A memory card connector with an ejection mechanism 10 comprises an operating rod 15 sliding lengthwise along a side surface of a frame 11 and a cam bar 16 linked to the operating rod 15 intended for the ejection of the card. A spring 17 is attached to an overhang at an inner end of the operating rod 15 and to a mounting member 19 on the frame 11. Because of such an arrangement, the operating rod 15 is forced forward; and at the same time, due to the fact that the mounting member 19 is closer to the center of the connector than an overhang 34 of the operating rod 15, the operating rod is forced to the side surface of the frame 11.

In recent years, the necessity of interfaces used for the connection of high-performance computers to external devices has greatly increased. Memory cards are an example of such devices. Memory cards contain external memory and the data to be processed by the computer, and during their use, they are connected to the inside circuitry by means of electrical connectors.
An example of a conventional card connector is depicted in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 92-8241. This card connector comprises a frame retaining the card and a connector section which is electrically connected to the card retained in the frame. The connector section connects the card with the circuits on the circuit board, with the frame being fixed to the circuit board and at the same time implementing a connection to ground. If necessary, this card connector can be equipped with an ejection mechanism. The ejection mechanism has an operating rod sliding in the direction opposite to that of the card insertion and a cam bar operationally joined to the operating rod. Pressure applied to the operating rod is transmitted to the cam bar which moves, this providing pressure to the card and ejecting it.
However, the ejection mechanism of the card connector described above has a disadvantage to the effect that when no card is inserted in the connector, the operating rod, especially in the units not attached to circuit boards, can freely move within its moving range. This results in a rattling sound in personal computers of the notebook type when they are carried around. In addition, when the button of the operating rod is made flat with the surface of the computer case, it is necessary to provide a depression for the operation of the button when the card is ejected. However, such a depression is not desirable, because foreign objects may get in it.
In order to solve these problems, ejection mechanisms described in Japanese UM Publication No. 89-132074and Japanese UM Publication No. 90-41278 were proposed in which a spring was provided to force the operating rod forward and its button to the surface of the case. However, it was necessary to provide in such ejection mechanisms guiding grooves for the operating rod which resulted in an increased width of the mechanisms which was not desirable from the standpoint of compactness.
Therefore, the purpose of this invention is to offer a card connector equipped with a small-sized ejection mechanism having a spring-loaded operating rod.
In many cases, electronic and electric devices have to be electrically connected to devices mounted on printed circuit boards through circuits formed thereon, as well as to devices mounted on other circuit boards, and the circuit boards have to be electrically connected to each other.
For example, a circuit board with circuits formed on both sides is inserted in a connector of an assembly of circuit board connectors, and connector contacts are to be connected to the conductive pads formed on the circuit board by soldering. In addition, connectors have to be mounted on both sides of the circuit board and connected to the external circuits in order to make it possible to make connections with circuit boards or other devices.
However, the soldering of contacts of such a connector assembly to both sides of a circuit board is a difficult process.
In addition, since the above-mentioned connectors are secured to both sides of the circuit board, there is no flexibility in the positioning of the devices or circuit boards to be connected by means of these connectors, thus making it impossible to compensate for minor shifts in their position or to change their position.
The wiring to a number of external devices or circuit boards from the above-mentioned assembly of the circuit board connectors is relatively simple, but the process of assembly of many connectors involving a number of complicated and cost-intensive operations needs simplification.


A supermicrocellular foamed material and a method for producing such material, the material to be foamed such as a polymerplastic material, having a supercritical fluid, such as carbon dioxide in its supercritical state, introduced into the material to form a foamed fluid/material system having a plurality of cells distributed substantially throughout the material. Cell densities lying in a range from about 109 to about 1015 per cubic centimeter of the material can be achieved with the average cell sizes being at least less than 2.0 microns and preferably in a range from about 0.1 micron to about 1.0 micron.

This invention relates generally to foamed materials, preferably foamed plastic materials, and to techniques for making and using such materials, and, more particularly, to the use of supercritical fluids for producing supermicrocellular foamed materials which can achieve a relatively wide range of material densities and a large number of extremely small voids or cells per unit volume therein.
Techniques for making conventional foamed materials, such as foamed polymer plastic materials, have been well known for many years. Standard techniques for such purpose normally use chemical or physical blowing agents. The use of chemical agents is described, for example, by Lacallade in the test, xe2x80x9cPlastics Engineering,xe2x80x9d Vol. 32, June 1976 which discusses various chemical blowing agents, which agents are generally low molecular weight organic compound which decompose at a critical temperature and release a gas (or gases) such as nitrogen, carbon dioxide, or carbon monoxide. Techniques using physical agents include the introduction of a gas as a component of a polymer charge or the introduction of gases under pressure into molten polymer. Injection of a gas into a flowing stream of molten plastic is described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,796,779 issued to Greenberg on Mar. 12, 1976. Such earlier used and standard foaming processes produce voids or cells within the plastic materials which are relatively large, e.g., on the order of 100 microns, or greater, as well as relatively wide ranges of void fraction percentages e.g., from 20%-90% of the parent material. The number of voids per unit volume is relatively low and often there is a generally non-uniform distribution of such cells throughout the foamed material. Such materials tend to have relatively low mechanical strengths and toughness and there is an ability to control the dielectric constant thereof.
In order to improve the mechanical properties of such standard cellular foamed materials, a microcellular process was developed for manufacturing foamed plastics having greater cell densities and smaller cell sizes. Such a process is described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,473,665 issued on Sep. 25, 1985 to J. E. Martini-Vredensky et al. The improved technique provides for presaturating the plastic material to be processed with a uniform concentration of a gas under pressure and the provision of a sudden induction of thermodynamic instability in order to nucleate a large number of cells. For example, the material is presaturated with the gas and maintained under pressure at its glass transition temperature. The material is suddenly exposed to a low pressure to nucleate cells and promote cell growth to a desired size, depending on the desired final density, thereby producing a foamed material having microcellular voids, or cells, therein. The material is then quickly further cooled, or quenched, to maintain the microcellular structure.
Such a technique tends to increase the cell density, i.e., the number of cells per unit volume of the parent material, and to produce much smaller cell sizes than those in standard cellular structures. The microcellular process described tends to provide cell sizes that are generally smaller than the critical sizes of flaws that preexist in polymers so that the densities and the mechanical properties of the materials involved can be controlled without sacrificing the mechanical properties of some polymers, such as the mechanical strength and toughness of the polymer. The resulting microcellular foamed materials that are produced, using various thermoplastics and thermosetting plastics, tend to have average cell sizes in the range of 3 to 10 microns, with void fractions of up to 50% of the total volume and maximum cell densities of about one billion (109) voids per cubic centimeter of the parent material.
Further work in producing microcellular foamed plastic material is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,761,256 issued on Aug. 2, 1988 to Hardenbrook et al. As set forth therein, a web of plastic material is impregnated with an intert gas and the gas is diffused out of the web in a controlled manner. The web is reheated at a foaming station to induce foaming, the temperature and duration of the foaming process being controlled prior to the generation of the web to produce the desired characteristics. The process is designed to provide for production of foamed plastic web materials in a continuous manner. The cell sizes in the foamed material appear to lie within a range from 2 to 9 microns in diameter.
It is desirable to obtain improved foamed materials which will provide even smaller cell sizes, e.g., 1.0 micron or less, and much higher cell densities as high as several thousand trillions of voids per cubic centimeter, i.e., on the order of 1015, or so, voids per cubic centimeter of the parent material, for example. Such materials should also have a capability of providing a wide range of void fraction percentages from very high void fractions (low material densities) up to 90%, or more, to very low void fractions (high material densities) down to 20%, or less.
Further, it is desirable to be able to produce microcellular plastics at or near ambient temperature, so as to eliminate the need to heat the plastic during the process thereby simplifying the manufacturing process. Moreover, it is further desirable to increase the speed at which a fluid is dissolved in a polymer so that the overall time of the foaming process can be significantly reduced so as to increase the rate of production of the foamed material.
No processes used or proposed for use to date have been able to provide foamed materials having such extremely small cell sizes, such extremely high cell densities and such a wide range of material densities that provide improved material characteristics. Nor have techniques been proposed to obtain such materials at ambient temperature and at increased production rates.
In accordance with the invention, supermicrocellular foamed materials are formed by using supercritical fluids, i.e., gases in their supercritical state, which supercritical fluids are supplied to the materials to be foamed. The supercritical fluid is used as the foaming agent in a parent material, preferably, for example, in a polyester plastic material. A relatively high density supercritical fluid made at a relatively low temperature and a relatively high pressure is used to saturate the polymer without the need to raise the saturation temperature of the process to the melting point of the polymer.
While the mechanism for achieving saturation is not fully understood in detail, it is believed that the supercritical fluid (as a solute) is initially dissolved in the polymer material (as a solvent) until the concentration percentage of supercritical fluid in the polymer reaches a reasonable level, e.g., perhaps about 10% to 40%. At some percentage level then, it is believed that supercritical fluid then tends to act as a solvent and the polymer tends to act as a solute. However, whether the supercritical fluid and polymer act as solvents or solutes during the process, at some time following the introduction of supercritical fluid into the polymer, an effectively saturated solution of the fluid and the polymer is produced. Although the aforesaid description is believed to be a reasonable theoretical explanation of what occurs during the process involved, the invention is not be construed as requiring that such specific process necessarily occurs in the manner so described.
When the fluid/polymer solution contains a sufficient amount of supercritical fluid therein at a suitably selected temperature and pressure, the temperature and/or pressure of the fluid/polymer system is rapidly changed to induce a thermodynamic instability and a foamed polymer is produced. The resulting foamed material can achieve a cell density of several hundred trillions of voids per cubic centimeter and average void or cell sizes of less than 1.0 micron, in some cases less than 0.1 micron. Moreover, in accordance with the invention, the foaming of such materials can in some cases be achieved at ambient (room) temperature conditions.


