This invention provides a spring loaded mounting mechanism for easily mounting and removing a loudspeaker housing within an opening in a surface. The mounting mechanism includes a shaft connected to the loudspeaker housing. Attached to the shaft is a spring actuated arm. The actuated arm is compressed inward toward the housing by the side walls of the surface surrounding the opening when the housing is being positioned within the opening. At a certain point when the housing is inserted far enough into the opening, the actuated arm will lose contact with the side walls of the surface surrounding the opening and will expand to its open position. In its open position, the arm is positioned just behind or against the back face of the surface surrounding the opening, locking the housing into the opening in the surface. The invention further allows for the spring actuated arm to be tightened against or moved away from the back face of the surface by adjusting the positioning of the shaft. To remove the housing from the opening, the spring actuated arm may be moved away from the back face of the surface surrounding the opening by compressing the arm inward toward the housing. The arm may be compressed inward through the use of a device or by the hand of a user. Once the arm is compressed inward, the housing may be easily removed from the opening.

1. Field of the Invention.
This invention generally relates to the field of loudspeakers. In particular, the invention relates to a system capable of latching the loudspeaker housing within a surface.
2. Related Art.
Installing a loudspeaker into a surface such as a wall and/or ceiling generally includes cutting an opening into the surface to insert the loudspeaker housing into the opening. The loudspeaker housing may be flush against the surface and have a recessed area to receive a baffle that covers the opening and loudspeaker housing. The baffle may incorporate at least one loudspeaker. The loudspeaker housing may be first secured in the surface and then the baffle (with at least one loudspeaker) may be secured to the loudspeaker housing.
At present, mounting a loudspeaker housing within a surface generally includes placing the loudspeaker housing within an opening in the surface and attaching the loudspeaker housing to the opening. Attaching typically involves utilizing some type of attaching means such as screws, nails or adhesive. However, this approach is difficult because it requires the loudspeaker to be placed into proper position within the opening in the surface and to be properly attached to the opening while maintaining the proper position. Additionally, this approach is generally inflexible and permanent in nature because once the loudspeaker housing is attached to the opening it is difficult to reposition the loudspeaker housing or remove it without significant effort or potential damage to the surface. Therefore, there is also a need for a mounting mechanism that is capable of easily mounting a loudspeaker housing within a surface.

Harman International Industries, Incorporated


This invention relates to a method of reducing the pilling propensity or colour clarity of polyester fabrics and/or garments, which method comprises treating the fabric with a polyester hydrolytic enzyme and a detergent.

Poly(ethylene terephthalate) fibers accounts for the main part of the polyester applied by the textile industry. The fibers are produced by e.g. poly-condensation of terephthalic acid and ethylene glycol, and drawing of fibers from a melt.
Because of its strength, polyester fabrics and/or garments are subject to pill formation, and possibly the most important of the cloth-finishing processes applied to polyester staple-fibre materials are those designed for control of pilling. All staple-fibre materials tend to form small balls or "pills" of entangled fibres at the cloth surface, when subjected to mild abrasion during wash and wear. If the fabric contains a substantial proportion of fibres having high resistance to flexural abrasion, the pills may be retained on the surface of the cloth in sufficient numbers to produce an unpleasant handle and appearance.
There is no simple solution to the problem of pilling. In the textile industry, polyester fibers are produced as medium- and high-tenacity filament yarns and as staple fibers of various lengths and fiber color to suit the kind of spinning machinery found in the textile trade. Staple fibers are usually drawn to give medium tenacities, but may be spun from polymers of lower average molecular weight to give improved "pilling" performance at the expense of some loss in abrasion resistance. Also, the finisher may reduce the pilling propensity of a fabric by the removal of protruding hairs from the surface of the cloth and by heat treatment to reduce the tendency of the fibres to migrate within the yarns.
These are all solutions to the problem of pilling applied by the textile industry. Solutions to this problem that can be applied by the end user of polyester fabrics have never been suggested, and the consumer still find pilling to be a problem that is encountered when wearing polyester fabrics and garments.


A safety device for containers, preferably overhead stowage containers, disposed in the interior of aircraft, comprises, in addition to the conventional mountings, at least one connecting member to the container and at least one connecting member to the fuselage, the connecting members being connected to one another via at least one force deflecting element.

In the aircraft industry particular emphasis is placed on the optimum mechanical design of the structural components for safety. This includes the permanent or temporary attachment of structural members or groups thereof in the interior of aircraft, more particularly the attachment of containers, trolleys or the suspension of overhead stowage containers frown the fuselage. The overhead storage containers and the structural members associated therewith are designed for two situations. One situation is routine operations, during which the structural members have to withstand typical stresses, for example, those caused by turbulence without damage; for example for 60,000 flying hours or for 60,000 take-off-and-landing cycles. If the aircraft is subject to turbulence, the inertia of the luggage causes a certain stressing, for example, six times terrestrial acceleration. This is the usual kind of stressing taking place, for example, at the tail or nose of an aircraft. The second kind of stressing takes place in an emergency, for example, a crash. In that case the structural members must withstand approximately 1.5 times the stressing occurring during flying operations. It is permissible for structural members themselves to be destroyed, but the passengers must not suffer injuries as a result. Overhead stowage containers produced to present-day specifications are designed, for example, for static loads of 9 g (9 times terrestrial acceleration) in the forward and 8.5 g in the downward direction. At the present day, suspension systems constructed with a technically justifiable weight are of course designed to withstand such loadings.
Nowadays, aircraft cabins have to accommodate increasingly heavy items of hand baggage, for example, suitcases, laptop computers, photographic and video equipment. The result is high utilisation of baggage stowage containers with relatively heavy baggage, so that the actual weight of baggage in the baggage stowage containers can be quite high. In an emergency, for example, an emergency landing the items of baggage may turn into dangerous projectiles. In that case the baggage stowage containers may remain undamaged, but their supports are damaged and the baggage storage containers and its contents may drop onto the passengers. Other containers used on board aircraft are also being utilised to an ever increasing extent such as, for example, trolleys taking refreshments and beverages to the passengers.

Safety device for a container disposed in the interior of an aircraft

Fischer Advanced CompositeComponents Gesellscgaft m.b.H.


A selected memory cell is correctly read even when a threshold value of a non-selected memory cell that shares a word line is low. When reading a memory cell MC12, a discharge transistor select circuit 47 selectively discharges a bit line BL2 connected to the memory cell MC12 and two bit lines BL0 and BL1 that are adjacent to the bit line BL2. A precharge control circuit 46 fixes to a precharge voltage a center bit line among five bit lines that include a bit line BL3 connected to the memory cell MC12 and four bit lines that are adjacent to the bit line BL3 and brings the remaining bit lines into a floating state with the precharge voltage. Thus, the potential of the bit line BL3 is prevented from being lowered as a consequence of a leak current occurring via the non-selected memory cell MC when the threshold value of the selected memory cell MC12 is high, by which the erroneous determination that the ON-state is provided is prevented from being made.

