An image capturing apparatus includes a calculation unit which converts shaking detected by a sensor unit into a shaking cancel amount, a correction/driving unit which drives a correction unit using the shaking cancel amount in a plane perpendicular to the optical axis, and corrects blurring of an image formed on an image capturing unit, a zoom position detection unit which detects the current zoom position of a zoom lens, and a center point change unit which changes a center point serving as a movable center of the correction unit in accordance with the zoom position set at either end of the zoom range, or an arbitrary position therebetween. This enables a position of a correction unit to be set which allows optimal image visibility and image blurring correction irrespective of the zoom state.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improvement in an image capturing apparatus having an image blurring correction function and zoom position change function.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, an image capturing apparatus obtains image data with a periphery including the four corners which is darker than the center of an image. Especially, a phenomenon in which the light amount at the periphery becomes lower than that of the center is called shading. As the rate of decrease in light amount from the center to the periphery increases, or as the four corners form more asymmetric shading, i.e., a variation in their luminances increases, the quality of image data degrades. A lens exhibits a unique degree of decrease in light amount. This property causes a variation in luminance. The degree of decrease in light amount changes also depending on the focal length, i.e., zoom position if the lens is a zoom lens.
For example, the wide-angled side may exhibit a highest rate of decrease in the light amount at the lens periphery, and the telephoto side may exhibit a very low rate of decrease (see FIG. 3A). A noticeably high rate of decrease in the light amount at the periphery can be caused by a mechanical error or play of a lens barrel which houses lenses, resulting in an increase in variation in the luminances at the four corners (see FIG. 3B).
An apparatus using the arrangement of an image blurring correction function is available as a technique for reducing a variation in the luminances at the four corners of an image (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-40298).
Along with the recent increase in magnification and miniaturization of image capturing apparatuses, a demand has arisen for installing a function of correcting image blurring due to a camera shake of an image capturing apparatus. In fact, the number of image capturing apparatuses with this function is increasing. The image blurring correction mechanism includes a sensor means for mainly detecting shaking such as a camera shake of an image capturing apparatus, a calculation means for converting the resultant shaking amount into a shaking cancel amount, and a correction means such as a correction lens (to be referred to as a shift lens hereinafter) for eliminating image blurring. A shift lens operates in a plane perpendicular to the image sensing optical axis to eliminate blurring of an image formed on an image sensor.
By adjusting the center point of a shift lens at a zoom position having a highest rate of decrease in the light amount at the periphery, a variation in the luminances at the four corners can fall within a predetermined level in the entire zoom area. The adjusted center point may be different from the center of the mechanical driving range of the shift lens.
Assume that a lens to be used has a wide-angled side with a highest rate of decrease in the light amount at the lens periphery and has a telephoto side with a very low rate of decrease, and a position at which a variation in the luminances at the four corners on the wide-angled side is adjusted serves as a center point fixed in the entire zoom area. As the shift between a center point at which a variation in the luminances at the four corners is adjusted and the center point of the mechanical driving range increases, a change in angle of view increases at the time of zoom driving to the telephoto side because the center of the angle of view must originally be the center point of the mechanical driving range. Especially, the zoom position on the telephoto side suffers a noticeably large change in angle of view. This results in image data with an angle of view which is not intended by a photographer (with an error of the angle of view at the time of zoom driving), depending on the zoom position. Furthermore, the visibility of a live image at the time of zoom driving suffers.
A wider dynamic range of the driving of a shift lens is advantageous to image blurring correction. This is because a wider driving range of a shift lens decreases the property change amount in control when a camera shake and abrupt large shaking are detected simultaneously. This allows high-speed, precise image blurring correction. A wider original driving dynamic range is also advantageous to assure a control range sufficient to decrease a variation in center point of a shift lens due to temperature change. For this reason, image blurring correction becomes optimal when the center point of a shift lens serves as the center of the mechanical driving range. However, optimal image blurring correction control sometimes fails when the center point of a shift lens serves as the luminance center in the entire zoom area.


A port cover opening/closing device for a portable terminal to open or close a plurality of port covers using a single cover dummy is disclosed. The device includes a cover opening; a first sliding cover and a second sliding cover slidably combined along the longitudinal direction of the cover opening to selectively open or close a first opening/closing space, and a second opening/closing space of the cover opening; a cover dummy provided between the first and second sliding covers, overlapping the first and second sliding covers when the first and second opening/closing spaces are opened respectively, and positioned parallel with the first and second sliding covers when the first and second opening/closing spaces are closed respectively; and an elastic member in the cover opening, providing an elastic force to the cover dummy.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a port cover opening/closing device for a portable terminal. More particularly, the present invention relates to a port cover opening/closing device for a portable terminal, which is configured to open/close a plurality of port covers using a single cover dummy.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, the term "portable terminal" refers to an electronic apparatus carried by a user to perform wireless communication. Conventional portable terminals may be classified into various types according to their appearance. For example, conventional portable terminals may be classified as bar-type portable terminals, flip-type portable terminals, and folder-type portable terminals. The bar-type portable terminal has a single housing shaped like a bar. The flip-type portable terminal has a flip which is pivotably mounted to a bar-shaped housing by a hinge device. The folder-type portable terminal has a folder coupled to a single bar-shaped housing by a hinge device to allow the folder to be rotated in order to be folded towards or unfolded away from the housing.
Further, portable terminals may be classified into neck wearable type terminals and wrist wearable type terminals according to the position in which a user carries the communication apparatus. The neck wearable type terminal is worn by a user around the neck using a string or lanyard, while the wrist wearable type terminal is worn by a user around the wrist.
Additionally, portable terminals may be further classified as rotation-type terminals and sliding-type terminals based upon the manner in which the portable terminals are opened or closed. In the rotation-type portable terminals, two housings are coupled to each other to allow one housing to rotate open or closed relative to the other while facing each other. In the sliding-type portable terminals, two housings are coupled to each other to allow one housing to slide along a direction to open or close the other housing. These variously classified portable terminals can be easily understood by those of ordinary skill in the art.
The portable terminal has ports for connection with other information devices such as Personal Computers (PCs) or peripheral devices. For example, the ports may be interface connectors for connection with Universal Serial Bus (USB) ports of PCs, travel chargers, or the like, or earphone plug for connection with earphones. Those ports are provided in the bottom face or side face of the terminal and are protected by rubber covers.
As illustrated in FIG. 1, a jack into which an earphone plug 5 is inserted is provided in the top face or side face of a portable terminal 1. When the earphone plug 5 is not inserted into the jack, a folding-type port cover 2 is provided to prevent foreign substances from entering the insider of a main body 1.
As illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3, the conventional port cover 2 is made of urethane rubber and has a stopper 2a so as not to be separated from the main body 1 after being inserted into a mounting groove 3 of the main body 1. The port cover 2 also has a cylindrical portion 2b to close the inside of the main body 1 by being inserted into a through hole 4 formed in the main body 1, and a protrusion 2c that can be opened/closed upwardly and downwardly. In a jack 6a provided in a main board 6, an opening 6b is formed to be engaged with the earphone jack 5.
Moreover, the port cover 2 also has a hinge unit 2d having tension in order to allow its rotation.
The port cover 2 is opened/closed along the hinge unit 2d. Thus, the port cover 2 is inserted into the through hole 4 of the main body 1 in the non-used state of an earphone and the earphone jack 5 is combined with the jack 6a of the main board 6 and the port cover 2 is opened in the used state of the earphone.
However, the conventional folding-type port cover is made of rubber, and the rubber cover cannot have the same texture as that of a surrounding mold because it is made of a material different from the mold. Since most rubber covers are opened/closed by a user's nail, opening/closing operations may not be easy. Moreover, the cover may be damaged or broken by user's opening/closing operations, and the aesthetic appearance of the portable terminal is diminished when the cover is opened.
Furthermore, when an accessory like a charging cradle is mounted, it obstructs or interferes with the cover of the portable terminal, resulting in difficulty in opening/closing of the cover.
A port cover for a portable wireless terminal disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/923,401 (U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2005/0049016) is of a sliding type that is opened/closed in a sliding manner, and is assigned to the assignee of the present application.
A conventional sliding-type port cover opening/closing device includes a cover housing, a sliding cover for opening/closing a portion of the cover housing, a cover dummy positioned parallel with the sliding cover, and an elastic member.
However, when a removable memory and an earphone are arranged for the portable terminal, two port cover opening/closing devices are required, increasing an area occupied by a port cover and thus obstructing miniaturization and slimness of the portable terminal. Moreover, an increase in the number of parts makes the assembly process of the port cover difficult, raising the manufacturing cost of the port cover.

Port cover opening/closing device for portable terminal


A method is described for performing gene therapy at an alternate site when it is undesirable or impossible to perform gene therapy at the injured or diseased region. A gene therapy composition is administered using a catheter adapted to deliver ultrasound to facilitate uptake of the gene therapy composition into one or more cells at the alternate site. The treated section may then be transplanted to another region of the body which is diseased or injured.

