A picture frame is provided including a frame and a backing. The picture frame includes a plurality of side members which are coupled to each other to define a picture receiving region. Each side member has a flange and an interior wall. The flange is located at a front face of the frame and projects into the picture receiving region. The flange has a back surface which is perpendicular to the interior wall. The backing removably retains a picture in the picture receiving region. The picture frame further includes at least one flexible tab extending generally perpendicularly from the interior wall of at least one side member. The tab retains the backing in the frame and is spaced apart from the back surface of the flange by a distance at least equal to a thickness of the backing. When the backing is inserted into the frame, each tab bends towards the flange to allow the backing to pass by.

The present invention relates generally to picture frames. More specifically, the present invention relates to a structure which enables the contents of a picture frame, including a picture, transparent cover and backing, to be inserted from the back of the picture frame and retained in the frame.
Picture frames provide decorative and protective enclosures for works of art such as photographs and paintings. A conventional picture frame includes a frame defining an interior region which receives and encloses the contents of the frame. The frame may be made of any rigid material including wooden, metal, plastic and ceramic materials. The picture frame also includes a transparent glass or plastic cover for protecting the art work, and filler material for accommodating art work of varying thicknesses. In addition, the picture frame includes a backing for retaining the cover and art work in the frame.
Various mechanisms have been used to secure backings onto picture frames. For example, nails and adhesives provide permanently assembled picture frames. Other less permanent, mechanical fasteners which enable works of art to be removed or replaced include flexible hooks, rotatable retaining clips, and spring loaded clips.
Currently available mechanisms for securing the backings of picture frames have several drawbacks. Nails and adhesives make it difficult to remove or replace art work already framed, since additional nails or adhesives are needed to reattach the backing to the frame. In addition, assembly time is longer for those picture frames with fasteners, such as screws, since they require a tool, and the tool is generally applied to one fastener at a time. In addition to increasing assembly time, mechanical fasteners increase manufacturing costs.
One attempt to eliminate mechanical fasteners from picture frames includes a unitary frame made of vulcanized rubber having a plurality of flaps, one along each back edge of the picture frame. Each flap is separated from the main body of the frame by a slot which enables the flap to be turned back from the frame. While the picture frame eliminates the need for mechanical fasteners, it is cumbersome to use. Each flap must be turned back individually, or all four flaps held simultaneously, in order for a picture to be placed in the frame. In addition, the slots which permit the flaps to be turned back may be subject to tearing.
Another attempt provides for a picture frame having side frame members with a hingedly connected flap. The flaps extend into the picture receiving region of the frame and are biased toward the front of the frame, thereby retaining and urging the cover and backing sheet in the frame. Like the previously mentioned picture frame, this one also requires that the flaps be moved out of the picture receiving region to enable the user to insert a picture.
There is a need for an improved picture frame that does not require any mechanical fasteners and is easy to assemble. There is also a need for a picture frame that is inexpensive to manufacture. Finally, there is a need for a durable picture frame that can accommodate works of art of varying thicknesses.


A recharge sleeve for use with a spray dispenser device, made of a matrix comprises an absorptive material impregnated with a chemical composition that dissolves in solution created when the sleeve is contacted with a diluent fluid such as water. The recharge sleeve is elongated in shape with a center opening parallel to the long edges of the sleeve for mounting on the diptube of the spray dispenser device. A conically shaped retainer formed of rigid plastic is attached or provided for attachment to the lower end of the diptube for stabilizing the diptube and retaining the recharge sleeve clear of the bottom of the retainer after the sleeve has been applied to the diptube. When of the spray dispenser device is sealed and the spray dispenser device is shaken, the fluid penetrates into the matrix material, and the chemical composition dissolves in the fluid creating a cleaning, sanitizing, or disinfectant solution that will remain stable and fully active in use.

Due to regulations curtailing the use of aerosol dispensers for chemical reagents that discharge foaming or pressurized gases or hydrocarbons into the atmosphere, the use of spray bottles that are manually pumped has become widespread. The typical spray bottle dispenser consists of a plastic container holding fluid with chemical reagent dissolved therein, which is sealed by a threaded cap mounting a sprayhead from which a diptube projects and extends downwardly into the body of the container. When the user operates a trigger on the sprayhead, the contents of the diptube are pumped up into the sprayhead and sprayed out from a directional orifice or nozzle.
Many vendors sell separately bottles of fluid for refilling the spray dispenser bottle, or for transferring the sprayhead thereto when the contents of the first-purchased dispenser bottle are used up, so that the sprayhead and bottle can be reused. Often, the refill bottles contain a large volume of fluid so that the original dispenser bottle can be refilled several times before another refill bottle needs to be purchased.
This widely used type of spray dispenser system has associated therewith several problems which the present invention seeks to eliminate. One problem is that the refill bottles take up a large volume which incurs additional shipping costs, storage costs, and demand for shelf space. Another problem is that a refill bottle must be sold for the specific types of fluid it is intended as a refill. Thus, if a vendor sells different formulations of the same cleaner (ordinary cleaning, high strength) or different types of cleaners under the same product name (lemon-scented, disinfecting, kitchen/bath tile cleaner), then a refill bottle must be sold for each grade and type of fluid.
A further problem is that pouring fluid from the refill bottle can incur spills or require potentially hazardous handling of caustic or toxic fluids. On the other hand, if the fluids must be made in very dilute concentrations for public safety in handling, then the cleaning ability or effectiveness of the product may be compromised. The refill bottles themselves are discarded after use, thus adding to plastic pollution and landfill waste.
There have been various proposals for providing a rechargeable insert holding chemical in concentrated form which can be used with a spray dispenser system. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,655,096, 3,966,089, 4,088,246, and 5,421,483 show a capsule or cartridge holding concentrated material which is secured in the neck of the bottle and released by threading the sealing cap or a ring nut against it to puncture its bottom walls against a sharp element or to squeeze the concentrate out. These types of puncturable or burstable cartridge systems are costly to fabricate, complicated to operate, and potentially hazardous if a problem occurs and the user must open the container and reposition or remove a failed cartridge.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,529,216 shows another rechargeable spray dispenser system in which an elongated insert having one or more concentrate-containing compartments is inserted in the bottle, and a sharp end of the diptube is used to puncture through upper and/or lower sealing membranes in order to release the concentrate into the diluent fluid (water) filled into the bottle. However, this type of recharge insert must be purchased with a sharp diptube, and cannot be used with an existing or currently marketed spray dispenser bottle that has a blunt diptube. Moreover, the sealing walls must be punctured by the user manipulating the diptube while the container is open, thereby presenting a risk that concentrate will be ejected under the pressure applied to the sealing walls back at the user.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,540,109 discloses a rechargeable spray bottle dispenser including at least one chemical reservoir received within the bottle. The reservoirs contain concentrated chemicals and can be released into the bottle by bursting, puncturing or other suitable means. This type of design requires the modification of the spray bottles at the point of manufacture and cannot be used economically on the conventional spray bottles.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,250,511 shows dry-to-the touch elongated rechargeable inserts, which contain chemicals that can be dissolved in water for cleaning purposes. The inserts are applied to the outside of the diptube in a spray bottle and the insert is prevented from blocking the intake end (lower end) of the diptube by employing one of the following designs: tight fitting between the diptube and the insert, the use of lower spacer legs, the use of an upper retaining disk, or wrapping the slotted insert around the diptube.

Retainer for sleeve for recharging a cleaning, sanitizing or disinfectant fluid spray system


A system and method for facilitating communication between a user and a network of information items. The system includes a remote data storage device for storing the information items, wherein the information items are stored in the form of pages, and wherein the pages contain a plurality of links to other information items; a client device having a user interface program thereon, for allowing a user to interface with the network and request the information items; a server device, in communication with the client device and in communication with the remote storage device, for handling information requests from multiple clients and for storing information retrieved from the data storage devices locally in a server cache memory; a data collection module for collecting and storing successive user actions; and a probability module in communication with the data collection module for calculating a probability for the links, and for comparing the probability to a predetermined threshold value, and for retrieving the information items associated with the links from the remote data storage devices and storing the information items in the server cache memory in advance of a user request for the selected information items.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to client/server networks and, more particularly, to a system and method for accelerating client access of remote information items by predicting user actions.
2. Description of the Background
Client-based software programs called "web accelerators" address the problem of file system latency by pre-fetching web pages from a server device in advance of a request from an associated client. Typically, web accelerators come in the form of a browser plug-in that can recognize the links present on the displayed web page and start to download the information they represent, in advance of a user request, into a storage area of the client computer called a memory cache. By the time the client user is finished viewing the displayed page and clicks on the next link, the information associated with that next link is already available in the client user's memory cache. Other software programs allow the web page developer to assign a probability to each link, or otherwise indicate a preference, which corresponds to the likelihood that the client user will choose that link next. Those links that the user is most likely to choose are assigned the highest probability while rarely accessed links are assigned little or no weight. Despite these innovations, users still experience significant delays when an information request causes the server to access the information from back-end systems. Back-end systems, as used herein, refer to remote systems such as data warehouse repositories or legacy systems.
A system and method is needed for reducing delays in accessing information from backend systems. The system should also have sufficient flexibility to selectively retrieve information items from the backend system. The system should also be capable of accelerating client access to backend systems without unnecessarily consuming bandwidth between the client and server devices. Finally, the system needs to be simple to implement on a wide-scale basis without requiring upgrades to individual browsers.