The present invention relates to a nonvolatile semiconductor storage device of a virtual ground system and a read method for the nonvolatile semiconductor storage device.
There has conventionally been known a semiconductor storage device intended for preventing the flow of a current from a word line to a bit line and a virtual GND line (Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI 6-68683). In this semiconductor storage device, as shown in FIG. 7, memory cell transistors are connected in an array form to bit lines 1 through 4 and virtual GND lines 5 through 9. Moreover, metal bit lines 10 through 12 are provided commonly for two bit lines of each block constructed of two bit lines (bit lines 2 and 3, for example). A precharge circuit 17, which has transistors 14 through 16 connected to the metal bit lines 10 through 12, respectively, is arranged between a Y gate 13 and the memory cell array.
Metal virtual GND lines 18 and 19 are provided one per block constructed of adjoining two virtual GND lines (virtual GND lines 6 and 7, for example). The metal virtual GND lines 18 and 19 are connected to precharge select circuits 20 and 21, respectively. It is to be noted that reference numerals 22 and 23 denote bit line select lines, numerals 24 and 25 denote virtual GND line select lines, and a numeral 26 denotes a word line.
When, for example, a memory cell transistor 27 is read in the semiconductor storage device that has the aforementioned construction, the voltages of the word line 26, the virtual GND line select line 24 and the bit line select line 22 are pulled up to a Vcc level. The voltages of the virtual GND line select line 25 and the bit line select line 23 are pulled down to the GND level. In the above case, only the voltage of the metal virtual GND line 18 is pulled down to the GND level by the precharge select circuit 20, while the voltages of all the other virtual GND lines 19 are set to a precharge level by the precharge select circuit 21. By this operation, only the voltages of the two virtual GND lines 6 and 7 that constitute one block come to have the GND level, while the voltages of other virtual GND lines 5, 8 and 9 come to have the precharge level. Moreover, the metal bit line 11 is selected by a Y gate 13. In the above case, the voltage of the bit line select line 22 has the Vcc level, and the bit line select line 23 has the GND level, as described above. Consequently, a transistor 28 is turned OFF, and a transistor 29 is turned ON. Therefore, the bit line 3 is connected to the metal bit line 11 via the transistor 29 so as to be put in a selected state. By this operation, the memory cell transistor 27 is brought into the selected state.
There is another semiconductor storage device as shown in FIG. 8, in which the current from the word line is prevented from flowing into the bit line and the virtual GND line (Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI 10-11991). As shown in FIG. 8, this semiconductor storage device is constituted roughly of a NOR type cell array constructed of memory cell transistors M01 through Mn8, a select circuit 31, a precharge circuit 32, a sense amplifier 33, a select circuit 34, a precharge circuit 35 and so on. There are further provided bit lines and virtual GND lines D1 through D9, word lines WD0 through WDn, bit-line select transistors S1 through S6, virtual GND line select transistors S11 through S17, bit line select lines BS0 and BS1 and virtual GND line select lines BS2 and BS3.
Furthermore, bit line select circuits SEL1 and SEL2, which are respectively constructed of three bit line select transistors S1 through S3 and S4 through S6, are connected to memory cell transistors M arranged in four columns and select the bit lines and virtual GND lines D in units of columns. Among the bit line select transistors S1, S2 and S3 that constitute the bit line select circuit SEL1, the bit line select transistors S1 and S3 have their gates commonly connected to a bit line select line BS0, have their sources connected to a select circuit 31 via a bit line Y1 and have their drains connected to the bit lines and virtual GND lines D2 and D4. The bit line select transistor S2 has its gate connected to a bit line select line BS1, has its source connected to a select circuit 31 via a bit line Y1 and has its drain connected to the bit line and virtual GND line D3.
When, for example, the memory cell transistor M01 is read in the semiconductor storage device having the aforementioned construction, the voltages of the word line WD0 connected to the gate of the memory cell transistor M01, the bit line select line BS0 connected to the gate of the bit line select transistor S1 whose drain is connected to the drain (or source) of the memory cell transistor M01 and the virtual GND line select line BS3 connected to the gate of the virtual GND line select transistor S11 whose drain is connected to the source (or drain) of the memory cell transistor M01 are pulled up to the VCC level, turning ON the bit line select transistor S1 and the virtual GND line select transistor S11.
At the same time, the voltages of the bit line select line BS1 and the virtual GND line select line BS2 are pulled down to the GND level, turning OFF the bit line select transistors S2 and S5 and the virtual GND line select transistors S12, S13, S15 and S16. The select circuit 31 connects the bit line Y1 to the sense amplifier 33 and connects the bit line Y2 to the precharge circuit 32. Furthermore, the select circuit 34 connects a virtual GND line VG1 to the virtual GND and connects the virtual GND lines VG2 and VG3 to the precharge circuit 35.
Therefore, the bit line Y1 and the bit line and virtual GND line D2 are connected together by the bit line select transistor S1 turned ON. The virtual GND line VG1 and the bit line and virtual GND line D1 are connected together by the virtual GND line select transistor S11 turned ON. As a result, among the bit line and virtual GND lines D1 and D2, the line xe2x80x9cD2xe2x80x9d becomes the bit line, and the line xe2x80x9cD1xe2x80x9d becomes the virtual GND line, bringing the memory cell transistor M01 into the selected state.
However, the conventional semiconductor storage device of the virtual GND system has the problem that misread will possibly occur due to a leak current from the memory cell transistors 30 and M04, which share the word lines WL and WD0 with the memory cell transistors 27 and M01.
First of all, in the case of the aforementioned semiconductor storage device of Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI 6-68683, when the memory cell transistor 27 is selected in FIG. 7, the voltage of the virtual GND line 8 is also pulled up to the precharge level Vpc since the virtual GND line select line 24 has the voltage level of Vcc. Therefore, when the memory cell transistor 30 is ON, a superfluous current flows into the metal bit line 11 through the memory cell transistor 30, as a consequence of which the reduction in the potential of the metal bit line 11 is hindered when the memory cell transistor 27 is ON, possibly causing an operation as if the memory cell transistor 27 were an OFF cell.
Next, in the case of the aforementioned semiconductor storage device of Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI 10-11991, when the memory cell transistor M01 is selected in FIG. 8, the bit line select transistor S3 is also turned ON concurrently with the turning-on of the bit line select transistor S1. In this case, when the memory cell transistor M04 connected to the selected word line WD0 is ON, a current flows into the bit line Y1 via the memory cell transistor M04 and the bit line select transistor S3 since the non-selected bit line D5 has the precharge level, as a consequence of which the reduction in the potential of the bit line Y1 is prevented when the memory cell transistor M01 is ON, possibly causing an operation as if the memory cell transistor M01 were an OFF cell.
Accordingly, the object of the present invention is to provide a nonvolatile semiconductor storage device of the virtual ground system in which the selected memory cell can correctly be read even when the threshold value of the non-selected memory cell that shares a word line WL with this selected memory cell is low and a read method therefor.
In order to achieve the aforementioned object, there is provided a nonvolatile semiconductor storage device having a plurality of nonvolatile memory cells arranged in a matrix form and bit lines and word lines connected to the nonvolatile memory cells, the nonvolatile memory cells adjoining in a direction in which the word lines extend sharing one bit line, the device comprising:
a full bit precharge means for charging all the bit lines with electric charges;
a selective discharge means for selectively discharging one or more adjoining bit lines that include either one of two bit lines connected to a selected nonvolatile memory cell;
a selective precharge means for selectively applying a precharge voltage to any one of one or more bit lines adjacent to the other bit line of the two bit lines connected to the selected nonvolatile memory cell;
a precharge control circuit for operating the full bit precharge means during full bit precharge for charging all the bit lines and operating the selective precharge means in a read operation; and
a discharge control circuit for operating the selective discharge means in the read operation.
According to the above-mentioned construction, when reading the stored information of the selected memory cell, the full bit precharge means is first operated by the precharge control circuit so as to charge the full bit line. All the bit lines are brought into the floating state in the above state, and thereafter, the selective discharge means is operated by the discharge control circuit so as to selectively discharge one or more adjoining bit lines that include either one bit line of the two bit lines connected to the selected memory cell. Furthermore, the selective precharge means is operated by the precharge control circuit so as to selectively apply the precharge voltage to any one of the one or more bit lines adjacent to the other bit lines.
By the above operation, the current leak via the non-selected memory cell from the drain of the selected memory cell is prevented even when the threshold value of the selected memory cell is high and the threshold value of the non-selected memory cell is low, and the potential of the drain is kept at the precharge potential. Thus, correct read is executed. When the threshold value of the selected memory cell is low and the threshold value of the non-selected memory cell is low, the drain of the selected memory cell is charged with electric charges from the selectively precharged bit line. However, before receiving the influence of the charges, the precharge potential of the other bit line is pulled down to one-third, for example, by the bit line located on the one discharged side. Thus, the correct read is executed.
That is, no misread occurs since the other bit line is provided with a sufficient potential difference between the potential when the threshold value of the selected memory cell is high and the potential when the threshold value is low even if the sense timing of the other bit line connected to the selected memory cell is delayed for some reasons.
In one embodiment, the bit line to which the precharge voltage is applied by the selective precharge means is one bit line located at a center of the plurality of adjoining bit lines that include the other bit line.
According to the above-mentioned construction, the drain potential when the threshold value of the selected memory cell is high does not receive the influence of the current leak occurring from the precharge voltage applied bit line toward the discharged bit line via the non-selected memory cell, dissimilar to the case where the bit line to which the precharge voltage is applied is positioned on the opposite side of the selected memory cell with respect to the center of the plurality of adjoining bit lines that include the other bit line. The drain voltage when the threshold value of the selected memory cell is low does not receive the influence of the electric charges occurring from the precharge voltage applied bit line via the non-selected memory cell, dissimilar to the case where the precharge voltage applied bit line is positioned on the selected memory cell side with respect to the center.
In one embodiment, the bit lines, which are selectively discharged by the selective discharge means, are three bit lines, and
the plurality of bit lines, where the bit line to which the precharge voltage is applied by the selective precharge means is located at the center, are five bit lines.
In one embodiment, each of the full bit precharge means, the selective precharge means and the selective discharge means is constituted of a plurality of transistors whose sources or drains are connected to the bit lines,
the precharge control circuit supplies a control signal to gates of the transistors that constitute the full bit precharge means and the selective precharge means, and
the discharge control circuit supplies a control signal to gates of the transistors that constitute the selective discharge means.
According to the above-mentioned construction, the full bit precharge means, the selective precharge means and the selective discharge means are constituted by arranging same transistors in a line. Therefore, the area occupied by the above-mentioned means is reduced. Furthermore, the selective discharge of the bit line and the selective application of the precharge voltage are executed in units of individual bit lines. Therefore, the number of the discharged bit lines, the number of the non-discharged bit lines and the position of the precharge voltage applied bit line can easily be changed only by changing the precharge control circuit or the discharge control circuit.
There is provided a method for reading a nonvolatile semiconductor storage device having a plurality of nonvolatile memory cells arranged in a matrix form and bit lines and word lines connected to the nonvolatile memory cells, the nonvolatile memory cells adjoining in a direction in which the word lines extend sharing one bit line, the method comprising the steps of:
precharging all the bit lines with electric charges;
activating a word line connected to a selected nonvolatile memory cell;
selectively discharging one or more adjoining bit lines that include either one of two bit lines connected to the selected nonvolatile memory cell;
selectively applying a precharge voltage to one bit line that is located at a center of a plurality of adjoining bit lines that include the other bit line of the two bit lines connected to the selected nonvolatile memory cell; and
reading information stored in the selected nonvolatile memory cell from the other bit line.
According to the above-mentioned construction, similarly to the case of the first inventive aspect, when the threshold value of the selected memory cell is high and the threshold value of the non-selected memory cell is low, the current leak occurring from the drain of the selected memory cell via the non-selected memory cell is prevented since the precharge voltage is applied to the one bit line located at the center of the non-discharged bit lines, and the potential of the drain is kept at the precharge potential. Thus, the correct read is executed. When the threshold value of the selected memory cell is low and the threshold value of the non-selected memory cell is low, the precharge potential of the other bit line is pulled down by the discharged one bit line before the drain potential of the selected memory cell receives the influence of the electric charges from the precharge voltage applied bit line. Thus, the correct read is executed.