1. Field of the Invention
Preferred embodiments of the present invention relate to catheters having an ultrasonic assembly. The apparatus is particularly well suited for using ultrasonic energy to enhance the therapeutic effects and/or delivery of drugs including nucleotides (DNA, RNA, and analogs thereof), medication, and other therapeutic compounds at a treatment site within the body.
2. Description of the Related Art
Several therapeutic and diagnostic applications use ultrasonic energy. For example, ultrasonic energy can be used to enhance the delivery and therapeutic effect of various therapeutic compounds. See e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,821,740, 4,953,565 and 5,007,438. In some applications, it is desirable to use an ultrasonic catheter to deliver the ultrasonic energy and/or therapeutic compound to a specific site in the body. Such an ultrasonic catheter typically includes an ultrasonic assembly for generating the ultrasonic energy. The ultrasonic catheter can also include a delivery lumen for delivering the therapeutic compound to the treatment site. In this manner, the ultrasonic energy can be used at the treatment site to enhance the desired therapeutic effects and/or delivery of the therapeutic compound.
Ultrasonic catheters have successfully been used to treat human blood vessels that have become occluded or completely blocked by plaque, thrombi, emboli or other substances that reduce the blood carrying capacity of the vessel. See e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 6,001,069. To remove the blockage, the ultrasonic catheter is used to deliver solutions containing dissolution compounds directly to the blockage site. The ultrasonic energy generated by the catheter enhances the therapeutic effects of the dissolution compounds.
Ultrasonic catheters can also be used to perform gene therapy on an isolated region of a body lumen. Gene therapy may include introduction of a gene into one or more cells to provide a gene product either not normally produced by the a cell or produced in insufficient quantities. Gene therapy also includes inhibition of the expression of an endogenous gene by antisense or co-suppression. Gene therapy may also be accomplished using molecular decoys which provide binding sites for cellular factors and thus operate as suicide molecules. As disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,135,976, which is incorporated herein by reference, an ultrasonic catheter can be provided with one or more expandable sections for occluding a section of the body lumen. A gene therapy composition is delivered to the occluded section through the delivery lumen of the catheter. The ultrasonic assembly delivers ultrasonic energy to the occluded section to enhance the entry of the gene composition into the cells of the occluded section. Other uses for ultrasonic catheters include delivering and activating light activated drugs (see e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 6,176,842).
The various embodiments of the methods, devices and kits disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,135,976, entitled METHOD, DEVICE AND KIT FOR PERFORMING GENE THERAPY, teach approaches to performing gene therapy at the treatment site. More specifically, U.S. Pat. No. 6,135,976 discloses approaches to performing gene therapy directly on a selected region of the body lumen. A region of the body lumen may be selected for treatment for numerous reasons, such as when the region is injured or diseased and in need of therapy. U.S. Pat. No. 6,135,976 is incorporated by reference herein and made a part of this specification.
Sometimes, however it is undesirable or impossible to perform gene therapy directly at an injured or diseased region of the body lumen. What is needed is an approach to performing gene therapy at an alternate site when it is undesirable or impossible to perform gene therapy at the injured or diseased region of the body lumen.


A portable clinical system for providing a rapid electrochemical analysis of biological sera of interest at the point-of-care using a portable analyzer unit and a multi-sensor electrochemical plug-in cartridge analyzing system is disclosed which features a plug-in module including a reusable sensor cartridge having an inlet port for receiving a sample, an outlet drain port and array of self-calibrating electrochemical sensors, a plurality of electrical interfaced terminals for interfacing with the portable analyzer unit. An integral flushing system is provided for cleaning and allowing recalibration of the sensor between sample analyses. Connection devices on the analyzer unit and plug-in multi-use test module are provided for removably attaching the module to the analyzer unit. The connection devices are configured to receive a single-use sensor cartridge interchangeably and without modification with said plug-in multi-use test module.

I. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed generally to portable diagnostic or electro-analytical systems that make in vitro electrochemical determinations based on fluid biological samples extracted from patients and characteristically analyzed for concentrations of specific electroactive species. The system employs a cartridge containing a bank of sensors for the pertinent electroactive species which provide input in the form of analog electrical signals for the relevant determinations. More particularly, the instant invention is concerned with a portable diagnostic or analytical instrument that interfaces and uses cartridges selected from single-use cartridges interchangeably with a modular multiple-use cartridge system to make rapid, accurate point-of-care determinations at low cost and requiring only a relatively low skill level to operate successfully.
II. Related Art
The measurement of certain physical/chemical characteristics or conditions of the blood can be quite important with respect to evaluating the condition of a patient in a variety of clinical situations. The partial pressures of O.sub.2 and CO.sub.2, pH, together with the measurement of certain ions, such as Ca.sup.++ and/or K.sup.+, provide important indications of the efficiency of the blood/gas exchange occurring in the lungs of the patient, relative acid/base balance in the concentration of certain indicative ion species in the blood, respectively. Hematocrit is also an important determination. These measurements are particularly critical in life-threatening circumstances.
While formerly all such analyzers of the class employed to make such determinations were costly, permanently installed devices in the hospital laboratories which required highly-trained, skilled technicians to operate them. More recently, portable units have become available which make fairly rapid analyses in the operating room, such as during open heart surgery, the intensive care unit and the emergency room. In these areas, of course, immediate diagnostic and therapeutic decisions are often required. The data from blood gas, electrolyte and certain other tests forms the basis for such reactions.
Systems are also available which utilize a plurality of cartridge-mounted sensors to sequentially make many sample determinations. Examples of such systems are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,786,394 and 4,871,439 to Enzer et al and, more recently, reusable, multiple sample testing systems are shown in European Patent Application 0 520 443 A2 to Betts et al. and in certain Mallinckrodt product information material dated 1993-1995. Thus, while single-use and multiple-use systems exist, the per test cost has remained relatively high in comparison with laboratory systems and the versatility associated with the ability to accommodate both single-use and multi-use cartridges interchangeably as heretofore not been available.
Accordingly, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a portable, point-of-care analytical system that interchangeably accommodates single-use cartridges and a multi-use cartridge module.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a portable point-of-care analytical instrument that accommodates both single-use cartridges and a multi-use cartridge test module interchangeably without modification.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a plug-in multi-use sensor cartridge module for a portable, point-of-care blood analysis instrument which uses no more power than a single-use cartridge.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon familiarization with the specification, drawings and claims contained herein.

Interchangeable multiple test system for portable analyzer


A battery charger and a method of judging a charging condition of a secondary battery capable of judging precisely a charging condition of the secondary battery are provided. Charging conditions of the secondary battery are classified to four charging conditions depending on change of the voltage value of the secondary battery during charging operation, and one of these four charging conditions is displayed on the secondary battery by detecting the voltage value of the secondary battery at predetermined intervals.

The present invention relates to a battery charger capable of indicating charging condition of a secondary battery, and a method of judging its charging condition.
Generally, a residual electricity (capacity) checker for a primary battery such as an alkali dry cell and a manganese dry cell is a type where voltages of such battery are segmented into plural steps by predetermined threshold voltages and residual electricity is indicated in accordance with the steps. Such configuration becomes possible because a primary battery has the characteristic in which higher the voltage of the battery is, larger the residual electricity becomes.
However, in a secondary battery such as a nickel metal hydride battery (Ni/MH battery) or a nickel cadmium battery (Ni/Cd battery), since the open loop voltage remains substantially unchanged when it is fully charged or it is close to the fully charged condition except there is essentially no residual electricity, measurements of the battery voltage do not present any means to know how much is the residual electricity of the battery. Additionally, even in secondary batteries having the same electrical capacity, battery voltages may change depending on temperature, frequency of degradation (aging) and activation condition, thereby making it very difficult to know the residual electricity by measuring the voltage.
Such phenomena of secondary batteries also apply to the closed loop voltage when the batteries are being charged. Accordingly, in order to detect (indicate) the progress of charging in nickel metal hydride batteries or nickel cadmium batteries, it was conventional to completely discharge the batteries before charging and calculate the ratio of the measured charging time with respect to the standard time required for fully charging. However, even in such method, it is impossible to accurately detect the progress of charging if the rated capacity of the battery to be charged may change.
Some of conventional battery chargers for nickel metal hydride batteries have capacity checkers. However, such capacity checkers indicate whether the batteries are in the completely discharged condition or in the fully charged condition and thus fail to indicate the battery capacity in steps.

Battery charger, and method of judging charging condition


Provided is a mail sorting system including: a detection unit configured to output a detection signal for a length of a mail inserted to a conveyor belt; a crossbelt driving unit configured to control a motor interworking with a crossbelt including a central region and first and second lateral regions adjacent to both sides based on the central region where the mail is moved and arranged from the conveyor belt; and a control unit configured to transmit a motor control signal which controls at least one of an rpm and a rotational speed of the motor so that the mail is arranged on any one of the central region and the first and second lateral regions based on the detection signal, to the crossbelt driving unit, in order to easily discharge the mail from a destination discharge point by disposing the inserted mail at a setting region of the crossbelt.

As a parcel quantity is increased with the growth of a parcel delivery service industry, the parcel quantity has increased every year. As a result, a mail center or a distribution center uses a mail sorting system in order to efficiently classify mails.
In recent years, new sorting apparatuses such as a crossbelt type, an E-Tray type, and the like have been developed and commercialized, in order to increase a processing capacity of the mail, and developed to sort small-sized mails to large-sized mails. However, when a mail which falls to a sorting hole chute is large and heavy, the corresponding mail may frequently damage the small-sized mail first sorted and loaded on the sorting hole chute.
In order to solve the problem, a method of attaching a rubber-made tape to the bottom of the sorting hole chute or reducing a drop speed of a heavy parcel by installing a roller applied with power has been used. However, in the case of the rubber-made tape, there is inconvenience that the rubber-made tape itself is worn out and thus needs to be attached again and in the case of the roller applied with the power, there is a disadvantage in that energy is wasted.

