Inertial sensors are incorporated into the structure of a motion picture or video camera, to detect its movement along three orthogonal axes, as well as angular rotation about the three axes. Linear and angular acceleration detected by the sensors is transmitted from their location on the camera to a remote site by means of wireless communication. A time code is coupled with the data from the sensors, so that the instantaneous position of the camera can be determined for any point in time during the recording of live action. At the remote site, the sensor data is processed to determine absolute camera position, and provided to an image generating system, to thereby facilitate real-time generation of images that are consistent with the scene being recorded.

In the modern-day production of motion pictures, the use of special effects is becoming much more common. Some types of special effects involve the merging of a "live" shot of an actor or scene with a computer-generated image. One example of this type of effect employs a virtual set, or virtual studio, in which an actor is filmed, or taped, while performing in front of a so-called "blue screen", which provides a background of a uniform color that can be easily filtered out during subsequent production processes. The recorded motions of the actor can then be superimposed on a computer-generated scene, to provide the final result.
In another type of special effect, a computer-generated element is merged into the image that has been recorded by the camera. For example, a recorded scene may contain a background building that is only a few stories tall. To create the impression that the building is much taller, a computer-generated image of several more stories can be added to the original image of the building. As another example, an animated character can be incorporated into a scene.
In the production of these types of special effects, it is necessary to know the position of the camera during the recording of the live action. For example, if the camera moves from a position directly in front of an actor to an oblique angle, the perspective from which the computer-generated scene is viewed in the final image must change in a commensurate manner, to provide a realistic impression. In other words, the rendering of the computer-generated image at every instant in time must be consistent with the location and orientation of the camera during the filming of live action at that same instant.
In the past, the recording of the camera's position has been carried out in several different ways. In one approach, a special virtual set is constructed whose walls contain gradations that can be optically sensed and processed to provide position information. For example, a unique pattern of gradations can be marked on the blue screen which forms a wall of the virtual set. By using pattern recognition techniques, the location and orientation of the camera can be determined at all times. One example of this type of virtual set is the CYBERSET O sold by Orad Hi-Tech Systems, Ltd. This approach to camera position sensing is restricted to use within the specially constructed studio, and therefore cannot be employed when filming scenes outdoors, or in any interior environment other than a virtual set.
To avoid the limitations of having to use a virtual set, another optically-oriented approach employs image processing techniques to recognize objects in a scene. By interpreting the relative sizes and positions of objects in the recorded scene, the location and orientation of the camera can be determined. This technique is difficult to implement at a practical level, however, and therefore is not regularly employed.
In another known approach, the camera is mounted upon a rigid, encoder-equipped platform. The encoders on the platform enable the position of the camera to be precisely monitored at all times. The advantage offered by this approach is that it can be used outdoors, for example by placing the platform in the area where a scene is to be filmed. However, since the camera is required to be mounted on a rigid structure at all times, this approach is not suitable for hand-held cameras and the like. As a result, restrictions are placed on the range of movement of the camera during the filming of the scene.
It is an objective of the present invention, therefore, to provide a system for accurately sensing the position of a camera which can be readily used in conjunction with hand-held cameras, and yet which does not require a special environment, such as a blue-screen studio, and therefore can be used to record almost any type of action and/or scene.


A portable boring machine for cutting holes in a cutting surface is provided. The portable boring machine includes a vacuum system to secure a front end of the portable boring machine to a cutting surface, a hydraulic boring sub-assembly, which includes a hole saw to cut holes in the cutting surface, a water cooling/lubrication system to provide cooling and/or lubrication to the hole saw during the cutting process, and a control system to control the operation of the portable boring machine. The portable boring machine also includes multiple power-driven wheels. The wheels are attached to a bottom portion of a frame and are powered by an engine, which is mounted within the frame.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a concrete drill and more specifically, to a portable concrete boring machine having a hole saw to cut circular holes in concrete.
2. Description of Related Art
When cutting circular holes in a concrete surface it is very important that the machine supporting the hole saw be stable and secure during the cutting process. Conventional concrete boring or core drilling machines are typically bolted to the concrete surface to stabilize the machine during the cutting process. One disadvantage to the conventional boring machine is that it is very time consuming to bolt and unbolt the machine to and from the concrete surface. Another disadvantage is that conventional boring machines are not portable. In other words, conventional boring machines require a separate external source to move the machine from location to location, which again is very time consuming. Further, if there are space restrictions at the cutting location it may be difficult if not impossible to maneuver the cutting machine along with the external transporting source into the cutting location.
There have been several attempts to overcome the above mentioned disadvantages. One, for example, is the concrete hole cutting machine disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,907,874 to Faircloth. Faircloth discloses a hole cutting machine that is adapted to be connected to a front end loader. The front end loader transports the cutting machine from location to location. Faircloth, however, still requires an external source (e.g. a front end loader) to transport the cutting machine from location to location and therefore, does not solve the issue of portability.
Another attempt to address the above mentioned disadvantages is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2004/0112613 to McGivery. McGivery discloses a core cutting machine mounted to a back end of a truck. The truck is provided to provide stability to the core cutting machine during the cutting process. The truck, however, is still an external source with a separate core cutting machine mounted to the truck bed. Further, McGivery does not lend itself to portability because the truck is rather large and is not adequate to maneuver in restricted spaces. Therefore, McGivery does not solve the issue of portability.
Thus, what is required is a portable boring machine that is easily transported from location to location and can be easily maneuvered by an operator without the need of an external source such as a front end loader, a truck, etc.


A TFT array substrate used for a display device and a method of making the same are disclosed. A optically transparent thick resin insulation film 5 is formed on a base substrate and an upper contact hole 51 is perforated through the optically transparent thick resin insulation film 5. A lower contact hole 41 perforated through a gate insulation film 15 and patterning of an ITO film to make a transparent pixel electrode are then collectively carried out under a photoresist pattern 8. Where the photoresist pattern 8 is provided after making the ITO film, an aperture 81 is perforated closer to the center of the upper contact hole 51 at an end portion of a connecting line 14a for a pad and is smaller in diameter by a side etching size plus a margin than the upper contact hole. Subsequently, following three-etching steps are carried out: (1) patterning of the ITO film along the photoresist pattern 8, (2) the lower contact hole 41 is made by using buffered hydrofluoric acid solution, and (3) an “eaves” portion 6a of the ITO films is removed.

