A method of retrieving data from a record carrier disc having rotary information tracks on which the data is recorded. A read head reads data from the tracks into a buffer memory, from which it is supplied to an output terminal. This permits continuous playback of the recorded information during temporary intervals when, due to mechanical shocks, the read head becomes misaligned relative to the tracks. After such a misalignment the read head becomes realigned at a subsequent track position, and as soon as data is again being correctly detected it is written into the buffer memory in a location therein which leaves a gap between the currently written data and that written before the shock occurred. When the disc rotation brings the read head into radial alignment with the position where the shock commenced, the read head is moved inward to return to that position and the gap in the buffer memory is filled by reading from the disc the data which was missed during the misalignment following the shock. The method is applicable to a shock FIFO memory for a CD audio player.

The invention relates to a method of reading data from a disc carrier and applying the data to an output comprising the steps of;
i) reading data from the disc and writing it into a buffer memory, PA1 ii) reading the data stored in the buffer memory to the output at a first given data rate, PA1 iii) detecting any interruption in the reading of data from the disc to the buffer memory, and PA1 iv) reading data from the disc at a second given data rate which is higher than the first given data rate after an interruption in reading data from the disc to the buffer memory, in order to restore the quantity of data in the buffer memory to a given level to thereby enable uninterrupted reading of data to the output in the presence of shocks which cause a temporary interruption of the reading of data from the disc to the buffer memory. PA1 v) reading data from a position on the disc subsequent to the point at which the shock occurred, and writing it into the buffer memory, as soon as it becomes available after an interruption, and PA1 vi) reading data from the buffer memory to the output in the same order as it is stored on the disc carrier. PA1 vii) interrupting the writing of data to the buffer memory when the quantity of data in the buffer memory reaches a first level where the buffer memory is substantially full, and PA1 viii) resuming the writing of data into the buffer memory when the quantity of data in the buffer memory falls to a second lower level.
The invention further relates to an arrangement for reading data from a rotating disc carrier, said arrangement including a shock compensation memory for providing output data when a reading head becomes misaligned with respect to information tracks on the disc. The said arrangement also comprises means for realigning the reading head at a later location on the track, means for detecting when the disc has rotated to a position where the reading head is located radially aligned with but outside the position at which misalignment occurred, means for causing the reading head to move inward one or more track(s) so that it regains the position at which the misalignment occurred, and means for causing data to be written into the memory at a rate greater than that at which it is being read out until the memory becomes substantially full.
Such a method and arrangement has been disclosed, inter alia, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,796,247, EP-A-0 429 130, EP-A-0 550 097, WO91/11002 and WO91/11003. In all these documents a buffer memory is provided so that a continuous output of data can be obtained when mechanical shocks occur which cause the reading head to become temporarily misaligned with the data track on the disc. Thus by reading out the data from the buffer memory the effect of a limited duration shock on the output can be eliminated, i.e as far as a listener to a compact disc player is concerned the shock has no effect on the output.
In order to achieve this result data is read from the disc and written into the buffer memory at a higher rate, for example twice, than that at which it is read out from the buffer memory. It is possible to read the data from the disc continuously at the higher rate, to interrupt this reading when the buffer memory is about to overflow, and restart the reading when the buffer memory empties to a predetermined state, as disclosed in EP-A-0 429 139. Alternatively, the data may normally be read from the disc at the same rate as it is read from the buffer memory, the buffer memory being initially filled before output begins and then in the case of the buffer emptying, because of an interruption of reading data from the disc due to head misalignment caused by a mechanical shock, the rate of reading of the data is increased (doubled) until the buffer memory is re-filled. Once the buffer memory is full the rate of reading the data from the disc is restored to the original rate. This has the disadvantage, however, that the speed of rotation of the disc has to be changed.
The duration of a shock which can be compensated by such an arrangement is, of course, limited by the capacity of the buffer memory, i.e the maximum length shock which can be compensated corresponds to the time taken to read out all the data in the buffer memory. Additionally, a series of shorter shocks may also exceed the memory capacity if there is insufficient time between the shocks to re-fill the buffer memory, i.e as the frequency and number of shocks increase the buffer memory is progressively emptied. Successive shocks may occur, for example when the arrangement is used in a personal CD player which may be worn by the user whilst jogging or taking part in other physical activities. Another circumstance which can give rise to successive shocks is use in a car or other vehicle.
The above citations are hereby incorporated in whole by reference.