ELECTRONICS AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS RESEARCH INSTITUTE


A substantially planar assembly for depositing material. The assembly comprises plates which, when assembled, define at least one aerosol channel, a sheath gas plenum, and a nozzle. These components are preferably anisotropic, and preferably rectangular. The aerosol channel may be divided further to improve uniformity of aerosol flow.

1. Field of the Invention (Technical Field)
The present invention relates to the field of anisotropic focusing of material streams using asymmetric tip geometries.
2. Description of Related Art
The prior art generally relates to apparatuses and methods for high-resolution, maskless deposition of liquid and liquid-particle suspensions using aerodynamic focusing. In the most commonly used embodiment, an aerosol stream is focused and deposited onto a planar or non-planar target, forming a pattern that is thermally or photochemically processed to achieve physical, optical, and/or electrical properties near that of the corresponding bulk material. The process is called M3D® (Maskless Mesoscale Material Deposition) technology, and is used to deposit aerosolized materials with linewidths that are orders of magnitude smaller than lines deposited with conventional thick film processes. Deposition is performed without the use of masks. Furthermore, the M3D® process is capable of defining lines having widths smaller than 1 micron.
The M3D® apparatus preferably uses an aerosol jet deposition head to form an annularly propagating jet composed of an outer sheath flow and an inner aerosol-laden carrier flow. In the annular aerosol jetting process, the aerosol stream enters the deposition head, preferably either directly after the aerosolization process or after passing through a heater assembly, and is directed along the axis of the device towards the deposition head orifice. The mass throughput is preferably controlled by an aerosol carrier gas mass flow controller. Inside the deposition head, the aerosol stream is preferably initially collimated by passing through a millimeter-size orifice. The emergent particle stream is then preferably combined with an annular sheath gas, which functions to eliminate clogging of the nozzle and to focus the aerosol stream. The carrier gas and the sheath gas most commonly comprise compressed air or an inert gas, where one or both may contain a modified solvent vapor content. For example, when the aerosol is formed from an aqueous solution, water vapor may be added to the carrier gas or the sheath gas to prevent droplet evaporation.
The sheath gas preferably enters through a sheath air inlet below the aerosol inlet and forms an annular flow with the aerosol stream. As with the aerosol carrier gas, the sheath gas flowrate is preferably controlled by a mass flow controller. The combined streams exit the nozzle at a high velocity (˜50 m/s) through an orifice directed at a target, and subsequently impinge upon it. This annular flow focuses the aerosol stream onto the target and allows for deposition of features with dimensions smaller than approximately 1 micron. Patterns are formed by moving the deposition head relative to the target.
Prior art related to the M3D method has disclosed apparatuses that generally use the technique of coaxial sheath flow. FIG. 1 shows the simplest geometry of concentric tubes. Innermost mist tube 10 carries the atomized material in an aerosol mist flow. Tube 10 is concentrically mounted to outer shell 12 at the proximal position 14 of assembly 16. The annular space between mist tube 10 and shell 12 forms coaxial sheath chamber 18. Sheath gas enters sheath chamber 18 at proximal location 20 such that by the time the sheath gas has traveled the length of the sheath chamber 18, the gas has established a fully developed laminar flow coaxial with the mist flow. The mist and sheath flows meet in convergence zone 22 where hydrodynamic focusing occurs. Distal cone 24 of the convergence zone 22 provides additional geometric focusing. Tip 26 may be added to assembly 16 to provide additional geometric focusing.
Liquid flow cytometry also uses hydrodynamic focusing to organize a sample flow into an extremely thin line typically to be optically analyzed. Unlike the aerosol and gas sheath M3D method, flow cytometry uses only liquid, thus benefiting from the incompressibility of liquid and laminar flow to focus sample material. The liquid sample (typically a preprocessed blood sample, analogous to the aerosol stream in the M3D® method) is focused by a liquid sheath which is typically de-ionized water or saline solution. Typically, the liquid sample is focused down to approximately a 10 micron width so that biological cells of interest are nearly aligned sequentially. From the focusing chamber, these cells directly enter an optically clear and typically square tube with an inner square chamber about 250 microns square. The square flow cell is not used to additionally focus the cells. In some cases, laser light is directed through one surface of the flow cell and an optical detector is positioned opposite the laser and one perpendicular to laser, to detect both the reflected and refracted light as the laser beam passes thru the focused sample stream. Since the sample is essentially a sequential train of cells, the changing light patterns can be analyzed and different cells can be detected and counted. Further, with special equipment the stream of cells can then be sorted and deposited into separate chambers. The construction of the focusing and optical chambers (typically called "flow cells") are well known to the flow cytometry community and have the disadvantage of difficult alignment of the focusing chamber to the entrance of the optical chamber; with the further disadvantage of high cost. In most applications, these flow cells need to be rewashed and reused rather than thrown away. The disadvantages of reuse are obvious: cross-contamination and wasted time. Flow cytometers are also known for being relatively large in size and complexity having to pump, valve and meter various flows. When handling potentially harmful biological fluids, it can be extremely difficult and hazardous to load, unload and service these instruments.
Disposable planar liquid handling assemblies are also well known to the field of flow cytometry as is exemplified in U.S. Pat. No. 6,537,501. Rather than have many tubes and separate valves, small liquid handling cassettes are available that use many thin layers of typically plastic materials. Each layer may have different chambers of fluid paths or simply be barriers to separate one channel from another. When oriented properly and assembled, a fluidic "circuit board" is created where fluids can flow from one layer to another. With this layered approach, 2-dimensional focusing chambers have been used to focus a sample fluid into an optical chamber.


Methods, systems and computer program products for identifying primary product objects on a web page. A primary product object is the object that shows the best view of the product the web page is detailing. A set of features is extracted for one or more objects on the web page. The primary product objects are identified by computing the probabilities of one or more objects on the web page being a primary product object, the probabilities indicating the likelihood of the one or more objects being the primary product object. The probabilities are computed by querying a statistical model.

This invention relates to search algorithms on the Internet. More specifically, the invention relates to methods and systems to search for product-related information for online shopping.
The Internet has enabled online shopping. Further, it has enabled tracking down vendors of a product online. Moreover, it provides the facility of instant comparison of prices. This has made online shopping time-efficient and convenient compared to conventional shopping. Search algorithms on the Internet have enabled people to find any product from the multitude of products available.
Conventional search algorithms use keyword based searches to find web pages relating to products. These algorithms generally index web pages based on keywords and not based on product-related information. However, product-related information such as the product image, the product title and the product price determine purchase to a great extent. Further, one or more of the conventional search algorithms do not take into account the attributes of product-related information on a web page, which includes attributes of the product image, the product title and the like. As a result, the accuracy of search results is not high.
In light of the foregoing discussion, there is a need for a search algorithm that takes into account the attributes of product-related information on a web page and provides results with high accuracy. Further, since there is a lot of product-related information on web pages, there is a need for a method to extract the relevant product-related information.

Method, system and computer program product for identifying primary product objects