Recently, flat panel display devices, such as liquid crystal display devices, have been well developed as substitute components for cathode ray tubes. Such liquid crystal display devices have significant advantages, e.g., light weight, thin thickness, low power consumption, etc. Their mainstream products are active matrix type liquid crystal devices because their display images have substantially no cross-talk between neighboring pixels due to thin film transistor switching elements connected to pixel electrodes. Thus, by way of example, such active matrix type liquid crystal display ("AMLCD") devices are explained below in detail.
The AMLCD device includes a thin film transistor ("TFT") array substrate, a counter substrate provided opposite to the TFT array substrate, alignment layers coated on opposing surfaces of the TFT array and counter substrates, and a liquid crystal layer held between the alignment layers. The TFT array substrate is provided with a transparent insulation substrate, signal and scanning lines, pixel electrodes, and thin film transistors. The insulation substrate is made of glass, quartz, or the like. The signal and scanning lines are disposed in a matrix form and are isolated through an insulation layer. The pixel electrodes are provided at pixels and are made of transparent materials, e.g., indium-tin-oxide ("ITO") films, etc. The thin film transistors are disposed in the vicinities of intersection points of the matrix to carry out switching functions, so that the transistors electrically isolate turning-on pixels from turning-off ones and hold video signals supplied to the turning-on pixels. The gate and drain electrodes of the transistors are connected to the scanning and signal lines, respectively, while source electrodes of the transistors are coupled to pixel electrodes.
The counter substrate, on the other hand, includes a transparent insulation substrate also made of glass material or the like and an ITO counter electrode formed on the insulation substrate.
The AMLCD has a display region and a non-display region around the display region to define an electrically connecting portion. The non-display region projects from the display region to form a shelf-like connecting plate where connecting pads and terminals are disposed to receive input signals from external driving devices. A liquid crystal layer is held between the TFT array and counter substrates. Fringes of the TFT array and counter substrates are sealed by sealant materials.
The production cost of the AMLCD device depends highly on that of the TFT array substrate because a lot of production processing steps are necessary to manufacture the TFT array substrate. Thus, the former is a key factor to reduce the total production cost of an AMLCD device or the like.
In that connection, Japanese Patent Disclosure Tokkaihei 9-160076 proposes the following method of manufacturing a TFT array substrate: (1) signal lines, source and drain electrodes, semiconductor layers, etc., have been processed together by a same mask pattern, (2) contact holes to connect source electrodes to pixel electrodes and outer peripheral contact holes to expose connecting terminals for signal and scanning lines are perforated at the same time, and (3) pixel electrodes are formed on the top layer of the TFT substrate. Such a method can improve productivity because the number of mask patterns decreases with the yield rate substantially unchanged. Where the connecting terminals for the scanning lines, etc., however, are exposed, it is necessary to perforate holes in both interlayer and gate insulation films. Thus, a wet etching process of buffered hydrofluoric acid ("BHF") etc. is carried out to perforate the interlayer and gate insulation films made of silicon oxide and silicon nitride, respectively, at the same time (disclosed in Japanese Patent Disclosure Tokkai 2000-267595).
The TFT array substrate of this sort, on the other hand, requires a greater aperture ratio of pixels to make the efficiency of light from a rear light source improved. Reflection type flat panel display devices, however, require an effective reflection ratio of the ambient light by increasing an area ratio of the pixel electrodes.
Recently, in order to improve the pixel aperture and reflection ratios, the pixel electrodes are formed over wiring patterns, and the thin film transistors on the TFT array substrate and a thick resin insulation film are disposed between the pixel electrodes and wiring patterns. The thin film transistors and the signal and scanning lines are disposed, also through the thick resin insulation film, at peripheral portions of the pixel electrodes. The thick resin insulation film is generally 1 μm to 10 μm and, typically, 2 μm to 4 μm in thickness and is made of a low dielectric constant organic material, so that substantially no electronic capacitor or short circuit may take place between the pixel electrodes, the signal lines, or the like.
Further, light shielding films have been integrated on the TFT array or counter substrate to cover the thin film transistors, gaps between peripheral portions of the pixel electrodes and the signal lines and those between the peripheral portions of the pixel electrodes and the scanning lines. That is to avoid undesirable electronic capacitors or short circuits due to overlaps of the pixel electrodes with the signal or scanning lines, and also to adjust discrepancies between patterns of the pixel electrodes and those of the signal or scanning lines to sufficiently prevent light from leaking between the above-stated gaps.
The thick resin insulation film resolves losses of the pixel apertures resulting from alignment margins so that the aperture ratios are improved and larger. A TFT array substrate used for reflection type liquid crystal display devices includes reflection type pixel electrodes made of aluminum or the like and formed on the top of a TFT array pattern, and a thick resin insulation film disposed between the pixel electrodes and lower wiring layers. A resulting resin layer makes peripheral portions of the reflection type pixel electrodes possible to cover scanning and signal lines and thin film transistors. As a result, since the pixel electrodes become bigger in area, the light utilization efficiency is improved. Further, the thick resin layer prevents parastic capacitors from increasing their electric capacities. Further more, it is configured to make both surface of the pixel electrode and liquid crystal layer thickness uniform.
Recently, as display performances required for compact information terminals or mobile phones become improved, transflective or hybrid (transparent and reflection) type display devices have been in use. It includes pixel electrodes made of an optically transparent and electrically conductive film (e.g., ITO film), and optical reflection type electrodes. Under lighted environment, such as sun light, the optical reflection type electrodes (reflection type pixel electrode portions) primarily perform a display function by reflection of incident ambient light but under dark environment the optically transparent and electrically conductive film carries out another display function by a rear light source.
Such transflective type display devices need the pixel electrodes consisting of two kinds of electrically conductive films formed by different patterning processes. Thus, it is necessary to carry out additionally at least one patterning process called a photo engraving process ("PEP") in comparison with reflection and not transflective type display devices, i.e., the steps of preparing a series of additional mask patterns, photoresist resin coating, development, etching, removing photoresist resin coating and washing must be made accordingly. It results in an additional burden of manufacturing steps and an increase in production cost.
In order to reduce the number of such steps a pattern of the thick resin isolation film, for instance, may be used for a mask pattern as it is to perforate a gate isolation film and the like to make holes, i.e., contact holes of the thick resin isolation film are provided to be consistent with those of the gate insulation and the like.
In this case, however, side etching or the like of the gate insulation film makes overhanging portions and causes discontinuity between electrically conductive films coating the contact holes (i.e., a rift or break at a step defined between conductive films).

Array substrate used for a display device and a method of making the same


A refiner disc for a fiber refiner having a refiner disc removal device that is integral with and retained by the disc during refiner operation. The removal device includes a biasing element that is extended from the disc against its mounting surface to urge the disc away from the mounting surface. In its preferred embodiment, the biasing element is a threaded removal plug in a threaded hole in the disc. The plug preferably is of one-piece, unitary and headless construction, engaged by a tool during removal, and is no longer than the disc cross section. The hole is spaced from disc mounting bores, can be offset from the center of the disc to increase mechanical advantage during removal, and has a shoulder adjacent a refining surface of the disc for preventing the plug from backing out of the disc during refiner operation. With the mounting bolts loosened or removed, the plug is engaged by the tool and rotated to displace it relative to the disc such that a portion of the plug bears against the mounting surface. Threaded engagement between the plug and the disc or a plug carrier mounted in the disc urges the disc away from the mounting surface as the plug is further rotated until the disc breaks free. Thereafter, the disc can be manually removed.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to refiners which prepare fibers for use in paper-based products including papermaking, and to disc refiners in particular.
2. Description of Related Art
For papermaking purposes, wood chips or another raw fiber source are ground into smaller chips or mechanically treated so that the chips may be broken down further and refined into individual fibers. After refining, these individual fibers are typically used to make paper related products, such as sheet paper, toilet paper, paper towels, and other absorbent products.
Disc refiners are used to break down clumps of fibers into individual fibers. A disc refiner typically utilizes pairs of opposed refiner discs. A refiner disc is a disc-shaped steel or steel-alloy casting which has an array of generally radially extending bars or upraised ridges formed in its refining face or refining surface. The refiner disc may be formed of one or more continuous annular discs, or may instead be formed of a plurality of refiner disc segments arranged to form a ring or annulus.
One refiner disc is mounted on a rotor for rotation and the other disc is mounted on another mounting surface opposed to the first refiner disc such that both discs face each other and are very close to each other. The other mounting surface may, for example, be a mounting surface that does not move during refiner operation or another rotor which turns in a direction opposite the first rotor. As wood pulp passes between the opposed refiner discs, relative rotation between the opposed discs desirably refines the pulp.
The flow of vast volumes of stock between the refiner discs inevitably results in wear of the discs, eventually necessitating their replacement. In order to minimize down time and maximize production of the refiner, it is desirable that disc replacement be done as quickly as possible.
However, during the refining operation, extractives and baked fiber are produced and act essentially as a glue that holds the refiner disc against its mounting surface. Therefore, removal of the refiner disc is generally very difficult, time consuming, and ordinarily cannot be achieved by simply removing the mounting bolts that attach the refiner disc to its mounting surface.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,526,992 to Hawen et al. discloses a refiner disc having a plurality of mounting bores and at least one removal hole. The mounting bores extend through the refiner disc and permit the disc to be attached to a mounting surface using bolts. The removal hole extends completely through the refiner disc.
During use of the refining disc, the threaded removal hole is filled with a relatively short covering screw that has a head at its free end which is received in a counterbore of the removal hole. The headed covering screw prevents fibers from penetrating between the disc and the mounting surface. In order to remove the disc, the covering screw is removed and replaced with a second, longer removal screw referred to as a "bursting" screw that is disclosed as having a length longer than the thickness of the disc. The removal screw is threaded into the removal hole completely through the disc until its end bears against the disc mounting surface. Further rotation of the removal screw applies a pressure against the mounting surface that causes the disc to be urged away from the mounting surface enabling it to be removed.
A primary disadvantage of this approach is that it requires two different screws and thus is not of integral construction. This creates the possibility that one of the screws may become lost while the other screw is in use. Therefore, an improved method and device which does not require the use of two separate screws would be very advantageous.


A conventional radiation thermometer encompasses an infrared radiation sensor and a heatable and/or coolable radiation incidence window. The method and radiation thermometer according to the invention use the established dependence of the sensor signal U of the infrared radiation sensor on the temperature Tw of the radiation incidence window W (or any other heatable or coolable optical element in the beam path) for verifying its proper functional operation. Applying the method according to the invention, the radiation incidence window (or perhaps another optical element in the beam path) is heated up or cooled by activating an associated electric heating or cooling device. The resulting change ΔUw in the sensor signal U is detected, preferably in continuous fashion, as a function of the window temperature Tw and analyzed or verified for any deviation from an acceptable value or permissible range.

Infrared-radiation thermometers used in professional applications as in the case of infrared fever thermometers at hospitals require periodic functional testing to permit timely detection of undesirable contamination or possible calibration errors and correspondingly incorrect measuring results. For that purpose, hospitals typically install a black body radiator of a known temperature to serve as the radiation reference point. Such radiators, however, are relatively expensive and their operation is awkward insofar as it is necessary for each routinely required functional test to transport the infrared fever thermometers back and forth between the station concerned and the radiation reference point.
WO 00/54012 describes an infrared sensor consisting of a sensor enclosure with an infrared-transmissive radiation incidence window, a detector element housed in the sensor enclosure serving to convert the incident infrared radiation into electrical measuring signals, and associated measuring electronics for capturing and evaluating the measuring signals. Outside the beam path, the sensor enclosure also incorporates an activable infrared radiator so positioned that at least part of the energy emitted by it passes through the radiation incidence window, heating up any contaminants that might be present on it. The detector element captures the temperature gradient and converts it into a calibration signal, which then serves as a measure of the contamination of the window and is used in the automatic compensation for the contaminating effect in a subsequent temperature measurement.