System and method for server-based predictive caching of back-end system data


A priming system for selectively priming one of the two printheads of a multicolor ink jet printer. When one of the printheads require periodic priming, the printheads are transported to the printer""s maintenance station where individual caps are moved to cover the nozzle faces of the printheads. The priming system has two individual peristaltic pumps, each one of which is connected to a respective one of the caps. The two peristaltic pumps have a single mechanical input to drive selectively one of the pumps and not the other by a positionable swing gear. Each one of the pumps is adapted to prime only one of the printheads. The swing gear engages the drive gear of one pump when the direction of rotation of the input is clockwise and the swing gear engages the drive gear of the other pump when the direction of rotation of the input is counterclockwise.

The present invention relates to priming of thermal ink jet printheads and, more particularly, to a priming system located at a maintenance station for a multicolor ink jet printer having at least one peristaltic priming pump which selectively primes either a black ink printing printhead or a color ink printing printhead.
Thermal ink jet printing systems use thermal energy pulses generated by the heating elements in an ink jet printhead to produce momentary ink vapor bubbles on the heating elements which eject ink droplets from the printhead nozzles. One type of such a printhead has a plurality of parallel ink channels, each communicating at one end with an ink reservoir and having opposing open ends which serve as nozzles on the droplet emitting face of the printhead. A heating element, usually a resistor, is located in each of the ink channels a predetermined distance upstream from the nozzle openings. The heating elements are individually driven with a current pulse to momentarily vaporize the ink and form a bubble which expels a droplet of ink. The channel is then refilled by capillary action, drawing ink from a supply tank. A meniscus is formed at each nozzle under a slight negative pressure to prevent ink from weeping therefrom. Operation of a thermal ink jet printer is described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,849,774 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,571,599.
The carriage type ink jet printer, of which the present invention relates, typically has one or more small printheads containing the ink channels and nozzles in a nozzle face. The printheads are connected to an ink supply tank. In one configuration, the printhead and one or more ink tanks are integrally assembled and the entire configuration, sometimes referred to as a cartridge, is disposable when the ink in the ink tanks are depleted. In another configuration, the printhead is an integral part of a replaceable ink tank support and replaceable ink supply tanks are installed on the ink tank support. Generally, the ink tank support is first installed on the printer""s translatable carriage and then the ink supply tanks are installed. Each of the ink supply tanks is replaced when the ink contained therein is depleted. The replaceable ink tank support should not need to be replaced until at least ten ink supply tanks have been emptied during printing operations.
For carriage type multicolor ink jet printers of the latter type, there is a replaceable ink tank support for printing black ink and a separate replaceable ink tank support for printing non-black inks. These ink tank supports are installed on the printer""s carriage and then the respective ink tanks are installed on the appropriate ink tank support. Whether the carriage type ink jet printer uses replaceable cartridges comprising integral printheads and ink supply tanks or replaceable ink tank supports with integral printheads and separate replaceable ink tanks, both types are translated in a printing zone in one direction to print a swath of information on a recording medium, such as paper. The swath height is equal to the length of the column of nozzles in the printhead""s nozzle face. The paper is held stationary during the printing and, after the swath is printed, the paper is stepped a distance equal to the height of the printed swath or a portion thereof. This procedure is repeated until the entire page is printed or until all information has been printed, if less than a page. For an example of a typical ink cartridge, refer to U.S. Pat. No. 5,519,425 which discloses disposable ink cartridges having integral printheads and ink supply tanks, and refer to U.S. Pat. No. 5,971,531 for a replaceable ink tank support having integral printheads and separately replaceable ink supply tanks.
As is well known, the thermal ink jet printheads of the carriage type printers require maintenance usually at a maintenance station located to one side of the printing zone, where the printhead nozzle faces are periodically cleaned during and after a printing operation. At the completion of a printing operation, the printhead is translated by the carriage to the maintenance station where the printhead nozzle face is sealingly covered by a cap to keep the ink in the nozzles from drying out. In addition, the printhead may be primed while capped to ensure that the printhead channels are completely filled with ink and contain no print inhibiting air bubbles. The non-used or little used nozzles may be cleared by translating the printhead to the maintenance station and ejecting ink droplets from those nozzles into, for example, a xe2x80x98spittoonxe2x80x99 or the cap. The cleaning of the printhead nozzle faces are generally accomplished by using wiper blades which wipe the nozzle faces as they enter and/or leave the maintenance station. Refer to U.S. Pat. No. 5,404,158 for a typical maintenance station.
In many existing thermal ink jet printers, peristaltic pumps have been used to effect priming of a capped printhead, where priming is defined as filling the flow paths of the printhead and other ink flow passageways between the printhead nozzles and the ink supply tank. Although the priming can be done by temporarily using positive pressure on the ink in the ink tank to force ink and entrained air and/or air bubbles out of the ink flow paths, it is more popular to use a vacuum or suction on the nozzles to withdraw some ink and thus any trapped air from the printhead.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,220,699 discloses a printer apparatus and method of actuating a fluid pump to deliver fluid to an ink jet printhead without removing the printhead from a printhead carriage that is particularly useful for priming ink jet printheads using an air displacement pump to deliver air under positive pressure to the printheads. The pump is located proximate a maintenance station on the printer and is automatically actuated by movement of the carriage to the maintenance station.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,572,243 discloses a priming element for priming or maintaining the nozzles or orifices of an ink jet printer. The priming element applies a vacuum or negative pressure generated by a suction device to the nozzles. The priming element includes a first wall and a second wall spaced from the first wall to define a passageway between the first wall and the second wall. One or more support members connect the first wall to the second wall and span the passageway to prevent the walls of the priming element from collapsing from the applied vacuum or negative pressure.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,757,398 discloses a liquid ink printer forming images on a recording medium including a liquid ink printhead movable between a printing position and a maintenance position and a maintenance arrangement, located at the maintenance position, including a driver, a first mechanism and a second mechanism. The driver is coupled to the first mechanism and to the second mechanism and moves in a first direction to actuate the first mechanism and in a second direction to actuate the second mechanism. The driver includes a stepper motor having a single shaft coupled to the first mechanism, such as a cam bank or rotary valve, and to the second mechanism, such as a vacuum pump, through a unidirectional clutch.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,130,684 discloses an ink jet printer which includes a capping and wiping system in a maintenance station that is connected to a common vacuum source. The wiping system includes a blotter type collection member which presents an air vent when the printhead is in a capped position. When a priming operation is initiated, the air vent route is blocked, and full pressure is applied at the capping nozzle interface.
In one known multicolor ink jet printer, the printhead is primed at the maintenance station by evacuating the cap while it sealingly covers the printhead nozzle face. A typical system to prime printheads using a vacuum or negative pressure is to place a peristaltic pump in a line interconnecting the waste ink collector to the cap. Using this technique in a multicolor ink jet printer requires that both the printhead which prints with black ink and the printhead which prints with non-black ink, i.e., cyan, magenta, and yellow inks, were primed concurrently when only one or the other of the printheads actually needed to be primed. This failure to be able to individually prime the printheads increases the amount of ink wasted by priming, thereby reducing the total number of printed pages the customer could get from an ink tank.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved priming system for a multicolor ink jet printer by eliminating the concurrent priming of both the black ink printing printhead and the color or non-black ink printing printhead when only one printhead requires priming. This is accomplished by two individual peristaltic pumps having a single mechanical input which selectively drives the pumps. This system thus separates the vacuum necessary to prime one printhead from the other by using the direction of the single mechanical input, coupled with a swing gear, as the means to control the operation of one pump and render the other pump inoperable.
In one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a priming system for a multicolor ink jet printer having a black ink printing printhead and a non-black ink printing printhead mounted on a translatable carriage for concurrent movement therewith, the translatable carriage being translated across a printing zone during a printing operation and being translated to a maintenance station when the printer is in a non-printing operation for printhead cleaning and capping of each printhead by a separate cap, the priming system comprising: two individual peristaltic pumps, each of said pumps having a tube therethrough, one end of the tubes being connected to a waste ink collector, each of the other ends of the tubes being connected to a respective one of the caps in said maintenance station, one of said pumps being operable when driven in a first direction and the other of said pumps being operable when driven in a second direction; a positionable swing gear being selectively positioned into driving engagement with a selected one of said pumps; a drive gear being in continual driving engagement with said swing gear; and a bi-directional drive means for selectively driving the drive gear in either a first or a second direction to selectively effect operation of the desired one of the pumps to produce a vacuum between the selected printhead and said pump, thereby preventing concurrent priming of both printheads when only one printhead requires priming.

