An automatic lighting system and method for a vehicle are provided and the automatic lighting system includes a sun visor switch operated by a controller and configured to be turned on when a sun visor is lowered and turned off when the sun visor is raised. A mirror cover sensor detects an opened state or a closed state of a mirror cover while the sun visor is lowered, and the mirror cover covers a mirror attached to the sun visor. In addition, an interior lamp that includes at least one light-emitting diode (LED) is operated by the controller to be turned off when a vehicle runs and turned on when the vehicle stops while the mirror cover is opened.

(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic lighting system and method for a vehicle.
(b) Description of the Related Art
A sun visor for a vehicle is installed on each of the upper sides of a driver seat and a passenger seat to provide shade from sunlight. To improve convenience, a mirror is attached to the inner side of the sun visor, and a lamp that interlocks with the sun visor is installed on the roof of the vehicle for use of the mirror in the dark. Thus, the sun visor may be used to provide shade from sunlight and provides the mirror. A lamp that interlocks with a sun visor of the related art may be automatically turned on when the sun visor is lowered or may be turned on when a switch is operated after the sun visor is lowered.
However, according to the related art, when a vehicle is running and the sun visor is lowered, light from the lamp may distract a driver, thereby preventing safe driving. In addition, the sun visor may be raised while the vehicle is being driven and may be lowered when the mirror is no longer being used, which may cause frequent operation and disruption to the driver. Therefore, since an ON or OFF operation on the switch is additionally required, concentration of a driver may be degraded.
The above information disclosed in this section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.

Automatic lighting system and method for vehicle


An electric drive unit for generating an oscillating movement, having a stator, a rotor, a torsion element and a tuning element. The tuning element acts upon the torsion element and serves to mechanically tune the resonant frequency of the drive unit.

Drive units for generating an oscillating movement are used, for example, in electric toothbrushes or electric razors. For example, Pat. No. DE 28 20 437 A1 discloses an electric toothbrush with an oscillating armature motor. The oscillating armature motor is used for realizing an oscillating rotational movement of a shaft that carries a brush element. The rotational movements are influenced by torsion springs and damping elements such that a desired motion sequence is adjusted.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,613,259 discloses an oscillating appliance in the form of an electric toothbrush. This appliance features a mechanical oscillator that is driven by an electric motor. The electric motor is controlled in dependence on the oscillating frequency of the mechanical oscillator that is determined by means of a sensor, such that the mechanical oscillator remains resonant under a varying load. The mechanical oscillator is realized in the form of a spring-mass system that may comprise a coil spring or a torsion rod. In order to achieve a substantially optimal operation of the electric drive unit for generating an oscillating movement, the drive unit should be excited with a frequency that substantially corresponds or lies close to its resonant frequency. However, the resonant frequency not only changes with the load of the drive unit, but is also detuned due to manufacturing tolerances associated with series production. Although regulating the excitation frequency can compensate for this detuning, such control results in increased manufacturing costs. Moreover, changing the excitation frequency is undesirable in certain applications.

Electric drive unit for generating an oscillating displacement


To be able to support the efficient handling of problems during maintenance. A management board determines an accomplishment sequence of handling manipulation for failures on a maintenance target. The management board includes a CPU, memory, and a storage device. The memory or the storage device stores: condition information associating the handling manipulation with a condition concerning at least accomplishment or non-accomplishment of the manipulation; and failure handling information that associates a failure occurring on the maintenance target with the handling manipulation. The CPU is configured to determine the accomplishment sequence of the handling manipulations so that multiple handling manipulations for multiple failures occurring on the maintenance target satisfy the condition.

The present invention relates to a maintenance support apparatus, for example, to support maintenance of a maintenance target instrument.
For example, an administrator maintains a storage apparatus targeted at maintenance in a calculator system. Such an administrator is required to have a higher level of knowledge about the storage apparatus.
However, it may be difficult to acquire an administrator having a higher level of knowledge. Therefore, there is a need for a mechanism that enables even an administrator not having sufficient knowledge to perform proper maintenance.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. Hei 10 (1998)-187232 discloses a technology that assigns importance to each alert, and preferentially displays the alert corresponding to high importance as well as a method for handling the alert.

Maintenance support device, maintenance support method, and maintenance support program


An image display including an image substrate and a support structure. The image substrate has an image printed on a first surface. The support structure can include a front sheet and a plurality of side strips extending from the front sheet. The image substrate can be adhered to an external surface of the front sheet so that the front sheet forms a rigid backing for the image substrate. A variety of image substrates are provided.

Wooden stretcher frames for mounting painted or printed images have heretofore been provided. Image substrates for use with such frames include artist's canvas. The image substrate is typically stretched over the wooden stretcher frame, secured to the backside of the frame with staples or other hardware, and externally folded at the corners of the frame. Other support structures not constructed from wood, but when having an image substrate mounted thereon have the appearance of a wooden stretcher bar frame, have been additionally provided. Unfortunately, such support structures are typically expensive or do not provide a mounted image that is professional in appearance. Additionally, such artist's canvases are expensive.
There is a need for new support structures and image substrates that address such disadvantages.


A machine is operated by a programmable controller that executes a ladder logic control program. A custom ladder logic processor is provided for high speed execution of the more common ladder logic instructions and a microprocessor interprets the remaining ladder logic instructions. A first section of memory contains a ladder logic control program in which some of the instructions are macro instructions executable by the ladder logic processor. Each macro instruction specifies an operation code, a first memory file containing data to be processed by the macro instruction, a second memory file containing control data governing the processing, and a storage location for results produced by execution of the macro instruction. Another memory section stores a library file containing a ladder logic software routine for each macro instruction, and stores a directory which identifies a starting location of the macro instruction routine for each operation code. When a macro instruction is encountered in the control program, the corresponding ladder logic software routine is executed. During the execution of the routine data is obtained from the first memory file and the results are placed in the storage location. At the completion of the ladder logic software routine, execution of the control program resumes.

A programmable controller is a type of general purpose industrial computer which controls the operation of manufacturing equipment, such as an assembly line or a machine tool, in accordance with a stored program. The program comprises a series of process control instructions which are read out and executed to examine the condition of selected sensing devices on the controlled equipment, and to energize or deenergize selected operating devices contingent upon the status of one or more of the examined sensing devices.
The state of many sensing and operating devices can be represented by a single bit of data which is manipulated by the control program instructions. Other devices, such as position sensors, provide multiple bits of data representing a condition of the equipment being controlled. For these latter devices, instructions are provided to manipulate bytes and words of data representing the state of the sensing and operating devices. Additional program instructions perform arithmetic operations, timing and counting functions, and complex statistical reporting operations. These instructions have become quite standardized in the industry and are directly associated with the elements of a ladder logic diagram which is easily understood by process control engineers. Program panels such as those described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,808,612; 3,813,649 and 4,070,702 have been developed to assist the user in developing and editing ladder logic control programs comprised of such programmable controller instructions.
As the need developed to control ever more complex manufacturing processes, the programmable controller and its set of instructions became more elaborate. A processor module which executed the instructions became divided into two different processor circuits, such as a Boolean logic processor for manipulating single bits of input and output data and a microprocessor for performing more complex arithmetic and logic operations. The Boolean logic processor directly executed a subset of the ladder logic instruction set. The microprocessor executed an interpreter program that contained a series of machine language routines for performing the functions defined by the remaining ladder logic program instructions. An example of this type of programmable controller is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,165,534.
This evolution of the programmable controller also provided the main ladder logic program with the capability of calling a ladder logic subroutine. The subroutine was designated in the ladder diagram by inserting an operation block which had a fixed operation code (e.g. JSR) and which specified a unique program file that contained the instructions of the subroutine. In order to pass data from the main ladder logic program to the subroutine, the programmer has to specify each item of data in the subroutine operation block. Each time the subroutine was called from the main program, the parameters were copied sequentially one by one into a parameter list defined in the subroutine. A similar definition and copying process is required to transfer the results of the subroutine to the main ladder logic program. This dual copying process was relatively time consuming.
Previously each subroutine was stored in the programmable controller as a separate program file. Many programmable controllers have a limit on the number of program files which can be stored and accessed. As a consequence, the use of many subroutines could significantly reduce the number of program files available for other routines.
The need also developed to provide custom functions and ladder logic instructions for specific industries and certain types of industrial equipment. It is expensive and time consuming to redesign the processor hardware and software for each unique need. Thus it is often impractical to create special ladder logic instructions for each segment of the programmable controller market. To satisfy this need programmable controllers were developed that can execute a custom application routine written in machine language instructions and called from the ladder logic control program, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,302,820. Although this technique can be used effectively to provide custom, complex functionality to a conventional programmable controller, the transition to and from the execution of the machine language program consumed relatively long processing time as control had to be transferred from the ladder logic processor to the microprocessor. In addition, an end user accustomed to programming with ladder diagrams had difficulty preparing the custom application routines which had to be written in machine language instructions.