Radiation measuring apparatus, and method and device for testing proper functioning of said radiation measuring apparatus


Photoinitiator modified silicate and ethylenically unsaturated monomer are reacted in solvent to cause living polymerization of monomer and exfoliation of silicate layers and cause attachment of silicate layers to polymer chains, thereby providing dispersed homopolymer or block copolymer silicate nanocomposites.

Direct synthesis of dispersed polymer silicate nanocomposites has been carried out by living polymerization of styrene using a silicate anchored to 2,2,6,6 tetramethylpiperidine alkoxyamine, Weimer, M. W., et al, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 121, 1615-1616 (1999). This reaction has limitations since the initiator there is not efficient enough to polymerize methacrylates with reasonable conversion rates at acceptable temperatures.
Muhlebach et al WO 2004/000809A1 indicates that it improves upon the method described in the above paragraph to effectively produce dispersed polymer silicate nanocomposites where the polymer is obtained from acrylates or methacrylates or styrene by using certain different alkoxyamines anchored to natural or synthetic clay by a cationic anchor group. Examples of the anchoring compounds are set forth at pages 34 and 35 of WO 2004/000809A1.
The process described in WO 2004/000809A1 has the disadvantages that the anchoring compounds are all very complicated and the polymerizations are carried out in the working example of WO 2004/000809A1 at 140° C.

Photoinitiator anchored to silicate and use thereof to prepare polymer exfoliated silicate nanocomposite


A management system for a recording medium recorded with a multimedia data stream wherein in a first data made up of video and sound, an amount of data for a predetermined playback period is managed as a first unit (EU), an individually reproducible minimum unit of data in the first unit (EU) is managed as a second unit (VU), each of the first units (EUs) is adapted to have an equal period of playback time to others, and each of the second units (VUs) is adapted to have an equal period of playback time to others. In this management system, the positional information of the second unit (VU) on the recording medium is held as management information for every second unit, so that the positional information of the first unit (EU) on the recording medium is calculated based on the positional information of the second unit (VU) on the recording medium.

With the recent development of multimedia, demands for recording various types of multimedia data such as movie pictures, music, still pictures, onto recording media have increased. Among such recording media, tape media such as video tape and audio tape were widely accepted in the past, but in recent years, disk media such as hard disks, magnetic disks and the like have become prevalent to store data.
Tape media are recording media with which recording and reproduction of data is performed sequentially from the top of the tape, i.e., by sequential access, so that they are poor in random accessibility. For example, if with a video tape, playback from a specified position is wanted, the tape needs to be advanced by fast-forward or rewound by the rewind function to adjust the designated position before reproduction.
If some index information indicating the target position has been set beforehand, the access can be implemented by simply searching the index but still needs the physical operation of moving the tape to the target position. If no index information is provided, it is necessary to locate the target position by implementing fast-forward whilst playing back in order to locate the target position, or it is necessary to implement approximate fast-forward adjustment using guesswork and final location of the target by playing back in order to obtain access to the target position. In the above way, tape media, if they are used, are not suitable to random access because they need physical tape movement.
In contrast, disk media are excellent in random accessibility, and the access time to an arbitrary location is negligible compared to that of tape media. That is, wherever data is on the disk, it is possible to have an access instantaneously.
As typical utility examples of disk media, MD is known for audio and DVD is known for video, these are widely spread because of their random accessibility.
Now, a case where video data encoded by the MPEG format is recorded on to a disk will be described. For recording video data onto a disk or for transmitting it via a transmission line, it is not practical if the video data is directly transmitted without being compressed because the amount of data is too bulky. Therefore, it is necessary to compress video data to reduce the amount of data by using the MPEG technique or the like.
In the MPEG technique, in compressing the amount of data, the variable-length coding technique is used. Specifically, video data is efficiently reduced in its amount using three types of image compression, namely the intraframe coding picture(I-picture) which is encoded independently using the data within that video frame, the interframe forward predictive coding picture(P-picture) which is encoded based on the information of the previous frame and the bi-directional predictive coding picture(B-picture) which is encoded based on the previous and subsequent frames.
Of these encoded pictures, the compression ratios become higher in the following order, I-picture, P-picture and B-picture. Therefore, depending on the encoding picture type, the amount of data for one frame of video differs from that of another while the amount of data also differs depending on the content of the original video data. For example, if video data has less motion, the P-picture and B-picture little differ from the associated I-picture so that the data can be compressed markedly efficiently.
Illustratively, the amounts of data for individual frames of video data are different as shown in the recording sequence(on the disk) in FIG. 64, and there is no means by which it is possible to compute the amount of data of each frame of MPEG data which has been once encoded, without implementing actual decoding of the MPEG data.
In the case where MPEG data which has been variable-length coded is recorded, the amounts of data for individual frames are different, therefore, it is impossible to grasp where MPEG data corresponding to each frame has been recorded on the disk until the recorded MPEG data is read out from the start of data and decoded sequentially.
In other words, if reproduction is wanted to start from an arbitrary point in the recorded MPEG data, the data cannot be played back from such a partway point because the position on the disk where the MPEG data, which corresponds to the frame from where the start of playback is wanted, has been recorded cannot be known.
Therefore, in order to play back the MPED data recorded on the disk from an arbitrary point, or in order to implement special playback using arbitrary frames, it is necessary to obtain management information for managing the data record positions on the disk corresponding to individual frames. Using this management information, it becomes possible to refer to the recorded location of an tributary frame on the disk.
Also, as stated already, MPEG data is efficiently reduced in amount of data by using three types of image compression, namely the intraframe coding picture (I-picture), interframe forward predictive coding picture (P-picture) and bi-directional predictive coding picture(B-picture). Since the P-picture and B-picture is generated based on the associated I-picture, it is impossible to decode that data only.
No problem will occur when MPEG data is decoded and played back serially from the front, but when MPEG data is played back from a frame partway in the data or when special playback by picking up arbitrary frames is implemented, the following problem occurs. That is, if the frame from which the start of playback is wanted is a P-picture or B-picture, it is impossible to decode the frame without the I-picture and/or P-picture data based on which the frame in question has been constructed.
To deal with such a situation, the MPEG scheme has a structure called GOP (Group of Pictures) made up of a number of frames. This GOP structure is featured by inclusion of at least one I-picture in one GOP.
Accordingly, if each GOP structure is assumed to be the access unit, the GOP necessarily includes the I-picture based on which P-pictures and B-pictures have been constructed, so that decoding of the target frame can be assured.
In this way, for realizing random access to MPEG data, the access should be made to each GOP structure by assuming it to be a unit. For example, even when the start of playback is wanted from a frame partway within a GOP structure, the control of the playback should be performed such that the whole data of the GOP is decoded first, then actual display may be started from the target frame. This produces the same result as if playback were merely started from target frame.
As described above, in order to start playback from an arbitrary frame within MPEG data, it is necessary to at least have positional information on the disk of the GOP that includes target frame, instead of positional information on the disk of each frame.
That is, in the case where positional information of all the frames is given as management information, if the data of the frame from which the start of playback is wanted is a B-picture or P-picture, the frame of data from which the start of playback is wanted has little meaning because the data cannot be decoded unless the data of the I-picture used as the reference.
On the other hand, for a case of special playback such as fast-playback in which only I-pictures and P-pictures are reproduced, the positional information of I-pictures and P-pictures on the disk is needed.
As one prior art for recording MPEG data onto disk media, there is the read-only type DVD. In DVD, video data constituting one GOP and audio data associated with it are multiplexed with a piece of management information called a NV (Navigation) pack added to the front of the data.
Use of NV packs as the information for implementing special playback makes it possible to grasp the positions at which the next and previous NV packs have been recorded on the disk, with respect to the site being currently played back.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Hei 11 No.155130 discloses an example of the address management information when MPEG data is recorded into rewritable media. According to this disclosure, the address management information is configured of time map information including a VOBU (Video Object Unit) map presenting the address of each VOBU as one management unit in the MPEG scheme in association with time information, address information offering the addresses of the VOBUs to be reproduced at intervals of a fixed time period and identification information for identifying each VOBU.
Usually, in rewritable recording media, since some MPEG streams may be deleted or moved on the disk, the management information or the like could be changed disorderedly. In the case where the management information is changed disorderedly, the system response will be improved if the management information can be read or written by a single access.
However, for the aforementioned DVD, management information is constructed on the assumption of ROM media, the management information is multiplexed within the MPEG stream every NV pack so it is scattered in pieces on the disk. Accordingly, to update the management information, it is necessary to make accesses to pieces of the management information scattered on the disk, one by one, which is unfeasible.
Further, an access to the MPEG stream assumed to be made in the above disclosure described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Hei 11 No.155130 is implemented by unitwise—VOBU random access. In this case, the number of video frames to be managed by a single VOBU is variable.
In other words, the playback time corresponding to one VOBU is variable, so that when a certain frame is tried to be designated by time information, a search of the VOBU including that frame wanted to be reproduced cannot be made by a simple calculation. In this case, it is necessary to locate the VOBU by checking the playback period of time of each VOBU one by one sequentially from the front VOBU, for example.
When the target VOBU is located within a short distance from the front VOBU, it does not take much time for searching, but when the target is located some distance from the front, it takes much time to search it. To deal with this, in this disclosure of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Hei 11 No.155130, other than the VOBU map information for managing addresses of all VOBUs and time information, the time map information indicating VOBUs corresponding to the addresses of the VOBUs to be reproduced at intervals of a fixed period of time is used.
That is, for searching the VOBU containing a target video frame, the time map information should be referred to first before access to the VOBU information is made. Further, the VOBU map information searched based on the time map information does not always hit the VOBU containing the target video frame, VOBU information following the searched VOBU information needs to be searched serially until the target VOBU is found.
As above, since in the prior art, to search the target video frame, a rough search is made first using the time map reference information then an exact search is performed using the VOBU information to thereby identify the corresponding address on the disk, the prior art has the problem of such complicated process being needed.
Moreover, when post recording such as audio dubbing, superimposition of images, etc., is added, post recording units(PRUs) for securing areas for this post recording information within the MPEG stream or separately outside the stream need to be defined in the stream. However, the above described prior art cannot deal with such streams.
The present invention has been devised in view of what has been discussed above, and it is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a recording media management system, including the method of locating access positions in a recording medium and managing device of the recording medium, which is able to determine the address of a target video frame in a simple manner and is adapted to deal with streams having PRUs defined therein.