Method and apparatus for reading data from a disc carrier


A method and system where a plurality of ECU is rapidly executed while avoiding deadlock by performing conservative event synchronization. The simulation system is provided with 4 layers, namely a processor emulator which is an ECU emulator, a plant simulator, a external peripheral scheduler, and a mutual peripheral scheduler. The external peripheral scheduler performs advanced execution of the plant simulator only during processor emulator reaction delay time (or the time until the next event). The notification to perform advanced execution of the plant simulator is provided until the actual plant simulator stop time. The mutual peripheral scheduler provides notification to the processor emulator to perform advanced execution only during communication delay timing between processor emulators (or the time until the next event). The processor emulator conservatively processes until the earliest time of the notification times. Each peripheral scheduler proceeds with processing until the earliest time of the accepted events.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to simulation of a physical system such as an automobile, and more specifically relates to a computer implemented simulation system.
2. Description of Related Art
Early in the 20th century, the automobile was made of mechanical components including engine for power, accelerator, steering wheel, transmission, and suspension, but almost no electrical devices were used other than the engine spark plugs and the headlights.
However, since the 1970s, there has been a need to control engine efficiency as a result of air pollution and oil crises, and therefore at ECU is used for controlling the engine. Generally, the ECU has an input interface that performs A/D conversion of an input signal from a sensor for example, a logical operator (microcomputer) that processes the digital input signal in accordance with established logic, and an output interface that converts the processed results to an actuator operating signal.
Nowadays, modern automobiles contain not only mechanical components, but electronic components and software occupy a significant share, extending not only to engine and transmission control systems, antilock braking system (ABS), electronic stability control (ESC), and power steering, but even extending to windshield wiper control and security of monitoring systems and the like. The development costs for these components are said to be from 25 to 40% of the total cost, and account for 70% for a hybrid vehicle.
Incidentally, automobiles contain a power device such as an engine, power transferring device, driving device for steering or the like, braking device, and other mechanical members for other body systems (plant), and the operations of these plants are dynamically determined by programs of 30 to 70 or more electronic control units (ECU) based on sensor input (speed or the like) and input from humans (accelerator and the like).
An ECU basically controls the operation of each individual plant. For example, an engine control unit uses software to determine the amount and timing for fuel injection and ignition of the engine. For high-grade vehicles such as those provided with a "sport" mode, the amount of fuel injected can be either increased or decreased depending on the mode by using software. Furthermore, the rotational speed of the engine can be made to match the timing for shifting down by the automatically blipping (racing) the engine. In this case, the engine ECU and the transmission ECU must operate in a cooperative manner. With an integrated vehicle position stabilizing device (ESC: Electronic stability control) for preventing lateral slipping or the like of the vehicle, coordination with the braking device such as the brakes or the like is essential, and thus ECU software is complex. Note, this type of "intervention" function is primarily software, and can easily be cut.
In order to sufficiently achieve the function of the plant and to operate stably, tuning and testing of the operating parameters must be sufficiently performed in the process of designing and developing the ECU software. Tuning and testing is repeatedly performed after a prototype is made of an actual vehicle, but because of cost and timing constraints, there is strong demand for a method that virtually achieves a controller and plant in a calculating device prior to prototyping, and thus the operation can be quickly and accurately performed. This ECU simulation includes 4 types, namely: (1) Model-in-the-Loop Simulation (MILS) that logically expresses the operation of the controller using an expression format such as a state machine; (2) Software-in-the-Loop Simulation (SILS) where some hardware control such as data precision is introduced to the logical operation; (3) Processor-in-the-Loop Simulation (PILS) and Virtual Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation (V-HILS) where the software is completely packaged to emulate the ECU processor; and (4) Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation where the ECU board is completely packaged and connected with a real-time plant simulation, used in this order to approach the prototype.
MILS and SILS are primarily used during the trial and error phase in order to achieve basic performance of the plant. However, the operation differs from the software that is actually included in the ECU, so use for product verification applications is not possible. On the other hand, V-HILS uses completed ECU software, and is extremely promising as a method for resolving unanticipated actions (bugs) that are discovered in the software, but there are no examples where an operation with reproducibility has been achieved. HILS is always performed in order to confirm the final behavior of the completed ECU board, but reproducibility is not insured even if a failure is discovered and therefore cannot be used for the purpose of debugging.
The reason that the operation cannot be reproduced using HILS is not because the configuration of HILS is incomplete, but rather because all of the ECU's are mutually connected together by a network such as CAN or the like. Generally, a network provides loose coupling between modules, so the order of data arrival will vary based on slight differences in timing of the module operation, and as a result the behavior of the entire system will vary. Therefore, even if the actual vehicle is prototyped, reproducibility of the operation cannot be expected. This is the same reason that debugging a parallel distributed system is extremely difficult.
With this type of HILS configuration, or in other words with a configuration where the ECU board and the plant simulator were loosely linked, operation consistency cannot be achieved even if each of the components are sped up. Achieving consistency in the order of communication is necessary in order to achieve reproducibility of the operation. V-HILS is expected to resolve this problem in particular.
According to traditional concepts, a typical V-HILS configuration includes a plurality of ECU emulators, a plurality of plant simulators, and a global scheduler that schedules all operations.
The ECU emulator includes a processor emulator and a peripheral emulator. On the other hand, the plant simulator includes a brake simulator and an engine simulator and the like.
At this time, the processor emulator operates using a relatively high resolution clock at 80 MHz for example. On the other hand, the plant simulator is a simulator of a physical mechanism, and therefore operates at a relatively low resolution of 10 kHz for example. Generally, a lower resolution can be simulated at high speed, so the plant simulator is often faster.
The plant simulator does not necessarily repeat calculations of values at processing step times that have a fixed length, and usually there is a need to suppress the effects of calculation differences and to have a variable step that is based on the timing of noncontiguous change points. Instruction signals are received from the controller in each step, and the internal state is output to each sensor. Note, the instruction signal is usually a pulse for expressing the on or off condition of a switch.
The peripheral emulator is mutually connected to the plant simulator and the processor emulator using the I/O interface of the ECU emulator. Typically, the operations can be suppressed at a resolution of approximately 10 MHz. This increases the speed of the plant simulator, but decreases the speed of the processor emulator. The peripheral emulator transmits a pulse signal to the plant simulator. Furthermore, the internal state from the plant simulator is read as quantized data.
The peripheral emulator receives a read write (R/W) request and transmits and receives data with the processor emulator, and sends interruptions (INT). In particular, with the function of a network such as a CAN (controller area network) that mutually connects between processors, transmission data is received from the processor (W) and communication between peripherals is performed through a bus, and when the data is received, an interrupt (INT) is sent to the processor, and the data received from the processor is read based on a request (R).
Looking from one side, the peripherals are the center of the system and mutually connected between the plant and the processor and between processors. If there is only sufficient time resolution to mutually distinguish the order of the signals that pass through the peripherals, the order can be properly reproduced for synergistic effects between the plant and the processor. If the time until the next signal determines the degree of precision (calculation rate and the like), a finer time resolution is favorable. In other words, the size of the data error is determined by the time resolution.
There is also a problem with overhead in addition to the problem with data error. In other words, with a method that provides a fixed synchronous interval, a more proper operation can be achieved if the synchronous interval is shortened, but conversely, the overhead required for synchronous processing will increase, so the time for all processes will increase.
An approach where the synchronous interval is fixed and reduced to the maximum limit cannot be a method for practically resolving both aspects of data error and overhead.
With V-HILS, the synchronous problem is critical, and when organized, the following three methods are conceivable:    (1) Time synchronization: With this method, the processor emulator executes the simulation while mutually communicating. There is a trade-off between execution speed and time precision, and there are quantization errors for time. Furthermore, as described above, with this method, the synchronous communication cost is higher between the processor emulators, so the practical resolution is not achieved.    (2) Optimistic event synchronization: With this method, each processor and emulator synchronizes with the other party by sending or receiving an event with time information. However, speculated simulation is executed while retaining the possibility of "flying", so if the speculation causes out of order state, the processor and emulator must be rolled back appropriately. The cost of synchronization is smaller than with the time synchronization method, but the cost of successively recording the status in preparation of rollback is too high, and is not practical.    (3) Conservative event synchronization: With this method, each processor and emulator synchronizes with the other party by sending or receiving an event with time information. However, the simulation proceeds "conservatively" so a cause and effect relationship does not conflict, and therefore mutual events will be held, and a deadlock can occur. In order to avoid this type of deadlock, a special null message or the like is sent at high frequency in order to perform a time send, and thus the cost of avoidance is high.
As conventional technology for V-HILS, Japanese unexamined patent application 2007-11720 discloses that an issue to be resolved is to enable flexible variation of the configuration of a system simulator while accommodating systems with complex configurations, and that a system simulator includes 3 types, namely an instruction set simulator that simulates CPU operation, a bus simulator that simulates bus operation, and a peripheral simulator that simulates the peripheral operations, with an interface provided between each simulator that can reference and change the mutual state. However, this conventional technology does not suggest a technique of optimizing synchronization between peripherals and the CPU.
The present inventors developed a mechanism for conservative event synchronization and provided a simulation technique that used a peripheral scheduler as disclosed in the specification of UK patent application GB2486136A. With this technique, the peripheral scheduler begins parallel operation by the canceling (OFF) all peripheral emulator completion flags. Furthermore, the peripheral scheduler finds the peripheral emulator scheduled to face the earliest processing break, based on the timing of the processing break of each individual peripheral emulator that is set. This is referred to as peripheral P. If the time of that processing break is T, the peripheral scheduler proceeds with execution of each processor emulator and each plant simulator until the time reaches time T. Therefore, the peripheral scheduler waits for the peripheral P completion flag to be set. In response to setting of the peripheral P completion flag, the peripheral scheduler synchronizes the data between the peripherals P, the processor emulator, and the plant simulator.
However, recently there has been demand for simulation that more closely approaches the overall operation of the actual device such as simultaneously emulating a plurality of ECUs with a multicore host computer. The execution speed will vary for each of the hosts of a plurality of ECU, and therefore explicit synchronous processing is required there between. However communication that regularly interrupts is performed between the ECUs so synchronizing the plurality of ECU is not easy. The technique disclosed in the specification of Japanese patent application 2009-238954 is applicable only for a single ECU, so this technique cannot be applied without modification to simulations of systems that have a plurality of ECU.

Multi-ECU simulation by using 2-layer peripherals with look-ahead time

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


A software training approach utilizes customized training activities to provide effective customized learning operations for users. Through an association of the user identifier, such as a login, an application determines when an activity occurs requiring training. Based on the user identifier, a customized training activities are retrieved and executed providing a software training based on the specific user in immediate proximity to the actual operation of the computing activity being the subject of the training operations.

The present invention relates generally to the area of training techniques and more specifically to software training techniques embedded within a software application.
Success of a new software application depends on the ability of users to effectively learn and utilize the software. Unfortunately, nearly all computer software today is designed around processing data with little or no consideration of how people need to use it to perform their work tasks. As a result, training services, software documentation and end user support services have flourished as a way to help users figure out how to work around these systems.
Current software training techniques include general classroom training sessions, online tutorials and third party training resources. These systems typically employ a general teaching approach to accommodate the wide variety of users. These training approaches cannot provide individual customized training. Thus the users are often limited in their training for utilizing the new software, reducing productivity.
With continued advancements in software applications, it is important to keep users abreast of new techniques. If users fail to grasp the improvements of existing systems, these shortcomings will only be perpetuated with new systems. This is problematic because after several generations of new technologies, the user may be severely restricted in the ability to use the software, increasing the likelihood that the user will not use the improved software, but will reduce productivity using the comfortable previous generation software system.
Current software training also use other readily available training techniques. For example, some systems may utilize pop-up windows having visual demonstrations of a particular application resource. Other approaches may include a user prompting a system to run a tutorial when the user first launches a software package or is confused during operation. For example, in one technique, an application may detect its initial execution and provide tutorials or other general training techniques. In another example, an application may automatically provide a tip every time the application is launched. In another technique, the application may monitor the user's usage and attempt to predict an activity, such as drafting a letter. Upon this prediction, the application may launch a general tutorial or an instructional tool for the specific activity.
The current software training approaches are standardized approaches lacking customization directed to specific users. As the complexity of the underlying software increases, the software training techniques should be customizable to focus on the target audience of the intended user. Therefore, there exists a need for software training technique using a customized technique for targeted training of software users.


In a motion or depth estimation method, a set (CS) of candidate motion vectors, or depth values formed by already obtained motion vectors, or depth values for neighboring image parts which are spatio-temporally adjacent to a given image part of interest, is generated (MV-MEM) for the given image part of interest. Those candidate motion vectors or depth values which correspond to neighboring image parts containing more reliable texture information than other neighboring image parts, are prioritized (TBPD) to obtain a prioritized set (PCS) of candidate motion vectors or depth values. Thereafter, motion or depth data (MV) for the given image part of interest is furnished (ME) in dependence upon the prioritized set (PCS) of candidate motion vectors or depth values. Finally, an image signal processing device (ISPD) processes an image signal (Iin) to obtain an enhanced image signal in dependence upon the motion or depth data (MV).