Programmable controller with ladder diagram macro instructions


An applanation tonometer for measuring intraocular pressure (IOP) so that the health of a human or animal eye can be determined. The applanation tonometer includes a prism having a contact tip at one end to be moved into contact with and lightly touched against the cornea or the eye. Incident laser light is transmitted inwardly through the prism to the contact tip at which some of the light is decoupled and lost though the contact tip depending upon the area of contact between the contact tip and the cornea. The remaining light is reflected by the contact tip outwardly through the prism. A photo defector which is responsive to the light reflected by the contact tip of the prism and a force detector which is responsive to the pressure at the area of contact between the contact tip and the cornea generate paired force and area data pairs that are processed to measure IOP.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an applanation tonometer for providing a measurement of the intraocular fluid pressure (IOP) inside the eye of a human or animal patient. The applanation tonometer herein disclosed has means responsive to both the contact force of the tonometer against the cornea and the touch contact area of the tonometer with the cornea so that paired force and area data is collected, whereby IOP can be accurately measured with minimal dwell time on the cornea and discomfort to the patient.
2. Background Art
A tonometer is a non-invasive instrument which has heretofore been used to measure pressure or tension in human or veterinary tissues. In the human body, intraocular fluid pressure in the eye (IOP) is measured to provide basic information for the diagnosis and treatment of glaucoma and related eye disease.
Ease of application, accuracy and sterility of a tonometer are paramount in medical applications. One instrument which is known to provide highly accurate IOP measurements is the Goldmann applanation tonometer (GAT). A quasi-scientific basis to acquire accurate IOP measurements is referred to as the Imbert-Fick principle. According to this principle, IOP is determined by a calculation of the contact force applied by a tip or the GAT against the cornea divided by area of contact. That is, determining IOP with the GAT relies upon the contact tip covering an applanation area to a fixed diameter of 3.06 mm. The applied force necessary to reach the requisite applanation area is adjusted manually by the healthcare physician or technician. Because the dwell time of the contact tip on the cornea is typically measured in seconds, at topical anesthesia is necessary for the eye. Force and area measurements made by the GAT after multiple touch contacts with corneas of eyes with a range of IOPs form the basis of a nomogramn-derived inference of IOP with respect to a compilation of direct cannula measurements of a population of animal and human eyes.
On occasion, the moving parts of the GAT may jam which can interfere with the effectiveness of the IOP testing. Moreover, the relatively long dwell time required for the contact tip to press correctly against the cornea and the need to apply a topical anesthesia as a result thereof may increase patient discomfort and tissue safety concerns. In this same regard, it would be preferable to limit data acquisition to a single light touch in most cases while providing an instantaneous confirmation to the healthcare professional of either a successful or an unsuccessful pressure test of a patient's eye.

Applanation tonometer and method for measuring the intraocular pressure of the eye


A common logging system (a “virtual logging system”) that presents to one or more log clients the appearance that each log client is interacting with a dedicated logging system. In reality, the virtual logging system is multiplexing virtual log streams, including log records, for each log client into a single transactional log. In particular, the invention is directed at a scheme for mapping virtual identifiers that a client uses in connection with the client's own records to physical identifiers that represent the physical location of the client's records in the single transactional log

The notion of a transaction is an important concept for transactional systems, such as database management systems, recoverable file systems and transaction-based operation systems. Briefly stated, a transaction is an action or set of actions that guarantees the ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation and Durability) properties. Transactional logging involves maintaining a transactional log that durably records a time serial history of transactions in a system. A transactional log provides information for restoring a system to a particular state in time prior to a system failure. ARIES (Algorithm for Recovery and Isolation Exploiting Semantics) is one very popular recovery scheme used for restoring a failed system through transactional logging. To be ARIES compliant, a transactional logging system must meet certain conditions that enable the ARIES recovery scheme to function. For example, ARIES requires that log sequence numbers (identifiers that are used to specify a location of each record in a physical log) be strictly increasing.
Traditionally, ARIES compliant logging systems have used a dedicated log to support a single log client. ARIES compliance is desirable because the resulting logging system is typically very robust and achieves a high performance level. However, the inventors have determined that the high level of reliability of a single log client using a dedicated logging system may actually result in overall performance degradation for a computing environment where multiple log clients are using multiple dedicated logging systems. One of the reasons for this is that each dedicated logging system independently incurs input/output (I/O) overhead to write and retrieve information. The I/O overhead results in adverse performance impact, and the impact is cumulative for each of the independent logging systems. An improved logging system is desirable that could overcome some of these performance problems. However, the development of an improvement to the existing scheme of transactional logging has met several hurdles. The inventors have determined that one hurdle to an improved transactional logging system is the need to uniquely identify each log client with log records that may be stored on permanent storage in a manner consistent with the ARIES recovery scheme.

System and method for locating log records in multiplexed transactional logs


An internal combustion engine comprises a hydrocarbon feed valve (15) arranged in an engine exhaust passage and a booster pump (60) for boosting an injection pressure of the hydrocarbon feed valve (15). The hydrocarbon feed valve (15) performs NOX removal injection and clogging prevention injection. A boosting action of the injection pressure by the booster pump (60) and the NOX removal injection are controlled so that the boosting action of the injection pressure by the booster pump (60) and the NOX removal injection are not performed simultaneously, and the boosting action of the injection pressure by the booster pump (60) and said clogging prevention injection are allowed to be performed simultaneously.

Known in the art is an internal combustion engine which comprises a delivery pipe for distributing fuel to fuel injectors and a high pressure pump for pumping high pressure fuel to the inside of the delivery pipe, wherein the fuel pressure in the delivery pipe is made to become a target fuel pressure by control of a fuel pumping period of the high pressure pump and wherein the fuel injection period is set from the fuel pressure in the delivery pipe before the start of fuel injection and the fuel injection amount determined by the operating state of the engine (see PTL 1). In this internal combustion engine, while fuel is being sent from the high pressure pump to the inside of the delivery pipe, the fuel pressure in the delivery pipe changes, therefore if the fuel pumping time period of the high pressure pump and the fuel injection period overlap, error occurs between the amount of fuel which is actually injected from the fuel injector and the fuel injection amount determined from the operating state of the engine.
Therefore, in this internal combustion engine, when the fuel pumping time period of the high pressure pump and the fuel injection period overlap, the fuel injection period is reset right before or right after the fuel pumping time period so that the overlapping fuel pumping time period of the high pressure pump and the fuel injection period is eliminated or becomes smaller. Further, if resetting the fuel injection period causes error to occur with respect to the fuel injection amount determined from the operating state of the engine, the fuel injection period is adjusted so that error no longer occurs.
On the other hand, known in the art is an internal combustion engine which arranges an NOX removing catalyst in an exhaust passage, arranges a reducing agent feed valve for feeding a reducing agent upstream of the NOX removing catalyst in the engine exhaust passage, making the NOX exhausted from the engine when fuel is being burned under a lean air-fuel ratio be stored in the NOX removing catalyst, and, when the air-fuel ratio of the exhaust gas flowing into the NOX removing catalyst should be made rich so as to release the stored NOX from the NOX removing catalyst, combustion gas of a rich air-fuel ratio is generated in the combustion chamber or a reducing agent is injected from the reducing agent feed valve in accordance with the operating state of the engine (see PTL 2). In this internal combustion engine, when the air-fuel ratio of the combustion gas in the combustion chamber is switched from lean to rich and the air-fuel ratio of the combustion gas is made rich and the air-fuel ratio of the combustion gas is switched from rich to lean, a large amount of soot is generated. This large amount of generated soot causes the danger of the nozzle holes of the reducing agent feed valve being clogged. Therefore, in this internal combustion engine, in the period from when rich air-fuel ratio fuel is burned to when the next rich air-fuel ratio fuel is burned, the reducing agent feed valve is made to inject a small amount of reducing agent to blow off the soot which is deposited at the nozzle holes and thereby prevent the nozzle holes of the reducing agent feed valve from being clogged.

Control system of internal combustion engine


A non-volatile semiconductor memory device, which is intended to prevent data destruction by movements of electric charges between floating gates and thereby improve the reliability, includes element isolation/insulation films buried into a silicon substrate to isolate stripe-shaped element-forming regions. Formed on the substrate are a floating gate via a first gate insulating film and further a control gate via a second gate insulating film. Source and drain diffusion layers are formed in self-alignment with control gates. The second gate insulating film on the floating gate is divided and separated together with the floating gate by slits above the element isolation/insulation films into discrete portions of individual memory cells.

