that part of the panel on which work is being performed.

Process and device for localized gripping and holding of a thin, flexible panel, in particular having a complex shape


A cellular phone unit (1) is provided with ID information input means for accepting an input of user ID information, ID judging means for judging whether or not the inputted user ID information is identical to pre-registered ID information, authentication information transmission permitting means for deciding whether or not to permit transmission of sender authentication information in accordance with the judgment result, and authentication information transmitting means for sending the sender authentication information in accordance with the decision. A vehicle-mounted control device (2) is provided with an antenna (5) and a transmission and reception section (6) for receiving the sender authentication information, and a control section (4) and an interface (7) for judging whether or not the sender authentication information received from the cellular phone unit (1) is identical to pre-registered authentication information and for controlling vehicle-mounted devices (3a) through (3c) in accordance with the judgment result.

Conventionally, a remote control technique to lock/unlock the doors of a vehicle is widely used. A typical example is a keyless entry system. In this system, the doors are locked/unlocked if a vehicle-mounted control device receives weak radio wave that is sent from a dedicated remote controller. The dedicated remote controller sends the weak radio wave whose reachable distance is up to about 50 m to 100 m, in response to pressing of a button of the dedicated remote controller.
Further, as a developed type of the keyless entry system, a smart entry system (or passive entry system) is known. This system unlocks the doors by detecting the user approaching the vehicle, and locks the doors by detecting the user leaving the vehicle.
In these systems, a remote controller held by the user sends a predetermined ID code in response to the button operation or in response to a request signal sent from the vehicle. Then, the doors are unlocked, etc., if the vehicle-mounted control device can judge the ID code to be valid.
By using various types of entry systems as described above, the user can lock/unlock the doors without much risk that the key could be forged by the third party and without trouble of searching for the key-hole in the dark.
With the various types of conventional entry systems, however, if the remote controller, which is an equivalent of a conventional metal key, is lost or stolen, the third party who acquires or steals the remote controller may use the vehicle illegally.
Further, the user needs to carry around the remote controller for locking/unlocking the doors, in addition to a metal key to be required for starting the vehicle. Further, as vehicle-mounted devices to be controlled by remote controllers, such as an audio device and a navigation device, have been recently increased in vehicles, the handling of these controllers has become more and more complicated.

Cellular phone unit, control system of vehicle-mounted device, control method of cellular phone unit, control method of vehicle-mounted device, control program of cellular phone unit, control prgram of vehicle-mounted device, and recording medium recording the program


The present disclosure describes ultrasound imaging systems and methods, which may enable the automatic identification of an image plane in a pre-operative volume corresponding to a real-time image of a moving region of interest. An example method includes receiving real-time ultrasound image data from a probe associated with a position-tracking sensor, generating real-time images based on the real-time ultrasound data and deriving a motion model from the real-time ultrasound image data. The method may further include automatically identifying an image plane in a pre-operative data set to correspond to the real-time ultrasound image by correcting for motion-induced misalignment between the real-time data and the pre-operative data.