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to motion or depth estimation.
2. Description of the Related Art
Block matching has been used with success in video coding applications (see Refs. 3 and 4) for displacement estimation and movement compensation. Block matching algorithms are iterative minimization algorithms which assume that all pixels within a given block move uniformly, say with vector (ij). If, for that block, we minimize the Mean Squared Error (MSE) with respect to (ij), we can find, after convergence, the most likely motion for that block from time t to t+1.
                              MSE                                (                          i              ,              j                        )                          =                              1            MN                                                        ∑                              m                =                1                            M                                                                                ∑                                  n                  =                  1                                N                                                                                [                                                                                U                                                  t                          +                          1                                                                                (                                                  m                          ,                          n                                                )                                                              -                                                                  U                        t                                                                                (                                                                              m                            +                            i                                                    ,                                                      n                            +                            j                                                                          )                                                                              ]                                2                                                                        (        1        )            Here, M,N are the dimensions of the block in pixels. Ut(m,n) is the pixel intensity of a scene at time t, at the location (m,n). The (i,j)'s are taken from a set of candidates: CS. The minimal value of MSE over CS is called the matching penalty (MP).
In a method proposed by G. de Haan in Ref. 5, which we refer in this text as the standard solution or the original algorithm, the candidate set consists of values taken from a given arrangement of neighbors. This known arrangement is optimized to enable an efficient hardware implementation.

Motion or depth estimation by prioritizing candidate motion vectors according to more reliable texture information


An image output apparatus according to the present invention is able to additionally output another image data item to a desired position to which subject image data is outputted and able to repeatedly output the same image or repeatedly output the image while rotating the image. A setting unit sets the image repetition portion, the number of the repetitions and the rotation of the image. An image read by a reader is stored into a memory, and a reading counter changes the reading address of the memory in accordance with set information. Hence, a desired repeated image or the rotated image is outputted to a printer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image supply apparatus for supplying image data relating to recording, an image output apparatus which receives supplied image data to output a color image to a recording medium and an image forming system having the foregoing apparatuses. More particularly, the present invention relates to a printing system for printing an image on a recording medium such as a cloth. Furthermore, the present invention relates to an image output apparatus having an image repeating function for repeatedly recording the same image.
2. Description of the Related Art
When an image is outputted, there is sometimes desired to record an objective image on a recording medium in such a manner that another image data item is superposed on the objective image (first image data) which is the subject of the recording operation. In a cloth printing field, for example, in which an image is printed on a cloth, a brand (logotype) of a manufacturer or a designer is printed repeatedly at an end portion of a cloth.
Some conventional image output apparatuses such as printers have an arrangement that image data supplied from an external equipment, such as a host computer, is outputted as it is or temporarily stored in an incorporated buffer memory before the image data is outputted as an image. The image output apparatus having the buffer memory uses the buffer memory in order to establish consistency between the data transmission speed from the host computer and the image output speed of the printer. Furthermore, a printer apparatus, i.e., a page printer such as a laser beam, having an image memory capable of storing developed pixel data for one or more pages has been widely used because print data expressed in a page description language is developed into pixel data (bit map data).
Recently, a special image output is sometimes made to realize a geometrical image by repeatedly outputting a certain basic image. If a wide area image composed of repeated images, such as wall paper or a cloth, is printed by a printer of the aforesaid type, the printer must perform the following process: data about the whole image, in which the geometrical image is formed, is made by the host computer and the data having an excessively large capacity is transmitted from the host computer to the printer. If the printer apparatus has no buffer memory for the received image data, the correspondence between the image data transmission speed from the host computer and the printing speed of the printer apparatus must be held by the following adjustment methods: the calculation of the large quantity of image data is completed faster than the printing speed of the printer apparatus; the calculation is performed in advance; and the printing speed of the printer is conformed to the data transmission speed from the host computer.
An image forming apparatus having an image repeating function with which the same image can be repeatedly printed can be available. The image repeating function provided for the aforesaid apparatus will now be described with reference to FIGS. 55 and 56. Referring to FIG. 55, reference numeral 761 represents an original having an image to be repeatedly recorded. In this example, the image of symbol xe2x80x9cAxe2x80x9d in an area 711 is repeatedly formed. FIGS. 56A-56C illustrate examples in which the image in the area 711 of the original 761 is repeatedly printed. FIG. 56A illustrates a state where the image of the area 711 shown in FIG. 55 is read and the image is printed on an area 712 of a recording medium 771. After the area 712 has been printed, the printer does not advance the paper, but again reads the area 711 of the original 761 so as to print it on the area 713 of a recording medium 771 as shown in FIG. 56B. After the area 713 has been printed, the printer does not further advance the paper, but reads the area 711 of the original 761 so as to print it onto the area 714 of the recording medium 771 as shown in FIG. 56C. As a result of the aforesaid operation, an image as shown in FIG. 56C is formed by performing the operation of recording the same image three times. By reading the same area plural times and printing onto different positions of a medium, the image repetition function is realized.
When recording is performed while superposing image data, such as logotype, on the original image data, it might be considered that a superposed image data that the image data is previously superposed on the original image data is recorded. However, a predetermined image process, such as a head shading correction, xcex3-correction and UCR conversion process, performed prior to recording the superposed image data will also affect the image data other than the original image data. Therefore, the image data cannot be recorded as desired. If the image data is, for example, character image data there is a fear that it cannot be clearly recorded.
If there is a desire that basic image is repeatedly printed on the recording medium while being formed into various shapes (it is an ordinary case for the cloth printing field), the position at which other image data (logotype mark) is printed is limited by the repeated pattern of the basic image. As a result, the other image such as the logotype mark cannot, sometimes, be printed at the desired position.
If a large quantity of image data is transmitted to a printer from a host computer, it takes a long time to transmit the image data. Therefore, the host computer inevitably takes a long time to complete the process for printing. Another problem takes place in that an excessively long time is required to obtain the final output image. If the large quantity of image data is stored in the buffer memory of the printer, there arises a problem in that the buffer memory must have an excessively large capacity. If the geometrically repeated image data is generated by an external equipment such as the host computer, a long time is required to generate the image data.
In addition, the conventional image repeating function is a function for simply repeating the operation of printing the same image. Therefore, the repeated image pattern cannot be varied.
An object of the present invention is to overcome the aforesaid problems.
Another object of the present invention is to enable desired second image data to be recorded at a desired position on the recording medium on which the first image data which is the subject of recording is recorded.
Another object of the present invention is to enable second image data to be recorded as desired while freed from an influence of the image process to which the first image data is subjected.
Accordingly, the present invention is related to an image supply apparatus for supplying image data to an image output apparatus which records an image on a recording medium, the image supply apparatus comprising: designation means for making a designation about second image data which is different from first image data which is the subject of the recording operation in order to cause the second image to be recorded on a recording medium on which the first image data is recorded.
The designation means may designate at least anyone of the pattern, the size, the recording position and recording color of the second image data. The second image data may be logotype mark.
A control apparatus according to the present invention for an image output apparatus, comprises: first control means provided for an image output apparatus, which records an image on a recording medium, and arranged to cause a recording head of the image output apparatus to record an image in accordance with supply of the first image data supplied from the foregoing image supply apparatus; and second control means which receives the instruction about the second image data and causes the recording head to record the second image data in accordance with the received instruction on a recording medium on which the first image data is recorded.
The first control means has means for subjecting the first image data to an image process prior to. transmitting the first image data to the recording head, and the second control means receives the first image data subjected to the image process and supplies the first image data to the recording head while adding the second image data in accordance with the instruction. Furthermore, the second control means has means for making the first image data to be blank in a portion in which the second image data is superposed.
An image output apparatus according to the present invention comprises: the aforesaid control apparatus; and recording head for recording an image on a recording medium.
A plurality of the recording heads may be provided to correspond to recording agents having different colors.
The recording head may be an ink jet printing head which uses ink as the printing agent and which emits ink. Furthermore, the ink jet printing head may have an element which generates heat energy which causes ink to generate film boiling as energy to be utilized to emit ink.
An image forming system according to the present invention comprises: the image supply apparatus; and the image output apparatus.
The system may be a printing system for printing an image on a cloth.
According to the present invention, the image supply apparatus has the means for designating the pattern, size, recording position, the color relating as the second image data such as a logotype mark. On the other hand, the control apparatus of the image output apparatus has a second control means for receiving the designation and controlling the operation of recording the first image data individually from the first control means for controlling the operation of recording the first image data. That is, since the second image data is independently controlled from the first image data, the second image data can be inserted as desired at a desired cycle by an operator regardless of the repetition cycle and the type of the repetition of the first image data. Furthermore, a designated area in which the second image data is inserted, is to be made blank immediately before the first image data is transmitted to the recording head, that is, after a desired image process has been completed. Therefore, the second image data can be printed as desired (for example, clearly) while being freed from influences of the process of various conversions.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an image output method and apparatus capable of efficiently outputting a geometrical repeated image data.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an image output method and apparatus which is capable of outputting image data of a large capacity using a small capacity of memory and with which the amount of image data process to be performed by the external equipment which generates the image data, can be reduced.
In order to achieve the aforesaid objects, an image output apparatus according to the present invention receives image data supplied from an external equipment and outputs the image data, the image output apparatus comprising: storage means for storing the image data supplied from the external equipment; designation means for designating an output format of the image data stored by the storage means; and control means for repeatedly outputting the image data stored by the storage means in accordance with the output format designated by the designating means.
In order to achieve the aforesaid objects, an image output method according to the present invention receives image data supplied from an external equipment and outputs the image data, the image output method comprising the steps of: receiving image data supplied from the external equipment and storing the image data; designating an output format of the stored image data; and
repeatedly outputting the stored image data in accordance with the output format.
The image data supplied from the external equipment is stored into the storage means, and the image data stored by the storage means can be repeatedly outputted in accordance with an output format when the output format of the image data stored by the storage means is designated.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus capable of varying an image by, for example rotation when the same image is repeatedly recorded in an image repeat method.
In order to achieve the aforesaid object, an image forming apparatus according to the present invention has an image repetition function for repeatedly recording an image that is contained in a designated area, on a predetermined position of a recording medium, the image output apparatus comprising: image storage means for storing image data; address generating means for generating an address for reading designated area of the image data stored by the image storage means, so as to be converted in a manner of rotation or a manner for forming a mirror image; and reading means for reading the image data from the image storage means in accordance with the address generated by the address generating means.
Furthermore, the addresses are so generated that a designated area of the image data stored by the image storage means is read from the image storage means. Furthermore, the addresses for reading the image data in the designated area are subjected to a predetermined process so that the image data in the designated area is converted, for example, rotated or formed into a mirror image.
Other and further objects, features and advantages of the invention will be appear more fully from the following description.