A containment system includes a vapor resistant container for a material, and a seal for the vapor resistant container.

Human exposure to such biotoxins as lead, asbestos, pesticides and tobacco has been successfully reduced over the past few years. Now the risks of mercury exposure are coming to the attention of the public. Many people have been exposed to mercury through fish consumption, vaccinations and dental amalgam fillings. Potentially hazardous products that contain mercury such as thermometers, batteries and fluorescent lamps are a normal part of everyday life. These sources all contribute to chronic low-level exposure to a pervasive biotoxin that, like lead, pesticides or tobacco, can ruin people's health. Recent studies have linked mercury exposure to increased risk of heart attack in men, to autism and other neurological disorders in children, and to dangerous levels of mercury in the blood of women of childbearing age.
Mercury is unique in that in its solid form it actually has many of the properties of a liquid, including the ability to form a vapor. Mercury vapor can be harmful. Mercury vapor can cause effects in the central and peripheral nervous systems, lungs, kidneys, skin and eyes in humans. It is also mutagenic and affects the immune system. Acute exposure to high concentrations of mercury vapor causes severe respiratory damage, while chronic exposure to lower levels is primarily associated with central nervous system damage. Chronic exposure to mercury is also associated with behavioral changes and alterations in peripheral nervous system. Pulmonary effects of mercury vapor inhalation include diffuse interstitial pneumonitis with profuse fibrinous exudation. Glomerular dysfunction and proteinuria have been observed in mercury-exposed workers. Chronic mercury exposure can cause discoloration of the cornea and lens, eyelid tremor and, rarely, disturbances of vision and extraocular muscles. Delayed hypersensitivity reactions have been reported in individuals exposed to mercury vapor. Mercury vapor is reported to be mutagenic in humans, causing aneuploidy in lymphocytes of exposed workers.
A recent study of exposure to broken "low-mercury" lamps by the New Jersey Department of Environment Protection entitled "Release of Mercury from Broken Fluorescent Bulbs" demonstrated that elevated airborne levels of mercury exist in the vicinity of recently broken lamps, and most likely exceed occupational exposure limits. Because it is very likely that discarded fluorescent bulbs will be broken during conventional waste handling, there is a concern that occupational exposures to workers handling waste materials may occur.
In the United States, 700 million fluorescent and other mercury-containing lamps are removed from service every year. Mercury-containing lamps were added to the Federal Universal Waste Regulations in January of 2000. Other mercury-containing products that are regulated as hazardous waste include dental amalgam, batteries, thermostats, medical devices such thermometers and blood pressure cuffs, and electronics with switches and other mercury components. Regulations govern their packaging, transport and disposal. Most waste haulers and landfills will no longer accept any type of mercury product, including low-mercury lamps so products containing mercury cannot be merely thrown away. Rather, these items must be removed from the normal waste stream and recycled or returned for special handling to minimize environmental impact. Generators of mercury waste are increasingly concerned about the potential long-term and short-term health risks posed by exposure to such materials of employees handling packages with hazardous waste. Many carriers are reluctant to ship hazardous materials due to concerns that some items that contain hazardous materials are fragile and may be prone to breakage during shipment.


A touch screen computer executes an application. A method of operating the touch screen computer in response to a user is provided. A virtual input device is provided on the touch screen. The virtual input device comprises a plurality of virtual keys. It is detected that a user has touched the touch screen to nominally activate at least one virtual key, and a behavior of the user with respect to touch is determined. The determined behavior is processed and a predetermined characteristic is associated with the nominally-activated at least one virtual key. A reaction to the nominal activation is determined based at least in part on a result of processing the determined behavior.

1. Technical Field
The present patent application relates to touch screen user interfaces and, in particular, relates to operation of a computer based on interaction by a user with a virtual GUI item, such as a virtual keyboard on a touch screen user interface.
2. Description of the Related Art
A touch screen is a type of display screen that has a touch-sensitive transparent panel covering the screen, or can otherwise recognize touch input on the screen. Typically, the touch screen display is housed within the same housing as computer circuitry including processing circuitry operating under program control. When using a touch screen to provide input to an application executing on a computer, a user makes a selection on the display screen by pointing directly to graphical user interface (GUI) objects displayed on the screen (usually with a stylus or a finger).
A collection of GUI objects displayed on a touch screen may be considered a virtual keyboard. Similar to a conventional external keyboard that is not so closely associated with a display screen, the virtual keyboard includes a plurality of keys ("virtual keys"). Activation of a particular virtual key (or combination of virtual keys) generates a signal (or signals) that is provided as input to an application executing on the computer.
Touch screen keyboards, by nature of the hardware on which they operate, typically glean much more information about a user's actions than can be gleaned with a typical external keyboards. For example, whereas a typical external keyboard includes a single "sensor" (such as a mechanical switch or electrical connection) or a small number of sensors per key, touch screen keyboards typically have many more sensors per virtual key.
It is desirable to use the information about a user's actions to make the user experience with the computer, via the touch screen virtual keyboard, more powerful than is usual (or, perhaps, even possible) with computers using external keyboards.
On the other hand, even touch screens, with their numerous sensors, typically lack the ability to directly glean some types of information about a user's actions. It is desirable to use the information available to infer other types of information, for example, information which cannot be directly gleaned about the user's actions.

Operation of a computer with touch screen interface


Embodiments of the present invention are directed to a communication system that provides various automated operations, including searches of public and private resources for third party information and presentation of the located third party information by a mashup and preparation of a mashup to combine different communication modes or modes in a common session.

Customizing a user interface for a telephony device and/or application to suit better a user's preferences is well known in the art. Generally, the user customizes the user interface simply by moving icons, setting preferences, and the like. The basic structure and/or features of the device and/or application remains static based on the assumption that at least a portion of the user interface is a one-size-fits-all situation.
The nature of the work done by a given user fundamentally differs from role to role and among users by profession to profession. The user's effectiveness and convenience can be enhanced significantly by analyzing the way a user performs his work and more significantly change the way a device works. For example, a sales professional heavily relies on his contact manager to manage effectively his customer base. He/she further needs to know current product information, availability, and pricing and what key events are upcoming in the short term. By contrast, an engineering professional needs to know the current status of projects and products that she/he is working on and have information ready at hand about what the next deliverable is.
A user may be more functionally driven with regard to the use of a telephony device. For example, one user is a remote services professional and desires a graphical depiction of the architecture that they are working on complete with an overlay of error messages and a palette of choices about what spares exist on site or what unloaded software patches exist. Another user is an agent in a contact center and needs to pull up past orders (e.g., current products owned) and display additions and/or changes implied by a submitted request for proposal. Specialized computers, such as those for specific functions like remote servicing and computing, are not integrated completely for both communications and computing.
Mashups are fast replacing portals as a means for combining and presenting information to a user. A mashup is a Web page or application that uses and combines data, presentation, and/or functionality from two or more sources to create a new service. Mashups are generally client applications or hosted online and can easily and inexpensively produce enriched results using open Application Program Interfaces ("APIs") and data sources in a previously unforeseen or unanticipated manner.
Mashup use is expanding in the business environment. Business mashups are useful for integrating business and data services, as business mashup's technologies provide the ability to develop new integrated services quickly, to combine internal services with external or personalized information, and to make these services tangible to the business user through user-friendly Web browser interfaces. Business mashups differ from consumer mashups primarily in the level of integration with business computing environments, security, and access control features, governance, and the sophistication of the programming tools (mashup editors) used. Another difference between business mashups and consumer mashups is a growing trend of using business mashups in commercial software as a service offering.
Telecommunications have been slow to adopt mashup technologies and Service Oriented Architectures ("SOA") to integrate and make available disparate data as discrete Web services or applications. A company called "Ifbyphone" and others have made use of the concept of a "telecommunications mashup" by linking direct response phone call data with web advertising data and reporting the result via Google Analytics. The Ifbyphone system effectively provides the byproduct data of how effective the web advertising campaign is by jointly displaying the data associated with direct response phone calls. The direct response phone call data is captured by use of a well known system called a voice-based, form filler application. The output of the form filler application is mapped to a specific web advertising campaign such that correlation between the cause (web advertising) and effect (direct response phone call) can be displayed and analyzed via the Google Analytics tool. The logic to combine the web page information with the form filler information and output the combined result into Google Analytics (or any other output display format) is a very simple telecommunications mashup.
Although phone mashups offer a number of benefits, their use has been relatively limited, both in scope and capabilities.