Fusion of live ultrasound image of a patient with a pre-operative 3D volume of the same patient but from another modality (usually, but not limited to, MR or CT) requires spatial calibration. For that purpose ultrasound probes are typically equipped with position tracking (e.g., electromagnetic (EM) tracking) sensors. One such medical imaging system is described in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2011/028843 A1. In order to spatially align the images from the two modalities, the tracking system is first calibrated. The calibration step provides a rigid transformation between the live ultrasound data and the pre-operative data set such that spatial synchronization can be automatically maintained. However, even if the calibration step is performed very accurately, the fused image may be subject to misalignment error in real-time tracking conditions due to motion of the patient, for example due to respiratory or cardiac motion. To reduce such fusion error, the "default" pre-operative 2D plane to be used for the fusion (as indicated by the EM tracker) may be replaced by another plane P representative of a different respiratory state. However, to do so, multiple data sets of pre-operative data associated with different respiratory state would need to be available to apply this solution. It is more often the case that only a single set of pre-operative data is available. Thus, it more often necessary to select an alternative plane P from the single available pre-operative data set, and existing systems vary in the way in which they identify this alternative plane P to be used. For example, in one known system, the live ultrasound images and pre-operative CT images are aligned via image processing performed on the live and CT images so as to match features in the two sets of image data. Another known system uses an additional respiratory tracking system with a sensor positioned on the patient's chest to derive a model for correcting the respiratory-induced misalignment.
EP 3056151 A1 relates to a method for fusing at least one ultrasound image and a pre-stored modality image, such as a CT or MR image. The ultrasound fusion imaging method includes a selection step, a registration step, and a fusion step. The selection step is for selecting at least one ultrasound image from at least one previously stored piece of ultrasound video data, including an ultrasound image obtained by acquiring a target object in at least one plane, and position indicating information corresponding to each ultrasound image. The position information is generated by a position sensor fixed to the ultrasonic probe. The registration step is for registering the selected at least one ultrasound image with a modality image, using the location of the position indicating information of the at least one ultrasound image. The fusion step is for fusing the registered ultrasound image with the modality image.
WO 2017/109685 A1 discloses a medical imaging apparatus for inspecting a volume of a subject. The medical imaging apparatus comprises an ultrasound acquisition unit, including an ultrasound probe for acquiring ultrasound image data of the subject, an image interface for receiving medical image data of the subject, and a position determining unit for determining a position of the ultrasound probe. An alignment unit is provided for aligning the ultrasound image data and the medical image data based on anatomical features of the subject and the detected position of the ultrasound probe, and for adapting the alignment of the ultrasound image data and the medical image data based on a motion model. The motion model is defined based on the position of the ultrasound probe, and the variation of the repetitive patterns of the common anatomical features throughout the plurality of ultrasound images. An image processing unit is provided for processing the ultrasound image data, and the medical image data to fuse the ultrasound image data, and the medical image data based on the alignment to combined image data.
However, currently known solutions may not be as robust as may be desired, for example because they are either dependent on the image quality of both pre-operative and live ultrasound data, because they rely on image features such as diaphragm position, which may not always be discriminant for a good match, nor even present in the image, depending on the probe orientation towards an anatomical structure of interest (e.g. liver), and because in some cases they require additional hardware (e.g., respiratory movement tracker) and introduce additional complexity to the system. Alternative methods for correcting for motion misalignment may thus be desirable.

Ultrasound system and method for correcting motion-induced misalignment in image fusion


There is described an improved apparatus for azimuthal orientation of a tool in a wellbore. The apparatus comprises a tubular housing, a mandrel rotatably supported in the tubular housing and extending therefrom for connection to a tool for rotation thereof, a piston mandrel axially aligned with and connected to the mandrel, a piston longitudinally movable in an annulus between the piston mandrel and the tubular housing and being non-rotatable relative to the tubular housing, at least one pin longitudinally movable in concert with the piston arranged to track in respective helical grooves in the mandrel causing rotation of the mandrel in response to longitudinal movement of the pins, and a flow path for selective delivery of pressurized hydraulic fluid to either side of the piston for rotating the mandrel in either the clockwise or counterclockwise directions, or to both sides of the piston equally to maintain the mandrel in a fixed annular orientation.