Method of determining access position on recording medium and method of managing recording medium


A humidifier and a method for producing it can reduce gas leakage through inside the surfaces of humidifying membranes or through interfaces between the humidifying membranes and separators. The humidifier includes water permeable humidifying membranes and gas separators each having one or two channels opened at least one side in a direction of lamination, through which at least one of a dry gas and a wet gas is caused to flow. A humidifying membrane, a gas separator, a humidifying membrane and a gas separator are repeatedly laminated one over another in this order, or a gas separator, a humidifying membrane and a gas separator are repeatedly laminated one over another in this order. Each gas separator has a frame-shaped portion surrounding the one or two channels, and that portion of each humidifying membrane which, when laminated, faces the frame-shaped portion of a corresponding gas separator is filled with a resin.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a humidifier and its production method capable of humidifying a dry gas with the moisture that is transmitted from a wet gas through a moisture permeable humidifying membrane, and more particularly, it relates to a humidifier for a fuel cell and its production method that serve to humidify an unreacted gas with the moisture transmitted from an exhaust gas from the fuel cell through a humidifying membrane.
2. Description of the Related Art
A known humidifier is constructed such that a humidifying membrane is clamped by a first separator, which has channel grooves formed to guide a dry gas to flow therealong and is arranged so as to face one side surface of a humidifying membrane, and a second separator which has channel grooves formed to guide a wet gas to flow therealong and is arranged so as to face the other side surface of the humidifying membrane. In order to prevent the blowby of the gases from the outer peripheral portion of the humidifying membrane, the mutually facing peripheral portions of both of the separators are fittingly engaged with each other to compress the humidifying membrane, so that pores in the outer peripheral portion of the humidifying membrane facing the outer peripheral portions of the separators are reduced, thereby shielding the flows of the gases that permeate through the humidifying membrane in its surface directions.
In addition, there is employed a method of bonding between the outer peripheral portions of the separators and the portions of the humidifying membrane facing the outer peripheral portions of the separators by means of a silicone based adhesive material. As general methods of coating such a adhesive material on the outer peripheral portions of the separators suitable for mass production, there are known a method of spray coating, a method of transferring an adhesive material, and so on (see, for example, a first patent document: Japanese patent application laid-open No. 2003-314983).
However, there is a problem that even the reduction of pores in the humidifying membrane by compression thereof can not completely block gas channels in the humidifying membrane, thus permitting leakage of gases therethrough.
In addition, with the method of coating the adhesive material on the outer peripheral portions of the separators, the viscosity of the adhesive is large, and the size of each pore in the humidifying membrane is small, so there arises a problem that in general, the adhesive can not be filled or impregnated into the pores in the humidifying membrane completely or to any satisfactory extent, thus permitting the gases to permeate through inside the humidifying membrane in its surface direction.
In this case, even if a solvent is mixed with the adhesive, so that the viscosity of the adhesive can be lowered to permit the adhesive to be filled up into small pores to a satisfactory extent, there will be another problem that empty pores still remain due to evaporation of the solvent occurring after the filling or impregnation of the pores.
Moreover, if there exist gaps inside the humidifying membrane and in the interfaces between the humidifying membrane and the separators, there will arise a further problem that water or moisture in the humidifying membrane escapes or leaks into the outside due to the capillary action, so moisture in the humidifying membrane is reduced, thus making it impossible to humidify or moisten the dry gas to a sufficient extent.

