Dynamic vibration monitoring of a cutting tool or workpiece is provided by propagating an ultrasonic carrier beam in a stream of fluid flowing from a probe chamber, which includes a transducer, to the cutting tool or workpiece target area. The modulated ultrasonic beam reflected from the target is detected via a transducer in the chamber, and is demodulated to provide measurements of vibrational surface displacement and velocity. The method is insensitive to the target surface roughness and can be used for dynamic characterization prior to machining, and for monitoring during the machining operation. The device is inexpensive and robust to the machining environment, and can be applied to small cutting tools.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is generally related to vibration monitoring and is more specifically concerned with vibration monitoring of cutting tools used for high-performance machining.
2. Description of the Related Art
Driven by cost reduction, high productivity, throughput and quality goals, the machining industry has an increasing need for improved characterization of cutting tools and for controlling vibration and chatter during the machining process. If uncontrolled, vibration and chatter can reduce surface finish quality, limit dimensional accuracy, increase tool wear and create high levels of noise. These undesirable performance attributes can, in turn, lead to increased machine wear, reduced throughput and higher scrap rates. Furthermore, there are growing demands for high-speed milling, for the use of small tools, and for machining advanced materials with poor machining characteristics, all of which exacerbate vibrational problems. Conventional approaches for control of vibration and chatter, such as increasing the stiffness of the tool and reducing the cutting depth or machine speed, clearly reduce production throughput and are no longer satisfactory.
Recently, more sophisticated approaches that take advantage of modern dynamic models and improved sensors and controls have been developed. These approaches typically utilize knowledge of the mass, stiffness, and vibrational and damping characteristics of the tool to estimate the cutting depth limits and the optimal spindle speed. Only limited control has been attained since prior art sensors permit dynamic characterization of the tool only prior to the machining operation. Optimal control requires that vibration be sensed as close as possible to the tool tip during the actual machining process since tool vibration and chatter are significantly affected by interaction between the tool and the workpiece.
One prior art method for predicting vibrational characteristics of a cutting tool involves exciting the static tool with an impulse hammer and detecting the resulting vibrations via an accelerometer mounted at or near the tip of the tool. The force of the impulse hammer excitation is usually chosen to simulate the force expected during the cutting process, which typically ranges from tens of Newtons for small tools up to a few thousand Newtons for larger tools. Nonetheless, the impulse hammer method does not adequately predict vibration during the machining process since accelerometers cannot be used to detect vibration of a rotating tool. A further limitation of the impulse hammer method is that accelerometers are typically too large and/or too heavy for use with the small tools often employed by mold manufacturers and the rapid prototype industry, for which the tool diameter may be as small as 1/64th inch. Strain gages have been adapted for sensing vibration but must also be mounted on the tool and cannot be used during tool rotation.
For dynamic vibrational characterization of a rotating tool, a non-contact sensor is required. Prior art methods for detecting cutting tool vibrations have employed a number of non-contact sensors, including capacitive probes, inductive probes, laser Doppler vibrometers, and acoustic pickup devices (e.g., microphones). An alternative prior art method involves detection of tool vibration from an indirect measurement, via measured fluctuations in tool rotation speed or spindle power requirements, for example.
There is no commercially available vibration sensor that provides the capabilities needed for advanced machining. These capabilities include dynamic tool vibration monitoring before and during the machining process, high measurement sensitivity and accuracy, insensitivity to the machining environment, minimal mechanical loading, compactness and low-cost. It would also be very beneficial to be able to monitor vibration of the workpiece, which may be appreciable for advanced materials that are difficult to machine. The availability of an accurate, robust and low-cost sensor to measure tool vibrational characteristics would be of great practical value.
In principle, a laser beam could be used to remotely detect vibration of a rotating tool via measurements of displacement of the tool surface as a function of time. However, such measurements are strongly influenced by the surface roughness of the tool, which greatly limits the utility of the method. Ultrasonic reflection measurements are much less sensitive to surface roughness of the target and have been shown to be useful for detecting vibration of static parts immersed in a liquid in a tank [D. Royer and O. Casula, Appl. Phys. Lett. 67(22), 27 (1995)]. It is not obvious how this approach could be applied to dynamic vibration monitoring of real-world cutting tools. Ultrasonic vibration measurements made in air are much less sensitive (compared to liquid phase measurements) due to scattering effects, and are significantly affected by turbulent flow of the hot air typically produced by friction during machining operations, as well as by mist and dust that are frequently present in the environment.

Method and device for ultrasonic vibration detection during high-performance machining


A backlight unit in a direct type liquid crystal display device includes a plurality of lamps, wherein each lamp includes a first end, a second end opposing the first end, and a fluorescent part between the first and second ends, and a supporter supporting the plurality of lamps, wherein fluorescent parts of adjacent lamps are longitudinally offset from each other, and each lamp includes a first external electrode at the first end of the lamp, and a second external electrode at the second end of the lamp.

1. Field of the Invention
The principles of the present invention generally relate structures of backlight units in a direct type liquid crystal display device.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
As the capabilities of information processing apparatuses and display technologies continue to advance, various types of display devices are actively developed. Due to their low power consumption and compact, lightweight construction, liquid crystal display (LCD) devices have been the subject of extensive research and have been implemented in many applications.
Generally, LCD devices include LCD panels that include a thin film transistor (TFT) array substrate, a color filter substrate spaced apart from the TFT substrate, and liquid crystal material provided within a gap formed between the TFT array and color filter substrates. The TFT array substrate generally supports a plurality of gate lines and a plurality of data lines crossing the plurality of gate lines, wherein unit pixels are defined at the crossings of the gate and data lines, and switching devices (i.e., TFTs) connected to the gate and data lines at the crossings thereof. The color filter substrate generally supports color filter layers (e.g., red, green and blue layers) to express images having natural colors.
By themselves, LCD panels do not generate light that is necessary to express images. Therefore, to express images, light must be generated by a light source that is external to the LCD panel. In many cases, such a light source is provided within a backlight unit. Depending on the location of the light source with respect to the LCD panel, backlight units can be generally classified as either direct-type or edge-type.
Edge-type backlight units generally include a lamp unit provided along a lateral side of a light-guide plate that is disposed beneath an LCD panel and are typically incorporated within relatively small-sized LCD devices (e.g., monitors for laptop, desktop computers, etc.). Direct-type backlight units generally include a plurality of lamps provided beneath a lower surface of a light-diffusion sheet that is, in turn, disposed beneath an LCD panel and are typically incorporated within large-sized LCD devices (e.g., large monitors, televisions, etc.).
FIG. 1 illustrates a cross-sectional view of a related art direct-type backlight unit.
Referring to FIG. 1, disposed at a backside of an LCD panel 120 a related art direct-type backlight unit generally includes a plurality of lamps 110 (i.e., bar-type, cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFLs)) arranged in parallel with one another and disposed within a cavity formed in a bottom cover 101 (i.e., a mold frame) for protecting the plurality of lamps 110. A reflective plate is disposed between the bottom cover 101 and the plurality of the lamps 110 to reflect light generated by the lamps 110 toward the LCD panel 120. The related art direct-type backlight unit further includes a diffusion plate 107 for uniformly diffusing the light generated by the lamps 110 and transmitting the diffused light toward the LCD panel 120, and a diffusion sheet 109 disposed on the diffusion plate 107. The diffusion plate 107 and diffusion sheet 109 are supported by edges of the bottom cover 101.
FIG. 2 illustrates a perspective view of the related art direct-type backlight unit shown in FIG. 1.
Referring to FIG. 2, the plurality of lamps 110 are supported within the bottom cover 101 by lamp fixing members 111. Moreover, lamp electrodes (not shown) formed on opposing ends of the plurality of lamps 110, are supported by a lamp support 112 provided at opposing sides of the bottom cover 101. Each lamp electrode is connected to power supply lines (not shown) for supplying power to corresponding ones of the plurality of lamps 110. Although not shown, power supply lines that supply power to a particular lamp are connected to each other to form a closed circuit around the particular lamp 110. Each closed circuit is provided with an inverter to convert externally applied direct current (DC) voltage into an alternating current (AC) voltage that is supplied the particular lamp 110. Although not shown, each inverter is connected to a ground printed circuit board (PCB) arranged at a rear. surface of the bottom cover 101.
As noted, the plurality of lamps 110 discussed above with respect to FIGS. 1 and 2 are provided as CCFLs. Each CCFL can be conceptually divided into a fluorescent part and external electrode parts for applying a tube voltage to the fluorescent part, wherein the fluorescent part generates light in response to the applied tube voltage. The fluorescent part generally includes a fluorescent material coated onto the interior of a lamp tube. External electrodes within the external electrode parts are typically formed by coating an opaque metal film onto opposing ends of the lamp tube. Generally, the brightness of a lamp 110 increases when the applied tube voltage increases. However, when the applied tube voltage is over 2000 Vrms, an undesirably excessive amount of ozone can be generated within the fluorescent part due to ionization of discharge gas within the lamp 110. Excessive amounts of ozone deleteriously reduce the brightness of the lamp 110. Therefore, the external electrodes of the lamp 110 can be lengthened to reduce the applied tube voltage.
FIG. 3 illustrates a plan view of a related art direct-type backlight unit incorporating lamps with lengthened external electrodes. FIG. 4 illustrates a side view of the related art backlight unit shown in FIG. 3.
Referring to FIGS. 3 and 4, a plurality of lamps 110, each conceptually divided into external electrode parts 103a and 103b and a fluorescent part 105, are supported by a plurality of lamp supports 112. When the lamps 110 are installed within the lamp supports 112, the lengthened external electrode parts 103a beneficially reduce the applied tube voltage but undesirably extend into a luminous area of the backlight unit between the lamp supports 112. However, because the external electrode parts 103a and 103b are typically formed by coating an opaque metal film onto the lamp tube, the lengthened external electrode parts 103a and 103b uniformly extend into the luminous area of the backlight unit and undesirably cast shadows onto portions of the diffusion plate 107 and diffusion sheet 109 that are aligned with display regions of an overlying LCD panel. The cast shadows, therefore, decrease the uniformity of light transmitted to the LCD panel as well as decrease the average brightness of images expressed by the LCD panel.