Increasingly, the drilling of oil and gas wells is no longer a matter of drilling vertically straight boreholes from the surface to a zone of hydrocarbon recovery using a traditional drilling platform. Such platforms are surmounted by a derrick which supports a string of jointed drill pipe with a bit at the lower end of the pipe. Technology and techniques have now been developed to change the angle of the bore's trajectory by up to and sometimes exceeding 90.degree. from the vertical. Directional drilling using coiled tubing rather than jointed pipe can offer numerous advantages compared to conventional drilling including new approaches to oil and gas traps having non-conventional geometries, economic zone enhancement as can occur for example if the borehole is deviated to actually follow an oil or gas bearing strata, improved economics particularly in an under-balanced environment (when formation pressure is sufficient to force hydrocarbons to the surface at potentially explosive rates) and reduced environmental degradation.
After deviating a borehole from the vertical, it's obviously no longer completely practical to sustain continuous drilling operations by rotating the drill string in order to also rotate the bit. Preferably only the bit but not the string is rotated by a downhole motor attached to the lower end of the drill pipe, the motor typically consisting of a rotor-stator to generate torque as drilling fluid passes between the rotor and stator, a bent housing (sometimes also referred to as a bent "sub") to deviate the hole by the required amount and which also surrounds a drive shaft that transmits the rotor/stator's torque to a bearing assembly, and a bit rotatably supported at the downhole end of the bearing assembly for cutting the borehole. The bent housing causes the centre line of the components downhole of its position, including the bit, to be at a different angle to the centre line of the components on its uphole end, including the drill string. As the drilling continues, the bit will therefore deviate from the vertical in a curved path in the direction of the bend of the bent housing.
Electronic means supported by a mule shoe in the bottom hole assembly and connected to the surface by a wire line passing through the interior of the drill string transmits information with respect to the amount of curvature in the borehole's trajectory so that it can be plotted. Once the required curvature has been attained so that the axis of the bit's rotation is pointed in the desired direction, the drilling is stopped and the motor must be withdrawn from the well. The bent housing is then either removed or straightened (if it's of the adjustable sort) and the motor is tripped back into the hole to resume drilling. Each time the motor requires service, or a change in the hole's direction is required, this process must be repeated. This results in substantial costs and down time largely due to the time required to make and break all of the joints as the drill string is tripped in and out of the hole. For this reason, jointed drill pipe is now being replaced whenever possible with coiled tubing.
In addition to controlling the bend angle in the coil tubing, it is also necessary to orient the bend point to control and adjust the borehole's bearing or azimuth. Examples of orienting tools for controlling azimuth are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,311,952, 5,316,094, 5,215,151 and 5,373,898 and in U.K. Application Serial No. 2,271,795A.
The orienting tool described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,311,952 includes an upper tubular housing that remains in fixed orientation relative to the coiled tubing. A mandrel is slidably and rotatably received within the upper housing, the mandrel including a piston at its upper end. The piston and mandrel are normally biased into a first position by a coil spring. A lower tubular housing extends from the lower end of the upper housing and is coupled to a mandrel by means of splines so that it rotates with the mandrel. The lower housing therefore rotates relative to the upper housing but cannot move longitudinally relative thereto. A lug and lobe indexing system is employed to turn housing 56 in predetermined increments in response to up and down movements of the mandrel. A nozzle is provided at the bottom of the mandrel. At normal flow rates of the drilling mud, the pressure drop across this nozzle is sufficient to force the mandrel down into its lower position against the force of the coil spring. If the mud flow is reduced sufficiently, spring 40, assisted by reactive torque from the bit, will raise the mandrel to its upper position. This up and down movement of the mandrel engages the indexing system to incrementally rotate the mandrel 45.degree. for each up and down cycle of the mandrel. This tool therefore cannot be activated independently of the drilling fluid, is rotationally unidirectional, and positional control of less than 45.degree. increments is possible only by means of regulating the weight-on-bit (WOB) requiring complicated methodology.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,316,094 describes an orienting tool including an outer cylindrical housing and an inner rotatable mandrel that connects at the lower end of the housing with another portion connectable to a motor for imparting an orienting torque to the bent housing. The annulus between the mandrel and the housing encloses a piston which is non-rotatable relative to the mandrel. The piston is connected to a piston follower having a pin which travels in a 360.degree. degree helical groove in the mandrel. Movement of this pin in the longitudinal direction is translated into rotation of the mandrel which includes a ratchet mechanism which allows rotation in one direction only in 10.degree. increments. This tool is controlled by hydraulic fluid delivered from the surface through a single supply line. Hydraulic fluid is apparently delivered with sufficient pressure to overcome the force of a spring and the drilling fluid acting on the lower side of the piston to drive the piston down which rotates the mandrel. This tool rotates in one direction only and lacks infinite positioning control.
U.K. Application No. 2,271,795 describes a combination bent sub and orienting tool which is actuatable from the surface such as by means of hydraulic supply lines which permit operation of the tool independent of the flow of drilling fluids and with weight-on-bit. However, changes in the bend angle are also accompanied by changes in orientation which can produce unwanted deviations in the borehole trajectory.
It is therefore desirable to produce an orienting tool which is controlled independently from the mud flow rate. It is also desirable to eliminate the need for weight to be applied to the drill bit but which nevertheless is adjustable with weight-on-bit. It is further desirable to provide an orienting tool which can be rotated in either direction as required.

Orienting tool for coiled tubing drilling