An original image 402, conversion images 404a-404c provided by executing gamut compression systems, and a mix percentage scale 406 are displayed on a display. The user can click on any one of the conversion images 404a-404c for specifying a user-adjusted image 403. Further, when the user clicks on the mix percentage scale 406, the conversion images 404a-404c are mixed in response to the point on which the user clicks (point 406p), and the result is specified as the user-adjusted image 403.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a preferred image processing system and a preferred gamut adjustment method used for gamut adjustments of copiers, printers, and image output devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Image output devices of displays, printers, etc., include a reproducible color range (gamut). Generally, the gamut of a printer is narrower than that of a display. Therefore, if the user makes color adjustments while seeing an image displayed on a display and obtains a satisfactory image, when the image data is output to a printer as it is, the intended output image may not be provided.
To output an image by using a device with a narrow gamut, generally image data is previously compressed within the gamut of the output device (gamut compression). Various gamut compression systems are known. The main three systems will be discussed with reference to FIGS. 10A to 10C.
(a) Common area storage type (calorimetric match)
FIGS. 10A shows L*a*b* space, wherein narrow area GOUT surrounding origin O. The area surrounding the output gamut GOUT is the gamut of original image data (before gamut adjustment). In the common area storage type, colors in the common area to input and output gamuts GIN and GOUT are stored as they are. In the example shown in the figure, all area of the output gamut GOUT is contained in the input gamut GIN, thus if colors in input image data are contained in the output gamut GOUT, a color adjustment is not made to the colors.
On the other hand, if colors in input image data are outside the range of the output gamut GOUT, they are moved as indicated by arrows in the figure. That is, the colors are moved toward a direction orthogonal to a lightness axis (L* axis) and are replaced with outermost colors in the output gamut GOUT (boundary colors).
Since the lightness is stored, the system is appropriate for applications where accuracy of lightness is required, such as reproduction of corporate color. On the other hand, the system has disadvantages in that chromatic colors are converted into achromatic colors in areas high and low in lightness. It also has disadvantages in that gradation is lost and that colors are crushed because all colors outside the gamut are converted into boundary colors.
(b) Saturation storage type (saturation match)
In the system shown in FIG. 10B, colors in the common area to input and output gamuts GIN and GOUT are stored as they are, as in FIG. 10A. On the other hand, if colors in input image data are outside the range of the output gamut GOUT, they are moved as indicated by arrows in FIG. 10B. That is, the colors are moved toward the origin of the L*a*b* space and are replaced with outermost colors in the output gamut GOUT (boundary colors).
This system can store saturation as much as possible without changing any hue. Therefore, it is appropriate for enhancing color differences and easily distinguishing colors in business graphs, computer graphics, etc. However, the system has disadvantages in that gradation characteristics become incorrect because lightness is changed. Like the system in FIG. 10A, the system in FIG. 10B also has disadvantages in that colors are crushed.
(c) Relative lightness storage type (perceptual match)
In the system shown in FIG. 10C, colors are moved toward origin O, as in the system in FIG. 10B. However, all colors in color space are moved. Here, imagining a straight line toward the color to be converted from the origin O and assuming that the length from the origin O to the boundary color of output gamut GOUT along the straight line is x1 and that the distance to the boundary color of input gamut GIN is x2, each color is adjusted so that the distance to the origin O becomes x1/x2 times.
The system, which can hold gradation characteristics over the whole of image data after gamut adjustment, can prevent color crushing, etc., and is appropriate for reproduction of natural images. However, since colors in the output gamut GOUT are also moved toward the origin O, the system has disadvantages in that it is poor in saturation of reproduction colors and cannot make the effective use of the output gamut GOUT.
As we have discussed, each of the gamut compression systems has its merits and demerits, and it is difficult to general users to decide which system is suitable for specific original images. All the systems discussed above may also be improper. In such a case, a more appropriate image may be able to be provided by mixing the results of the color adjustments.


The detachment of a semiconductor chip (1) from a foil (4) and picking the semiconductor chip (1) from the foil (4) takes place with the support of a chip ejector (6), that has a ramp (16), the surface (17) of which is formed concave and ends at a stripping edge (18) projecting from the surface (9) of the chip ejector (6), and a support area (13) with grooves (12) arranged next to the stripping edge (18). Vacuum can be applied to the grooves (12). The detachment and picking of the semiconductor chip (1) from the foil (4) takes place in that the wafer table (5) is shifted relative to the chip ejector (6) in order to pull the foil (4) over the stripping edge (18) protruding from the surface (9) of the chip ejector (6), whereby the semiconductor chip (1) temporarily detaches itself at least partially from the foil (4) and lands on the foil (4) above the support area (13), and in that the chip gripper (7) picks the semiconductor chip (1) presented on the support area (13).

Typically, the semiconductor chips are presented on a foil held in a frame, also known in the trade as a tape, for processing with such a mounting apparatus. The semiconductor chips adhere to the foil. The frame with the foil is accommodated by a movable wafer table. The wafer table is shifted in cycles so that one semiconductor chip after the other is presented at a first location A and then the presented semiconductor chip is picked up by a chip gripper and placed at a second location B on a substrate. Removal of the presented semiconductor chip from the foil is supported by a chip ejector (known in the trade as a die ejector) arranged underneath the foil. In doing so, as a rule at least one needle arranged in the chip ejector supports detachment of the semiconductor chip from the foil.
From the U.S. Pat. No. 4,921,564, a method has become known with which the semiconductor chips can be detached from the foil and picked up by the chip gripper without the aid of a needle. With this method, the foil with the semiconductor chips is placed onto a heatable plate. On the side facing towards the foil, the plate has cavities to which vacuum can be applied. When mounting, on the one hand vacuum is applied to the cavities so that the foil is pulled into the cavities and is partly detached from the semiconductor chips. On the other hand, in order to additionally reduce the adhesion of the semiconductor chips to the foil, the foil is heated to a temperature of 50° C. to 65° C. This method works for numerous semiconductor chips however, with comparatively large but very thin semiconductor chips, it often happens that, on applying the vacuum and removing the foil, the semiconductor chips lift and then fall back onto the foil whereby it can also happen that adjacent semiconductor chips overlap.
The thickness of the semiconductor chips to be detached continuously decreases. Today, in many cases the thickness already only amounts to 100 micrometers with the trend to further reduced thicknesses of 75 to 50 micrometers. In addition to this, there is an adhesive layer on the back of the wafers. The adhesion of the semiconductor chips on the wafer is therefore increased. The technology described above with which the semiconductor chips are detached with the aid of needles is reaching its limits. The detachment of the foil with vacuum in accordance with U.S. Pat. No. 4,921,564 also doesn't work any more: the foil can no longer be heated to the required temperature of 50° C. to 65° C. because at these temperatures the adhesive layer hardens so that the semiconductor chips adhere even better to the foil.
A further method for detaching a semiconductor chip from a foil is known from U.S. Pat. No. 6,561,743. With this method, the foil with the semiconductor chip to be detached is pulled over an edge whereby the semiconductor chip and the foil are detached from each other on the edge. Detachment of the foil is stopped before the semiconductor chip has completely detached itself from the foil. In order to control detachment of the semiconductor chip from the foil, the chip gripper is first lowered onto the semiconductor chip and vacuum is applied to the semiconductor chip. The foil is then pulled over the edge until the semiconductor chip has completely detached itself from the foil. A similar method is known from U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2002/0129899. These methods have the disadvantage that adjacent semiconductor chips can be damaged because the height of the edge necessary for detachment has to be about 1.5 millimeters.
An object of the present invention is to develop a robust method for the detachment of semiconductor chips from a foil with which adjacent semiconductor chips are not damaged.

Method for detaching a semiconductor chip from a foil and device for mounting semiconductor chips


In one embodiment, a fluid storage device includes a rigid outer housing that defines a septum cavity, a reservoir cavity, and a channel that extends between the two cavities, the outer housing further defining an outlet in fluid communication with the reservoir cavity, a septum provided within the septum cavity, the septum being made of an elastic polymer and facilitating refilling of the fluid storage device, and a thin, collapsible membrane that does not generate significant restoring forces when it is deformed as fluid is drawn from the reservoir cavity and, therefore, does not completely or partially return to its initial non-deformed shape even if the outlet of the device remains open after doses are administered.

Drug delivery systems have become of interest to researchers because they can improve therapeutic response by providing more consistent drug blood levels as compared to immediate release or sustained release parenteral depot. The development of microscale reservoir-based delivery systems has resulted in miniaturization of drug delivery systems while still enabling more precise control of the delivery rate for both systemic and site-directed delivery.
Implantable drug delivery systems generally fall into two categories: passive and active. Active implantable drug delivery systems generally comprise a drug reservoir that stores the drug-containing fluid (e.g., liquid) to be administered to a subject and a micropump that delivers small precise volumes of the fluid to the target organ. The dynamics between the fluid stored in the reservoir and the downstream environment when the micropump is deactivated is an important consideration in the design of the reservoirs. Such reservoirs are typically made of a flexible material that enables the reservoir to deform as fluid is drawn from the reservoir.
Unfortunately, the properties of typical reservoirs are such that the reservoirs are affected by restoring forces that tend to restore the reservoir to its initial shape. This is disadvantageous as it can create negative pressure that results in backflow of the fluid back into the reservoir. When this occurs, the subject in which the drug delivery system is implanted may not receive the full prescribed dose of medication. Even when such effects are accounted for by increasing operation of the micropump to compensate for backflow, the dose may still vary over time as the restoring force may change (e.g., increase) as the reservoir becomes further and further deformed. In addition, the negative pressure created by the restoring forces can decrease the efficiency of the micropump.
While the effects of the restoring forces acting upon a reservoir can be counteracted by using a normally closed system that comprises a valve that closes when the micropump is not operated, there are advantages of normally open systems that do not require such components, such as smaller size, lower power consumption, and less complexity. Accordingly, it can be appreciated that it would be desirable to have a reservoir for use in a normally open implantable drug delivery system that is not adversely affected by restoring forces.

Implantable drug storage devices for drug delivery


A method and apparatus for measuring characteristics of meat, such as beef. More particularly, the invention uses quantitative analysis of ultrasonic A scan signals to measure the following characteristics of meat in real time: the percentage of intramuscular fat, the quality grade, the merit number, the depth of back fat and the approximate size of a predetermined rib eye area. The ultrasonic A scan signals are measured above the twelfth rib, above the thirteenth rib and between the twelfth and thirteenth ribs. The invention can be used with either live or processed animals.