Image supply apparatus, image output apparatus, control apparatus therefor, and image forming apparatus incorporating them


A sterilant-disinfectant solution which may be used in the cleaning of metallic objects, particularly medical instruments. Medical instruments, which may included brass, copper, aluminium, stainless steel, carbon steel or plastic parts are sterilized or disinfected in an anti-microbial solution. The solution includes a triazole or other component for inhibiting the corrosion of copper or brass. Phosphates or other buffering agents adjust the solution pH in order to prevent the corrosion of steel. Molybdates or analogous compounds may be used to buffer the pH and have been found to inhibit the corrosion of aluminium by oxidizing agents. A sequestering agent is preferably provided for inhibiting hard water precipitation.

In medical diagnosis and therapy, open surgical operations are being replaced to an increasing extent by the use of endoscopes. However, flexible glass fibre endoscopes become massively infected with microorganisms which are present in body cavities, on the mucous membrane, and in the blood. Accordingly, used endoscopes have to be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected after each use.
Glass fibre endoscopes are extremely complicated precision instruments which have moving parts and which are made from a number of materials. They are extremely difficult to clean and disinfect for a number of reasons. Not only the outer surfaces of the instrument, but also the narrow bores present in the interior have to be cleaned and disinfected. In view of the sensitivity of the materials involved, cleaning and disinfection have to be performed in such a way that no residues of the preparation used remain on the treated surfaces of the instrument. The extremely effective process of thermal sterilization normally used for medical instruments cannot be applied to endoscopes because endoscopes are made partly of temperature-sensitive materials. Another factor to be taken into consideration is that many of the metal parts present are susceptible to corrosion. Finally, endoscopes should be able to be cleaned and disinfected in a short time so that they are always ready in good time for the treatment of the next patient.
While the process of the invention has particular application to endoscopes, the process can be used to clean and sterilize other surgical, medical, or dental devices and equipment, or in fact any equipment or devices having hard surfaces for any use where cleaning and disinfecting such hard surfaces is desired, particularly equipment and devices that cannot tolerate high temperature cleaning and sterilization.
Chlorine Dioxide As Sterilant
Chlorine dioxide is an extremely effective sterilant and bactericide, equal or superior to chlorine on a mass dosage basis. Its efficacy has been well documented in the laboratory, in pilot studies and in full-scale studies. Unlike chlorine, chlorine dioxide does not hydrolyse in water. Therefore, its germicidal activity is relatively constant over a broad pH range.
At pH 6.5, doses of 0.25 mg/l of chlorine dioxide and chlorine produce comparable one minute kill rates for the bacterium Escherichia coli. At pH 8.5, chlorine dioxide maintains the same kill rate, but chlorine requires five times as long. Thus, chlorine dioxide should be considered as a primary sterilant in high pH, lime-softened waters.
Chlorine dioxide has also been shown to be effective in killing other infectious bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella. Chlorine dioxide is as effective as chlorine in destroying coliform populations and is superior to chlorine in the treatment of commonly found viruses. In a test, Poliovirus 1 and a native coliphage were subjected to these two disinfectants. A 2 mg/l dose of chlorine dioxide produced a much lower survival rate than did a 10 mg/l dose of chlorine.
A sterilant must provide specified levels of microorganism kills or inactivations as measured by reductions of coliforms, heterotrophic plate count organisms and Legionella bacteria. Disinfection is currently defined by the Environmental Protection Agency to mean 99.9 per cent reduction in the Giardia lamblia cyst levels and 99.99 per cent reduction in enteric virus concentrations. Disinfection is expressed as a CT value (i.e. a function of Concentration.times.Contact Time). At the CT values necessary for chlorine dioxide to inactivate 99.9 per cent of Giardia lamblia cysts, the simultaneous inactivation of 99.99 per cent of enteric viruses is also assured.
Activating Acid
Although chloride dioxide has been found to be an excellent sterilant, it is difficult to use in direct form. In gaseous state, chloride dioxide is explosive and poisonous. Accordingly, sodium chlorite is used as a chloride dioxide-liberating material. Chloride dioxide may be liberated from the sodium chlorite (or any other suitable liberating material) by the addition of a suitable activating system, most usually an acid. Various inorganic and organic acids have been tested as activating systems. A description of the various acid systems which may be used is given in EP-A-0176558 (Alcide Corporation). Preferred acids are lactic acid, phosphoric acid, acetic acid, sorbic acid, ascorbic acid, phosphoric acid and hydrochloric acid. It is preferred that the acid should be present in an amount from 0.01 to 10% based on the total weight of the composition. Citric acid is a preferred acid for use in activation. Combinations of suitable acids may be used, e.g. a combination of sorbic, boric and citric acid. Such a combination is preferred as the sorbic and boric acid act not only as activators but also as bactericides in their own right. A higher "kill" is found than if using citric acid alone or in combination with, for example, lactic acid.
Corrosion Inhibition
Many liquid sterilization systems are highly corrosive to metal parts, particularly brass, copper, and aluminium, With long immersion times, even carbon steel and stainless steel could be pitted and sharp cutting edges dulled.
The use of a simple sodium chlorite/acid activator system as a sterilizer of various instruments leads to corrosion of metal parts, due to the aqueous basis of the system. The corrosion means that expensive instruments have a shortened lifetime.
A number of corrosion inhibitors are available and are well-known. However, if an oxidizing agent, for example chlorine dioxide, is to be used as the sterilizing agent, various problems must be overcome in selecting suitable inhibitors. The main problem is that the inhibitors must be effective in powerful oxidizing solutions where chloride ions are present. Furthermore, the inhibitors must be stable under long-term storage in acidic conditions, and must not react together to form deposits or harmful reaction products. The inhibitors should not present a health hazard, either when left in trace quantities on the sterilized instruments or prior to use.
The cleaning environment also produces special problems. The oxygen liberating agent is acidic. Because a number of different metals may be in the sterilizing tank at the same time, galvanic corrosion may be initiated. There is a need to overcome this.
In accordance with the present invention, a new and improved anti-microbial composition is provided which overcomes the over problems. An anti-microbial solution is provided which comprises an oxidizing anti-microbial agent, a copper and brass corrosion inhibitor and buffering agent, a wetting agent and sequestering agent.
The oxidizing anti-microbial agent can be selected from the class consisting of ozone, peracetic acid, organic peroxides, hydrogen peroxides, inorganic peroxides, and other oxygen releasing compounds, chlorine, chlorine dioxide, active chlorine releasing compounds such as chloramines, hypochlorites and phenol.
The copper and brass corrosion inhibitor is selected from the class consisting essentially of triazoles, azoles, benzoates, and five membered ring compounds. Triazoles, particularly benzotriazole and tolytriazole are preferred as being stable in the presence of strong oxidizing compounds. Benzotriazole is most preferred as it also helps to prevent galvanic corrosion in mixed metal systems. Mercaptobenzathiazol might also be utilized but may be destabilized by strong oxidizers. They might be present at 0.01 to 2.0 wt. % of the sterilizer system.
The aluminium and steel corrosion inhibitor and the buffering agent may be selected from the class consisting essentially of chromates, dichromates, borates, nitrates, phosphates, molybdates, vanadates and tungsdates. More specifically to the preferred embodiment, phosphates are preferred of inhibiting steel corrosion and buffering the solution. Molybdates are preferred for inhibiting aluminium corrosion and nitrates, particularly sodium nitrate, for inhibiting steel and ferric corrosion.
The anti-corrosive buffering compounds may include a mixture of phosphate in sufficient volume to produce a final concentration of 1.25 weight per Volume and molybdates in an appropriate amount to produce a final solution of 0.11% weight per volume. Phosphates may also be effective in the range of 0.2% to 12% and the molybdates may be effective from 0.1% to 10%. Optionally, chromates, dichromates, tungstates, vanadates, other borates, and combinations thereof may be substituted in appropriate concentrations to inhibit steel corrosions and aluminium corrosion.
Amines are often used as corrosion inhibitors. However, amine derivatives were rejected because of unpredictable film forming properties.
In hard water, calcium and magnesium salts can precipitate and coat the instruments being sterilized. A sequestering agent appropriate to prevent precipitation, such as sodium hexametaphosphate, may be provided; if deionized or soft water is utilized the sequestering agent may be eliminated. However, to ensure universal applicability with any water that might be utilized, the presence of a sequestering agent is preferred. It has been found that sodium citrate and trisodium phosphate also act as sequestering agents.
A wetting agent present from 0.1 to 100 wt. %, preferably 1.0 to 5.0 wt. %, improves the wetting of the surface of the instrument by the anti-microbial agent. The wetting agent has also been found to increase penetration of the anti-microbial improving anti-microbial efficacy while reducing corrosion. Defoamers and preservatives may also be included at levels of 0.01 to 1 wt. %.