Nonvolatile semiconductor storage device capable of correctly reading selected memory cell and read method


A notification control method, system, and non-transitory computer readable medium, include a state of flow detecting circuit configured to detect a state of flow of a user from brain waves of the user from user data and a notification control circuit configured to cause a physical notification to be displayed based on the detected state of flow of the user.

The present invention relates generally to a notification control system, and more particularly, but not by way of limitation, to a system for leveraging the detection of brain waves present in state of flow (e.g., alpha and theta), to support a user's high creative concentration state. The detection can then utilized to manage, for example, all incoming notifications to the user across multi-device so that state of flow is not interrupted, and via Internet of Things (IoT) enabled devices, part of the physical environment of the person in state of flow may change (e.g., a light on the back their chair, a sign outside of their office door, etc.) can light up, with the aim to reduce interruptions and as such supporting the state of flow.
Since the introduction of mobile phones and the advances in computers, social media, games, and demands from work, a person's attention is scattered by receiving multiple alerts, and notifications that interrupt the user's concentration at any given time. Supporting the state of flow if beneficial for creativity, autonomy, productivity, and contributes to the users satisfaction.
Conventionally, notifications are delivered to the user based on static user settings such as instantly via an alert, a sound, a vibration, etc or in bulk at a specifically set time and interval. Conventional techniques to limit interruptions consider activity by the user that is detectable by the system such as an incoming phone call or interrupting other computer speech.
That is, there is a technical problem in the conventional techniques in that the conventional techniques do not consider controlling notifications, or the IoT enabled environment based on the user entering a particular state of flow according to monitoring the user's brain waves such that the notification (e.g., digital or physical) is delivered to the user causing the user to exit a particular state of flow.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

System, method, and recording medium for detecting and leveraging brain waves present in a user's state of flow to control digital and physical notifications

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


The present invention generally provides methods and compositions for the treatment of Parkinson's disease and depression and/or anxiety. The invention relates to recombinant microorganisms, particularly gut-colonizing probiotics, modified to produce L-DOPA.

More than 10 million people worldwide, and one million Americans have Parkinson's disease (PD), and approximately 50,000 new cases are diagnosed each year, with the incidence among aging population exceeding that for other younger segments of the US population. In addition, Parkinsonian disorders including progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) and multiple system atrophy (MSA) have overlapping neurological deficits and clinical pathology with PD. The cardinal pathology of PD is progressive neurodegeneration of dopamine-producing neurons in substantia nigra, contributing to dopamine deficiency that manifest in severe motor symptoms including rigidity, bradykinesia, tremors, and postural instability. The amino acid L-DOPA is the precursor to the neurotransmitter dopamine, and has been used for the treatment of a variety of neurological disorders including PD. The discovery of dopamine replacement therapy with Levodopa (L-DOPA) for PD represents one of the most remarkable success stories in the history of medicine. For decades, L-DOPA is the drug most often prescribed because it's unparalleled symptomatic relief to PD patients. Unfortunately, L-DOPA gold standard therapy met inherent side effects commonly referred to L-DOPA induced dyskinesia (LID). Although neurochemical basis of LID is not completely understood, dopamine receptor sensitization due to pulsated delivery of L-DOPA in form of 100-500 mg tablet 2 times day is considered to be major reason for the LID. The clinical diagnosis of L-DOPA drug fluctuations include peak dose, off period dystonia, and diphasic dyskinesia. In the face of antiparkinsonian treatment, the lack of effective treatment to control LID remains by far the most challenging problem.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide methods and compositions to deliver L-DOPA in a sustained manner thereby avoiding pulsated delivery and the L-DOPA induced dyskinesia associated with the standard treatment regimen. Other objects will become apparent from the description of the invention which follows.

Iowa State University Research Foundation, Inc.

Board of Regents, The University of Texas System


Methods, systems, computer-readable media, and apparatuses for signal enhancement are presented. One example of such an apparatus includes a receiver configured to produce a remote speech signal from information carried by a wireless signal; a signal canceller configured to perform a signal cancellation operation on a local speech signal to generate a room response; and a filter configured to filter the remote speech signal according to the room response to produce a filtered speech signal. In this example, the signal cancellation operation is based on the remote speech signal as a reference signal.

Hearable devices or "hearables" (also known as "smart headphones," "smart earphones," or "smart earpieces") are becoming increasingly popular. Such devices, which are designed to be worn over the ear or in the ear, have been used for multiple purposes, including wireless transmission and fitness tracking. As shown in FIG. 3A, the hardware architecture of a hearable typically includes a loudspeaker to reproduce sound to a user's ear; a microphone to sense the user's voice and/or ambient sound; and signal processing circuitry to communicate with another device (e.g., a smartphone). A hearable may also include one or more sensors: for example, to track heart rate, to track physical activity (e.g., body motion), or to detect proximity.

Acoustic path modeling for signal enhancement


A plurality of scanner bars is arranged in precisely located holes in the frame of a media handling device to detect the passage of the lead and trail edge of media. The multiplicity of scanner bars, arranged linearly at a right angle to the direction of motion of the media, is sampled at some frequency. The scanner bars give not only arrival and departure time of the media from each scanner bar location, but also making some assumptions about the shape of the media, information about the orientation of the media relative to the direction of motion. This information can be used to diagnose improper media handling mechanisms upstream of the sensor or provide information to downstream corrective mechanisms. Preprinted test media, such as, ladder charts, etc., can be used to extract velocity profiles and other paper path dynamic characteristics.