Humidifier and a method for producing the same


An image is recorded on a recording medium by recording dots of a black ink and a color ink discharged onto the recording medium from a recording head. A boundary proximity-degree detecting circuit detects the degree of positional proximity, i.e., closeness, between the recording dots of the black ink and the recording dots of the color ink at the boundary between these dots. A dot substituting circuit performs, in accordance with the detected degree of positional proximity, substitution of the black pixels with recording dots of a color ink at the boundary. Thus, pixels of the image to be recorded are replaced with recording dots of a color ink by an extent which is determined based on the degree of positional proximity between the pixels of the different colors. A sharp black image can be obtained with minimized color mixing at the boundary between the black image region and the color region, regardless of the degree of positional proximity between these regions.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus which performs recording of data by using two or more types of ink, e.g., a penetrating-type ink used as a color ink and a drying-type ink used as black ink, as well as to an ink jet recording method using such an apparatus. More particularly, the present invention is concerned with a record data processing method which improves the quality of recorded images at and around the boundary between regions of different types of ink, and also an ink jet recording apparatus and method employing such a record data processing method.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, office machines such as personal computers, wordprocessors and so forth are finding spreading use. These machines are usually equipped with print-out means for printing data which are output therefrom. Nowadays, various types of print-out or recording means have been developed and used, such as wire-dot type printers, thermal transfer-type printers, ink jet recorders, and so forth. Among these recording methods or systems, the ink jet recording system is being considered most promising, since it can provide color output of high quality at low cost, while coping with current demands for inexpensive color recording which is becoming strong as a result of spreading use of DTP (Desk Top Publishing) systems.
The nature of the recording ink is one of the factors that control the quality of images recorded by ink jet recording systems. In general, recording ink is an aqueous liquid and can broadly be classified into two types according to the mechanism or principle of fixing to recording mediums.
The ink of the first type is generally referred to as "penetrating-type ink" which, by virtue of an additive such as a surfactant added thereto, exhibits improved penetration into ordinary plain paper sheets such as copying paper sheets used as a recording medium. Thanks to the improved penetration, this type of ink exhibits an extremely short fixing time, e.g., several milliseconds to one second. The term "fixing time" is used to mean the time required for the ink to be fixed to a recording medium to such an extent that it is never transferred to any member which would be brought into contact with the recording medium. The ink of the second type is generally referred to as "drying-type ink" which does not significantly penetrate into the recording medium but is fixed by being dried on the surface of the recording medium. It takes about several tens of seconds for this type of ink to be fixed.
Inks of the penetrating type, by virtue of rapid penetration, are rather free from the problem of bleeding which tends to occur when dots of different inks of different colors are formed in close proximity of each other during recording of a color image. This type of ink, however, suffers from a problem in that coloring of dots cannot be enhanced due to the fact that the dye of the ink penetrates deep into the recording medium. Another problem encountered with this type of ink is that the recorded image tends to be made obscure due to low contrast at the boundary between printed and non-printed regions.
Meanwhile, ink of the drying type tends to suffer from the above-mentioned problem of bleeding at the boundary between dots of different color inks, although it exhibits superior coloring and contrast thanks to the tendency of slow penetration and minimal spread of the dye.
Thus, two types of inks have their own merits and demerits and are used selectively according to the nature of the recording to be performed.
In general, inks of the drying type are preferably used in printing of characters partly because use of different colors of inks in close proximity of each other takes place only seldom in this kind of printing and partly because the printing of characters requires a high level of contrast. Inks of the penetrating type are preferably used in printing of such images that require prevention of bleeding rather than keeping a high level of contrast, e.g., images of pictures of natural sceneries. Thus, Bk (black) inks which are commonly used as inks for printing characters are usually of the drying type, whereas color inks such as Y (yellow), M (magenta) and C (cyan) inks are usually penetrating-type inks.
It may become necessary, according to the type of the image to be recorded, that dots of color inks of the penetrating type are formed in close proximity of dots formed of the drying-type Bk ink. No substantial bleeding takes place at the boundaries between the regions formed by the penetrating-type inks of Y, M and C colors. The problem of bleeding, however, is critical at boundaries between a region formed by a penetrating-type color ink and a drying-type Bk ink.
FIGS. 21(a) and 21(b) are enlarged views of a portion of an image in which a region formed by a drying-type Bk ink and a region formed with a penetrating-type color ink are adjoining each other at a boundary indicated at A--A. More specifically, a half-tone region on the upper side of the boundary A--A is the color image region formed by the penetrating-type color ink, whereas the solid region below the boundary A--A is the Bk image region. It is preferred that the recording is effected without bleeding as shown in FIG. 21(a), however the image regions of the Bk ink and the color ink may be close to each other. Actually, however, there is a risk that the Bk ink spreads into the color image region formed by the color ink, thus causing bleeding at the boundary, as illustrated in FIG. 21(b).
Various measures have been proposed for the purpose of overcoming the above-described problem of bleeding, such as the method disclosed in European Patent Application Nos. 540173 and 590854. It has been proposed, in the specification of Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 05-270582, a method having the steps of detecting a boundary between a region recorded by a penetrating-type ink and a drying-type ink, and substituting the image portion recorded by the drying-type Bk ink at the detected boundary with the penetrating-type ink. Use of a drying-type ink and a penetrating-type ink on adjacent dots or regions causes a color mixing at the boundary between these dots or regions, irrespective of whether which one of these two types of ink is recorded first.
More specifically, when two adjacent image regions are to be formed with Bk ink and a color ink, respectively, a conversion is performed so as to substitute the Bk color with process black (PCBk) constituted by yellow, magenta, cyan and black colors, in the boundary zone of the Bk image region having a predetermined width, e.g., a width corresponding to four dots, thereby preventing mixing of colors at the boundary between these two adjacent regions.
FIGS. 22(a) to 22(c) show the manner in which bleeding takes place at the boundary between two adjacent regions. In each of these Figures, the halftone region above the boundary indicated by a line A--A is the color image region, while the solid region below the boundary A--A is the Bk image region.
More specifically, FIG. 22(a) indicates an original image from which the boundary is detected by suitable means. A boundary zone defined between the boundary line A--A and a line B--B is the zone to be converted. The Bk image within the above-mentioned boundary zone is subjected to an image conversion into a color ink image to be formed by another color ink, whereby an image as shown in FIG. 22(c) is obtained.
It will be seen that, even the image after the conversion as shown in FIG. 22(c) contains bleeding of the Bk ink into the boundary zone between the lines A--A and B--B. However, since the image in the boundary zone between these lines is a Bk image zone which is constituted by a PCBk formed by adding color inks, the bleeding of the Bk ink into this zone does not produce any substantial appearance of "bleeding".
The quality of the image is improved significantly by the above-described control which is conducted by suitably using two types of ink, i.e., ink of the penetrating type and ink of the drying type.
It is to be understood, however, that the PCBk image formed by combined use of different colors through the above-described conversion is inferior to a Bk image formed by pure Bk ink, in terms of brightness and hue, from a strict point of view. Nevertheless, a better image can be obtained when the Bk dots are replaced by PCBk dots when the boundary zone between a color image region and a Bk region has a high duty ratio, because in such a case heavy bleeding is caused as explained in connection with FIGS. 21(a), 21(b) and FIGS. 22(a) to 22(c).
This method, however, suffers from the following problem. Namely, the PCBk conversion, i.e., conversion into PCBk dots, is effected unconditionally on the boundary zone defining the boundary between a Bk image region and a color image region, even when the bleeding problem is so slight as not to cause any critical problem. In such a case, the PCBk conversion undesirably impairs the quality of the recorded image as compared with the original image.
The PCBk conversion includes "four pixels boldfacing" in which a region formed by a single dot is expanded by an amount corresponding to four pixels in each of left, right, upward and downward directions from the single dot. This means that the region of the single dot is expanded into a square region constituted by 9 lines and 9 columns of pixels, i.e., 81 pixels. There is a substantial difference in the degree of necessity of PCBk conversion between the case where the duty ratio is so low that only one color dot exists in the above-mentioned region of 81 pixels and the case where the duty ratio is so high as to have all the 81 pixels colored. In the known method described above, the same boldfaced image is inconveniently obtained for both cases, because the same processing is applied to both cases, regardless of the significant difference in the degree of necessity of the PCBk conversion.
FIG. 23(a) to 23(d) illustrate an example of the above-described inconvenience. In FIG. 23(a), a belt-like solid area indicated by solid black is a Bk image region, while the area which is on the upper side of the Bk image region and which contains island-like or isolated dots is a color image region. FIG. 23(b) shows a state of the dots after the boldfacing in which each color dot is expanded to cover 81 pixels around the color dot, conducted for the purpose of detecting the boundary between two image regions. The area of the 81 pixels partly overlaps the original Bk region. The boundary zone is detected as the logical product (AND) of the boldfaced color image and the original Bk image region. Thus, the overlap area is determined as the boundary zone, as shown in FIG. 23(c).
All the pixels contained in this boundary zone are subjected to conversion. In this case, since the original Bk image region is a belt-like area of 3-dot width, all the pixels in the original Bk image region are converted into PCBk dots, as shown in FIG. 23(d). In the illustrated case, almost no bleeding is caused at the boundary, because of the small duty ratio in the color image region, as will be easily imagined from FIG. 23(a). Nevertheless, PCBk conversion is performed in the same way as that conducted for the case where the duty ratio in the color image region is 100%, so as to effect the substitution with PCBk even on the dots which actually do not require such a conversion.
This problem is due to the large area of the boldfacing which includes 81 pixels around each color dot and, therefore, would be overcome to some extent by reducing the area of the boldfacing down to 9 pixels, i.e., by two dots in each of left, right, upward and downward directions. Such a small amount of boldfacing, however, does not provide sufficient anti-bleeding effect, because the bleeding may take place beyond the boundary zone. The span of two pixels is as small as 0.14 mm in current major printers having resolution of 360 DPI (dot/inch). Such a small or narrow PCBk conversion zone can never provide a satisfactory anti-bleeding effect.
When the image to be recorded includes a Bk image region against a color image region of a low duty ratio, no substantial problem is caused by PCBk conversion, because the conversion converts only a portion of the contour region of the large Bk image region.
PCBk conversion, however, produces a noticeable detrimental effect when, for example, characters are to be printed with Bk ink against a halftone color background. It will be understood that no substantial bleeding takes place even when the recording is performed without the PCBk conversion. The characters printed with the Bk ink exhibit a high level of contrast which is peculiar to the Bk ink, thus offering high quality of the recorded image. The character image usually is constituted by line images having small widths. The following problem is therefore encountered when the recording is performed with PCBk conversion. Namely, almost all the pixels constituting the narrow line images are undesirably converted into PCBk dots, thus failing to provide the high level of contrast which is essential in the recording of this type of image. Thus, the size or area over which the PCBk conversion is effected should be minimized without reducing the anti-bleeding effect, so as not to impair the high level of contrast which is to be presented by the Bk ink.
This problem will be discussed in more detail with specific reference to FIG. 12 which shows a record image containing black characters A, B, C, D and E against a color gradation background. According to the above-described method, PCBk conversion is effected on the 4-dot-width boundary zones (shown as white) of all the black characters. More specifically, the PCBk conversion is effected equally and unconditionally on the 4-dot width boundary zones, regardless of variation in the printing duty ratio of the background. It is true that this PCBk conversion in one hand can prevent color mixing at the boundary, however the duty of the color background may be high but on the other hand poses a problem in that the PCBk zones at the boundary zone of the character are less distinctive in the lower part of the whole image where the duty ratio of print of the background is low. This is attributable to the fact that the contrast of black characters against the background as recognized by human eyes is higher in the area where the print duty ratio of the color background is lower.