Priming system for multicolor ink jet printers


Methods, apparatus, and software for optimizing network data flows within constrained systems. The methods enable data to be transferred between PCIe cards in multi-socket server platforms, each platform including a local socket having an InfiniBand (IB) HCA and a remote socket. Data to be transmitted outbound from a platform is transferred from a PCIe card to the platform's IB HCA via a proxied datapath. Data received at a platform may employ a direct PCIe peer-to-peer (P2P) transfer if the destined PCIe card is installed in the local socket or via a proxied datapath if the destined PCIe card is installed in a remote socket. Outbound transfers from a PCIe card in a local socket to the platform's IB HCA may selectively be transferred using an either a proxied data path for larger data transfers or a direct P2P datapath for smaller data transfers. The software is configured to support each of local-local, remote-local, local-remote, and remote-remote data transfers in a manner that is transparent to the software applications generating and receiving the data.

In recent years, implementation of "cloud-based" services, high-performance computing (HPC) and other activities employing data centers and the like have seen widespread adoption. Under a typical data center installation, a large number of servers installed in server chasses and server racks are interconnected in communication using network links (e.g., Ethernet or InfiniBand) and various switching mechanisms, such as switch blades/modules and "top-of-rack" (ToR) switches.
Under aspects of HPC, a very large number of compute nodes are implemented to solve various tasks in a parallel or substantially parallel manner. In essence, each compute node performs one part of a larger, more complex task. In order to implement this scheme, there needs to be input data to and output data must be exchanged among compute nodes. This data is communicated using one or more interconnects.
Various types of interconnects are used to interconnect the computer nodes in an interconnect hierarchy. For example, at the top of the hierarchy are interconnects between computing cores in the same processor. At the next level are interconnects between processors in the same platform, such as server blade or module. Next are interconnects between platforms, such as a backplane in a blade server. This is followed by interconnects between server chassis and/or ToR switches, interconnects between server racks, and finally interconnects between data centers. Generally, the communication bandwidth between nodes is reduced as one moves farther down the hierarchy.
In addition to latencies corresponding to transfers across the interconnect links themselves (which is a function of the link bandwidth and length and switching speed), significant latencies result from operations performed at the interfaces to the interconnects and/or additional processing/required to prepare the data for transfer across various interconnect links in the interconnect hierarchy. These data transfer latencies collectively reduce the communication performance and therefore the performance of the overall HPC implementation, and may represent a significant portion of the total latency (processing and data transfer) for the compute nodes.
Another important aspect of HPC is the software architecture. Implementing software using 10's of thousands of compute nodes in a parallel manner requires a significantly different software architecture than that employed for conventional applications. In addition, specific software modules have been developed for using corresponding types of interconnects, such as software modules used for communicating over InfiniBand.

Method to optimize network data flows within a constrained system


A computer system includes a processor; and a memory coupled to the processor, configured to provide the processor with a plurality of instructions including a set of garbage collection instructions configured to perform one or more garbage collection barrier operations and a subsequent instruction that immediately follows the garbage collection instruction; wherein the processor is configured to execute the set of garbage collection instructions, including by: evaluating a memory reference to determine a condition associated with the set of garbage collection instructions; and in the event that the condition is met, while maintaining the same privilege level, saving information that is based at least in part on the current value of a program counter, and setting the program counter to correspond to a target location that is other than the location of the subsequent instruction.

In existing computer architectures that support exception handling, performing exception handling is usually an expensive proposition. Typically, the processor operates in user mode and checks values or pointers for soundness. For example, the processor may check to verify whether a user mode process has permission to access an address that requires kernel privilege level. If the check fails, an exception is thrown and the processor handles the exception by switching from user mode to kernel mode and performing operations such as checking for privilege level in the kernel mode. Often, the processor also switches from kernel mode back to user mode to carry out additional exception handling tasks, such as sending signals to the main process/user indicating that the check has failed. Mode switching requires many processing cycles and is therefore expensive.
In computer environments that support garbage collection, the cost of exception handling is more pronounced since conditions related to garbage collection often require frequent checks, and a large number of exceptions may result. The overhead associated with exception handling can significantly impact the performance of the system. It would be desirable to have a better way to handle exceptional conditions. It would be useful to if exceptional conditions related to garbage collection could be handled without significantly impacting system performance.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Garbage collection barrier with direct user mode traps


A payment request associated with a transfer of funds is received and a risk management assessment for both sides thereof is performed. If the risk management assessment procedure produces an adverse indication, the payment request is declined. Otherwise, the payment request may be processed for delivery of a payment associated therewith. The risk management assessment may be performed on the basis of credit/authentication information derived from customer information received with (or even prior to) the payment request. Such customer information may include credit card account information and/or bank account information (e.g., checking account) information. In some cases, the risk management assessment may include an automated component and a manual (non-automated) component. Such a manual component may be needed where the automated component of the risk management assessment provides suspect information regarding one of the parties to the transaction. Where the payment request is processed for delivery of the payment, such processing may include submitting a payment authorization request, and, upon receiving a settlement indication regarding that payment authorization request, transmitting the payment. In some cases, the payment may be transmitted as a check, while in others it may be transmitted as a money order or instruction to have funds automatically deposited in an account.

The transfer of funds between individuals lies at the heart of a variety of transactions. In single-party transactions, for example involving an account-holder who either deposits or withdraws money from his/her account (e.g., a bank account), only one party participates in the process, although one or more financial institutions may be involved. In unmediated two-party transfers, for example cash transfers between a buyer and a seller in payment for goods or services, gift transfers, loans, etc., there are two parties involved in the transaction. Finally, in mediated three-party transactions using credit or debit cards or checks, a guarantor or other third party in addition to the payer and payee is involved. Increasingly, some or all of these transfers may be completed electronically, making use of computer networks and/or networks of networks, such as the Internet.
Among the more recent developments involving mediated three-party transactions are the expanded opportunities for the use of the Internet as a vehicle by which transfers may be arranged and/or implemented. For example, Internet-based bill presentment systems are now being offered in which a merchant (e.g., a local telephone company or other utility provider) may arrange for regular bills to be delivered electronically to a consumer. The consumer is then offered the option of paying the bill electronically by providing the bill presentment service provider with bank account information and payment authorization. This information (and the accompanying authorization) allows the bill presentment service provider to arrange for the transfer of funds between the consumer's account and that of the merchant, for example using the Automated Clearing House (ACH) funds transfer facilities of the banking industry. Presently, however, such systems are asymmetrical in as much as they do not provide means for individual consumers to arrange for the transfer of funds to other consumers.
Moreover, although the popularity of the Internet has led to a dramatic expansion of e-commerce opportunities, with these opportunities comes the increased risk of fraud in e-commerce transactions. Indeed, some have estimated that close to 40% of the total number of attempted orders placed to Internet merchants are fraudulent or otherwise unapproved credit transactions. See, "Credit Card Fraud Against Merchants", document 22198, CyberSource Corporation, at p. 3 (1998). To combat these fraudulent transactions, others have developed authorization and verification services which attempt to provide some assurance to a seller that a buyer is who he or she is purports to be. Some of these authorization and verifications services include risk management assessment capabilities that score buyers and allow merchants to assess whether or not a transaction should be completed based on the score.
Although these verification services provide some degree of protection against fraudulent e-commerce transactions, they are for the most part limited to a select group of users—namely large merchants. Because of the fees and other system requirements associated with presently existing verification services, small merchants and/or individuals are generally unable to make use of them.
It is also true that wire transfers between individuals across private networks have been available for many years. However, such schemes lack the convenience offered by the Internet. To illustrate, consider that in most wire transfer schemes (other than wire transfers between banks, etc.) an individual (the payer) is required to deposit the funds to be transferred at a physical location (e.g., a local branch office of the wire transfer service). Upon such deposit, payment instructions are transmitted to a remote branch office of the service, where the payee must then present him/herself to receive the funds. While such systems may provide international service, they are cumbersome in as much as both the payer and the payee are required to be physically present to deposit or receive the funds. Often this is impossible, or at least inconvenient, for one or both of these parties.
With wire transfers from one individuals' bank account to another (e.g., utilizing the FEDWIRE system), an initiator must know the recipient's account information and specify it to a bank or other financial institution. Such transactions currently cannot be initiated by consumers using an Internet resource.
Other limitations of current funds transfer schemes (both electronic and otherwise) are highlighted in the transactions that typically occur in on-line, person-to-person auction houses. During on-line auctions, prospective buyers bid on products being offered by sellers. At the close of such bidding, the seller and highest bidder (now the buyer) are notified that the auction has been completed and are usually invited to contact one another to complete the sale. Rarely, if ever, though does the auction house provide a mechanism for the transaction to be completed. Instead, the buyer and seller are left to determine amongst themselves the best way to exchange the goods for payment.
Because the sellers tend to be individuals and not traditional merchants, the sellers often are unable to accept (or, indeed, unwilling to accept) credit cards. Moreover, because the buyers are dealing with an individual seller whom they may not know, the buyer is less likely to be willing to provide such credit card information. Further, as indicated above, the current electronic funds transfer mechanisms are simply not able to accommodate individual-to-individual transfers. This leaves personal checks, which are inconvenient to generate, mail and deposit for the buyer and seller, and which may cause delay in shipping as sellers wait for checks to clear, cashiers' checks, money orders or wire transfers (some or all of which often have processing fees associated with them, not to mention the inconvenience of having to obtain a payment instrument from a bank or other institution) as the only viable payment options. Generally, none of these solutions are very satisfactory from the buyer's point of view, yet the buyer is left having to choose one of these options if he or she wishes to complete the sale. Thus, there is a need for a payment transmission system for e-commerce transactions and/or to facilitate money transfers between individuals and/or small merchants that overcomes the limitations of existing schemes.