A recording device for recording images of an underbody of a vehicle includes: at least one camera recording images of areas of the underbody; and mirrors situated to project images of the underbody into the at least one camera. The mirrors are situated in such a way that the mirrors project adjoining areas of the underbody transversely to the driving direction of the vehicle into the camera as image areas situated one above the other.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device and a method for recording images of a vehicle underbody.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various devices and methods are known for video-based recording of an object with a large surface area such as, for example, the underbody of a vehicle.
Devices for recording the underbody of a vehicle are known, for example, as recording systems at monitoring stations, entrances or on streets. In these recording systems, a general distinction may be made between mobile devices such as, for example, a camera fastened to a rod, and permanently installed devices.
Permanently installed devices are described in, among others, US Patent Application Publication 2006/170768 A1, international patent application publication WO 2006/059998 A, UK patent application publication GB 2271483 A, US Patent Application Publication 2003/0185340 A1, European patent application publication EP 1619625 A2 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,102,665 B1. In these recording systems, the underbody of a passing vehicle is visually recorded using a single camera or a series of cameras installed transversely to the driving direction.
Similar systems, in which the visual beam of the camera is directed to the underside of the vehicle with the aid of a mirror, are described, for example, in US Patent Application Publication 2008/0239079 A1, UK patent application publication GB-2258321 A and international patent application publication WO 2006/093478 A1.
German patent application publication DE 197 05 047 A1 describes a method and a device for measuring the tread depth of a motor vehicle tire. In this case the tread pattern of the motor vehicle tire is acted upon by laser light from a laser. The laser light produces a light spot on the tread surface of the motor vehicle tire. The light reflected from the tread pattern is detected by an image-resolving sensor. The image-resolving sensor in this case observes the position and/or the shape of the light spot. The signals of the image-resolving sensor are processed to produce output data in accordance with the tread depth. During measurement, the motor vehicle tire rotates, so that the measurement may be carried out at multiple points of the tread pattern.

Device and method for recording images of a vehicle underbody


The invention is directed to a method and an arrangement for monitoring the operation of a hydrocarbon sensor with which the sensor is monitored in a technically simple manner. The method and arrangement preferably utilize existing components of the motor vehicle. The heater power is continuously compared to a pregiven value. A sensor fault is signaled and the heater is shut off when the heater power and the pregiven value do not correspond to each other. The measured hydrocarbon value is compared to emission values to be expected for pregiven operating conditions and a sensor fault is signaled when the measured hydrocarbon value and the emission values do not correspond to each other.

High emissions of NO.sub.x occur in the exhaust gases in internal combustion engines which are driven with a high excess of air. This is especially true for internal combustion engines having direct injection into the combustion chamber. A reduction catalytic converter, for example, can be used for reducing these emissions. In order to reduce the NO.sub.x, fuel is metered in additionally forward of the catalytic converter. This additional fuel is converted in the catalytic converter.
Furthermore, the exhaust gases of internal combustion engines of this type are after-treated via oxidation catalytic converters. In this way, the hydrocarbon (HC) emissions are significantly reduced.
In the United States, there has for some time been the requirement for monitoring the vehicle components and to display possibly occurring faults utilizing on board diagnosis (OBD).
Catalytic converters of internal combustion engines must also be monitored in the context of this on board diagnosis.
This occurs, for example, with hydrocarbon sensors (HC sensors).
Hydrocarbon sensors of this type essentially include a heater resistor and the actual sensor element. A temperature suitable for the measuring effect is adjusted with the aid of the heater resistor. It is necessary to measure the temperature because the temperature is to be adjusted via control. This takes place, for example, via the measurement of the internal resistance of the sensor element. This measurement is carried out with alternating current so that the direct-voltage signal of the probe remains essentially unaffected.
Such a temperature measurement is disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,419,190 incorporated herein by reference.
Hydrocarbon sensors of this kind are used for monitoring and controlling exhaust-gas relevant components such as catalytic converters and/or metering pumps. For this reason, their function must also be monitored. If the sensor is defective, then, for example, the additional metering of fuel, which is dependent upon hydrocarbon emissions, must be switched off for an NO.sub.x catalytic converter.

Method and arrangement for monitoring the operation of a hydrocarbon sensor for an internal combustion engine


An adsorbent for carbon dioxide may include a composite metal oxide including a divalent first metal (M1), a trivalent second metal (M2), and an element (A) with an electronegativity of about 2.0 to about 4.0. The composite metal oxide may have an amorphous structure. A method of manufacturing the adsorbent for carbon dioxide and a capture module for carbon dioxide including the adsorbent for carbon dioxide are also disclosed.

1. Field
An adsorbent for carbon dioxide, a method of preparing the same, and a capture module for carbon dioxide including the same are disclosed.
2. Description of the Related Art
As fossil fuels are increasingly used, more carbon dioxide (which is known to have a serious influence on global warming of the earth) is emitted into the air. Accordingly, research has been undertaken on removal of carbon dioxide from flue gas generated when fossil fuels are combusted, syngas generated when a coal is gasificated, and fuel gas generated when natural gas is reformed.
The removal of carbon dioxide from flue gas may be performed in a wet chemical absorption method, a dry chemical absorption method, an adsorption method, a membrane separation method, and the like. However, in order to capture a relatively large amount of carbon dioxide from flue gas, an adsorbent having a relatively high adsorption performance is required.
In general, an adsorbent may be classified as an adsorbent for a low temperature (0° C. to room temperature) such as MOF (metal organic framework)/ZIF (zeolitic-imidazolate framework), zeolite, carbon, and the like, an adsorbent for a middle temperature (about 150 to about 400° C.) such as hydrotalcite and the like, and an adsorbent for a high temperature (greater than or equal to about 500° C.). These adsorbents have problems of complexity of process and additional costs, since flue gas discharged after combustion should be cooled or heated. Accordingly, development of an adsorbent having a relatively high adsorption performance at a temperature ranging from about 150 to about 400° C. at which carbon dioxide is adsorbed from flue gas is required.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Adsorbent for carbon dioxide, method of preparing the same, and capture module for carbon dioxide


An apparatus and an associated method for facilitating selection of CODEC availability from amongst a set of CODECs at a communication device. A battery power measurer measures the stored energy level of a battery power supply that powers a communication device of which the CODEC forms a portion. A selector selects the available CODECs responsive to the measured power level. If the measured level is less than a threshold, then high-sampling-rate CODECs are at least selectably made unavailable for use. If the battery level is higher than the threshold, then the high-sampling-rate CODECs are made available for use. If the level is greater than a threshold then both a high sampling-rate and the low sampling-rate CODEC are available. An indication generator generates an indication of selection made by the selector.