Arrangement structure of backlight in direct type liquid crystal display device


Active sessions and dialogs may be moved between connections and P-CSCFs. For example, in some embodiments either new bindings may be created with a different connection for a Public User ID or the UE may re-register one or more specific bindings for a Public User ID from one connection to another. The capabilities improve service continuity when handing over between IP-CANs. FIG. 13 illustrates exemplary messaging for moving bindings to a new connection for a Private User ID between UE (1305) and P-CSCF (1307) when the UE (1305) is in a visited IP-CAN, that is, visited network (1303). The UE (1305) invokes the unprotected global seamless re-registration of the embodiments via an unprotected initial registration procedure wherein the UE (1305) includes a “seamless-ims” parameter in the Require and Proxy-Require headers of the REGISTER request (1313). The S-CSCF (1311) provides the capability to subsequently re-register bindings over new or existing connections.

The 3rd Generation Partnership Project, 3GPP specifications have introduced agnostic Internet Protocol (IP) Multi-media Service (IMS) access via an IP Connectivity Access Network (IP-CAN) wherein an IMS enabled terminal may access 3GPP IMS services using various IP-CANs such as, but not limited to, GPRS/UMTS, 3GPP-IWLAN, WLAN direct IP access, etc., and using a variety of radio access technologies such as, but not limited to, UTRAN, GERAN, 802.11, Bluetooth, etc.
In such agnostic IMS access networks, an IMS terminal may obtain an IP address that is routable in the 3GPP PLMN that it's accessing, perform an initial IMS registration/authentication procedure using that address, and the terminal is ready for communication. The IMS network itself does not care whether the address was obtained via a PDP context activation or as a result of IPsec tunnel establishment with a Packet Data Gateway (PDG) or any other IP-CAN specific connection mechanism.
The advent of IP-CAN agnostic IMS access raises the possibility of IMS mobility across heterogeneous IP-CANs and consequently issues relating to IMS service continuity across IP-CANs. One such issue is that changing IP-CANs usually always entails a change in local IP address and, unfortunately, changing IP address while connected to an IMS network is extremely disruptive.
For example, changing the local IP address in the IMS Terminal may result in the following undesirable actions with respect to IMS connectivity and services: loss of all on-going IMS dialogs (i.e., sessions and subscriptions) and transactions; deregistration of all explicitly and implicitly registered public user identities; user re-authentication with IMS core and a establishment of a new set of IPsec Security Associations (SAs) between the IMS Terminal and the network; re-registration of all previously registered public user identities registered with the IMS core using the new IP address; and user re-subscription to the registration event package.
In other words, the current IMS connectivity and services are lost and need to be re-established from scratch. As a result, seamless "make before break" and "break before make" IMS handoff scenarios to a new IP address cannot be supported using the current IMS functionality.
Some suggested solutions for achieving service continuity in IMS networks revolve around the use of Mobile IP to support mobility at the IP layer between various IP-CANs. However, Mobile IP supports mobility for scenarios in which a mobile terminal needs to move between different network domains, but does not require a corresponding change to the SIP proxy. In order to change proxies, the mobile requires application (i.e. IMS) layer mobility and not network layer mobility as supported by Mobile IP.
An additional shortcoming of Mobile IP, with respect to IMS service continuity, is that Mobile IP only supports the movement of "all" the mobile's dialogs and sessions from one local IP connection to another. While this is desirable in many scenarios there are other scenarios where the mobile may need to move only a specific subset of its dialogs and sessions from one local IP connection to another. In order to manage the mobility of specific dialogs and sessions, the mobile requires application (i.e. IMS) layer mobility and not network layer mobility as supported by Mobile IP.
Thus there is a need to extend an IMS network to allow an IMS terminal to establish new connections to the IMS network via different local IP connections and to move existing IMS registration bindings and sessions to those new IMS connections with minimal disruption to the user such that service continuity may be achieved.

Method and apparatus for re-registration of connections for service continuity in an agnostic access internet protocol multimedia communication system


An exemplary embodiment provides a non-transitory storage medium. The non-transitory storage medium causes the computer of an information processing apparatus capable of communicating with another information processing apparatus to function as a data reception unit configured to receive application data which can be made use of by an application program from another information processing apparatus, a data determination unit configured to determine whether the received application data is data made use of by a first application program executed by the information processing apparatus, and a data conversion unit configured to convert the received application data to application data made use of by the first application program executed by the information processing apparatus when the data determination unit determines that the received application data is not data made use of by the first application program executed by the information processing apparatus.