A motor vehicle security device for protecting against the cutting of an automobile steering wheel which includes a protective member made of cut-resistant material covering the steering wheel rim and a connector for attaching the protective member to the steering wheel rim. The protective member radially and circumferentially overlies the steering wheel rim to limit access to the rim and protect against cutting of the rim. The protective member includes two or more plate sections which can be collapsed into a smaller form for convenient storage. The protective member also includes a guide member to limit the movement of the plate sections with respect to one another.

Over the past several years, there has been a growing demand by vehicle owners to better secure their vehicles against theft. Factors such as inconveniences and insurance premiums associated with the theft of a vehicle or vehicle components have resulted in a demand for mechanisms to better secure a vehicle. In an effort to solve these security problems and demands, a substantial industry has been developed to manufacture and promote various mechanisms which deter theft of a vehicle. Common vehicle security mechanisms include electronic devices such as alarms and so called "killer" switches which disable the engine and/or ignition of a vehicle unless bypassed by the authorized operator. Mechanical devices such as steering wheel locks, which inhibit unauthorized operation of the vehicle by constraining the steering wheel against rotation when locked in position, are also available. However, all these vehicle security systems suffer from numerous disadvantages in terms of cost, convenience and effectiveness.
Electronic alarms for motor vehicles have become well known in recent years and also have many disadvantages associated with their use. Such alarms are designed to be highly sensitive to physical force and/or motion and activate the alarm when the vehicle is disturbed in any way. Consequently, such alarms are frequently activated accidentally by parking lot and service station attendants and/or the owners themselves who neglect to deactivate the alarm system. The electronic alarms are also prone to malfunction and tend to drain the battery of the vehicle. Finally, many of these electronic alarms require professional installation, which is of high cost to a purchaser.
So called "killer" switches have also become popular in recent years. These switches serve to disable the vehicle usually at the ignition system, unless the authorized operator deactivates the killer switch. These types of systems are very costly and suffer from the usual reliability problems associated with electronic devices installed in a motor vehicle. In addition, these devices require professional retailers to install the device after the vehicle leaves the manufacturing plant for a substantial labor charge, since many of these systems are too complex for the general public to self-assemble. In addition, due to the complexity of these systems, a typical motorist is not knowledgeable regarding the deactivation of the system in case of a malfunction.
Vehicle security systems also include mechanical anti-theft devices which restrain relative movement of various components within the vehicle such as a steering wheel, gas pedal, clutch or brake. Many of these mechanical designs include mechanical locks comprising a pair of hooks at opposite ends of an elongated locking apparatus whereby the hooks are engaged to the steering wheel rim or the steering wheel rim and another component within the vehicle. These mechanical locks provide vehicle security without the cost and complexity of electronic security systems and further provide the convenience of being usable selectively at the discretion of the motorist, as opposed to being an ever present fixture of the vehicle which must inconveniently be attended to every time the vehicle is operated. Nevertheless, mechanical locks positioned on the steering wheel or on the steering wheel and another component of the vehicle suffer from various short comings which essentially reduce their effectiveness. The hooks and locks are typically made of hardened steel which resists bending, cutting or prying. While the mechanical locks themselves are relatively indestructible and unremovable by a thief, a thief can bypass such a security system by cutting through the steering wheel rim and removing the mechanical security device. A reinforced steering wheel, which resists being cut, can be installed; however, such steering wheel systems require professional installation and can be very expensive. Also, certain vehicles are equipped with specially designed steering wheels that include various features, such as air bags, light switches and cruise control switches. These specially designed steering wheels cannot be replaced by a generic reinforced steering wheel. Further, these specially designed steering wheels have also become susceptible to theft. The growing demand for air bags has created a market for air bags and air bag parts. As a result, thieves are illegally removing the air bag and various air bag components from vehicles. Mechanical locks are not designed to protect vandalism and/or theft of components of steering wheels.
The prior art is thus seen to fail to provide a vehicle security device which is economical, simple, and convenient to use and yet which is thoroughly effective in preventing theft of a vehicle.

Winner International Royalty Corporation


Systems and methods to proactively adapt image sensor settings of an occupant monitoring system to accommodate ambient lighting changes are provided. The system may track current ambient light, track the driver, and predict upcoming changing lighting conditions. Sensors are used to predict when the ambient light will change and preemptively adjust to prevent dark or washout images. The sensor adjustment may be timed so that the adjustment is made just in time or concurrently with the change in ambient light conditions. The system may predict when the light on the occupant's face will change and proactively readjust the settings of the sensor to accommodate the changed lighting conditions.

Autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles rely on occupant monitoring systems and applications to supervise or otherwise track the activities and movements of a vehicle occupant. The ability to determine and track the position, pose, posture, attentiveness, and other characteristics of an occupant assist the safe and efficient operation of the vehicle. For example, an occupant monitoring system may require identifying a driver in the driver seat prior to operating the vehicle. The system may further monitor the occupant in the driver seat to ensure the driver is awake, alert and in a proper pose to take over operation of the vehicle should manual intervention be needed.
Traditional driver monitoring systems feature one or more sensors and/or cameras that may identify and track the driver's eyes, head position, pose and the like. Those sensors and cameras are highly affected by lighting conditions in and around the vehicle. Infrared sensors used to capture the driver's image, for example, may be highly sensitive to changing lighting conditions in the vehicle cabin due to ambient changes in light outside of the vehicle. Fast ambient lighting changes may cause the sensed image to be too dark or too washed out. For example, when the car makes a turn and the sun is on the driver's face, the image provided by the sensor may be washed out for a second or two. This may temporarily disable the driver monitoring system, causing it not function properly. Traditional driver monitoring systems, and adjustments to the image sensing components are reactive to changes in ambient lighting and lag behind the real-time changes to the environment.

Dynamic lighting and sensor adjustment for occupant monitoring


An excessive overshoot preventing unit (16) is connected to a loop in which a command voltage Vf according to a difference between: a voltage obtained by dividing an output voltage Vout as a high voltage; and a control voltage V cont set from the outside is obtained and fed back to each of drive circuits (3 and 5) of a positive voltage generating unit (2) and a negative voltage generating unit (4). The excessive overshoot preventing unit (16) clamps the command voltage Vf at a voltage value according to the control voltage Vcont. An overshoot that occurs in the voltage generating unit (2 or 4) at the time of polarity switching mainly depends on a circuit constant, and hence the amount of overshoot is excessive in the case of a low-voltage output even if the amount of overshoot is optimal in the case of a rated output. To deal with this, in this power unit, the overshoot of the command voltage Vf in suppressed by the excessive overshoot preventing unit (16), and hence the output voltage can be promptly settled to a target voltage even in the case of a low-voltage output.