Device skins for user role, context, and function and supporting system mashups


A semiconductor device includes a stage having top and bottom surfaces, a semiconductor element which is mounted on the top surface of the stage, a package part which is made of a first resin and encapsulates the semiconductor element so that a surface of the package part and the bottom surface of the stage lie on substantially the same plane, and a radiation part which is made of a second resin and is provided directly on the bottom surface of the stage and the surface of the package part. The second resin includes a filler material selected from a group consisting of metal powders and insulator powders so that a thermal conduction of the second resin is greater than that of the first resin.

The present invention generally relates to semiconductor devices and methods of producing the same, and more particularly to a semiconductor device having a radiation part for radiating heat and a method of producing such a semiconductor device.
There are semiconductor elements which generate heat during operation, and it is necessary to efficiently cool such semiconductor elements. Conventionally, there is a semiconductor device having radiation fins for cooling the semiconductor element provided on a package which encapsulates the semiconductor element. From the functional point of view, it is desirable that the radiation fins have a high radiation characteristic. On the other hand, from the production point of view, it is desirable that the radiation fins can be produced at a low cost.
FIGS. 1 and 2 show an example of the conventional semiconductor device. A semiconductor device 1 generally includes a package 2 and radiation fins 3. The package 2 is made of a resin, while the radiation fins 3 are made of a metal such as aluminum.
The package 2 encapsulates a semiconductor element (not shown) by a resin molding, and the semiconductor element is protected by this package 2. A plurality of lead frames 4 are provided as shown. The lead frames 4 connect to the semiconductor element within the package 2, and also project from the package 2 so that the lead frames 4 may be connected to a circuit substrate or the like.
In order to improve the radiation efficiency of the radiation fins 3, the radiation fins 3 are shaped so that the surface area thereof is increased. Conventionally, an adhesive agent having a satisfactory thermal conductivity is used to mount the radiation fins 3 on the package 2.
However, according to the conventional semiconductor device 1, the package 2 is made of the resin while the radiation fins 3 are made of the metal. For this reason, the package 2 and the radiation fins 3 must be produced by independent processes, and there is a problem in that the production process of the semiconductor device 1 becomes complex. In addition, the radiation fins 3 have a complicated shape so as to improve the radiation efficiency. As a result, there are problems in that it is troublesome and difficult to form the complicated shape of the radiation fins 3 from the metal, the process of forming the radiation fins 3 is unsuited for mass production, and the cost of the radiation fins 3 and thus the cost of the semiconductor device 1 becomes high.
On the other hand, because the radiation fins 3 are bonded onto the package 2 using the adhesive agent, the strength and heat resistance at the bonded part are poor. Furthermore, the radiation characteristic at the bonded part is inconsistent because of voids generated at the bonding surface and/or within the adhesive agent. For these reasons, there is a problem in that the reliability of the semiconductor device 1 becomes poor. Moreover, there is also a problem in that it is difficult to control the positioning accuracy of the radiation fins 3 with respect to the package 2 and the height of the radiation fins 3 when the adhesive agent is used to mount the radiation fins 3 on the package 2.

Method and apparatus for a semiconductor device having a radiation part


A digital loupe system is provided which can include a number of features. In one embodiment, the digital loupe system can include a stereo camera pair and a distance sensor. The system can further include a processor configured to perform a transformation to image signals from the stereo camera pair based on a distance measurement from the distance sensor and from camera calibration information. In some examples, the system can use the depth information and the calibration information to correct for parallax between the cameras to provide a multi-channel image. Ergonomic head mounting systems are also provided. In some implementations, the head mounting systems can be configurable to support the weight of a digital loupe system, including placing one or two oculars in a line of sight with an eye of a user, while improving overall ergonomics, including peripheral vision, comfort, stability, and adjustability. Methods of use are also provided.