This invention relates to a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device and its manufacturing method.
There is known an electrically rewritable, nonvolatile semiconductor memory (EEPROM: electrically erasable and programmable read-only-memory) using memory cells of a stacked-gate structure stacking floating gates and control gates. This kind of EEPROM uses a tunneling insulation film as a first gate insulating film between floating gates and a semiconductor substrate and typically uses, as the second gate insulating film between floating gates and control gates, an ONO film which is a multi-layered film of a silicon oxide film (O) on a silicon nitride film (N) on a silicon oxide film (O).
Each memory cell is formed in an element-forming region partitioned by an element isolation/insulation film. In general, a floating gate electrode film is divided in the direction of control gate line (word line) by making a slit on the element isolation/insulation film. In the step of making the slit, division of floating gates in the bit-line direction is not yet done. Then a control gate electrode film is stacked via an ONO film on all surfaces of the substrate including the top of the slit-processed floating gate electrode film, and by sequentially etching the control gate electrode film, ONO film, and floating gate electrode film, control gates and floating gates are isolated in the bit-line direction. After that, source and drain diffusion layers are formed in self-alignment with the control gates.
In the above-introduced conventional EEPROM structure, floating gates of memory cells adjacent in the word-line direction are isolated on the element isolation/insulation film, but the ONO film formed thereon is continuously made in the word-line direction. It is already known that, if the isolation width (slit width) of floating gates in the word-line direction is narrowed by miniaturization of memory cells, this structure is subject to movements of electric charges through the ONO film when there is a difference in charge storage status between adjacent floating gates. This is because electric charges are readily movable in the lateral direction in-the silicon nitride film or along the boundaries between the silicon nitride film and the silicon oxide films of the ONO film. Therefore, in microminiaturized EEPROM, when adjacent memory cells in the word-line direction have different data states, their threshold values vary due to movements of electric charges, and often result in destruction of data.

Semiconductor device including an element isolation portion having a recess


A plurality of spark electrodes are disposed in an arc shape on the surface or so as to be projected from the surface of an insulating member formed on a part of the wall face of a combustion chamber, and are formed so as to be in series electrically via discharging gaps.

The present invention relates to a spark ignition device having a plurality of discharging gaps for igniting a mixture of air and fuel such as combustible gas or gasoline in a combustion chamber of an internal combustion engine and to an in-cylinder direct fuel injection/spark ignition type internal combustion engine using the spark ignition device.
It is known that, in order to realize both reduction in an exhaust gas (particularly, reduction in NOx in a gasoline-fuel car) and improvement in fuel efficiency, combustion speed of a mixture (of air and fuel such as combustible gas or gasoline) in a combustion chamber has to be increased (this point will be described in detail in the beginning of "Detailed description of the invention").
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H7(1995)-12037 discloses a spark ignition device in which an annular-shaped electrode distributing section made of a ceramic is provided along a side wall of a cylinder in an upper part of a combustion chamber (which corresponds to a cylinder in this specification) of an engine and three or more electrodes are provided at predetermined intervals in the inner surface of the annular-shaped electrode distributing section.

Spark ignition device and internal combustion engine with the same

Abstract: A spark plug is provided integrally with an injector, and the spark plug and the ignition coil are integrated. The three members are constructed as an integral unit, thereby improving installability to an engine.


A roll of web-shaped material with a hollow roll core on which the web-shaped material is wound includes a signal-generating arrangement for generating an acoustical signal when the roll is rotated on a shaft as the web-shaped material is unwound therefrom and the signal-generating arrangement is part of the roll core.

The present invention is directed to a roll of web-shaped material having a hollow roll core on which the web-shaped material is wound and which roll has a signal-generating means for generating an acoustical signal that is triggered when the roll is seated on a shaft and the web-shaped material is being unrolled therefrom.
Absorbent paper, such as toilet paper, paper towel and household papers, as well as packaging films, particularly aluminum or plastic foils, are regularly required for different purposes, particularly in the household and health field. These materials are usually present in a roll form, which is commercially obtainable. In order to facilitate the handling or, respectively, the removal of more or less short pieces of material from a continuous roll, a holder device for the roll having an arbor that carries the roll is usually present and the material is unrolled from this device.
Swiss Letters Patent CH-68026 discloses a device wherein an unrolling of toilet paper from a roll of toilet paper actuates a music box attached outside the roll. A similar device is disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 3,037,415. Both of these devices obviously pursue the purpose of having a melody or, respectively, musical signal sound when the toilet paper is being unrolled. Since the device for making this sound is attached to the device for supporting the roll, it is not easily changed when changing the roll on the device for supporting the roll.

Roll of web-shaped material with a signal-generating means


A circuit comprising a DC current source and at least two spin torque oscillators, the at least two spin torque oscillators being electrically coupled to each other and to the DC current source. A circuit comprising phase shifting means is connected in such a way as to cause a phase shift between current and voltage through the spin torque oscillators. An advantage is that the controlled phase shift significantly increases the tolerance for deviating anisotropy fields, which makes manufacturing of spin torque oscillator devices much more feasible in practice.

Magnetic tunnel junctions and spin valves are commonly used as MRAM storage bits and magnetic read heads. The discovery that the magnetization of a free layer can be manipulated by means of a transferred spin polarized current, enables the magnetization of the free layer of such a structure to be manipulated in such a way that the magnetization of the layer keeps rotating. The resulting oscillation in resistance of the structure can be utilized for switching of MRAM elements or as an oscillating component, a spin torque oscillator (STO).
A spin valve is typically a sandwiched structure consisting of two ferromagnetic layers separated by a thin non-magnetic spacer layer. A magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) would have the same structure but the non-magnetic layer would in this case be insulating, allowing for tunneling between the two ferromagnetic layers.
One of the ferromagnetic layers is said to be the "pinned layer" because it is magnetically pinned or oriented in a fixed direction. This can be achieved by applying an adjacent anti ferromagnetic layer, a pinning layer, which will affect and hold the magnetization of the pinned layer through exchange coupling. The other ferromagnetic layer is called the free layer since its magnetization is allowed to rotate in response to outside stimulus in form of magnetic fields or as in this case action by spin torque (transferred magnetic angular momentum from electrons).
The total resistance of the layered structure will depend on the orientation of the fixed and pinned layers. A parallel configuration will give a lower resistance than the anti parallel case.
The spin torque effect is when polarized electrons moving into the free layer of the structure transfer a net magnetic moment to the layer, offsetting the Gilbert damping of the magnetization. This can make the free layer magnetization switch direction or cause the magnetization to oscillate, depending on the amount of magnetic moment being transferred, that is, the amount of current per unit area passing in to the layer.
A spin valve or magnetic tunnel junction with a free layer performing such an oscillator is called a spin torque oscillator.
It has been shown experimentally that spin torque oscillators can phase lock to each other forming an oscillating signal of higher quality than the individual signals.
A spin torque oscillator will have many practical benefits. The lateral size is very small, typically below 100 nm, a dimension significantly smaller than the classical oscillators based on LC tanks or dielectric resonance. When integrated in a microchip an STO will save space and cost in different applications. Furthermore the frequency generated in an STO is sweepable by means of the current passed trough the device. Additionally, the frequency can be adjusted by applying different external fields.
Applications range from mobile phones, satellite communication, radar and ship transceivers.
At the present time the output signal of a single STO is too weak for practical applications. J. Grollier et al (Grollier, J.; Cros, V. & Fert, A. Synchronization of spin-transfer oscillators driven by stimulated microwave currents, Phys. Rev. B, 2006, 73, 060409-0604012) has theoretically proposed that STOs may be connected in series in order to increase the power of the output signal. The STOs will phase lock under some specific circumstances and will in the phase locked state provide a signal less sensitive to noise and with higher output.
However, discrepancies in fabrication mean that the shape-anisotropy fields of magnetic layers in the spin torque oscillators can differ greatly, especially as elements get smaller. Also, edge effects and roughness has a profound effect on the anisotropy of small magnetic structures. According to experimental results, a shape anisotropy field difference of 4% is the maximum tolerance for broad-band phase-locking behavior.
When the size of components reach the nano level, surface roughness becomes an increasing problem, and edge effects automatically introduce a variation in the effective anisotropy field. This will make an effective phase lock through serial connection hard to achieve.


A camera module includes a compressor configured to divide a plurality of pixels included in image data, into a plurality of pixel groups, with respect to each of the plurality of pixel groups into which the plurality of pixels is divided, calculate a representative pixel value of a corresponding pixel group, based on pixel values of multiple pixels included in the corresponding pixel group, generate first compressed data, based on the calculated representative pixel value of each of the plurality of pixel groups, with respect to each of the plurality of pixel groups into which the plurality of pixels is divided, calculate residual values representing differences between the pixel values of the multiple pixels included in the corresponding pixel group and the representative pixel value of the corresponding pixel group, and generate second compressed data, based on the calculated residual values of each of the plurality of pixel groups.