Ink jet recording apparatus and method using plural types of ink


In a multiprocessor system in which a master processor and a plurality of slave processors access in common a page mode memory, each slave processor functions such that upon completion of a memory access by the slave processor, the page address which was being accessed prior to that access by the slave processor is reloaded into the page buffer of the memory. Since in general each access by a slave processor is preceded by and followed by an access by the master processor, generally to the same page of the memory, this reduces the number of long accesses that must be executed by the master processor as a result of intervening accesses by slave processors.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improvement of a multiprocessor system which utilizes a page mode memory as a common memory for a master processor and a plurality of slave processors. More particularly, the invention relates to an improvement of such a multiprocessor system for reducing the adverse effects upon the performance of the master processor of memory accesses which are executed by the slave proccessors
2. Prior Art Technology
In recent years, a type of memory known as a page mode memory has come into widespread application as a common memory of a multiprocessor system, i.e. which is accessed in common by the master processor and the slave processors of that system, which are linked via a common address bus and a common data bus (or a single bus which provides both address and data transfer functions by multiplexed operation) to the page mode memory. A page mode memory is generally of DRAM (dynamic random access memory) type. Each memory address consists of a portion referred to in the following as a page address (where a page consists of a fixed number of successively adjacent addresses within a specific region of the memory), and a portion which represents the position of the address within that page (the latter portion being referred to in the following as an intra-page address). Accessing of an address of the page mode memory by a processor may be executed in two consecutive periods (such an access being referred to in the following as a long access), with the processor (master processor or slave processor) first outputting to the page mode memory the required page address and a page load command. When these are received by the page mode memory, the data of that page are loaded into a page buffer, which is an integral part of the page mode memory and from which respective addresses within the page can be rapidly accessed using the intra-page addresses. However the configuration of a page mode memory to which the present invention is applicable is not limited to such an arrangement. Next, the processor outputs to the page mode memory the intra-page address and accesses that address, e.g. by writing or reading data to or from the address.
Once such a long access has been executed, then thereafter, so long as the processor continues to access only addresses which lie within the page that has been loaded into the page buffer of the page mode memory, it is only necessary for the processor to output to the page mode memory the intra-page address of a desired address in order to access that address. Such a type of access will be referred to in the following as a short access.
The above is illustrated in the example of FIG. 10. The upper part of FIG. 10 shows two program sequences which are to be respectively executed in parallel by the master processor and one of the slave processors of a prior art multiprocessor system which utilizes a page mode memory. In each program, "access" denotes a page mode memory access instruction, and for example "access p/a" signifies "access the (intra-page) address a within the page p (more specifically, the page having the page address p)". In each program "others" signifies any instruction other than a memory access instruction. The lower part of FIG. 10 shows the respective sequences of operations that are actually executed in parallel by the master processor and slave processor, to execute the respective program instruction sequences. In the step "access p", the master processor outputs to the page mode memory the page address p and a command for loading that page into the page buffer of the memory. Next, in the second operating step of the long access, the master processor outputs to the memory the intra-page address a, and that address is then accessed by the master processor. While the master processor is doing this, the slave processor must wait for one operating period (as indicated by "nop"), then the slave processor begins a long access in which the page g is first loaded into the page buffer, then the intra-page address e within that page is accessed by the slave processor.
However, since the page mode memory is being used in common by the master processor and slave processor, when the master processor subsequently has to again access an address within the page p, i.e. after executing the instruction "other 5", it is necessary for the master processor to again execute a long access, i.e. to again send the page address p to the memory to load that page into the page buffer, then to access the required address b within that page. It can be understood that if there had been no memory access by a slave processor to a page which is different from page p during the interval between the accessing of address a and address b by the master processor, it would not have been necessary to re-load the page p into the page buffer of the memory, i.e. it would only have been necessary to execute a short access. Thus, in a prior art multiprocessor system which utilizes a page mode memory as a common memory of the system, each time that the master processor of the system is executing successive accesses to addresses within a single page, and a slave processor executes a memory access (intervening between these successive accesses by the master processor) to a page which is different from that being accessed by the master processor, the speed of program execution by the master processor is correspondingly slowed. Since the performance of the system is essentially determined by that of the the master processor, the system performance is lowered as a result.
This is a significant problem since, in practice, it is necessary for the slave processors to access addresses within a different region or regions of the memory from the memory region or regions accessed by the master processor. Thus, it is almost certain that when a slave processor accesses the memory, it will access a different page from the last page that was accessed by the master processor.
As a result, such a prior art type of multiprocessor system utilizing a common page mode memory cannot benefit fully from the basic advantage of using a page mode memory, i.e. a reduction of the average memory access time.

Multiprocessor system providing enhanced efficiency of accessing page mode memory by master processor

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A holder for flexible abrasive sheets. An abrasive sheet is gripped by a gripper actuated by a rotationally mounted cam pin that reciprocates a cam plate which pulls an edge of the sheet tightly against a backing surface so it can respond to oscillation of a sander to which the holder is mounted.

While abrasive sheets such as sandpaper and emery paper are stiffly flexible and are often directly pressed against a surface to be smoothed or suitably abraded, it is more common practice to mount the paper to a holder which can more readily be manipulated, or which can be attached to an appliance that vibrates or orbits it on the surface.
This is far from a new concept and the art is replete with examples of useful holders for this purpose. One is entitled to be surprised to learn that there is still room for improvement.
It is clear that the prior art provides holders to which abrasive sheets can be attached. Any one of them, once the sheet is applied, can usefully be employed for the same purpose. The problem that remains is getting the sheet on the holder with least effort, least exposure to injury to the hand, and with sufficient retention to resist wrinkling of the sheet and relative in-plane movement between the sheet and the holder during vigorous operation.
It is an object of this invention to enable user to take a loose sheet of abrasive material, readily insert it into an opening at one end, and equally readily to insert the other end into an opposite-facing opening and lock both ends in place with the sheet brought tightly against the holder, stressed and ready for use.


A munition has an external surface. The munition may be of any type. The external surface includes a coating on at least part of it. Coatings may be, for example, paints, tapes, appliqués or other materials. The coating on the munition includes one or more of reflective material, phosphorescent material and fluorescent material. The reflective, phosphorescent and/or fluorescent coatings are applied to the munition prior to its being deployed. The reflective, phosphorescent and/or fluorescent materials in the coatings are visible at a safe distance from the munition and help to identify unexploded ordnance.

The invention relates in general to ordnance and in particular to detecting unexploded ordnance.
Unexploded ordnance (UXO) is dangerous. UXO includes live unexploded sub-munitions such as bomblets and grenades, artillery rounds, mortar rounds, etc. Locating and destroying UXO is hazardous, costly, and time-consuming. UXO must be rendered safe (usually by destruction in place) when hostilities end to safeguard friendly forces and civilian populations. Detection of UXO is the first step in ensuring that these hazardous items are removed from ranges or are destroyed in place. The primary method of identification of UXO is based on visual sightings. Various factors can interfere with detection, however, such as adverse weather conditions, poor lighting, metal clutter, and tunneling.

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


A fuel cell separator 60 having a metal plate and an anticorrosion resin coating layer 55 formed thereon is provided, with which adhesion between the resin coating layer 55 and its counterpart member is further increased and the durability of a fuel cell unit is improved. In forming the fuel cell separator 60 having a separator substrate 50 that is a metal plate and an anticorrosion resin coating layer 55 formed thereon, the resin coating layer 55 is formed such that it has a surface roughness Ra of 0.5 to 13.5 μm. Increasing the surface roughness will produce an anchoring effect, which will improve the adhesive force at the interface. The aforementioned surface roughness Ra can be obtained either with the use of fillers that are mixed into the resin coating layer 55 or with external force applied to the surface of the resin coating layer 55 by means of shot blasting, for example.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fuel cell separator and a method for manufacturing the same.
2. Background Art
As typical examples of fuel cells, polymer electrolyte fuel cells are known. FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view illustrating an example of such a fuel cell, in which a membrane electrode assembly 3 having an electrolyte membrane 1 and a pair of electrode layers 2 each of which has a sequential stack of a catalyst layer 21 and a diffusion layer 22 and is formed on each side of the electrolyte membrane 1 is provided, and the opposite sides of the membrane electrode assembly 3 are sandwiched between separators 5,5 each having gas flow channels 4, whereby a single fuel cell unit is formed. An electrolyte membrane 1a protrudes beyond the periphery of the electrode layers 2, and a space between the protruding electrolyte membrane 1a and the separators 5 is filled with a gasket 6 as an adhesive having a sealing function in such a manner that all of the members are integrated, whereby sealing between the two electrode layers 2,2 is ensured. Though not shown, a resin frame may be disposed between the gasket 6 and the separator 5 in some cases. In such a case, an adhesive is further applied between the resin frame and the separator so that they are integrated.
In order for a fuel cell unit to exhibit excellent power generation performance over a long period of time, the durability of the seal between the gasket and the separator or between the resin frame and the separator can be an important factor. However, since product water that will be produced by a power generation reaction contains acids, fluorine ions, and the like, such product water containing acids, fluorine ions, and the like could cause the bonding interface between the gasket 6 and the separator 5 or the bonding interface between the resin frame and the separator to deteriorate, thus failing to ensure seal durability. In an extreme case, the separator could become corroded due to the influence of the product water.
In order to avoid the aforementioned problem, Reference 1 (JP Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2007-12300 A) discloses a fuel cell separator in which an anticorrosion resin coating layer is formed on part of the surface of the separator (a region corresponding to a non-power generating region of the surface of the separator). With such a resin coating layer formed, the anticorrosive effect of the separator can be increased. In addition, when a seal member such as an adhesive or a gasket is disposed on the separator with the resin coating layer interposed therebetween, seal durability would also be ensured. The resin coating layer is formed by, for example, electrodepositing a cationic resin, which has been obtained by ionizing resin powder such as epoxy resin, urethane resin, acrylic resin, or polyimide resin, on the surface of the separator.
As another example of a fuel cell separator that solves the same technical problem, Reference 2 (JP Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2007-242576 A) discloses a fuel cell separator and a method for manufacturing the same, in which cathodic electrolysis in an alkaline solution is applied to a surface of a peripheral portion of a separator made of stainless steel, excluding gas flow channels (a conducting section), so that a hydrated iron oxide film is formed on the surface of the peripheral portion of the separator, and further, a resin sheet layer made of an aqueous electrodeposition resin is electrodeposited on the hydrated iron oxide film. Examples of such aqueous electrodeposition resins include amine resins.
Hydrophilic aqueous resins are environmentally friendly materials and are often used as materials of resin coating layers. However, since a separator made of stainless steel has a surface on which a passive film made of a chromium oxide layer is formed, the separator has low affinity for hydrophilic aqueous resins. Thus, when a resin sheet layer made of an aqueous electrodeposition resin is directly formed on the surface of the separator made of stainless steel, the resin would have low adhesion to the separator and thus could easily peel off the separator. Thus, when a hydrated iron oxide film is formed at the interface between the surface of the separator made of stainless steel and the resin coating layer as described in Reference 2, adhesion between the separator and the resin coating layer increases, whereby a fuel cell separator with high corrosion resistance and increased durability can be provided.