1. Field of the Invention
This disclosure relates to media handling within a printing apparatus, and more particularly, to a calibration and diagnostic system for use within the paper path of a printing apparatus to determine media speed characteristics, position in the paper path and skew.
2. Description of Related Art
In a typical electrophotographic printing process, a photoconductive member is charged to a substantially uniform potential so as to sensitize the surface thereof. The charged portion of the photoconductive member is exposed to a light image of an original document being reproduced. Exposure of the charged photoconductive member selectively dissipates the charges thereon in the irradiated areas. This records an electrostatic latent image on the photoconductive member corresponding to the information areas contained within the original document. After the electrostatic latent image is recorded on the photoconductive member, the latent image is developed by bringing a developer material into contact therewith. Generally, the developer material comprises toner particles adhering triboelectrically to carrier granules. The toner particles are attracted from the carrier granules to the latent image forming a toner powder image on the photoconductive member. The toner powder image is then transferred from the photoconductive member to a copy sheet. The toner particles are heated to permanently affix the powder image to the copy sheet. Such an electrophotographic printing process is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,137,989, which is incorporated herein by reference.
In high-speed media or paper handling applications, it is very difficult to diagnose the root cause of any problems because it is essentially impossible to see what is going on inside the machine. This is both because the physical space within the machine is so tight that what one can see is limited, plus the fact that the paper is moving so quickly. Typically, all diagnostics are performed by looking at sheet arrival and departure times at various discrete sensors. No information about paper skew is generally available. Other defects, such as, smear or paper damage must be solved indirectly.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,313,253 issued May 17, 1994 to Michael J. Martin et al. is concerned with paper path signature analysis and discloses an apparatus which utilizes output from various idler rolls throughout the machine paper path to detect abnormalities. The constantly monitored and instantaneous velocity reading are compared with a base line velocity signature established at the factory. If the constantly monitored velocity profile is not within the pre-established operation parameters as set at the factory, automatic machine adjustment procedures are initiated and/ort automatic service alerts are issued.
A method of changing the reference timing of a sheet transport control in an imaging forming device for determining the validity of the timing of a sheet by comparing the actual timing of a sheet with a given reference timing is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,528,347 issued Jun. 18, 1996. Actual timings for a plurality of copy sheets in relation to a predetermined sensor are stored in memory. A typical time period from a plurality of copy sheets is then determined in relation to the sensor and the reference timing for the sensor is adjusted based upon the typical time period for the sensor.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,859,440 issued Jan. 12, 1999 to Thomas Acquaviva discloses a dual mode non-contact optical sheet edge detection system for detecting either fully transparent or regular sheet being fed in a sheet transport of a reproduction system. The system utilizes an illumination source for illuminating the potential sheet edge area at an angle to generate a detectable sheet edge shadow from transparent sheets, and an optical detection system remotely detecting the generated edge shadow to provide sheet edge location or timing information to a control system. Preferably, the sheet edge is held spaced above the illuminated sensor and illuminated target area to enhance the shadow effect.
An apparatus and method for correcting top edge sheet misregistration using a sensor array is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,137,989 issued Oct. 24, 2000 to Lisbeth S. Quesnel. An array sensor is placed in the paper path prior to transfer. A signal is generated indicating the position of the sheet. As a function of the signal, the print controller causes the image to be exposed and developed on the photoreceptor in alignment with the sheet position. The aligned image is then transferred to the sheet.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,168,153 B1 and 6,173,952 B1 issued Jan. 2, 2001 and Jan. 16, 2001, respectively, to Paul N. Richards et al. disclose a sheet handling system for correcting the skew and/or transverse position of sequential sheets, especially those moving in a process direction in a sheet transport of a reproduction apparatus. The system employs sensor arrays in deskewing and/or side registering sheets.
Some of these technologies are quite sophisticated, utilizing various embedded sensors, digitally controllable stepper motors and high speed computational capability, all of which add up to a significant level of equipment cost, which, while justified in a high-end printer, might be considered exorbitant in a smaller, less expensive device.
Furthermore, while these systems provide control over certain aspects of machine behavior that are designed to be controlled, there will always be unintended sources of variation due to various types of defects and malfunctions which these systems can neither compensate for, nor diagnose.
Even though the above-mentioned prior art is useful, there is still a need, in printers for improvements in paper path diagnostic systems.
Accordingly, a paper path and diagnostic system is disclosed that answers the above-mentioned problem by using precisely aligned slots strategically placed in the frame of a printer along its paper path and positioning scanner bars within those slots to "watch" the paper as it goes by. The scanner bars will monitor the paper as it is fed, looking for any irregularities, such as, skew at each station. If, for example, skew is detected, detailed information is included in the scanner data to help identify the associated vectors and root cause of the skew. If ladder chart paper is used, the velocity of the sheet and the motion quality information can also be extracted.
While the disclosure will be described hereinafter in connection with a preferred embodiment thereof, it will be understood that limiting the disclosure to that embodiment is not intended. On the contrary, it is intended to cover all alternatives, modifications and equivalents as may be included within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

Paper path calibration and diagnostic system


Disclosed is a method of providing driving information of a vehicle, including tracking and recognizing driver gaze of the vehicle, checking whether the driver gaze is directed toward a display of the vehicle, upon checking that the driver gaze is directed toward the display of the vehicle, checking coordinates of an actual position corresponding to a point on the display, toward which the driver gaze is directed, acquiring an image corresponding to the checked coordinates, and displaying the acquired image using an augmented reality provision unit included in the vehicle.

The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
In order to project information onto the eye of a driver, a head up display (HUD) or a virtual reality (VR) device may be provided in a vehicle.
For example, a HUD is a front display device designed to display driving information of a vehicle on a front glass of a vehicle. The HUD device forms and displays a virtual image to enable a driver to recognize various types of information such as a speed, a fuel level, temperature, and a warning direction, which are displayed on a cluster of the vehicle.
A driver has high concentration on a front side by using the HUD device to advantageously reduce the risk of accidents. In addition, the HUD device provides a night vision function for identifying a front object during the nighttime as well as information of a cluster.
However, a conventional HUD or VR device has an effect of displaying various pieces of information to a driver without gaze dispersion, but has high risk of traffic accidents because incorrect information is transmitted due to mismatch between an actual object and image information or insufficient information on a hidden spot such as a front blind spot.

Method and apparatus for providing driving information of vehicle, and recording medium


Systems and methods are disclosed for controlling a display device having a display scan line rate by storing incoming data in a buffer, the buffer having a usage level measure; comparing the usage level to the display scan line rate; and adjusting a width of a display scan line to avoid buffer overflow or underflow. The system avoids a costly external frame buffer and automatically handles uncertainties such as jitter in input and output clocks when the system operates in different environments.

The present invention relates to display controllers for digital display devices such as liquid crystal displays, plasma displays and progressive-scan televisions.
One commonly used type of display panel is a liquid crystal display (LCD) panel. An LCD display panel is a rectangular grid of rectangular or square dots. The grid includes transparent electrodes laid out in horizontal rows on one thin pane, and in vertical columns on the other. The liquid crystal formula trapped in between the panes reacts to an electrical field applied to each electrode in the rows and columns. This reaction rotates the polarization of light transmitted through the LCD display. Polarizing layers outside the panes cause the dots to appear light or dark as the polarization changes.
The display is controlled by continuously feeding dot data to the display. The data is organized into individual pixels, rows of pixels, and full-page frames. A set of rows makes up a frame, which is one full page of the display. LCD data is continuously sent to the LCD panel to refresh the display frame. Since most LCD displays have no on-board frame buffer memory, the display data must be continuously refreshed. To get a stable, flicker-free image, the display data is sent to the panel at a frame refresh rate (referred to herein as the "frame rate") which falls within a range normally specified by the LCD panel manufacturer. An LCD panel manufacturer may specify, for example, that best results are obtained, i.e., a stable, flicker-free image, when the display data is sent to the panel 60 to 70 times per second, or 60 Hz to 70 Hz.
The LCD may be driven by different computers with different display resolutions. To insure the minimum level of interoperability between a digital flat panel (DFP) compliant monitor and host, both the monitor and host must support the video modes 640×400-60 Hz, 720×400-60 Hz, and 640×480-60 Hz. The DFP monitor must produce a viewable image with all of these video modes. The pixel clock for 640×400 and 720×400 shall be scaled down so the refresh rate is adjusted from 70 Hz to 60 Hz. The definition of a viewable image is all pixels are visible to the end user. Note that this does not mean that the monitor must support scaling or centering. It is considered acceptable for the image to be displayed in the upper left corner of the LCD. Monitors that have a native resolution of 640×480 are not required to fully display 720×400. If a DFP monitor is bundled with a DFP host or video card that does support scaling or centering, the monitor may rely on the host and is not required to provide this lower resolution support.
To illustrate, a VGA 640×480 pixel screen output can be displayed in a reduced area on a 1024×768 SVGA flat panel display. This type of display method would leave 384 pixels blank at the right of the screen and 288 blank lines at the bottom of the page. To increase the usable screen area, both horizontal and vertical expansion, preferably by the correct scale factor, are required. The image expanding can be done by replication of pixels horizontally or vertically or both. Typically, vertical lines may be added by periodically replicating the pixels of the preceding line to provide the desired expansion factor. However, horizontal expansion of character data is not provided because the character clock is typically used to clock the display, this being a submultiple of the pixel clock rate. Thus, the aspect ratio of text screens may be distorted by the vertical expansion without a corresponding horizontal expansion.
Another approach in flat panel technology replicates pixels vertically using the panel logic to simultaneously activate two row drivers at selected times. The column drivers are usually split into several chips and all of them must be driven simultaneously during one line scan, making it impossible to replicate pixels horizontally.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,600,347 discloses a system for horizontal expansion of low resolution display modes onto high resolution displays at a variable scaling factor. Two different methods are provided for graphics and text modes to attain better screen image quality. In the first method, a first pixel data sequence to be expanded is first oversampled at a multiple of the frequency thereof to produce an intermediate oversampled data sequence. The oversampled data sequence is linearly decimated by a factor of less than unity to produce a replicated second data sequence longer than the first, which is then displayed. In the second method, the intermediate oversampled data sequence is filtered to provide an interpolated oversampled data sequence, which is then decimated instead of the intermediate oversampled data sequence, to further improve the screen image quality.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,177,922 discloses a method and apparatus for producing video signal timing for a display device that has a display format different from the input video format. The system performs variable scale horizontal expansion of a first sequence of data elements to a second longer sequence of data elements for higher resolution display, in which the first data sequence is oversampled at a multiple of the frequency thereof, and then linearly decimated by a factor of less than unity to produce the second data sequence. The variable scale horizontal expansion is performed with a scaling factor (m/n). Horizontal expansion of a first sequence of data elements by a factor of two is performed, followed by horizontal compression by a factor of (m/2n). For example, a 640 pixel line may be expanded to 1024 pixels by first replicating every pixel to derive 1280 pixels, and then decimating the result by deleting (2n−m) pixels out of every 2n pixels. In operation with a typical computer graphics subsystem, the controller chip runs with its pixel clock rate divided by 2 and its output oversampled by a factor of 2. Then, selected pixel clock signals are deleted by the decimator logic. Although there are discontinuities in the pixel clock rate, the output pixels are compressed into the flat panel display because the data are first clocked into the display and then latched for a whole line period while the next line is assembled. Any screen compression ratio between 1 and 2 may thus be achieved by deleting the appropriate number of pixel clocks. Expansion by factors of more than 2 may also be achieved by increasing the oversampling ratio prior to decimation. When combined with vertical expansion methods, the system may be used to only perform expansion to any size of flat panel display from a lower resolution image.
Conventional image scaling controllers require their output clock to the LCD panel interface to match their input clock at a fixed rate to keep the frame rate equal between the input to each controller and the output to the LCD panel interface.
The '922 patent needs to generate a clock signal ("target clock signal") which is synchronized with a reference clock signal. The two clock signals generally have unequal frequencies. For the purpose of illustration, the target clock signal may need to have a frequency of X/Y times the frequency of the reference clock signal, wherein X and Y are integers. To solve the above difficulty, the device in the '922 patent operates in conjunction with a rather complex method and apparatus for generating a target clock signal having a frequency of X/Y times the frequency of a reference clock signal, as discussed in a companion patent U.S. Pat. No. 6,157,376. The '376 patent discloses a clock generator circuit which provides for short comparison cycles even if X and Y do not have a large common denominator when a target clock signal having a frequency of (X/Y) times the frequency of a reference clock signal is to be generated. The comparison cycle is shortened by using approximately X/L and Y/L as divisors, instead of X and Y. As X/L and/or Y/L may not equal integers, multiple divisors may be used in a weighted fashion such that the weighted averages equal X/L or Y/L as the case may be.