The disclosure relates to a camera module, an image processing device, and an image compression method, and more particularly, to a camera module, an image processing device, and an image compression method using multi resolution compressed data.
Image compression may refer to a process of generating compressed image data having a size smaller than that of original image data, based on the original image data. Also, image decompression may refer to a process of generating reconstructed image data by decompressing the compressed image data. The reconstructed image data may be the same as or different from the original image data, according to a compression method and a decompression method. For example, the reconstructed image data may include preview image data having a lower resolution than that of the original image data, and full resolution image data having the same resolution as that of the original image data.

Camera module, image processing device and image compression method


A device is provided for fastening and contacting a lighting device and/or a lighting module. The device is preferably fastened to a heat sink, and the lighting device and/or the lighting module, is fastened in the device. The device has at least one outer element as a retaining ring and at least one inner element and/or spring element, and or at least one electrical contacting part.

Similar devices are used to attach at least one light source and/or a light module and to contact them with a voltage supply. They are also connected to a lamp.
Devices for LED modules, known as LED light engines, are known from the prior art, which make it possible to press the rear side of the module onto the surface of a heat sink. This should be done with a defined force to ensure the necessary dissipation of heat. The lifespan of the LED is influenced in this manner. The device is provided with a first outer ring and with an inner ring, which is mounted with several compression springs, screws and washers in the outer ring. The back of the LED module is thus pressed with the resilient mounting of the inner spring onto a heat sink. The inner ring must be made of a plastic material that is resistant to high temperature due to the heat generated by the LED module. This is disadvantageous for cost reasons.
A disadvantage is that the device consists of several individual parts and that the force pressing the LED module in is not adjustable or variable.
It is also known from the prior art that such devices allow for electrical connection between the LED circuit board and the electric power supply, preferably as electrical conductors. The electrical contact can be provided for example with two sliding contacts, arranged on the one hand on both side of the board, and on the other hand on the connecting means for the electrical conductors or wires. These sliding contacts of the same type are arranged preferably in a chamber at a distance from each other, and/or opposite each other and/or laterally shifted in order to achieved a defined contact position.
The disadvantage here is that a large amount of space is required for the arrangement, in depth and in width.
Finally, the heat sink is typically connected with the lamp. This is disadvantageous because undesirable heating of the lamp through the contact with the warm heat sink can occur. Moreover, the entire system must be dismantled if the LED module is to be replaced.

Device for fastening and contacting a lighting means and/or a lighting module, and lamp


A light input/output terminal module 100 comprises a jacket tube 110 and a flange 120. A glass portion 20 of the optical fiber is inserted in the center portion thereof. To efficiently remove the leaked light in a cladding 22 to the jacket tube 110, the jacket tube 110 is made of silica glass or the same material as that of the cladding 22. The jacket tube 110 is fixed by fusion splicing or adhesion to the cladding so as to integrally unify the jacket tube 110 and the cladding 22. The beam diameter at the fiber end portion is enlarged by an optical component which fusion bonds the tip end of the optical fiber to the coreless fiber so that the optical power density at the light input/output terminal module is reduced.

Recently, corresponding to the wide spread WDM transmission system enabling a large capacity transmission in an optical communication system, a high output of the used optical power is proceeded. The tendency of the above described optical high output (several W) is enhanced in the future.
In the fabrication field, also high output and high quality laser is required. Accordingly, an input/output resistance to the high output light (several 10 to 100 W) is required in the laser components forming inside thereof or the output component of the laser.
There has been known optical components having diversity of functions in which various optical elements are arranged between the optical fiber and the collimate lens (i.e., collimator). Furthermore, in the fabricating laser, a laser guide is connected through an input side lens portion to the output portion of the laser oscillator. The laser beam output from the laser oscillator is focused in the lens portion, then entered in the optical fiber from the incident portion, and transmitted in the core of the optical fiber. Thus transmitted beam is output from the output end of the optical fiber, then focused by the focus lens in the output side lens portion, and then irradiated.
As the optical component connected in space for a high power beam transmission used in the optical communication and machining such as welding, cutting, there are an optical isolator, a WDM filter module, a PBS (Polarization Beam splitter), a PBC (Polarization Beam Combiner), an optical circulator, a laser guide & laser output head, an optical connector and the like.
As depicted in FIG. 6, a part of the focused incident light by the collimate lens 902 is leaked in the cladding 906 by the coupling loss such as MFD mismatch or lens aberration in the end portion 904 of the optical fiber 903, and transmitted in the optical fiber 903. In the above described high power incident, the power of the leaked light in the cladding cannot be ignored. More specifically, when the leaked light in the cladding 906 is rapidly irradiated to the fiber coating portion 907 by the bending of the optical fiber 903 or the attachment of the foreign substance, the fiber coating portion is melted to cause damage.
Patent document 1 discloses that a tip portion made of sapphire is provided in the tip end portion of the sleeve, a shielding material is provided in the sleeve, or dispersal element is provided in the exposed glass portion of the optical fiber, in order to prevent the damage of the sleeve by the reflecting laser beam when the high power laser beam is output through the laser guide to the article to be fabricated from the laser oscillator, or by the incident laser beam when the optical connector is misaligned to the laser oscillator.
Patent document 2 discloses that a silica pipe is fixed by an inorganic adhesive to the surface of the cladding in the exposed glass portion of the optical fiber within the sleeve in order to prevent the damage of the jacket of the optical fiber even when the reflecting laser beam from the article to be fabricated, or the misaligned laser beam enters the cladding of the optical fiber.
In the above described optical components or fabricating laser, the optical power density becomes maximum value at each end of the optical fiber in which the focused beam by the lens is to be coupled. The loss by the optical absorption due to the dust, and the loss by the optical absorption due to the defect in the optical fiber or the dielectric multi layered filter (e.g., AR coat) are converted to heat to cause a critical defect (e.g., phenomenon such as fiber fuse), thus damaging the optical fiber, optical component or optical device or the like.
There is proposed that the diameter of the beam to be focused at the end of the optical fiber by the connecting portion of the optical connector or the lens is enlarged to lower the optical power density. Patent document 3 proposes that in order to enlarge the MFD (Mode Field Diameter) of the optical fiber, a core enlarged optical fiber is produced by the treatment in which the dopant in the core is heat-diffused (herein after referred to "TEC treatment"), or a GIF (Grated Index Fiber) is connected by fusion splicing to the end portion of the optical fiber (hereinafter referred to "GIF fusion splicing treatment"). Patent document 4 proposes that in order to enlarge the diameter of the beam to be focused on the end portion of the optical fiber, a GIF for expanding the diameter of the mode field is connected by fusion splicing to the tip end of the optical fiber and a coreless fiber having no core is connected by fusion splicing to the tip end of the GIF (herein after referred to "GIF+coreless fiber fusion splicing treatment").
FIG. 12 is a schematic cross sectional view of the optical collimator 590 in which the tip end portion 593 of the core 592 in the optical fiber 591 is enlarged by TEC treatment.    Patent document 1: Japanese Patent Application Publication 2003-107294;    Patent document 2: Japanese Patent Application Publication 2003-139996;    Patent document 3: Japanese Patent Application Publication 2004-86127;    Patent document 4: Japanese Patent Application Publication 2005-17702;    Patent document 5: Japanese Patent Application Publication 2004-86127.

Light input/output terminal module of the optical components and beam converting apparatus


A camera having multiple display functions and/or a date imprinting function wherein the display can alternately switch between displaying the date and the film frame number. The frame number is displayed when winding blank film and the date is displayed at other times. The display also has an indicator which lights up or flashes to indicate the status of the camera power source. The display also shows the date and this date can be imprinted on film when a photograph is taken. The date can be imprinted whether or not the camera is in a date correction mode when the photograph is taken. A multiple function button is used to change photographic information shown on the display, wherein different functions correspond to different camera modes. Adequate safeguards are therefore provided by this camera to prevent accidental changing of information.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to cameras, and more particularly, to cameras having multiple display functions and/or a date imprinting function.
2. Description of the Related Art
As camera technology progresses, cameras are provided with sophisticated displays, usually liquid crystal displays (LCD), for displaying information such as the photograph frame number, date and power source (battery) status.
However, an LCD which displays a large amount of information simultaneously can require a larger surface area, thereby increasing the size and cost of the camera.
In addition, complicated displays usually require numerous buttons corresponding to each type of information which can be displayed. For example, there is usually a separate button corresponding to a date mode and a separate button corresponding to the photographic mode. These numerous buttons increase the size, cost and complexity of a camera.
Furthermore, there are problems associated with displaying various types of information. For example, cameras which display the power source (battery) status typically display the status only when the camera main power source is switched ON. However, a photographer cannot confirm the status of the power source when the power source is OFF. Therefore, when the main power source is OFF, a photographer may not realize that the power source is weak. This can cause a serious problem when the photographer decides to use the camera in the future and the power source is not strong enough to allow proper camera operation.
Many cameras also display the date and provide a mechanism for imprinting the displayed date on film. This date imprinting function is very popular among amateur photographers. By comparison, professional photographers are more concerned with the quality of the photograph and do not desire a date imprinting function since professionals consider the function unnecessary while also introducing the possibility of reduced photograph quality due to improper imprinting. Therefore, a camera manufacturer normally must provides two models of the same basic camera in order to satisfy professional and amateur photographers.
In addition, cameras with a date imprinting function typically have a date correction mode for correcting the date. However, the date will not be imprinted if a photographer corrects the date in the date correction mode and then takes a photograph while forgetting to cancel the date correction mode.