A system automatically carrying out communication when information processing apparatuses are proximate to each other has conventionally been present. There is such a system that communicating game devices check an exchange condition with each other, and when match in exchange condition is achieved, game data designated for exchange is exchanged between the game devices.
On the other hand, data is exchanged between game devices having data which can be made use of by the same application program (also simply referred to as an application). Therefore, when a game device with which communication is established does not have data which can be made use of by the same application, data is not exchanged.
The present application was made to solve the problem as described above, and provides a non-transitory storage medium encoded with a computer readable information processing program capable of further enhancing zest of data communication, an information processing apparatus, a method of controlling an information processing apparatus, and an information processing system.
An exemplary embodiment provides a non-transitory storage medium encoded with a computer readable information processing program and executable by a computer of an information processing apparatus. The computer of the information processing apparatus capable of communicating with another information processing apparatus is caused to function as a data reception unit configured to receive application data which can be made use of by an application program from another information processing apparatus, a data determination unit configured to determine whether or not the received application data is data made use of by a first application program executed by the information processing apparatus, and a data conversion unit configured to convert the received application data to application data made use of by the first application program executed by the information processing apparatus when the data determination unit determines that the received application data is not data made use of by the first application program executed by the information processing apparatus.
In the exemplary embodiment, the computer may be caused to function as a data transmission unit configured to transmit application data which can be made use of by the application program to another information processing apparatus.
In the exemplary embodiment, the information processing apparatus can selectively execute a plurality of application programs, and each of the plurality of application programs may cause the computer to function as a data storage control unit configured to cause a memory to store application data corresponding to the application program.
In the exemplary embodiment, the data conversion unit may convert the received application data to application data made use of by the first application program executed by the information processing apparatus when the data determination unit determines that the received application data is not data made use of by the first application program executed by the information processing apparatus but data made use of by a second application program different from the first application program.
In the exemplary embodiment, the second application program may be pre-installed in the information processing apparatus.
In the exemplary embodiment, the computer may be caused to function as an application processing unit configured to execute the first application program by using the received application data when the application data received by the data reception unit is data made use of by the first application program executed by the information processing apparatus and executing the first application program by using the converted application data when it is not data made use of by the first application program executed by the information processing apparatus.
In the exemplary embodiment, the received application data may be data on a character.
In the exemplary embodiment, the data on a character may be data on characteristics of the character.
In the exemplary embodiment, the information processing apparatus includes a wireless communication module, and the data reception unit may communicate by radio with another information processing apparatus by using the wireless communication module.
In the exemplary embodiment, the data reception unit may communicate by radio with another information processing apparatus by using the wireless communication module, regardless of whether or not the application program is executed.
In the exemplary embodiment, the data reception unit may communicate by radio with another information processing apparatus present within a certain distance by using the wireless communication module, regardless of whether or not the application program is executed.
An exemplary embodiment provides an information processing apparatus.
The information processing apparatus is an information processing apparatus capable of communicating with another information processing apparatus, and includes a data reception unit configured to receive application data which can be made use of by an application program from another information processing apparatus, a data determination unit configured to determine whether or not the received application data is data made use of by a prescribed application program executed by the information processing apparatus, and a data conversion unit configured to convert the received application data to application data made use of by a first application program executed by the information processing apparatus when the data determination unit determines that the received application data is not data made use of by the first application program executed by the information processing apparatus.
An exemplary embodiment provides a method of controlling an information processing apparatus. The method of controlling an information processing apparatus is a method of controlling an information processing apparatus capable of communicating with another information processing apparatus, and includes receiving application data which can be made use of by an application program from another information processing apparatus, determining whether or not the received application data is data made use of by a prescribed application program executed by the information processing apparatus, and converting the received application data to application data made use of by the prescribed application program executed by the information processing apparatus when it is determined that the received application data is not data made use of by the prescribed application program executed by the information processing apparatus.
An exemplary embodiment provides an information processing system. The information processing system includes an information processing apparatus and another information processing apparatus capable of communicating with the information processing apparatus, and the information processing apparatus includes a data reception unit configured to receive application data which can be made use of by an application program from another information processing apparatus, a data determination unit configured to determine whether or not the received application data is data made use of by a prescribed application program executed by the information processing apparatus, and a data conversion unit configured to convert the received application data to application data made use of by a first application program executed by the information processing apparatus when the data determination unit determines that the received application data is not data made use of by the first application program executed by the information processing apparatus.
An exemplary embodiment provides a non-transitory storage medium encoded with a computer readable information processing program and executable by a computer of an information processing apparatus. Functions as a data reception unit configured to receive data from another information processing apparatus, a data determination unit configured to determine whether or not the data received by the data reception unit is data made use of by a prescribed application program executed by the information processing apparatus, and a data generation unit configured to generate application data made use of by the prescribed application program executed by the information processing apparatus by making use of device information included in the received data, of another information processing apparatus which has transmitted the data, when the data determination unit determines that the data received by the data reception unit is not data made use of by the prescribed application program executed by the information processing apparatus are achieved.
In the exemplary embodiment, the computer may be caused to function as a data transmission unit configured to transmit application data which can be made use of by the application program to another information processing apparatus.
In the exemplary embodiment, the device information of another information processing apparatus may be user information set and registered for another information processing apparatus in response to a user's instruction making use of another information processing apparatus.
In the exemplary embodiment, the user information may be information including at least one of a name, sex, and birthday of a user who makes use of another information processing apparatus.
In the exemplary embodiment, the information processing apparatus includes a wireless communication module, and the data reception unit may communicate by radio with another information processing apparatus by using the wireless communication module.
In the exemplary embodiment, the data reception unit may communicate by radio with another information processing apparatus by using the wireless communication module, regardless of whether or not the application program is executed.
In the exemplary embodiment, the data reception unit may communicate by radio with another information processing apparatus present within a certain distance by using the wireless communication module, regardless of whether or not the application program is executed.
An exemplary embodiment provides an information processing apparatus. The information processing apparatus is an information processing apparatus capable of communicating with another information processing apparatus, and includes a data reception unit configured to receive data from another information processing apparatus, a data determination unit configured to determine whether or not the data received by the data reception unit is data made use of by a prescribed application program executed by the information processing apparatus, and a data generation unit configured to generate application data made use of by the prescribed application program executed by the information processing apparatus by making use of device information included in the received data, of another information processing apparatus which has transmitted the data, when the data determination unit determines that the data received by the data reception unit is not data made use of by the prescribed application program executed by the information processing apparatus.
An exemplary embodiment provides a method of controlling an information processing apparatus. The method of controlling an information processing apparatus includes receiving data from another information processing apparatus, determining whether or not the received data is data made use of by a prescribed application program executed by the information processing apparatus, and generating application data made use of by the prescribed application program executed by the information processing apparatus by making use of device information included in the received data, of another information processing apparatus which has transmitted the data, when it is determined that the received data is not data made use of by the prescribed application program executed by the information processing apparatus.
An exemplary embodiment provides an information processing system. The information processing system includes an information processing apparatus and another information processing apparatus capable of communicating with the information processing apparatus, and the information processing apparatus includes a data reception unit configured to receive data from another information processing apparatus, a data determination unit configured to determine whether or not the data received by the data reception unit is data made use of by a prescribed application program executed by the information processing apparatus, and a data generation unit configured to generate application data made use of by the prescribed application program executed by the information processing apparatus by making use of device information included in the received data, of another information processing apparatus which has transmitted the data, when the data determination unit determines that the data received by the data reception unit is not data made use of by the prescribed application program executed by the information processing apparatus.
According to the exemplary embodiment, zest of data communication can be enhanced.
The foregoing and other objects, features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Non-transitory storage medium encoded with computer readable information processing program capable of further enhancing zest of data communication, information processing apparatus, method of controlling information processing apparatus, and information processing system


A load balancing method and system for identifying an input/output (I/O) network path from a set off I/O network paths is provided by the invention. The set off I/O network paths connect a host system via a network to a storage subsystem. The host system comprises at least one host bus adapter (HBA) and the storage subsystem comprises at least one I/O device and the network comprises at least one network device. Each of the HBA, the I/O device and the network device comprise at least one I/O port. For each I/O port of each HBA, an HBA port limit is determined. Additionally the set of I/O network paths which connect the I/O port of each of the HBA via the I/O ports of the network device to the I/O port of the I/O device is identified. Then a fabric utilization limit is determined for each I/O network path and a HBA port utilization is determined for each I/O port of the at least one HBA. All network paths are discarded for which the HBA port utilization is greater than the HBA port limit. For each of the remaining paths a network path distance is determined. All I/O network paths for which the network path distance is greater than the path distance limit are discarded. Then for each of the remaining paths a fabric utilization is determined. All I/O network paths for which the fabric utilization is greater than the fabric utilization limit are discarded and the I/O network path is determined from the remaining network paths.

In modern IT systems servers and tape drives are connected via a storage area network (e.g. Fibre Channel SAN, iSCSI SAN). In addition to that, the IEEE 1244 Standard for Removable Media Management defines the architecture and the protocols to share tape drives efficiently across heterogeneous server and application boundaries. To simplify configuration and access control, IEEE 1244 organizes drives in drive groups. Two applications can share IEEE 1244 managed drives, if both applications are authorized to access the drives of a common drive group.
In theory tape management systems like IEEE 1244 allow to share tape drives very flexibly between several applications, but in practice this sharing is limited by bandwidth considerations. Due to bandwidth limitations of the host I/O bus (e.g. PCI bus) and of the I/O ports of the server (e.g. Fibre Channel port, iSCSI port), an I/O port can only utilize a certain number of drives efficiently. If the number of drives utilized by an I/O port is above a certain threshold the performance will suffer.
This number is often referred to as drive limit of an I/O port. Furthermore, in heterogeneous environments different I/O ports may have different drive limits. For instance, a 2 Gbit Fibre Channel port can utilize more drives at full drive speed than a 1 Gbit Fibre Channel port or 1 Gbit iSCSI port. The term drive is not limited to tape drive, it can be any other I/O device such as disk-, optical-, random access memory-, holographic- or nano-technology device.
Prior art uses the following methods and systems to assure that in a drive sharing environment the number of drives which are concurrently used by an I/O port does not exceed its drive limit.
1. Partitioning of resources via software configuration.                A typical approach to not exceed the drive limit of a port is to reduce the number of drives which are visible at the port. Let us say we have two servers each equipped with one I/O port which have a drive limit of n. If the storage administrator knows that both servers need n drives at different times of the day, then he typically zones the same n drives to both servers. This enables the drive sharing between both servers whilst it assures that the respective drive limits are not exceeded.        The drawback of this approach is its lack of flexibility. For instance, manual intervention is required, if one of the drives becomes defunct. The administrator must identify an available spare drive which he can zone to the I/O ports of both servers. Furthermore, he must trigger the operating system of both servers to scan for new hardware before the new drive can be used by the applications. In addition to that the access characteristics of a third server must be well known before it can be integrated in this environment without violating against the resource requirements of the other two servers. Furthermore the configuration must also be adapted if the access characteristics of one of the servers change. Additional measures are required if over the time both servers need the drives at the same time of the day or if over the time the workload of one of the servers can be satisfied with less than one drive. The scenarios lead to SAN zoning changes which are required to improve the aggregated drive utilization of the whole tape infrastructure. Overall this leads to limited flexibility thus this approach does not scale for large environments.
2. Virtual tape server with disk cache                Another approach is to place a disk cache in the I/O path between the servers and the tapes. In such scenarios a so called virtual tape server presents virtual cartridges in virtual tape drives to the server while the virtual tape server internally redirects the data to a disk cache. Later on the virtual tape server destages data from the disk cache via real drives to real tape cartridges. The drawback of this approach is the need for additional hardware and software to build the virtual tape server.
3. Virtual tape server without disk cache                In another scenario the virtual tape server exports virtual tape drives to the servers where the number of virtual tape drives which can be used by a server is limited by a parameter in the software configuration. When a server wants to mount a cartridge then the virtual tape server dynamically connects the virtual tape drive to a physical tape drive. In this way a flexible mapping of physical tape drives to server I/O ports can be achieved. The drawback of this approach is the need for additional hardware and software to build the virtual tape server.
4. Tape drives with multiple ports                Some tape drives are equipped with multiple ports. Additionally multi-pathing software can be used to balance the I/O across all available paths. The drawback of this approach is the need for additional hardware (ports at the tape drive, ports at the storage network to connect the second drive port) and software (such as multi-pathing software). Usually one port is active at the time, the other ports serve redundancy purposes in case there is a problem performing I/O via the active port. Thus, this approach does not scale for large environments.
There is therefore a need for a method and system which facilitates the dynamical distribution of I/O workload distribution among removable media devices attached via multiple host bus adapters.