Fuel cell separator and method for manufacturing the same


The present invention discloses an ALU (Arithmetic Logic Unit) that can be operated as an OR gate, an AND gate, an adder gate and an exclusive OR gate using a half adder that uses a superconductor rapid single flux quantum logic device. The ALU using a half adder includes a half adder using a superconductor rapid single flux quantum logic device as a logic circuit, and a switching unit that has input ports respectively connected to a sum output port and a carry output port of the half adder and is operated as an OR gate, an AND gate, an adder gate and an exclusive OR gate using output signals of the half adder. The switching unit includes a first switch having an input port connected to the sum output port of the half adder, a second switch having an input port connected to the carry output port of the half adder and an output port connected to an output port of the first switch, and a third switch having an input port connected to the carry output port of the half adder.

Development of information communication technology increasingly requires improved performances of computers and microprocessors used for the technical fields.
The performances of computers and microprocessors are determined by the performance of a central processing unit (CPU). Especially, the performance of an ALU constructing the CPU is very important.
FIG. 1 shows a structure of an ALU generally used. As shown in FIG. 1, the ALU is composed of a combination of semiconductor logic circuits including an exclusive OR gate 11, an AND gate 12, an OR gate 13, a full adder 14 and a multiplexer 15. The logic circuits determine digital output values based on to voltage states.
However, the ALU including the semiconductor logic circuits has a relatively low operating speed. To significantly improve the performance of the ALU, it is more preferable to determine a digital value using a voltage pulse than to determine the digital value according to a voltage state.
There has been proposed a superconductor rapid single flux quantum logic device as a logic circuit that determines a digital value using a voltage pulse. A half adder or a T flip-flop using the superconductor rapid single flux quantum logic device has been also proposed.
FIG. 2 shows a circuit configuration of a conventional half adder using the superconductor rapid single flux quantum logic device as a logic circuit. The half adder is rapidly operated at an operating speed of approximately several tens GHz. In FIG. 2, circuit components denoted by J represent Josephson junctions.
Josephson junction is obtained by weakly combining two superconductors with each other. When an input signal is applied to the Josephson junction, a current of more than a predetermined level is flowed through the Josephson junction to generate a very short voltage pulse of several ps. Accordingly, a digital logic gate having a high operating speed of several tens to hundreds GHz can be constructed using the Josephson junction.
In addition to the aforementioned half adder, a T flip-flop using the superconductor rapid single flux quantum logic device as a logic circuit has been proposed. This T flip-flop is operated very rapidly at an operation speed of 770 GHz.
Recently, there are attempts to utilize the half adder using the superconductor rapid single flux quantum logic device as a logic circuit for ALUs.

Arithmetic and logic unit using half adder

Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation University of Incheon


A semi-rigid sleeve for a bottle that is open at both ends and can be inserted downward onto a freestanding bottle so as to cling thereto as a second skin. The sleeve generally comprises a cylindrical body defined by a resilient sheet of semi-rigid material (preferably high-density plastic) open at both ends and having an axial slit running end-to-end, the body being defined by an inward axial curvature and compression-formed with a shape-memory characteristic to normally retain a smaller (furled) first diameter which can be forcibly expanded by parting along said slit to a larger (unfurled) second diameter. An optional rubber coating may be applied to the interior/exterior of the body for insulation purposes. The smooth semi-rigid exterior surface of the bottle sleeve provides a superior advertising medium and outstanding multi-color graphics can be applied by thermoset printing processes, resulting in far more eyecatching graphics than traditional foam koozies.

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to sleeves for beverage containers and, more particularly, to a furled shape-memory sleeve capable of single-handed downward insertion over a freestanding bottle-shaped container for ornamental and/or insulation purposes.
2. Description of the Background
There are many different "koozies", sleeves or jackets for beverage containers. Most typical sleeves serve to keep a consumer's hand warm while keeping their drink cold. However, the marketing value of container sleeves is far more significant than their functional purpose. At a relatively low cost such sleeves can be emblazoned with logos and given away as promotional items in the hope to boost brand recognition. Most all conventional sleeves comprise round foam cylinders with a foam base (generally a hole is provided in the base to alleviate creation of a vacuum). Such sleeves are made from polymer materials like neoprene, polyester or open cell foam. In all known cases the sleeves are open-topped, allowing insertion of the beverage container bottom-first into the sleeve. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,222,656 which discloses a standard frusto-conical sleeve that lacks the capability to collapse for storage or to fit around various sizes of beverage containers.
Every year, the U.S. consumes around 50 billion disposable bottles, and bottlers are moving toward producing bottles made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), high-density polyethylene (HDPE), low-density polyethylene (LDPE), copolyester, or polypropylene. This is because they are inexpensive, transparent, and shatter resistant, resealable, recyclable and durable. Many manufacturers are producing multi-use "water" bottles of like materials with an array of resealable nozzle and/or mouths. Most are blow-molded. Plastic granules are melted, and injection-molded into a bottle "preform" which is withdrawn from the injection cavity while still hot. The preform is then stretched (by insufflation) to form the bottle. Whether multiuse or disposable, plastic bottles typically have a sloping shoulder, rounded ridge(s), central label panel, and rounded base. Labeling of plastic bottles is done with adhesive labels which may be attached by a variety of cold glues, hot melts, pressure sensitive glues, and heat seal labels. Alternatively, plastic bottles can be labeled by screen printing. In all cases the labeling is permanent. Thus customization and personalization of plastic bottle products by consumers is not possible. Consumers love creating personalized custom products. Consequently, there would be significant demand for an aftermarket sleeve for a plastic bottle which provides that ability.


A quantum failsafe service (QFS) is disclosed herein. In one example, a first quantum computing device executes a QFS that receives a system stress indicator from a system monitor that tracks a status of the first quantum computing device and/or a status of qubits maintained by the first quantum computing device. The QFS determines, based on the system stress indicator, that a quantum service backup is to be performed for a quantum service running on the first quantum computing device, and obtains a profile snapshot representing a current state of the quantum service. The QFS service then performs superdense encoding of the profile snapshot using a first set of qubits entangled with a second set of qubits of a second quantum computing device, and the first set of qubits are sent to the second quantum computing device (e.g., for storage in a classical data repository, according to some examples).

Quantum computing involves the use of quantum bits, referred to herein as "qubits," which have characteristics that differ from those of classical (i.e., non-quantum) bits used in classical computing. For example, a pair of qubits may experience a physical phenomenon referred to as "entanglement," in which the quantum state of each qubit cannot be described independently of the state of the other qubit. As quantum computing continues to increase in popularity and become more commonplace, an ability to proactively respond to adverse operating conditions that may jeopardize the availability of a quantum service executing on a quantum computing device will be desirable.


A stick lever unit for a radio-controlled device that is capable of easily changing the type of stick lever holding mechanism by a user is provided. The stick lever unit includes a fixing member to which a variable resistor is attached, a rotational member equipped with a stick lever, the rotational member being journaled to the fixing member and having an arc-shaped groove on a periphery thereof, and a pressure member bridged to the fixing member for pressing the arc-shaped groove. The pressure member has resilient plates of two types which can be suitably selected by means of an adjustment member.