Traditionally, meat is visually inspected and graded after an animal has been slaughtered. With beef, for example, a cut is made between the 12th and 13th rib. A grader then visually inspects the exposed meat. Based on the appearance of this cross section, the grader classifies the meat according to predetermined standards that reflect the amount of fat, or marbling, present in the meat. Typically, beef is classified according to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) guidelines. Under USDA guidelines, meat can be classified as standard, select, choice or prime.
The visual inspection of meat has several disadvantages. First, the grading is subjectively based on the opinion of the grader. Different graders may assign different grades to the same piece of meat. Even the same grader might assign different grades to the same meat on different days. This is extremely important because the value of the meat is directly dependent on the grade it is assigned.
Visual grading of meat is also limited because the grader only has access to an area of the meat exposed at the cut. Generally, this grading is based solely on the quality of the meat at the cut between the 12th and 13th ribs. If that area does not accurately reflect the entire side of meat, the grade assigned to the meat will be incorrect.
Moreover, traditional techniques only provide information based on what is visually apparent to the grader. While the grader can visually estimate the marbling of the beef there is no way for him to determine the flavor and tenderness, or "merit," of the meat. This is important because one out of four sides of beef classified as "prime" is still rejected as unsatisfactory by discriminating customers, such as restaurants specializing in beef steak.
The traditional method obviously cannot be used to grade the quality of live cattle. Knowing exactly when to slaughter cattle is important to maximize profits. Ranchers send herds of cattle to feed lots prior to processing. The feed lots attempt to create the highest quality meat at the lowest cost. Currently, feed lots must estimate when an entire group, or pen, of cattle has been sufficiently fed. A pen might contain 50, 100, or even 150 head of cattle. If the cattle have not been fed long enough the quality of the meat, and its value, suffers. On the other hand, if the cattle are fed too long the increase in the quality of the meat will not justify the extra expense of feeding the animals plus a reduced grade penalty. Because there is no way to determine the quality of live cattle, an owner can only estimate the point of maximum profitability for a particular animal. For example, feed lot operators generally hold all pens a fixed number of days selected to maximize profits. Even with this approach, however, about one third of the individual animals in any given pen are under-fed and one third are over-fed. It would be desirable to know the quality of each animal in the pen so every animal can be processed at the peak of its profitability.
Because the traditional technique can only be used on slaughtered animals, it is of limited use when attempting to breed a more profitable herd. If the cattle owner had instant feedback about the quality of the animals in the herd, higher quality animals could be selected for breeding. This would improve the genetic quality of the herd over time. Currently, the cattle owner must wait until an animal has left the feed lot and been slaughtered before any decisions about the genetic quality of the animal can be made.
The lack of instant feedback also prevents a cattle owner from responding to changes in consumer preferences. If consumers begin to demand leaner meat, for example, the cattle owner cannot make decisions about a herd until each animal has left the feed lot and has been slaughtered. This process can take up to six months or more.
To overcome some of these limitations, ultrasound technology has been used for the last two decades in animal research and applications. Ultrasound scanning technology utilizes high frequency sound waves to collect information from live tissue in a non-invasive manner. Efforts in the ultrasonic measurement of meat have concentrated on the use of real-time "B" mode imaging. B mode ultrasound, often used in medical applications, provides the operator with a two dimensional picture of the tissue being inspected. Brightness and texture are used in the image to characterize the animal's muscle tissue. By studying the two-dimensional image, the operator can characterize the muscle tissue and grade the animal. This approach, however, suffers from the same limitation as the traditional method because it is still based on the subjective opinion of the operator. Additionally, operators must be highly trained to interpret the B mode images correctly.
There have been attempts to mechanize and computerize the use of B mode imaging. Obtaining accurate measurements of these tissue characteristics is difficult because of speckle noise present in the image. Moreover, B mode imaging equipment is extremely expensive and transducers used with B mode imaging quickly wear out when used on rough surfaces, such as the hide of an animal Equipment used with B mode imaging is also very large and does not lend itself to use in the field. Finally, B mode imaging is not able to determine the flavor and tenderness, or "merit," of the meat.

Method and apparatus for measuring characteristics of meat


An OEM processing device for supporting operations, administration, and maintenance (OAM) in an ATM network, whose control circuit has a simplified configuration that avoids duplexity of common functions, thus realizing reduced size and less power consumption. A VPI/VCI extractor extracts VPI/VCI from each incoming ATM cell, while an alarm detector detects a physical layer alarm. An entry data memory stores a plurality of VPIs/VCIs that have been previously registered. When the extracted VPI/VCI is found in the registered VPIs/VCIs in the entry data memory, a VPI/VCI coincidence signal will be generated. When a physical layer alarm is detected by the alarm detector, all the relevant VPIs related to the detected alarm will be generated by using the same entry data memory. A VP-AIS cell generator then produces VP-AIS cells corresponding to the generated VPIs and inserts them into the current ATM cell stream.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to OAM processing devices to support operations, administration, and maintenance (OAM) functions, and more particularly, to an OAM processing device used to manage the operations and maintenance of Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) networks, being disposed at each ATM network element on local loops that interconnects subscriber premises and a switching system.
2. Description of the Related Art
ATM networks have expanded to cover a wide variety of communication services in recent years, enabling different types of communication traffic to be handled in an integrated way. This diversity in communication services has triggered a demand for more efficient OAM processing at ATM layer that facilitates ATM network management. Miniaturization and power reduction of OAM processing devices are among the key aspects of this demand.
FIG. 10 is a block diagram that shows a part of a conventional OAM processing device. This OAM processing device is designed for use in a network element deployed as part of local loops which connect subscriber premises and a switching system. In FIG. 10, an error detector 101 monitors incoming signals from the switching system to detect errors in communication channels, which signals are either synchronous frames based on the Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) standards or a stream of ATM cells. More specifically, the error detector 101 checks the overhead field of each synchronous frame and generates physical layer alarms when it detected any errors indicated therein, while watching the ATM cell stream to find a Virtual Path Alarm Indication Signal (VP-AIS) cell. When such an error or alarm signal is detected, a registered VPI/VCI generator 102 outputs a plurality of Virtual Path Identifiers (VPIs) and Virtual Channel Identifiers (VCIs) that have been registered beforehand. That is, a list of all VPIs/VCIs that correspond to a plurality of subscriber premises connected to the network element have been previously recorded in the registered VPI/VCI generator 102. When a physical layer alarm is indicated, the registered VPI/VCI generator 102 outputs the VPIs of all virtual paths (VPs) to be affected by the alarm. Similarly, when a VP-AIS cell is detected, the registered VPI/VCI generator 102 supplies the VPIs/VCIs of all virtual channels (VCs) that belong to a VP indicated in the detected VP-AIS cell.
When a physical layer alarm is detected, an OAM cell generator 103 creates OAM cells for VP-AIS (i.e., VP-AIS cell), using the VPIs received from the registered VPI/VCI generator 102, to alert the other network elements of the failure of all VPs related to the physical layer alarm. When in turn a VP-AIS cell is detected, the OAM cell generator 103 creates another kind of OAM cells, or Virtual Channel Alarm Indication Signal (VC-AIS) cells, based on the VPIs received from the registered VPI/VCI generator 102, to signify the failure of all VCs that belong to the failed VP.
An OAM cell switch 104 inserts the OAM cells created by the OAM cell generator 103 into the ATM cell stream. As for the OAM cells in the case of physical layer alarms, the OAM cell switch 104 can simply insert them into the traffic since there are no other valid cells flowing as a cell stream. In the case of VP-AIS cells, however, the OAM cell switch 104 should find idle cells in the cell stream and put the OEM cells in place of the idle cells found.
Separately from the above-described path, each ATM cell is subjected to a VPI/VCI extractor 105 to extract its VPI/VCI fields for verification in an incoming VPI/VCI verifier 106. The incoming VPI/VCI verifier 106 has the records of VPIs and VCIs corresponding to the subscriber premises connected to the network element, just as the registered VPI/VCI generator 102 has. The incoming VPI/VCI verifier 106 verifies each VPI/VCI extracted by the VPI/VCI extractor 105 by comparing it with the records registered therein. If there is such a VPI/VCI record that coincides with the extracted VPI/VCI, the incoming VPI/VCI verifier 106 recognizes the ATM cell as being addressed to one of the subscriber premises connected to the network element, and it will attach a single-bit flag to the 53-byte ATM cell to indicate the coincidence of VPI/VCI.
As described above, the conventional OAM processing devices are equipped with a memory in both the registered VPI/VCI generator 102 and incoming VPI/VCI verifier 106 to store VPIs/VCIs corresponding to the subscriber premises connected to the present network element. The VPI/VCI bit length is 24-bit maximum, and the number of VPs and VCs actually increases as the network element has more physical links. To support this full range of VPIs/VCIs, the registered VPI/VCI generator 102 and incoming VPI/VCI verifier 106 must have a large amount of VPI/VCI storage. This VPI/VCI storage requirement leads to an increased scale of memory circuits, which makes the OEM processing device larger and more power consuming. It is therefore desirable to unify the functions of the registered VPI/VCI generator 102 and incoming VPI/VCI verifier 106 so that they can share a common set of VPI/VCI records.
Meanwhile, to perform ATM switching at the network element, some VPI/VCI conversion tables to translate the VPI/VCI of each ATM cell to new one and means for replacing its header information must be disposed immediately next to the registered VPI/VCI generator 102 and to the incoming VPI/VCI verifier 106. Since this duplexity of VPI/VCI conversion tables will increase the scale of the control circuit, it is also desirable to develop some techniques to unify those functions.
The OAM processing device comprises three major functional units as: alarm handler unit, performance monitor (PM) unit, and usage parameter control (UPC) unit. In conventional OAM processing devices, those units have their own circuit block to extract and verify the VPI/VCI of incoming ATM cells. Furthermore, they individually check the range of the VPI/VCI of each incoming ATM cell based on a predetermined range definition. Such functional duplexity is another factor to increase the scale of the control circuit.
The PM unit provides performance monitoring and measurement functions, where a large amount of measurement data should be collected at predetermined PM block intervals (i.e., time slots for measurement defined by two consecutive PM cells) separately for each VP/VC channel. Actually, the conventional OAM processing devices have a large memory to store the measurement data and a processor to summarize the measurement data for individual VP/VC channels by summing up the data for all PM blocks. This memory requirement makes it difficult to reduce the circuit size and power consumption. Further, since the heavy calculation load is imposed on the processor, it is unable to support enough VP/VC channels.