Recent years have witnessed the introduction and commercial deployment of a wide variety of communication systems and communication devices operable therein. Many varied communication services are able to be performed by way of communication systems. And, as additional advancements in communication technology shall likely continue to be made, yet more communication systems, providing yet more communication services, shall likely become available.
A cellular communication system is exemplary of a communication system that utilizes advancements in communication technologies and that, in significant part, has been made possible as a result of such advancements. Successive generations of cellular communication systems, and systems that exhibit some of the characteristics of cellular communication systems, have been developed and deployed. Newer-generation systems generally utilize digital communication techniques, oftentimes employing data coding functions. When speech data is communicated, i.e., a voice call forms the communication service, speech coding, and subsequent decoding, is oftentimes performed. The speech coding, and corresponding decoding, is performed using a CODEC (COder-DECoder) that operates to encode a stream of voice data into coded form. The coding of the voice data typically compresses the data, removing redundancies therefrom. And, decoding operations of the CODEC operate in reverse manner, that is to convert a compressed stream of data and to decompress the compressed stream.
An operational characteristic of a speech CODEC is its sampling rate. A CODEC that operates at a higher sampling rate generally provides better performance than a CODEC that operates at a low sampling rate. That is to say, if a CODEC operates at a high sampling rate, the voice quality of communicated voice data, once received and decoded is generally superior than when a CODEC operates at a lower sampling rate.
Various communication standards define the operational requirements of CODECs. For example, a 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) operating specification pertaining to speech CODECs defines standard parameters for an AMR (Adapted Multi-Rate) CODEC and an AMR-WB (Adapted Multi-Rate Wide Band) speech CODEC. An AMR speech CODEC is operated at an 8 kHz sampling rate, and an AMR-WB speech CODEC is operated at a 16 kHz sampling rate. In other communication systems, defined by other operating standards, analogous CODEC operating parameters are analogously defined.
While a CODEC operated at a higher sampling rate generally provides improved voice quality, such higher-rate CODECs require increased computational complexities, viz., higher CPU loads. For instance, when the CPU load is quantified in terms of WMOPS (Weighted Million Operations Per Second), the higher-rate, AMR-WB CODEC requires 38.9 WMOPS as contrasted to 16.8 WMOPS for the lower-rate AMR. The CPU load for the higher-rate CODEC operation is 130% greater than the CPU load of the lower-rate operation, largely due to the doubling of the sampling rate.
Additionally, if the higher rate is used in all processing algorithms of a communication station, including, e.g., acoustic echo cancellation, dynamic range controller, noise suppression, and post filtering, the CPU loading associated with running of these additional audio processing algorithms would result in an analogous increase in the CPU load required for their operation.
Due to the increased processing requirement, the operation of a communication station using a CODEC that operates at the higher sampling rate is significantly more power-consumptive than operation of the communication station at the lower sampling rate. If the communication station is operated using the higher-sampling rate CODEC when the battery level is low, a call is more likely to be abruptly terminated due to lack of power than if the communication station is operated using the lower sampling-rate CODEC. And, in contrast, due to the lesser processing requirement when operating the lower sampling rate CODEC, a lengthier period of usability of the communication station is possible.
If a manner could be provided by which to take into account the battery level of a battery power supply that powers a communication station when selecting which CODEC to use, improved operability of the communication station would be possible.
It is in light of this information related to coding and decoding of data that the significant improvements of the present disclosure have evolved.

Apparatus, and associated method, for selecting speech COder operational rates


There is disclosed in embodiments methods relating to the compression of printing hints. The method in embodiments generates a first set of image pixels having corresponding printing hints. The printing hints are then adjusted to produce a second set of image pixels processed in such a way that an end printed result is visually equivalent to a printed result using the first set of image pixels thereby reducing the entropy in the printing hints. The method improves the compression ratio of an image using printing hints by adjusting the printing hints of pixels that are zero or fully saturated. The printing hints are adjusted in such a way to reduce the complexity of the printing hints.

1. Technical Field
The present invention in embodiments relates generally to data compression and decompression and, more particularly, to devices and method for the compression of printing hints by processing saturated pixels with different rendering hint values in a very similar manner; for example, similar enough to be indistinguishable by the eye.
2. References
Digital color imaging on high-resolution printers such as xerographic printers requires the handling of large amounts of video data for each page. The color image for each page is typically represented as a set of four color planes, usually cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. Each color plane is a set of scanlines and each scanline is a sequence of individual image pixels.
The image quality can be improved using object optimized printing as described by Motamed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,687,303. With object optimized printing, printing hints in the form of metabits are generated for each image pixel and sent to an IOT (Image Output Terminal). The printing hints, which are utilized by a CRM (Contone Rendering Module) within the printer, can optimize such processing subsystems as halftone generation, halftone screen size and angle, color space transformation, tone reproduction curve, IOT output correction, and the like.
The printing hints may improve the quality of the printed output; however, they also may increase that amount of data required to represent the color images. It is often desirable to reduce the size of the color images and printing hints to reduce the amount of solid state memory required to buffer the images, reduce the amount of disk space to store the images, and speed up transfer of the images within the printing system. This may be accomplished by compressing the page images and printing hints after they are generated and decompressing them immediately before they are needed for printing.
There are a number of different compression schemes to reduce the size of the page images. One such method is to use the lossy or lossless JPEG compression standard. Better compression can be achieved with more complex algorithms. The printing hints should be compressed using a lossless algorithm such as run length coding or a lossless adaptive dictionary-based coding such as described by Eastman in U.S. Pat. No. 4,464,650.
The compressed size of the printing hints is dependent on the lossless compression algorithm used and the complexity of the printing hints. The compressed size of the printing hints can be reduced by reducing the complexity of the printing hints.

Method for compressing printing hint data sent to a printer


Audio and/or video content is remotely stored. A portion of the remotely stored content is transferred to and stored in a mobile on-demand audio and/or video content output device. In addition, a link is transferred to and stored in the mobile output device. The link is associated with the content portion stored in the output device and points to another portion of the remotely stored content that is related to the content portion locally stored on the mobile device. In response to a user command entered on the mobile device, the related portion of the remotely stored content is accessed using a two-way wireless communications system and is transferred from the database to the mobile device for output.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention is related to audio/video-on-demand systems, and more particularly to an audio/video-on-demand system in which a portion of content in a remote database is locally stored in an audio/video-on-demand receiver and additional content in the database that is related to the locally stored content portion is accessed by the receiver.
2. Related Art
Portable devices with the ability to play audio or video information (xe2x80x9ccontentxe2x80x9d) that is locally stored in semiconductor memory are well known (e.g., MP3 audio players, portable computers, and personal digital assistants (PDAs)). Typically the content must be transferred to the device from a separate digital source before the content can be output to the device user. Such digital sources include local, portable sources (e.g., compact disc (CD), digital video disc (DVD), SmartCard(copyright), etc.) or remote sources (e.g., personal computers (PCs) or a computer acting as a server). These content sources are connected to the device via either a wired communications system (e.g., plain old telephone system (POTS), digital subscriber line (DSL), optical cable connection to the Internet (network of interconnected networks having an origin in research by the United States Advanced Research Project Agency)) or via a wireless communications system (e.g., terrestrial/satellite broadcast systems, cellular communications systems, fixed wireless or satellite connections to the Internet). In either case, the user selects the audio or video content to be transferred to and locally stored in the device for later output (playback). Once transfer of audio or video content has been completed, however, the locally stored content typically cannot be modified or updated. Also, additional information that is related to the locally stored content cannot be accessed after the initial transfer.
TABLE 1 presents the characteristics of several popular content consumption devices.
Audio/video-on-demand systems broadcast content (e.g., information and entertainment programs such as news, music, financial information, traffic reports) to system users. The broadcast content is selectively received (captured) by and locally stored in mobile receivers (e.g., produced by Command Audio Corporation of Redwood City, California) for subsequent output (playback) to the human user. Information regarding audio/video-on-demand systems is found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,406,626, 5,524,051, 5,571,806, and 5,590,195, each incorporated herein by reference. Additional information is found in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/454,901, entitled xe2x80x9cWireless Software And Configuration Parameter Modification For Mobile Electronic Devicesxe2x80x9d by Edward J. Costello et al., which is incorporated herein by reference. Although such on-demand systems allow the user to select audio or video content in an on-demand fashion, the receivers in such systems have limited memory capacity. The content stored in the remote database is typically many times (tens, hundreds, or thousands of times) larger than the receiver""s local memory storage capacity.
For certain kinds of time-sensitive audio or video information, it is desirable to receive updates to the locally stored content. Further, it is desirable to be able to access additional information that is related to the locally stored content. In addition, it is desirable to indicate to the user when related additional audio or video content is available during playback of locally stored content.
Content is remotely stored in a database. A portion of the remotely stored content is transferred to and locally stored in a mobile electronic audio/video-on-demand device. In addition, a link is transferred to and locally stored in the on-demand device. The link is associated with the locally stored content and also points to a portion of the remotely stored content that is related to the locally stored content. In some instances multiple links are associated with the locally stored content, and each unique associated link points to a unique portion of the remotely stored content. Multiple links are used in some embodiments for targeting user demographics in, for example, advertising.
An indication (audible, visual) is provided to the on-demand device user that a link is stored. In response to the user""s command (manual, verbal), the link is used to generate a request to access the related, remotely stored content. In alternate embodiments the request is automatically generated. The request is sent by the on-demand device via a two-way wireless communications system to a content access manager that is electrically coupled to the database. The accessed remotely stored content is then transferred by the access manager via the two-way communications system to the on-demand device for output. In some embodiments the output is immediate. In other embodiments the output is delayed.