A multi-sensor anticipatory object detection system for detecting the instantaneous range, relative velocity, collision angle and point of impact of a colliding object includes a plurality of transducer devices angle a fixed distance in which each said transducer device transmits a modulated carrier signal and receives the reflected modulated carrier signal from an object; a detection device for detecting a plurality of Doppler shifted harmonic components from each said reflected signal; a range determining device, responsive to the amplitudes of said harmonic components, for determining the instantaneous range of said object from each said transducer device; a velocity measurement device, responsive to the frequency of said harmonic components, for determining the relative instantaneous velocity of said object; and an impact decision device, responsive to said range determining device and the velocity measurement device, for determining where, if at all, impact with the object will occur and the angle of the impact prior to impact with the object.

Accelerometers used in frontal air-bag deployment systems are designed to measure only the head-on g force caused by a collision with an object. However, the normal component of the force experienced in non-head on collisions diminishes as the collision angle decreases. An object detection system consisting of a single, center mounted sensor with a single antenna is capable of measuring the radial distance and velocity of potential colliding objects that lie within the antenna beamwidth. However, because the radar measures the distance between the antenna element and the object, the system cannot discriminate between head on collisions and those which occur at an angle. Thus, a single sensor system cannot determine the angle at which the object will impact, nor the point of impact. To accomplish this, it is necessary to determine the normal velocity component of a colliding object. Typically, such a determination requires sophisticated and expensive equipment to determine the velocity of the object. A single sweeping antenna could be used to determine the normal velocity component. However, this would require at least two sweeps of the antenna which requires an antenna with beam steering capability or additional equipment and motors to sweep a fixed beamwidth antenna along with additional time necessary to complete the sweeps. Where the application is an object detection system for an automobile for detecting objects moving up to 120 MPH, time is precious and cannot be wasted while waiting for a second or third sweep of the antenna. Additionally, a single sweep antenna temporarily looses contact with the object between sweeps, and therefore, cannot continuously determine the instantaneous range of the object.
The normal component of the velocity of a colliding object can also be determined using a dual, narrow beam antenna system. However, the narrow beam does not provide sufficient coverage where the application is in an anticipatory object detection system for an automobile. In order to provide such sufficient coverage, larger sweeping antennas having vary fast steering sweeps are required. Such systems are extremely expensive.

Multi-sensor anticipatory object detection system


A method of arranging detector modules within a gamma ray detector apparatus, each detector module including an array of scintillation crystals to convert light into electrical signals, the light being generated in response to incident gamma rays generated by an annihilation event, the method including obtaining performance information of each of the detector modules, and determining a relative location for each of the detector modules within the gamma ray detector based on the obtained performance information of the detector modules.

A PET system is conventionally made of tens to about a hundred detector modules with different timing properties. Conventionally, detector modules are randomly arranged within a PET scanner. For example, for a PET detector having a plurality of detector modules arranged to form the detector ring, the detector modules are typically randomly arranged within the detector ring.
For a time-of-flight (TOF) PET scanner, this randomness usually results in a non-uniform timing resolution in the PET FOV and in the image plane. When modeled appropriately, this non-uniformity makes image reconstruction more complicated, and when not addressed, it deteriorates the image quality.

Apparatus and method for improving uniformity of performance in positron emission tomography


A clock frequency of a clock signal is calculated, with the clock signal being received by an IC card from a terminal or an internal clock within the IC card. A first time-stamp is received from the terminal, and a first value of the timer is set. The timer of the IC card is started when the first time-stamp is received. A second time-stamp is received, and a second value of the timer is read when the second time-stamp is received. The frequency is calculated by comparing a difference between the second and the first timer values, and a difference between the second and the first time stamps.

An IC card receives electrical power and clock signals from a terminal. Thus, if the terminal is turned off or not connected to the IC card, a clock signal is not received. Moreover, even when the IC card is connected to the terminal and powered on, the clock signal is not continuously provided. Moreover, even when the IC card is connected to the terminal and powered on, it does not know the clock frequency of the terminal.
On the other hand, the clock frequency may not be a priori known to the IC card, since it may be connected to several terminals, providing different clock frequencies. Thus, since the IC card does not know the clock frequency, it cannot measure time. Even the most advanced IC cards include only two hardware timers, i.e., an incremental timer and a decrement timer. The decrement timer is loaded with a predetermined value and is decreased at every clock cycle. It may be configured to decrease a pre-scale value at each clock cycle.
FIG. 1 schematically represents an IC card 140 and a terminal wherein the IC card is inserted. The terminal 100 comprises a radio interface, such as an antenna 110, a display 120, and buttons 130. The terminal provides a timer service 150 to the IC card 140.
FIG. 2 represents the internal hardware structure of the IC card. More particularly, the IC card 140 comprises a central processor unit (CPU) 200, a memory 210, a timer 220, an optional internal clock generator 230, and a universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter 240. The IC card 140 further includes interfaces for the terminal, i.e., an external clock interface 250, a data 260 interface and a power interface 270. The interface for data 260 is used for communicating data with the terminal 100 while the interface for power 270 is used for receiving electrical power from the external device 100.
In case the IC card 140 includes an internal clock 230, an application stored in the IC card or the IC card operating system may manage the use of the internal clock 230 independently on the external clock 250 of the terminal or the external clock 250 of the terminal. The internal clock 230 may be emitted by internal hardware of the card, such as an oscillator or a PLL. The external clock is generated outside the IC card 140, e.g, by the terminal 100 through the corresponding interface 250. The frequency of the clock internally generated by the IC card may not be a priori known to the IC card as well, since it may depend on several electrical parameters strictly related to the IC production process, and so may be different for each IC card. This is because of the production tolerances and operating conditions providing different clock frequencies among a well-defined clock frequency interval.
In other words, the problem affecting the known IC card 140 is that it cannot detect the frequency of the clock at runtime. Moreover, different types of clocks can be supplied to the IC card 140 depending on what clock is used at a specific time, i.e., the internal clock or an external clock. For the internal clock frequency, if an internal clock is available, it could be known from the IC card specification. However, due to the fluctuation of the power level and other operating conditions, such as temperature or due to several electrical parameters strictly related to the IC production process and production tolerances, the actual internal clock frequency can be different from the nominal frequency value of the specification, and may be different for each IC card.
Additionally, as depicted in FIG. 3, it may be usual for a terminal to switch off the clock supply when no communication takes place to reduce the IC card current absorption. During the interval 300, 320, the IC card 140 is switched on and can communicate APDU messages with the external device 100. During these time intervals, the timer 220 can be active. However, during the interval 310 when the IC card 140 is still switched on but the external clock is not generated by the terminal 100 for power savings, it is still possible to increase or decrease the timer value.

Method and system for calculating a clock frequency of a clock signal for an IC card


A method and an apparatus for recording optical gratings in a photosensitive medium are provided. The invention uses a phase mask in combination with a scanning of the recording light beam. The phase mask, or alternatively the photosensitive medium, is translated along a direction parallel to the scanning of the light beam, so that the period of the recorded grating may be locally adjusted. To ensure a proper recording efficiency over a large range, an appropriately selected wavefront curvature is provided in the light beam. The method of the invention is particularly advantageous for the recording of superimposed grating components in a photosensitive medium.