The invention relates to gel-form cosmetic preparations containing    (a) 5 to 50% by weight of surfactants;    (b) 5 to 50% by weight of oils and/or waxes;    (c) 0 to 15% by weight of water-soluble polyols; andcomponent (a) contains at least 10% by weight, based on component (a) as a whole, of a mixture of citric acid esters of alkoxylated alcohols and the sum of components (a) and (b) in the preparation as a whole being from 10 to 70% by weight.

Water-based surfactant formulations normally have a very limited uptake capacity for care components, such as oils and waxes. If the transparency and the thermodynamic stability of the surfactant formulation are to be maintained, only small quantities of oils or waxes can be incorporated, based on the weight of the surfactant. An exception are microemulsions of which some allow the incorporation of more than 100% by weight of oils, based on surfactant. However, microemulsions are low in viscosity while their stability is highly temperature-dependent according to the type of surfactant used. The low viscosity of microemulsions seriously restricts their scope of application in cosmetic products, because a high viscosity is required for feel and for application of the cosmetic product to the body.
The use of the usual thickeners also involves disadvantages because they can be deposited on the skin and hair and the thickened preparations often do not have the required stability.
Accordingly, the problem addressed by the present invention was to provide cosmetic surfactant-containing gel formulations which would contain oil and/or waxes and which would be stable without the use of thickeners. The gels would have high dimensional stability and would be transparent or slightly opaque in appearance. In addition, they would have a very good feeling on the skin.

Oil-containing surfactant gels comprising a mixture of ethoxylated citric acid esters


A light control apparatus for a vehicle may include: an operation unit configured to receive a selection for an auto-light function; a control unit configured to determine whether or not a light operation condition is satisfied based on position information provided from a GPS module and plural pieces of information for operating a light unit, received through a wireless communication module, and output a light operating signal according to the determination result, when the auto-light function is selected through the operation unit; and a light control unit configured to operate a light unit according to the light operating signal provided from the control unit.

The present invention relates to a light control apparatus and method for a vehicle, and more particularly, to a light control apparatus and method for a vehicle, which automatically controls a vehicle light according to the brightness of the road ahead of the vehicle and the road condition, using a navigation system.
In general, an auto-light function of a vehicle light transmits light amount data sensed through an optical sensor to a control unit and controls a light unit according to a determination result. Such a function has an advantage in that the vehicle light may be automatically controlled according to the change of light. However, since the optical sensor responds to only a preset value, the vehicle light is controlled in several seconds after the vehicle suddenly enters a tunnel or dark place. Thus, the stability of the vehicle light may be degraded.
For example, when an underground road way or mountain tunnel exists in front of the vehicle, the underground road way or mountain tunnel cannot be detected through the optical sensor in advance. Thus, the vehicle light is operated after the vehicle enters the underground road way or mountain tunnel and the surroundings become dark. In this case, since a driver has difficulties in securing a clear view in advance, the driver may feel inconvenience.
Furthermore, depending on the age, sex, or taste of each driver, a desired light on-off time may differ. However, the auto-light function is uniformly operated. Thus, although a vehicle is equipped with the auto-light function, the driver may feel inconvenience while manually operating the vehicle light.
For example, a driver having a bad night vision may want to turn on a vehicle light more quickly when the sun sets in the west. However, since the auto-light function using an optical sensor is operated only under a preset brightness condition, the reliability of the auto-light function may be degraded.
Thus, there is a demand for the development of an apparatus which predicts the change in brightness of the road ahead, varies a light control time, and flexibly controls a vehicle light according to a driver's taste.
The related art of the present invention is disclosed in Korean Patent Laid-open Publication No. 10-2013-0112116 published on Oct. 14, 2013 and entitled "Head lamp control system for vehicle and control method thereof".

Light control apparatus and method for vehicle


A mobile device and a control method thereof are disclosed. The control method of the mobile device includes receiving device information from at least one external device, detecting at least one controllable external device based on the received device information, and switching the mobile device to a sharing standby mode when the mobile device is charging or when an input to the mobile device is not sensed for a predetermined time. The mobile device in the sharing standby mode may switch to a personal mode or a sharing mode based on whether mobile device receives a personal authentication input.

1. Technical Field
The present specification relates to a mobile device and a control method thereof.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
FIG. 1 is a view showing various use examples of a mobile device.
As shown in FIG. 1, utilization of a mobile device has increased as the mobile device has larger number of functions. For example, as shown in the left side of FIG. 1, the mobile device may be used for telephone conversation. Reception/transmission of a call and reception/transmission of a message performed by the mobile device are general functions of the mobile device.
In addition, for example, as shown in the right side of FIG. 1, the mobile device may be used to control various external devices. In particular, various external devices may be accessible to the Internet based on technology of the Internet of Things (IoT). Consequently, the mobile device may access the Internet to control various external devices. In addition, the mobile device may control external devices using near field communication (NFC), WiFi, WiDi, or infrared communication based on technology of Ubiquitous Computing in addition to the Internet.
As previously described, utilization of the mobile device has further increased. In addition, many people own at least one mobile device as the result of miniaturization of the mobile device. The mobile device may store an address book and received messages. For this reason, it is necessary to protect privacy. That is, the mobile device corresponds to a personal possession of one individual.
As shown in the right side of FIG. 1, on the other hand, the external devices, which may be controlled using the mobile device, may not be personal possessions of one individual. For example, in a case in which a television is installed in a home, all members of a family may have right to access the television. Consequently, the other members of the family as well as the owner of the mobile device may wish to control the television using the mobile device. However, the use of the mobile device by the other members of the family may intrude on a privacy of the owner of the mobile device. Since demand for protection of privacy and demand for sharing the mobile device conflict with each other, it is difficult to promote control of external devices using the mobile device.

Mobile device and control method thereof


Tilt bin storage systems including a discrete multi-storey open front tilt bin frame having a single rectangular front frame surface and at least a lowermost storey of tilt bins and an uppermost storey of tilt bins. The tilt bins include a tilt bin shell, a discrete tilt bin handles and a securing arrangement for securing a discrete tilt bin handle on the tilt bin shell on downward sliding of the discrete tilt bin handle on a tilt bin shell front surface.

Commercially available tilt bin storage systems range from a discrete single storey open front tilt bin frame of two or more side-by-side tilt bin compartments for individually snugly accommodating open-topped tilt bins to complete storage systems including wall high rows of side-by-side open topped tilt bins. Open topped tilt bins have a generally cuboid shape tilt bin shell and an integral tilt bin handle protruding from a tilt bin shell front surface for enabling a convenient pivot action from an upright closed position to a tilted forward open position for providing user access to its interior. Open-topped tilt bins are typically formed from clear transparent plastic material such that a user can readily view their contents. Tilt bin storage systems are preferably transported with the discrete tilt bin frames pre-fitted with tilt bins to economize on transportation and storage costs. But the forward protruding integral tilt bin handles are prone to damage and breakage during transportation and storage. U.S. Design Patent No. 680,333 to Edwards shows a tilt bin front cover for snap fit on a tilt bin front surface.
One particular commercially successful tilt bin storage system is a so-called 669 tilt bin storage system including two discrete single storey tilt bin frames each having six tilt bins and a discrete single storey tilt frame having nine tilt bins. The three discrete single storey tilt bin frames are intended to be neatly stacked as a cubby hole structure either directly wall mounted or preferably wall mounted by means of a kit for assembling a rigid support structure as disclosed in commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 8,714,372 to Yogev. Directly wall mounting three discrete single storey tilt bin frames is a time consuming task and requires considerable skill to ensure they are neatly stacked.
Such stacking necessarily requires the three discrete single storey tilt bin frames to have the same width and consequently the width of the side-by-side tilt bin compartments of the discrete single storey tilt bin frame with nine tilt bin compartments is narrower than the width of the side-by-side tilt bin compartments of the two discrete single storey tilt bin frames with six tilt bin compartments. As a further consequence, since the tilt bins are generally cuboid and tilt bin compartments snugly accommodate same, the height and depth of the side-by-side tilt bin compartments of the discrete single storey tilt bin frame with nine tilt bin compartments are smaller than the corresponding dimensions of the side-by-side tilt bin compartments of the two discrete single storey tilt bin frames with six tilt bin compartments. Accordingly, users typically wall mount a 669 tilt bin storage system with the tilt bin frame with nine tilt bins on top of the tilt bin frames each with six tilt bins which leads to the uppermost tilt bin frame with nine tilt bins being set back with respect to the tilt bin frames with six tilt bins thereby inconveniencing user access to the nine tilt bins.