Camera having multiple display functions and/or a date imprinting function


A padlock having a body, a U-shaped keeper at one end of the body, and a key receptor at the opposite end of the body, the body containing a row of pieces to be engaged by key teeth comprising an indicator device on the body; the device having a location on the body relative to the pieces to indicate the left or right directional orientation of key teeth insertion into the reception, to effect opening of the padlock keeper.

The present invention relates generally to padlocks, and particularly to those having a built-in or accessory indicator to indicate to the user how he should position the padlock key in order to open the lock.
A conventional key-operated padlock comprises a body containing a key receptor cylinder and an attached U-shaped keeper in the form of a shackle, chain, or cable, or varied combinations of such components. The keeper parts are attached to the body at one end, or both ends, becoming secured to the body when the lock is in a closed locked position.
The conventional locked padlock requires for its opening that a key be inserted into a key cylinder in the body of the lock. The key cylinder typically has pins that are presented to be actuated by the key teeth into a specific position which releases one or both ends of the retaining shackle or keeper.
Conventional padlocks do not assist the user to position the key in the user's hand in the proper manner so as to always insert the key into the key slot with the key teeth presented to engage the pins. Only one half of the time can the user guess which direction to point the teeth of the key for the key to enter. The other half of the time the user must take the time to revolve the key 180 degrees in his hand prior to insertion of the key.
There is need for means to indicate which direction the teeth or notches of the key must face in order to enter the keyway; however, there is, at present, no instruction, attachment, guide, or visual configuration on the lock to tell the user how to properly position the key in his hand to enable the key to enter the slot.


A method and electronic device for network connection and authentication is disclosed herein. A control unit is configured to detect authentication information necessary to access a communication network, and detect whether the authentication information corresponding to the communication network is stored in a profile storing at least the authentication information for at least the communication network. A radio frequency (RF) processing unit configured to couple to the communication network in response to detecting that the authentication information is authenticated by an authentication server for the communication network.

The IEEE 802.11 standard continually improves, enhancing performance and quality of service (QoS). Many recent electronic devices such as smart phones, tablet PCs, and portable media players support WiFi interfaces due to the advantage of provided by the IEEE 802.11 standard. As such, wireless local area network (WLAN) technology has become a standard for electronic devices used in a home network (e.g., home or office), and devices that use an internet access such as a real-time audio/video streaming service, mobile voice over internet protocol (VoIP) service, multi-screen services, and an internet protocol television (IPTV) services.
IEEE 802.11i Wi-Fi protected access (WPA) standard is widely used for security, along with a technology referred to as a captive portal (or web authentication) that implements a user authentication and charging system of a wireless network.

Method for connecting to network and electronic device thereof


When accessing a web page on the internet or a file on a local machine, the image file selecting unit selects a plurality of image files to be used for skin generation from a group of image files stored in the temporary storing unit of the browser. The skin image generating unit generates skin images through combination and arrangement of the plurality of selected image files. The update interval setting unit sets an update interval between skin images generated by the image file selecting unit and the skin image file selecting unit and the skin image generating unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a skin generating method, a program and an apparatus for automatically generating and updating a skin image of an application.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a result of the recent improvement of graphic functions of personal computers, application designs are becoming exquisite. Along with this tendency, some applications provide a skin generating function permitting a change in look by a uniform design by use of a mechanism known as a skin, so that the appearance of images of the title page or the like can be modified so as to satisfy user's preference.
Data used for such skin generation are usually provided by the vendor of the application as a set, and a user can change images into a consistent design by applying the data forming the set altogether.
Known techniques for incorporating prepared images on user level into an application include a technique of making such a change by purchasing a user interface of a home network system via the internet from a provider or acquiring the same from a package medium such as a CD (Patent Document 1); a technique of incorporating an image file stored in an external storage or a favorite image acquired via the internet into a screen of a game (Patent Document 2); and a technique of a design editing apparatus which enables the user to edit designs on an operation monitoring display of process control (Patent Document 3).
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-356851
[Patent Document 2] Japanese Unexamined Patent Application
                Publication No. 2002-126355[Patent Document 3] Japanese Unexamined Patent Application        Publication No. 2002-14-114
For general users, a first problem lies in that it is very difficult to prepare a skin.
In a conventional application having a function of modifying a skin, there are usually a huge number of changeable image sets. It was therefore difficult for users other than professional designers. There are available only a few applications which open a skin changing interface. It was thus very difficult to independently prepare a skin in a usual case.
In the above-mentioned Patent Documents 1 and 2, while the number of images to be incorporated is small, it is possible to apply images by individually selecting favorite images. However, when applying this technique to an application requiring many image files as in a case where an image is pasted to each of parts of a music player for which skins are provided, the operation of selection by the user for each part is not realistic.
As in the design editing apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 3, a design editing program may be provided for particular applications. This apparatus is however rather for those who have the knowledge of process control to some extent and use such apparatus as an assistant for design editing. The apparatus is not therefore applicable as a general tool.
A conventional application having a function of modifying a skin has a problem of a limited number of choices for skin modification. More specifically, even skins provided by the vendor of the application are usually small in number, and the user cannot easily find his (her) favorite skin, or skins of new designs are not added quickly. As a result, the appearance of the application cannot be modified so often, resulting in circumstances not to the satisfaction of users who are very fond of novelties.
In Patent Document 1, for example, which suggests purchasing a design prepared by the service provider who provides interface information, the user would use another design if there is no favorite design among the provided ones.

Skin generating method, program, and apparatus


Methods, apparatus and articles of manufacture to use artificial intelligence to define encryption and security policies in a software defined data center are disclosed. Example apparatus include a language parser to parse a natural language statement into a policy statement that defines a distributed network encryption policy or a distributed network security policy. Example apparatus also include a comparator to compare the policy statement to a set of reference policy templates and a template configurer to select a first policy template from the set of reference policy templates in response to the comparator determining the first policy template corresponds to the policy statement. A policy distributor distributes a policy rule defined by the first policy template for enforcement at network nodes of a software defined data center. The policy rule is a distributed network encryption policy rule or a security policy rule.

Enterprises (e.g., financial service providers, healthcare providers, critical infrastructure providers) store valuable data, and transfer it over networks. Information spreads across datacenters often through dedicated telco-provided networks. Overlay networks can also provide similar service via a public cloud services provider's network, but such communications are susceptible to threats such as snooping, man in the middle attack (MITM), and forging if the provider's network is compromised in some way. As enterprises widely adopt provider cloud-based multi-tenant infrastructure services instead of dedicated datacenters, new challenges are introduced, and protecting the data flowing into, within, and out of the multi-tenant cloud becomes a necessity. In addition, the privacy and security traditionally associated with conventional private enterprise datacenters can no longer be assumed. Thus, cryptography and firewalls may be used, not just at the edge, but also within public as well as private clouds to protect data and communication channels from malicious parties, provide confidentiality to enterprise dataflow in the cloud, and provide the enterprise with better control over its own data. To permit enterprise control over security and encryption rules, an enterprise system administrator, who has knowledge of the specialized format required to define such rules, crafts rules suited to the enterprise at a network management tool for subsequent delivery to and enforcement at a set of compute nodes of the data center.
The figures are not to scale. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawing(s) and accompanying written description to refer to the same or like parts, elements, etc.

Methods, apparatus and systems to use artificial intelligence to define encryption and security policies in a software defined data center


Described herein is a mounting apparatus, comprising a receiving component, and an attachment component; the receiving component comprises a first magnetic component, a first arm, and a second arm; the attachment component comprises a second magnetic component; the receiving component is configured to hold a portable electronic device by the first arm and the second arm; the first magnetic component and the second magnetic component are configured to connect through a magnetic interaction; the first magnetic component is continuously rotatable and continuously movable relative to the second magnetic component while the first magnetic component and the second magnetic component are connected. The mounting apparatus provides mounting of any appropriately sized electronic device in an vehicle, at home, in an office, and at other private or public places, to allow convenient viewing and access to the device. The presently disclosed mounting apparatus also realizes a continuous rotation and continuous movement of the portable electronic device while it is held by the mounting apparatus, therefore facilitating user control of the device.