Load distribution in storage area networks

International Business Machines Corporation


A device includes a hermetically sealed case with electronic circuitry housed within. One surface of the hermetically sealed case includes a metallic plate and a co-fired ceramic electrical feedthrough with a number of vias. The co-fired ceramic electrical feedthrough is hermetically joined to the metallic plate and a hybrid circuit is connected to the feedthrough.

In human hearing, hair cells in the cochlea respond to sound waves and produce corresponding auditory nerve impulses. These nerve impulses are then conducted to the brain and perceived as sound.
Damage to the hair cells results in loss of hearing because sound energy which is received by the cochlea is not transduced into auditory nerve impulses. This type of hearing loss is called sensorineural deafness. To overcome sensorineural deafness, cochlear implant systems, or cochlear prostheses, have been developed. These cochlear implant systems bypass the defective or missing hair cells located in the cochlea by presenting electrical stimulation directly to the ganglion cells in the cochlea. This electrical stimulation is supplied by an electrode array which is implanted in the cochlea. The ganglion cells then generate nerve impulses which are transmitted through the auditory nerve to the brain. This leads to the perception of sound in the brain and provides at least partial restoration of hearing function.
A cochlear prosthesis may typically comprise both an external unit that receives and processes ambient sound waves and an implant that receives data from the external unit and uses that data to directly stimulate the auditory nerve. Because the internal unit is surgically implanted, failure of the internal unit requires a surgical procedure to replace the damaged component. Failure of the internal unit may result from a variety of causes, such as damage from an impact.
Throughout the drawings, identical reference numbers designate similar, but not necessarily identical, elements.


A thermistor includes a metal substrate, a semiconductor ceramic layer on the metal substrate, and a pair of split electrodes on the semiconductor layer. The semiconductor ceramic layer is formed by a solid-phase method. The metal substrate includes ceramic particles and is not interrupted in the direction of thickness by the ceramic particles or a pillar defined by a chain of the ceramic particles. Preferably, the metal substrate and the ceramic layer of the thermistor have a thickness of about 10 μm to about 80 μm and about 1 μm to about 10 μm, respectively.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to thermistors and methods for manufacturing thermistors, in particular, a thermistor based on a stack of a metal substrate, a thin-film thermistor layer, and electrodes, and a method for producing this type of thermistor.
2. Description of the Related Art
The known NTC thermistors or PTC thermistors for use as temperature sensors or other elements in protection circuits include the one disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 61-245502. The thermistor described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 61-245502 has a flat-plate metal substrate that also serves as an electrode, a temperature-sensitive resistor film formed on either main surface of the substrate, and an electrode film formed on the temperature-sensitive resistor film.
In the structure of this thermistor, however, one of the electrodes is the flat-plate metal substrate and the other is the uppermost electrode film. Mounting this thermistor on a substrate or the like requires the electric connection to the electrode film to be established by wire bonding. Thus, it is impossible to mount this thermistor into an extremely small space. For example, when a thermistor of this type is used as a temperature sensor for an IC component packaged on a printed wiring board, there is a very narrow gap of 150 μm to 200 μm between the printed wiring board and the IC package and it is preferred to mount the thermistor into this gap. However, it is very difficult to mount an electronic component into such a very small gap by wire bonding.
According to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 61-245502, furthermore, the temperature-sensitive resistor film is formed on the wiring board by sputtering. Although the resistor film formed by sputtering is in good contact with the flat-plate metal substrate, sputtering is not suitable for mass production because performing sputtering requires costly production equipment. Solid-phase formation is desired; however, the use of this method results in the rate of shrinkage of the flat-plate metal substrate being different from that of the temperature-sensitive resistor film because of the different thermal expansion coefficients of the two elements. Even if the flat-plate metal substrate and the temperature-sensitive resistor film can be bonded together, therefore, the bonding strength of the interface may be insufficient, depending on the external environment.


In accordance with some embodiments, an abrasive article is provided. The abrasive article includes a carrier. The abrasive article further includes a matrix layer on the carrier. The matrix layer includes a copper-titanium-tin alloy, wherein the copper-titanium-tin alloy includes from about 70 wt % to about 90 wt % of copper, from about 5 wt % to about 15 wt % of titanium, and from about 5 wt % to about 15 wt % of tin. The abrasive article also includes at least one abrasive particle partially embedded in the matrix layer. The abrasive particle includes carbon.

The semiconductor integrated circuit (IC) industry has experienced rapid growth. Technological advances in IC materials and design have produced generations of ICs where each generation has smaller and more complex circuits than the previous generation. However, these advances have increased the complexity of processing and manufacturing ICs and, for these advances to be realized, similar developments in IC processing and manufacturing are needed. In the course of IC evolution, functional density (i.e., the number of interconnected devices per chip area) has generally increased while geometry size (i.e., the smallest component (or line) that can be created using a fabrication process) has decreased. This scaling down process generally provides benefits by increasing production efficiency and lowering associated costs.
In recent decades, the chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process has been used to planarize layers used to build up ICs, thereby helping to provide more precisely structured device features on the ICs. The CMP process is a planarization process that combines chemical removal with mechanical polishing. The CMP process is a favored process because it achieves global planarization across the entire wafer surface. The CMP polishes and removes materials from the wafer, and works on multi-material surfaces. Furthermore, the CMP process avoids the use of hazardous gasses, and/or is usually a low-cost process.
Since the CMP process is one of the important processes for forming ICs, it is desired to have mechanisms to maintain the reliability and the yield of the CMP process.

Abrasive article, conditioning disk and method for forming abrasive article

TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING CO., LTD


A method and apparatus records downtime and the probable cause of the downtime of a network of programmable logic controllers and other microprocessor based devices for controlling of a manufacturing process. The method and apparatus also records the total downtime by separate causes and a total downtime of all causes encountered. The apparatus further records the number of times each cause occurred and a total number of all causes encountered. A graphical display provides a visual presentation of the number of times each cause occurred and the total downtime for each cause that occurred in Pareto chart form. The method provides for prioritizing alarms associated with the cause of a downtime and the apparatus has means for deciding which alarm notification, based on the alarm priority and therefore, its corresponding cause, recorded the most number of times it caused a downtime.

PLCs have been linked together in communication networks to coordinate the operation of an entire manufacturing or process plant, or in other instances, to control the operation of cells or segments of the operation. A cell controller typically coordinates and manages the operation of the cell, which consists of the PLCs and other programmable machine controls, and is designed to perform a complete manufacturing or process related task. The PLCs transfer messages between themselves and possibly to a host computer that provides supervisory control or monitoring of the process. These messages usually contain status information indicating the condition of the various interlocks, sensors, and other controls that monitor and control the process.
Many methods have been utilized to increase quality and improve productivity in the manufacturing environment. One such method is the use of a special form of a bar graph known as a Pareto Chart. The chart, developed by Dr. Joseph M. Juran, is based upon the Pareto principle which states that 80 percent of the problems come from 20 percent of the causes. The bars of the chart are arranged in descending order by height, with the height representing the frequency or relative importance of the cause. The Pareto Chart provides a graphic illustration of the categorical causes and is useful for establishing priorities, for showing which causes contribute most of the problems, and for showing the most significant opportunities for improvement which will yield the greatest return if rectified. Different measurement scales on the charts can help identify the more important causes. In most cases, frequency of the cause may be the most important. However, if one particular cause results in a long downtime of the process, downtime may provide a more useful parameter to display.
Present manufacturing processes require an operator to manually enter into a log, the cause and the length of the downtime. Further calculations are required to compute probability of the cause of the downtime if multiple causes are possible and to generate the chart itself. These calculations are difficult to do on-line and in real-time since they require operator intervention.

Method and apparatus for analyzing and recording downtime of a manufacturing process


A d-c electromagnetic relay, designed to open or close a circuit when a current through its exiting coils is either caused to flow or interrupted, and in some applications merely varied in magnitude. It consists of a square or rectangular coil(s) of conducting wire wound around a non-magnetic spool mounted on a "J" shaped magnetic yoke-core which in turn supports an "L" shaped armature attached to the shorter leg of the yoke at a given angle and thereby creating two non-parallel surfaces at the boundaries of the working air gap forming an open "V" at an angle that corresponds to the degree angle formed by the longer leg of the armature in relationship to the top surface of the shorter leg of the yoke, by means of a flat piece of phosphor bronze or the like designed integrally as a leaf spring spring to provide the necessary contact pressure in the open as well as in the closed position, and contact deflection and follow-through, and which is extended to accept the contact point(s). The present invention is rooted in the theory of the effect of tangent component forces in a heterogeneous magnetic field and is a special apllication.