Tilt bin for use in a tilt bin storage system


A framework made of frame pieces for a switchgear cabinet, wherein the frame pieces are preferably laterally reversed in relation to their cross-sectional diagonal and have profiled sides perpendicular to the outer sides of the framework and have fastening recesses. In an area of an inner side, the profiled sides end in sections that form a recess for fastening mounting rails. By combining several known and novel features, a framework having easily manufactured frame pieces is created which optimally meets all requirements for use with a switchgear cabinet.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a rack made of frame legs for a switchgear cabinet, wherein the frame legs are preferably embodied mirror-reversed with respect to a cross-sectional diagonal line and have profile sides, which extend vertically with respect to exteriors of the rack, have fastening receptacles and in an area of an interior make a transition into sections which constitute a receptacle for fastening mounting rails.
2. Description of Prior Art
A rack of this type is known from German Patent Reference DE 43 36 204 A1, wherein the receptacle is bordered by sections of the frame leg which extend vertically with respect to profile sides of the frame legs and form a receptacle for mounting rails which are essentially square in cross section.
Frame legs for racks of a switchgear cabinet are known in the most varied cross-sectional shapes, as is also disclosed in German Patent References DE 40 36 664 A1, DE 41 32 803 A1, DE 81 07 658 U1 and DE 87 03 695 U1.
The frame legs in accordance with German Patent References DE 40 36 664 A1 and DE 81 07 658 U1 have receiving grooves for sealing elements on the outsides of the rack.
It is known from German Patent References DE 41 32 803 A1 and DE 87 03 695 U1 to attach connecting sections at an angle of 135.degree. to the sections constituting the exteriors of the rack, which are connected with the profile sides by profile sections extending vertically above the profile sides.
Respectively different profile sections extending parallel and vertically with respect to the profile sides forming the exterior, which are oriented toward the interior of the rack and have fastening receivers, are shown in German Patent References DE 81 07 658 U1 and DE 87 03 695 U1.
All these known racks put together from frame legs more or less meet the requirements made on a switchgear cabinet. In one case the sealed attachment of the sheathing elements on the rack is improved, while in another case the fastening opportunities on the interior of the rack are used and made easier. The beveling of the exterior edges results in a receptacle for the bevels of sheathing elements and space for hinge and locking elements.


An RF-photonics integrated communications module including: a plurality of RF input channels; a plurality of modulators each being responsive to one of the RF input channels; and, a plurality of photonic output channels coupled to the modulators via a switching network. The switching network includes a plurality of resonating elements coupled between the modulators and the output channels to selectively apply outputs of the modulators to the output channels.

Broadband analog or subcarrier multiplexed digital networks with rapid data switching capability, are necessary for commercial telecommunications and for government applications such as communications among the various units in envisioned combat systems using lightweight, agile robotic ground units and unmanned vehicles. The implementation of such capabilities using ordinary electronic switching systems is bulky, slow, and cumbersome. Photonics switching is superior to electronic for handling large data blocks, and has the potential to advantageously offer compact size (integrated on a single chip), low power consumption, and adaptability to low-cost mass fabrication.                Standing in stark contrast to the revolution in digital networks, there presently exists no adequate technology for transmission, grooming, and switching of high-frequency (multi-GHz) RF data. The present invention addresses this need for advanced electronic and optical communications for commercial and for warfare systems.
Accordingly, a premium is now being and in the future is likely to be placed on light-weight and compact and RF and RF-subcarrier multiplexed digital networking components, strongly favoring an RF-photonic solution.


A system facilitates the purchase of telecommunication services from a variety of service providers. The system receives a request for purchasing at least one telecommunication service from a buyer via a buyer terminal, provides the request to a group of seller terminals corresponding to a group of the service providers, and receives a reply from the seller terminals in response to the request. The system then provides the replies to the buyer terminal, receives a selection from the buyer terminal in response to the replies, and notifies a service provider of the selection and an identity of the buyer.

Traditionally, telecommunication services, such as local, long distance, Internet, cellular services, etc., have been bought and sold through the interaction of people. Typically, the buy-sell process takes one of two forms: (1) a buyer determines the necessary telecommunication service requirements and contacts one or more sellers of these services; or (2) a seller proactively solicits the buyer, who may or may not be ready to purchase the services.
For larger-sized companies, the service requirements are usually complex and the buyer sophisticated. Therefore, the first form typically predominates (i.e., a buyer initiates the communication with a seller in these instances). For small and medium-sized companies, as well as for consumers, the service requirements are usually much less complex and the buyer less sophisticated. Therefore, the second form typically predominates. The seller contacts the buyer via different methods, such as door-to-door canvassing, telemarketing, direct mailing, advertising, etc.
There are two apparent problems with the conventional buy-sell process. First, buyers are at a disadvantage because there is no easy way for them to find information regarding the different types of services offered by sellers or to obtain the best pricing without a great deal of effort. As a result, buyers do not know whether they are getting the best possible deal from the seller. In other words, the seller usually controls the buy-sell process.
Second, sellers typically have to exert much money and effort in the form of advertising and staff to solicit business from buyers. A substantial part of the price of telecommunication services is driven by these factors.
Therefore, there is a need to level the playing field for the purchase of telecommunication services by allowing buyers to have more control in the buy-sell process, and a need to reduce the expense incurred by sellers to contact buyers ready to purchase their services.

System and methods for buying and selling telecommunication services via a network


An arrangement for the lateral positioning of a recording medium (100) in a printer or photocopier comprises a scanning arrangement (S) for establishing the ACTUAL position of the recording medium and a motor-drivable roll arrangement consisting of a counter-roll (201) and a pressure roll (205) which can be pivoted onto and away from the counter-roll (201), between which rolls the recording medium is guided. Furthermore, an apparatus (E) is provided for the controllable adjusting of the pressing force at the feed roll (205) on the counter-roll (201) along its roll length, and a control arrangement (P) which registers the ACTUAL position of the recording medium (100) via the scanning arrangement (S) and adjusts the pressing force of the feed roll (205) via the said apparatus (E) as a function of a predeterminable REFERENCE position. The arrangement is used preferably in the fuser station of an electro-photographic printer for the controllable lateral positioning of the recording medium (100).

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an arrangement for the lateral positioning of a recording medium in a printer or photocopier, preferably an arrangement for the positioning of endless paper in the fuser, or fixer, station of an electrophotographic printer.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is customary to use endless paper with transportation perforations in high speed non-mechanical printing apparatuses which operate by the electrophotographic or magnetic principle. In this case, the endless paper is withdrawn from a stack, transported through a transfer station with the aid of tractors engaging in the edge perforations and thereby coated with a layer of toner depending on the characters to be printed. The layer of toner situated on the recording medium is then thermally fused in a fuser station. A fuser station of this type is known, for example, from U.S. Pat. No. 4,147,922. For this purpose, the fuser station comprises in a customary manner an electric, heated fuser roller and a feed roller which can be pivoted onto and away from the fuser roller. In this case, the recording medium must be guided precisely through the fuser station without movement relative to the fuser roller. As s result of the design, the fuser station is arranged at a relatively large spacing from the transfer station and the paper tractors situated there which guide and transport the web of paper. There is thus the risk of the web of paper migrating horizontally in the fuser station during the printing operation. This can lead to tensioning of the web of paper and, with high transport speeds, to a tear in the paper.
Additionally, non-mechanical printing apparatuses must be designed in such a way that they can process webs of recording media of different widths. With these, it is necessary to design the fuser station with the rollers arranged therein in accordance with the greatest width of recording medium. Regions of the fuser roller or of the feed roller in the fuser station which do not come into contact with the recording medium heat up locally more intensely than the actual contact regions with the recording medium because the recording medium withdraws heat from the fuser roller in the fusing region during the fusing operation. This leads to a heat-dependent different diameter of the feed roller which generally consists of elastic material. As a result, the recording medium is deflected horizontally.
It has therefore proved necessary to monitor the lateral position of the recording medium precisely when it enters the fuser station in order to be able to intervene, if necessary, in the control of the fuser.
However, the problem of precise controllable guidance of recording media is present not only in electrophotographic printers and photocopiers. Even with other printing apparatuses which operate, for example, with inking units, it is necessary to position the recording medium precisely, at least in the printing region.
For positioning the recording media in printing apparatuses, it is customary to use electrically adjustable mechanical guide elements in the paper duct of the printing apparatus, the scanning of the ACTUAL position of the recording media likewise taking place via mechanical contact elements.
For scanning the position of the recording media, it is known from the IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, Vol. 23, No. 7a, December 1980 and from European Patent 0 031 137 to use optoelectronic scanning apparatuses.
A further problem consists in the scanning of the ACTUAL position of the recording media with the aid of such optoelectronic scanning apparatuses. In modern electrophotographic and magnetic printers, different recording medium materials can be used regardless of the scope of application. These recording media can consist, for example, of strongly reflecting white paper or a film with a metallized surface or even of transparent plastic film. In all these cases, it is difficult due to the different transparency of the materials used to scan the edge of the recording medium or its transportation perforations using an optoelectronic scanner.