Portable electronic devices (PEDs) include, but are not limited to, any kind of electronic devices that may be carried with a user, such as tablets, laptops, MP3 players, cell phones, iPods, iPhones, iPads, e-readers, satellite radios, PDAs, GPSs or other digital devices. Given the rapid advance of technology in personal media and internet, a user may prefer to use various types of portable electronic devices at any time and at many places, therefore necessitating use of a mounting apparatus for mounting the PEDs.
The disclosure describes herein a mounting apparatus for the mounting any appropriately sized electronic device in a vehicle, at home, in an office, and at other private or public places. The presently disclosed mounting apparatus ensures the securing and displaying of a portable electronic device to allow convenient viewing and access to the device. The presently disclosed mounting apparatus also realizes a continuous rotation and continuous movement of the portable electronic device while it is attached to the mounting apparatus, therefore facilitating convenient and easy adjustment of the view of the user.

Mounting apparatus for portable electronic device


When a previously existing technique is applied to a white OLED, such a structure is adopted that the peak wavelength of the intensity of interference is the emission peak wavelength corresponding to blue or less. However, in this case, the intensity of interference of the wavelength range corresponding to red is reduced to decrease the light emission intensity of red. A display device is configured in which a stacked film configuring a white light emitting element (an organic light-emitting diode element) is configured in such a manner that the peak wavelength of the intensity of interference is the peak wavelength of the light emission intensity corresponding to blue or less. The light emission intensity of the light emitting element corresponding to a red pixel is made greater than the light emission intensity of the light emitting elements corresponding to pixels for other colors.

The present disclosure relates to a display device, and is applicable to a display device including a white organic light-emitting diode element, for example.
The organic light-emitting diode (OLED) element is an element that injects positive and negative electric charges into a light emitting layer formed of an organic thin film and converts electric energy into optical energy for emitting light. Since a luminous display device including an organic light-emitting diode element as a light emitting element (in the following, referred to as "an OLED display") is a self-luminous type, which is different from a non-luminous display device typified by a liquid crystal display device, an auxiliary light source such as a backlight is unnecessary, and the OLED display is reduced in the thickness and in the weight. Moreover, the OLED display has characteristics including a wide viewing angle and a quick display response speed.
Since the OLED has a structure in which thin films of the order of an optical wavelength or less are stacked in the thickness, the OLED is easily affected by optical interference. On this account, when the observation angle is changed, a problem arises in that colors are changed because of the influence of interference. To this problem, a technique is proposed in which such a structure is adopted that the peak wavelength of the intensity of interference is shorter than the peak wavelength of the emission wavelength and changes in colors caused by a difference in the observation angle are suppressed. (See Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-31251)


A treatment device for treating liquids in oil, gas or water wells comprises an ultrasonic treatment device (1). The ultrasonic treatment device (1) includes a resonator (2), a transducer (9) and a matching transformer (10) for transferring a maximum of power from an ultrasonic generator to the transducer (9) through a long cable (11). The cable (11) has a considerable length of at least 3 km and is attached to a generator (5).

The invention relates to the use of an ultrasonic transducer, to a system for treating liquids in wells and to a method for treating liquids in such wells according to the preamble of the independent patent claims.
It is known to treat liquids in wells such as gas, oil or water wells with ultrasonic energy in order to reduce the viscosity of the liquid without the use of chemical reagents or steam generators. Such use of ultrasonic energy e.g. has been disclosed in WO 2005/090746A1, WO 93/11338 or U.S. Pat. No. 6,973,972. The effect of reduction of viscosity is due to cavitation effects induced in the liquid by ultrasonic vibrations.
All these known solutions, however, have certain drawbacks. In particular, there are problems in context with transmission of ultrasonic energy to bore wells over relatively high distances which typically may be greater than several kilometers. Also, known devices have a poor efficiency.

System and method for ultrasonically treating liquids in wells and corresponding use of said system


A data transfer unit includes: a collection-interval storage unit that storing therein a collection interval set by the host computer; a data collection unit reading a collection interval stored in the collection-interval storage unit and collecting device data at the read collection interval; a transfer-interval storage unit storing therein a transfer interval set by the host computer, which is equal to or larger than the collection interval; a ring buffer accumulating and storing therein device data that are collected by the data collection unit and have not been transferred to the host computer by a data transferring unit; and a data transferring unit reading a transfer interval stored in the transfer-interval storage unit, and collectively transfers device data accumulated and stored in the ring buffer to the host computer at the read transfer interval.

A configuration in which an FA system is caused to have a data transfer device to collect control data related to the FA system such as device data of a programmable controller (hereinafter, simply referred to as "PLC") using the data transfer device has been often adopted (see, for example, Patent Literature 1 and Patent Literature 2). The data transfer device transfers collected control data to a high-order device such as a host computer. Users can use the control data transferred to the high-order device for applications such as confirming operating conditions of the FA system and monitoring errors.


A blade for a torque converter, including: a body with first and second blade side surfaces and a blade edge surface connecting the first and second blade side surfaces; and a tab extending from the blade edge surface and arranged for insertion through an opening in a core ring for the torque converter. The tab includes: a distal end furthest from the blade edge surface; first and second tab edge surfaces in communication with the distal end; and first and second indentations in the first and second tab edge surfaces, respectively, between the distal end and the blade edge surface. The core ring forms at least respective portions of respective inner circumferences for a turbine and pump for the torque converter. After insertion through the opening, the tab is arranged to be bent along a line connecting the indentations so that a portion of the tab engages the core ring.

It is known to insert solid tabs for blades through a core ring for a torque converter and to bend the tabs to secure the blades to the core ring. Bending the solid tabs can require a significant amount of force, which can cause the blade to be displaced, changing blade angles and affecting characteristics of the torque converter dependent upon blade configuration.


The method for measuring the complex dielectric constant of a substance is based on calculations made in the frequency domain. An open ended rectangular waveguide terminates, at one end, in a non-resonant rectangular cavity, which is then filled with a substance of interest. An electromagnetic wave of known frequency is transmitted through the waveguide and the reflection coefficient at the interface between the waveguide and the cavity is measured by a network analyzer or the like. Another measurement is then made with a slight variation in depth of the cavity or a variation in frequency, and from these two measurements of the reflection coefficient, the complex dielectric constant of the substance of interest can be calculated.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to measurements of material properties, and particularly to an optical frequency-based method for measuring the complex dielectric constant of a substance.
2. Description of the Related Art
The measurement of the complex dielectric constant and complex permeability is required not only for scientific but also for industrial applications. For example, areas in which knowledge of the properties of materials at microwave frequencies is required include microwave heating, biological effects of microwaves, and nondestructive testing.
Although it is known to make measurements of the complex dielectric constant and complex permeability in the time domain, the calculations involved are complex and are dependent upon time and energy intensive Fourier transformations due to the measured transient response. Further, this technique typically only works within a severely limited band of frequencies, dependent upon the time response of the initial pulse and its repetition frequency. It would be desirable to be able to measure the complex dielectric constant directly in the frequency domain, allowing for measurements to be made over a wide range of frequencies, with calculations being relatively fast and simple.
Thus, a method for measuring the complex dielectric constant of a substance addressing the aforementioned problems is desired.

Method for measuring the complex dielectric constant of a substance

KING FAHD UNIVERSITY OF PETROLEUM AND MINERALS


A method for enabling a person to apply gentle gravity traction to his spine by suspending his body by the arms while supporting some of his weight with his legs. The method, which is a modified form of "long axis-extension" gravity traction, describes a procedure wherein a trained therapist designs and supervises a treatment program unique to the individual based on a number of factors. The patient is at all times able to control the amount of weight that is applied to the injured portion. The patient is instructed in carrying out a treatment program and monitored as to progress and possible changes to the program. An apparatus is disclosed that is uniquely designed for use with the method. It is preferably constructed entirely of wood except for fastener elements and may be assembled and disassembled quickly without the use of any tools.

This invention relates to a method for enabling a person to apply gentle traction to the human spine by suspending the body by the arms while supporting some of his weight with his legs. The procedure of hanging by the hands and using gravity to provide traction forces to the spine is termed long axis extension. A trained therapist will design a specific treatment program for the patient based on a number of factors and thereafter instruct and monitor the progress of the patient.
2. Description of the Related Art
The prior art includes a number of devices that have been proposed for hanging by the arms. Examples of such include:
Carlmark, U.S. Pat. No. 4,372,552 discloses a hang stand wherein a user hangs by his hands while a support behind his back maintains his spine in a correct alignment.
Bushnell, U.S. Pat. No. 4,241,914 discloses an exercise apparatus for a person hanging by his arms wherein a resistance member attached to the frame near his feet may increase or decrease the amount of weight supported by his arms.
Simon, U.S. Pat. No. 3,896,798 discloses a therapeutic traction apparatus wherein a user hangs by his shoulders from a pair of parallel bars. Footrests are provided to initially position himself and for rest.
Steele, U.S. Pat. No. 3,975,106 discloses a tapered wedge used to assemble scaffolding members.
Other U.S. Pat. Nos. of general interest are: 4,772,011, 3,642,278, 3,707,285, 3,944,219, 2,932,510, 860,517, 4,503,845, 1,495,536, and 4,657,232.