Ion detectors including a combination of a conversion dynode and a secondary electron multiplier are often used for detecting ions with high sensitivity in a mass spectrometer. In such an ion detector, a high voltage (± several [kV] to ±10 [kV], for example) having a polarity opposite to that of the ions to be analyzed needs to be applied to a conversion dynode in order to selectively detect positive ions and negative ions. In a liquid chromatograph mass spectrometer, an ion source according to an electrospray ionization (ESI) method, for example, is used for vaporizing and ionizing a liquid sample. In such an ion source, a high voltage (± several [kV], for example) having the same polarity as that of the ions to be analyzed needs to be applied to the tip of a nozzle for spraying the liquid sample.
In these applications, the polarity of the high voltage to be applied needs to be changed in accordance with the polarity of the ions to be analyzed. Therefore, a high-voltage power unit capable of switching the polarity of an output voltage for one line is used. One of the conventionally known high-voltage power units for switching high voltages having different polarities is a power unit using a high-voltage reed relay (see, for example, Patent Literature 1).
In such a high-voltage power unit using a reed relay, in order to avoid a damage to the relay due to possible spiked discharges at the time of switching the polarity of an output voltage, it is necessary to take the following procedures: decrease the output voltage having one polarity; operate the relay to change the contacts once the output voltage becomes adequately low; and, subsequently, increase the output voltage having the other polarity. Consequently, it takes some time to switch the polarity. In the case where, for example, positive ion detection and negative ion detection are alternately performed every short period of time, an ion non-detection period increases in a mass spectrometer. This causes a problem of affecting the accuracy of an analysis.
As a solution to such a problem, a high-voltage power unit capable of switching the polarity of an output voltage at high speed is disclosed in Patent Literature 2. FIG. 5 is a circuit configuration diagram of a principal part of the high-voltage power unit, and 6A and FIG. 6B are waveform charts illustrating change in a voltage in the case of polarity switching in the high-voltage power unit. With reference to FIG. 5, FIG. 6A, and FIG. 6B, a configuration and operation of the high-voltage power unit is schematically described.
In the high-voltage power unit illustrated in FIG. 5, a positive voltage generating unit 2 includes: a booster transformer T1; a drive circuit 3 for driving a primary winding of the booster transformer T1; and a rectifier circuit using a Cockcroft-Walton circuit composed of four capacitors C1 to C4 and four diodes D1 to D4 connected to a secondary winding of the booster transformer T1. A negative voltage generating unit 4 is similar in a basic configuration to the positive voltage generating unit 2 except for the fact that each of diodes D5 to D8 in a Cockcroft-Walton circuit is oriented opposite to that in the positive voltage generating unit 2.
An output terminal P2 of the positive voltage generating unit 2 and an output terminal Q1 of the negative voltage generating unit 4 are connected. Another output terminal Q2 of the negative voltage generating unit 4 is grounded. Between the output terminals P1 and P2 of the positive voltage generating unit 2, a resistor 6 is connected in parallel. Between the output terminals Q1 and Q2 of the negative voltage generating unit 4, another resistor 7 is connected in parallel. A high voltage Vout whose polarity is switched is output from the output terminal P1 of the positive voltage generating unit 2. Between this high-voltage output terminal and the ground, a resistor 8 and a resistor 9 are connected in series. A voltage signal is fed back to a controlling unit 1 from a junction point between the resistors 8 and 9.
The drive circuits 3 and 5 each include a direct current voltage supply, which is connected in series to the primary winding of the booster transformer T1, and a switching element. The voltage applied (or the current supplied) from the direct current voltage supply to the primary winding is connected and disconnected by the switching element. The pulse width of a rectangular wave signal for ON/OFF driving of the switching element is adjusted based on a signal given by the controlling unit 1. Accordingly, the effective electric power supplied to the primary winding of the booster transformer T1 is changed, and consequently output voltages of the positive voltage generating unit 2 and the negative voltage generating unit 4 are changed.
To output a positive high voltage +HV, based on a polarity switching command signal (not illustrated), only the drive circuit 3 in the positive voltage generating unit 2 is operated, and the drive circuit 5 in the negative voltage generating unit 4 is stopped. At this time, since a voltage value corresponding to the voltage +HV appearing at the high-voltage output terminal is fed back to the controlling unit 1, the controlling unit 1 compares this voltage value with a target control voltage and adjusts the signal supplied to the drive circuit 3 so as to reduce an error between the compared voltages. Accordingly, the output voltage +HV is precisely set to any target voltage. Contrary to the above case, to output a negative high voltage, only the drive circuit 5 in the negative voltage generating unit 4 is operated, and the drive circuit 3 in the positive voltage generating unit 2 is stopped.
During a transition period in which output of the positive high voltage +HV is switched to output of a negative high voltage, the controlling unit 1 controls each of the drive circuits 3 and 5 such that the output of the positive voltage generating unit 2 changes from the voltage +HV to zero while simultaneously the output of the negative voltage generating unit 4 changes from zero to subside on a voltage −HV after a overshoot (see waveforms (a) and (b) in FIG. 6A). Thus, by deliberately overshooting the voltage whose absolute value rises from zero in this way, a slow fall of the other voltage that returns to zero is compensated for. This enables the output voltage Vout to promptly reach a target voltage. Accordingly, the output voltage Vout is switched in a short period of time.
Such shortening of the polarity switching time using the deliberate overshoot as described above is significantly effective when a voltage defined as a rated output is output as illustrated in FIG. 6A (in this example, when the rated output voltage is ±10 [kV] and the output voltage Vout is ±10 [kV]), and the output voltage Vout is smoothly switched. However, because the overshoot voltage is optimized for the rated output, in the case where an actual output voltage is lower than the rated output voltage, the overshoot is excessive, so that the time required for the output voltage Vout to become stable is adversely longer.
FIG. 6B illustrates an example in which the rated output is ±10 [kV] and the output voltage Vout is ±5 [kV]. In this example, the positive output voltage or the negative output voltage greatly overshoots at the time of polarity switching. This affects the output voltage Vout, so that the polarity switching time is much longer than that in the case of the rated output.

High-voltage power unit and mass spectrometer using the power unit


An acoustic signal processing subsystem for an electronic stereophonic audio system is disclosed. The acoustic signal processing subsystem will modify electronic audio signals such that sound broadcast from loudspeakers will be perceived as mimicking the quality of sound broadcast in an acoustically ideal room. The acoustic signal processing subsystem has a left signal processor coupled to a left acoustic signal source to modify the left acoustic signal and to couple a first modified left acoustic signal to a left speaker, and a right signal processor coupled to a right acoustic signal source to modify the right acoustic signal and to couple a first modified right acoustic signal to a right speaker. Further the acoustic signal processor has a left-right signal processor coupled to the left acoustic signal source to modify the left acoustic signal and to couple a first modified left acoustic signal to the right speaker, and a right-left signal processor coupled to the right acoustic signal source to modify the right acoustic signal and to couple a first modified right acoustic signal to the left speaker.

1. Field Of The Invention
This invention relates to systems and circuits that will enhance the effect of stereo sound. More particularly this invention relates to a preprocessor that will modify the electrical signals of the stereo sound such that the sound broadcast from the speakers will mimic the characteristics of sound broadcast in an acoustically ideal room.
2. Description of Related Art
Stereo sound imaging perceived by a listener using a traditional two-channel stereo sound reproduction system depends on the acoustic properties of the listening environment, i.e. the acoustic properties of the room. Although the most direct way for improving the perceived sound imaging is to improve the acoustic properties of the room, i.e. to alter the geometry of the room, ceiling heights, wall separations, angles of tilts for ceilings and walls, and the acoustic properties of the materials used, such an approach is definitely costly. An alternative approach is to place an electronic preprocessor before the speakers to preprocess the signals delivered to the speakers so that the signals perceived by the listener(s) mimics as closely as possible the signals perceived in an ideal acoustic room.
Consider a scenario comprising of an acoustic radiator and a sensor in an enclosed room as shown in FIG. 1. Acoustic waves radiated from the radiator propagate to the sensor through a multipath channel. The followings are some examples of the paths. Path #1 is the direct path. Path #2 is a single reflection path. Path #3 and path #4 are multiple reflection paths.
The transmission characteristics from the signal source to the sensor may be described by the Laplace transform transfer function, H(s), given by ##EQU1##
where:
N is the order of the transfer function. PA1 A is the transfer function of the direct acoustic path between a right-channel sound source and a listener's ear. PA1 B is the transfer function of the direct acoustic path between a left-channel sound source and listener's ear.
H(s) may be obtained from the autocorrelation and cross correlation functions of the signal radiated from the radiator and the signal received by the sensor.
A listener in a room with two speakers as shown in FIG. 2 is an example of a two-radiator two-sensor system. In FIG. 2, the two speakers are the two radiators and the two ears of the listener are the two sensors. The transmission characteristics from the right speaker Speaker-R to the left ear Ear-L and the right ear Ear-R may be represented by the transfer function H.sub.RL (s) and H.sub.RR (s), respectively. Similarly, the transmission characteristics from the left speaker Speaker-L to the left ear Ear-L and the right ear Ear-R may be represented by the transfer function H.sub.LL (s) and H.sub.LR (s), respectively.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,440,638 (Lowe et al.) describes a preprocessor to enhance the sound field in a stereo reproduction system. A portion of the audio information that is common or substantially common to both the left and right stereo input signals is removed. The remaining components are processed in left and right sound placement filters. The outputs of the left and right placement filters are then added respectively to the right and left stereo input signals. This will produce an enhanced sound field at the stereo outputs. The input signal not processed will be delayed to maintain coherency.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,980,914 (Kunugi et al.) discloses a sound field correcting system. The sound field correcting system will correct multipath frequency characteristic distortion in an acoustic reproduction system. The level and delay of an original signal are adjusted and superposed on the original signal so as to obtain a signal which, when reproduced by a loudspeaker, yields a sound pattern at a listening point having a flat frequency characteristic. The delay adjustment is effected in accordance with a difference between the travel distances of direct and reflected sound waves to the listening point.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,355,203 (Cohen) describes a stereo enhancement system that utilizes a difference signal. The difference signal is derived from the left and right stereo channels in which the difference signal is delayed, amplified, and then added into the appropriate channels to cancel left/right speaker mixing at the listeners ear. This is to improve stereo separation without center region distortion.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,209,665 (Iwahara) discloses a signal translator that include right- and left-channel translating networks. The right- and left-channel translating networks are constructed to have a transfer function: ##EQU2##
where:
Through the right- and left-channel components of spatially correlated audio signals under go transformation of: ##EQU3##
When binaural signals are applied to the translating networks, the translated output signals are applied to a pair of loudspeakers in a listening room. The acoustic direct paths and crosstalk paths transform the signal so that the impinging sound at the listener's ear is distortion free.