Surgeons, dentists, jewelers, and others whose work relies on precise hand-eye coordination at a miniature scale have long used binocular loupes as a visual aid. Such loupes comprise a pair of non-inverting telescopes with a working distance of approximately 0.5 m, that is, the distance from the eyes of the user to the nominal point of convergence of the optical axes of the two telescopes, which in normal usage is the location of the subject or work area under observation, is approximately 0.5 m. The telescopes are usually embedded in a user's spectacles in a "near-vision" position, similar to the near-vision position at the bottom of the lenses of bifocals, except they offer an angular magnification of around 2× to 3× over a relatively limited field of view, while permitting both peripheral and "far" vision when the user looks around the telescopes.
The term "digital loupe" has been used to refer to loupe-like systems, often for use in surgery, where a focal plane array (image sensor) is placed at the focal plane of each of the telescopes to digitize the image. The digitized images can be transformed through various forms of signal processing before being displayed at the focal planes of two eyepieces or oculars, one for each eye. This arrangement forms a binocular head-mounted display (HMD) with a digitally created magnified view of the work area.
With a digital loupe comes both many challenges and many opportunities. For example, there is the added weight of the image sensors, displays, and other electronic components, as well as the loss of depth of field that would otherwise come from the eye's natural focusing accommodation. However, as will be explained in the context of the present disclosure, digital technology brings capabilities like image stabilization, automatic focus, and automatic convergence that enable magnifications approaching those of a surgical microscope. Such capabilities enable flexibility of working distance and freedom of movement, neither of which are afforded by such microscopes, nor by traditional analog loupes. Furthermore, the bifurcation of the sensing/imaging side and the display side of the loupes, enabled by the digital, rather than optical, information transfer between the two, allows for separate optimization of their mounting configurations. As will be shown, this creates more ergonomic working conditions for the surgeon, such as a more vertical head position, as well as the ability to simultaneously and concurrently view an object or work area directly (i.e., without looking through the loupes) and through the loupes. Finally, with digital technology, it is possible to include more advanced optical imaging modalities such as fluorescence imaging or hyperspectral imaging, e.g., for a visualization of tumor margins overlaid on the loupe image.
There are several outstanding challenges of digital loupes in the prior art that embodiments of the present disclosure aim to solve. First, with high-magnification binocular systems, a condition known as diplopia or double vision is known to arise, especially if left and right optical axes of the system are not properly aligned. Also, at higher magnifications, slight changes in working distance may translate to large relative shifts in the positions of left and right images, such that the human visual system cannot comfortably maintain single vision. The prior art has attempted to overcome this, but in an incomplete manner, whereas the present disclosure overcomes this challenge completely by incorporating a distance sensor with a defined angular field of view as well as a processor with camera calibration information that is used to electronically transform the image along with measurements from the distance sensor. We now review the prior art relevant to this first outstanding challenge before delineating the others.
It was recognized some time ago that, just as it is important for a camera to have autofocus to maintain a sharp image as the distance to a subject is changed, so a set of loupes should automatically adjust its horizontal convergence angle, or the acute angle formed between the optical axes of the left and right telescopes as viewed in a top projection, such that the optical axes of the left and right telescopes converge to the subject or work area being observed. U.S. Pat. No. 5,374,820 teaches using a distance sensor on a traditional (analog) loupe to measure the distance to a subject. This distance measurement is then used to mechanically change, in a corresponding fashion, the focal distance and the convergence angle of the telescopes, or oculars. However, such mechanical movement is not sufficiently precise at high magnification, there is no provision for incorporation of calibration information that might be used to correct for angular misalignments (both horizontal and vertical) of the telescopes as a function of distance, and the distance sensor does not have a defined field of view. There is only a provision for adjusting the convergence angle as viewed in a top projection, that is, the horizontal convergence angle. The eyes are generally more sensitive to image misalignments in the vertical direction, but this patent does not teach a method to overcome any such misalignments, which may be caused by slightly different tilts of the oculars relative to their as-designed or as-intended configuration.
WO2001005161 teaches a digital surgical loupe that dynamically optimizes the image based on surgical conditions. It teaches that the optimal stereoscopic vision is given when a baseline (corresponding to the interpupillary distance (IPD) of the stereo camera pair) is about 1/20th of the working distance. Based on the focus distance inferred from the best focus setting of the stereo camera pair, this system has motors that first adjust the IPD to be in the optimal range, and then subsequently adjust the horizontal convergence angle (in the plane of the two cameras and the subject) so the cameras of the stereo pair converge on the subject. However, the use of focus setting as a proxy for a true distance measurement to the subject is too inaccurate for the needs of a high-magnification loupe—for example, conversion of a focus setting to a distance may be accurate to within a few cm, whereas a distance accuracy of better than a few mm is needed for an optimal system. Also, the use of motors to adjust IPD and convergence angle leads to a bulky system and may lack sufficient accuracy, repeatability, stability, and rapid settling to a given convergence angle setting. There is no provision to include camera calibration information that could be used to actively correct for horizontal and vertical misalignments between a horizontal convergence angle setting and the actual camera orientations. The present disclosure overcomes these limitations.
Some embodiments of digital loupes and/or augmented reality headsets within the prior art rely on methods that do not use distance sensors or direct distance measurements to determine a convergence angle, while others also do not rely on motor-driven systems. For example, US 2010/0045783 teaches, for a video see-through head-mounted display used in a surgical context, a method of dynamic virtual convergence. Each camera of a stereo pair has a field of view larger than the displays used to display the camera images, and a heuristic (for example, the distance to the points closest to the viewer within an estimated scene geometry, or the distance to a tracked tool) is used to estimate the gaze distance of the viewer. Display frustums are transformed, electronically, to match the estimated gaze distance. Effectively, the convergence is virtually adjusted because only a portion of each camera image is shown on each corresponding display, that portion which corresponds to the object that the viewer is gazing at, and which depends on the distance to that object. One notable feature of the system described in US 2010/0045783 is the use of filtering high temporal frequency components of the gaze distance. However, the user's gaze distance is not accurately measured by an independent sensor. Also, the display frustums are transformed to a convergence angle of 0 degrees, i.e., parallel vision, as if the object is at infinity, so that the technique can be used with conventional binocular head-mounted displays that have a relative ocular convergence angle of 0 degrees. This approach creates a vergence-disparity conflict, whereby the horizontal disparities (pixel shifts) between the left and right images are the same as if the object were at its original (near) location, but the lack of convergence of the eyes sends a conflicting signal to the brain that the object is far away. Thus, this approach is not useful for comfortably maintaining concurrence between peripheral near vision and augmented vision, where one may want to switch between a magnified or augmented view of an object or work area and a direct view of the object or work area while looking through the oculars or displays, and while maintaining the same vergence state of the eyes when looking over or under the oculars or displays. The present disclosure overcomes this limitation with an ocular convergence angle of the head-mounted display that nominally matches the actual working distance of the user and with a processor that can transform the images from the stereo camera pair such that the eyes do not substantially need to change their vergence state when switching between viewing the images of an object or work area through the head-mounted display and concurrently viewing the object or work area directly over a range of working distances.
Some embodiments of digital loupes use position tracking or image feature tracking to maintain an object within the field of view of both eyes, effectively maintaining a convergence of a stereo camera pair to that object. U.S. Pat. No. 9,967,475 B2 teaches a digital loupe that requires an operator to manually select an object of interest in an image, and a processor that determines the line of sight of the object of interest relative to the camera optical axis and re-positions and crops a portion of the image based on tracked head deviations from the line of sight, such that the object of interest stays within the center of the cropped image. US 20160358327 A1 teaches a sort of digital loupe, wherein a live, magnified view of a (dental) work area is provided, and automatically tracked to keep it centered within the field of view of a head-mounted display, using image feature recognition and micro pan and tilt adjustments of the attached cameras. U.S. Pat. No. 9,690,119 B2 teaches a first optical path and a second optical path on a head-worn apparatus where the direction of the first optical path is separately adjustable relative to the direction of the second optical path, and a magnified image passes between the two. U.S. Pat. No. 9,690,119 B2 also teaches the setting of a convergence angle (e.g., using adjustable mirrors) such that single vision occurs at the working distance, and it teaches automatic tracking of a point within the field of view by recognition of implicit or explicit features, but it does not teach the use of a direct measurement of distance to the subject.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,772,495 teaches a digital loupe that is intended to replace both the conventional surgical loupe and the surgical microscope. It teaches two cameras, each on an axial rotation system, and an illumination module. The axial rotation systems and illumination module respond to a feedback signal derived from the two cameras to maintain consistent illumination and a stable image. Moreover, while U.S. Pat. No. 9,772,495 teaches that the axial rotation modules rotate to allow for capturing a desired surgical view, no provision is given for how to determine, either manually or automatically, what this desired view comprises, nor how to track it as the surgeon moves around. It also explains that the images from the two cameras have to be aligned to avoid double vision, presumably by rotating the cameras, but no explanation or details are given about how this is done. In any case, embodiments that use position or image feature tracking count on the ability to derive robust, precise, and reliable estimates of distance to the subject, which these methods cannot give. For example, image feature tracking relies on the presence of distinct features in an image, which cannot always be assumed due to the existence of relatively featureless or textureless subjects.
A second challenge of digital loupes in the prior art that the present disclosure overcomes relates to the incorporation of multiple optical imaging modalities. Some modalities, such as hyperspectral imaging, depend on the measurement of multiple channels for a given image point. There are various examples in the prior art of digital loupes incorporating advanced imaging modalities; however, it is known that multi-channel modalities like hyperspectral imaging may be hard to integrate in digital loupes due to the bulk of the instruments and/or to tradeoffs involving spatial or temporal resolution, etc. An aspect of the present disclosure is to form a hyperspectral imager or other multi-channel imager (e.g., Stokes imaging polarimeter) that is small enough to include in a digital loupe, yet without sacrificing light throughput or temporal or spatial resolution, by inclusion of an imaging depth sensor and a calibrated array of single-channel imagers. A processor uses a depth image from the imaging depth sensor to remove parallax from images from the single-channel imagers such that they appear to have been captured from the same viewpoint, just like in more conventional multi-channel yet single-viewpoint imagers. Within the present disclosure, "channel" may refer to an individual wavelength band, an individual polarization component, or a corresponding notion; or, it may refer to an image acquired from light corresponding to one of these notions of channel. Thus, multispectral and hyperspectral imagers are multi-channel imagers because they image multiple wavelength bands, and a Stokes imaging polarimeter is a multi-channel imager because it images multiple polarization components.
Previous embodiments of digital loupes have incorporated multiple optical imaging modalities. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,032,070 teaches reflecting light off tissue and imaging, using various optical methods (different wavelength bands, polarizations, etc.) and digital processing to enhance contrast of tissue structures beyond what is visible with the naked eye. This is done in conjunction with a helmet or head mounted device, such that the enhanced contrast image is displayed stereoscopically along the line of sight of the user. WO 2011002209 A2 teaches a digital loupe that combines magnification and illumination in various spectral bands, and has a manually-adjustable convergence of the cameras. WO 2018235088 A1 teaches a digital loupe with an array of cameras for each eye with the same working distance, e.g., on a headband. The different cameras within an array for a given eye may have different magnifications, or may comprise a color camera and an infrared camera, in such a way that at least two corresponding cameras from left and right eyes are used to provide a stereoscopic view. A manual controller is used to select a low magnification stereoscopic image, or a high magnification stereoscopic image, or an infrared stereoscopic image, etc. Note that while this publication discloses an array of cameras, it does not teach fusing the images from the array into a single viewpoint multi-channel image using spatially resolved distance information as does the present disclosure. For the purposes of the present disclosure, a multi-channel imager may comprise single channels at different magnifications.