1. Technical Field
The field of art to which this invention pertains may be generally located in the class of devices relating to electromagnet and in particular to relay or contactor.
2. Background Information
The problems encountered in the prior art magnetic relay is that the theoretical foundation guiding every area of their engineering is dated. This fact has led to the fossilization of their design and performance characteristics. The theoretical stagnation that characterizes work in this area prevented any significant improvements in the design and operations of electromagnetic relays. All the known inadequacies such as loud and unpleasant mechanical noises, the relatively small force per mass achievable on the basis of conventional theories, limited sensitivity, heating limitations, relatively high production cost due to excessive use of copper wire(s) and ferromagnetic irons in the prior art construction which relate to improper handling of the theory of the interaction between the magnetic and electric fields, fatigue caused by repeated mechanical impact, sticking, and the added problems of their assembly caused by an excessive number of component parts remained unsolved.
Previous efforts have been made in an attempt to increase the homogeneity of magnetic fields by devising new coils such as that of Gottfried J. Krueger, Reno di Leggiuno, Italy, U.S. Pat. No. 4,231,008, and L. F. Craemer et al, U.S. Pat. No. 3,523,263, and Bosch et al U.S Pat. No. 3,701,066, and Anthony Sprando U.S. Pat. No. 3,519,966, and George C. Underwood U.S Pat. No. 3,479,627.
Whatever the precise merits, features and advantages of the above cited references, none of them achieves or fulfills the purposes of the current relay.
No device is known to have the geometric configuration of the present invention or rooted in the theoretical relations that it postulates.


A lens including a first portion having a recess of a defined shape, a second portion having a shaped feature shaped such that the recess accommodates the shaped feature when the first portion is adhered to the second portion, a reflective thin film applied to a surface of the shaped feature. A pair of glasses-type augmented reality display incorporates said lenses.

1. Field of The Invention
Embodiments of the present invention relate to an augmented reality display system.
2. Background
The function of an augmented reality (AR) display system is to overlay imagery on the user's view of the environment. There are a variety of hardware configurations in use or proposed for such a system. Quite often, the AR system is head-mounted, the user required to wear a helmet or some form of glasses. One of the challenges in designing a glasses-type AR display system is to make the hardware both physically light and compact. At the same time, the system must not overly intrude into the user's view of the environment. During the past few years, perhaps the highest profile example of such a system is the "Google Glasses."
One common approach to the design of a glasses-type AR system uses a projector to produce the image. The projected image must then be directed to the user's eye. There are a variety of approaches by which this could be accomplished. An approach to redirecting the image used in several products or otherwise reported in the literature makes use of a full or semi-transparent mirror on the surface of at least one lens of the glasses.
There are several problems with this approach. The first is that a mirror fully blocks the user's view of the environment behind the mirror. Although somewhat of an improvement, a semi-transparent mirror will also significantly alter the user's view of the environment when looking through the semi-transparent mirror.
Perhaps of greater consequence is the fact that the mirror must be properly oriented and shaped to correctly reflect a focused image to the user's eye. It follows that, since the mirror is on the surface of the lens, the orientation and shape of the corresponding lens surface is dictated by the requirements of the mirror. This is illustrated in FIG. 1.
The "distortion" in the shape of the lens can, in turn, result in an AR system that causes a very undesired region of distortion in the user's view of the environment.
The invention described in this disclosure consists of a combination of device configurations and associated reflector material. The use of the invention is in a glasses-type AR system and serves the purpose of redirecting the projected image to the eye of the user. It does so in a way that is at least equivalent in weight and compactness to approaches, but is less obtrusive.

Glasses-type augmented reality display system


Systems and methods for associating critical flight reference data with a flight path vector symbol are provided. The system displays a continuously updated image with a symbol for a flight path vector. The system displays a first readout arrangement, in which the airspeed indicator and the altitude indicator are (i) each located in relationship to boundary edges of the display device, and (ii) their locations are substantially static. The system detects a deviation between the flight path vector and the heading, and when the deviation exceeds a threshold, the system toggles to a second readout arrangement, in which the airspeed indicator and the altitude indicator are (i) each located a distance measured from the flight path vector, and (ii) dynamically change location responsive to movement of the flight path vector.

A Head Up Display (HUD) is a type of see-through display on which data and information is projected over a view of "the real world," or external scene. Due to the potential of obscuring objects in the external scene, there is pressure to utilize the area of the HUD judiciously. Of particular concern is the technical problem of displaying critical flight reference information in a most useful and intuitive manner on available area on the HUD. For example, a HUD can be quite large in the scene of large field of view, and it can impose a mental and physical cost to the pilot to perform a complete scan across the display to retrieve relevant critical flight reference data like altitude and airspeed.
In addition to difficulties presented by the size of the HUD, in some critical scenarios, a pilot's area of focus may be especially narrow. In these scenarios, the pilot's area of focus is typically centered around the symbol for the flight path vector. Non-limiting examples of these critical scenarios include critical phases of flight, like landing and takeoff, and high workload flight events, like wind shear and Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System (EGPWS) recovery. During these scenarios, displayed critical flight reference data, such as airspeed and altitude, can fall out of the pilot's area of focus, which may degrade situation awareness, and potentially increase a chance of a flight technical error.
Therefore, as the display of information and HUD technology progresses, presenting critical flight reference information in a most useful and intuitive manner on the HUD is an ongoing technical problem. Accordingly, improved systems and methods for presenting critical flight reference information to pilots in the most critical scenarios are desired. The following disclosure provides these technological enhancements, in addition to addressing related issues.


A method and system for manipulating and mixing previously stored motion units for computer articulated figure animation. The motion units are combined in a weighted average. The weights give a priority to certain joint rotations of a motion unit which constitute the essence of that motion unit. The motion units can be mixed in an asynchronous fashion, with no limit on the number of motion units that can be mixed together. Phrasing control assigns a weight to each frame in a motion unit, and eases the transitions at the beginning and end of a motion unit. Frame-to-frame smoothing is also used. Fatigue of an articulated figure is simulated by the addition of a "tired" motion unit.

A new generation of personal computers (PCs) and video game machines is now coming onto the market. These are capable of performing 3D graphics such as articulated figure (AF) animation. However, traditional research and approaches to computer AF animation has focused on the Animator. That is, they have focused on helping a professional Animator make AF animation for a video or film that he/she is making. With this new generation of PCs and game machines, the user can now direct the AF animation; however, the above mentioned Animator-based algorithms are too computationally expensive. A professional Animator making a film can work off-line. The animation does not have to be generated in real-time, and it does not have to be interactive. The Animator can develop each frame of the animation, taking as much time as is necessary, then store the frame onto a storage medium. Later, all the stored frames can be played back rapidly at video speeds. However, interactive applications, such as games or educational software, must generate the 3D user-directed AF animation at, or close to, real-time. The methods and systems constituting the invention are aimed at the interactive game or educational applications which use computer AF animation.
The focus of the invention centers on manipulating Motion Units (MUs). These MUs define the articulated figure's orientation (joint rotations) for each frame in an animation sequence. The game or application creator uses separate methods (including rotoscopy, key-frames, dynamics, and kinematics) to create an MU. Then the algorithms of the invention manipulate and run the stored MUs as the game user directs. The algorithms are simple and fast so as to not overburden lower end machines (which are often required to generate one frame of video 30 times per second). Yet the motions that are created by manipulating and mixing the MUs are fairly smooth and natural looking. Above all, the user is in control.
The invention provides simple user-based algorithms which can rapidly manipulate previously stored MUs.

Method and system to generate a complicated computer animation by using a combination of basic motion units

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A hybrid and telecom-structured image display and projection system implementing a desired image display and projection solution that is fast, cheap to manufacture, low-power, light-weight, scalable in size and resolution, fast-switching and capable of a broad range of mode characteristics of light for implementing dimensional display and projection, flexible, rigid-flat, or rigid-conformal as needed.