Distributed media on-demand information service


A resistance welding method in which a welding current is passed through a welding portion of a material to be welded in a condition that the welding portion is put in between a pair of electrodes, so that the welding portion is fused and welded by use of the resistance heating caused by conduction of the welding current under pressure applied between the pair of electrodes, characterized by comprising the steps of: measuring a welding width of the welding portion by the width measurement unit; calculating a reference welding height of the welding portion from the measured welding width on the basis of a predetermined reference welding sectional area of the welding portion; passing the welding current through the welding portion until the height of the welding portion reaches the calculated reference welding height; and displaying current-conduction time from the start to end of conduction of the welding current on the display unit.

The present invention relates to a resistance welding method in which, for example, a strand composed of twisted wires of one electric cable and a strand composed of twisted wires of the other electric cable are put on one another and pressed between a pair of electrodes, and a large current is passed through the strands for a short time to utilize resistance heating caused by the current conduction to thereby perform resistance welding, and an apparatus for use in such a method. Particularly, the present invention relates to a resistance welding method in which the resistance welding state of respective strands of the pair of electric cables is monitored so that the state of the respective strands before resistance welding can be detected as to whether the state is good or not, and an apparatus for use in such a method.
As such a type of resistance apparatus, there is an apparatus of an AC thyristor system shown in FIG. 11(a). The resistance welding apparatus 1, which performs resistance welding on strands 31 and 31' put one on the other, as materials to be welded, of a pair of electrically insulating coated electric cables 30 and 30' (hereinafter simply referred to as "cables"), has a box-like apparatus body 2 which is substantially U-shaped in side view. A cable-setting jig 3 is disposed in the center of the apparatus body 2. An air cylinder 4 is attached to the upper front of the apparatus body 2. A pair of upper and lower electrodes 5A and 5B, which serve to pass a welding current through a welding portion of the strands 31 and 31' and also serve to apply a predetermined amount of pressure to the welding portion, are provided below the air cylinder 4, and the cable-setting jig 3 respectively.
The upper electrode 5A is connected to a piston rod 4a of the air cylinder 4 through an electrode holder 6 so as to move vertically. Further, the upper electrode 5A is also connected, through an ounce copper plate 8, to a welding transformer (electric source) 7 which serves to supply a welding current. Further, the lower electrode 5B is fixed to the center portion of the apparatus body 2 and connected to the welding transformer 7. The welding transformer 7 is connected to a welding timer 9 which serves to set the current value and current-conduction time of the welding current. An electromagnetic valve 4A of the air cylinder 4 is opened/closed on the basis of conduction-start and conduction-end signals obtained from the welding timer 9. Incidentally, each of the electrodes (electrode tips) 5A and 5B is constituted by a columnar chromium-copper matter 5a and a rectangular tungsten tip 5b.
The step of performing resistance welding of the strands 31 and 31' of the pair of cables 30 and 30', which are put on one another by means of the AC thyristor system resistance welding apparatus 1 as shown in FIG. 12 will be described with reference to a flow chart shown in FIG. 13. First, after the exposed strands 31 and 31' of the pair of cables 30 and 30' are put in between the pair of electrodes 5A and 5B through the cable-setting jig 3, a start input switch 9A is turned on so that the welding timer 9 starts (step S1). As a result, the electromagnetic valve 4A is opened and the upper electrode 5A is moved down by the air cylinder 4. After completion of initial pressure application to the strands 31 and 31' between the pair of electrodes 5A and 5B (step S2), a welding current is passed between the pair of electrodes 5A and 5B alternately upward and downward by the welding transformer 7 (step S3). The welding current is passed for the current-conduction time which is set (fixed) in advance. Resistance heating caused by the conduction of the welding current is utilized so that the strands 31 and 31' is subjected to thermo-compression bonding. After resistance welding, the current conduction is stopped (step S4). Then, cooling is performed while the pressure application state between the pair of electrodes 5A and 5B is held for a predetermined time (step S5). The operation for the steps S2 to S5 is carried out automatically under the sequence control of the welding timer 9. Then, when the pressurized state is canceled, the resistance welding is completed (step S6). Incidentally, a similar technique is disclosed in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. Hei. 5-329661.
In the conventional resistance welding apparatus 1, however, the current-conduction time of the welding current was fixed to a predetermined value under the constant-current control by means of a combination of the welding transformer 7 and the welding timer 9. Accordingly, when the secondary resistance value of the pair of electrodes 5A and 5B changed, the amount of heating also changed. Accordingly, the welding state such as welding strength, or the like, of the strands 31 and 31' composed of twisted wires varied easily, so that it was difficult to stabilize welding quality. Particularly in the case where there was such a defect, before resistance welding, that the strand 31' of one cable 30' was drawn relative to the strand 31 of the other cable 30 as shown in FIG. 14, there was shortage or excess of the quantity of the strand of one cable relative to that of the other cable, there was breaking of the strand, there was a difference in cable size, etc., scattering was apt to be generated in the welding quality after resistance welding. To prevent such scattering in welding quality after resistance welding, the state of the strands 31 and 31' before resistance welding must be detected whether the state is good or not. It is, however, impossible to detect the state by a simple method and apparatus.

Resistance welding method and apparatus used in the method


Image processing method for a digital medical examination image, the pixels of which are assigned a gray-scale value in each instance, with a minimum and a maximum gray-scale value being defined as limit values for the purpose of displaying the examination image, with the pixels being subjected to an evaluation by means of a neural network, in order to determine such pixels and to disregard them when defining the gray-scale values which are located in a direct radiation region or in a projected collimator region.

Digital medical examination images which require computed image processing are generated by medical examination methods such as computer tomography, magnetic resonance, ultrasound, methods of nuclear medicine for example, and also increasingly by digital x-ray methods. For this purpose, these complex method steps serve to optimally display the information content of the examination images which is significant for the diagnosis. There is thus a demand for automatic methods which ensure that the examination image or an image series is optimally displayed without further user intervention. A central problem with the image display is the definition of the minimum and the maximum gray-scale value of the pixels. The average level (level) and the contrast (window) can also be defined instead of the extreme values. However, the definition of the gray-scale values and/or the definition of the level and window are critical. Image information is lost if the window is selected too narrow, or the level is not optimal, and if the window is selected too wide the contrast of the examination image is too low and the details are thus more difficult to recognize.

Neural network based method for displaying an examination image with normalized grayscale values


Systems and methods for providing illumination to illuminable portions of keys associated with a keyboard are described. A key disposed on a flexible substrate includes a light guide positioned below a keycap. The light guide includes one or more light extraction features to produce a substantially uniform light distribution of light from a light emitting element at an illuminable portion of the key. In one embodiment, a light emitting element is positioned on the flexible substrate and is optically coupled to the light guide. In another embodiment, a light emitting element is positioned below the flexible substrate and is optically coupled to the light guide via an optical interface.

Electronic devices can receive user input from a keyboard, some keys of which may be illuminable and thus visible to a user in dimly-lit environments. Using some traditional techniques, it may be difficult to produce a uniform or consistent illumination for symbols or glyphs, which may vary in size and shape for different keys. Furthermore, uniform illumination may be further complicated by the presence of various components within the keyboard including, key mechanisms, key webs, and other structural components. The embodiments described herein may be used to improve to quality and uniformity of illuminated keys for a keyboard.