U.S. Ser. No. 10/230,943 B2 teaches a type of digital loupe with integrated fluorescence imaging such that within one sensor, both NIR (fluorescence) and visible light are recorded, with a modified Bayer pattern where pixels in both visible and infrared bands can be tiled on the same sensor. This simplifies co-registration of color RGB and NIR fluorescence images because they are obtained from the same viewpoint. However, with current image sensor technology this technique is somewhat impractical due to the significantly different optimal imaging conditions desired for each modality. Each modality may have different optimal exposure times, gains, resolutions, pixel sizes, etc., but because the modalities are being recorded on the same sensor, they must be recorded with the same conditions if they are to be recorded simultaneously. There is also a loss of spatial resolution for each modality due to the sharing of the image sensor's pixels across modalities.
US 2018/0270474 A1 teaches registration of optical imaging with other preoperative imaging modalities and topographical/depth information from a 3D scanning module. It also teaches that the depth information can be used to register images between multiple intraoperative optical imaging modalities, such as NIR fluorescence, color RGB, or hyperspectral (using a tunable liquid-crystal filter or a filter wheel), but not between individual channels of a multi-channel imaging system. While hyperspectral imaging (or other modalities such as imaging polarimetry) can be a potentially valuable source of information in a digital loupe system, the methods suggested in the prior art do not allow for the effective combination of miniaturization, temporal resolution, spatial resolution, and light throughput that would be desired for an optimal system.
A third challenge that the present disclosure overcomes is related to ergonomics. A traditional or analog surgical loupe comprises a pair of non-inverting telescopes that are suspended in front of a user's eyes, the optical axes of the left and right telescopes aligned correspondingly with the optical axes of the user's left and right eyes. There are three prototypical solutions for suspension of these telescopes, or oculars, in front of the user's eyes, within the prior art. Each has advantages and disadvantages with respect to functional attributes of the loupe system, including weight, comfort, field of view, view occlusion and peripheral vision, customization of fit, stability, and adjustability.
For the purposes of this disclosure, "weight" includes notions such as the overall mass of the analog or digital surgical loupe or other visual aid, as well as the distribution of that mass on the head of the surgeon. These both have implications for the comfort of the surgeon. For example, if the mass of such a system is distributed such that in operation, it shifts the combined center of gravity of the system and the surgeon's head significantly forward of the center of gravity of the surgeon's head alone, this will increase strain on the surgeon's neck relative to the unaided surgeon. Such strain contributes to the discomfort of the surgeon especially in cases of prolonged use. Furthermore, distributing the weight of the system across a larger area of the surgeon's head generally provides greater comfort than distributing the weight across a smaller area of the surgeon's head, although certain areas of the head are more sensitive to pressure than other areas, e.g., the temples and supraorbital regions being affected by tight headbands, as well as the nose when used to support loupes via nose pads.
Field of view and view occlusion or peripheral vision are also important functional attributes that are useful for comparing loupe systems. Here, by field of view we are referring to the apparent field of view, which is the angular extent of the magnified field as presented to the user. This is to be distinguished from the true field of view, which is the angular extent of the unmagnified field. An eyepiece with a given clear aperture of the front lens surface supports a greater apparent field of view when it is closer to the user's eye, or when the eye relief is smaller, than when it is further away. However, the closer the eyepiece is to the eye, the more the peripheral vision of the user is occluded. An ideal system would not occlude any parts of the user's field of vision outside of the apparent field of the loupe system. In practice this is not possible as the eyepiece must be stably mechanically supported and aligned with and in front of the optical axis of the user's eye. Careful consideration of the support mechanisms, as in the present disclosure, can be used to minimize the perturbation of the user's field of vision from these support mechanisms and thus preserve the sensation of an open view of the user's surroundings.
Finally, the interrelated attributes of customization of fit, stability, and adjustability are significant for determining the overall performance of the loupe system. As a general rule, the more adjustable the fit of a system is, the less it has to be customized to the user. However, to create a mechanism that is both adjustable and stable generally requires more material, and thus more mass, than a system that is stable but not adjustable. This excess material has the potential to increase the weight and view occlusion of the system, negatively impacting comfort and visual performance.
We now turn to a description of the design solutions presently in use for analog surgical loupes. The first solution, which we shall call the "through-the-lens" mount, is the lowest profile, but also the least flexible of the three. A pair of spectacles is custom-fit for the surgeon through an involved fitting process. The working distance, interpupillary distance, declension angle, prescription, frame size, and precise drilling positions must all be carefully measured and incorporated at the time of manufacture, and subsequently cannot be changed. A hole is drilled into each of the left and right lenses of the spectacles, and these holes are used to support the oculars in a position precisely aligned with the optical axes of the user's eyes in a near-vision position. This level of customization and lack of adjustability is feasible because like eyeglasses, surgical loupes are not traditionally shared. Also, custom loupes incorporate the surgeon's optical prescription both within the spectacles and the telescopes, so the peripheral field viewed through the spectacles remains in focus. This solution has the lowest weight as no framing is required beyond the eyeglasses. However, the bulk of the weight is supported by the nose pads resting on the surgeon's nose, thus this style becomes uncomfortable at higher magnifications due to the weight of the large objectives needing to be supported by these nose pads. Furthermore, placement of the loupes (and thus the maximum declension angle of the oculars) is somewhat constrained by the surgeon's anatomy, e.g., the height of the surgeon's nose relative to the eyes. The through-the-lens placement enables smaller oculars for the same apparent field of view because the oculars can be placed very close to the surgeon's eyes. But if changes in prescription are needed, the loupe system needs to be remanufactured. Furthermore, laser safety eyewear is not easily integrated with such a loupe.
A next style of loupe is the flip-up mount or front lens mount, which is clipped onto the front of the spectacles. The oculars are supported completely in front of the spectacles via an adjustable support arm. This allows for more adjustment of lens position, declension, etc., and less need for customization. However, the weight of the system, supported primarily by the nose pads, increases significantly: bigger lenses are needed to maintain the same apparent field of view because the lenses now sit further away from the surgeon's eyes; more framing is needed to support the lenses in an adjustable way; and finally, due to the forward center of gravity relative to through-the-lens loupes, more force is placed on the surgeon's nose, and there is more strain on the surgeon's neck. The presence of the support system in front of and above the surgeon's nose partially occludes the surgeon's field of vision near the center, and gives a somewhat uncomfortable experience relative to not having anything there. Flexibility is enhanced as the spectacle lenses can be changed to enable changes in prescription or addition of laser or other optical filters. While adjustment of ocular positioning is enabled by this mount, it is only possible over a relatively small range due to the need to keep the ocular support system small to minimize view occlusion, as well as due to the relatively short length of the ocular support arm. The adjustable declension is useful in that it allows the surgeon to assume various cervical spine extension angles while viewing the same magnified work area, but as the lenses stick out more than in the through-the-lens style of loupe, there is a greater chance of interference with conventional face shields.
A third style of loupe is the flip up mount but with the support on a headband rather than on the front of the spectacles. This relieves the nose from supporting the weight of the oculars and thus is suited to higher magnifications and/or prismatic loupes that utilize a Keplerian rather than Galilean structure, with a prism to undo the image inversion caused by the Keplerian telescope. A larger support structure/longer support arm is needed to hold the oculars in front of the eyes of the surgeon, necessitating even more weight, but this weight can be distributed across the head using the headband structure. The longer support arm may therefore appear even more prominently in the surgeon's peripheral vision, especially at greater ocular declension angles, an undesirable feature of this configuration. While a longer or larger support structure generally enables longer translational ranges and greater distances between pivot points and supported objects, thus enabling greater adjustment freedom, this comes at the expense of stability, as rotational head motions are amplified by the longer lever arm. But personal eyewear, including laser safety eyewear, is independent of the loupe system and therefore easily used in combination with it. Such a loupe system can be easily shared among surgeons.
Many of the considerations and tradeoffs that arise in the field of surgical loupes also arise in the field of near-eye displays or head-mounted displays, especially those that provide for visual augmentation. These include weight and comfort, stability and adjustability of fit, and preservation (or not) of peripheral vision. US Patent Publication US20040113867A1 teaches a head-mountable display system that is designed to minimize the view occlusion of the user while maintaining the ability to see above and/or below the displays. The view angle of the displays relative to the horizontal, commensurate with the declension angle of the loupes, is adjustable, as are various fitting parameters of the system, to enable a more comfortable fit and better viewing experience in terms of reducing strain and preserving contextual awareness. U.S. Pat. No. 7,319,437 teaches a lightweight binocular near-eye display that preserves the forward-looking peripheral vision of the user, though it does not specifically describe the mechanisms for how to accomplish this in a way that could be flexible enough for a large range of head sizes and shapes.
The telescopes of an analog surgical loupe are sometimes called oculars, though the words "ocular" and "eyepiece" can also be used interchangeably to describe the lens system or lens element closest to the user's eye in an optical system designed for a human user. The word "objective" is often used to describe the front-most lens of a telescope facing the object or work area. For an analog loupe, absent any folding of the optical path using reflective or refractive means (which again adds bulk and weight), the optical axes of the objective and the eyepiece are collinear. As stated previously, an advantage of a digital loupe is the bifurcation of the imaging side, comprising a stereo camera pair, and the display side, comprising a binocular near-eye display, into two distinct entities. Information transfers electronically between them, and there is no requirement for their optical axes to be collinear or even aligned. This is advantageous because the means of support for both entities can be optimized independently with respect to factors of adjustability, stability, peripheral vision, and ergonomics. For example, by introducing parallax between or displacing the relative viewpoints of the stereo camera pair and the user's eyes, it is possible to have concurrent direct and augmented views of an object. Also, telescopes are generally understood as afocal optical systems (incoming and outgoing light beams are approximately collimated) that provide angular magnification. An angular shift of the telescope therefore causes a magnified shift in the image viewed through the telescope. However, with bifurcated objective and eyepiece, we must consider how angular shifts of each of these subsystems affect the viewed image: an angular shift of the objective is magnified when viewed at the eyepiece, whereas an angular shift of the eyepiece is not magnified. Therefore, the stability requirements of the objective are greater than those of the eyepiece by the magnification factor.
Furthermore, the magnification factor of a telescope generally comes from the longer focal length of the objective relative to the eyepiece; therefore, the objective is correspondingly larger and heavier than the eyepiece. To minimize the forward pull of the center of gravity beyond that of the surgeon's head alone, it is advantageous to mount the stereo camera pair (objective) of a digital loupe behind the displays (oculars/eyepieces), moving the center of gravity backward in a way that is not possible with conventional analog loupes. Also, the only adjustment on the objective end that is needed is the declension angle, as opposed to the oculars/eyepieces, which need to be precisely aligned with the optical axes of the user's eyes.
Accordingly, there is a need for a new kind of ocular support system, that could be used with analog loupes, digital loupes, head-mounted displays, or any head-worn optical system that includes an ocular, that preserves peripheral vision and thus preserves the user's contextual awareness and a sense of an open view, and that is lightweight, easily adjustable, and stable. The present disclosure aims to provide such an ocular support system that is especially suited to a digital loupe system, where the supports for the oculars and the stereo camera pair can be separately optimized and adjusted, enabling concurrence of direct and augmented vision.
While the devices and methods of the prior art lay a strong foundation for a powerful visual aid for surgery, key gaps remain with regard to the physical and visual ergonomics of such a system, specifically with regard to: minimizing double-vision with stable automatic convergence; preserving peripheral field and a comfortable concurrence of vision between the magnified or augmented view of an object and a direct view to that object, in a form that is comfortable, stable, and easily adjustable; and the incorporation of advanced optical imaging modalities such as hyperspectral and multi-channel fluorescence imaging without compromising image quality or spatial or temporal resolution. It is the aim of the present disclosure to fill these gaps as well as to provide several key enhancements that make the digital loupe an attractive and viable tool for augmenting a surgeon's vision.