Therapeutic traction apparatus and method


A press-type bit-holding mechanism of a dental high-speed handset, including a hollow rotary shaft, a push button accommodated in the hollow rotary shaft and a holder barrel also accommodated in the hollow rotary shaft. The push button has a first coupling section formed with two opposite splits and two opposite first projecting posts. The first projecting posts and the splits are interlaced with each other. The holder barrel has a second coupling section has two second splits and two second projecting posts complementary to the first splits and the first projecting posts of the first coupling section of the first coupling section of the push button.

The present invention is related to a press-type bit-holding mechanism of a dental high-speed handset, in which the holder barrel and the push button can be more firmly located to more truly transmit the power. In addition, by means of pressing the push button, the bit can be conveniently extracted and replaced.
In general, the treatment of a dentist to a patient includes prosthesis of caries, grinding, etc. Various bits can be installed on a dental handset, such as an engine bur and a grinding head. Therefore, the handset is most frequently used instrument among all the dental implements. In curing work, the bit is placed in a patient's oral cavity and driven. Therefore, it is necessary to precisely and firmly locate the bit. In case the bit loosens when a dentist works, the dentist will put the patient's life in great danger.
In the conventional bit locating mechanism, a holder barrel is installed in a hollow rotary shaft. The thickness of the holder barrel is tapered from one end to the other end. The bit is held in the holder barrel. The holder barrel is tightly fitted in the hollow rotary shaft to fix the bit. A push button is fitted in the hollow rotary shaft and drivingly connected with the holder barrel via a linking section, whereby the holder barrel is rotatable along with the rotary shaft. By means of pressing the push button, the thicker end of the holder barrel can be retracted from the hollow rotary shaft to detach the bit from the rotary shaft.
According to the above arrangement, the holder barrel is simply drivingly connected with the push button via the linking section. The connecting strength is insufficient so that it is possible that the holder barrel unexpectedly drops out of the rotary shaft. As a result, the bit can be hardly firmly located. Therefore, due to vibration in operation, the bit and the holder barrel are easy to wear. In order to more firmly lock the bit with the holder barrel, it is necessary to enhance the precision of the dimension of the holder barrel and the bit and promote the quality of the material thereof. This inevitably will increase the cost.

Press-type bit-holding mechanism of a dental high-speed handset


A color correction structure for a color imaging device in which a document is scanned in a predetermined direction by a slit exposure light. A light reflected on the document is lead to a photoconductive member along an optical path, and an image of the document is focused on the photoconductive member by a focusing lens which is arranged in the optical path. The color correction structure is provided with a plurality of filter members each transmitting reflected light having a predetermined wavelength, and at least one actuator for actuating the filter members in a direction substantially perpendicular to an extending direction of the slit exposure light, between a first position where the filter members are retracted from the light path and a second position where the filter members interferes with the light path. A controller controls the actuator for brightness and hue adjustments.

The present invention relates to a color correction structure for a color imaging device for correcting color using a plurality of filters.
A color imaging device, such as, for example, a color copy machine and the like, is arranged such that the imaging light of a color document is projected to a color photoconductive material; the color photoconductive material is exposed by the image light of the document; and thereafter, the color photoconductive material is subjected to development and fixing processes to provide a copy of color. The exposure of the color photoconductive material is carried out by focusing the image of the color document on the surface of a photoconductive agent of the color photoconductive material by an optical system having a focusing lens.
This type of color imaging device is provided with a color correction structure so that the spectral distribution of an image light can be adjusted in correspondence with the spectral sensitivity characteristics of (i.e., the property of sensitivity which is different depending upon a wavelength) of a photoconductive material, so that the tone of a document can be corrected or the color of the document can be changed to an arbitrary color. Further, an amount of light adjustment structure is also needed.
The amount of light adjustment structure is, usually composed of a variable diaphragm that is disposed in a focusing lens.
The color correction structure is composed of a plurality of filters. These filters absorb 100% of a monochromatic light of a specific color, and are disposed midway in the light path of an image light, so that the amount of interference of the filters with the light path can be independently adjusted. These filters are usually composed of three kinds of filters, a yellow filter for absorbing a blue light, a magenta filter for absorbing a green light and a cyan filter for absorbing a red light, and they are used in combination.
The aforesaid color correction stucture is preferably incorporated in the focusing lens from the view point of the space efficiency of the imaging device as a whole.
Nevertheless, in this arrangement, both color correction structure and amount of light adjustment structure are incorporated in the focusing lens, and as a result, the focusing lens is increased in size thereby to increase the size of the imaging device as a whole. Further, the color correction structure and amount of light adjustment structure are made complex because a driving mechanism must be provided with each structure.
To cope with this problem, there is an arrangement for reducing the size of the interior of a focusing lens incorporating filters. According to this conventional arrangement, two slender filter plates, each having a filter region for absorbing a monochromatic light of different color, are disposed on opposite sides of a transparent transmitting filter region. The two filter plates are independently moved in a longitudinal direction thereof and disposed in a direction perpendicular to the light axis of the focusing lens so that the respective filter regions can interfere with the light path in the focusing lens.
For example, a first filter plate, including a yellow (hereinafter, abbreviated as Y) filter and magenta (hereinafter, abbreviated as M) filter disposed on the opposite sides of a transmitting region, and a second filter plate including a cyan (hereinafter, abbreviated as C) filter and yellow (Y) filter disposed on the opposite sides of the transmitting region are positioned in the focusing lens so that they can be independently moved in the longitudinal direction thereof. With this arrangement, the Y, M or C filter can be independently caused to interfere with the light path in such a manner that the transmitting region of one of the filter plates is located in the light path and the other filter plate is moved to cause an arbitrary filter to interfere with the light path. Further, the Y and M filters, the M and C filters, or the C and Y filters can be caused to interfere with the light path in combination by relatively moving both filter plates.
With this arrangement, the size of the filter portion can be reduced because the three filters can be replaced with the two filter plates.
Nevertheless, the two filter plates must be spaced apart from each other in the optical axial direction of the focusing lens because the two filter plates are moved relatively to each other. In this arrangement, a problem of the occurrence of an irregular color arises because these two filter plates interfere with the light path at different positions in the optical axis direction.
More specifically, when filters of the two filter plates correct color in combination, the two filters are dislocated in the optical axial direction. As a result, when lights are supplied from different points on the document in the width direction thereof which is parallel with the direction in which the filter plates are moved (the direction along which the filters enter a light path and exits therefrom), the ratios of the areas of the light paths formed by these lights and occupied by these two filters, respectively, to the entire areas thereof (amounts of interference of the filters with the light paths) are different, to thereby cause the irregular color.
This will be described more specifically with reference to the schematic diagram of FIG. 1, showing two different points A and B located in the width direction of the document 80. The filter 91A of a first filter plate 91 has an amount of interference with the light path formed by the image light from point A: LA1 and an amount of interference with the light path formed by the image light of the point B: LB1 which is different from LA1 (LA1.noteq.LB1). In the same way, filter 92A of a second filter plate 92 has an amount of interference with the light path formed by the image light from the point A: LA2 and an amount of interference with the light path formed by the image light of the point B: LB2 which is different from LA2. As a result, the amount of color correction at point A is different from that at point B.
Further, since the filters are located in the focusing lens, when they are not flat and not parallel with each other, the optical performance of the focusing lens is greatly degraded by the optical action of the filters. Consequently, a problem arises in that the filters must be formed with a pinpoint accuracy, and thus become expensive.