The present invention relates generally to displays and projectors and more specifically to an image display and projection technology that transcends limitations of mono-technologies and use the strengths of best-in-breed methods for each desired image display and projection characteristic.
In the field of image display and projection technologies limitations have been revealed in all existing mono-technologies which prevent them from implementing the next generation of hi-speed, low cost, low power, flexible, wearable, and dimensional display forms.
A shared limitation arises from the general reliance on a single pixel-switching component technology to implement the entire image-generation architecture, as typically any one pixel-switching component technology, whether a liquid crystal (LC) cell or gas plasma cell, a digital micro-mirror device (DMD), a magneto-optic (MO) switch, or an organic light emitting diode (OLED), excels in one or more but not all aspects of desired image display functionality.
There is currently no unitary image generation technology that is optimized for all image display characteristics.
For instance, LC has advantages in scaling of the image-array size and image resolution size, so that it can be manufactured in sizes ranging from 100 inch panels to a 4000×2000 line liquid crystal on silicon array that is a few centimeters a side. But LC is heat intolerant and relatively color-band unstable, requires a complex and rigid substrate structure, and is relatively slow-switching (even the fastest, ferroelectric liquid crystal on silicon (FLCoS), is slower than a DMD)—too slow to support optimal dimensional image generation (including stereoscopic and holographic).
DMD, on the other hand, along with other MEMS image array and spatial-light modulator technologies, face yield problems in resolution sizes greater than hi-definition television (2 k×1 k lines of resolution) or the DCI 2 k×1 k standard. And, while being relatively more color-stable than LC's, DMD's are relatively heat-intolerant, and while faster-switching than LC, are still not fast enough to support comfortable, bright dimensional display and projection images. More importantly, DMD (or Gradient Light Valve™ or Qualcomm Display's IMOD) technologies do not scale much beyond computer chip or handheld display array sizes, due to yield limitations and limitations on upscaling the pixel switch size to the larger pixel dimensions required for larger area displays.
Gas Plasma, another dominant display type, has limitations in yield, and can only be cost-effectively manufactured at sizes between about 40″ and 80″. Switching speed also limits its utility for desired dimensional display solutions.
OLED, assuming that materials' lifetimes in the blue range can be extended, excels in brightness and consumes less power as compared to the dominant LC technology. However, it also has limitations in switching speed that prevent it from supporting dimensional display and projection, and faces display-size scaling and yield limitations. Currently, and perhaps inherent in the technology, OLED is applicable to sizes ranging from handheld displays to about 30″ displays. OLED has the potential for fabrication on flexible substrates, but the other limitations will be expected to apply here as well. Life expectancy of less than 1000 hours and low yields can make expensive large area displays impractical.
EInk and other electrostatic image generation means are optimized for fabrication on flexible substrates, but face great limitations for acceptable color reproduction, size of the display and switching speed for dimensional display solutions.
Magneto-optic display technology, while excelling at switching speed and being relatively heat-tolerant and band-output stable, has current limitations in efficient switching at visible wavelengths for color displays, with green and blue being severely limited in net optical output. Current thin film fabrication technologies, such as LPE or RFM sputtering, being used as the basis of MO displays also pose limitations in scaling MO displays beyond computer chip or handheld display dimensions.
Given the limitations of these and other image display and projection technologies, in which integration of all pixel functionality is implemented in a single component technology type and often a single modulation material and structure type, what is needed is an image display and projection technology that can transcend the limitations of the mono-technologies in use today, and utilize the strengths of best-in-breed methods for each desired image display and projection characteristic.

Hybrid telecom network-structured architecture and system for digital image distribution, display and projection


A dielectric ceramic composition that is used for a monolithic ceramic capacitor, can be cofired with internal electrodes mainly composed of Ni at a temperature of 1200° C. or less, and has a high resistivity is provided. The dielectric ceramic composition is mainly composed of a tungsten bronze type complex oxide having a composition formula of (K1-xNax)Sr2Nb5O15 (wherein 0≦x<0.2) and further contains, as accessory components, 0.05 to 20 molar parts of R (wherein R is at least one selected from the group consisting of Y, La, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, and Lu) and 0.05 to 40 molar parts of M (wherein M is at least one selected from the group consisting of Mn, V, Li, Si, Ni, Cr, Co, Fe, Zn, Mg, and Zr) per 100 molar parts of the main component.

A monolithic ceramic capacitor, which is a main application of the present invention, is generally manufactured in the following way.
First, a ceramic green sheet containing a dielectric ceramic raw material on which an electroconductive material having a desired pattern to be formed into an internal electrode is applied is prepared.
A plurality of ceramic green sheets including the ceramic green sheets on which the electroconductive material was applied are stacked and bonded by heat pressing to form a green laminate.
The green laminate is then fired to produce a sintered laminate. The laminate includes internal electrodes formed of the electroconductive material described above.
External electrodes electrically connected to particular internal electrodes are then formed on the outer surface of the laminate. For example, the external electrodes are formed by applying an electroconductive paste that contains an electroconductive metal powder and a glass frit to the outer surface of the laminate and baking the electroconductive paste. A monolithic ceramic capacitor is thus completed.
It is desirable to use inexpensive Ni as a material of the internal electrodes to reduce the manufacturing cost of the monolithic ceramic capacitor. In this case, because Ni is a base metal, the firing atmosphere must be a reducing atmosphere to prevent oxidation of Ni during the firing process of the laminate.
In order to fire the laminate in a reducing atmosphere, the dielectric ceramic material should be resistant to reduction. International Publication WO 2006/114914 (hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 1) discloses a KSr2Nb5O15 ceramic composition as a reduction resistant material having excellent electrical characteristics. This ceramic composition has a tungsten bronze crystal structure and differs completely from barium titanate having a perovskite structure.
[Patent Document 1] International Publication WO 2006/114914

Dielectric ceramic composition and monolithic ceramic capacitor


An instrument is provided with a first connector, and an instrument panel is provided with a second connector. A bolt is provided extending from the first connector toward the second connector. A first thread is provided in the second connector, corresponding to the bolt. A second thread is provided on the instrument panel, at a position behind the first thread. The bolt is in a first position threaded into the first thread to couple the first and second connectors together, and in a second position threaded into the second thread to fix the instrument to the instrument panel. The coupling of connectors and the fixing of an instrument to an instrument panel are effected with one and the same bolt.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a structure and a method for efficiently fixing an instrument, such as a meter unit, to an automotive instrument panel and at the same time connector-connecting the instrument with one and the same bolt.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIGS. 19 to 21 show a conventional connecting and fixing structure for instruments as proposed in Japanese Patent Application No. Hei 8-22491, in which an instrument, meter unit 100, is mounted in an instrument panel 101 as shown in FIG. 19 and connector-connected to a not-shown wiring harness on the instrument panel side.
The meter unit 100 is provided with fixed connectors 102, and the instrument panel 101 is inside a meter mount portion 103 thereof provided with movable connectors 104 in opposition to the fixed connectors 102. A bolt 115 is tightened to couple the fixed connectors 102 to the movable connectors 104. The meter unit 100 and the instrument panel 101 are each provided with four upper and lower fixing brackets 106 and 107, into which are threaded bolts 105 to fix the meter unit 100 to the instrument panel 101.
FIG. 20 shows the state in which the meter unit 100 has been fixed to the instrument panel 101, with the fixed connector 102 engaged in a preliminary locked position with the movable connector 104. The movable connector 104 is supported on a panel portion 108 via resilient arms 109 to be vertically and laterally movable, and via resilient arms 111 to be forwardly and rearwardly movable, and is preliminarily locked via projections 110 on the resilient arms 109 to the panel portion 108. The movable connector 104 has male connector portions 112 each vertically and laterally movably supported on a frame 113. The fixed connector 102 is fixed on a base plate 114 of the meter unit 100. The front end of the coupling bolt 115 is in contact with a nut 116 on the movable connector 104 side, and projections 118 on a nut support cylinder 117 are engaged in apertures 119 formed in cylinder walls surrounding the bolt.
FIG. 21 shows the state where the bolt 115 has been threaded into the nut 116 to couple the movable connector 104 to the fixed connector 102, at which time the projections 110 on the resilient arms 109 disengage from the panel portion 108 to move the movable connector 104 to the fixed connector 102. Reverse rotation of the bolt 115 decouples the connectors 102 and 104 and brings the projections 110 back into engagement with the panel portion 108.
This conventional structure, however, requires the bolts 105 for fixing the meter unit 100 to the instrument panel 101 and the bolt 115 for coupling the connectors 102, 104 together, and there is a drawback that since these bolts 105, 115 are threaded separately, the bolt threading operations are troublesome requiring many man-hours.

Structure and method for connecting and fixing instruments


A ballast circuit system provides for efficient starting and operation of high voltage discharge lamps using a common 120 volt AC power source. As a result of this improved ballast circuit system, the necessary high voltage is generated from a normal 120 volt AC in such a way that there is low power loss. The system efficiency allows for use of plastic fixtures and small size packaging of the discharge lamp.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improved small size low loss ballast system for starting and operating high voltage discharge lamps using commonly supplied 120 volt power sources.
2. Discussion of the Background
The prior art contains many examples of starting circuits for gaseous discharge lamps or electric discharge lamps. Most of these circuits provide a ballast circuit involving a transformer in series with the load. The prior art circuitry vary depending upon the exact nature of the electric discharge lamp, i.e., fluorescent, metal halide, high pressure sodium vapor lamp (HPS) etc. With improvements in the construction of the gaseous discharge lights themselves, have come associated problems with providing ballast circuitry. These problems result from the development of efficient high voltage discharges which must have a small size, low loss ballast and yet be able to be operated from 120 volt power sources.
One prior art solution enabling the use of 120 volt power source was the low wattage HPS (high pressure sodium) lamps which have a requirement for an operating voltage of around 55 volts so that a 120 volt reactor ballast can be used plus an electronic ignitor. However, these HPS lamps require higher amperage because HPS lamps require high volt-amps for a given lamp wattage. That is for example, a 50 watt HPS has a requirement for 52 Vx 1.18A=61.4 VA. The higher amperage causes higher losses and thus a larger size device needs to be constructed.
The current trend in electric discharge lamps is to produce systems which have total higher efficiency and which produce "white light". With this higher efficiency comes the requirement for a higher operating voltage and when voltage step up is required in addition to ballasting, the physical size of the structure becomes a problem and the losses become excessive because of the requisite high temperatures. These high temperatures particularly effect the use of plastic fixtures in the devices for the lamp.