Open view, multi-modal, calibrated digital loupe with depth sensing


A bioremediation of subsurface soil formations contaminated with hazardous wastes is achieved by hydraulic fracturing of the subsurface soil formation with simultaneous introduction of sodium percarbonate coated with polyvinylidene chloride as a solid oxygen source (SOS) for establishing colonies of the biodegrading bacteria within the fractures of the soil formation.

1. Field of Invention
Bioremediation of BTEX, MTBE and other hydrocarbon and ether contaminants in subsurface soil.
2. The Prior Art
BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes) and MTBE (methyltertiarybutyl-ether) are gasoline components/additives known to be injurious to human health. They have been found to enter the water supply, for example, by leakage from underground gasoline storage tanks.
The use of "bionets" to destroy contaminants in ground water and subsurface rock and soil formations is known. A "bionet" is a subsurface zone containing microorganisms known to biodegrade the contaminants. A bionet is formed by inoculation of the microorganism into a well or subsurface zone or by creating an environment within a well or subsurface zone where such microorganisms, native to the site, will proliferate and effectively degrade the contaminant.
One prior art approach to formation of a bionet in a subsurface formation involves the use of hydraulic fracturing. See: W. J. Davis-Hoover, L. C. Murdoch, S. J. Vesper, H. R. Pahren, O. L. Sprockel. C. L. Chang, A. Hussain and W. A. Ritschel. "Hydraulic Fracturing to Improve Nutrient and Oxygen Delivery for In Situ Bioreclamation," in: R. E. Hinchee and R. F Olfenbuttel (Eds.), In Situ Bioreclamation Applications and Investigations for Hydrocarbon and Contaminated Site Remediation, Butterworth-Heinemann, Stoneham, Mass., 1992, pp. 67-82.
The process of hydraulic fracturing at a well begins with the injection of fluid into the well, typically using a constant rate pump. The pressure of the fluid increases until it exceeds a critical value and a fracture is nucleated. A proppant is simultaneously pumped into the fracture as the fracture grows away from the well. Transport of proppant may be facilitated by using a viscous fluid, usually a gel formed from guar gum and water, to carry the proppant grains into the fracture. After pumping, the proppant holds the fracture open while the viscous gel breaks down into a thin fluid. The thinned gel is then pumped out of the fracture, leaving a layer of proppant grains in the subsurface. Hydraulic fracturing is one of the few techniques capable of placing substantial mases of solid compounds in the subsurface. Fractures containing hundreds of kilos of material have been created within a few meters of the ground surface, and much bigger fractures are certainly possible. Stacking flat-lying fractures offers the possibility of dissecting a contaminated site with closely spaced reservoirs of nutrients and oxygen.
In the prior art attempts to apply hydraulic fracturing in formation of bionets, oxygen has been the most important limiting factor. The introduction of oxygen into soil for bioremediation has traditionally been based on pumping oxygenated water or air into the soil. Both of these methods have significant limitations. For example, oxygen has a very limited solubility in water (about 8 PPM) and the lower the temperature of the water, the lower the solubility. This low oxygen carrying capacity of water means that great volumes of water need to be constantly added to the soil. This creates problems for spreading the contaminants around at a site and potentially into neighboring soil or into subsurface water. Also, this process requires extensive surface pumps and meters which are prone to failure and freezing.
Pumping air into soil creates problems because the air flow is resisted in the soil by the water capillarity pressures. These tend to be the locations where the contaminants are trapped and thus the oxygen never gets to the microorganisms near the contaminant. Air introduction also requires extensive surface equipment susceptible to failure and continuous maintenance.
In the aforementioned paper by W. L. Davis-Hoover et al, the authors reported an attempt to overcome the above-described problems of oxygen introduction by use of a solid oxygen source (SOS) in laboratory simulation of hydraulic fracturing. More specifically, they report the results of tests using sodium percarbonate encapsulated with ethylcellulose. However, it was found that the encapsulated percarbonate was exhausted after 24 hours.
Subsequently, Vesper et al reported the results of tests designed to evaluate the effectiveness of encapsulated sodium percarbonate as a source of oxygen to support biodegradation, again under laboratory test conditions. More specifically, the SOS used in these reported experiments consisted of sodium percarbonate microencapsulated with polyvinylidene chloride (PVDC). This SOS was used to support gram-negative bacteria (Pseudomonas) in biodegradation of propylene glycol (PPG) serving as a surrogate contaminant. See Vesper, S. J., L. C. Murdoch, S. Hayes, and W. J. Davis-Hoover, 1994 "Solid Oxygen Source for Bioremediation in Subsurface Soils". J. Hazardous Materials, 36:265-274. However, the sodium percarbonate encapsulated with PVDC was found to become exhausted of its capability to supply oxygen in only a few weeks, thus suggesting only limited usefulness.

Process for the biodegradation of hydrocarbons and ethers in subsurface soil by introduction of a solid oxygen source by hydraulic fracturing


In one aspect, the present invention provides methods and apparatuses for detecting that a wireless communication device in a serving cell is experiencing excessive interference variance, detecting a transmission pattern of interfering transmissions giving rise to such variance, and correspondingly adjusting scheduling of the device as a function of the detected transmission pattern, to at least partly avoid the interfering transmissions. An advantageous feature of such operation is that the determination of excessive interference variance and the determination of the transmission pattern associated with that varying interference can be done by a network node, e.g., the device's serving base station, or by the device, without requiring backhaul signaling or other inter-node cooperation in the network.