The present invention relates to the field of components for optical telecommunications and more particularly concerns a method and a corresponding apparatus for recording optical gratings in a photosensitive medium with an enhanced control of the characteristics of the grating.
Phase masks are widely used for the fabrication of UV-induced fiber Bragg gratings since their first reports (see for example K. O. Hill, B. Malo, F. Bilodeau, D. C. Johnson, and J. Albert, xe2x80x9cBragg gratings fabricated in monomode photosensitive optical fiber by UV exposure through a phase maskxe2x80x9d Appl. Phys. Lett., pp.1035-1037 (1993); U.S. Pat. No. 5,367,588 (Hill et al.); D. Z. Anderson, V. Mizrahi, T. Erdogan, and A. E. White, xe2x80x9cProduction of in-fibre gratings using a diffractive optical elementxe2x80x9d Electron. Lett., pp.566-568 (1993); and U.S. Pat. No. 5,327,515 (Anderson et al.). The use of such a diffractive element renders easy the mass production of fiber Bragg gratings as the mask acts somewhat as a master replicated onto a large number of fiber Bragg gratings. However, a typical writing setup with a phase mask is not flexible and allows the fabrication of only one type of fiber Bragg gratings, that is, the one with the specifications prescribed by the phase mask.
The fiber is characterized by an effective index neff that is modified by the UV radiation. A fiber Bragg grating is mainly characterized by the period p of the index modulation in the core of the fiber, along its axis. The fiber Bragg grating reflects light having a wavelength xcexB (the Bragg wavelength) given by:
xcexB(z)=2p(z)xc3x1eff(z),xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(1)
Where xc3x1eff is the slowly varying effective index of the fiber inside the grating, z is the position along the grating and the dependence of the parameters over z indicates that both the period and the slowly varying effective index are not necessarily uniform along the grating. There is an interest in the control of the Bragg wavelength along a grating. This can be done by controlling the period of the grating along the fiber.
Translating a UV-beam along the phase mask is a convenient way to achieve long gratings (J. Martin, and F. Ouellette, xe2x80x9cNovel writing technique of long and highly reflective in-fibre gratingsxe2x80x9d Electron. Lett., pp.911-812 (1994)). In particular, it allows a fine control of the apodisation, that is the strength of the grating, along the fiber axis.
Several techniques based on a phase mask but with enhanced flexibility have been proposed over the past few years. One of the most straightforward way to modify the grating period is by stretching the fiber, such as taught in K. C. Byron, and H. N. Rourke, xe2x80x9cFabrication of chirped fibre gratings by novel stretch and write techniquexe2x80x9d Electron. Lett., pp.60-61 (1995) and K. Sugden, I. Bennion, A. Molony, and N. J. Copner, xe2x80x9cChirped gratings produced in photosensitive optical fibres by fibre deformation during exposurexe2x80x9d Electron. Lett., pp.440-442 (1994). There is also suggested in Y. Painchaud, A. Chandonnet, and J. Lauzon, xe2x80x9cChirped fibre gratings produced by tilting the fibrexe2x80x9d Electron. Lett., pp.171-172 (1995) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,903,689 (PAINCHAUD et al.) to adjust the period by controlling the angles of both the phase mask and the fiber with respect to the UV-beam axis.
Referring to U.S. Pat. No. 6,072,926 (COLE et al.) and M. J. Cole, W. H. Loh, R. I. Laming, M. N. Zervas, and S. Barcelos, xe2x80x9cMoving fibre/phase mask-scanning beam technique for enhanced flexibility in producing fibre gratings with uniform phase maskxe2x80x9d Electron. Lett., pp.1488-1490 (1995), it is known to adjust the period by moving the phase mask. For the fine tuning of the Bragg wavelength, Cole proposed a lateral displacement of the phase mask during a writing process involving a scan of the UV beam. Excellent results have been obtained but the adjustment range is limited to about 1 nm. FIG. 1 (PRIOR ART) shows the limit of the grating period adjustment when the UV beam diameter is 350 xcexcm: the reflectivity decreases as a function of the detuning which corresponds to a decrease in the writing efficiency. The adjustment range increases as the UV beam size decreases. Cole also proposed a displacement of the phase mask at variable velocity for the adjustment of a chirp in the grating period.
On another hand, Prohaska, described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,351,321 (SNITZER) and J. D. Prohaska, E. Snitzer, S. Rishton, and V. Boegli, xe2x80x9cMagnification of mask fabricated fibre Bragg gratingsxe2x80x9d Electron. Lett., pp.1614-1615 (1993) a technique for controlling the period of a Bragg grating over a large range (several nanometers) by using a magnifying lens along the UV beam axis. The right side of FIG. 2 (PRIOR ART) shows the interference fringes at the output of a phase mask when a convergent UV beam is incident at the input surface. By placing a fiber at a distance q from the output surface of the phase mask, a grating will be photo-imprinted having a period p given by:
p=xcex9/2xc2x7M,xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(2)
where                               M          =                      1            -                          q                              z                f                                                    ,                            (        3        )
is the magnification factor, xcex9 is the phase mask period, q is the distance between the output surface of the phase mask and the fiber core and zf is the distance between the output surface of the phase mask and the focal plane, that is the plane where the beam would be focalized. The distance zf also corresponds to the radius of curvature of the wavefront at the phase mask.
Oppositely, the left side of FIG. 2 (PRIOR ART) illustrates the interference fringes at the output of a phase mask when a collimated beam is incident. In this case, the period of the grating is independent of the distance between the phase mask and the fiber.
The technique described by Prohaska allows an adjustment of the Bragg wavelength over a large range (several nanometers). However, the optical characteristics of the resulting grating are degraded: the photo-induced grating is slanted (blazed) in a spatially-dependent manner. Such a slanted fringes inside the grating causes a spatial dependence of the diffraction efficiency and increases significantly the polarization dependent loss and polarization mode dispersion. Another drawback is the need for uncommonly large lenses when a long grating is to be photo-induced, making the method more costly and unpractical.
There is therefore a need for a fabrication techniques for Bragg gratings or the like alleviating the above mentioned drawbacks of the prior art.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method of recording optical gratings in a photosensitive medium that is versatile and commercially practical.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an apparatus adapted to carry out such a method.
It is a preferable object of the invention to provide such a method that enables the recording of long gratings over a large wavelength range.
It is another preferable object of the invention to provide a method and apparatus for recording superimposed grating components in a photosensitive medium.
Accordingly, the present invention provides a method for recording an optical grating along a waveguiding axis in a photosensitive medium. The method includes:
a) providing a phase mask proximate the photosensitive medium along the waveguiding axis;
b) projecting a light beam through a portion of the phase mask to generate a light beam with a modulated intensity profile. The light beam with a modulated intensity profile impinges on the photosensitive medium to locally record therein a portion of the optical grating, having a characteristic period;
c) moving the light beam along the waveguiding axis of the photosensitive medium to successively record portions of the optical grating therealong; and
d) concurrently to the moving of the light beam:
i) moving the phase mask in a direction parallel to the moving of the light beam. The moving of the phase mask is adjusted relative to the moving of the light beam to locally tune the characteristic period of each portion of the optical grating; and
ii) providing a curvature in the light beam wavefront along the direction of the waveguiding axis, this curvature having a wavefront radius of curvature at a phase mask plane selected to generally optimize an efficiency of the recording of the optical grating for this characteristic period.
In the alternative, the present invention provides another method for recording an optical grating along a waveguiding axis in a photosensitive medium, the method comprising:
a) providing a phase mask proximate to the photosensitive medium along the waveguiding axis;
b) projecting a light beam through a portion of said phase mask to generate a light beam with a modulated intensity profile, said light beam with a modulated intensity profile impinging on the photosensitive medium to locally record therein a portion of the optical grating having a characteristic period;
c) moving the light beam along the waveguiding axis of the photosensitive medium to successively record portions of the optical grating therealong; and
d) concurrently to said moving of the light beam:
i) moving the photosensitive medium in a direction parallel to the moving of the light beam, said moving of the photosensitive medium being adjusted relative to the moving of the light beam to locally tune the characteristic period of each portion of the optical grating; and
ii) providing a wavefront curvature in said light beam along the direction of the waveguiding axis, said curvature having a wavefront radius of curvature in a plane of the phase mask selected to generally optimize an efficiency of the recording of the optical grating for said characteristic period.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, there is also provided an apparatus for recording an optical grating along a waveguiding axis in a photosensitive medium. The apparatus includes a phase mask provided proximate the photosensitive medium along the waveguiding axis. A light source is also provided, generating a light beam for projection through a portion of the phase mask to generate a light beam with a modulated intensity profile. The light beam with a modulated intensity profile impinges on the photosensitive medium to locally record therein a portion of the optical grating having a characteristic period.
Light beam moving means are provided for moving the light beam along the waveguiding axis of the photosensitive medium to successively record portions of the optical grating therealong, and phase mask moving means are also included for moving the phase mask in a direction parallel to the moving of the light beam and concurrently thereto. The moving of the phase mask is adjusted relative to the moving of the light beam to locally tune the characteristic period of each portion of the optical grating.
The apparatus finally includes curvature means for providing a curvature in the light beam along the direction of the waveguiding axis. The curvature has a wavefront radius of curvature in a plane of the phase mask selected to generally optimize an efficiency of the recording of the optical grating for the characteristic period of each portion of the optical grating.
Finally, in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention, there is provided a method for recording an optical grating along a waveguiding axis in a photosensitive medium, the optical grating comprising a plurality of superimposed grating components each having a characteristic period profile, the method comprising:
a) providing a phase mask proximate the photosensitive medium along the waveguiding axis;
b) for each of the superimposed grating component:
i) projecting a light beam through a portion of said phase mask to generate a light beam with a modulated intensity profile, said light beam with a modulated intensity profile impinging on the photosensitive medium to locally record therein a portion of the optical grating component having a characteristic period;
ii) moving the light beam along the waveguiding axis of the photosensitive medium to successively record portions of the optical grating component therealong; and
iii) concurrently to said moving of the light beam:
1) moving the phase mask in a direction parallel to the moving of the light beam, said moving of the phase mask being adjusted relative to the moving of the light beam to locally tune the characteristic period of each portion of the optical grating component; and
2) providing a curvature in said light beam along the direction of the waveguiding axis, said curvature having a wavefront radius of curvature in a plane of the phase mask selected to generally optimize an efficiency of the recording of the optical grating for said characteristic period.
Advantageously, the present invention allows to locally control the period of an optical grating over a large range (about xc2x12% of the nominal period) while keeping the optical quality of the grating unaffected. Other techniques have been proposed but result in a degradation of the optical performances.
Other aspects and advantages of the present invention will be better understood upon reading a preferred embodiments thereof with reference to the appended drawings.