Arrangement for the lateral positioning of a recording medium in a printer or photocopier


The present invention relates to heating systems for drying wet coatings such as printing inks, paint, sealants, etc. applied to a substrate. In particular, the invention relates to a drying system in which a blower having an inlet directs a current of heated gas such as air towards a wet coating on a substrate to dry the coating and wherein the heated air is circulated back to the inlet of the blower once the air impinges the coating on the substrate. The present invention also relates to a drying system in which the substrate is supported about a thermally conductive roll having a plurality of energy emitters disposed within the conductive roll along a length of the conductive roll. The plurality of energy emitters are controlled to selectively emit energy along the length of the conductive roll. The dryer system preferably includes means for sensing temperatures of the roll along the length of the conductive roll, wherein the energy emitted by the energy emitters along the length of the roll varies based upon the sensed temperatures along the length of the roll.

The present invention relates to heating systems for drying wet coatings such as printing inks, pant, sealants, etc. applied to a substrate. In particular, the invention relates to a drying system in which a blower having an inlet directs a current of heated gas such as air towards a wet coating on a substrate to dry the coating and wherein the heated air is circulated back to the inlet of the blower once the air impinges the coating on the substrate. The present invention also relates to a drying system in which the substrate is supported about a thermally conductive roll having a plurality of energy emitters disposed within the conductive roll along a length of the conductive roll. The plurality of energy emitters are controlled to selectively emit energy along the length of the conductive roll. The dryer system preferably includes means for sensing temperatures of the roll along the length of the conductive roll, wherein the energy emitted by the energy emitters along the length of the roll varies based upon the sensed temperatures along the length of the roll.
Coatings, such as printing inks, are commonly applied to substrates such as paper, foil or polymers. Because the coatings often are applied in a liquid form to the substrate, the coatings must be dried while on the substrate. Drying the liquid coatings is typically performed by either liquid vaporization or radiation-induced polymerization depending upon the characteristics of the coating applied to the substrate.
Water or solvent based coatings are typically dried using liquid vaporization. Drying the wet water-based or solvent-based coatings on the substrate requires converting the base of the coating, either a water or a solvent, into a vapor and removing the vapor latent air from the area adjacent the substrate. For the base within the coatings to be converted to a vapor state, the coatings must absorb energy. The rate at which the state change occurs and hence the speed at which the coating is dried upon the substrate depends on the pressure and rate at which energy can be absorbed by the coating. Because it is generally impractical to increase drying speeds by decreasing pressure, increasing the drying speed requires increasing the rate at which energy is absorbed by the coating.
Liquid vaporization dryers typically use convection, radiation, conduction or a combination of the three to apply energy to the coating and the substrate to dry the coating on the substrate. With convection heating, a gas, such as relatively dry air, is heated to a desired temperature and blown onto the coating and the substrate. The amount of heat transferred to the substrate and coating is dependent upon both the velocity and the angle of the air being blown onto the substrate and the temperature difference between the air and the substrate. At a higher velocity and a more perpendicular angle of attack, the air blown onto the substrate will transfer a greater amount of heat to the substrate. Moreover, the amount of heat transferred to the substrate will also increase as the temperature difference between the air and the substrate increases. However, once the substrate obtains a temperature equal to that of the temperature of the air, heat transfer terminates. In other words, the substrate will not get hotter than the air. Thus, the temperature of the air being heated can be limited to a level that is safe for the substrate.
Although controllable, convection heating is thermally inefficient. Because air, as well as nitrogen, have very low heat capacities, high volumes of air are required to transfer heat. Moreover, because the heated air blown onto the coating and substrate is typically allowed to escape once the heated air impinges upon the coating and the substrate, conventional drying systems employing convection heating typically use extremely large amounts of energy to continuously heat a large volume of outside ambient air to an elevated temperature in order to provide the high volumes of flow required for heat transfer. Because convection heating requires extremely large amounts of energy, drying costs are high.
Radiation heating occurs when two objects at different temperatures in sight are in view of one another. In contrast to convection heating, radiation heating transfers heat by electromagnetic waves. Radiation heating is typically performed by directing infrared rays at the coating and substrate. The infrared radiation is typically produced by enclosing electrical resistors within a tube of transparent quartz or translucent silica and bringing the electrical resistors to a red heat to emit a radiation of wavelengths from 10,000 to 30,000 angstrom units. The tubes typically extend along an entire width of the substrate.
The last method of applying energy to a coating and a substrate is through the use of conduction. Conductive heating of the coating and substrate is typically achieved by advancing a continuous substrate web about a thermally conductive roll or drum. Hot oil or steam is injected into the drum to heat the drum. As a result, the heated drum conducts heat to the substrate in contact with the drum. Because the drum must be configured so as to contain the hot oil or high pressure steam, the drum or roll is extremely complex and expensive to manufacture. In addition, because of the large mass of the drum required to accommodate the oil or high pressure steam, the dryer system employing the drum often requires a complex drive mechanism for rotating the heavy drums or rolls. This complex drive mechanism also increases the cost of the drying system. Moreover, because the oil or hot steam uniformly heats the thermally conductive drum across its entire length, the thermally conductive drum uniformly conducts energy or heat along the entire width of the substrate in contact with the drum regardless of varying drying requirements along the width of the substrate due to varying substrate and coating characteristics along the width of the substrate. As a result, portions of the substrate which do not contain wet coatings or which contain coatings that have already been dried unnecessarily receive excessive heat energy which is wasted. Conversely, other portions of the substrate containing large amounts of wet coatings may receive an insufficient amount of heat energy, resulting in extremely long drying times or offsetting of the wet coatings onto surfaces which come in contact with the wet coatings.


Boot methods for use in a computer system. The computer system boots from a partition comprising an OS in hibernation mode. The OS exits the hibernation mode to a normal operating mode according to a hibernation file, and marks the hibernation file. The marked hibernation file is modified to the original hibernation file, and access to the partition returns to being monitored. If a write request to the partition is received, the data is discarded or written to another partition or a system memory of the computer system, and a write completion message is replied. If the computer system reboots, the OS also returns to the normal operating mode according to the original hibernation file.

1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates generally to boot management, and, more particularly to boot methods, computer systems, and production methods thereof.
2. Brief Discussion of the Related Art
With the development of IT (Information Technology), computer systems are widely used by enterprises and individuals. In a conventional boot procedure, POST (Power On Self Test) operations are first performed after a computer system is powered on. Then, BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) is loaded to perform hardware detection and related initializations thereto. Then, BIOS retrieves partition information in MBR (Master Boot Record), finds an active and primary partition therein, and transfers an execution right to the partition. A boot loader in the partition boots the computer system according to a normal boot procedure of the OS (Operating System), entering the computer system into a working state. Generally, the normal boot procedure requires 30 seconds to several minutes.
Additionally, in addition to conventional functions that a computer can provide, most computer systems have integrated many additional functions for the purpose of entertainment. In practice, when users use a computer system for multimedia, the computer system functions solely as an electronic multimedia device, and is expected to boot speedily. Conventionally, the computer system must boot according to the normal boot procedure, and execute related application programs to play multimedia. The normal boot procedure of the computer system takes a long time, loading numerous application programs and drivers and enabling initial settings. In another conventional procedure, related application programs and peripheral hardware corresponding to the specified multimedia functions are triggered by BIOS, and controlled to play back by a specific micro-controller. The software/firmware, however, is dependent on the hardware, and must be designed for respective hardware. Therefore, commercial and popular application programs on the market cannot be applied directly, resulting in high cost and low flexibility.
Further, users always turn off electronic multimedia devices directly. The computer system, however, requires a specific procedure to turn off, without which, data or OS in the partition may be damaged. Unfortunately, no mechanism is provided to protect the computer system.

Boot methods, computer systems, and production methods thereof


A suture pledget assembly is disclosed that includes a block with at least one slit and a pledget in an abutting relationship to the block. A suture has first and second end portions that are retained by the first and second slits, respectively. The first and second end portions generally extend beyond a face of the block and are substantially parallel to each other. A suture pledget package for retaining a suture is disclosed. The suture pledget package includes a front panel and a backing panel where the backing panel forms a plurality of tracks. Each track is configured and dimensioned to receive at least one suture pledget assembly.

The use of pledgets in combination with sutures is known. Packages for suture and pledget combinations are also known. An example of a package for retaining surgical devices is disclosed in commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 5,123,528, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety. Pledgets are generally buttressing pads through which a suture can be threaded, used in conjunction with sutures to disperse the suture's holding force over a larger surface area.


In an arc detector, a frequency analyzer analyzes frequency components of a current subject to detection in a first frequency band. A detector detects an occurrence of an arc by referring to the frequency components in the first frequency band. When the detector does not detect the occurrence of an arc by referring to the frequency components in the first frequency band, the frequency analyzer analyzes frequency components of the current subject to detection in a second frequency band lower than the first frequency band, and the detector detects the occurrence of an arc by referring to the frequency components in the second frequency band.

In a solar power generation system, an arc may occur due to a damage to wirings, terminals, etc. In the event that an arc occurs, it is preferred to cut off a circuit promptly. For this reason, an arc detector is used to detect an arc. For example, patent document 1 discloses an arc detector adapted to detect a current flowing in the wirings and detect the occurrence of an arc when the frequency components of the detected current around 10-100 kHz are higher than a threshold value.
[patent document 1] JP2016-151514

Arc detection device and arc detection method

PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.