New approaches are required to meet the constantly increasing demand for high data rates in cellular networks. One challenge for network operators is determining how best to evolve their existing cellular networks to meet the requirement for higher data rates. A number of approaches are possible, including: (a) increasing the density of existing macro base stations; (b) increasing the cooperation between macro base stations; or (c) deploying smaller base stations in areas where high data rates are needed within the macro base station grid.
The last option, the use of smaller base stations among a grid of larger, macro base stations is referred to in the related literature as a "Heterogeneous Network" or "Heterogeneous Deployment." The "layer" of smaller base stations is termed a "micro" or "pico" layer.
Building a denser macro base station grid while simultaneously enhancing the cooperation between macro base stations can be used to meet the requirement for higher data rates. However, such an approach is not necessarily an attractive option, because of the costs and delays associated with the installation of macro base stations. Such costs are especially significant in urban areas. Further, dense deployments of macro base stations leads to significantly higher amounts of signaling because of frequent handovers for wireless communication devices moving at high speeds through the denser macro layer grid.
In contrast, a macro layer grid of "normal" density can serve those devices, equivalently referred to as "users," moving at high speed, as well as provide wider areas of service where the demand for high data rates is less, while in the same heterogeneous network, a micro layer grid of smaller base stations can be deployed in service areas having a higher density of users requiring high data rates. The service areas of these smaller base stations may be regarded as "hotspots" within the larger macro service areas. The deployment of small base stations within an already existing macro layer grid is an appealing option at least in some circumstances, because smaller base stations generally are more cost-efficient than macro base stations, and their deployment times are generally shorter as well.
FIG. 1 shows the basic principle of heterogeneous deployments. In particular, FIG. 1 depicts a network 10 on the left side of the arrow, having a number of macro base stations 12, each defining a cell 14, which may be understood as a geographic area of service for a given set of wireless resources—e.g., the intersection or combination of a particular carrier frequency and a particular geographic region. The same network 10 appears on the right side of the arrow, except that the network 10 is now enhanced with a micro layer grid of smaller base stations 16. Each smaller base station 16 provides service in a corresponding micro or pico cell 18. These micro cells 18 appear as hotspots within the larger macro cells 14, and may be understood as sub-regions within the network 10 that are tailored for higher density usage and/or for higher data rate services.
One feature that is associated with heterogeneous network deployments is "muting," or Time Division Mode (TDM) for transmissions from certain network nodes. Such nodes include the macro base stations 12 and/or the micro or pico base stations 16. For example, in heterogeneous network systems featuring "Open Access" (OA) pico base stations, the macro layer mutes its transmissions during certain Transmission Time Intervals (TTIs), so as not to interfere with users connected to the pico base stations. Such muting of macro base stations is necessary, to avoid creating high interference to users in the extended range of pico cells in cases where the pico cells extend their coverage by using specific cell selection offsets. (Here, it will be understood that the "macro layer" refers to the macro base stations 12 and their operations, while the "micro layer" or "pico layer" refers to the micro or pico base stations 16 and their operations.)
One or more of the pico base stations 16 may be "Home eNodeBs" or other type of low-power access point that often is assigned to and used by a particular subscriber or group of subscribers within a particular premise, such as a home or business. Home eNodeBs, also referred to as HeNBs, use Closed Subscriber Groups (CSGs) to restrict access to certain user equipment (UEs) or other wireless communication devices, so that only authorized devices can gain network access through a given HeNB. These CSG-based HeNBs mute their transmissions in certain TTIs, to avoid causing downlink (DL) interference to nearby users that are connected to a macro base station 12 rather than to the proximate HeNB. In an example case, imagine a UE that is nearby a given HeNB but not part of the CSG defined for that HeNB. In such a case, the UE is within signal range of the HeNB but is not permitted to use it, and therefore must connect to the network 10 through the macro base station 12 that also provides overlapping service coverage in that area.
The TD mode of transmission is also used for inbound relaying for relay nodes (RNs) and relay-supported users. In such operation, the relay is not muting its transmission to users, but the relay at such time instants listens for transmissions from its supporting macro base station 12. In Long Term Evolution (LTE) based networks, the supporting macro base station 12 is an eNodeB or eNB, and is commonly referred to as a "donor" eNB (DeNB). Although this TD mode of transmission of neighboring/overlapping cells is currently specified only for heterogeneous network deployments, in the future the TD mode of transmission may be applied for homogeneous networks as well.
HeNBs and other types of pico base stations 16 are often placed in areas of poor macro cell coverage, such as at the borders between macro cells 14. Consequently, the use of TD mode transmissions by pico base stations 16 generates highly varying and "bursty" other-cell interference levels within the signal ranges of the pico base stations 16.
Typically, CSG Home eNBs, OA pico eNBs and relay nodes are placed at locations of poor macro layer coverage, close to macro cell borders for example, and TD mode of transmission therefore results in nearby UEs experiencing other-cell interference that is highly varying and bursty in nature. Further, TD mode transmissions from macro base stations 12 cause similarly, bursty and highly varying levels of other-cell interference for UEs that are within range of such TD mode transmissions but are served by other macro base stations 12.
One approach to alleviating the effects of interference variance focuses on a relay node using its DeNB to notify neighbor cells with respect to the transmission patterns used by the relay node. The notification allows a neighbor cell, for example, to avoid transmitting or otherwise allocating air interface resources to its cell-edge users at times when the relay nodes in the other cell are transmitting or receiving. This approach may be regarded as a type of collision avoidance, and there are several key assumptions underlying this type of collision-avoidance operation: (a) there is a means of communication between neighboring macro base stations 12, e.g., the "X2" interface that interlinks eNBs in an LTE-based wireless communication network; and (b) not all cell edge users are affected by relay-node or other low-power-node (LPN) transmissions.
The assumption of inter-base-station communications generally holds true in LTE networks, for example, at least if the involved eNBs belong to the same network operator. However, eNBs belonging to different network operators generally are not connected. Moreover, other types of network transceivers, such as HeNBs, may employ muting schemes, without necessarily notifying the closest macro eNBs. Hence, even if X2 or other inter-node interfaces are available (such as the "S1" interface between an eNB and a supporting core network entity), it is not always given that neighbor eNBs are notified of the transmission patterns of LPNs that may affect their transmissions or those of their users. Problematically, simulation results have shown that a major source of other cell-interference in conventional heterogeneous networks (without any modifications in cell selection) are macro base stations 12 and pico base stations 16 (or other LPNs), at least for users operating close to such nodes.

Method and apparatus for reducing intercell interference


A toy vehicle having a plurality of play configurations, comprising a frame; a vehicle body moveably coupled to the frame with at least two degrees of freedom of movement, said two degrees of freedom of movement including a longitudinal translation of the body relative to the frame for selecting at least a first play configuration of the plurality of play configurations; and a rotation of the body relative to the frame for selecting at least a second of the plurality of play configurations.

A variety of toys may be configured to provide different play configurations. In one example, a toy may provide a first play configuration simulating a vehicle and a second play configuration simulating an animal. For toy vehicles that simulate animals, it may be desirable for a play configuration to provide an action that is confrontational. In one approach, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,334,078 a toy may include a jaw or mouth that may be opened and closed, thereby providing confrontational play. However, the inventors herein have realized that this approach may provide only one type of confrontational play and may only confront toys of a particular size, for example.
The inventors herein have further realized that a single toy providing multiple forms of confrontation can be used to accommodate a variety of other toys, for example, of varying size and/or shape. In one approach a toy vehicle having a plurality of play configurations, comprising a frame; a vehicle body moveably coupled to the frame with at least two degrees of freedom of movement, said two degrees of freedom of movement including a longitudinal translation of the body relative to the frame for selecting at least a first play configuration of the plurality of play configurations; and a rotation of the body relative to the frame for selecting at least a second of the plurality of play configurations is provided.
In this manner, a toy vehicle may provide a plurality of play configurations. For example, when simulating an animal in a first play configuration, the toy may be able to confront toys that are smaller and/or lower to the ground via forward movement, enabling the mouth to access a lower region. In another example, when simulating an animal in a second play configuration, the toy may be able to confront other toys that are larger, enabling the mouth to access a higher region than the first play configuration. In this way it is possible to increase interaction with toys of varying size. Further, in one embodiment, the plurality of play configurations may be selected via a single hand position, thereby enabling a user to generate a variety of play configurations with improved ease and speed, thereby improving play.
While the toy may have a plurality of play configurations, it may also have only a single play configuration, such as rotation of the body relative to the frame, yet still provide play value via a user-actuatable mouth chomping feature, for example. Further, the toy may optionally include a retractable tongue that generates snake-like movement, thereby providing additional play value. These are just some of the variations and alternatives possible, and numerous more are described further herein.

Toy vehicle with improved animated function


A technique for determining optimum prices of products. The apparatus includes a scenario/results processor, a demand engine, an activity based cost engine, and a price optimization engine. The scenario/results processor enables a user to prescribe an optimization scenario, and presents the optimum prices to the user, where the optimum prices are determined by execution of the optimization scenario. The demand engine models relationships between potential prices of the products and market demand for the products. The activity based cost engine estimates costs for the products based upon market demand. The price optimization engine employs the market demand and the demand chain costs to determine the optimum prices, where the optimum prices are a subset of the potential prices, and where the optimum prices maximize a merchandising performance figure of merit according to the optimization scenario.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to the field of econometrics, and more particularly to an apparatus and method for determining optimum prices for a set of products within a product category, where the optimum prices are determined to maximize a merchandising figure of merit such as revenue, profit, or sales volume.
2. Description of the Related Art
Today, the average net profit generated chains and individual stores within the consumer products retail industry is typically less than two percent of sales. In other words, these stores make less than two dollars profit for every one hundred dollars in revenue. Stores in this industry walk a very fine line between profitability and bankruptcy. Consequently, in more recent years, those skilled within the merchandising arts have studied and developed techniques to increase profits. These techniques are geared toward the manipulation of certain classes of merchandising variables, or "levers." In broad terms, these merchandising levers fall into five categories: price (i.e., for how much a product is sold), promotion (i.e., special programs, generally limited in time, to incite consumers to purchase particular products), space (i.e., where within a store particular products are displayed), logistics (i.e., how much of and when a product is ordered, distributed, and stocked), and assortment (i.e., the mix of products that are sold within a chain or individual store). It has long been appreciated that manipulating certain attributes within each of these "levers" can result in increased sales for some products, while resulting in decreased sales for other, related products. Therefore, it is no surprise that managers within the consumer products merchandising industry are very disinclined to make any types of changes without a reasonably high confidence that the changes will result in increased profits. The margin for error is so small that the implementation of any wrong decision could mean the difference between a profitable status and an unprofitable status.
Ad hoc methods for manipulating merchandising variables in order to increase profits have been employed for years within the industry. And a whole system of conventional wisdoms regarding how to manipulate certain levers has developed, to the extent that courses of undergraduate and graduate study are offered for the purpose of imparting these conventional wisdoms to future members of the industry. For example, category managers (i.e., those who are responsible for marketing a category of related products within a chain of stores) are inclined to believe that high-volume products possess a high price elasticity. That is, the category managers think that they can significantly increase sales volume for these products by making small price adjustments. But this is not necessarily true. In addition, category managers readily comprehend that products displayed at eye level sell better than those at floor level. Furthermore, it is well known that a store can sell more of a particular product (e.g., dips and salsa) when the particular product is displayed next to a complementary product (e.g., chips). Moreover, ad hoc psychological lever manipulation techniques are employed to increase sales, such as can be observed in some stores that constrain the values of particular price digits (e.g., $1.56 as opposed to $1.99) because conventional insights indicate that demand for some products decreases if those products have prices that end in "9."
Although experiential lessons like those alluded to above cannot be applied in a deterministic fashion, the effects of manipulating merchandising variables can most definitely be modeled statistically with a high degree of accuracy. Indeed, there is a quantifiable relationship between each of these merchandising levers and consumer demand for a product, or group of products, within a store, or a group of stores in a retail chain. And the relationship between these levers and consumer demand can be accurately modeled, as long as the modeling techniques that are employed take into account a statistically sufficient number of factors and data such that credible and unbiased results are provided. Examples of these factors include price and sales history as a function of time (e.g., day of the week, season, holidays, etc.), promotion (e.g., temporary price reductions and other promotional vehicles), competition (e.g., price and sales history information for directly competitive products that are normally substitutes), and product size variations. Those skilled within the art typically refer to a model as is herein described as a demand model because it models the relationship between one or more merchandising levers and consumer demand for a group of products.
The degree to which demand for a particular product is correlated to a particular lever is called its "lever elasticity." For example, a product with a low price elasticity can undergo a significant change in price without affecting demand for the product; a high price elasticity indicates that consumer demand for the product is very susceptible to small price variations.
Demand models are used by product category mangers as stand-alone models, or as part of an integrated model. In the stand-alone application, a category manager inputs potential prices for a product or product group, and the stand-alone model estimates sales for the product or product group. Accordingly, the category manager selects a set of prices to maximize sales of the product or product group based upon outputs of the stand-alone demand model. An integrated demand/price model typically models demand works within a set of constraints provided by the category manager for a product or group of products and establishes a maximum achievable price for the product or group of products based upon the price elasticity of the product or group of products.
Notwithstanding the benefits that category managers are afforded by present day demand/price models, their broad application within the art has been constrained to date because of two primary limitations. First, present day demand/price models do not take into account the costs associated with providing a product for sale. That is, the models can only determine prices as a function of demand to maximize sales, or revenue. But one skilled in the art will appreciate that establishing product prices to maximize revenue in an industry that averages less that two percent net profit may indeed result in decreased profits for a retailer because he could potentially sell less high-margin products and more low-margin products according to the newly established product prices. Hence, determining a set of prices based upon demand alone can only maximize volume or revenue, not profit. And profit is what makes or breaks a business. Secondly, present day demand/price models only estimate price elasticity for a given product or product group without estimating how changes in price for the product or product group will impact demand for other, related products or product groups. For instance, present day demand/price models can estimate price elasticity for, say, bar soap, but they do not estimate the change in demand for, say, liquid soap, as a result of changing the prices of bar soap. Consequently, a soap category manager may actually decrease profits within his/her category by focusing exclusively on the prices of one subcategory of items without considering how prices changes within that one subcategory will affect demand of items within related subcategories.
Therefore, what is needed is a technique for determining optimized prices for products within a product category that considers the cost of the products as well as the demand for those products.
In addition, what is needed is a price optimization apparatus that models the relationship between the prices of products within a given subcategory and the demand for products within related subcategories.
Furthermore, what is needed is a method for optimizing the prices of products within a plurality of subcategories, where the method for optimizing prices maximizes a particular merchandising figure of merit that is a function of cost as well as demand.