Voltage doubler ballast system employing resonant combination tuned to between the second and third harmonic of the AC source


A new and distinct variety of sweet cherry tree which bears medium to large, dark red, mahogany colored, firm fruits is described. Its broadly cordate shaped, attractive fruits ripen 14 days ahead of the commercially grown Bing variety which it is compared to herein.

The present invention relates to a new and distinct variety of sweet cherry tree which bears medium to large, firm, attractive fruits of excellent quality and flavor.
This new variety was developed at the Washington State University's Irrigated Agriculture Research and Extension Center (I.A.R.E.C.) at Prosser, Wash. from a cross made in 1971. It was selected from among 141 seedlings of the cross Stella.times.Beaulieu (both unpatented) and tested and evaluated as selection PC 7146-23. Second test trees were planted on the Roza Unit of the center in the spring of 1979 and came into production in 1982.
The new sweet cherry variety ripens 14 days before Bing (unpatented commercial variety) and resembles Bing in shape and appearance (FIG. 1). The trees have been consistently productive bearing fruits comparable in size and as firm as Bing. The fruit is Bing-shaped, glossy and attractive when mature (FIG. 2).
Fruit stems are medium length and slightly shorter than those of Bing (FIG. 1). Fruit shape is broadly cordate, similar to Bing (FIGS. 1 and 2) and flesh is medium to dark red.
The new variety is not self-fruitful but is compatible with the Bing and Rainier (both unpatented) varieties which are grown commercially in the Pacific Northwest and other western states. It blooms 1-2 days before Bing and forms flower buds in exceptionally large numbers.
Fruit buds of PC 7146-23 have better winter hardiness than Bing as demonstrated by the recent winter freeze of December 1990 which severely reduced the Bing crop. Bud kill at I.A.R.E.C. after that freeze was determined to be 14% for PC 7146-23 and 71% for Bing. The tree is vigorous and spreading in shape (FIG. 5) and has proven to be a very precocious and fruitful bearer of early season high quality cherries. It may require special handling in order to prevent overbearing which can result in smaller sized fruits. Good fruit size can be maintained by heavier pruning.
Soluble solids is equal to or slightly less than Bing but fruit kept in cold storage at 33.degree.-34.degree. F. for four weeks stored better than Bing.
Susceptibility to rain cracking is rated moderate. The very firm, low acid fruits possess high dessert quality equal to the Bing variety.
The seeds are semi-freestone and small.
Several second and third generation trees observed closely have shown no tendency toward the "cherry crinkle-leaf" genetic disorder which is common in the Bing variety as well as several other varieties of sweet cherry.
Interest in this new clone is for a firm, early, high quality shipping variety for the early season fresh market.
Trees of the subject variety are vigorous and compatible with common rootstocks used under sweet cherry trees.
Asexual reproduction of this new and distinct variety show that its unique and desirable characteristics come true to form and are established and transmitted through succeeding propagations by grafting at our test facilities near Prosser, Wash.

Washington State University Research Foundation


An improved angular golf tee made from a single unity piece of plastic which defines an elongated, ribbed body and a tapered structure with a shoulder. Distal ends of the ribbed body terminate in the shoulder and in a thin ring, respectively. Properly inserted into the earth, the tapered structure is disposed vertically; and the ribbed body is bent away from the vertical by an angle of about 30 degrees. This configuration allows one to direct the upper end of the ribbed body toward himself, so that there is less chance of the tee and any golf ball resting thereon being hit simultaneously. The ribbed body further defines a pair of open, elongated cavities between which protrudes an elongated, vertical, flat rib. The pair of elongated cavities and rib are capped by the thin ring which terminates upwardly in a horizontally-disposed rim. Sloping inwardly from the rim, the ring defines a concave hollow, whose curvature closely matches that of the exterior surface of a standard-size golf ball. Two notches are aligned with each other on opposite sides of the rim and are disposed in the same vertical plane as the rib. These notches allow air to flow freely into the hollow as the golf ball lifts off as does a slight distortion of the rim which occurs at the same time. The latter phenomenon, which substantially eliminates the effects of depressurization between the ball and tee, is caused by flexure of the outer walls of the elongated, open cavities as they expand due to wind currents generated by a golfer's swing.

This invention relates generally to angular golf tees. An angular golf tee allows the face of a club to strike the golf ball obliquely without contacting the tee. This advantage has been known for a long time. As early as 1925, Getchell, in U.S. Pat. No. 1,554,721, disclosed an angular golf tee; and Bondu, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,907,289 which issued in 1975, improved upon it by making the lower part of the tee easier to insert into the ground.
Disco et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 5,413,330, which issued in 1995, disclose an angular golf tee with an additional improvement, specifically, a ventilation passageway through a side wall thereof. This passageway reduces the effects of depressurization between the tee and an accelerating golf ball so that the tee has a greater tendency to remain stationary after the golf ball has been struck. With such a ventilation passageway, a greater percentage of the momentum of the golf club can be transferred to the ball.
Nevertheless, the angular golf tee has yet to become popular with most golfers. This situation is due largely to the fact that each of the prior art angular golf tees has to be inserted into the ground at a precise angle. Otherwise, the tee cannot support a golf ball properly.


Multifunction and radial deflection wires (66, 64) extend from a catheter shaft (8) and into a handle (4). The multifunction wire is pulled and pushed longitudinally and is rotated about its axis to change the stiffness of and to laterally deflect the tip portion (12). A curve size manipulator (32) on the handle body (24) moves the multifunction wire longitudinally but does not hinder its rotational movement. Rotation of a lateral deflection manipulator (38) on the handle causes the proximal end (70) of the multifunction wire to rotate about its own axis; the free longitudinal movement of the proximal end is unhindered. Any initial corkscrewing or other deflection of the tip portion can be removed at assembly by rotating the proximal end (68) of the radial deflection wire. The longitudinal movement of the manipulators can be limited by movable stops (120). The longitudinal positions of the abutment faces (126, 128) of the stops preferably change according to their longitudinal (distal or proximal) orientation.

Electrophysiology catheters are designed for use in mapping and/or ablation of the heart. Electrophysiology catheters typically include a number of band electrodes mounted to the tip portion of the catheter shaft and a tip electrode at the distal end of the catheter shaft. To properly manipulate the electrodes against the target sites within a heart, the tip portion must be flexible and capable of being manipulated into a variety of shapes. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 5,487,757, entitled "Multicurved Deflectable Catheter," the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference, discloses an electrophysiology catheter in which the tip portion can be deflected radially by pulling on a manipulator wire and also defected laterally by rotating a core wire which extends into the tip section. In addition to the manipulator and core wires, this patent discloses the use of an axially slidable stiffener wire, the distal end of which can be located at different positions along the tip portion to change the stiffness of the tip, and thus the general size of the curve in the tip.

Handle for catheter assembly with multifunction wire


A user equipment determines a set of licensed and unlicensed frequency bands that are available for wireless communication. The user equipment selects a first subset of the set as targets for a handover involving at least one unlicensed frequency band and transmits information indicating the first subset. A base station receives information indicating a first subset of a set of licensed and unlicensed frequency bands. The first subset are targets for a handover of user equipment involving at least one unlicensed frequency band. The base station selects a second subset based on the first subset and transmits information indicating the second subset.

Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates generally to wireless communication systems and, more particularly, to licensed and unlicensed frequency bands in wireless communication systems.
Description of the Related Art
The demand for mobile wireless data has been growing at an exponential rate and is expected to continue to grow by many orders of magnitude in the coming years. Meeting the increasing demand will require a corresponding increase in the amount of spectrum available for wireless communication. The available spectrum can be increased by combining licensed frequency bands with unlicensed frequency bands. Unlicensed frequency bands are portions of the radiofrequency spectrum that do not require a license for use and may therefore be used by any device to transmit or receive radio frequency signals. For example, the Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure (UNII) is formed of portions of the radio spectrum that include frequency bands in the range of 5.15 GHz to 5.825 GHz such as the U-NII-1 band in the range 5.15-5.25 GHz, the U-NII 2a, b, c bands in the range 5.25-5.725 GHz, and the U-NII 3 band in the range 5.725-5.825 GHz. Unlicensed frequency bands can be contrasted to licensed frequency bands that are licensed to a particular service provider and may only be used for wireless communication that is authorized by the service provider. Different radio access technologies (RATs) may share portions of the unlicensed frequency bands. For example, radios that operate according to Long Term Evolution (LTE) standards defined by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) may share portions of the 5 GHz unlicensed frequency band with Wi-Fi radios that operate according to 802.11 standards defined by the Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineers (IEEE).

User equipment assisted handover in licensed and unlicensed frequency bands


An apparatus for generating electromagnetic radiation pulses comprises a mode-locked laser oscillator with an oscillator cavity defining an oscillator beam path, a first gain element, first pumping means for pumping said first gain element, and a mode locker, and being operable to produce a train of seed electromagnetic radiation pulses. Further an optical switch is placed outside of the oscillator beam path and is arranged in a beam path of radiation coupled out from the oscillator, the optical switch operable to couple radiation from a switch input into a switch output during a certain time period or certain time periods. A radiation amplifier is arranged in a beam path of radiation radiated from the switch output. The amplifier includes a second gain element and second pumping means, the second pumping means comprising a continuous-wave pump radiation source.