Elec. Eng. Dept., National University of Singapore


Methods, systems, and computer readable media for assigning separate dedicated bearers for separate audio and video streams in a test simulation environment are disclosed. In one embodiment, the method includes generating dedicated bearer information associated with each of a dedicated audio bearer and a dedicated video bearer to be used for a communication session and providing the dedicated bearer information to a simulation device. The method further includes, from the simulation device, using the dedicated bearer information to negotiate establishment of the dedicated audio bearer and the dedicated video bearer between the simulation device and a system under test (SUT) and sending simulated traffic data to the SUT over the dedicated audio bearer and the dedicated video bearer in accordance with a mapping based on the dedicated bearer information and identifiers included in the simulated traffic.

Presently, the IR.94 specification (i.e., Official Document IR.94—The IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) Profile for Conversational Video Service by GSM Association, Version 5.0, 4 Mar. 2013, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference in its entirety) sets forth how a voice session involving both an audio stream and video stream is to be communicated over a long term evolution (LTE) network. Specifically, a voice over LTE (VoLTE) communication session including both audio and video components requires a separate evolved packet system (EPS) dedicated bearer for each of the audio data and the video data, Although IR.94 specifies the requirement for separate EPS dedicated bearers, the specification does not indicate an architecture that allows for a mechanism to map different types of real-time transport protocol (RTP) traffic to the different dedicated EPS bearers. Current systems that process VoLTE traffic typically utilize packet inspection techniques to determine how traffic is mapped to EPS bearers. However, packet inspection processing typically requires inspection of a number of data portions of a packet for a number of different criteria. Notably, such a technique creates efficiency problems associated with test simulation scenarios where a high throughput of data is required.
Accordingly, there exist a need for methods, systems, and computer readable media for assigning separate dedicated bearers for separate audio and video streams in a test simulation environment.

Methods, systems, and computer readable media for assigning separate dedicated bearers for audio and video streams in a test simulation environment


An IJ-system reagent inspection device 3 that instructs an ejection device to eject a reagent and reads an inspection result from a detachable DNA chip module 2. The method is carried out based on inspection information of inputted inspection items to produce and output inspection data along with inputted examinee-identification information and the corresponding inspection items through communication lines. In a control device 5, the examinee identification information is received from the IJ-system reagent inspection device 3 along with the inspection items and the inspection data through the communication lines. The inspection items and the inspection data are recorded in association with the examinee identification information to request a diagnosis based on the inspection data.

Recently, a DNA chip module has been used for inspecting and diagnosis of physical conditions found in genes. Using the DNA chip module, blood of an examinee and a reagent are supplied on spike spots arrayed in a matrix arrangement on the DNA chip module to allow them to react. An inkjet method is useful for supplying the reagent.
The inspection method using the DNA chip module, however, may be achieved only by supplying blood of an examinee to the DNA chip module. As such, for people who do not have hospitals in their neighborhood, it is difficult to go to the hospital in a bad physical condition to undergo the inspection.
For this reason, it is desirable to develop an IJ-system (inkjet system) reagent inspection device, wherein a liquid reagent may be ejected onto the DNA chip module for inspection. Then, a control system via a communication line may be used to request diagnosis of the data received after inspection of the DNA chip module.

Diagnostic analytical system comprising DNA chips with thin-film transistor (TFT) elements


In a metal wiring, a method of forming the metal wiring, a display substrate having the metal wiring and a method of manufacturing the display substrate, the metal wiring includes a metal film and a first amorphous carbon film. The metal film is formed on a base substrate using a copper-containing material, and the first amorphous carbon film is formed beneath the metal film. A process for forming the metal wiring including the amorphous carbon film may be greatly simplified, and generation of defects in the metal wiring may be prevented or reduced.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a metal wiring, a method of forming the metal wiring, a display substrate having the metal wiring, and a method of manufacturing the display substrate. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a metal wiring having reduced defects, a method of forming the metal wiring, a display substrate having the metal wiring, and a method of manufacturing the display substrate.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
A liquid crystal display (LCD) device is widely used in various fields such as an information display or a portable electronic device. The LCD device includes a thin film transistor (TFT) as a switching element that can control an intensity of a transmission light emitted from a pixel to display light and dark gradations.
As the LCD device having a large size and a high resolution is in demand, a metal wiring having a low resistance has been developed. For example, a process for forming a metal wiring using copper that has a very low resistivity has been developed. However, since the copper ion has a strong reactivity with silicon, the metal wiring having copper may be very easily silicidized. The metal wiring having copper has also very poor adhesion characteristics relative to adjacent layers. The above-mentioned problems cause difficulties in using copper wiring as the metal wiring of the LCD device.
To solve the above-mentioned problems, a metal wiring having a double-layered structure or a triple-layered structure that includes a different type of metal film on and/or beneath a copper film, has been developed to prevent diffusion of copper ions and to enhance an adhesion force relative to adjacent layers. However, the metal wiring having the different type of metal film and the copper film may not be uniformly etched due to etching rates that are different for the different metals.

Metal wiring, method of forming the metal wiring, display substrate having the metal wiring and method of manufacturing the display substrate


A resistor string digital to analog converter formed of polysilicon resistor segments to each of which is applied an electric field. The approach improves the overall accuracy.

Many circuits demand well matched resistors. However, due to process limitations, the attainable matching is often limited. Examples of circuits needing very good matching include but are not limited to Analog to Digital Converters (DAC) and Digital to Analog Converters (ADC). A DAC is a circuit that takes a number of digital bits as input and produces a corresponding analog output. One approach to DAC design is a resistor-string or R-DAC. That circuit topology arranges a number of resistors, or other resistive circuit elements, in series between a high and low reference voltage. An array of switches is controlled by the digital input bits. The switches determine the connection between the resistors, and hence determine the output voltage. The number of resistors depends on the desired resolution—in the simplest conceptual approach for a 16-bit converter, for example, 216−1 or 65,535 resistors are typically needed to provide all possible output levels.
Other approaches to DAC design achieve the same end using a fewer number of resistors. For example, a so-called segmented R-DAC reduces the total number of required resistances by using two or more resistor string segments arranged, at least in part, in parallel. The first segment, controlled by the most significant input bits, provides a course output approximation. The second and subsequent segments are controlled by lesser significant bits and provide finer selection of the output.
Resistor string DACs are a suitable architecture when monotonicity is a major concern. However, this architecture is not practical for high resolution DACs, as the number of resistive elements increases exponentially with the desired resolution. Consequently, segmented R-DAC architectures often strike a good compromise between monotonicity and complexity for higher resolution DACs.
Another approach to providing increased resolution with a decreased number of resistances is the R2R architecture. The R2R architecture principally consists of a repetitive array of resistor arranged in a ladder-like configuration. In an R2R ladder implementation, the resistors in the ladder include a reference resistance value, R, and a resistance value twice that amount, 2R. The R and 2R resistances cause input bits to be weighted in their contribution to the output voltage. This architecture can also achieve high accuracy and low response time. But since R2R ladders also typically require an external buffer to provide low impedance connections, they are less than ideal in certain applications.

Fine resistance adjustment for polysilicon


A system and method for identifying at least one association of an entity. The system includes a processing module and a database arrangement communicably coupled to processing module. The processing module is operable to receive an input comprising data related to the entity; acquire web content related to the received input from a plurality of data sources; filter the acquired web content to obtain information relating to the entity; identify probable associations of the entity from the information relating to the entity using an ontology; determine for each of the probable associations, at least one of: a recency attribute, a frequency attribute, a proximity attribute, a semantics attribute; determine a probability score for each of the probable associations of the entity; and identify the at least one association of the entity from the probable associations, wherein the at least one association corresponds to a highest probability score.

With increasing advancements in technology, nearly half of world's population uses Internet® today for day-to-day activities. Owing to its wide range of applications, Internet® can be used in various fields like marketing, research, innovation and so forth. Moreover, one of the key applications of the Internet® includes search and retrieving information related to an entity, such as a person or an organization. Conventionally, retrieving such information has been a challenge due to an ever increasing volume of data on the Internet®. For example, retrieving information about a doctor named "Dr John" specializing in a "Cardiology" may be a difficult task as there might be hundreds of doctors having the same name and specialization.
However, with the advent of new technologies such as large scale crawling and data mining, this problem has been greatly reduced. Specifically, data mining is used extensively to sort through large and unstructured data sets to identify patterns and establish relationships to solve problems through analysis of large amounts of data quickly and efficiently. Similarly, large-scale crawling is used to examine the data available on the Internet® to efficiently retrieve required information. Furthermore, such large scale crawling is performed using crawler for scanning the Internet® to search for the data associated with a search query and store it in an index. Subsequent to creation of such index, the data associated with the search query can be displayed to user.
Furthermore, techniques such as large scale crawling and data mining may involve several challenges while retrieving information related to a search. Specifically, the data retrieved by the crawler may not be up-to-date or relevant to the user. Moreover, the crawler may retrieve a very high amount of data, which the user may have to sift through to find relevant information. Additionally, the entity may have updated information related thereto only on one particular data source. Consequently, the crawler may come across different information on different data sources. In addition, information related to the entity may be obtained by manually inquiring from data sources known to be associated with the entity. However, such process of manual inquiry is time-consuming and labour-intensive.
Therefore, in light of the foregoing discussion, there exists a need to overcome the aforementioned drawbacks associated with the conventional techniques of retrieving information related to an entity.