Method and apparatus for recording an optical grating in a photosensitive medium


A connector is provided that is configured to mate with a second connector and a third connector includes a housing, terminals equipped in the housing that are configured to connect to third terminals provided in the third connector, and coupling terminals that can at least connect to a second terminal provided in the second connector. The terminals include an electric wire connecting part that is configured to connect to electric wires included in a cable connected to the housing and a contact part that is configured to make contact with the third terminals. The electric wire connecting part and contact part positions are offset with regard to a direction orthogonal to a mating direction.

Conventionally, a connection device for connecting two cables each having a plurality of conductors has been proposed (for example, see patent document 1).
FIG. 21 is a cross-sectional view illustrating the inside of a conventional connection device.
In the drawing, 811 is a housing for the connection device, and the termini of the two cables 891 are connected respectively into two wall surfaces of the housing 811 facing each other. In addition, the housing 811 is equipped with a connection block 821, and the connection block 821 holds a plurality of connection terminals 861. Furthermore, the plurality of conductive wires 892 in each of the cables 891 are connected to corresponding connection terminals 861. Therefore, the plurality of conductive wires 892 in the cables 891 are respectively connected to corresponding other conductive wires 892 of the cables 891.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. H6-52907

Connector that connects to electric wires and to other connectors


A self service terminal for processing transaction forms or slips, especially checks and transfer forms, is provided, including means for optically reading and taking an electronic image of said transaction form or slip with a transparent plate. The transaction form or slip is positionable on said transparent plate in such a way that there is no motion of the form when taking the electronic image.

The present invention refers to the field of self service terminals. More specifically, the invention pertains to such a terminal for processing transaction forms or slips in the banking area. The invention also refers to a method for processing such transaction forms or slips.
The typical processing procedure for transaction forms like checks, deposit/withdrawal slips, transfer and other forms used in the field of banking, today is long, laborious and tedious, requiring one or more days of processing time and many manual processing steps. In addition, since a great number of such forms circulate, and the banks, according to legal provisions, will have to keep these forms for a certain period of time, methods have been developed to take an electronic image of the respective forms. These images (data records) can be stored in a memory instead of xe2x80x9cpiling upxe2x80x9d the original forms, this being cheaper and space-saving. There is also no need to key-in the contents of such a form manually, since the electronic image can be recorded automatically using recognition hard- or software (RECO). Examples for such systems can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,264,808, 5,097,517 and 5,832,463. JP-A-59146373 discloses a slip processor to process speedily and accurately slips by storing necessary data read out of the slips, and providing a means for recognizing the storage data and a means for editing the recognized data by classification.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,758,713, a banking terminal equipment is disclosed for processing transaction slips used in a bank. The equipment comprises an optical read device for which the fields of the data recorded in the transaction slip required to be sent to an upper station are located at a first read position of the slip such that the data of the fields is displayed on a display screen during a read operation on the transaction slip by the optical read device.
Optical reading devices for taking an electronic image of the respective form normally comprise scanners. The form, e.g., a check or the like, is retracted into the scanner and passed along to a xe2x80x9cscan-linexe2x80x9d (CCD-line) where the picture elements are recorded. The transport of the respective form along the scan-line, however, has to be performed using a very constant speed in order to be able to achieve a correct transformation of the original form into picture elements (Image).
The transport of the forms with this accurate speed through the scanner, however, is very susceptible to troubles, especially when using self service machines. This is based on the difference of quality of the forms or slips which cannot be controlled.
The following quality features can be observed in practice:
The form is extremely thin and shows only little stiffness,
The form is extremely thick and stiff,
Two forms are stacked one upon the other, in addition, they may be connected by a perforation,
Two forms are connected by a paper clip or the like,
There is a sticker on the front or back side of the form,
The forms are partially wrinkled or contain xe2x80x9cdog""s earsxe2x80x9d,
The forms are rendered or cracked,
The forms are solid,
The forms show frictional electricity due to the paper used.
These problems are less difficult to handle when not using self service machines since the respective forms will be sorted out by technical personel. However, when using self service machines, these differences in quality lead to many interruptions or breakdowns. In addition to that, damage and/or soiling of the transport rolls as well as the scan-line may occur. Removal is very time-consuming and expensive since it has to be done by skilled workers. In addition, the down-time is economically detrimental.
Taking remedial measures is only possible by using an extremely robust scanners or feeding mechanisms being rarely susceptible to troubles. However, a mechanism being able to transport every medium showing the above mentioned problems securely and with a constant speed through the scanner is either impossible or would be very costly.
It has to be mentioned that the present invention is not only applicable to forms processed in the banking area. It can also be used to process other forms or slips like admission tickets, vouchers, coupons, parcel forms, lottery tickets, voting papers and the like.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a self service terminal for processing transaction forms or slips that is less susceptible to troubles.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such a terminal where damage and/or soiling of important parts is avoided.
It is still a further object of the invention to provide a method for processing transaction forms or slips in a self service terminal that avoids the above described problems.
These and other objects and advantages are achieved by the self service terminal disclosed herein and the method disclosed herein.
Advantageous embodiments of the invention are described in the dependent claims.

Self service terminal and method for processing transaction forms

International Business Machines Corporation


An embodiment of the present invention may provide a method and system for detecting icing on at least one wind turbine blade. An embodiment of the present invention takes the form of a software application and process that utilizes the measured wind speed to detect icing on at least one wind turbine blade.

The present invention relates to ice accumulation occurring on the rotor blades of a wind turbine; and more particularly a method and system for detecting icing.
Wind turbines are commonly installed in areas where the climatic conditions allow for ice accumulation (hereinafter icing). Icing on the blades of a wind turbine typically leads to several problems including: a reduction in the rotor speed, a reduction in power output, and higher stresses on several components.
Current systems of detecting icing typically require additional hardware such as sensors, piezoelectric transducers, or the like. Moreover, wind turbine operators must generally purchase and install this additional hardware. Wind turbine operators may desire an icing detecting system that utilizes data from existing hardware such as, but not limiting of, anemometers.
There are a few problems with the current systems and methods for addressing icing. The requirement of additional hardware increases the installation and operational costs of the wind turbine. Furthermore, for geographical areas having an average yearly temperature above freezing, the additional costs associated with detecting icing may prohibit wind turbine operation.
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for an improved method and system for detecting icing utilizing existing wind turbine hardware. The method should not require additional hardware. Furthermore, the method should incorporate existing monitored data to detect icing.

Method and system for determining a potential for icing on a wind turbine blade


An electrical cable having a wire bundle core surrounded by a thermal protection sleeve, the thermal protection sleeve consisting of a sandwich structure of outer acrylic adhesive layer and a silicone foam core.

The operation of an integrity of insulated conductors forming a core or wire bundle in an aircraft environment must be maintained otherwise a resulting transmission of erroneous data through the wire bundles may occur.
In a severe environment of increased temperatures such as inside the leading edge of a wing, a thermal barrier installed over the wire bundles can afford the protection needed.