Uniform illumination of keys on a flexible substrate


A system for Internet connections, which connects a user terminal to a network. The system generally comprises a section for relaying a network connection from a user through an access point, a monitoring section for monitoring the network connection from the user through the access point, and a network connection fee calculation section for calculating a network connection fee for the user based on a monitoring result of the monitoring unit. The connection fee calculation section comprises a line connection fee calculation section for calculating a line connection fee for a line connection made by the user to the access point based on user signal source information, which is provided from a telephone company, and a charge amount calculation section for calculating a charge amount for the user based on the line connection fee, calculated by the line connection fee calculation section.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for Internet connections, which is operated by an Internet service provider which is not a telephone company, for performing billing processing as well as providing users with network connection services. The present invention particularly relates to a system for Internet connections using a collect call line.
2. Description of the Related Art
To this date, when an individual connects to the Internet, he/she generally uses a dial-up connection through an access point (AP) of an Internet service provider.
For a usual dial-up connection, two charges are incurred for a user: a telephone fee from a telephone company according to a telephone line connection time, and an Internet connection fee from an Internet service provider. If an owner of an Internet connection ID and a contractant of a telephone line are different, the Internet connection fee is charged to the owner of the Internet connection ID, and the telephone fee is charged to the contractant of the telephone line.
As opposed to the above, there is an Internet connection for which the telephone fee is charged to a collect call telephone line (toll-free number line and the like). Such a connection service has an advantage that the above two charges, the line connection fee and the Internet connection fee are combined rather than separated from each other.
Incidentally, an Internet service provider which uses a conventional collect call telephone line for Internet connections must pay the telephone fee to the telephone company while billing users for the Internet connection fee.
Under existing circumstances, the Internet service provider does not calculate the line connection fee and applies a fixed rate which includes the line connection fee to the Internet connection fee. In this type of billing, an actual line connection fee and the telephone fee charged from the telephone company to this Internet service provider are unrelated with each other. As a result, the Internet service provider has a tendency to set a considerably overvalued fee as the Internet connection fee.
In other words, when a dial-up connection is made by a user calling from a location distant from the access point, the Internet service provider, as a collect call recipient, has to pay more expensive line connection fee to the telephone company than for a user calling from a location near the access point. In order to balance the above difference with a fixed rate, the Internet service provider must bill an overvalued Internet connection fee for dial-up connections even from nearby locations.

System for internet connections, method for calculating connection fees for network connection services, billing system for network connection services, and system for network connection management


The present invention provides novel process for the preparation of renin inhibitor Aliskiren or its derivatives, and its pharmaceutically acceptable salts. The present invention also provides novel intermediates used in the preparation of Aliskiren.

Aliskiren, (2S,4S,5S,7S)—N-(2-carbamoyl-2-methylpropyl)-5-amino-4-hydroxy-2,7-diisopropyl-8-[4-methoxy-3-(3-methoxypropoxy)phenyl]octanamide having the Formula-I, a new antihypertensive has been developed which interferes with the renin-angiotensin system at the beginning of angiotensin II biosynthesis.

Aliskiren is marketed by Novartis as TEKTURNA® in the form of its hemifumarate salt in a once-daily formulation. More recently Aliskiren is also formulated as combination with other API.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,559,111 discloses Aliskiren and related compounds along with the different approaches for the synthesis of Aliskiren.
Further U.S. Pat. No. 7,132,569, U.S. Pat. No. 7,009,078, U.S. Pat. No. 6,730,798 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,800,769 claims novel intermediates used in the preparation of Aliskiren and process for the preparation of Aliskiren, which are incorporated here for reference.
As the compound comprises, 4 chiral carbon atoms, the synthesis of the enantiomerically pure compound is quite demanding. Therefore, novel routes of synthesis needed for the preparation of Aliskiren.
The present invention provides novel intermediates used in the preparation of Aliskiren and process for the preparation of Aliskiren.


A substrate structure for an integrated circuit package. The substrate is electrically connected to a circuit board and an integrated circuit. The substrate includes a plurality of metal sheets and glue. The metal sheets are arranged opposite to each other. Each of the metal sheets includes a first surface and a second surface. The glue is used for sealing the plurality of metal sheet to form the substrate. The first surfaces and second surfaces of the metal sheets are exposed to the outside of the glue so as to form a plurality of signal input terminals for electrically connecting to the integrated circuit and a plurality of signal output terminals for electrically connecting to the circuit board. Thus, the signal output terminals of the metal sheets can be electrically connected to the circuit board smoothly. Furthermore, the signal transmission distance between the integrated circuit and the circuit board can be shortened so that better signal transmission effect can be obtained. A method for manufacturing the substrate is also disclosed.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a substrate structure of an integrated circuit package, in particular, to an integrated circuit package that is capable of shortening the signal transmission distances and effectively transmitting the signals to the circuit board.
2. Description of the Related Art
A general substrate for the integrated circuit package includes an integrated circuit provided thereon. The integrated circuit is electrically connected to the substrate by way of wire bonding. Then, the substrate is mounted on the circuit board for the signals from the integrated circuit to be transmitted to the circuit board.
It is necessary for the substrate to have signal input terminals and signal output terminals. After the substrate is electrically connected to the integrated circuit, the signals from the integrated circuit are transmitted to the signal input terminals of the substrate. Then, the signals are transmitted from the signal output terminals of the substrate to the circuit board. Therefore, the shorter the distances between the signal input terminals of the substrate and the signal output terminals are, the better signal transmission effect is. On the contrary, the longer the distances between the signal input terminals of the substrate and the signal output terminals are, the worse signal transmission effect is.
On the conventional substrate of the integrated circuit package is provided with a -shaped metal sheet serving as a signal input terminal and a signal output terminal of the substrate. The integrated circuit is electrically connected to the signal input terminal on one end of the -shaped metal sheet, while the signal output terminal on another end of the metal sheet is electrically connected to the circuit board. Thus, the signal transmission distance of the substrate is quite long, thereby influencing the signal transmission effect of the integrated circuit.
Moreover, when manufacturing the -shaped metal sheet, it is not easy to obtain smooth signal output terminals. In this case, when performing the signal transmission between the metal sheet and the circuit board, the signal transmission effect is not good. Thus, both the yield and the reliability of the integrated circuit package are influenced.
In order to overcome the above-mentioned problems, a substrate structure of an integrated circuit package and a method for manufacturing the same is provided so as to improve the signal transmission effect of the integrated circuit and the yield and reliability of the integrated circuit package.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a substrate for the integrated circuit package and a method for manufacturing the same, in order to shorten the signal transmission distance between the integrated circuit and the circuit board and improve the signal transmission effect.
It is therefore another object of the invention to provide a substrate for the integrated circuit package and a method for manufacturing the same, in order to make the substrate effectively contact with the integrated circuit package and improve the signal transmission effect.
According to one aspect of the invention, a substrate structure for an integrated circuit package is provided. The substrate is electrically connected to a circuit board and an integrated circuit. The substrate includes a plurality of metal sheets and glue. The metal sheets are arranged opposite to each other. Each of the metal sheets includes a first surface and a second surface. The glue is used for sealing the plurality of metal sheet to form the substrate. The first surfaces and second surfaces of the metal sheets are exposed to the outside of the glue so as to form a plurality of signal input terminals for electrically connecting to the integrated circuit and a plurality of signal output terminals for electrically connecting to the circuit board.
According to another aspect of the invention, a method for manufacturing a substrate structure for an integrated circuit package including the steps of: arranging a plurality of metal sheets, each of which having a first surface and a second surface, into a mold, the plurality of metal sheets being arranged opposite to each other; pouring glue into the mold for sealing the plurality of metal sheets to form the substrate, the first surfaces and second surfaces of the metal sheets being exposed to the outside of the glue to form a plurality of signal input terminals and signal output terminals of the substrate; and taking the substrate out of the mold.
According to the structure and method of the invention, the signal output terminals of the metal sheets can be electrically connected to the circuit board smoothly. Furthermore, the signal transmission distance between the integrated circuit and the circuit board can be shortened so that better signal transmission effect can be obtained.

Substrate structure for an integrated circuit package and method for manufacturing the same


A hybrid golf club shaft set is provided that includes at least two of the group including a composite shaft subset including shafts formed entirely of composite, a composite/metal shaft subset including shafts formed of composite/metal combination shafts, and a metal shaft subset including shafts formed entirely of metal.

Two types of shafts dominate the golf club shaft market. The first type of shaft is made entirely of metal such as high strength alloy steel. The second type of shaft is made entirely of a composite such as graphite.
Metal shafts are generally regarded as being relatively heavy but provide high torsional stiffness. This results in a playability which yields accurate ball control and good feel but may limit club head speed and hence distance. It can also be made difficult to obtain a high tip flexibility with metal shafts compared to composite shafts which can compromise ball trajectory.
Composite shafts are generally regarded as being relatively light with more flexible tips which can result in a playability which yields higher club head speed and more distance as well as a higher ball trajectory. However, because composite shafts are not very torsionally stiff, composite shafts are also regarded as being somewhat limited in terms of accurate ball control and feel.
To take advantage of the separate benefits of metal and composite shafts while minimizing their deficiencies, a multiple material golf club shaft has recently been introduced to the market. A multiple material shaft is made partially of metal and partially of composite. In other words, a first portion of the shaft is formed of metal, a second portion of the shaft is made of composite, and the two portions are coupled together.
Multiple material shafts are generally regarded as being light weight and resistant to torque. This enables the generation of more club head speed than an all metal shaft and with better accuracy than an all composite shaft. Because club head speed is highly desirable for long irons with low lofts, and accuracy is highly desirable for short irons with high lofts, and a compromise of club head speed and accuracy is highly desirable for middle irons with medium lofts, it would be desirable to provide a golf club set which maximizes these shaft characteristics across the set.