System and method for identifying at least one association of entity


Draft inducers (50,40) having hollow axis (73a,73b), folding impellers (37a) or retractable propellers (37b) having limited presence in the flue path, external motor (47a, 47b) with sensors (33a, 33b), male connection (63a, 63b) and female connection (65a, 65b) ends for connecting with flue stack and other tandem modules.

This invention relates to modular hollow inducer and use to control flue draft for solid fuel combustion and heat recovery. It relates in particular to inducing, augmenting, varying flue draft rate in response to combustion need of oxygen, heat extraction, and environmental pollutant treatment. This invention further relates to a thermostatic speed controlled air intake and exhaust that gives optimum heat recovery, environmental and combustion management
In combustion, there are the reactants and the resulting products or byproducts. The fundamentals of sustaining combustion are in the continuous supply of essential reactants and the removal of inhibiting, undesirable byproducts. On the supply side, one reactant, oxygen has no substitute. On the product side is desirable heat energy that is intertwined in the matrix of carbon dioxide, water and all other products that are combustion quenching and hazardous to life.
When there is a spike in the cost of fossil fuel, particularly petroleum, other alternative energy such as wood burning, experience a spike in demand. Many of the demands result in impromptu purchase and improper installation of wood energy devices and appliances. Some of such purchases and installations are inserting stove in a fireplace without a firebox sized flue pipe. It is a violation of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) design code spec and Chimney Safety Institute of American (CSIA) teaching. Basically, there is a flue size for a firebox dimension to assure operational safety and function relating to draft. Many draft inducer system designs have been presented with some varying attributes.

Hollow draft inducers (draft inducers or hollow inducers)


A method of scheduling requests from N.sup.2 input queues to N outputs is applied to an N.times.N switch with each of the N input ports having N input queues, each of the N input queues for each of the N input ports corresponding to one of the N output ports. The method uses a request matrix with each row representing an input and each column representing an output. A bit in a given row and column of the matrix thus represents a request from a corresponding input port for connection to a corresponding output port. Diagonal service patterns are used to overlay the request matrix to determine which requests are to be serviced. A sequence of diagonal service patterns for each of K time slots is used in such a manner that a fairer and yet still computationally simple scheduler provides guaranteed service within the 2N-1 time slots.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to switching systems for multiplex communications systems and, more particularly, to a switching scheduler which schedules the transmission times of fixed-length packets in a time-slotted switch that has N input ports and N output ports and wherein each of the N input ports has N queues, one queue corresponding to each output port.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are many applications in the communications and data processing fields that require the scheduling of a system (usually a switch) that has N input resources and N output resources. This gives rise to a scheduling problem in which the resource requests can be represented by an N.times.N matrix. During a time slot, only one request can be granted in any row or column of this request matrix. The scheduler determines which requests are satisfied during successive time slots. The objective of the scheduler is to provide high throughput, i.e., try to maximize the number of requests that are granted, while also providing fair service to the different requests. Further, in order to achieve high-speed switching, the computational requirements of the scheduler must be very small.
A related scheduling problem has been recognized in the prior art. In this related problem formulation, a "traffic matrix" represents the aggregate demand for input/output (I/O) pairs over a period of time slots. In a heavily overloaded situation in which the input queues to the switch have many requests in them, the traffic matrix could be viewed as a tabulation of the queue contents. This type of problem formulation is common in the area of satellite-switched time-division-multiple-access (SS/TDMA) systems as described, for example, by T. Inukai in "An Efficient SS/TDMA Time Slot Assignment Algorithm", IEEE Trans. on Communications, vol. 27, no. 10, pp. 1449-1455, 1979. A class of optimal algorithms have been developed to satisfy a given traffic matrix within C time slots where C is the maximum aggregate demand, from the traffic matrix, on any input or output. See also C. Rose, "Rapid Optimal Scheduling for Time-Multiplex Switches using a Cellular Automaton", IEEE Trans. on Communications, vol. 37, no. 5, pp. 500-509, May 1989. Unfortunately, these algorithms are computationally expensive and thus do not lend themselves to high-speed switch applications, particularly for large N. In fact, to apply optimal scheduling to situations in which N is large, Rose proposed an approach that uses N.sup.2 processors that run algorithms whose computation times vary as O(N). Thus, in high-speed packet switches with a large number of ports, the computation of the optimal schedule can require a prohibitive amount of hardware.

Two-dimensional round-robin scheduling mechanism for switches with multiple input queues

International Business Machines Corporation


A method of aligning a capacitive wireless power transmission system, the method comprises: providing a transmitter device having a capacitive conductor; positioning a receiver device having a capacitive conductor in proximity to the capacitive conductor of the transmitter device; and aligning the capacitive conductors of the transmitter device and the receiver device with one another using a display panel on the receiver device to optimize a transfer of power between the capacitive conductors.

Wireless power transmission systems are being used to power and charge devices including personal data systems, phones, cameras, laptop computers, light sources, flat panel displays and the like. Most systems use an inductive, interface between a charging station, acting as a transmitter and a receiver, which receives the charge. The transmitter and the receiver are fitted with electrical coils, which when brought into physical proximity, power flows from the transmitter to the receiver.
Alternatively, a capacitive interface can be used between two capacitive conductors or conductive plates, which alleviates the need for magnetic flux guiding and shielding components that add bulk and cost to inductive solutions. However, one limitation of a capacitive interface is that the realizable amount of coupling capacitance is limited by the available area of the capacitive conductors. Accordingly, it would be desirable to have a system and method of aligning the conductors or panels to maximize the transfer of energy and/or source of power from the transmitter to the receiver.

Method and system for aligning conductors for capacitive wireless power transmission


Provided is a sputtering target which can give a high water barrier property and a high flexibility to a sputtering film, can keep a high film forming rate certainly in sputtering, and can make damages to an objective substance wherein a film is to be formed as small as possible. In order to realize this, a mixed powder which contains 20 to 80% by weight of a SiO powder, the balance of the powder being made of a TiO2 powder and/or a Ti powder, is pressed and sintered. The sintered body has a composition of SiαTiβOγ wherein α, β and γ are mole ratios of Si, Ti and O, respectively, and the ratio of α/β ranges from 0.45 to 7.25 and the ratio of γ/(α+β) ranges from 0.80 to 1.70.

In recent years, the importance of thin films used as a barrier film or the like has been increasing in the field of electronics. In the case of, for example, an organic EL element, a water barrier film high in waterproof property is formed on its element body, which is formed on the front or rear surface of a glass substrate, in order to protect the element body. Recently, instead of the glass substrate, a resin film substrate has been used in order to make organic EL elements thin or give flexibility thereto. In this case, the waterproof property of the resin film substrate is not high; thus, water barrier films are formed directly not only on the element body, which is formed on the front surface of the substrate, but also on the front surface and the rear surface of the resin film substrate.
As the water barrier film(s) referred to herein, for example, a Si sputtering film or a silicon oxide based or silicon nitride based sputtering film is known. When sputtering films are compared with vapor-deposited films, the sputtering films give a lower film forming rate, but it is said that the sputtering films have a denser film structure, a higher adhesiveness to objective substances, and a higher film quality. For this reason, it is said that in the field of electronics, such as organic EL elements, which are required to have a high water barrier property and the like, the sputtering films are preferred.
As is well known, in sputtering, an atmospheric gas is made into plasma, and the ionic particles in the gas are electrically or magnetically accelerated and collided with the surface of a target material. By this collision, material particles are discharged from the surface of the target material and are caused to adhere onto a surface of an objective substance, thereby forming a thin film of the target material on the surface. As the target material, Si or an oxide thereof is used (see Patent Documents 1 and 2).
Patent Document 1: JP-A-2002-275628
Patent Document 2: JP-A-2004-176135
About the atmospheric gas, an inert gas such as an argon gas is basically used for electric discharge; however, in the case of reactive sputtering, a mixture of the gas and a reactive gas such as an oxygen gas or a nitrogen gas is used to form an oxide-based, nitride-based or oxynitride-based sputtering film. Although the nitride film of Si is opaque, the transparency thereof increases as the oxidation degree rises. On the other hand, the barrier property becomes better as the nitriding degree becomes higher. For these reasons, the oxynitriding degree of the sputtering film is adjusted by the composition of the reactive gas. For reference, it is said that a SiN film is opaque but high in barrier property while a SiOx film is transparent but relatively low in barrier property.
However, it has been proved that conventional sputtering films have a problem described below on the basis of sputtering target materials therefor in, for example, organic EL elements, in particular, organic EL elements wherein a resin film substrate is used.
As described above, by use of oxygen and nitrogen as reactive gases, the barrier property and the transparency of the sputtering film are adjusted. When a sputtering film having a specific barrier property and transparency is formed in the case that the target material therefor is Si, a fall in the flexibility of the sputtering film becomes a problem. Moreover, it is feared that an objective substance wherein the film is to be formed is damaged since a large amount of oxygen is required for the reactive gas.
Specifically, in the case of a sputtering film for an organic EL element, it is necessary to form the film on its element body on the rear surface of its substrate. In order to relieve damages on the element body, a low temperature is required and further the film-formation is required to be carried out in a low oxygen atmosphere. The sputtering film is also required to have a high flexibility. However, in the case that the target material is Si, the above-mentioned requirements are not easily satisfied since the amount of oxygen in the atmospheric gas becomes large.
Sputtering films for organic EL elements are required to have a by far higher water barrier property than those in the prior art. Specifically, when the property is represented by, for example, water vapor permeability, the sputtering films are required to have a super high level water barrier property of less than 0.01 g/m2 per day. In the case that the target material is Si, the water barrier property of the sputtering film therefrom is relatively good.
About Si, described above, electroconductivity is easily given thereto by doping. For this reason, DC sputtering, wherein a direct current is applied to between a target and an objective substance, can be realized. Thus, there is produced an advantage that the film forming rate is considerably high although this manner is one out of sputtering manners.
In the case that against such a Si target material a SiO target material is used, the amount of oxygen as a reactive gas can be decreased so that damages of an objective substance wherein a film is to be formed can be relieved. Moreover, SiO has an advantage that SiO is easily powder-sintered so as to be worked into a target material with ease. However, SiO targets, which are different from Si targets, are electrically insulators; thus, the SiO targets cannot be subjected to the above-mentioned DC sputtering. As a result, it is indispensable to use RF (high frequency) sputtering, which is lower in efficiency than the DC sputtering. Accordingly, a remarkable fall in the film forming rate becomes a problem.
Moreover, in the actual circumstances, the sputtering film obtained in the case of using a SiO target does not have such a flexibility that the film can be used on a thin resin film substrate in the same manner as the sputtering film obtained in the case of using a Si target.
For reference, SiO2 is low in reactivity, and is not easily adjusted, in composition, toward a SiOx or SiON film; therefore, SiO2 is unsuitable as a target material in reactive sputtering.