Apparatus for merchandise price optimization


A method for operating an engine having at least a first and second cylinder [group], the first cylinder having a first electrically actuated valve and the second cylinder having a second electrically actuated valve, comprising of operating the first cylinder with a spark timing more retarded than a spark timing of a second cylinder, where during said operation, said first cylinder operates with a first operation of said first electrically actuated valve and said second cylinder operates with a second operation of said second electrically actuated valve, where said first operation is different from said second operation.

Vehicles with internal combustion engines use catalytic converters to convert exhaust constituents and reduce regulated emissions. However, in some converters, conversion efficiency can be low at ambient temperatures. As such, various approaches have been used to increase exhaust heat during engine starting to thereby obtain earlier increased conversion efficiency.
One such approach is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,725,830, which uses different ignition timing in different cylinder groups to increase total exhaust heat to the catalyst/exhaust, while still providing accurate idle speed control, among other features. In one example, the ignition timing of one group is significantly retarded after top dead center so that little torque is produced, but large quantities of heat are produced. Then, the remaining cylinders operate at higher load, which also increases exhaust heat, while retaining accurate torque control.
However, the inventors herein have recognized that such operation can be further improved by tailoring the valve operation of the different cylinder groups to the particular ignition timing conditions of those cylinders. As one example, the valve timing that provides improved combustion heat to the exhaust in the cylinders with significantly retarded ignition timing may be different than the valve timing that provides the most efficient and stable combustion in the cylinders with less ignition timing retard.
As such, a method for operating an engine having at least a first and second cylinder is provided. The first cylinder may have a first electrically actuated valve and the second cylinder may have a second electrically actuated valve. The method comprises operating the first cylinder with a spark timing more retarded than a spark timing of a second cylinder, where during said operation, said first cylinder operates with a first operation of said first electrically actuated valve and said second cylinder operates with a second operation of said second electrically actuated valve, where said first operation is different from said second operation.
As noted above, the different operations may include different valve timing. In this way, the combustion of each cylinder can be improved to further increase exhaust heat and more rapidly heat the exhaust, while still maintaining tight control of engine torque, or idle speed, for example. Note that various other types of differing valve operation may be used, such as lift, number of active/deactivated valves, and/or valve patterns.
In another aspect, a method for operating an engine having at least a first and second cylinder group is provided. The method comprises: operating the first cylinder with a spark timing substantially more retarded than a spark timing of a second cylinder, where during said operation, each cylinder of said first cylinder group operates with a first number of active valves and each cylinder of said second cylinder group operates with a second number of active valves, where said first number is different from said second number.
In this way, different cylinder charge motion and/or air amounts may be provided between the cylinders thereby providing appropriate conditions for each of the cylinders to enable each cylinder to provide improved operation.

System and method for exhaust heat generation using electrically actuated cylinder valves


Methods and systems for determining the frequency of the AC power supply of any pulsating light, such as fluorescent lights, for different purposes such as adjusting a camcorder's frame rate, is described in detail herein. In one embodiment a method is described that determines the frequency of the power supply, using a single sampling rate. In another embodiment two concurrent samplings of different rates are employed to determine the power supply frequency. Additionally, two exemplary systems describe the implementations of two embodiments of the presented methods.

For the past two decades, camcorders, or video camera-recorders, have been a familiar sight throughout the world. They have been particularly in demand in the United States, Japan, Europe, and many other countries because they are inexpensive while extremely useful for numerous purposes. Camcorders and digital still cameras both take pictures using image sensors such as charge-coupled devices (CCD) or CMOS devices. To create a video signal, a camcorder image device must take many pictures every second, which the camera then combines to give the impression of movement. Analog camcorders contain two basic parts: (1) a camera section, consisting of an image sensor, lens and motors to handle the zoom, focus and aperture; and (2) a VCR section, which is a typical but small TV VCR. The function of the camera components is to receive visual information and transform it to electronic video signals.
Digital camcorders have the same elements, but have an additional component that takes the analog information the camera gathers and transforms it to digital data. Digital camcorders are so popular because their recorded information is not as prone to degradation, such as fading, as that of analog cameras. Video information in digital form can also be loaded onto computers, and easily edited, copied, and e-mailed.
The lens in a camcorder serves to focus light onto a small semiconductor image sensor. This sensor, such as a CCD, measures light with a small array of many tiny light-sensitive diodes, called photosites or pixels. Each photosite measures the amount of light that illuminates a particular point, and transforms this information into electrical charges. A brighter image is represented by a higher electrical charge, and a darker image is represented by a lower charge. An image sensor then creates a video picture by recording these light intensities.
Similarly, to create a color image, a camcorder has to detect the levels of each color of light. Since a full spectrum of colors can be created by combining the three colors red, green and blue, a camcorder only needs to measure the levels of these three colors to be able to reproduce full-color pictures. Some high-end camcorders use three separate chips to measure the intensity of these three basic colors while other less expensive camcorders get by with only one image sensor by fitting permanent color filters to individual photosites.
Camcorders in different parts of the world are designed in conformity with the local standards of pixel resolution, number of frames per second (fps), etc. The three most commonly used standards are NTSC, PAL, and SECAM. NTSC standard is used in North and South America, Japan, and 30 other countries. This standard requires 30-fps, 720×480 rectangular pixel resolution, and 575 scan lines. PAL format is used in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Australia, China, and others and requires 25-fps, 720×576 rectangular pixel resolution, and 625 scan lines. Finally, SECAM format is used in France, the former Soviet Union countries, and others. It also requires 25-fps, 720×576 rectangular pixel resolution, and 625 scan lines.
It is important to note that in those countries in which a 50-Hz AC power system is used, the fps is 25 and in those with 60-Hz, the fps is 30. One main reason is the simplicity of design when the required number of aperture closures is an integer multiple or a factor of the power supply frequency. As a side benefit, it will synchronize the aperture closures with the surrounding pulsating lights, such as fluorescent lights. This synchronization makes the aperture opening coincide with the same light intensity of the pulsating light as in the previous openings.
On the other hand, if the aperture closures and the pulsating of the light are out of phase, the light intensity will vary at each aperture opening and will cause "flickering." This is the case when U.S.-made camcorders operate in Japan under fluorescent lights, or vice versa. There is a need for a camcorder that can automatically detect the frequency of the surrounding pulsating lights and can adjust its frame rate accordingly.

Methods and systems for detecting flash rate of surrounding lights for controlling camcorder frame rate