Color correction structure for color imaging device


A PLL circuit is disclosed that comprises a controlling unit that switches at a predetermined timing to enable/disable the phase difference signal supplied from the phase comparator to the low pass filter; and a resistor element that is disposed between a predetermined potential and a signal line for supplying the phase difference signal from the phase comparator to the low pass filter, when the phase difference signal is enabled, the oscillation circuit performing oscillation operation based on the voltage signal corresponding to the phase difference signal, when the phase difference signal is disabled, the low pass filter being supplied with the predetermined potential through the resistor element to allow the oscillation circuit to perform oscillation operation based on the voltage signal generated depending on the supplied predetermined potential.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a PLL circuit that employs a spread spectrum technology.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, in electronic devices, speeding-up of a signal process and high-density packaging are promoted and it is an important issue to reduce EMI (Electro Magnetic Interference) noise. EMI is an electromagnetic failure causing a malfunction due to radiation noise generated by the electronic devices. The EMI noise is known to be caused mainly by a system clock signal generated by a voltage controlled oscillation circuit (VCO) of a PLL (Phase Locked Loop) circuit. That is, by performing the switching operation in an electronic device at high speed based on the system clock signal with a generally high frequency, the switching noise, i.e., the EMI noise is generated.
Therefore, a so-called spread spectrum technology attracts attention, such as modulating the frequency of the system clock signal to attenuate or spread a peak level of a power spectrum correlated with the frequency of the system clock signal. The power spectrum is a level (power) of each signal frequency component appearing on a time axis, which is represented with a frequency axis versus a power axis.
FIG. 6 shows a configuration of a PLL circuit that employs a conventional spread spectrum technology (e.g., Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2001-7700).
A conventional PLL circuit includes a reference frequency divider 610, a voltage controlled oscillator (hereinafter, VCO) 620, a comparison frequency dividers 630, 631, a selector 632, a phase comparator 640, a charge pump 650, and a low-pass filter (hereinafter, LPF) 660.
The reference frequency divider 610 is a frequency divider that divides a frequency of an oscillation clock signal generated by a predetermined oscillation circuit to supply the phase comparator 640 with a reference signal fr. The VCO 620 controls an oscillation frequency depending on an applied voltage. An oscillation output fo of the VCO 620 is normally used as a system clock signal of an electronic device with a PLL circuit incorporated.
The comparison frequency divider 630 is a frequency divider used at the time of normal operation and divides the frequency of the oscillation output fo of the VCO 620 depending on a predetermined frequency dividing number (1/N1) to supply the selector 632 with the output. The frequency dividing number (1/N1) of the comparison frequency divider 630 is set depending on a frequency (hereinafter, reference frequency f1) required for the oscillation output fo of the VCO 620.
The comparison frequency divider 631 is a frequency divider used when frequency modulation is performed for the oscillation output fo of the VCO 620 and divides the frequency of the oscillation output fo of the VCO 620 depending on a predetermined frequency dividing number (1/N2) to supply the selector 632 with the output. The frequency dividing number (1/N2) of the comparison frequency divider 631 is set depending on a frequency (hereinafter, spread frequency f2) after the oscillation frequency modulation of the oscillation output fo of the VCO 620.
The selector 632 selects either the output of the comparison frequency dividers 630 or the output of the comparison frequency dividers 631 based on a switching signal SEL to supply the phase comparator 640 with a comparison signal fv. The phase comparator 640 compare phases of the comparison signal fv supplied from the selector 632 and the reference signal fr.
It is assumed that the selector 632 selects the output of the comparison frequency dividers 630.
When the phase of the reference signal fr precedes the phase of the comparison signal fv, the phase comparator 640 supplies the charge pump 650 with a phase difference signal Φr corresponding to the phase difference. Contrary, when the phase of the reference signal fr falls behind the phase of the comparison signal fv, the phase comparator 640 supplies the charge pump 650 with a phase difference signal Φv corresponding to the phase difference.
The charge pump 650 supplies the LPF 660 with a voltage signal CP having a level corresponding to the phase difference signals Φr, Φv. The LPF 660 removes harmonic components from the voltage signal CP and supplies the VCO 620 with a direct-current voltage Vr acquired by forming a direct current from the voltage signal CP.
As a result, if the direct-current voltage Vr corresponding to the phase difference signals Φr is supplied, the VCO 620 operates such that the oscillation frequency is increased to advance the phase of the comparison signal fv. Contrary, if the direct-current voltage Vr corresponding to the phase difference signals Φv is supplied, the VCO 620 operates such that the oscillation frequency is decreased to delay the phase of the comparison signal fv. Finally, the phase difference is not generated between the reference signal fr and the comparison signal fv, and the oscillation frequency of the oscillation output fo of the VCO 620 is locked to the reference frequency f1 (lock state).
By the way, the power spectrum correlated with the oscillation frequency of the output fo of the VCO 620 normally generates a peak at the reference signal f1 in the phase lock state. Therefore, the PLL circuit performs the oscillation frequency modulation of the oscillation output fo of the VCO 620 to spread the power spectrum at the reference signal f1.
If the frequency modulation is performed, the selector 632 selects the output of the comparison frequency dividers 631 and the phase lock state is temporarily released. The PLL circuit performs similar PLL control to lock the phases of the reference signal fr and the output of the comparison frequency dividers 631. As a result, although the oscillation frequency of the oscillation output fo of the VCO 620 departs from the reference frequency f1 and temporarily becomes unsteady state (unlock state), the oscillation frequency is finally locked to the spread frequency f2.
As a result of repeating the operation described above, the power spectrum of the oscillation output fo of the VCO 620 spreads in a bandwidth (spectrum width) between the reference frequency f1 and the spread frequency f2 rather than concentrating on the reference frequency f1 and, therefore, the peak level of the power spectrum is attenuated at the reference frequency f1. Therefore, the EMI noise based on the oscillation output fo of the VCO 620 is reduced.
By the way, if timing of the switch-over is inadequate for the frequency dividing ratio of the comparison comparator, the bandwidth becomes unsteady between the reference frequency and the spread frequency, and the desired effect cannot be acquired from the spread power spectrum. For example, as shown in FIG. 7, if the frequency dividing ratio switch-over timing falls behind the optimum timing, the waveform of the power spectrum has two peaks at the reference frequency f1 and the reference frequency f2. Therefore, to set the optimum frequency dividing ratio switch-over timing, complicated adjustment must be performed to optimize the loop time constant of the PLL circuit, etc., and the PLL circuit must be disposed with a complicated mechanism for setting the frequency dividing ratio switch-over timing.


An identifier such as an IC tag attached to a commodity is read by an antenna connected to a display rack or an information terminal. A server receives the read result, analyse the purchase action of the customer from the identifier ID, the antenna position information, etc, and proposes a totalization result. For example, detailed information of purchase actions for each customer such as a read result for each commodity and a commodity simultaneously read is displayed on terminals for the manager of the shop and managers at headquarters. The totalization result is displayed for the customer as a popular or good selling commodity of the shop on an information terminal inside the shop.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a commodity information proposal system. More particularly, the invention relates to a sales analysis system, a marketing system and a commodity information proposal system for proposing commodity information to customers, each of which utilizes individual commodity identification information that in turn utilizes a non-contact IC tag such as RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tag.
2. Description of the Related Art
Application of non-contact IC tags (hereinafter called "IC tags") to various fields has been expanded in recent years. The term "IC tag" means a tag that can read information of a memory inside a built-in IC chip and to write the information to an internal memory while kept out of contact from a reader/writer. JP-A-2004-246887 (Patent Document 1), for example, disclose sales management by using such IC tags. This prior art technology attaches an IC tag to a commodity, installs readers to shopping cages, entrance/exits, cash registers, and so forth, and reads the IC tags of the commodities by the readers to analyze sales and to conduct settlement processing and security management of commodities.
The prior art described in the Patent Document 1 mentioned above installs the readers as means for grasping purchase actions of customers to the shopping cages and reads the information of the commodities put into the shopping cages. Therefore, the shopping cage needs a power source such as a battery and the weight of the cage increases. This heavy cage weight becomes a large burden to the customers. In addition, a management work on the shop side becomes large, too, because the battery must be charged.
Read log information of the IC tags becomes enormous in shops having a large number of customers but the prior art described above does not execute a weighting processing for the read log information. Therefore, it is very difficult to extract, as marketing materials, valuable information as to which commodities are taken up by customers and as to which commodities are popular though the numbers of sales of the commodities are the same, as marketing materials. The prior art technology further involves the following problem. Shop managers want to promote purchase motivation of customers by proposing the information collected by reading the IC tags as the information of good selling commodities or popular commodities but the prior art cannot satisfy these requirements.
It is an object of the invention to provide a commodity information proposal system that solves the problems of the prior art described above, grasps purchase actions of customers inside shops from information collected by using IC tags attached to commodities, can propose information as a material for marketing about those commodities which are sold and those which are not sold, processes the collected information into a form in match with the intention of shop managers and proposes the information as information promoting purchase desires of customers to the customers.


A portable safe (10) includes a safe body (15) and cover (20) that are selectively coupled with a locking mechanism (32). The safe cover (20) is permanently affixed to a tether (27) having a loop (29) at one end that is sized to allow the safe cover (20) to pass through but does not admit the safe body (15). Thus, the safe cover (20) can be installed on a fixed object by looping the tether (27) around the object, passing the safe cover (20) through the loop (29), and cinching the cover (20) to the fixed object. The safe body (15) can then be locked to the safe cover (20).

It is often desirable to secure one's belongings when traveling away from home to an outdoor or other publicly accessible area. For example, individuals who go to a remote location to participate in an activity such as jogging, hiking, or physical labor may want to secure a small number of personal items such as cash, car keys, and identification or credit cards so that it is not necessary to carry these items during the activity. These personal items may get lost during the activity or may be inconvenient to carry during strenuous activity.