Sputtering target, method for producing same, sputtering thin film formed by using such sputtering target, and organic EL device using such thin film


A new duplicating carving machine that will allow individuals to easily and accurately carve wooden propellers, musical instruments, sculpture or other items. The invention has a unique and rigid carving mechanism, having a stylus and motorized cutter mounted upon a rigid "U"-shaped frame, combined with a simple and accurate alignment system, in which the U-frame pivots upon a transverse bar which is aligned upon side rails in the manner of a T-square, enabling the duplicator to easily and accurately carve a propeller or other item from a three-dimensional master. The duplicating carver of the invention is very simple to set up and operate, and includes a novel brake mechanism to stabilize the cutting motion. The average craftsman will be able to quickly and precisely shape a workpiece--any design from violin faces, electric guitar bodies or scroll work on cabinet doors, to airplane propellers, to name only a few. Only sanding is required to achieve the finished shape.

Duplicating carvers have been known for many years. Most have a router or other motorized cutting tool ganged to a stylus which is guided by the operator around a template. A master template is made up, which can be made of soft wood for ease of carving or from metal for longevity, and the template can be duplicated in hard wood or other material using the duplicating carver.
Two-dimensional carvers using pantographs (jointed parallelogram mechanisms) are familiar in the badge- and sign-making field. The stylus is traced around a path or groove in a template, and the router follows the same path to carve the letter or other design into wood or plastic blanks. The use of a pantograph allows increasing or decreasing the size of the sign relative to the template.
Three-dimensional duplicating carvers are similar, but add another degree of freedom to allow the duplicating carver to duplicate a three-dimensional original such as a propeller, sculpture, musical instrument, etc.
When one of the inventors herein was building an experimental aircraft, he found that the bored out, higher compression engine was significantly more powerful than a stock model "A" engine, putting out between 50 and 60 hp. This meant that he would have to experiment to get the optimum propeller.
When the time came to acquire a propeller, he was faced with the following options:
1. buy an inexpensive, lower quality, hand carved prop. PA1 2. buy an expensive, high quality propeller. PA1 3. inexpensively carve a high quality prop.
He decided to carve his own propeller. He was able to obtain the design for the original Pietenpol propeller (from the original propeller carver), along with recommendations on how to modify the design to pitch it correctly for the most efficiency. It would be very difficult to precisely carve two identical blades for a symmetrically accurate prop. A one-blade master propeller was carved, and it was decided to use a duplicator to carve two identical blades for the final propeller. This gave the option of modifying the master and easily carving additional props for changes in pitch, diameter, planform etc.
Getting an acceptable duplicator turned out to be the hard part. The inexpensive, plan-built, plywood carvers were not rigid enough for the accurate duplication needed. The mass produced general purpose duplicators were also too flimsy. An industrial duplicating mill was out of the question due to the extremely high cost. As a result, the present invention was designed to be the most accurate carver possible, but easy and simple to use, and less expensive than industrial mills.
Terrco, Inc., of Watertown, S. Dak., manufactures several general-purpose carving duplicators at this time.
The CM series uses a pantograph-like arrangement in which the stylus and router are each mounted on one end of two linked arms which are hinged at the other end to a pivot on a rod. The hinges allow the router/stylus to move roughly along a first horizontal axis (actually, along an arcuate path approximating the first axis). The pivot on the rod allows the router and stylus to move up and down in an arcuate fashion along the vertical axis. The rod is mounted at each end to slides, which allows the rod to slide along the third (second horizontal) axis. Thus, the cutter may move about all three axes. However, for very accurate carving, the semi-pantograph arrangement is too flexible, allowing the cutter to twist under the action of the router, and the arcuate movement of the arms in the horizontal plane makes it impossible to easily move the cutter straight along the axis.
The Terrco Duplicarver.TM. models mount the router and stylus to a horizontal rod. The router and stylus are fixed to the rod, but the rod is free to pivot in slides on each end, allowing the stylus and router to move in an arcuate fashion, primarily to allow the stylus and router to be swivelled fully horizontal, to work on vertical originals. The rod may also move in the slides from side to side along the first horizontal axis. The rod is mounted on the ends of a pivoting frame, which allows the rod (and hence the cutter and stylus) to move along the vertical axis (actually, along an arcuate path approximating the vertical axis). For motion on the second horizontal axis, the table upon which the workpiece and pattern are mounted must be moved fore-and-aft on a lower pivot arm. Once again, the arcuate movement for vertical motion is problematic, requiring simultaneous movement of the stylus and router on the guide rod, and the lower pivot arm and table, to travel a path along the vertical axis. The relatively thin guide rod introduces a degree of flexibility into the router which is also undesirable.
There have been many patents issued on carving duplicators. A few representative examples follow:
Babcock, PATTERN DUPLICATOR, U.S. Pat. No. 3,653,291 uses a vertically-suspended cutter and stylus. An overhead rail system is required, and the vertical motion is assisted with ropes, counterweights and pulleys. The wide frame is subject to torsional distortions, allowing the router and stylus to twist independently. No means is provided to limit the degrees of freedom of movement of the cutter. PA0 Hoenig, PANTOGRAPH APPARATUS, U.S. Pat. No. 3,739,824 is a duplicating carver intended for spindles. The router and stylus may slide on vertical shafts and the entire cutting mechanism slides on rails for movement along a horizontal axis. Mechanisms for rotating the spindle provide the motion of the workpiece about the second horizontal axis, rather than having the stylus/cutter assembly movable about three axes. PA0 Laskowski, THREE DIMENSIONAL DUPLICATOR ASSEMBLY, U.S. Pat. No. 4,078,474, and related U.S. Pat. No. 4,183,284, have the router and stylus are fixed to a shaft which is suspended by an "X" shaped frame. The other side of the frame is free to slide on a shaft which rolls on a wheel on each side along guide rails. The router and stylus are prone to unwanted motion due to the mounting on a relatively thin shaft which is free to rotate, and the "X" shaped support can twist about the thin center point, as well. The provision of single wheels on each end of the cross shaft allows the shaft to twist as it is rolled, introducing further distortions. PA0 Mitchell, THREE DIMENSIONAL DUPLICATING CARVING MACHINE, U.S. Pat. No. 4,278,117, also uses single wheels on each end of the cross shafts, with the same twisting problem as noted above. Again, the stylus and router are mounted on a relatively thin shaft, which can twist. PA0 Lenz, OUTBOARD TRACKING STATION FOR CARVING MACHINE, U.S. Pat. No. 4,288,185, moves the stylus outside the rails of the machine, to allow mounting a pair of routers inside the rails. The routers and stylus are mounted on relatively thin arms outward from a shaft, which allows for torsional distortion of both the arms and the shaft, and the shaft rolls on single wheels, allowing the same twisting problem as noted above. The arms swivel on hinges, as noted above for the Terrco Duplicarver.TM., with the same problem of arcuate side-to-side movement. PA0 Taylor, MACHINE TOOL, U.S. Pat. No. 5,256,011, also moves a cutting arrangement using a cross-shaft with single wheels, with the problems noted. The stylus and router pivot arcuately around two different axes, as well as sliding side-to-side along the shaft. The large torsion box is awkward and tends to block any view of the work to the rear.

Three-dimensional duplicating carving machine