Applications of pulsed electromagnetic radiation sources (primarily infrared light or visible light but also ultraviolet radiation) such as material processing or precision micro machining offer improved performance with higher fluence (energy per area) and peak intensity (energy per time per area). Such pulse parameters result in better laser micromachining performance, i.e. the material can be readily ablated with improved spatial precision and a reduction in material damage of nearby areas (so-called "cold ablation" resulting in a reduced heat-affected zone around the area of the ablated material). A further performance influencing parameter is the pulse repetition rate. In material processing applications, processing speed generally scales linearly with the repetition rate.
Therefore, radiation sources of coherent radiation combining the following properties would be desirable:                short optical pulses, in the range of picoseconds (preferably around 10-15 ps, often more than 20 ps, but even down into femtoseconds)        high pulse energies (preferably 100 microjoules or more)        high repetition rate (ideally 100 kHz or more)        preferably near diffraction limited spatial profiles (to allow for near-diffraction limited focusing to beam spot size diameters on the order of the laser wavelength i.e. one micron approximately)        if possible, readily adjustable repetition rate, over a range of pulse repletion rates, preferably from a minimum to maximum ratio of at least 4× (i.e., for example 50 kHz to 200 kHz) without having to substantially re-align or re-adjust the laser or amplifier, and while still maintaining good spatial beam properties, preferably without substantially changing key beam properties (M2, beam waist, beam divergence).
These requirements are also beneficial if shorter wavelengths are required, because nonlinear frequency conversion efficiency increases with increasing peak intensity and with good spatial beam qualities. Shorter wavelengths (i.e. frequency doubling, tripling, quadrupling, or quintupling) decrease the potential spot size for diffraction-limited focused beams, and can improve the material processing performance for different materials, since the shorter-wavelength light has higher photon energy, resulting in different and improved ablative performance (for example in transparent materials).
Current state-of-the art diode-pumped solid-state lasers can be passively mode-locked to produce, in a simple and robust way, picosecond and femtosecond optical pulses, as, for example, disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,987,049. These lasers typically produce optical pulses with low pulse energy (10-100 nJ) but at high repetition rates (e.g. 100 MHz). Also mode-locked high power lasers have been known, for example, from U.S. Pat. No. 6,834,064. However, the achievable pulse energies of these high power pulsed lasers are in the low microjoule range, which is still not enough for the initially mentioned applications.
As an alternative to high power lasers, it has been suggested to combine a mode-locked laser oscillator with an amplifier. Several embodiments of continuous-wave diode-pumped multi-pass amplifiers have been described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,546,222, U.S. Pat. No. 5,615,043, U.S. Pat. No. 5,774,489. By this technique, the average output power can be amplified considerably, even to many tens of Watts if a plurality of amplification stages are applied. However, due to the high repetition rate of the initial oscillator, the pulse energies remain below 1 μJ. An even higher average power is not desirable due to disadvantages entailed by high average power, such as potential thermal fracture, thermal lens effects, complex set up involving a multitude of pump diodes, a sophisticated heat management, high power consumption etc. Also, repetition rates exceeding some tens of MHz or hundreds of MHz may be disadvantageous since they are difficult to handle for some material processing applications. The most desirable range would be between 100 KHz and 4 to 10 MHz. However, decreasing the repetition rate of the initial oscillator would mean to increase the cavity length, which is usually not desired, since the oscillator would become physically very large or require a complex folding technique, which results in optical loss and reduced mechanical stability.
An alternative approach to decreasing the pulse repetition rate and at the same time increasing the pulse energy is "cavity dumping". This technique comprises inserting an optical switch (typically electro-optic or acousto-optic) into the laser cavity and reducing the normal output coupling of the laser through the output-coupling mirror to as little as possible. This allows the intracavity pulse energy to increase. Occasionally, an intracavity pulse is switched out at a reduced repetition rate (typically over the range from single shot to megahertz pulse rates) but at increased pulse energy compared to the normal continuous operation of the laser. Such a cavity dumped laser can typically get ten times higher pulse energies, but the pulse energy typically becomes independent on the dumping frequency below a few MHz, so that further reductions in the repetition rate do not result in a pulse energy gain. Also, switching is inherently critical. Any misalignment of the intracavity beam with respect to the switching apparatus changes the output coupling and therefore the laser dynamics, the circulating pulse energy, etc. Further, cavity dumping perturbs the laser dynamics, since the leftover pulse has a smaller than equilibrium pulse energy, resulting in non-steady state performance. All this may lead to higher pulse-to-pulse fluctuations than in continuously mode-locked lasers, and even chaotic pulse performance.
Even if these stability problems are somehow overcome, the pulse energies are still not sufficient. It has therefore been proposed (for example Huber et al., Optics Letters 28, p. 2118 (2003)) to combine a cavity-dumped laser with a 2-pass pass continuously pumped amplifier. However, such an approach did also not result in sufficient maximum pulse energy, since the given gain material to be chosen under the given boundary conditions have a very low gain, as a consequence of which tight focusing is required. This leads to strong gain saturation (depletion) at low pulse energies. More in general, it has proven to be difficult to achieve a continuously pumped, high-gain multi-pass amplifier, and there are significant trade-offs between high total gain and high average power output.
Higher gain can be achieved in a spatial multi-pass approach if the pump power is increased. However, because of thermal problems, which are similar to the problems encountered in continuously pumped high-power lasers, this is only possible in a pulsed pump scheme at low repetition rate. An example of this state of the art may be found in Lenzner et al., Optics letters 20, p. 1397 (1995), where a TiSa mode-locked laser has been combined with a Pockels cell selecting single pulses from a 80-MHz-pulse train at a repetition rate between 1 kHz and 5 kHz and a pulsed-radiation pumped amplifier. The achieved radiation rates are not fast enough for high-speed material processing as required in industrial applications. Alternatively, systems have been proposed (for example in U.S. Pat. No. 5,812,308), where the amplifier does not have a high small-signal gain but is seeded with a high-average power oscillator and serves more as a power amplifier to increase the average power by a factor 2-4.
Yet another approach to achieve the high total gain is a regenerative amplifier, where a pulse is trapped in an amplifier cavity, and is re-circulated many times until the pulse energy has grown to where the gain material is effectively saturated. Such a regenerative amplifier has for example been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,896,119. However, since such regenerative amplifiers comprise a cavity, the misalignment sensitivity is comparably high and chaotic instabilities result in a limited range of repetition rates. Further, the optical switch has to be an electro-optic Pockels cell (acousto-optic modulators are normally not suitable due to the small beam size that would be required in them for fast switching, which would result in peak intensities, due to the high intracavity pulse energy, in the device that exceed their damage threshold). This brings about the necessity for high voltages in the system and as a consequence high-power electronics with all its disadvantages. Also, the switch is alignment-sensitive, the achievable repetition rates are limited, and it is not straightforward to change the repetition rate because the repetition rate influences the roundtrip gain and thermal lens effects, hence the optical performance.

Light pulse generating apparatus and method


Disclosed is a process for controlling the expander cores of a dual expander using a single test port, such as a J-tag port. Access to and control of each expander core is accomplished by placing one of the cores in a bypass mode and accessing and controlling the other core through data supplied serially through the J-tag port.

a. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains generally to integrated circuit technology and more particularly to the control of expanders.
b. Description of the Background
Expanders have been used to control the pulse shape, slew rate and timing of signals, such as SCSI signals, in computer systems. Expanders operate similarly to repeaters, but are capable of correcting the deleterious effects of impedance and delays that a system may have on pulse waveforms so as to greatly improve the operation of such systems. Expanders are capable of modifying pulse shape, slew rate and timing by using delay circuits, pulse shaping circuits and other technology. In this fashion, expanders have found great utility.
An optimal way of controlling an expander is to connect the expander directly to a host bus in the computer system and provide operational parameters from the host for operating the expander to provide the proper corrective factors at various places in a system. Some circuits are so complex that several expanders may be needed to provide the proper corrections. Since the host bus, which provides a communication channel for controlling various components in a system, only has a certain number of addresses to connect to these components, and the number of components that need to be connected to the host bus is numerous, connection of several expanders to the host bus may use too many of these limited number of addresses. If the expanders are not connected to the host bus, there is no apparent way to control the expanders by the host during validation and debugging. Since adjustments frequently need to be made to the operation of the expanders, as a result of actual circuit conditions, control of the expanders is needed.
To overcome these limitations EEPROM devices have been built into the expanders to provide the control bits that function as operational parameters to instruct the expander to provide the necessary corrections, as desired. However, to make these corrections, the EEPROMs must be reprogrammed to change the operation of the expander so as to provide different corrections to the computer system signals. This normally requires that the EEPROM be physically removed from the expander board, reprogrammed and then reinserted back into the expander board. This process is very time consuming and may need to be repeated several times to produce the proper corrective effects in the computer system signals.
Hence, it would be advantageous to provide a method and device for controlling the operation of the expander in a simple and easy manner without using an address location on the host bus.

Methodology for performing register read/writes to two or more expanders with a common test port