Thermal protection sleeve for reducing overheating of wire bundles utilized in aircraft application


In depositing an adhering, continuous, polycrystalline diamond film on a substrate by forming a refractory nitride interlayer on the substrate and depositing diamond on the interlayer in a vacuum chamber containing a microwave activated mixture of hydrogen and a gas including carbon, the crystal orientation of the deposited diamond, <111> or <100>, is selected by controlling the pressure in the chamber. Preferably, relatively higher microwave power is utilized at higher pressures.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to coating processes using vapor deposition of coatings including diamond.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The carbon allotrope diamond has many potential uses. Diamond has extreme hardness, resistance to thermal and mechanical shock, and transparency to a wide range of electromagnetic wavelengths from ultraviolet through visible and infrared radiation to microwaves. Diamond would thus be an unexcelled coating for transmitting, reflecting, and absorbing optical and microwave elements subjected to weather, particulate erosion, and high energy radiation. Diamond also has high thermal conductivity and high electrical resistivity when pure. Diamond would thus make integrated circuits and other electrical and electronic devices incorporating a diamond film unexcelled for operation at high temperature, for convenience of cooling, and where transparency, environmental resistance, and radiation resistance are desirable.
The chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of a film of polycrystalline diamond from an activated gaseous mixture which includes a gas containing carbon is well-known and would appear to make these potential uses practical. However, diamond films deposited heretofore by CVD on a non-diamond substrate do not adhere thereto sufficiently for practical purposes unless the substrate is first abraded, as with diamond grit, or seeded with diamond particles, as by such abrasion leaving diamond particles. As a result of the abrasion and/or seed particles, the substrate is irregular and the crystallites forming the deposited film are irregular in size and spacing, very defected, and without preferred crystal orientation. The substrate and diamond film of the prior art are thus too irregular for use as an optical coating although continuous and smooth polycrystalline films are well-suited as optical coatings.
Although prior art CVD diamond may be usable as a relatively massive heat sink, prior art CVD diamond is too irregular for use in an electronic device for doping as an active element of a transistor or the like or for use as an electrical insulating or thermal conducting layer within an integrated circuit.
The irregularities of prior art CVD diamond films may be disadvantageous for mechanical protection even where optical and electrical properties are irrelevant. For example, a very thick diamond layer may be rapidly deposited using a plasma torch or jet in which the carbon containing gas, which may be a portion of a flame, is activated by discharging the gas through an electric arc. However, the resulting diamond layer is so irregular and the crystallites so imperfectly joined that the layer has, despite its thickness, relatively poor resistance to weathering.
The deposition, in a chamber containing gas at a pressure less than atmospheric, of a film or layer of a material onto a substrate is, of course, well-known. Such vacuum deposition may be carried out by sputtering where ions of a gas, typically argon heated by microwave energy, eject atoms to be deposited from a target of the material so that the freed atoms travel to an adjacent substrate and are deposited thereon. Movement of such freed atoms to the substrate may be motivated by a suitable electric potential between the target and substrate. An oxide or nitride of the target material may be deposited by including, respectively, oxygen or nitrogen in the gas in the chamber. Suitable materials, structures, temperatures, and pressures for sputtering deposition of oxides and nitrides of a variety of elements on a variety of substrate materials are readily available for selection by one skilled in the art of vacuum deposition.
In chemical vapor deposition, atoms to be deposited on a substrate are provided as atoms in molecules of a gas present in the chamber and activated while in contact with the substrate. Typically, the gas is activated by heating the gas by microwave energy, a hot filament, electric discharge, or combustion so that the gas releases free radicals containing the atoms to be deposited on the substrate. Typically in CVD, no electric potential relative to the substrate is provided, and the substrate is maintained at a suitable temperature by electrical resistance or induction heating.
In deposition of diamond by CVD, a gas containing the carbon which forms the diamond is provided as small proportion of a gaseous mixture in the chamber, the balance of the gas being predominantly hydrogen. Such a mixture may be activated by microwave energy at a frequency which excites the hydrogen molecule. The carbon containing gas is usually methane which is readily obtained in a pure state and is present in the mixture at a proportion less that 5% and, typically, 0.5% to 2%. However, the necessary carbon-containing free radicals may be obtained from vapors of other hydrocarbons, alcohols, or the like. It is known in diamond CVD to add a small amount of oxygen to the mixture of hydrogen and carbon containing gas, the proportion of oxygen being substantially less than that of methane. The oxygen serves to increase the rate and quality of diamond deposition by oxidizing graphite which, depending on the deposition conditions, may be deposited along with the diamond.
Diamond may be deposited by CVD over a wide range of conditions. The vacuum chamber may be maintained at a pressure of 0.1 to 100 Torr by pumping while providing new gaseous mixture. The substrate is maintained at 550.degree. to 1100.degree. C. In general higher pressures increase the rate of diamond deposition as do higher substrate temperatures up to 900.degree. or 1000.degree. C. In prior art diamond CVD, variations in substrate temperature, in gas activation method and temperature, in the proportion of carbon providing gas, and in the method of substrate abrasion provide some control over the crystal size and the irregularity of the deposited diamond. However, in all prior art diamond CVD the deposited polycrystalline diamond is, as before stated, irregular and without a preferred crystal orientation.
The extreme hardness of diamond, while highly desirable in protective optical coatings and the like, is disadvantageous in that polishing of such a coating, as required for optical and other applications, is difficult. It is known that the <111> crystal orientation of diamond, which corresponds to a triangular face of a diamond crystal is somewhat less hard than the <100> crystal orientation corresponding to a square face of a diamond crystal. It would therefore, be highly desirable to selectively deposit diamond film with a preferred orientation so that the <111> orientation, which is sufficiently hard for most protective purposes, may be preferentially deposited for ease in polishing or the like or the <100> orientation may be preferentially deposited where extreme hardness is desired. However, heretofore there has been no way of providing diamond of a selected crystal orientation since crystallites of diamond deposited by prior art CVD methods are, like crystals of natural diamond and other synthetic diamond, a mixture of these orientations.

Selection of crystal orientation in diamond film chemical vapor deposition

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy


A system and method of managing power consumption of communication interfaces and attached devices is disclosed. In one form of the disclosure, a communication module can include a communication interface operable to receive link utilization information of a plurality of communication channels of the communication interface. The communication module can also include a processor operable to determine a percent utilization of the plurality of communication channels using the link utilization information. The processor can also be operable to initiate issuing a power management request of at least one of the plurality of communication channels in response to comparing the percentage of link utilization to a threshold level.

As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option is an information handling system. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements can vary between different applications, information handling systems can also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information can be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems can include a variety of hardware and software components that can be configured to process, store, and communicate information and can include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Various information handling systems can be realized as servers that can be mounted within server racks. Servers can allow for accessing and serving information, applications, and various types of data to multiple clients via an Intranet, the Internet, or combinations thereof. The complexity and density of servers and associated components for some enterprise data centers impacts environmental and operating conditions of servers within data centers. Current data centers can be constrained by the power and cooling required to operate the sheer number of devices (servers, storage networking hardware, etc.) necessary to meet the demands of a dynamic business.
The constraints on power utilization, and the cooling challenges that follow, can drive customers to underutilize data center resources in an effort to fulfill business computing needs. As such, there have been numerous efforts to reduce power consumption within servers, but the large growth in data and available storage capacities have developed a need to manage power within storage systems and associated devices.
The use of the same reference symbols in different drawings indicates similar or identical items.

System and method of managing power consumption of communication interfaces and attached devices


A flow-through assay device for detecting the presence or quantity of an analyte residing in a test sample is provided. The device utilizes a scavenging zone that contains a capture reagent for the analyte of interest. The capture reagent may capture a quantity of the analyte that is less than or equal to a predefined base quantity of the analyte, such as a quantity considered “normal” for a particular test sample. Thus, the capture reagent is able to prevent some of the analyte from being detected. In this manner, the sensitivity of the assay device may be reduced in a simple, inexpensive, yet effective manner.

Various analytical procedures and devices are commonly employed in flow-through assays to determine the presence and/or concentration of analytes that within a test sample. For instance, immunoassays utilize mechanisms of the immune systems, wherein antibodies are produced in response to the presence of antigens that are pathogenic or foreign to the organisms. These antibodies and antigens, i.e., immunoreactants, are capable of binding with one another, thereby causing a highly specific reaction mechanism that may be used to determine the presence or concentration of that particular antigen in a biological sample. Unfortunately, many conventional immunoassay assays encounter problems when used to measure test samples that possess a high analyte concentration. For instance, elevated levels of C-reactive protein ("CRP") are sometimes indicative of certain diseases, such as heart disease. However, even normal blood samples may contain a high CRP concentration, often within the "milligrams per milliliter" range. Because most conventional immunoassays are designed to detect analyte concentrations in the "nanograms per milliliter" range, they will almost undoubtedly give positive results of the presence of CRP for all test samples, including those having a normal CRP concentration. This may be particularly troubling to consumers who are themselves performing the assay with a disposable device.
As such, a need currently exists for an assay device that is capable of detecting the presence of an analyte in circumstances where a "normal" test sample still contains relatively high levels of the analyte.

Method of reducing the sensitivity of assay devices