The present invention relates to stick lever units for radio-controlled devices, which remotely maneuver controllable bodies, such as model airplanes, model helicopters, and cars, or boats, by controlling a stick lever. More particularly, the present invention relates to radio-controlled devices, having the stick lever unit.
A stick lever unit for radio control (hereinafter, referred to as a stick lever unit) is equipped on radio-controlled devices (radio-control devices for models), each of which remotely controls manipulated bodies, such as model airplanes, model helicopters, model cars, and model boats (refer to Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 62-87697).
The stick lever unit is shown in FIG. 9. In the conventional radio control unit 1, two sets of right and left stick lever units 2 are respectively equipped horizontally on the upper portion of the front surface thereof. The stick lever of each stick lever unit 2 is operated vertically and horizontally. The stick lever unit 2 is manipulated to control proportional control signals carried with radio waves transmitted to a controllable body from the radio-controlled device. Thus, the stick lever unit 2 controls operational movements of various servomechanisms mounted on the controllable body to remotely control the controllable body.
Such stick lever units include a stick lever returning mechanism that automatically returns the stick lever to a predetermined neutral position when the operator takes off the stick lever in an operation state of the stick lever in a certain operation direction or a stick lever holding mechanism that maintains the stick lever at its position even when the operator takes off his fingers in the stick lever operational state. For example, the stick lever return mechanism is equipped in the operational direction of the stick lever, which controls the aileron, rudder and the elevator, which control the flight direction of an airplane. Moreover, instead of installation of the return mechanism, the stick lever holding mechanism that maintains the control volume, even when an operator takes off his fingers from the stick lever, to maintain the number of revolutions of the engine in a constant value during flight, for example, is equipped in the operation direction of the stick lever, which controls the output of the model engine of the model airplane.
The stick lever unit including the stick lever return mechanism and the stick lever holding mechanism will be described specifically here by referring to the drawings. FIGS. 10 and 11 illustrate a conventional stick lever unit. FIG. 10 is a plan view illustrating the conventional stick lever unit. FIG. 11 is the rear view illustrating the conventional stick lever unit. First, the basic configuration of the stick lever unit will be explained below.
The stick lever unit 2 includes a fixing frame 21 acting as a fixing member, a rotational frame 22 and a rotational control element 23, acting as rotational members, and a stick lever 24 mounted on the rotational control element 23. A substantially rectangular window 21a penetrates in the center of the fixing frame 21. The rotational frame 22, being a semi-cylindrical member, is journaled rotatably on the rotational shaft 25a (acting as one rotational shaft) of the variable resistor 25 attached to the fixing frame 21 and the rotational shaft 22a (acting as the other rotational shaft) thereof attached to the rotational frame 22.
A small rectangular window 22b is formed in the center of the rotational frame 22. The rotational control element 23 attached to the stick frame 24 is rotatably fit loosely within the small window 22b. The rotational shaft of the rotational control element 23 is made of the rotational shaft 26a of the variable resistor 26 fixed to the rotational frame 22. One end of the rotational shaft 26a is journaled in the rotational frame 22. In this configuration, when an operator manipulates the stick lever 24 vertically, horizontally, and slantingly, the rotational frame 22 and the rotational control element 23 rotate and the variable resistors 25 and 26 rotate, so that the output signals to the manipulated object are controlled.
Next, the configurations of the return mechanism and the holding mechanism of the stick lever 24 in the stick lever unit 2 will be described blow.
As shown in drawings, in the return mechanism of the stick lever 24, two contact pins 27 and 27 are disposed to the rotational control element 23. An arm 28 and a spring 29 are disposed to the rotational frame 22. The arm 28 has one end 28a rotationally attached to the rotational frame 22 and the other end 28b attached to the spring 29. Thus, the arm 28 acts to always depress against the contact pins 27, 27. Accordingly, when the stick lever 24 rotates the rotational control element 23, one of the contact pins 27 is pressed to the arm 28. When the stick lever 24 is released, the rotational control element 23 automatically returns to the predetermined original position.
In addition, in the configuration of the holding mechanism of the stick lever 24, an arc-shaped groove 22c is formed in the rotational frame 22. The groove 22 is in a fan-shaped form with respect to the rotational shaft 22a acting as the center and has an outer circumference with gear-shaped groove therein. A resilient plate 30 acting as a pressure member is attached to the fixing frame 21. When the resilient plate 30 presses the arc-shaped groove 22c, a resistance force occurs against the rotational operation of the rotational frame 22. As a result, the stick lever 24 is held at the position where it has been rotated.
In the stick lever holding mechanism, because the one end of the resilient plate 30 is fastened on the fixing frame 21 with a screw, the spaced distance between the resilient plate 30 and the fixing frame 22 can be adjusted. By turning the adjustment screw, that configuration allows the pressure force of the pressure member working on the arc-shaped groove 22c as a stick lever holding mechanism to be freely adjusted. (Refer to Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 62-87697)
In such a stick lever unit, a different type of resilient plate (pressure member) configuring a stick lever holding mechanism is used according to the object manipulated by a radio-controlled device. For example, in the stick lever unit for manipulating a model airplane, a ratchet-type resilient plate having a protrusion in the resilient slate which is engaged with the arc-shaped groove to hold stepwise operation positions of the stick lever may be used. In model helicopters, a brake-type resilient plate having a flat resilient plate without protrusion, which can steplessly hold the operation positions of the stick lever by engaging the resilient plate to the arc-shaped groove may be used.
Conventionally, the manufacturer specified the resilient plate for radio-controlled devices attached to the stick lever unit and mounted the stick lever unit to the radio-controlled device for shipping as a complete device. For that reason, when a user wants to change the resilient plate after purchase of the product, the installed resilient plate is removed after opening the housing of the radio-controlled device body to replace it for other type of resilient plate. This work has been troublesome.
Further, when a resilient plate to be replaced is not at hand or the user himself cannot replace the resilient plate, the product has to be sent to the manufacturer to ask for the replacement of the resilient plate. This is troublesome and takes much time which is very inconvenient.

Stick lever unit for radio controlled device and radio controlled device equipped with the same


The present invention provides a touch panel, including a lower substrate, an organic light-emitting component, disposed on the lower substrate, a nano silver sensing layer, disposed on the organic light emitting component, and an upper substrate, disposed on the nano silver sensing layer.

This Application claims priority of China Patent Application No. CN 201310468936.2, filed on Oct. 9, 2013, and the entirety of which is incorporated by reference herein.
Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of touch input technologies and more particularly to a touch panel.
Description of the Prior Art
Nowadays, personal digital assistants (PDA), mobile phones, notebook computers, tablet PCs and other portable electronic products are commonly used in modern life. Since these electronic products need to be thinner and lighter, the traditional input devices, such as keyboards or mice have to be replaced with other input devices. In addition, the needs for tablet PCs has greatly increased, hence the touch panel technology has became one of the key components in electronic products. Besides, the organic light emitting display (OLED) has some advantages such as thinning, low weight, low power consumption, high brightness, high response speed, so it also commonly used in mobile electronic devices.
In the technology of combining the touch panel and the OLED, usually, the touch panel and the OLED are formed separately in individual processes, and then combined with each other. The OLED provides the function for displaying, and the touch panel provides the function for interacting with the user. The position data detected by the touch panel and displaying data of the OLED are connected to each other and then calculated through the outside traces and the operation systems, therefore the touch panel becomes heavy and thick, and is hardly able to achieve the lightened and thinned requirements. Besides, PET (polyethylene terephthalate) is usually used as the substrate of a large-size touch panel, but some common materials for forming the electrodes such as indium tin oxide (ITO) are fragile and not suitable for forming on the flexible PET film. In addition, some issues such as PET substrate can't endure high temperatures, or the conductivity of the ITO electrode can't satisfy the rapid scanning requirements of the large-size touch panel still need to be resolved.


A wind turbine configured to be mountable to a support post includes a first support element having a first track positioned around a central axis and configured to be connectable to the support post. A fan assembly is engaged with the first support element and is rotatable relative thereto. The fan assembly includes a plurality of first trolleys each being coupled to the first support element and spaced relative to each other. The plurality of first trolleys are traversable along the first track to cause rotation of the fan assembly relative to the first support element. A plurality of fan blades are coupled to respective ones of the plurality of first trolleys. At least one off-axis electrical generator is engaged with the fan assembly and includes at least one rotating gear driven by at the fan assembly when the fan assembly rotates relative to the first support element.

1. Technical field
The present invention relates to a wind turbine used to convert wind forces into electrical energy. More particularly, the present invention relates to a wind turbine and generator adapted to be affixed about an elongate shaft or similar structure.
2. Related Art
The need and demand for renewable energy is increasing as an alternative to traditional fossil fuels and nuclear power. Existing devices and methods adapted to harness renewable sources, such as wind power, may have the unwelcome effect of creating large and noticeable physical footprints on existing landscapes. Existing wind turbines require installation on tall masts with sufficient horizontal and lateral clearance and rights of way and accessibility to an electrical grid. Wind farms that use existing wind turbines may be located in less densely populated areas and may utilize large tracts of valuable land and many times increase the cost of kilowatt hour due the requirement of construction of access to electrical grids. Wind generators located in more densely populated areas may block views, block sunlight, create noise and otherwise may be ascetically undesirable. In addition, existing horizontal and vertical wind turbines can be a danger to certain bird populations.
A common wind turbine structure includes a single large propeller affixed at the top end of a vertical mast. Airflow across the blades, airfoils or the propellers causes rotation activating a generator to produce electricity. Because of the length of the blades and the size of propeller, many times such wind turbines are affixed atop very tall masts making maintenance and repair difficult. The high placement also takes advantage of higher winds having more force to move the massive propeller blades. Also the installation of the masts are expensive and are required to support a significant amount of weight to support both the blades and generator which is typically located at the center of the blades. A conventional propeller type wind turbine with blades also typically rotates perpendicular to wind direction requiring expensive mechanisms to rotate either or both of the forward direction of the propeller, or the angle of the propeller blades.
Most conventional wind turbines require energy to start rotation of the wind turbine. In most cases, the energy is drawn from the existing power grid, which thereby reduces the overall energy production of the wind turbine.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for devices and methods to generate renewable energy from wind and airflow forces that has a minimized physical impact on the livable landscape and environment and which can capitalize on existing infrastructure and electrical grid interfaces. Also, there is a need in the art for devices and methods to create electricity from wind flow forces that minimize adjustments in the turbine orientation decreasing the complexity of the wind turbines and decreasing costs of manufacture, maintenance and control. Furthermore, there is a need in the art for devices and methods of generating renewable energy from wind and fluid forces with minimal or zero energy drawn from an existing energy grid.